Chapter 166: Approval, Sudden Change

"Indeed, I sense it. The Grimoire of Dark Rites has manifested once more. It seems another soul has been deemed worthy, though I have no such pact with this newcomer as I did with Van Stuart. I shall not be handing the Grimoire over to this person."

Samuel drifted in a circle around Wang Yu, confirming that it was not Wang Yu who had summoned the Grimoire again.

"Do you not have absolute control over this library? I assumed you could command everything within these walls. I see you appearing and vanishing at will; why bother coming over to verify? A simple sensing should have sufficed."

Wang Yu returned the tome on Material Plasticity to the shelf and asked Samuel with a touch of curiosity.

"I do possess absolute dominion over this library, for these books are but the physical manifestations of the knowledge I have mastered. Yet, the Grimoire of Dark Rites is beyond my grasp. It would be more accurate to say that rather than me mastering it, I am merely using my consciousness to forcibly tether it here."

Wang Yu was startled. He had not expected such a casual inquiry to yield such a revelation. The entire library was a manifestation of the knowledge Samuel had acquired? Just who was this librarian, this figure who existed only from the waist up?

Seemingly struck by a sudden urge to converse, Samuel began to share information regarding the Grimoire.

"This codex is a relic left behind by the legendary wizard Roland. Its full title should be: The Grimoire of Dark Rites: Gateway to the Void-Matter Boundary."

"The abilities one gains from studying it—such as your own capacity to transmute battle aura into void energy—are merely incidental byproducts of the book's true power. It is a cruel irony that I possess the qualification to be chosen by this book of Roland’s, yet lack the capability to master it..."

Roland, again. This name was no longer unfamiliar to Wang Yu. As the legendary wizard hailed in history—by humans and all sentient races alike—as the one who came closest to the mysteries of the Void, he had left behind far too much.

"Then, do you know of the keys? The keys left by Roland?"

Wang Yu pondered. Though he did not know exactly who Samuel was, the librarian seemed in high spirits. It was the perfect opportunity to pry into the secrets held by a being whose knowledge could form an almost infinite library.

"Keys? Those were Roland's doing as well. Much like the Grimoire, the thirteen keys he left behind were intended to seek out a successor to his mantle. No one knows why Roland abandoned his life after reaching that pinnacle, but it is clear that his exploration of the Void's mysteries had not yet satisfied him."

"Whether it be the Grimoire or the keys, the purpose is the same: to find one with sufficient talent and the qualification to inherit his legacy. The Grimoire is the knowledge he left behind; the keys are the path to the physical treasures he created."

"If the Grimoire teaches the student how to bridge the material world and the Void, then the thirteen keys, when combined, form a staircase leading to the place where Roland stored the means for one to directly command the power of the Void—what is known as 'Roland’s Vault'."

Samuel was indeed in a talkative mood, calmly recounting the secrets of Roland.

"Most records of Roland's deeds today are little more than hearsay. How did you come by this knowledge?"

Wang Yu knew a fair amount about Roland, mostly from Avia, but one thing was certain: over eighty percent of the existing texts on Roland were fabrications, and the remaining twenty percent were vague and useless. Reliable records of Roland were virtually non-existent.

"He told me himself. Do you find that problematic?"

Samuel turned his hooded face toward Wang Yu. Though no features were visible, Wang Yu felt as if Samuel had cast a sidelong glance at him. The words that followed left Wang Yu thoroughly convinced.

Wang Yu clicked his tongue, rendered speechless. He knew Samuel’s identity was not simple, but he hadn't expected it to be *this* complex. The librarian was a contemporary of Roland, and an acquaintance of the legendary wizard at that.

"That man was just like that—never speaking clearly. Before he vanished, he told me these things and entrusted the Grimoire to me. He knew I loved knowledge more than life itself; he knew I would preserve it."

"Until the next worthy soul appeared, until I was willing to surrender it. But alas, even as this library prepares to close, I have failed to comprehend the knowledge within. I simply cannot bear to part with it. In that sense, I suppose I managed to outmaneuver Roland after all."

Samuel continued to speak his mind about Roland and his legacy. When he mentioned outmaneuvering the wizard, Wang Yu clearly sensed a faint trace of amusement in his tone.

He had always thought of Roland as a research-obsessed recluse without friends or social ties. Hearing the librarian’s description, Roland seemed like a rather interesting man.

"As for the thirteen keys, he didn't elaborate. He only mentioned that the thirteen who obtain them will have the right to compete for the contents of the final vault."

"And the one who obtains those items will not gain mere power, but infinite potential—a path leading straight to the legendary, and beyond. At the very least, they will stand at the apex of the world."

Samuel finally touched upon the items within the vault. A path beyond the legendary? That was truly a tantalizing prospect. The number of legendary-tier transcendents in the human race was extremely limited.

At that stage, numbers no longer mattered. A one-man army, a rival to dragons—that was the power of a legend. And a realm beyond the legendary might well touch upon the domain of gods.

"Truly worthy of a legend etched into human history. Even the things he left behind possess such immense power," Wang Yu sighed sincerely.

"Hmph. I only tell you this because I find you rather interesting. I still don't know how you managed to summon the Grimoire last time. Based on what I've heard from that fellow Van Stuart about the outside world, this knowledge is surely precious. Consider yourself lucky, boy."

"My thanks for the knowledge, Mr. Librarian."

Wang Yu bowed to Samuel. He had indeed received much help from this occasionally ill-tempered librarian.

"Enough. I must go see who has earned the recognition of the Grimoire. Though I have no intention of handing it over, since this library is about to close, I shall provide this final successor with a few souvenirs."

Samuel lost interest in further conversation with Wang Yu; he intended to find the one who had summoned the Grimoire.

Just as Samuel prepared to leave, a peculiar spatial fluctuation erupted beside Wang Yu. First, an irregular rift, glowing faintly from within, appeared out of thin air. Then, the fissure expanded, manifesting as a portal suspended in the void.

At first, the rift was unstable, its edges jagged and flickering. After a few seconds, the edges smoothed and transformed into a perfect rectangle, revealing a translucent light curtain that looked into another space. It looked, in essence, like a gateway.

"Wang Yu!"

As expected, Avia’s voice echoed from within. The girl stepped through, clad in her mage’s robes, her ponytail swaying, a book clutched in her hand.

"This is?" Wang Yu gestured toward the portal, which began to destabilize again after she stepped through. He wondered when Avia had mastered such a spell.

"This spellbook, 'Phase Gate,' is exactly the knowledge I was looking for. It’s an incredibly useful volume. It describes how to deconstruct space using mana; creating a portal is merely the simplest application. Oh, is this the librarian?"

Avia was excited, showing Wang Yu the book *Phase Gate*. To Wang Yu, however, the cover appeared as a blur; he couldn't even read the title. The girl quickly noticed Samuel, the librarian floating beside Wang Yu.

"Just call me Samuel. You managed to comprehend this spatial magic book in under ten hours?" Samuel asked with genuine interest, watching the portal behind Avia dissolve into nothingness.

"There are still parts I haven't fully grasped, but judging the location of others based on spatial fluctuations to create a portal is no longer a problem."

Avia was wary of Samuel; she was unfamiliar with this librarian, whatever he might be. But seeing Wang Yu’s calm reaction, she assumed it was safe.

"A remarkable talent. To grasp this book in such a short time—even among those I have known, your talent would be enough to rival them."

Samuel nodded, offering high praise for the girl’s aptitude.

"Thank you for the compliment, Mr. Samuel."

The girl did not know how exaggerated the "those people" Samuel spoke of were; she simply thanked him. Wang Yu, however, suspected that "those people" were all legendary figures in human history.

"This library is opening for the last time. It would be a pity for this book to fade away with me. Consider it a small gift; you may take it with you when you leave. It should give you more time to study it."

Samuel spoke casually, granting Avia permission to remove *Phase Gate* from the library. On the eve of the closure of this library—a manifestation of all the knowledge he had mastered—the librarian, and master of the library, had become uncharacteristically generous.

"Thank you, Mr. Samuel." The girl was surprised, but she thanked him earnestly.

Wang Yu watched the exchange, his curiosity about Samuel’s identity deepening. The extent of his erudition was truly terrifying. How could someone who possessed such vast knowledge remain so obscure? He felt he had never encountered a figure like Samuel in any human history text.

As Wang Yu’s gaze lingered on Samuel and Avia, his peripheral vision caught something abrupt. On the shelf beside them, there sat a book that stood out from the blurred, illegible titles surrounding it. Its title was clear, and it was a book Wang Yu had seen before...

Stepping forward, Wang Yu pulled the book from the shelf.

"Mr. Samuel, look at this." Wang Yu held the book up, signaling for Samuel to take notice.

"Hm? This is... the Grimoire of Dark Rites?" Upon hearing Wang Yu’s call, Samuel turned, and upon seeing the title, he involuntarily spoke its name.

Samuel’s form vanished and instantly reappeared beside Wang Yu, snatching the Grimoire from his hand. After staring at it for a few seconds, he turned back to Avia.

When he had spoken to Wang Yu earlier, he had confirmed the Grimoire was not present. But the moment Avia opened her spatial gate to join them, the Grimoire had appeared. Who had summoned it was now self-evident.

This was somewhat within Wang Yu’s expectations. When it came to wizarding talent, Avia’s was the greatest he had ever encountered.

"Have you seen this book before?" Samuel displayed the book to Avia, his tone filled with inexplicable inquiry.

"This Grimoire? Oh, yes. I’ve seen it several times while searching for the books I needed. It seems to be everywhere. Is there a problem, Mr. Samuel?"

The girl tilted her head in confusion. Having not heard the conversation between Wang Yu and Samuel, she could not understand why he was so fixated on this volume.

"Do you not see the transformation this book could bring you? It is a relic left by Roland. Why have you not studied it?"

Samuel’s tone grew increasingly strange. He could not fathom why Avia, having summoned the Grimoire, would ignore it in favor of *Phase Gate*—a book that, while valuable, was in his eyes incomparable to the Grimoire.

"So it was left by the wizard Roland? I did see it, yes. When I looked at it, it transmitted some information to me. It seems that by reading it, one can master the mysteries of the Void and the connection between the material world and the Void. It appears to be a door linking the two."

Avia thought for a moment and shared what she had felt upon seeing the book.

"Then why did you not choose it?"

Samuel asked the girl earnestly.

"Why? For one, when I earned the qualification to enter the Great Library, I had already decided what knowledge I wanted to acquire: magic related to space, such as this *Phase Gate*."

Furthermore, this book imparted its foundational knowledge to me the moment I laid eyes upon it; yet, some of its discourse on the Void conflicts with what I currently know, and it diverges from the data I have gathered through my own practical research.

Even if this codex truly possesses the formidable power it claims to transmit, I wish to study the Void for myself. Precisely because it offers the "Mysteries of the Void," as a researcher, I believe it should only serve as a reference; I would much rather derive my own conclusions through my own investigations.

All in all, my time for reading is severely limited. While the "Mysteries of the Void" is tempting, it is not suitable for me. The "Gate of Phases" is what I truly need, and it is what will provide me with tangible assistance.

The girl pondered for a moment longer before voicing her thoughts.

Samuel fell silent. Evia had offered a reason for her refusal similar to Wang Yu’s—that it was "unsuitable"—yet there was a subtle difference.

The girl desired the results of her own research into the Void. Though she might not have known the author was Roland, her drive to seek out her own conclusions through practice was already evident.

Knowledge is not meant to be blindly believed. Samuel pondered: even if it were Roland, was he necessarily correct?

Had he been wrong to treat this Codex of Dark Rites as the foundation of all his research for so long? It seemed that ever since he acquired this book, he had ceased to study the Void using his own ideas and methods. Was this truly what a researcher should do?

He loved knowledge, but was he the one mastering it, or was he being led by the nose by the very things he had memorized?

In this light, these two who seemed to know each other were quite intriguing. Should he have realized this truth sooner? If he were still the high-spirited man he once was—the one whom even Roland could not surpass in certain respects—he surely would have awakened to this long ago.

He had held the Codex of Dark Rites in too high a regard, to the point where it exceeded the boundaries of his perception of knowledge. It was a pity; by the time he obtained this book, he was no longer human. This body, this mind, this identity—while granting him endless memory and a path to knowledge—had already eroded the very things that made him human.

"Take this book. I feel it is better not to let the knowledge within it fade away with me. Knowledge that no one masters is inherently meaningless."

In his silence, Samuel seemed to have reached a resolution. He extended his hand, holding the Codex of Dark Rites, and offered it to Wang Yu.

"I recall you were granted a quota by the Academy to remove a physical object. Her choice is my extra gift to her. As for yours, though I apologize, I must insist that you use your allowance to take this book left behind by Roland. You are quite interesting; in your hands, this book will not suffer the same fate as it would by sinking into oblivion with me."

Seeing Wang Yu hesitate, Samuel spoke with a touch of forcefulness, shoving the book he had once cherished above all else into Wang Yu’s arms.

"Uh, thank you!"

Wang Yu held the Codex of Dark Rites, bewildered as to why Samuel had suddenly decided to thrust this incredibly precious tome upon him, and why he had so sternly demanded that he use his removal quota for it.

Still, taking this codex as his physical object was certainly no loss, and Wang Yu expressed his gratitude to Samuel.

"To think you would actually give this book away, Samuel. You old fossil, you have changed indeed. On the eve of your fading, to see you gift away what Roland left behind... it truly moves me."

The voice from nearby drew the attention of Wang Yu, Evia, and Samuel alike. A figure emerged from between the bookshelves.

Wang Yu recognized the voice and appearance—it was Little Daniel. But the aura and the fluctuations of Void energy radiating from him made Wang Yu realize that this was absolutely not the boy he knew.

"Hmm, the message this vessel conveyed to me was indeed correct. To awaken the Codex of Dark Rites without the amplification of the 'Key' talent is impossible. You are undoubtedly the final remaining Key..."

The cold, indifferent voice emanated from within Little Daniel. A pitch-black fissure tore open across the boy's chest, from which the essence of the Void continuously spilled forth.

A white-haired figure used both hands to pry and widen the rift, rending Little Daniel’s body as he crawled out from within, his eyes locking onto Evia, who was watching from the side.