The transition from the Dead Sea to the Eastern Sea was not marked by a change in tide, but by a change in the very nature of reality. As the Celestial Path Academy Flying Fortress crossed the invisible meridian separating the continents, the deep blue water began to shimmer with a kaleidoscopic brilliance. It was no longer H2O; it was Liquid Memory—a primordial substance that held the echoes of every thought, dream, and regret ever cast into the world's waters.
Lin Fan stood at the prow, his hand resting on the railing. He felt a strange tingling in his fingertips.
[Divine Library: Environmental Shift Detected.]
[Status: Entering the Sea of Memory.]
[Warning: The water acts as a psychic mirror. It does not reflect your body; it reflects your most potent memories. High risk of 'Mental Drowning' for those with unstable soul-foundations.]
"Teacher, look at the waves!" Siyu exclaimed, pointing her water-staff at a cresting swell. Inside the translucent wave, a scene was playing out—a miniature image of a wedding that happened three hundred years ago, the laughter of the guests still faintly audible in the splashing foam.
"Don't stare too long, Siyu," Lin Fan warned, his Eye of the Creator scanning the horizon. "The sea wants to pull you into the past. If you lose yourself in a memory, your physical body will dissolve into the water to become part of the archive."
Behind them, the deck was a scene of minor chaos. Mu Tie was sitting in a meditative trance, his frost-aura creating a "Buffer Zone" of cold logic to protect the younger students from the psychic pressure. Ling'er was practicing her fire-forms, her white-hot flames cutting through the mist of memories like a hot knife through butter.
And then, there was Lu Bao.
The Glutton's Fishing Trip
Lu Bao was leaning over the side of the ship with a massive, star-iron hook attached to a rope made of shadow-silk. He wasn't using bait. He was simply staring into the glowing depths with a look of intense hunger.
"Lu Bao, what are you doing?" Lin Fan asked, walking over.
"Teacha, you said this sea is made of memories, right?" Lu Bao asked, his eyes never leaving the water. "Well, I figured... if a memory is 'Sweet,' it probably tastes like honey. And if it's a 'Salty' memory, it might taste like cured ham! I'm trying to catch a 'Legendary Feast' memory!"
Lin Fan sighed. "Lu Bao, you can't eat a concept. Memory is energy, not protein."
"That's what they said about the Horseman of Famine, and he tasted like black licorice!" Lu Bao countered. Suddenly, his rope jerked violently. "I'VE GOT ONE! IT'S A BIG ONE! IT TASTES LIKE... ANCIENT WISDOM AND ROASTED DUCK!"
Lu Bao planted his feet and pulled. His Singularity Body glowed violet as he exerted enough force to lift a mountain. The sea began to churn, and a massive shape rose from the Liquid Memory.
It wasn't a fish.
It was a Memory-Colossus—a thirty-meter-tall being made of solidified silver ink, wearing the armor of a forgotten era. It held a massive scroll-blade, and its face was a shifting mask of a thousand different people.
"Who dares... disturb the Grave of the Eastern King?" the Colossus roared, its voice a cacophony of a million overlapping whispers.
The Duel of the Ink-Blade
The Colossus swung its scroll-blade, and instead of a physical shockwave, a wave of Grey Melancholy hit the ship. Several students immediately burst into tears, overwhelmed by a sudden, intense memory of losing a childhood pet or failing an exam.
"Mu Tie! Protect the students! Lu Bao... you caught it, you deal with it!" Lin Fan commanded, stepping back to observe. He wanted to see how Lu Bao's new Devouring Fortress ability handled non-physical threats.
Lu Bao let go of the rope and jumped straight at the Colossus. "You look like you're made of black-bean sauce! Come here!"
The Colossus lunged with its blade. [Memory Strike: The Sorrow of the First Frost.]
The blade passed right through Lu Bao's chest. For a moment, Lu Bao's eyes went wide. He saw a vision of himself as a starving orphan, huddled in a cold alleyway before Lin Fan found him. It was a memory designed to break the will.
But Lu Bao's stomach let out a thunderous growl.
"Mmph... that's a sad one," Lu Bao said, his violet aura flaring. "But I'm too full of Teacher's buns to be sad! Devouring Fortress: Gastric Synthesis!"
Lu Bao's mouth didn't open, but his Dantian did. A violet vortex appeared in front of his stomach, and the "Sorrow" of the memory was literally sucked into his body.
[Divine Library: Synthesis Logic...]
[Converting 'Sorrow' into 'Kinetic Energy'.]
[Conversion Rate: 100%.]
Lu Bao's fist turned a bright, glowing purple. He punched the Colossus square in its shifting mask.
BOOM!
The Colossus didn't shatter; it splattered. The Liquid Memory it was made of rained down onto the deck.
"Mmm... tastes like... ink and peppermint," Lu Bao said, licking his lips.
The Arrival: The Isle of a Billion Scrolls
As the Colossus dissolved, the mist cleared, revealing a spectacular sight. Rising from the Sea of Memory was a continent that looked like a giant, open book. The mountains were shaped like stacked scrolls, the rivers were flows of black ink, and the trees had leaves made of parchment.
This was the Eastern Continent, specifically the Isle of a Billion Scrolls.
[Divine Library: Scanning Landmass...]
[Detection: High-Rank Ward 'The Silence of the Sages'.]
[Note: To enter the city, one must solve a 'Literary Paradox'.]
The flying fortress docked at a pier made of petrified bamboo. Standing at the gate was a group of scholars in ink-stained white robes. They held brushes instead of swords, and their eyes were sharp with intellectual arrogance.
"Halt, Travelers," the lead scholar said, his voice rhythmic. "This is the Sanctuary of the Record. To pass, you must answer: If a book contains every truth in the universe, does it contain the truth that it is a lie?"
The students looked confused. Mu Tie frowned, trying to calculate the logic. Ling'er looked like she wanted to just burn the gate down.
Lin Fan stepped forward, a playful smile on his face. He didn't use the library to find the answer. He used his own wit.
"The answer is simple," Lin Fan said. "The book is neither a truth nor a lie. It is a Teacher. And a Teacher's job is not to provide the truth, but to show the student how to find it."
The gate's runes flickered from red to green. The scholars bowed in unison.
"A profound answer, Master Lin Fan. The Guardian of the Records has been expecting you."
The Encounter with the Fifth Wife: The Scroll-Librarian
They were led to the Great Archive of the East, a tower so tall it seemed to be writing on the moon. Inside, there were no stairs, only floating platforms made of ink.
In the center of the tower, suspended in a bubble of golden light, sat a woman. She was dressed in ancient, flowing robes of cyan and silver. Her hair was tied back with a brush, and her eyes were the color of ancient ink—deep, dark, and full of stories.
This was Lady Mei, the Fifth Wife and the Librarian of the East. She had been "living" inside a sacred scroll for a thousand years, waiting for the one whose library could match her own.
[Divine Library: Scanning Target...]
[Name: Mei. Title: The Eternal Record-Keeper.]
[Status: Soul-Locked. Her soul is the 'Index' for the billion scrolls. If she leaves the tower, the knowledge of the East will evaporate.]
"Master Lin Fan," Mei said, her voice sounding like the rustle of turning pages. "You have the Sovereign Archive. You have the Nine Halos. But do you have the courage to read the 'Forbidden Chapter'?"
Lin Fan floated up to her platform. "I've read the end of the world and the birth of a God, Lady Mei. A single chapter won't scare me."
"It is not a chapter about the world," Mei said, her eyes meeting his. "It is the chapter about You. The truth of why you were brought to this world. The truth of the 'System'."
The Truth of the System: Fragment 1
Mei unrolled a massive, black scroll. It didn't contain words, but a living map of the multiverse.
"The 'Divine Library' was not a gift from the heavens," Mei whispered. "It was a Backup Drive. Ten thousand years ago, the God-Tribe realized their civilization was dying. They didn't want to save their bodies; they wanted to save their Logic. They compressed their entire civilization into a single soul-seed."
Lin Fan felt a cold chill. "And that seed... found me."
"It didn't just find you," Mei said. "You were the only soul in the 'Outer Realms' with a high enough 'Empathy Quotient' to translate their cold logic back into human emotion. Without you, the library would have just turned the world into a giant, unthinking machine."
[Divine Library: Hidden Files—Unlocked.]
[Status: Level 6 Upgrade—The Heart of the Machine.]
[New Feature: 'Empathy Synthesis'—Can now heal souls by rewriting their traumatic memories.]
The Heist of the Shadow-Sect
Just as the revelation was sinking in, the tower shook.
"The Shadow-Sect of the East!" Mei cried out. "They have been trying to steal the 'Scroll of Beginnings' for centuries! They want to use the God-Tribe's logic to create a world where only the 'Strongest' scripts survive!"
Black smoke began to pour through the windows. Hundreds of assassins with ink-black blades dropped from the ceiling.
"Mu Tie! Ling'er! Defend the Archive!" Lin Fan shouted. "Lu Bao, don't eat the scrolls, eat the smoke!"
"On it, Teacha!" Lu Bao shouted, opening his mouth and sucking in the black miasma like it was cotton candy.
Lin Fan looked at Lady Mei. Her soul was flickering. The assassins were targeting her—she was the index. If she died, the knowledge of the human race would be reset to zero.
"I won't let them take you," Lin Fan said.
He didn't draw a sword. He used his new Empathy Synthesis. He reached out and touched Lady Mei's soul-index.
"You don't need to be a tower anymore, Mei. You need to be a Teacher."
[Divine Library: Synthesizing Mei's Soul + The Sovereign Archive.]
In a burst of golden light, the billion scrolls didn't evaporate. They "Uploaded" into the Divine Library. Lady Mei's soul was no longer locked to the building. She fell into Lin Fan's arms, her body finally becoming physical, her skin warm for the first time in a millennium.
The tower began to collapse, but Lin Fan didn't care. He had the knowledge, and he had the Librarian.
The Comedy of the New Librarian
Back on the flying fortress, Lady Mei was looking around in shock. She was currently being stared at by Medusa, Qingya, Yue, and Ananya.
"So," Medusa said, crossing her arms. "The 'Eternal Record-Keeper'. I suppose you have a lot of... 'data' to share with the Chancellor?"
Mei looked at Medusa, then at the vipers. She pulled out a small notebook and started writing. "Subject 1: High aggression, reptilian bloodline, likely suffers from a 'Jealousy Flaw' in the third meridian."
"Hey!" Medusa shouted.
Qingya smiled gracefully. "Welcome, Sister Mei. Perhaps you can index our library? Lu Bao keeps misplacing the 'Spirit-Chef' manuals under 'Action and Adventure'."
"I have already indexed the boy's stomach," Mei said without looking up. "It is a Rank-10 hazard zone."
Lin Fan stood at the edge of the deck, looking at the collapsing tower of the East. He felt the weight of the billion scrolls in his mind. He was no longer just a teacher of the North or South. He was the Guardian of Human History.
"Teacher!" Lu Bao shouted, running up with a strange, glowing scroll. "Look what I found in the rubble! It's a recipe for 'Memory-Dumplings'! It says if you eat them, you can remember exactly what you had for lunch ten years ago!"
Lin Fan laughed, the sun rising over the Sea of Memory.
"Lu Bao," Lin Fan said. "If you make those dumplings, I'll let you be the Head of the Eastern Campus."
"REALLY?!"
"No. But keep cooking."
The flying fortress sailed away from the Isle of Scrolls, heading toward the heart of the Eastern Continent—The Imperial Jade City, where the great Competition of the Empires was about to begin.