"Why can't I find it…?" Zi Yi muttered to herself. She let out a small sigh and set the book in her hands down as she massaged her temples.
Zi Yi was currently inside of the Amaharpe Palace Library reading its massive collection of books. Over the past few days, Zi Yi had spent most of her time in this place gaining more in-depth knowledge about the world of RML. To her, just being in this library and being able to read as just as adventurous as her trip to the Chaotic Dogma Realm.
"I give up. It's just not here. It must be on the second floor." Zi Yi said in a weary tone of voice as she rested her head on the table before her.
"I believe that if anyone can find the answer, it's you." Luna said with a small smile on her face. Ever since she returned to Amaharpe from the Blazing Tempris Domain, she was in the Amaharpe Palace Library with Zi Yi.
Since Zi Yi had been at it for so long, she decided that she needed a fresh pair of eyes to assist her. Luna did not have any pressing matters to attend to and so she agreed to lend Zi Yi a helping hand. While her reading speed was not as impressive as Zi Yi's frightening speed, she was still much faster than the average person at going through books.
It also helped that Zi Yi already prepared a specific stack of books for her to go through.
Zi Yi placed her hands on the side of her head in frustration as she said, "I'm missing one piece, just one more piece to the puzzle. It's right there, I can feel it… You're right, I can find it. I can definitely find it..!"
Zi Yi sat up straight and felt a new wave refreshing wave of energy and motivation wash over her. She began to go through the last stack of books she prepared beforehand. She would not let these books get the best of her!
A few moments later, as Luna and Zi Yi were reading, Luna suddenly furrowed her brows when she came across some strange text in one of the books in her pile.
"Strange, why is this worded in such an odd way?" Luna said as she began thinking to herself.
"Hm? What is it?" Zi Yi overheard Luna and moved over to see what she was talking about.
Luna pointed to a specific line in the book. It was a jumble of words that did not make any sense.
"This line here… It says, 'Life from and light endlessly nothingness the is World.'." Luna said.
"Oh, it's that book. It's just a bunch of nonsense. It doesn't fit anywhere into the actual content of the book and seems to be something randomly plugged inside without a second thought." Zi Yi explained. No matter how many times she went over those words previously, it just made absolutely no sense to her.
Luna nodded and said, "That's what I thought at first as well, however, then I remembered what I read in another book you gave to me." Luna set down the book in her hands and searched through the pile of books next to her.
A couple of seconds later, she had a light blue book in her hands with a pretty handwritten title listed on the front of it. After flipping through a few pages, she found the sentence she was referring to.
"This one here says, 'is the into that within this beginning the.'. Maybe the two are related somehow?" Luna speculated.
Zi Yi rested her chin onto her thumb and index fingers as she thought of the possible ways that the two lines could be merged together to form a complete and coherent sentence. But, in the end, it still made little sense. However, it suddenly hit her, maybe Luna really was onto something here.
Zi Yi grabbed the book that Luna set down a few moments and thoroughly examined it. The title of the book was Blue Intertwining Identical Stars.
"Luna, what's the title of that book?" Zi Yi asked curiously.
"Epics: Neverending Nissipius." Luna replied.
"Blue… Epics… Crossed? No… Maybe the first…" Zi Yi mumbled to herself as she was locked in deep thought.
Luna quietly observed Zi Yi. Although she was curious as to what Zi Yi was thinking so hard about, she did not want to interrupt her train of thought.
Around one minute later, Zi Yi's eyes widened as if she was hit by a sudden realization. The answer had literally been right in front of her all along! A rare lovely and cheerful smile appeared on Zi Yi's face as she looked at Luna.
"Luna, you're a genius! Ah, right I have to find the other one…" Zi Yi said as if a great weight had been lifted off her shoulders. She started to go through the books piled up on the table as if she were looking for a specific one.
Luna blinked a few times and was slightly confused by Zi Yi's sudden outburst and cheerful attitude. Just a few moments ago she was ready to give up, but now she was happily rummaging through the library books with a happy smile on her face. It did not take a genius to figure out why the abrupt change in her mood occurred.
"Would you care to fill me in?" Luna asked with a smile on her face. For some reason, seeing Zi Yi behave in such a lively and energetic manner made her see why Mariposa was so protective and loving of her younger sister. There was a flash of sadness that lasted only a brief moment when that thought crossed her mind, however, she quickly returned to normal before it became noticeable.
"There's three books. I know it, there's definitely three- Ah, here it is. Great New Genesis, this has to be it." Zi Yi said as she opened the book and flipped through it. She had already read this book and knew exactly what page she was looking for and soon enough, she found it.
Luna was still unsure what Zi Yi was talking about, but she had a good feeling that she was about to find out.
"In this one it says, 'born chaos the stretches the is this true.'. Just like the other two, it seems like a bunch of nonsense. In truth, it can actually be considered useless information since it really does have nothing to do with the book itself. However, that's only if someone had access to a single one of these three books." Zi Yi explained.
She then continued, "Blue Intertwining Identical Stars, Epics: Neverending Nissipius, and Great New Genesis. The key lies within these three titles on how to structure these words together. If we were to arrange it to Blue Epics Great Intertwining Neverending New Identical Nissipius Genesis Stars, can you tell me what acronym that spells?"
Luna took a moment to piece it together and in the next instant, she was struck by the same wave of realization that Zi Yi experienced just moments ago.
"Beginnings, it spells beginnings..!" Luna said in a shocked manner.
Zi Yi nodded and replied, "Exactly! Beginnings! Even if we say that this is just a coincidence, we can't ignore the pattern it shows."
"Pattern?" Luna questioned.
"These books weren't chosen at random. They were created in a specific order. One, two and three. Just like their respective positions in the acronym, the words in the book were made to be placed into a similar pattern of one, two, and three on a constantly repeated cycle until you finally get this-" Zi Yi set all three books down next to each other opened up to the page with the odd text.
"Life is born from the chaos and into the light that stretches endlessly within the nothingness; this is the beginning. This is the True World." Zi Yi said.
〈System Alert: You have read a line from the «Book of Beginnings».〉
〈System Alert: You feel a tremendous power flow throughout your body!〉
〈System Alert: You have gained the trait «Unlocked Latent Potential».〉
〈System Alert: You have learned the skilled «Clear Mind».〉
〈System Alert: You have discovered new clues regarding the «Book of Beginnings». Your world fame has increased by +100.〉
〈System Alert: You…
Zi Yi was bombarded with a stream of system alerts as soon as she finished speaking. By the time it was over, she had obtained some amazing benefits.
"This is… Amazing…!" Zi Yi was flabbergasted as she read through all of the system alerts. Not only she did learn a new skill, but she also obtained a rare trait in the process. Also, the trait level of her Soul Essence had increased by 1.0 setting her just ahead of Guan Yu.
She quickly told Luna to repeat the words she spoken a few seconds ago. In the end, nothing happened and Luna did not receive any of the benefits Zi Yi herself acquired.
"Maybe it's something that only works once or on certain people. Luna, I…" Zi Yi speculated as a frown appeared on her face. If not for Luna coming in with a fresh pair of eyes, it may have taken her another day or two, maybe even longer to piece things together. She felt as if Luna, at the very least, deserved some part of the reward.
Luna, however, shook her head and said, "In the end, you're the one who discovered it. I can say with 100% certainty that I would have never been able to piece things together in such a way. Besides, I just came here to assist you. More importantly, look at this." Luna pointed to something that was happening with the three books placed upon the table next to each other.
Zi Yi looked over and saw that the books were flipping through multiple pages by itself. Soon after, the three books started to float in midair as all the pages within flew out and spun rapidly in circles. The pages from the books began to attach to one another and formed a large map with a red circle around an isolated spot. Compared to the surrounding territories, it was small and feeble.
"A map? But of what?" Zi Yi studied the map, however, she was unable to make out a single thing on it with 100% certainty. However, she believed that one of the locations on it was Amaharpe based on some of the geographical terrain and its surrounding similarities.
However, Luna had seen that spot somewhere before! It was on the Realm Chart Azalea Wraith was carrying around during their journey to the Blazing Tempris Domain. Although it was an unnamed location, she was positive that it was the same exact location being shown on this map before them.
"I know that place. I saw it once on a Realm Chart." Luna said with her brows raised.
"What's it called?" Zi Yi asked curiously.
"I'm not sure, it was an unnamed location. However, I know that it's located somewhere east of the Blazing Tempris Domain. It's not located within the Blazing Tempris Domain itself, but rather within the land situated next to it." Luna explained.
Around fifteen seconds later, the papers scattered all over before finally returning to the books they came out of.
"The titles!" Zi Yi was startled when she saw that the titles that were on the book before had vanished without a trace!
She quickly opened the books to the page the odd words were on and just as she suspected, those words had disappeared as well as if they were never there in the first place. If not for the system alerts and Luna being there with her, she would have believed that everything that just happened was from a lack of proper sleep.
"It's all gone. The titles and the words, both of them have vanished from the books." Zi Yi said in a voice filled with disbelief.
After taking a moment to calm down from the sudden rush of excitement, Zi Yi and Luna looked at each other as if they were on the same wavelength.
"He'll be surprised. Though with this, I'm sure he'll understand why we missed the grand opening of the Mystical Realm Palace." Zi Yi said.
"Indeed, we finally have a solid lead. Since he completed the first part, it's only right that we contribute to the second part. Zi Yi, you may have just discovered an important part of our world quest, The Beginning of Beginnings. We have to inform Izroth." Luna said.
…
