Xiaoyao continued to stay in the Imperial Library. He now felt that every book might hold miracles. Many of the books here had extraordinary origins - there might still be similar books within books.
Under Xiaoyao's efforts, he really did find several more, all of high value. This place truly deserved to be the Great Tang Empire's Imperial Library - the books collected here were all the finest of the finest.
Continue, continue!
After finishing here, he would go to First Academy Under Heaven and make sure to find all these secret books.
Three months later, Guxing's strength surged dramatically after obtaining the new Clear Jade Technique, making Le Youran cry out in amazement. She discovered that she seemed unable to keep up with Guxing's pace, and at this time, she was already at the middle tier of Emperor Level, her strength far exceeding her peers.
Yet even someone like her still couldn't match Guxing, which was somewhat hard for her to accept. She knew that Xiaoyao would give Guxing new martial skills and insights at regular intervals. She felt that to catch up with Guxing, the key was still to find Xiaoyao.
During these three months, Le Youran had gone to find Xiaoyao many times, but Xiaoyao always refused to meet, leaving her no choice but to return disappointed. Fortunately, Guxing could share insights with her and discuss sparring, allowing her strength to progress rapidly as well. This prevented her from being too persistent about seeing Xiaoyao - otherwise, even Ning Zhiyuan couldn't have stopped Le Youran.
On this day, Xiaoyao closed a book and put it back in its place, then let out a long breath and said, "Finally finished. There really are so many books here. Truly worthy of the Great Tang Empire, being the number one empire for so many years isn't for nothing."
This was the last book Xiaoyao would read here, because there were no other books left. He believed this day would also be his last day here. After this, he would transfer, he was going to First Academy Under Heaven to live the academy life with young ladies.
...
...
Well, wasn't Guxing one of those academy young ladies now?
"Xiaoyao, there's a book here. Please help deliver it to Clear Moon Palace."
Just as Xiaoyao was about to say goodbye to this place, someone gave him a task, to help deliver a book to Clear Moon Palace, saying that someone above wanted to see this book. So Xiaoyao accepted this task and headed to Clear Moon Palace.
But before that, he first needed to figure out where Clear Moon Palace was. The imperial palace had countless halls and palaces. Just mentioning a place name, how would anyone know where it was?
Fortunately, Xiaoyao had seen design drawings and floor plans of the imperial palace in the library. He knew all the facilities in the imperial palace. Of course, some modifications had to be excluded, but this didn't affect his ability to find Clear Moon Palace.
So Xiaoyao recalled for a moment, found where Clear Moon Palace was located, and then walked over. He had an access token in his hand, as long as he wasn't going to sensitive places, when encountering patrolling guards he just needed to show his token.
However, this time Xiaoyao seemed to have come to a very sensitive place, yet a place with no guards, a very special place.
"Clear Moon Palace. This is it. But why does this place look so desolate? There are even weeds growing here. Is this still the imperial palace?" When Xiaoyao entered Clear Moon Palace, he saw complete decay. This place was entirely different from the prosperity of other parts of the imperial palace.
Could this be the legendary Cold Palace?
Xiaoyao suddenly thought of this term. All female family members abandoned by the emperor would be confined here. This place didn't just have concubines, but also princesses. Of course, if it was an enlightened ruler like Ning Zhiyuan, most people in the Cold Palace would definitely have made mistakes.
"No wonder they gave me this opportunity. Usually people fight desperately to deliver books, wanting to curry favor. I knew there wouldn't be any good opportunities left for me," When Xiaoyao thought of the Cold Palace's existence, he understood, this was a thankless task with no benefits.
Although they were banished to the Cold Palace by the emperor, they were still members of the royal family, the emperor's relatives. Who knew, they might turn things around someday. This was very remote, but not impossible. Moreover, no matter what, they were still royalty. If they wanted something, it still had to be provided.
People in the Cold Palace couldn't be bullied at will, this attitude had to be maintained.
Because of this, these people in the Cold Palace were also people many didn't like to see. They had the right to demand service, but couldn't give rewards. Building good relationships was useless, the return on this investment was too uncertain.
Therefore, tasks related to the Cold Palace would be given to the lowest servants. Clearly, Xiaoyao had been classified among this group.
"Excuse me, is anyone there? I'm here to deliver a book." Xiaoyao called into the interior. Even though it was the Cold Palace, one couldn't just enter casually. At the same time, this was showing respect, no one's house could be entered randomly.
"Deliver defeat?! This old lady has never lost before! Who dares to deliver defeat to me!" An angry roar came from inside, then a figure flashed out.
"A master?" These two words immediately appeared in Xiaoyao's mind, and the following events made him even more certain of these words, requiring two more words to be added in front: Peerless!
Peerless master!
Xiaoyao only felt a figure flash, then a casually dressed woman appeared in front of him. By casually dressed, it didn't mean her clothes were revealing, but rather that she hadn't dressed herself up much, not even bothering to tidy her appearance.
This woman's appearance left Xiaoyao no time to react, or rather, he knew his reaction wouldn't be much use, so he simply observed the other party directly.
This was a woman who looked to be in her thirties, somewhat dirty all over, with black stains even on her face, making it impossible to see her features clearly. However, judging from her outline, she should be a beautiful woman.
Although this was the Cold Palace, generally speaking, the facilities here should be much better than those of commoners. Even commoners could maintain their appearance properly, at least cleanliness wouldn't be a problem. Yet this woman was like this, seemingly not because she was in the Cold Palace, but very likely due to herself.
Xiaoyao didn't think much about these things, just presented the book and said, "This is the book you wanted!"
"Book? I never asked for one. How could I possibly want this? Our profession most taboos this thing. You delivered to the wrong place, leave quickly!" After seeing the book, the woman seemed very disgusted, frowning and stepping back several paces before saying this.
Could this woman be a gambler? Only gamblers would be so superstitious about books. If so, then who exactly wanted this book? Could someone be playing me?
"Is this Clear Moon Palace?" Xiaoyao asked.
"That's right!"
"Are there any other people living here?" Xiaoyao continued asking.
"No, just me alone. No one dares to live with me because I'm crazy," The woman said arrogantly. Was she proud of being crazy?
"You don't seem like a crazy person," Xiaoyao was somewhat puzzled. The woman in front of him seemed very normal, though these things couldn't be seen and were hard to say.
"That's because you're seeing me when I'm normal. When I'm crazy, I'm very crazy," The woman said directly, then looked at Xiaoyao. She felt Xiaoyao should be afraid like ordinary people.
However, she was disappointed. Xiaoyao wasn't afraid, but rather said with some excitement, "Oh, so that's how it is. Then this book must have been requested when you were crazy. Now I'm giving it to you, look at it when you go crazy."
"..." The woman was stunned for a while. She hadn't expected Xiaoyao to have such a reaction. But thinking about it, it was quite possible, when she went crazy, she might indeed like to read books and such.
"Alright, you put the book inside. I think I'll probably go crazy soon. I've been normal for several days now, it's about time," the woman said.
"You can know the timing and pattern of your craziness?" Xiaoyao was somewhat curious. This situation was very interesting.
"I roughly know a bit. I have memory for five days out of seven, while two days are blank. Usually it's like this, though sometimes the time is longer and the crazy period lasts longer," The woman seemed to have no intention of hiding anything and spoke directly. After all, she was just a crazy person, she wasn't afraid of people knowing.
"I see. Did you suffer some trauma before?" Xiaoyao casually asked. He was just asking randomly and didn't need to know the answer, someone else would handle this matter anyway.
"No! It's just that sometimes I'm very upset when I lose money. Today I was at the gambling house for four days and nights, and in the end I lost everything clean. It's really infuriating!"
"..." Xiaoyao looked at the woman, wondering how such a woman could be crazy, unless...
"Then I'll take my leave," Xiaoyao prepared to leave, the sooner the better.
"Wait, who are you?" Just as Xiaoyao was about to leave, the woman suddenly changed her tone and asked coldly.
"..." Xiaoyao fell silent. He understood what was happening now. The woman asking who he was wasn't intentional, she didn't know because she had already undergone a transformation.
Simply put, she had just switched between crazy and not crazy.
That's right, it was such a coincidence, Xiaoyao had encountered this transformation.
"I'm here to deliver a book!"
"Oh, then you can put it down and leave." The woman nodded. Although her face was still somewhat dirty, it couldn't hide her noble bearing. From this point, this woman's origins were definitely extraordinary.
Nonsense - anyone who could be here certainly wasn't a simple character!
(End of Chapter)