Fu Anwen decided to keep testing the level of control he had over the coins he'd pulled into his inner space. By exerting a bit of mental strength, one coin was instantly and effortlessly separated into numerous tiny slices. He forcefully pushed the pieces back together, but the sliced-up coin didn't recombine no matter how much mental strength he exerted.

  It seemed that taking things apart was easy, while putting them back together was either extremely difficult or impossible. More experimentation would be needed to figure out which of the two cases was correct.

  Since he didn't want to pull anything else into his inner space for now in case some powerful being noticed the change, he tried to think of anything else he could do to test out his new ability without attracting attention.

  He soon set his sights on the many guqin books piled up on the small shelf in his bedroom.

  'Can I still read books even if they're closed?'

  His eyes lit up as soon as the idea popped into his head.

  Without wasting any time, he quickly scanned over the books with his mental energy. The experience wasn't completely unlike reading books with his eyes, but there were enough differences between the two methods that it would take some effort to adjust.

  Instead of seeing the usual characters, symbols, and illustrations on the pages, he instead felt the thickness of the ink and the depth of each indentation from when the writing tool had been pressed into the paper. On their own, these marks were unintelligible gibberish, but when he combined them with his knowledge of what was written on each page, he easily mapped the indentations and ink he sensed to the book's contents.

  The experience was like learning an entirely new nguage, but he was able to accomplish the task in just a few minutes.

  Fu Anwen was surprised to notice that his thoughts seemed to be flowing faster and more efficiently than ever before. Even now, this improvement in his thinking ability was still ongoing. He suspected it had something to do with the warm feeling that was still flowing throughout his body, though the warmth had almost entirely faded in the time since the Awakening Ceremony had ended.

  Part of what made his thinking so efficient was his memory now being perfect, at least as far as he could tell. He could picture each page of the books he'd read with absolute crity. There were a few bnk spots in his memory, but he assumed that was because those memories had been formed with fws in the first pce. The new memories he was creating with his mental scans could be recalled with complete accuracy.

  With a slight exertion of his mental strength, the bckness covering the library upstairs slowing receded. Finally, the entire room was revealed, and Fu Anwen was relieved to find that none of the dies upstairs were doing anything strange inside. After heaving a sigh of relief, he quickly started scanning the books.

  Different authors undoubtedly had their own style of writing. It was unlikely that the pressure and amount of ink used by one author would be the same as those used by another. Fu Anwen needed to scan through every avaible book in preparation for his upcoming trip to the library.

  After twenty minutes, he'd fully observed every single book in his house's small library and added each author's unique quirks to his mental catalog of writing styles. He guessed that his current level should be enough to read almost every book in the Royal Library, and any that gave him trouble could be read normally so that their author's writing style could be added to his mental catalog.

  Tomorrow couldn't come soon enough.

  With no further tests to run on his ability for now, he closed his eyes and began focusing on his music. A new song was intricately pieced together with a level of ease that would never have been possible before.

  With a lighter heart than ever before, Fu Anwen slowly faded into sleep while thoughts of beautiful music fluttered through his head.

  ~-o-O-o-~

  When Fu Anwen saw his mother and the four servant girls during their meals that day, he made sure not to reveal any signs that his health had improved. Showing off his newfound strength right after the Awakening Ceremony was the st thing he wanted to do.

  He also did his best not to show any signs that he knew what the three older dies had been doing upstairs. There was no way he was going to be able to look them in the eye for a while, though.

  After dinner, he pyed one of his newly written pieces on his guqin, much to the delight of the dies in the house. After the song ended, he sat down and rexed on the couch with his mother.

  "Mom, can I visit the Royal Library tomorrow? I've already read all the books in our house."

  Fu Qingyu was surprised. "You always hated the idea of leaving the house. What changed? Not that I'm compining, mind you."

  Fu Anwen already had his reasons prepared. "When I went out this morning, the outside world didn't seem as bad as I thought it would be. After hearing your stories, I was expecting evil princes to jump out from behind every tree trying to chop my head off, but it actually felt kind of nice to get outside."

  To be honest, the part about the head-chopping princes hadn't changed. He really did expect his brothers to try to kill him if he ever had the misfortune of meeting one. He just didn't think a one-day trip to the library was too high of a risk to take. Anyway, even if it was dangerous, he still had to go.

  "Alright. Aunty Mei can take you first thing in the morning tomorrow," his mother agreed. "It'll do you good to get out of the house."

  "Thanks, mom," he said, reaching over and giving her a tiny hug.

  "Of course, my cute little baby boy," she lovingly said.

  'I won't be your 'little baby boy' for much longer. Now that my health is better, I'll be seven feet tall before you know it,' he thought ambitiously.

  He couldn't help smiling when he pictured the bright future ahead of him.

  ~-o-O-o-~

  "Attention! His Majesty the King presents his decree to Fu Qingyu and Fu Anwen!"

  Early the next morning, Fu Anwen was awoken by a loud, high-pitched shout erupting from the house's front yard. The voice must have been filled with spiritual energy, because it left his head rattling and his stomach twisting.

  Mei quickly ran into his room, picked him up, and carried him over to his wheelchair. His mother's maidservant hurriedly wheeled him out of the house and over to the side of the kneeling Fu Qingyu, then stepped back and knelt down next to Jing and the two little girls. A few feet in front of his mother, he saw one of the pace eunuchs holding an open scroll.

  While Fu Anwen had no idea what was going on, he followed his mother's lead and bowed as low as he could while still sitting in his wheelchair.

  Seeing that everyone from the Jade Court had arrived, the eunuch continued, "By the authority of the king, Fu Anwen has been granted the position of vilge chief of Big Tree Vilge, located in Five Lake County of West Wind Nightingale Province!"

  He paused the announcement for a moment to make sure that everyone was still paying attention.

  "Fu Qingyu and Fu Anwen must leave the pace with all of their servants and belongings within two weeks! The King's decree has been delivered!" he loudly finished.

  Fu Qingyu, tears in her eyes, loudly replied, "The King's decree has been received!" Fu Anwen and the four servant girls repeated the response immediately afterward.

  The eunuch turned around and quickly walked back to the pace now that his job was done.

  Fu Qingyu and her maidservants were all holding each other and crying, while Fu Anwen and the younger girls looked on in confusion.

  "Mom, why am I suddenly going to be a vilge chief? Didn't you say we'd no longer be part of the Fu family if I didn't do well in the Awakening Ceremony?"

  His mother ran over and wrapped him up in a hug, "It looks like that stinky old father of yours has a heart, after all! Big Tree Vilge is where mama grew up. We're going home!"

  Fu Anwen wasn't excited at all. Instead, he felt a chill running through his body, and he asked with dread in his heart, "But we're still going to be part of the Fu family? And I'll still be a Little Prince?"

  "Yes!" shouted Fu Qingyu, as she pced a big kiss on his forehead.

  'I'm doomed!' he silently cried.

  ~-o-O-o-~

  Later, after eating a rge breakfast of crispy tofu with assorted sauces for dipping, Fu Anwen headed over to the Royal Library in his wheelchair with Mei. The wheelchair was necessary even though his strength was no longer being drained, since his body was still weak and cking in muscle.

  Even if he was actually able to handle the long walk, there was no way he was going to reveal the fact that his situation had improved. He knew better than that. The job of 'tallest tree in the forest' could be held by somebody else.

  He thoughts were racing as he tried to wrap his head around the morning's big news.

  'It isn't perfect, but I guess becoming a vilge chief isn't really that bad. The pace is a deathtrap, and being around other members of the royal family is a disaster waiting to happen.'

  'I have loads of money, a newly healthy body that's improving every day, and an incredibly powerful ability. All I need now is knowledge, and even that's about to be checked off the list.'

  Soon after Fu Anwen came to terms with his new circumstances, the pair arrived at the Royal Library.

  After Mei showed a medallion bearing the Fu Cn insignia to the elder guarding the library, the two listened to a speech about what they were and weren't allowed to touch, where they were and weren't allowed to go, and so on, after which they were finally able to enter the library.

  Fu Anwen hadn't been idle while waiting and had already scanned hundreds of books before even entering the building.

  He was shocked at the sheer quantity of books lining the shelves. His house's tiny library was nothing compared to this.

  While listening to the elder, his sensing range hadn't been able to reach the far end of the shelves. Even then, he'd detected thousands of books. Once he went inside and had the entire building with range, he sensed that there were over ten thousand books lining the shelves, while two additional areas below ground held even more.

  He quickly chose a book that his mental scan couldn't completely read and had Mei wheel him into a reading room off to the side. He quickly started flipping through the book, matching pen indentations and ink depth to the written characters and illustrations. At the same time, he continued scanning and reading more books, not pnning to stop until he knew every single book in the building by heart.

  ~-o-O-o-~

  A little over two hours ter, Fu Anwen finally accomplished his goal. Not only had he memorized all of the books, his mental catalog of writing styles was now so comprehensive that he'd probably never have trouble using his ability to scan closed books again.

  The whole process ended up taking much less time than he'd expected, as quite a few of the books were fairly short. For example, of the more than fifty books reted to farming, only four were over sixty pages long.

  It turned out that one of the Fu Cn's ancestors, Fu Tianchen, had been a brilliant schor. During his life, he'd scoured through the knowledge of the Fu Kingdom's commoners once every generation to see if any new and improved methods had popped up in various fields.

  There were thousands of books in the library featuring knowledge compiled by Fu Tianchen. The books covered nearly every field imaginable, including farming, cooking, medicine, carpentry, and music. The information in these books contained dozens of generations of wisdom and was absolutely invaluable.

  Unfortunately, it seemed as if every generation of Fu schors since him had been living off of past glory. The most recent of Fu Tianchen's books had been written over a thousand years earlier, and not a single one of the more recent books in the library were written by a member of the Fu Cn or Fu royal family.

  In fact, from what Fu Anwen could tell, the situation actually appeared to have deteriorated quite a bit. A great deal of the Royal Library's accumuted knowledge had been lost or suppressed over the years.

  The main floor of the library was the only one that visitors could access. The sheer number of books avaible was shockingly huge, and Fu Anwen would no doubt have been incredibly impressed if the main floor's books were the only ones he'd seen.

  However, the basement storage level below had an even rger collection of books. While many were additional copies of books on the main floor above, some of them weren't avaible upstairs. This wouldn't ordinarily have been suspicious, but after reading those books, he'd noticed that the missing books often contained negative depictions of the Fu royal family.

  If that had been the end of it, the situation wouldn't have been that bad. Keeping some of the royal family's dark secrets private, while a bit shady, wasn't likely to lead to any negative consequences for the kingdom.

  However, there was also the second basement level, which seemed to be a hidden room. At least, Fu Anwen couldn't detect any way to access it no matter how hard he looked.

  That room was especially interesting, as strange discs covered with oddly shaped carvings and symbols had been pced all around the room.

  In the center of the room was a rge table with only a single letter written by Fu Tianchen for Fu Cn and family descendants resting on it.

  ~-o-O-o-~

  "There is no greater treasure than knowledge. Knowledge lifted our ancestors from the dirt and carried them soaring into the heavens. As long as we remember the lessons taught by our ancestors and continue adding on to the knowledge they left behind, I have no doubt that we can rise to even greater heights than they reached!"

  "Every man, no matter how humble his origins, is a mountain composed of countless stones of knowledge. Each time we use those stones to polish the jade from our own mountain, our jade grows brighter."

  "I, Fu Tianchen, have devoted by life to walking this path of knowledge—the jade path. I will spend the remainder of my life collecting stone from every mountain I can find with the goal of one day polishing the brightest jade."

  "With only the dullest jade avaible to them, our ancestors were already able to ascend to the heavens. What, then, might we be able to accomplish after polishing the jade they left behind?"

  "To the future generations bearing Fu blood who read this message, my hope is that some of you will join me on this journey."

  "Walk the jade path!"

  "Carry on my legacy!"

  ~-o-O-o-~

  A fire had been lit in Fu Anwen's heart when he'd read that letter. He'd long learned the value of knowledge and how dangerous ignorance could be. Now, his eyes had been opened to the power offered by the path of knowledge.

  Immediately, he knew that this Fu Cn ancestor's path would also be his own. He, too, would walk the jade path!

  The walls of the hidden basement level were lined with shelves densely packed with books. With the exception of any recently written books, every book on the two higher levels was also stored on these shelves.

  What surprised Fu Anwen, and no doubt would have made Fu Tianchen angry enough to vomit blood, was that there were thousands of books written by Fu Tianchen in this secret basement that couldn't be found above. It seemed that instead of walking their ancestor's path, his descendants had instead made great efforts to destroy it.

  The rgest portion of missing books were the hundreds that were reted to romance and love, especially love of the physical kind. While these books were filled with lengthy descriptions of the various acts contained within, most of their pages contained intricately detailed illustrations.

  Upon seeing the outrageous acts contained within the huge section of adult books, Fu Anwen had been unable to help but wonder, 'Was ancestor Fu Tianchen also a pervert?'

  He'd eventually cast that notion aside. 'No, walking the jade path requires understanding everything, even this...'

  Still, he couldn't shake the idea that there really were an awful lot of these adult books, and his ancestor probably hadn't needed to dig quite so deeply into this particur topic.

  Fu Anwen fully understood why these books were no longer avaible on the shelves upstairs, though. With so many perverts running around, the entire series had likely ended up in the collection of some king or prince the moment Fu Tianchen had passed away.

  For other missing books, he really couldn't understand why they were no longer on the upper floors. The most notable of these was a series detailing Fu Tianchen's methods for acquiring the common people's knowledge.

  Regardless of the reason, the ancestor's methods were in Fu Anwen's hands now. Once he had the ability, he'd pick up where his ancestor had left off.

  Fu Tianchen had written that some of his goals, like educating the common people of the kingdom so that progress would be faster, had been too expensive for him to accomplish. After reading that, making money quickly made its way to the top of Fu Anwen's list of goals. He'd do his best to realize his ancestor's ambitions.

  Strangely, the only book devoted to martial arts or immortal cultivation had been one containing Fu Tianchen's personal specutions about the Martial God rank of martial arts. Fu Anwen couldn't make heads or tails of the book's contents, though.

  There were a few other books that lightly covered the topics, but none of them contained any techniques that could get one started practicing. Fu Anwen didn't have a spirit root, so immortal cultivation was off the table, but he absolutely had to learn martial arts now that he had a healthy body.

  From the library's many history books, he'd learned that the world was far more dangerous than even the terrifying Royal Pace was in his mother's stories. Without sufficient personal strength, he was likely to get spped to death one day without even knowing how he died.

  "Excuse me, elder. Could you tell me where to find martial arts techniques?" Fu Anwen asked the library guardian after being wheeled over by Mei.

  The elder seemed to be a friendly old man. He expined, "All techniques are stored in the Technique Pavilion. Every Fu Cn member is allowed to visit the first floor, but you'll need to advance in either martial arts or immortal cultivation before you can go to the other floors."

  "Thank you, elder," Fu Anwen brightly replied with a smile while cupping his fists. He then had Mei wheel him out of the library and back home, only to head straight back out to the Technique Pavilion with Jing after eating lunch.

  Jing seemed a little annoyed to have to take him out, which also annoyed him a bit. It's not like his mother wouldn't still be there when she got back. Surely she could keep it in her pants until then, right?

  To reach the Royal Library and Technique Pavilion, Fu Anwen needed to pass by more than a dozen courtyards of various sizes, though all of them were rger than the Jade Court where he and his mother lived. After seeing the level of opulence inside these houses with his ability, he could tell that the inhabitants were also much wealthier than his mother. The furniture and decorations were on a completely different level.

  The most interesting discovery was that burying containers full of treasure beneath trees seemed to be a very common activity, at least on the pace grounds. He saw another seven buried chests while being wheeled past these courtyards. While one of the chests seemed to have been buried recently, the others looked to be at least hundreds of years old. Some had even started falling apart.

  It took every ounce of Fu Anwen's willpower to keep himself from pulling all of that old treasure straight into his inner space as soon as he saw it.

  Still, the fact that it was buried underground and nobody had ever dug it out was a good sign. That should surely mean that none of the powerful beings around the pace could detect it, right?

  Whatever he learned about immortal cultivators and martial artists in the Technique Pavilion would hopefully allow him to answer that question. If it truly was the case that nobody except him could see that far underground, he'd have to take a quick trip around the entire pace grounds before he and his mother returned to her ancestral vilge.