John entered the Saint-Grade Archives, which was the most restricted section of the guild library. Only those at the Grandmaster level and above were allowed into this archive, where the most important information of the guild was stored. It was the very top floor of the library, and wrapped around the library as the other floors did, while the open center overlooked the hollow interior of the library below.
Due to this, there was no one else in the luxurious achieve, which gave off an ancient yet grand feeling. Each shelf was made from an ancient tree, dark brown and beyond sturdy. Ornate carvings were visible on the shelves, tables, and chairs, as if no inch of wood was left uncarved.
The ancient wood emanated a subtle yet relaxing aura, almost lulling one into a calm, meditative state. After basking in the feeling for a moment, John felt his mind yearn for information. He walked into the large room and started weaving in and out of the numerous shelves, looking at the information contained within. Above each book, scroll, tome, or jade piece, a metallic plaque was fixed into the shelf, giving a brief description of the contents contained within.
Most of the information seemed to be classified information regarding the guild, the continent, and the world at large. While this was no doubt important information, John had no desire to read through it. His mind was focused on one thing; obtaining battle arts.
John quickly found his way to the battle art shelves, and started to glance over those arts. While many of them sounded quite impressive, none of them truly caught his eye.
"I'm sure these arts are amazing, but almost all of these arts deal with stealth and assassination, which makes sense as this is an assassination guild, but for me, they're not really compatible," he mumbled to himself.
He would occasionally pick up an art and quickly skim through it, confirming his opinions on the matter. While the arts were no doubt incredibly profound, they were not suitable for him. He eventually made his way to the works starting with the letter 'T' and found what he was looking for.
"Thunder Tyrant Law," he said, picking up the polished jade piece beneath the metallic plaque. A layer of dust covered the jade piece, indicating that it had sat here undisturbed for millennia. John blew lightly on the jade piece, pushing the dust aside.
The jade piece was about the size of his closed fist, and gaze off a soft, lightning-aspected aura. After obtaining the Thunder Tyrant Law, he perused for a bit longer, but didn't find anything that caught his eye. He then made his way to the movement art section, and found the Myriad Spatial Array.
While the movement arts were plentiful and most seemed to be quite profound, John trusted the Prime Shadows judgment, as he had selected this art specifically. Both arts obtained, John made his way to one of the reading sections of the Saint-Grade Archive room.
This section was on one of the balconies overlooking the hollow interior of the grand library. John found a seat with a table, and placed the jade pieces on the table. He looked over the railing and stared down at the open library center below. Dozens of lower floors came into view, with many guild members going about their business on each floor.
At the very bottom of the open interior was the space with the thousands of tables that John had seen when first entering the library. The numerous guild members looked like ants scurrying about their business, making the library feel quite alive. His gaze shifted upwards, from floor to floor, each which had a similar design.
On the higher floors, the number of guild members seemed to lessen, with the floor below him only having six guild members from what he could see, all who seemed to be older, more powerful members of the guild.
"The higher the floor, the more important, and therefore the more classified the information, huh?" John mused, then shifted his focus towards the jade pieces before him.
He picked up the closest one, the Thunder Tyrant Law, and sent his divine sense into it. As he did so, he was greeted with a variety of different information. The first thing he saw was a long description of the Thunder Tyrant, detailing his life, and the theories and thoughts regarding the martial world, cultivating, and combat.
Reading through it, John found that the Thunder Tyrant had a very similar view of the martial world as his own view. That was that strength was everything, and only through strength could one control their destinies.
After the description, a series of fluid, moving images entered his mind, so lifelike that it was almost as if John was standing there, watching the scene unfold in real time. A person appeared before him, a tall, muscular man dressed in a tight and clean blue robe. The man appeared to be in his forties, and had a chiseled, heroic face, topped with short blue hair. His eyes were sharp and fierce, like those of a true warrior.
This man stared forward, jaw set, gaze fierce and defiant, as if he would fight the heavens itself if need be.
'The Thunder Tyrant.'
The Thunder Tyrant hovered in the sky, thunderclouds all around him, each flickering with chaotic lightning. At first, John had assumed the Thunder Tyrant had entered a chaotic thunderstorm, but upon closer inspection, he realized that the storm had been created by the Thunder Tyrant himself. While the Thunder Tyrant's aura was withdrawn within, making it impossible to tell his cultivation level, he could tell the storm was related to the man, and not something natural.
"This storm…it's been created by the Thunder Tyrant, but it feels different from a battle art, or something he actively wanted to create," John mused, studying both the man and the powerful storm around him.
After studying the storm for some time, John's eyes lit up with realization.
"This storm…it's not a battle art, or something the Thunder Tyrant actively created. No, it's as if the Thunder Tyrant's very existence created the storm, as if he himself is the storm. How is that possible?" John wondered, awed by the scene he was watching and feeling.
John had never seen something like that before, that a cultivator's existence naturally summoned a natural phenomenon without them using their own Qi to produce it themselves. It was as if the Thunder Tyrant was an incarnation of a thunderstorm, and just his natural existence was enough for the heavens to create a thunderstorm around him.
"Is it strength that summons this phenomenon, or a certain level of Dao comprehension? Maybe both," John wondered, staring at the awe-inspiring figure. All of a sudden, the Thunder Tyrant's aura erupted with explosive power, like a world-ending thunderstorm springing into existence.
Explosive lightning flickered off the man's body ceaselessly, slamming onto the ground or piercing into the sky, making him look like a god of lightning. John's eyes went wide as he felt this unique aura for the very first time, one that was unmistakable once felt.
The aura of an Astral King.
