"We’ll go to the western library first," Pearl explained. "You should remember the road so you can find me more easily. I’m in charge of the third floor."
Nodding, Anji followed Pearl to a small but busy building. Many people were entering and exiting the four doors. Anji and Pearl waited in line behind all sorts of people. Most of these people appeared sleep-deprived and were carrying strange objects.
"They are researchers," she explained. "My access token allows me to enter the inner court but not the research labs since I work at the libraries inside. Unlike apprentices who cannot enter, you can still find librarians inside."
Nodding, Anji patiently waited for her turn with Pearl. It felt weird not having Gu Ying around with her. Anji had grown very used to Lizi and Gu Ying’s presence. They were almost like her left and right arms. Without the two ladies, Anji felt the world had suddenly become much bigger.
When it finally became their turn, the librarian on duty paused.
"Oh? We have a new face here."
Pearl nodded at the tired librarian on sentry duty. Handing her colleague her token, Pearl told Anji to do the same.
Curiously, the researchers and librarians in the area peered at the young child who submitted her token. Who was she? Even if she were a guest, she should not have access to the inner court.
Scanning Pearl’s token, the curious librarian scanned Anji’s token and quickly shot Pearl a wide-eyed stare. Anji watched them communicate with only their eyes and wondered what they were doing. Finally, it was the librarian on duty who sighed.
"You may pass," she told Anji. "Keep that token safe. If you lose it, several strange people in the inner court would love to kidnap lost children for their experiments."
Unsure if she was serious or merely threatening her, Anji thanked her for the advice and entered the large door. Inside, there was another illusion barrier.
"Don’t be scared. Just walk through it. This is not a real wall," Pearl patted Anji on the back and urged her to follow the example of the researcher in front.
Nobody seemed fazed by how quickly people hurried into what appeared to be a solid wooden wall. Only unauthorised people would be blocked by the actual wooden wall in front of the teleportation spell inside it. Once the right people with access touch the wall, the spell will activate, allowing the user to pass through it without harm. Anji read about this teleportation spell in her intermediate spell and arrays book. However, the spell required a lot of focus and precision to work correctly. There was a reason why ordinary teleportation scrolls should only be used in an emergency. Nobody knew where in the fifty-meter radius you could be teleported to. People who used it have ended up on the top of a tree, on the ledge of a cliff or even in the middle of a lake before.
Due to the fast-moving traffic, Anji had no time to hesitate. Braving herself and closing her eyes, she braced herself for impact and laughter if she bounced off the painfully solid wall. However, there was no resistance as she put her first foot through the wall.
Landing safely on the other side of the wall, Anji eventually opened her eyes, and her jaw fell. She thought she had seen it all earlier at the training hall. However, that was only the tip of the iceberg. The world of spells was more vast than Anji could ever imagine. No wonder the Mystical Qilin Sect closed itself off to the world. The inventions in this place were worthy of starting wars over. Fortunately, researchers were creatures fuelled by strong tea and curiosity more than the desire for wealth and power.
"Is that a flying ship?" Anji could not hold back her excitement and tugged on Pearl’s sleeve like with Gu Ying or Lizi.
Noticing there was no response, the child finally looked down and quickly apologised for grabbing onto the senior librarian. Pearl cleared her throat and quickly changed the subject. She knew she had to remain indifferent to the child. However, Anji was simply too adorable with her enthusiasm that her heart almost did not make it.
Answering her previous question, Pearl explained that it was not a flying ship.
"To be precise, it is a cleverly calculated levitating platform used to deliver heavier items above the ground. The road here isn’t the most suitable for transporting important materials. Hence, one of the researchers used a combination of air and metal elements to create a moving platform that is constantly suspended in the air. Of course, when it was first introduced, many air accidents happened. These platforms crashed into birds and each other frequently until another researcher suggested creating a barrier around them. After several decades of improvement, this is one of our safest inventions. It’s still imperfect and sometimes fails, so we did not introduce this to the outer court for testing. There is a very strict research procedure for safety if we wanted to introduce something to the people outside of the sect."
The testing process was extremely rigorous, and according to Pearl, who failed several times for her invention, which prevented her from becoming a researcher, safety was the number one concern. Energy efficiency was not as concerning as safety when the creations were given to non-cultivators. ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ novel⦿fire.net
"It has to be handicap-friendly, child-friendly, retard friendly, animal-friendly, environmentally friendly and more," Pearl sighed. "My last idea failed because they deemed it unsafe for pregnant women."
Laughing nervously, Anji wondered how she would fare here if the bar for innovation were this high. Pearl appeared to be one of the smartest people she knew, but the senior librarian appeared gloomy while discussing her research process. Out of curiosity, Anji asked what Pearl was trying to create.
As if someone had flipped a switch in her, Pearl started spilling details about her wonderful idea for a vertical moving platform that could quickly bring people up and down tall places.
"I thought it would be amazing to implement it in the library when we have many tall shelves and hard-to-reach places. If it succeeds, I would have expanded on the idea to make travelling up the mountain easier. I hate climbing those stairs whenever I need to get down the mountain, and we cannot use the emergency evacuation portal for fast travel. Why can’t there be a vertical platform when there is a horizontal one? I don’t understand why they would consider it unsafe for pregnant women when they claimed it passed the children’s test when I added the barrier. It’s not as if they would fall over..."
As Doctor He’s student, Anji understood why the judging panel might have concerns about such a thing. Ignoring the fact that some people were afraid of heights, pregnant women were more prone to dizziness and motion sickness.
"How fast was your vertical platform moving? Pregnant women can become dizzy if there are quick and sudden changes in height. They need more time to adjust, and the gravity changes in their body can affect the fetus."
Now that Anji brought it up, Pearl considered it again.
"I made it as fast as I would walk horizontally. It’s not that fast, right?"
Judging from Pearl’s normal pace and all the other hurrying researchers, it was a manageable speed horizontally. However, if it changed to vertical acceleration, it was a tad too fast. The speed was not a problem and was not as bad as the starting and stopping.
"What about the start and stop jolts? If there were bounces each time it begins to move and does not behave smoothly, pregnant women could lose their balance and become nauseous."
Thinking about it, Pearl nodded. She had not considered this aspect before. Besides, the only test subjects they could approach were healthy individuals. Pearl did not know there were such things to consider without a pregnant tester. None of the testers gave her such feedback.
"I’ll work on those and try again. Thank you, Little Anji!"