Davis turned to look back at the entourage and cast a derisive gaze, "It's not like I'm going to burn everything down here. That's blasphemous for an alchemist like me..."
The Imperial Protectors and the others all gave a wry yet unsightly smile before they awkwardly left. They didn't want to offend the important subordinate of the Conferred Queen as that would aggravate things.
In any case, although they were looked down upon, as long as it could benefit the Empire, they were able to accept this humiliation, thinking that they were sacrificing their faces for a beneficial cause.
Alexi Ethren also left, leaving Davis and the librarian all alone at the entrance of the Imperial Library. Davis walked forwards, and in a few seconds of entering the sea of bookshelves, he saw the history section.
"So, all information and records within the Empire's borders are brought here?" Davis asked with a neutral voice.
"Ah, yes!" The librarian who followed him responded before putting her head down again.
'A shy librarian? Or is she just scared of me?' Davis shrugged, "Miss Librarian, how many books have you read?"
"M-more than a million..."
Davis nodded his head. He could sense that the librarian exhibited vague Adult Soul Stage undulations.
It was really possible to read through books carrying general information just by scanning them with the soul sense. The process of reading is hastened by n number of times depending on the person's quantity and quality of soul force, and mainly their Soul Forging Cultivation. However, reading and understanding was something else.
The latter just depended on the person's intelligence and comprehension.
He could also sense that she was at the Law Manifestation Stage, the Sixth Stage in Essence Gathering Cultivation System. Judging by the normal rate of cultivation in this Territory, he guessed that she was more than 500 years old.
Unless she was a hidden genius, he felt that his guess would be correct. He could also measure her bone age to find her real age, but that is off-limits and extremely rude.
To know her approximate bone age, he would have to send his soul sense inside her body and feel how 'archaic' is her bone. There will be an aura of age emanating from the bones, and with that, he would be able to approximately guess.
For accurate results, cultivators would check the cranium since the other parts of the body might have been once cut off, only to be regenerated again.
Evelynn had half of her arm cut off in the past, so the newly regenerated bone might have a different bone age. However, with the passage of time, the other bones connected to the regenerated bones would slowly but steadily spread their age aura, making it even.
Davis obviously didn't check the librarian's bone age, considering that came off as immensely rude and distasteful to him.
In front of him, she was just as good as being naked.
If he wanted to, he could even completely outline her body from top to bottom in his mind with his soul sense without her knowing just because he possessed a powerful Soul Forging Cultivation than her, not taking account that his soul was already painted seamless; almost undetectable.
Davis didn't know how many innocent women suffered under the shameless scans of powerful soul senses. Unless they possessed an artifact that could detect or deflect the soul sense, it was too difficult for them to even notice.
This constitutes one of the major reasons why women preferred to stay inside the confines of safety within their families. Even then, it still wasn't safe for them as there would always be deviants within their own families.
He couldn't help but feel that the modern world is countless times easier to traverse and live than in the cultivation world for women.
While he was lamenting, he saw that in the history section, there were vague records even on Immortals! Of course, he knew that it was common sense in the Fifty-Two Territories that no Immortals existed as they would all 'ascend' upon breakthrough.
These books or records on Immortals of the past could be fantasies of people as most were written like a biography. Hence, most of them could be fake, at least, according to him. They could even be novels for all he knew.
However, he still had the urge to take a look at them.
Nevertheless, under the scrutiny of his soul sense, he had found one of the records he wanted to find out. He arrived at that location and reached out his hand before a particular tome on a bookshelf flew towards him.
Davis captured the books in his palm, and the title appeared in his view.
[Measuring One's Talent in Cultivation According To The Large Territories]
The complete basics of the novels he read in the past, yet, in this world, one's cultivation talent could only be measured by the results they produced in cultivation compared to their age.
This simple yet crude method is filled with extreme deviation, yet the majority of the people use this method to measure one's talent, because, this was the single method that was widely known.
Even Ellia's talent was measured by the slave traders who groomed her in the past, but the way they measured her talent was with this crude method, measuring her talent by her progress in cultivation.
Davis's talent was measured like this in the past as well, but due to his soul's anomaly, he became an outlier, hence wanting to measure his real talent was one of his reasons for desiring this book.
He opened it and read the introduction.
It was the same thing on how to measure a person's talent with fewer deviations. However, he didn't stop reading as he wanted to verify that his own comprehension regarding measuring talent is authentic.
Turning the pages, he completed more than a quarter of the tome, but he finally verified that his comprehension of measuring one's talent with the crude method was more or less the same with the author of this book.
However, knowing that this thick time possibly couldn't have crap written in it, he turned the page and became pleasantly surprised as he read.
[
Measuring one's talent in regards to cultivation varies with the inclusion of all three cultivation systems. However, people of ancient times didn't have a problem with measuring one's talent with accuracy.
Yes, the answer is with the ones we, the Fifty-Two Territories, no longer possess anymore.
The Immortals!
It is that Immortal Existences can perfectly measure a mortal's talent!
I, Unislyn Ethren, have learned this from adventuring in the large Territories. It is said that the peak powers here still possess the method to measure a cultivator's talent perfectly.
My cultivation is redundant, and my talent could be described as extremely low. Hence, I pursued knowledge to prove that I am not trash, but I was proved otherwise.
Ironic and truly laughable...
Yes, I had finally discovered the opportunity to measure my talent from a person belonging to a peak power! This information protected within the peak power was immensely valuable that I had to serve that person for a thousand years!
With that person's help, I was able to know my talent!
]
Davis read on as he became absorbed.