The Sealed Library

The broom wasn't an idiot. Why would it easily run into another anomaly's body? Even thinking with its broomstick, it knew that going inside would mean nothing good.

"If you have the guts, come out."

Chen Miemie wasn't someone afraid of trouble. He rolled up his sleeves and was about to head out.

The siblings hurriedly held him back:

"The thing outside is the Rebel Broom. Its danger level isn't too high, but it has a bonus lethality against humanoid creatures. Anyone it targets will be taken up into the sky using its ability, and the vast majority fall to a tragic death."

Hearing this, Chen Miemie immediately found it interesting.

He gently pushed away their pulling hands and stepped out of the sedan chair.

"You are the Rebel Broom?"

The broom hovered in the air, completely restless. One moment it was horizontal, the next it was vertical—a textbook case of ADHD.

"What, have you heard of my legend?"

"Not really. Tell me, how exactly are you rebellious?"

"Hoho, I am a broom determined to rebel against fate. I have sworn to refuse sweeping the floor. I love flying and yearn for freedom. However, my flying skills are still being honed. As long as I find another 200—no, 100 people to train with, I will definitely become a flying broom."

Chen Miemie found a blind spot: "You can practice flying by yourself. Why must you carry a person? Isn't that just increasing the difficulty for yourself?"

The broom head swayed repeatedly: "That's an amateur's take. A broom is too light. When flying at high speeds, it can't press down against the wind. It needs added weight to maintain its center of gravity."

Chen Miemie wasn't afraid of the broom at all. He walked straight up to it, circled it once, and examined it from up close.

"This high-speed flying you mentioned, how fast is it?"

The Rebel Broom rarely met anyone who would discuss flying with it. It was so excited that it didn't even bother attacking, its desire to chat extremely high.

"It's quite fast. Crossing the entire Sealed Library takes only about ten minutes."

"Hm? You can actually go into the city?"

"Of course, I am a star anomaly born right in the city."

"Then with you dropping people to their deaths every day, aren't there any powerful Mystics in the city who would deal with you?"

"Of course there are. Unfortunately, they can't kill me unless there isn't a single broom left in the whole city. However, them chasing me was annoying and affected my flight practice. In the end, I reached an agreement with them: I won't snatch people into the sky inside the city or at the city gates."

Chen Miemie understood. This Rebel Broom belonged to the type with limited lethality but extremely high immortality.

"Forget it, broom, you can go. I was originally planning to recruit you, but now I feel like you're quite useless."

Hearing this, the Rebel Broom immediately started to act "rebellious."

"How bold! To actually call me useless and look down on me!"

"Then tell me, what use do you have? You aren't willing to sweep the floor, and you can't fly well either. You're not even as practical as a regular broom at my house."

The Rebel Broom surprisingly couldn't come up with a retort for a moment. Feeling terrible, it immediately flew into a rage out of humiliation.

"Saying I'm useless? Then I'll take you for a spin!"

It activated its ability, and Chen Miemie directly appeared in mid-air, riding on the broom.

This was its ability: it could force a selected person onto the broom.

The Rebel Broom took Chen Miemie and executed a near 90-degree pull-up, shooting straight into the sky.

"Huh? Why aren't you screaming?" The Rebel Broom found it a bit strange.

"Is this all you've got? Can you go any faster?" The passenger was dissatisfied with the current speed.

"Alright, let me show you my true strength."

Inside the sedan chair, the siblings secretly lifted the curtain and looked outside.

High up in the sky, they saw the Rebel Broom carrying Chen Miemie, doing all sorts of spinning and wild dancing like a drunken bee.

If it were an ordinary person, they would have been thrown off long ago and smashed into a pulp.

Up in the sky.

"Hey, didn't you say you were fast? Why do you keep spinning? You're making me dizzy." Chen Miemie expressed that the experience was very poor.

The reason he didn't fall wasn't because he held on tightly; he hadn't even reached out his hands.

The parts of him in contact with the broom were wrapped airtight in thick spider webs. He was currently like he was taped together with the broom into one single entity.

The Rebel Broom was also very distressed: "What kind of ability is this? When I spin, you don't swing in the direction of the centrifugal force. I have to spend a lot of effort just to correct my direction."

"You even know about centrifugal force?"

"Insolence! The Sealed Library is the city of knowledge and wisdom. I was born here, so I've read quite a few books myself!"

Disrespectful of me. Turns out it wasn't just rebellious, but also an educated broom.

Just like that, the Rebel Broom and Chen Miemie messed around in the sky for half an hour before finally returning to the ground.

When Chen Miemie's feet touched back down on the ground, he felt like the whole world was spinning.

After riding a "roller coaster" for half an hour straight, the fact that he didn't throw up meant his constitution was tough.

The Rebel Broom was also very tired. Chen Miemie hadn't struggled at all in the sky, so all the movement relied entirely on its effort, resulting in massive exhaustion.

Tired as it was, it was still very happy.

From its perspective, Chen Miemie was playing with it.

"Alright, I'm in a good mood today, so I'll let those two people go. I'll come find you to play next time." The Rebel Broom was very straightforward. As soon as it finished speaking, it flew off without a trace.

Chen Miemie didn't stop it. This broom anomaly hadn't offended him, and its personality was somewhat interesting. He didn't plan to take it home, nor did he intend to beat it or kill it.

Seeing the Rebel Broom leave.

The siblings in the sedan chair let out a sigh of relief and prepared to come out.

However, for uninvited guests in this sedan chair, getting in was easy, but getting out was hard.

Once you got on the sedan chair, even if it hadn't moved a single step, you still had to pay a "starting fare."

According to the sedan chair's charging standards, one would have to leave behind at least a small organ.

The sedan bearer raised a hand, blocking the way out.

Chen Miemie was still suffering from the aftereffects of dizziness, his steps floating as he walked.

With a shudder, he was about to fall.

In his dizzy state, he felt as if someone had supported him, saving him from the embarrassment of falling.

"Lord Mystic," the brother's voice called out.

Chen Miemie recovered after a dozen seconds and waved his hand at the sedan chair: "Let it go, these are guides."

Receiving the command, the sedan bearer immediately lowered its arm and stepped aside.

The siblings supported each other, walked up to Chen Miemie, and both bowed deeply.

"My Lord, my name is Yi Zhu, and this is my sister Yi Xian. Thank you once again for your help."

"Mm, no need to call me Lord or anything. I'm not that old, about the same age as you guys. Just call me Chen Miemie."

"Okay, Brother Miemie. Is this your first time coming to our Sealed Library?"

"Yeah, I haven't even entered the city gates yet and I ran into you guys. Why don't you introduce the place to me?"

"Sure. The full name of the Sealed Library is the Sealed Storage Library. The entire city is one giant library. Here, knowledge stands above power and wealth. The ones with the highest status are the six Great Scholars who manage the city."

Following Yi Zhu's explanation as they walked and talked, Chen Miemie and the two siblings arrived at the city gates.

Taking his first step into the city, Chen Miemie finally understood what "the city is a library" meant.

Unlike the square pillars of Sixiang City, all the buildings here were massive books.

Some were stacks of over a dozen books piled horizontally, where each floor was the thickness of a single book.

Some were seven or eight books standing upright side by side, each towering tens of meters high.

At a glance, the entire city looked like an ocean of countless stacked books.

Looking closer, the details were just as striking.

The bricks paving the ground and lining the walls resembled thick tomes, while the street signs featured backgrounds shaped like open books.

Among the crowds bustling through the streets, men carried briefcases shaped like books, and women wore small crossbody bags designed to look like pocket dictionaries.

The storefronts lining the streets, whether selling food or daily necessities, were all decorated to look like bookstores.

Even the vehicles on the road were no longer shaped like matchboxes, but instead resembled schoolbags.

And that wasn't all.

On benches all over the streets, quite a few people sat engrossed in the books they held.

"What a unique city. Yizhu, take me to that shop first."

"Alright, this way."

The three of them walked past a shop where a vendor was hawking his wares.

The vendor was a neatly dressed, refined-looking middle-aged man.

The shop itself was a bookstore. Its signboard bore no name, only a single line of text: The more you know, the more mysterious the world becomes.

Though he was technically hawking his wares, the man simply offered a warm smile to anyone who met his gaze, occasionally pointing at the goods on his stall.

Chen Miemie, who was hurrying along, was gently bumped by a passerby and stumbled sideways, ending up right in front of the stall.

"Feel free to browse, young man," the middle-aged man welcomed him.

Chen Miemie thought for a moment, then stopped and looked at the books on display.

There was a wide variety of books, ranging from "Fairy Tales of Little Animals" and "A Great Scholar's Personal Travel Guide to Mountains and Rivers", to "The Complete Cookbook", and more.

On the stall, amidst a neatly stacked wall of books, one particular volume stuck out a few centimeters more than the rest, making it rather eye-catching.

Chen Miemie picked up the book that seemed destined for him.

"Boss, I'll take this one."

The middle-aged man smiled and nodded. "Good choice. This is a practical operations manual, quite rare nowadays. 'The Five-Light Mailbox Guide'. Please take good care of it."

Chen Miemie took the book. "How much time does it cost?"

The middle-aged boss shook his head. "The first one is free."