Seal

The Book-Sealing Hall, the City Library.

This place held more books than anywhere else in the city and was the hardest-hit area when books came to life.

Books occupying more than a dozen floors frolicked wildly between the shelves and corridors. Whenever they encountered a human, they swarmed over to supervise whether the person was reading properly.

When Mortar Granny entered the lobby, this was the completely out-of-control scene she encountered.

“Granny? You’re out?” Silence asked, somewhat surprised.

Mortar Granny nodded and explained Stone Speaker’s original plan.

After listening, Silence shook her head.

“Granny, the situation is far worse than we imagined.

“Stone Speaker managed to persuade Dong Ruixue to tamper with the chains binding Withering Poems. But that isn’t important, because she only cut through a small section. In fact, before she entered the fifth basement level, the formations behind the four chains had already been completely destroyed.”

Mortar Granny’s expression changed. “You mean that, whether or not Stone Speaker had taken action, the book anomalies had already destroyed their own seals completely?”

“I’m afraid so.”

“But why? During the dozens of previous Reading Days, the books escaped their seals temporarily as well, but they only fled. They never caused any destruction.”

“I don’t know the exact reason either. In the past, we assumed they simply weren’t capable of destroying anything.”

“In other words, the worst-case scenario is that the book anomalies will never return to their sealing points. They’ll occupy the city?”

“Granny, nobody wants to be sealed away. And when a seal is completely destroyed, it means that even if they return, the seal can no longer contain them.”

The Scholars’ Institute.

The Grand Scholars’ Conference Room.

The atmosphere in the room was cold as ice.

Xiumu was a theoretical expert who specialized in the study of anomalies.

“There are a total of 897 registered book anomalies in the city.

“Based on years of observation and records, roughly half are at Danger Level 3 or above. There are 210 at Danger Level 4, 79 at Danger Level 5, and 13 at Danger Level 6. In addition, three are at Level 7 or above, making their exact levels unknown.

“The number of books that have come to life throughout the city cannot be calculated. A conservative estimate puts it at more than one hundred million. Each animated book has combat power equivalent to half a city-defense soldier.

“Even if we gathered every guard, human mystic, and witch in the city, along with the forces of the other three factions, we still wouldn’t stand a chance.”

Cicada proposed another solution. “The book anomalies can communicate. Perhaps we could try persuading them to return to their seals?”

“Naive.” President Yu cut her off. “If they were willing to do that, they wouldn’t have destroyed the seals this time. According to the statistics, one-third of the sealing sites have already been completely destroyed.”

“Shouldn’t we first find out why this Reading Day came early and why the books are destroying things?” Luo Lang felt that the unusual aspects of the situation could not simply be ignored.

“We didn’t destroy the seals deliberately.”

A childish voice suddenly rang out.

The unfamiliar voice startled all the scholars.

“Who’s there?” President Yu immediately drew a compass and set square.

“I’m over here.”

In the glass display case in the corner of the room, a book flapped its tiny wings and flew into the air.

It was The Scholars’ Institute Charter and Program, which had been kept in the Grand Scholars’ Conference Room for years.

Everyone knew this book, but no one had ever imagined that the core charter of the Scholars’ Institute was itself an anomaly.

The group immediately surrounded the Charter.

“When did you become an anomaly? Do you have a name?”

“Fools. The title of the book is my name. But you can call me the Charter for short. I’ve always been an anomaly. I’m several thousand years old, and I’ve spent every day watching you bunch of fools hold meetings.”

Oil Pot was quick to curry favor. “Great Charter, you’re on our side, right?”

“Of course. I’m a founding elder of the Scholars’ Institute. I even deliberately chose not to leave my seal.” The Charter was in an excellent mood after being addressed as “Great.”

The glass display case was actually a sealing site as well.

Having encountered a book from its own collection, Luo Lang hurriedly pressed for information. “Great Charter, what did you mean when you said that the seals weren’t destroyed deliberately?”

“Exactly what I said. In the past, when the books awoke on Reading Day, they were extremely weak from having been sealed away for so long. They could barely run outside to play for a few days.

“But this time, when I awoke, I found myself at the peak of my strength. If someone used just a little too much force, it would be easy to damage the seal. I estimate that some of the more powerful ones simply failed to control their strength. Most likely, they didn’t do it deliberately.”

The scholars nodded repeatedly.

The explanation made perfect sense. If the destruction had been intentional, then surely more than one-third of the seals would have been damaged—perhaps all of them.

“Great Charter, are the books still willing to return to their seals?”

“That’s hard to say. More than half of them should be willing to return after playing outside for a few days. The other half are difficult to predict. Every book has a different personality and different ideas. But if you don’t repair the seals soon, you’ll be giving some of the books a reason not to return.”

At the mention of repairing the seals, everyone turned to look at President Yu.

President Yu spread his hands. “There’s no use looking at me. These seals were the work of Lord Chenpi. Even if I risked my life, I could repair at most one of them. I don’t have the ability to repair any more.”

Year 120 of the Seventh Era.

The Grand Library.

The entire city had descended into chaos.

The proposal Persimmon brought back left the entire command center dumbfounded.

A senior scholar stared at her in disbelief. “Qiu Shizi, do you even know what you’re saying? How can you believe such an absurd claim from an anomaly?”

The high-ranking witches were just as skeptical as the scholars.

The information Persimmon had brought back from her negotiations was simply too strange.

Persimmon wore a solemn expression.

“I can sense that the leader of the book anomalies, Withering Poems, wasn’t lying to me.

“What it means is that they are books, so they want to remain in the City of Books. We can try to seal them here. That way, they’ll stay in the city, and we won’t be harmed.”

“Impossible. No intelligent life-form in its right mind would willingly allow itself to be locked up. This is obviously a trap.”

Persimmon disliked arguing with people. Before sitting down, she left them with a quiet remark.

“If you don’t believe me, do you want to go to war with them?”

The room fell silent at once.

Go to war?

Given the number of book anomalies, if a battle broke out, everyone present except for a supreme powerhouse like Juzi would probably die in combat. If the books were thoroughly enraged and the animated volumes began attacking, it was entirely possible that not a single ordinary person in the city would survive.

Juzi sat high in the central seat with her eyes closed. After listening to the people below argue for quite some time, she gave a light cough.

The discussion stopped immediately.

Juzi opened her eyes and began to speak.

“Everyone, you may not have a clear understanding of the balance of power between us and the books.

“I took a rough look around the city. There are more than a dozen books at Danger Level 6 or above.

“And I have even worse news. Here in the Grand Library, book anomalies are nearly impossible to kill. From what I’ve observed, they seem capable of regenerating through copies of books with the same title.

There was no need to consider the “fight” option anymore.

The issue now wasn’t how many of us would die if we engaged them, or how great our chances of victory were.

The problem was that even if the books truly stood still and allowed us to seal them, we might not have enough power to carry out the sealing.”

The human scholars and high-ranking witches sat in two rows on either side. After hearing Juzi’s analysis, none of them expressed the slightest doubt. They all declared in unison:

“City Lord, we await your decision.”

Juzi rose from the chair and delivered the final verdict:

“Gather every available force and make every effort to prepare the seal.”