Trip To The Celestial Library

Sergio and lady Taishen flew the nine kids out of the city and back to the elevator

everyone resuming human forms

Anna tucked Chione inside her jackets inside pocket

be good little one and stay okay

Chione sat in the pocket with its head looking out quietly safely nestled against Anna's bosom

is it weird to say i feel like we are going back to the real world now Yuqi said in the elevator which made everyone laugh

its so not weird anna said because we spent a few days the celestial world so it feels like a different place than the human world does but both are real

exactly Yuqi said but for some reason its like my brain hasn't caught up yet

it feels like its trying to separate what's real and what's not but all of it is real

so there's nothing to separate but i'm getting this vaguely confused feeling

we all live with that dear lady Taishen said sympathetically some of us may

feel it more than others but we all feel like that the elevator dinged and they stepped out into the hallway

as they walked towards the hotel lobby they were greeted by the peach tree as usual with its lovely blossoms as they left the hotel lifting off from behind the tree line

everyone stay together ill give us cloud cover Justin said

hey anna did you call the Weylands? Vivian asked they flew since the rains ended I haven't heard from them she sighed

I'm kind of scared if calling them will make them remember us what if the rains didn't completely erase their memroies of us

I'll check it Vanessa said what wait! anna cried its the only way to know to know for sure Yuqi said putting an arm around anna

as her sister took out her phone and made the call putting it on speaker

this is the Weyland residence her father answered

hello is anna home? Vanessa asked

everyone held their breathe

pardon me? he replied i think you have the wrong number there is no one named anna living here

i'm so sorry i thought this was Anna's parent's number Vanessa said

who's Anna? her mothers voice said down the line we don't know anyone by that name this is not Ann's parents we don't have any children she replied you must have a wrong number

i'm sorry my apologies i was trying to reach my friend i guess i must have dialed incorrectly i'm so sorry to disturb you goodbye

goodbye the both said have a good day hope you reach friend her mother added and Vanessa hung up

all the girls heaved sighs of relief well takes care of that problem no more adopted human parents hanging over our heads Yuqi said

and i don't have to worry about accidentally making them remember us they cant remember us period anna said shaking her head in amazement

the rains are very powerful Vivian said nodding everything that must be cleaned is cleaned

we can delete the number anna said deleting the Weylands from her phone

they flew deep into the country side heading into the rural hills until they came to a hidden temple tucked into a Cliffside over a lake

it was surrounded by a barrier they flew to it the barrier opened to admit them

and they landed in the temples courtyard greeted by a celestial a male with messy

brown hair glasses and an owl sat on his shoulder he was dressed in traditional style robes and clogged slippers

good day to you all its been a long time since the celestial clans have received a quest

and even longer time since this library has welcomed visitors

i am your resident librarian here to direct you and assist you with gathering any knowledge you need

please come inside all of you

oh wow look at this place Bethany breathed softly as they walked inside

so amazing anna and her sisters said looking around at the soaring

ceilings and ancient architecture that was none the less beautiful as it

was old the colors that were chosen for this makes this place look so grand

it must have been even more amazing a long time ago

the twins both agreed as they soon found themselves walking among endless book shelves

made of tall wooden shelves of a rick dark color that was polished till they shone

the shelves themselves were artfully carved in designs that displayed clan symbols and various special sigils

casting pretty looking shadows on the floors when lit from the slanting sunlight coming

through the skylight ceiling windows that let in fresh air to the library

please this way the librarian urged them over to a section with desk and chairs for them to sit

this area has information on cultivation since this is a quest i am sure you all will need to learn various

cultivation techniques in order to help you on your journey

this other section over here has information pertaining to the many various realms

and clans that exist there that you may or may not interact with on your journey

between earth and the heavens gates

excuse me Bethany asked i was given a map and told to find the location on it

which has been lost for many hundreds of years so do you have any means

of being able to help me with that ?

you have been given a map? let me see it?

Bethany presented him with the map and he put it on a table and unrolled it

oh this map is very old the librarian said examining it closely

the gods often do not realize the difference in time

between earth and heavens a day or two up there could be anywhere between ten to a hundred years for us down here

they probably thought this was a new map when they sent it you are going to have to go through several maps in our library to match this one

you are looking for Shangri-La the eastern base of the eastern celestial clans

Atlantis in Greece was the western base for the western celestials both bases have become lost through time

the good thing is we can narrow down your search parameters based on the land features on your map

that is exactly what i was thinking Bethany said we need to find places of earth that has these long stretches of mountain ranges

like these she said pointing to them on the map

there is also these five rivers he pointed to each in turn

my dear since we are talking about the east then our search is narrowed down to only one possibility he told her

and that would be? she asked

The Kunlun mountains of legend he said

of course its Kunlun! she cried pretty much every Asian legendary mythological tale

either takes place there or starts from there or ends up there

the librarian nodded indeed my dear but what you don't know is

Shangri-La itself is not a set location it was called Kunlun because that was where Shangri-La was

located at that point in time however Shangri-La and Atlantis both could be moved

by the gods as you can see on this map the mountains stretch

on for many miles this section over here is the top down view of the area they plotted out the entire mountain range from above

this second section of the map however is basically a map of the mountains themselves from the interior

thats why you don't recognize anything most of these mountains are hard to access and explore

for humans so they don't have maps as detailed as this one is despite its age it can effectively lead you there

for celestials we have many various ways to travel so accessing the mountains wont be difficult in itself

the trick is to find exactly where Shangri-La is now in all these many miles of mountains that stretch across

countries from Himalayas to India to the plateau of Tibet

Shangri-La could be hidden anywhere along this stretch and they don't have the map marked "here lies Shangri-La"

Shangri-La used to be in Kunlun however it became hidden when the black witch attacked

who knows where it is now!

there is also geological issues to consider such as earthquakes

changes in the land or even the flow of the rivers or the expansion of the glaciers

for all we know it could be buried under an avalanche that happened who knows when

and is impossible to find now Bethany said

these are mountains in high altitudes we are talking

about here is also conditions changes in weather and climate that

could have also physically effected Shangri-La over the years and eroded away any ruins we might have

been able to find there's all these different things we have to consider

when it comes to finding a place thats been lost hundreds if not thousands of years ago

if you really think about it you kids might be told to find a city but the only thing you might

find left is spot where the city was and just the bare doorway because that would have been

the only thing to survive in conditions like that because it should have a protective barrier

around the doorway itself even if not the entire city the librarian said

we have to prepare to expect anything Justin said nodding

Bethany please come with me ill try to help you as best as I can the librarian said

the rest of us will stay here and the conduct the other research Justin said

very well the librarian replied my owl will remain here with you if you have need to find any thing just ask him and he will assist you

sure thing Justin replied smiling and thank you

Takehiko Bethany and the Elders left with the librarian to another part of the library and his owl hooted and flew to a beam

in the ceiling to watch the guest with its unblinking eyes

the girls all quickly began to set up a an area with their laptops on

Vanessa created some clones to help fetch books so they could

get to work the boys began to go through the shelves using their small crystals to scan books

the owl watched and didn't stop them but they soon realized it was easy to get around the monitoring of the owl

because it only had two eyes and it couldn't keep track of everyone at once it constantly

needed to spin its head around to be able to watch everyone at once especially with the many people moving around the room

tell Vanessa to make a clones of me and the tigers Justin texted to anna on the phone she passed the message to Vanessa

who passed back ok she agreed

make them in the shadows between the book shelves Justin texted back

a moment later Justin and the tigers went to the shelves to search for books and had switched places

with their clones and were exploring the celestial library through Taekwons the shadows

finding the library had three lower levels of knowledge hidden they quickly planted the big crystals they had brought one in each level

and was quickly lifting knowledge out of every level as the crystals glowed in the shadows each book in the room lit up and

copies were made spiritual forms of the books that were quickly absorbed into the crystals and stored

their mission was highly successfully as they finished the last level and returned right before Bethany and the librarian returned

their clones had been helping to fetch books while they discussed various things about the upcoming quest pretending to the boys

as they returned books or fetched books to the shelves

one of the boys would step through the shadow

and the clone would vanish making it appear as if they

had never been gone the entire time whenThe Librarian walked in

they were using a white board they had found on it they had written and stuck sticky notes facts about the various realms and its clans

we should try our best to not make the quest difficult for ourselves Justin was saying

where we can blend in lets do that we are just there to mind

our own business and continue on our way so lets not get mixed up in anything going on in the realms where there are people if we can

also what do we do about the celestial beast lands yuqi asked we should try to avoid those Vanessa said

yes but some celestial beast are actually friendly and might help us out a lot Yuqi insisted

you're talking about the ones who are intelligent enough to communicate with us human celestials Vivian said

many celestial beast realms the beings there will behave like what they are beast an some could even be dangerous

she's right anna said lets try not to pass through a beast realm unless we must for the quest

it would be awesome if we could cultivate in some of these realms though Justin said imagine

the energy levels are higher than in other realms

it would be awesome if could create a map to the heavens as we go along Taekwon offered

i mean in case someone else has to make this trip again at least they would know the path we took through the realms to the heavens

i wish we had a map ourselves or else we wouldn't have to worry about half this stuff

we could just prepare for the realms we know are along our pathway

instead its like we have to prepare for everything cause we are going into this blind Ziesoo said

can we take electronic equipment? isn't there a way we could use technology to record our journey? Vanessa said

how would we charge anything without electricity? anna said

who says the other realms don't have electricity? Yuqi said i mean if people live there though?

yes but electricity and technology are more of a human thing Vivian added

we celestials have powers and these are other realms filled with celestial energy

i am sure they might also have developed other ways of doing the same things without technology the celestial way

i don't think we should carry any technology that might prove useless we would be lugging around equipment for no reason anna said

what if we find out technology still works somehow? Vanessa insisted

fine we take one small camera just to see if it works but thats it ok ? anna said

yes got it Vanessa said with a grin anna rolled her eyes and sighed

my goodness you kids seemed to be making progress the librarian said

the girls had piles of books around them

while the clones were busy brining more and the guys were helping to read and scan

books adding information to the white board via sticky notes as they went along while the girls worked their computers

well there is a lot of material to get through Justin said and we don't

have much time the library may close before we can get all the information we

need and it wont be easy to come back here

we have to take account for everything because we just don't know what we are going to encounter in the other realms

or what the conditions there are going to be like

we are just trying to gather everything into an order that we can understand it better we can make preparations

anna said sorry if we are making a mess of your library

oh its ok its nothing I'm actually very happy to see you kids

taking this quest so seriously and working so hard the librarian

replied its been a long time since this library has been used for such purposes

once long ago this place used to be filled with cultivators

Bethany did you guys find anything? anna asked

lots of information and other maps of the mountain chains across Asia Bethany said

what we did was created a new map with all the compounded

information from all the maps she rolled out the modern new map

you see there's all the mountain chains but we connected them into one

as it might have been in the old days now we have been able to identify

and match various things that are on current maps to the old maps

the rivers lakes ponds glaciers particular mountains landmarks

locations we have found several valleys and passes

don't forget certain passages were used as trade routes

and were already mapped out before by merchants and explorers

all of these are marked on here now in the present as it is today

it is definitely the Kunlun mountains we are going to be exploring

but we don't have any exact location for Shangri-La

but we do have possible places where it might be hidden

given its last known location and patterns of movement

such as the places where the gods had moved Shangri-La to in the past so i also marked these locations on this map

so we can at least start our search in those areas to see if its hidden in any of these places

we think even if the gods had moved Shangri-La to hide it from the witch

they might have still put it in a location that celestials

could still find it if they were familiar with how Shangri-La was moved around

if its an emergency and Shangri-La needs to hide where would it go?

and how would celestials know how to find it even if its hidden?

so you think that under normal circumstances even if Shangri-La had to be hidden celestials would still know how to go there?

Taekwon said nodding

its a celestial sanctuary after all Ziesoo said it was probably kept a secret by clan elders its

just that there isn't anyone alive who is old enough that we could ask about it

because most older celestials were wiped out by the curse

at least we have a start thank you so much for all your hard work Bethany Justin said

Takehiko nodded and patted her back

if we find Shangri-La it will probably the greatest archeological find in history

it could make my entire career as an archeologist but in reality i could never tell anyone about it she said

with a tired sigh sitting down

Vanessa and Yuqi went to her

the sisters giving her a warm hug we are so sorry this must be so hard for you Yuqi said

thank you we couldn't do this without you Beth Vanessa said

its ok i'm just mentally drained Bethany said with a chuckle

how have you guys been faring??

just like you a whole bunch of information but nothing definite Ziesoo sighed

there isn't an established road map that says

"heavens that way drive down this highway

take this exit hang a left here drive for a few miles on this

road pass these landmarks in this area hang a right to the next road and arrive at the heavens

gates it will look like this when you get there"

Ziesoo said this in such a tone everyone cracked up and started laughing not because it was funny but because it was so true

we have a lot of information but this quest leaves us feeling lost already

when we haven't even gone anywhere yet anna sighed we just got a whole bunch of what ifs and speculations

you kids sound worn out is it all right if we pack up what we have and return? Sergio suggested

i don't think we could find much more than we have already Justin agreed the real fruitful part of this mission has been the cultivation books

they are filled with techniques that could help us survive the various possible

conditions we could encounter in the realms so we just to train ourselves and learn to adapt to them as best as we can

think of them as the cultivation requirements of each realm that will help us safely pass through those areas

we all need to get started on training as soon as possible especially Bethany as you're the only human

who will be going with us this journey might be extremely difficult for you

we are going to have to think about cultivating a barrier for her that will allow her to make the journey through the realms Yuqi said

a protective barrier that can shield her from conditions that might be harmful for her Ziesoo added nodding I think something like that will be useful to all of us actually

i think there are going to be a lot of situations where the team will have to spilt up to accomplish

various things Justin added there might be things only certain members can do

so we will need to think about creating units in each group

who will stay and who will protect the members that stay

and who are strong enough and have the skills needed for the particular mission

team work will be a huge thing for us we have to train well Vivian said nodding

not just for battling Vanessa said things like blending in we will need to study the

clans that live there their cultures the way they dress what if they speak a different language?

oh my gosh anna groaned how many languages does the eastern clans have ?

predominantly we are Chinese but prominence of language depends on how large the clans are and where they are located

we have three languages that are the most common the librarian said

Chinese Japanese and Korean however the Thai language is also a close number four

for the south eastern regions and there are still the variations like Chinese mandarin that are very large

we girls are good with the basic three because we often listen to music and watch movies in those languages

and we took the time to learn them anna said but none of us know Thai

however will the languages still be the same even though they have not been on earth for so long?

you mean if they created variations or dialects? because of separation from earth its possible but we won't know until we get there Takehiko said

but my ability to learn and adapt to environments might help us with that i learned english after waking up

only speaking Japanese my whole life i might be able to be a translator for the team to make communication easier

Justin smiled see we can figure this out and in figuring this out we can understand the various roles the members of the team will fill as we go along

then lets get back and get to work on some of this Ziesoo said we can't let Justin figure this all out on his own

who votes Ziesoo second in command of the team Yuqi said putting up a hand

thats cause he's an alpha natural born leader Taekwon said i vote too

Ziesoos flushed and everyone even Justin put up his hand

unanimous vote Ziesoo you're second in command of the team he said

he nodded okay! you guys are cute i accept he said

everyone started laughing

aww the big tiger says we are cute uwu! Yuqi responded

making the girls laugh more

lets pack up and gather all the stuff we just analyzed we can set up back at the tower

the elders were shaking hands with the librarian and saying their good byes as they

packed up the their laptops and the things from the white board they soon

left the library ahhh this is nice after all that thinking Yuqi said lying down on the cloud as they flew through the air

Vanessa shook her head at her adorable youngest sister in amusement

we are going back by a different faster route everyone Sergio informed them it wont be as long going back

great cause I'm kind of hungry Taekwon sighed putting his head on Ziesoos shoulder are you all right? Ziesoo asked him

you used your powers a lot lately how is your energy levels doing?

I'm fine Ziesoo he sighed with his eyes closed the group was surprisingly quiet during the flight due to their thoughts

about the quest ahead of them