In the Central Archives of the Serenitea Pot, the constant, low hum of the constant-temperature and constant-humidity magic array served as an eternal background melody, blending with the distinctive, tranquil scent of ancient paper and ink cakes. Jingyi sat at the long table in the ancient texts reading area, her fingertips lightly tracing the pages of an open volume of *Mineral Atlas of the Chasm*. This was no restoration task; it was purely a personal exploration driven by her own interests. Thanks to the increasingly refined techniques and efficiency of Senior Faruzan and the Akademiya students she led, that once mountain-like, seemingly endless pile of ancient text restoration and digital input work finally had a clear direction. The progress bar was advancing steadily toward its end, temporarily freeing Jingyi from the suffocating cycle of round-the-clock work.
She cherished this stolen moment of leisure. Time had become slightly more generous; there was no longer any need to race against the clock. Sometimes, like now, she would immerse herself in the tactile feel and ink fragrance of physical books, experiencing the weight of words transmitted across time. Other times, she would sit in front of the massive, fixed Akasha Terminal array, the emerald-green light illuminating her focused face as she efficiently searched for fragments of obscure knowledge scattered like stardust across the database. This ocean of knowledge, regardless of the form in which it presented its…
Chapter 154