"Hm! So he has found it after all. How wonderful! What will you achieve now?" the person said excitedly, rubbing his thick beard. 

The person standing on the tree branch was Mac's grandfather, as well as a Sect Elder, and his name was Elder Stry.

He looked interested, but his duties as a Sect Elder required him to be elsewhere. In an instant, Mak's grandfather disappeared, leaving only a stream of strong winds behind him.

At this point, Mac quickly looked away from the sutra and looked around, as if sensing that someone was watching him.

Looking up at the ceiling, Mac noticed a hole through which he could see the forest, but he could not see anything but a ruined house and large trees.

Not seeing anyone, Mac continued to read the golden letters of the Sutra. Mac continued to read a part of the sutra as long as he felt strong enough to continue reading.

When he finished reading, he put the sutra away and got to his feet.

Rubbing his stomach with a smile on his lips, Mac felt that he had reached the limit of the 3rd stage and would soon be entering the 4th stage of Energy Core Formation.

Looking around, Mac noticed that it was lunchtime and quickly hurried to a large tree near the stone road so that no one would have any questions.

He quickly reached the tree and laid down near its trunk, hiding in the shade from the hot summer sun.

Before he could lie down and get comfortable on the damp ground, Mac noticed a group of children moving in the opposite direction from the Education House.

As it turned out, they were his classmates, whose lesson had just ended.

They were cheerful and noisy like all other children their age. Passing by the tree, they noticed Mac's relaxed figure again.

Some of the classmates wanted to say something, but remembering the words of their teacher, Miss Rosalyn, they changed their minds and decided to ignore the man.

But with their heads held high and in complete silence, they walked past Mac, as if not even noticing his lying body.

Mac just smiled mockingly and continued to think about where his grandfather had got such an interesting sutra, and most importantly, why he hadn't told him anything about it.

Mac knew that the sutra was so special that Elder Stry would hardly have allowed him to take it. But then why had he allowed him to read all the books in his room?

The fact is that as soon as Mac and his grandfather moved into the Sect, the boy discovered the world of books. He was interested in different books. From books that could describe the legends of brave heroes to the history of the neighbouring town.

In Mak's opinion, all of them were worth reading, and each of them contained its own deep nature and interesting knowledge. This atypical preference for an 11-year-old boy was reflected in the attitude of others.

Although the adults were normal, and some of them even admired the little boy's preferences, his peers, who were beginning to get interested in spiritual energy and various sword techniques, did not support little Mak's aspirations at all, which in turn led to various conflicts.

Understanding the situation and the world in which they lived, the Elders of Stry made great efforts to keep Mac engaged in cultivation, but they were unsuccessful.

It was not that little Mac was not interested in cultivation, sword techniques, and fighting among his peers.

After all, sword techniques were also books, but Mac was not as interested in the sword techniques themselves as he was in the books that described them, how to copy them and encrypt them. It could even be said that Mac had read the most sword techniques of any disciple of the Sect.

But still, Mac spent most of his days in the library, not at home in his parents' arms or on the training ground, practising a new sword technique.

About 2 months ago, Elder Stray allowed Mac to take and read all the books, scrolls, and manuscripts from his private room. And there were none.

You could even say that there were more than a few hundred books on various topics.

Looking at the Elder's room, one might get the impression that it was not a private room, but a small library.

One reason for this was that Elder Stry was the Chief Copyist in the Sect.

His job was to control the quality of copying books and create ciphers for them.

This applied to all techniques of all cultivation levels in the Sect.

He was also in charge of overseeing the Sect's sword technique library.

Techniques on the Pangea Continent were on par with gems and rare centenary plants. Techniques were not sold in shops or at fairs.

They were available only in sect libraries. Access to these libraries depended on the level of development and skills of the sect's disciples.

The original texts of the techniques were stored in the sect's repositories, and students were given only copies of them in the form of technique books, for example, sword technique books.

To learn a particular technique, one had to read the technique book, which contained descriptions and how to perform the technique. But in order to read the book, you had to know the code.

Each book of techniques had its own separate cipher. The books of techniques, as well as the ciphers, were never repeated; they were all in a single copy, and this was monitored by the Chief Copyist of the Sect.

The ciphers were used for cultivation techniques starting from the Energy Core Formation level.

When you came to the library, you first had to choose a book according to the description of the technique. When you chose a technique, they would bring you the book and the cipher to it.

You had to learn the cipher in one of the special rooms of the library, where there were only you, four walls, a table, a chair, and the cipher. After learning the cipher, the sheet with the cipher disappeared.

The cipher was a certain mental technique that could only be memorised by a person who possessed spiritual energy, as the cipher itself was directly related to it, as it was a text that a person would start reading and strange images of various geometric shapes and their combinations would appear in his or her head.

After learning the code, the person would take the technique book with him or her, and his or her name would be recorded as well as the technique book number.

All this was done to avoid the theft of techniques and their illegal distribution.

And although you might think that you can study a book and tell its contents to someone else or rewrite it, this is not the case. After all, the book of technology and the cipher are one and the same.

Without a cipher, someone who looks at a book sees only strange illogical symbols in an arbitrary order.

But a person who knew the cipher and read the book could form images of the technique and how to perform it in his mind, which he then practised to learn the spiritual technique.

As for writing copies, books of techniques, one had to possess a special skill of Copying Techniques, which only people with high mental power were capable of.

Deep in thought, Mac didn't even notice a familiar figure appear on the horizon. It was Trevor, Mac's friend and classmate, who had also missed the morning class. Passing by a tree, he noticed Mac and said in a childish voice, "Big Brother!".

The thoughtful Mac didn't even pay attention and continued to think about his own thoughts.

But the teenager approached Mac and again said loudly, "Big Brother! Big Brother Mac!"