512 Faith

I approached the library slowly and found the old man tinkering with a small ragged and old book.

He didn't speak at first, and only sighed, as if remembering things of a time long since gone.

"Sit," he said after a while.

And I obliged.

"You must have questions for this old man," he asked.

"Yes. Why are you here?" I asked him, "Someone of your ability should not be stuck in this rut."

The old man looked up for a while before speaking and said, "The world knows nothing but greed, greed over the material and the immaterial. Greed for power and wealth, greed for life itself and for death too." The old man then pulled up the old book in his hand and said, "Do you know what this is?" he asked.

I shook my head, "Looks like a normal book," I said.

"Indeed it does," he said then he used some of his Qi, setting it ablaze.

The book's material burnt to ash and revealed something I didn't expect to see.