Books, Books, Books, We Love Them

It was a long time before Chi actually pulled herself away from the Internet. She could not give an exact period of time, but based on the dates from all the fan fiction she was reading, Chi had been immersed with her Internet cheat for over six hundred years. It was a dream come true for her.

She had finally finished off her Netflix queues for the next five life times. Asia had finally beaten the West in creating quality television with a Wuxia drama based on a popular web novel which nearly dominated the entire world, beating out 'Game of Thrones.' Several classic movies were rebooted which include 'Gone with the Wind', 'Giant', 'Casablanca', and the 'Twilight' series. The last one was changed to a television series that was surprisingly good. Several of the episodes had story lines of the past for the vampires.

In the news, the war on terror was over and then it came back in waves. There were serveral instances where a world war would erupt, but luckily it still has not happen. That is most likely due to the fact that just about every major power had nuclear weapons on hand. This got all the hippies in the world to congregate and made themselves super annoying to the governments of the world. Unlike back in the seventies, the hippies of the present future have social media, abilities to hack governments, and money.

Power to the children of the Internet.

As for Lillian, Chi was happy to learn that her friend lived a happy and fulfilling life. She had three children with the prince which included one son and twin girls. She become queen at the age of forty-seven when the old king finally abocated the throne to her husband. After Chi's death, Lillian created a school of arts and dedicated it to her dead friend. The school flourished and several future stars in acting, music, and even literature became alumni.

Chi watched the movie was the based on her and Lillian's life before Lillian became royalty. The actress who played her was annoyingly too pretty; too bad they did not have a scene of her death. For some reason, Chi felt it would make her feel better.

However, right now, Chi needed a break. For the past six hundred or so years, she had been sitting in the chair and barely moved from it. A normal human body would, of course, not last past a hundred years much less six hundred. It would also not last sitting in one position for weeks straight without moving from one position. For Chi, mortal laws on human bodies did not apply to her. Her improved body did not suffer from muscle atrophy, pressure sores, or any other aliment that comes from lack of movement. In fact, the only thing she suffered from was some symptoms of heartburn or indigestion that came in sporadic times.

When that happens, Chi simply drank or eat the water and peaches that were provided to her by the magical library. However as of late, it was taking her a great deal longer to deal with the symptoms. Chi remembered the last time she suffered from heartburn like discomfort, she had to drink almost twenty jugs of water and a hundred cups of her peach infused water to make it go away. She did not mind so much as the relief that came always made Chi feel better - in fact she always felt like a whole new person.

Turning on a playlist of classic Disney music, she started to take a stroll. In her past life, Chi had gone to the local library every weekend as a child. The tiny library was a treat for her until she got older. When Lillian became famous enough that they would travel around the United States; Chi would find a little time to just visit some of the most famous libraries and stroll around. Sometimes, she could get lucky and there would be an exhibit going on - the last time she visited a library there was an exhibit of Broadway costumes.

However this library was nothing but shelves and shelves of reading materials. Other than the small clearing consisting of chair and table, it was a sea of books. With her steps being in time of the music, Chi casually tapped the books on the left with her index finger. The feel of the bindings was smooth with a slight texture of weaving. The smell of aged bamboo, paper, and leather permeated through the air and was quite pleasant to the nose. There was no dust to cover the gleam of the wood or the tops of the books.

There was no writing on the binds of the books that could give a clue on the contents they contain. After a walking past a few shelves, Chi picked out a thick book and started to flip the pages. She paused at first sight before closing it. Blinking a few times, she rubbed her eyes before opening it again.

Well, it appears she was not mistaken.

Staring at the pages, Chi blinked rapidly as the writing on the pages started to expand and contract. It started slow before it began to speed up to the point that Chi could swear would cause most people to go into seizures. In fact, Chi could feel pressure mounting from her forehead. The pressure grew to the point that she was afraid her head would explode. Oddly enough, there was no pain, but that alarmed her even more.

She began to do the Spirit Qi Flow exercise and found it quite ineffective. Panic should set in by now, however Chi only started to wonder if she should head-butt herself with the thick tome into unconsciousness. Maybe she would survive getting her head blown off - after all, Chi had survived when her head got chopped off.

Just as the pressure reached its peak, it began to slowly release itself like air from a balloon. Chi sighed in relief as the idea of her head exploding was now out of the running. As soon as the pressure was gone, Chi looked down at the open book in her hand. It took her a moment, but Chi saw that she was able to read the writing on the pages.

"The meat of a Volcanic Boar should be processed carefully before use. In most cases, one should be using a blade made from Ice Obsidian and cut against the grain..."

It was at that moment when Disney's 'Peter Pan' song called 'You Can Fly' started to chime in her ears. As weird as that was, Chi felt to be a celebratory mood that she switched the music to Quincy Jones' 'Soul Bossa Nova' and started to dance. Unlike before, her body was actually moving gracefully and it was executing moves that Chi would never had pulled off in her previous life. However, since there was no mirror, she could not see but only could feel that her body felt lighter and easier to control.

She played the song on repeat for some time before switching it to a playlist of New Age music. It was time to see what this magical library contain.

***

A loud crack pierced into Chi's ears and she looked up from a scroll that contained a technique called the Thunder Wind Fist to pinpoint where the sound came from. It sounded like it came from the center of the library - where the table and chair were.

Chi had long given up in keeping track of time when she started to read the contents of the magical library. Apparently her brain had been fed with ADHD drugs and she found herself concentrating on the materials at hand. No matter how odd or how boring the books seems, Chi was able to read them and actually understand what was written in them. It also appears that her brain could also do perfect recall now.

Banzai to the person who gave her this new life!

Chi was pretty sure that she has read all the books and scrolls in the library to the north side of the center. She had actually reached a wall but could not see an exit. The north side of the library contain subjects of cultivation techniques and martial arts. All of it was interesting but Chi soon learned that reading about it did not mean she could perform such marital arts.

In web novels, there were main characters who could perform techniques after one or two tries. When Chi tried to copy the moves, she felt completely awkward. It was not until a few more books later, that she realized that most of the martial arts she had learned required a certain type of cultivation technique to go along with it. Since she had only learned one simple cultivation technique, Chi was unable to perform the marital arts to their full potential.

She did try to learn another cultivation technique, but Chi found that it required more concentration than what she was willing to part with since it was difficult to use her Internet cheat along with the new technique. A real hero would have given up such frivolous things like music, videos, and web novels; Chi is not a real hero and she rather have her Internet cheat over performing martial arts. If she wanted martial arts, there are plenty of movies and dramas with actors and stunt doubles who can performed them better.

Giving a quick scan of the scroll so that she could remember it again, Chi carefully put it away before rushing towards the center. Her steps were light and barely touched the ground. Once in a while, she gave a great leap into the air that covered nearly a hundred book shelves before she landed. She remember the first time she tried leaping in the air and had crashed head first into the ground. Amazing enough, it did not hurt, but it took her a long time to learn how to land on her feet.

With the amount of times she landed on her head, butt, belly, and back; Chi was pretty sure that she had died at least a thousand times over. Luckily, she had not crashed into the shelves. She would have hated to pick and organized everything.

Thank you, Magical Library.

As she grew closer, Chi began to notice a faint fruity aroma. It grew stronger and she soon began to smell the the undertone of alcohol. Instead of it being coiling like most wines and spirits she knew, it was soothing and it made the fruity aroma change to a more flora tone scent.

By the time she arrived to the center, Chi could now recognized the smell to be peach wine and she was feeling tipsy from the smell alone. Looking around the center, she could identify where the smell came from - the stone jar.

Chi had actually forgotten about the stone jar. However, now she cannot ignored it. The wax seal had broken and the small broken parts were falling off it, Rubbing her ears, Chi briefly wondered how broken wax could sound so loud. Approaching the jar, she carefully wiped away as much of the wax away from the jar before opening the lid.

A powerful aroma slammed her face and Chi slammed it closed. In her previous life, Chi could not handle alcohol well. A third of a cocktail was enough to get her tipsy. A glass of wine was okay if she had a full meal before hand, and her own cocktails mostly consists of a splash of alcohol in a cup of juice.

However based on the smell alone, this peach wine seemed to be potent stuff. Chi cursed whatever asshole had left it in the magical library in the first place. Who the hell leaves alcohol in library? The answer quickly came to her and she rolled her eyes at the stupidity of the question. Only super rich assholes have alcohol in a library.

The important question Chi should be asking herself is what should she do with this jar of wine? If she leaves it alone, the wine was going to oxidizes and turn itself into vinager or worse. Chi did not like the idea of having to deal with the smell for the rest of this eternity. Worse, there was not a sink or bathroom in this place that she could dispose the wine in.

There was only one option - Chi was going to have to drink it up. Hopefully the jar did not have the magic like the jug of water or the peaches. She shudder at the thought that she could have to drink wine for the rest of her life.

Opening the jar again, Chi looked inside of the jar while holding her breath. The inside of the jar was a beautiful jade green liquid. It was nothing like all other green liquors that she had seen before. Dipping a finger into the wine, Chi licked a drop and blinked in surprised. Despite the heavy aroma, the wine itself was quite light in taste. There was no heavily alcohol taste but a sweet flavor of white peaches with a slight mineral undertone.

Taking the bamboo cup, she slowly poured a small amount before replacing the lid to the jar. Swirling the contents of the cup, Chi admire the green wine before taking a small sip. The sip of wine was exquisite. She could barely taste the alcohol - no the alcohol seemed to make the sweetness of the white peaches to mature and evolve. The new taste reminded Chi of the first time when she tasted malt sugar. It opened her eyes to the different types of sugar besides white and brown.

She slowly finished what was left in the cup and waited for a few minutes. Taking an internal review of herself, Chi decided that she could handle this wine if she took her time about it. A good wine like this deserve to be apperciated as long as possible. Sitting down on the chair with the jar on her lap, Chi leaned back until the chair was standing on two legs, her feet on the table, and accessed her Internet cheat for something to read.

Maybe it was time to read the classics - starting with 'War and Peace.'

***

Opening her eyes, Chi blinked up in surprise because she was sure that she did not fall asleep. She was pretty sure that she did not need to sleep. Looking around, she deduced that she had fallen off the chair since she was on the floor. While she seemed to be in one piece, the wine jar had broken into pieces.

"Shit - I hope I don't have to pay for that."

"Considering that it was originally placed here without Our permission, the culprit will have to suffer in disappointment."

Shock froze her brain at hearing a voice for the first time in forever. With a quick move, she was up and staring at a tall Asian man looking down at her in amusement. He was quite good looking - he reminded her of that tall Korean-American actor who did a voice acting bit for a popular animation movie back in the early 2010s.

It was the nose. This man's nose is top quality. Chi could easily believe that all the men and women of the world would pay millions to have that nose.

Taking her eye off the nose, she noticed the clothing the man was wearing. Despite the simple hairstyle, the hairpins were top quality in gold and jade. The outer robe he was wearing was pure gold and cream brocade with a pattern embroidered to it. Simple, elegant, and clean shaven - this was a man who could stand on top of the world.

A man wearing the seal of the Emperor of Heavens on his clothes.

The faint memory of her last day in her old world slowly emerge and Chi gulped before slowly and gracefully kneeled to the ground and bowed her head.

"Am I in the presence of the great Emperor of Heaven, father to the Seventh Imperial Prince Feng Kai?"

The man who Chi now knew was the Emperor simple chuckled before moving the pieces of jar away from his person with his foot.

"Indeed, We are. Tell Us, was the wine quite good?"

That was a weird question but Chi answered.

"Quite good, I believed it aged over a thousand years before I had to drink it. The wax that sealed the jar had broken and I felt it was necessary to not let the wine go to waste."

"You speak quite oddly. Pity there is no more left. This pleases Us well enough. If the Great Sage is unable to taste this miracle wine, then We will accept the loss."

Wait a minute, was the Emperor going to put all the blame on her when this Great Sage starts to bitch about their missing wine? Shit, she had let her guard down. What was the use of reading web novels when she does not pay attention to the parts with tricky emperors? Chi really was not main character material here.

"My apologies, your imperial majesty. It has been quite some time since I have talked with another person. My dialect is that from my previous home before I was killed and sent to this library."

Her reply must have amused the Emperor greatly since he raised one eye brow in disbelief before shaking his head.

"We shall pardon you. However this place you call a library is incorrect. This place is the Forbidden Wing of the Heavenly Palace. No one should be able to access this room without Our orders or authority."

Suddenly, Chi felt like she went from the frying pan and into the fire

Whiny maid bitches, she was coming for them.