With Kagetsu still comfortably settled around his neck, Ethan walked into one of the Domes, the Dome of Energy.
"How is everything, Syn? Has anything changed while I was away?" Ethan asked.
The spirit of the Dancing Library, Syn, communicated through the mirror, its answer appearing as words across the reflective surface.
{Everything has been fine, Master.}
{The shield has been holding strong, preventing any Shadow Essence from entering.}
{As far as I can sense, there have been no changes outside the dome shield either.}
"What about the corpses, the eggs, the energy crystals, the herbs, and the energy gates?" Ethan asked as he walked through the automatically opening doors.
{The Eggs' status remains stable.}
{The Corpses' status remains stable.}
{The Energy Crystals' status remains stable.}
{The Energy Gates' status remains stable.}
{The Herbs' status remains stable.}
"That's good," Ethan nodded.
"Is there anything that requires immediate attention?"
{Not as of now, Master, but I will notify you as soon as anything arises.}
Except for the Shield Dome, which acted as protection from outside elements, the five domes inside were all hemispherical in shape and built upon the ground.
Each dome had five floors, with each floor containing dozens of spacious rooms.
The Dome of Home was where the necessities for living were stored, including multiple bedrooms of royal quality with attached bathrooms, a vast kitchen, and all the accessories needed for a comfortable and easy life.
The Dome of Resources, as the name suggested, was where Ethan stored his wealth of materials, such as energy crystals of dozens of different types, his collection of spiritual weapons, cultivated herbs, pills, potions, spiritual fruits, vegetables, and every other resource imaginable.
The Dome of the Library was the first dome created within the Dancing Library, after which the entire structure was named.
As its name implied, it held over 350 million books, research materials, scrolls, and documents Ethan had collected over his lifetime across 103 worlds.
The Dome of Nature was home to tens of thousands of herbs, each one useful for cultivation or grown for reasons Ethan deemed important.
The Dome of Energy, however, was perhaps the most crucial of them all. It was the very heart that powered the entire Dancing Library.
Hundreds of small gates connected it to different worlds, channeling the natural energies of those realms into the library.
Ethan had established a mechanism to gather and store that energy, ensuring everything within the Dancing Library remained sustained and alive.
Entering the Dome of Energy, Ethan found himself in a straight hallway.
On either side were dozens of rooms, but he didn't bother with them.
Instead, he walked deeper down the hallway until he reached the central chamber of the Dome of Energy.
This central chamber was the largest room in the entire dome.
Each room within the Dome of Energy was unique and important, for every room contained open gates that formed pathways to different worlds and specific locations within them.
These gates drew in a distinct type of energy into their respective rooms, which were specially designed to gather and process that energy.
The central hall of the Dome of Energy, however, was built to allow all these different types of energy to converge and gather optimally, without interfering with one another.
It was the perfect place for cultivation, though not for Ethan right now, since he had yet to integrate Qi energy into this place.
"This should be the best place to unseal that ability I possess," Ethan sighed, sitting cross-legged at the center.
Kagetsu, understanding the routine, leapt from his shoulder and curled up on a nearby bed, hugging herself as she watched her master.
"Kagetsu, if you see anything bad happen while I'm using this ability, take me somewhere far away from any human presence," Ethan said, glancing at her.
"Mrr…" Kagetsu made a small sound of acknowledgment in response.
"I can always count on you." Ethan smiled softly, then closed his eyes and began to meditate.
Within seconds, his consciousness slipped into his inner world, where he stood before an ancient metallic tome bound in intricate golden and black chains.
"Now, you…" Ethan placed his hand on the tome and began to concentrate. The Qi inside him started to flow outward.
At first, it felt normal, but after only a few seconds, the ancient tome began to emit a golden light, and suddenly, it pulled out all the energy within him.
"This is too much," Ethan gritted his teeth.
Within moments, all his Qi reserves were completely drained, and he pulled his hand away.
But the golden light from the tome did not stop; it grew even brighter, to the point that it blinded him.
Outside, Kagetsu never took her large, round eyes off her master.
She didn't believe he would fail or that he would be hurt, but she stayed alert nonetheless, ready to act if needed.
Then, she saw a faint golden light surrounding him.
It lasted for a few seconds before suddenly bursting outward, flooding the entire hall in a radiant shower of golden light, with Ethan at its center.
"Mu…" Kagetsu tensed, ready to intervene.
But she sensed no pain or distress from her master, and the light itself didn't seem harmful.
Still, her shadowy form grew larger, several feet tall now, taking on the shape of a true shadow dragon as she stood guard.
Soon, the golden light faded away completely, leaving Ethan exhausted, sweat glistening on his forehead.
A system prompt appeared.
[You have unlocked the unique Ability: Codex of Creation]
"Codex of Creation?" Ethan glanced at the system prompt as he caught his breath.
As soon as he said the name of his ability, his figure glowed with a golden light.
The light shot out from him, taking the shape of a tome with a golden-black metallic design.
It floated before him, radiating a faint divine golden glow, but this time it wasn't bound by chains anymore.
A feminine voice resounded from the ancient tome, the Codex of Creation.
"Wait, what?" Ethan's face turned confused.
"What are you?" he asked, trying to get a hold of his thoughts, which were slipping away in confusion.
"Back up a little bit… What exactly is the Codex of Creation, and why is it in my hands?" Ethan asked calmly.
"Okay… um… okay." Ethan closed his eyes, thinking hard.
For someone so experienced, he wasn't overly concerned.
Mostly because the system had assigned the Codex of Creation as his ability, and abilities were always under the control of their owner.
More than that, Ethan could clearly feel that he had complete control over the Codex of Creation.
He just didn't know anything about it, and for some reason, he was beginning to suspect that it might be responsible for his transmigration to new worlds.
"Then tell me, who is this powerful existence you speak of?" Ethan asked.
"Please don't tell me it's the Codex that's been creating a new body for my soul every time I die and making me wake up in a new world," Ethan sighed, though he already knew the answer.
"Explain it to me," Ethan demanded.
"Well, that explains why every time I open my eyes in a new world, I'm around the age of sixteen or seventeen. It's considered the ideal age to start a cultivation path." Ethan finally understood the greatest mystery that had haunted his mind for thousands of years.
To think that the thing responsible for it all had been hiding inside him the entire time.