The Dawn of the New World

The chair swooped in faster than Hao Xuan could react but once he was in there, a calm fell over him and most of his negative emotions were washed away in the blink of an eye.

Hao Xuan closed his eyes and allowed the strange feeling to take over...not that he had much choice since it didn't even allow him to gather thoughts of resistance in the first place.

His body relaxed while a rain of ethereal energy doused him from the inside out as he cruised around just a few feet above the floor.

"This is...amazing...I feel like my soul is being washed clean. Never have I come across such a sensation before..." he couldn't help but murmur in amazement.

Lord Jyothi smiled to himself while inspecting the chains.

"I wish I could say that I meant to create such a 'marvelous' treasure but the truth is, it was an accident. One of the other Lords personally asked me to create a torture device that could make anyone who sat in it speak the truth and let out their deepest darkest desires. Unfortunately- or fortunately should I say, it was a monumental failure."

"I ended up with a sentient piece of furniture that thrives on consuming negative emotions. It is mischievous and next to impossible to control properly since it has its own mind but, I guess for times like this it is not too bad to have arou-" he turned to see surprised Hao Xuan's expression, and that he did.

Only his face was upside down and his hair dragged along the floor mopping up the dust and debris. The chair was merrily sweeping the dust in a corner while Hao Xuan was completely oblivious to the event.

Lord Jyothi's eyes turned bloodshot, threatening to pop out of his skull as he held back the incontestable urge to take the chair apart one splinter at a time. But he couldn't call out its antics and let that disgrace be passed down to the new Champion of the Sect of Darkness.

*Cough*Cough*

He quickly cleared his throat and threw out some books and manuals on the table next to him, "M-My lord, why don't you browse some wares and learn a few things about the Sanctum in the meantime?"

"Sure, if that won't be too much trouble," Hao Xuan happily obliged, he had no reason not to since he was feeling so good and it would be foolish to forgo an opportunity to get free information.

As soon as he made up his mind the chair flipped back around and rushed him over to the table. It was like throwing the feed out to call over some cattle and worked just as well.

Hao Xuan didn't even have to communicate verbally but the chair understood what he wanted and made it happen on its own. And if that wasn't enough, he could feel these barely discernable vibrations throughout his back and legs that relaxed his muscles and promoted healing.

"Hmm, impressive," he complimented its intelligence before picking up one of the dozens of books available.

The book had a rather simple blue cover with a drawing of a sword. Opening it up he could see a glossary at the very first page. There were 12 main categories ranging from axes, swords, and maces all the way to hammers, spears, and gloves.

Each main category had at least 10 subcategories containing everything from simple basic weapon variants to the extremely rare and exotic ones.

He flipped over to the sword section to go down the list of the most popular weapons in each subcategory.

The first and simplest one was a broadsword. It looked quite ordinary and there weren't too many details mentioned other than the weight, dimensions, price, and something called the 'enchantment' level.

Hao Xuan's eyes were immediately pulled towards the price section that held the number 83,000 in big bold letters.

His brow began to furrow a moment later because even after flipping through several other swords there was no mention of a currency.

'What is this about? Is it 83,000 souls? Blood crystals? Spirit crystals?' his mind could only come up with the most negative forms of monetary exchange considering where he was but he still decided to ask about it.

"Excuse me, Lord Jyothi. I am quite new to the inner workings of the sanctum, is there an introductory guide I could see that gives a quick explanation of some of the more basic things here?"

"Yes, of course, it's the book to your right with the brown cover," he replied without even looking up from the table.

Hao Xuan picked up the said book but was surprised to find out that it weighed a lot more than he expected. He pulled it open and came across another glossary but this one was actively being edited and adjusted in front of his eyes.

It was a living magic book.

Names and titles of people could be seen getting revised every few seconds but the other more basic stuff was unchanging, save for a number at the very top that kept fluctuating constantly.