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The library's directory shelves were twelve in number, each with ten tiers, and each tier held about 150 books. These books were records of the library's organization, the classification of each bookshelf, and the titles of the books within each category, making it convenient for readers to quickly find books of interest.
In total, there were over 18,000 such directory books.
"The wisdom of the ancients!"
Tang San marveled as he searched for categories that piqued his interest. With so many books, it was impossible to read them all at once. Even with his powerful spiritual force, it would take hundreds of years to finish them.
Of course, if he just skimmed through and used his spiritual power to copy the contents, it wouldn't take long—three days at most. However, Tang San knew that if he did that, he wouldn't be able to focus on anything else. Digesting all these books would be overwhelming.
"Come to think of it, the script of Douluo Continent hasn't changed much," Tang San suddenly realized.
How old was this Golden Civilization?
It was unknown.
According to Tang San's estimation, it was at least tens of thousands of years old. As for the Golden Ancient Tree, although it was now under Tang San's control, its exact age was unclear. For it to have grown this large, it likely took millions of years, possibly even billions.
Yet, the script of Douluo Continent hadn't changed. The characters used on the continent were nearly identical to those in the books here. There were slight differences in stroke structure, but overall, literacy in the continent allowed for easy reading of these ancient texts, with only a few specific terms requiring additional understanding.
From this perspective, the Golden Civilization hadn't truly perished. The people of Douluo Continent were its descendants.
When assessing whether a civilization has vanished, it's not just about technology or lineage but culture. Modern people had inherited the script and some everyday soul guides.
However, their mindset lagged far behind that of the Golden Civilization.
Returning to his task, Tang San searched the historical directory for the Golden Civilization and headed to the history shelves. Seeing the vast expanse of history books, he felt a bit overwhelmed. Using his spiritual power to scan quickly, he found a book titled "An Overview of the Golden Civilization's Development."
[In the Golden Calendar, 30,000 years ago, constant wars between nations finally led to the unification under the Soul Dou Empire, which spanned all habitable areas of the continent.
However, the Soul Dou Empire collapsed in its second generation.
The unification happened too quickly, with both internal and external strife unresolved. The second emperor was reckless, leading to ministerial rebellion. The governing policies remained unchanged, and uprisings, fueled by the remnants of conquered nations, led to the empire's downfall after just 52 years.
Nevertheless, the first emperor's contributions in unifying script and measurements and building roads were significant.]
Reading this section, which mirrored the Qin Empire's unification in his previous life, Tang San speculated that subsequent sections would describe various empires rising and falling, continuing the cycle of unification and division.
Indeed, as Tang San guessed, after the collapse of the Soul Dou Empire, notable figures and imperial dynasties emerged one after another, perpetually "renewing" but maintaining the core essence of governance: controlling the populace.
It wasn't until the Golden Calendar, 29,000 years ago, that soul guides were developed, giving ordinary people a means to resist powerful soul masters. This led to the formation of the "Golden Society," which rose with the slogan: "The common people are the true masters of this land. They are the brightest gold, while the nobility are mere parasites. The era of soul masters wielding power through their martial souls is coming to an end!"
This "coming to an end" lasted nearly a thousand years.
During this thousand-year period, countless individuals relentlessly pursued the research and development of soul tools in secret, resulting in the creation of Golden City, a place exclusively inhabited by ordinary people (those with soul power below level ten). They relied on their ingenuity and constant innovation to advance their technology.
Initially, the soul masters, filled with arrogance, dismissed Golden City, refusing to engage with it. This changed when Golden City invented a soul tool powerful enough to threaten even Titled Douluo above level ninety-five. The city then issued the "Golden Declaration" to all nations, demanding that all people be treated as equals, banning slavery, and abolishing the special privileges of soul masters.
The nations scoffed at this demand, but then—
Golden City declared war on the entire continent, aiming to liberate the common people and grant them human rights.
The major kingdoms initially paid little attention. However, they were soon shocked to discover the overwhelming power of Golden City's soul tools. These weapons, with the mere pull of a trigger, emitted a crimson beam capable of penetrating the defenses of a Titled Douluo.
With such crushing power, Golden City rapidly grew, eventually establishing the Golden Empire.
In the first year of the Golden Calendar, the Golden Empire was founded, governed entirely by ordinary people. Soul masters had to adhere to new laws, losing all their former privileges.
Naturally, the soul masters were unwilling to accept this. They conspired in secret to overthrow the Golden Empire's leaders, unaware that their every move was being monitored by the Empire's reconnaissance soul tools.
In the second year of the Golden Calendar, the Empire deemed soul masters as inherent threats and ordered the arrest of all soul masters across the continent for research purposes. From then on, soul masters became pariahs, and the advanced soul tool research of the Empire thrived, using these captured soul masters as test subjects, contributing "significantly" to the field.
By the 120th year of the Golden Calendar, the Empire lifted the arrest warrant on soul masters. Officially, no soul masters could be found, and the Empire began to research martial soul cultivation.
By the 200th year of the Golden Calendar, the Empire had delved deeply into the study of martial souls, realizing that martial souls possessed a certain spirituality. They discovered that everyone could have innate full soul power, but due to varying growth environments, the compatibility between a person and their martial soul differed.
By the 400th year of the Golden Calendar, the Empire recognized the importance of personality and mental state, leading to extensive psychological research and enhancing the quality of education for all citizens.
By the 1600th year of the Golden Calendar, every individual who awakened their martial soul had innate soul power. Those with zero innate soul power were extremely rare.
By the 3000th year of the Golden Calendar, the Empire had nearly ten thousand Titled Douluo. However, this led to a dramatic decrease in the number of soul beasts, prompting the representative of the soul beast clan, known as the Dragon God, to challenge the Golden Civilization.
"Dragon God!" Tang San's eyes gleamed as he thought, "It seems the Golden Civilization existed even longer than I imagined, having even battled the Dragon God."
Finding that he still had about two-thirds of the content left to read, Tang San already surmised the outcome of this challenge: the Dragon God lost to the Golden Civilization.
Indeed, as Tang San had anticipated—
In the 3001st year of the Golden Calendar, the soul beast clan was defeated. The Dragon God sought peace, but as the loser, he had no right to make demands. Due to the difficulty of killing the Dragon God, the Empire used a space-type offensive soul tool to banish him to the void of space beyond the continent.