Playing Waterbending (Avatar: Last Aibender SI)

After hearing what Toph had to say about the existence of a building under the sand, the tribe of bounty hunters and their money didn't matter to me anymore. I was just a few steps away from the closure of the Hundred Year War. And the most important piece of information was about to be revealed to me.

"Let's go," I said. I didn't believe I had spared all the adults here, but I had already gained experience points from defeating them. Plus, I had taken all their money, crippled most of their legs, and beat them up badly. That should be enough to change the title I had no consideration for right now because I was a few steps away from the big revelation.

"Toph, lead the way," I said.

She pointed her finger in a direction.

"It's around seven thousand meters this way," she replied.

"Okay." I nodded and activated my power. Since I was in a hurry, I didn't summon the cloud and just carried them with me through bloodbending.

We floated in the air, and in no time, we were seven thousand meters away.

Traveling was so much faster with the ability to fly. After we landed, the girls massaged their necks. Katara seemed to be doing fine resisting the side effects of flying with bloodbending, but Toph didn't. To be fair, bloodbending myself to fly didn't cause as much distress as it did to Toph. Katara seemed fine. I guess there's something about waterbenders having higher resistance to bloodbending. If I remembered correctly, a stronger waterbender can counter a strong bloodbender despite not having control over their body.

"You could have used a cloud," Toph grumbled as her feet landed on the ground. She walked a few meters left and right until she regained her mobility.

"Sorry about that," I said.

Toph stomped and spread her arms wide. A line spread from her feet and extended across the sand. From the line, the sand parted in two different directions, revealing a pathway leading to an entrance.

"Though, I wonder, how did you ever know about this place?" Toph asked. Now that she knew I'm from the South Pole and had only been here for a couple of months, it made sense to wonder.

"I saw people talking about it," I replied honestly. After all, I had seen people in the cartoon talking about it.

"You're very honest," she said. "And very lucky. To hear about a place you need to find as soon as you get here."

"Hahaha… I'm so lucky," I replied, laughing. Then, a serious expression took over my face. I walked with sturdy steps, the girls following behind me.

I instructed Katara, "Hold Toph's hand, in case there's a slip and we fall."

"Alright." Katara sighed and extended her hand.

Toph rolled her eyes. "Don't think I'm a helpless blind woman. It's just in case it's a trap, so that's your responsibility since I'm being dragged by you guys."

Katara chuckled. "Sure."

Toph held Katara's hand.

I entered through the door, and all of a sudden, I found myself falling inside a large library.

And by large, I didn't mean your typical large library. I could tell it was the size of a town—no, a city. With building-sized shelves that were stories high and wide. Books filled them, and bridges could be spotted everywhere.

'The fall itself isn't dangerous…' I thought as I decided to test the fall damage.

Wan Shi Tong's library didn't exist in the physical world, but in the spirit realm. It was one of the locations that linked the material world with the spiritual one.

As I landed on my feet, I didn't feel much pain. The fall didn't inflict as much damage as I had expected.

Soon, I was followed by Katara and Toph. I could hear their screams as they plummeted.

I extended my hands to the left and right, boosting my physical strength with Chi.

The girls landed in my arms, princess-style, both of them holding each other's hand.

Seeing how Katara had a fearful, shocked expression on her face, I chuckled a bit. She heaved a sigh of relief.

On the other hand, the most scared—or frightened—one was Toph.

I guess she didn't have much experience falling from great heights while being "blind" all of a sudden.

To me, she wasn't really blind. After all, her brain's visual parts could use the vibrations from the ground to work. So falling like this must be terrifying.

"That was surprising." Toph clung to me like a scared cat and hugged me, her arms around my neck.

I felt quite uncomfortable with the strength of the hug, and I accidentally sniffed her neck, which smelled nice.

Luckily, I had bloodbending to prevent things from getting… awkward.

"Okay. I think we're done. And leave the talking to me." I lowered my arms and put them down.

The sound of wings flapping echoed.

I turned my head to see a large humanoid owl landing in front of us, with an imposing height of three meters.

The owl was black with a white face, and it looked majestic.

"Visitors… we no longer welcome humans in this library," the owl said.

Katara flinched and kept looking up. "It can talk."

"Who are you?" Toph asked, tilting her head.

It was their first time seeing a spirit.

Well, it was my first time too… but I was more prepared than them.

"I am Wan Shi Tong, he who knows ten thousand things," said the owl.

"He's the spirit of knowledge," I clarified.

"You seem to be knowledgeable," he said. "I've seen that you set that little trap for my foxes."

"Oh…" I tilted my head. "So, it was you who assisted the sandbenders who tried to capture me."

"I had a deal with them, to protect the location of my library against strangers. When they heard about someone asking about my building and my foxes, I tasked them to stop you," he said. "But it seems they did a bad job."

"Is it that bad to seek knowledge?" I asked him.

Wan Shi Tong was a spirit who was sick of humanity's destructive nature.

What's worse was that General Zhao burned the section of the library that contained information about the Fire Nation's military.

"Is it that good to destroy and kill your fellow humans?" he asked.

"Do you think I need knowledge to defeat them?" I said. "What do you think happened to the sandbenders?"

The owl paused.

He turned his head and produced some sound I couldn't understand.

A fox ran toward him and whispered something.

"Under fifty seconds, you say?" he repeated after his fox.

"I know, I am very strong, and knowing something more has nothing to do with the outcomes of the fights I'll have." I said proudly.

The owl turned to me and deadpanned. "Seems your humbleness is your brightest feature."

"I'm that awesome," I replied confidently.

Why wouldn't I be proud of what I achieved anyway?

I had risked my life over and over to get it.

"Very well," Wan Shi Tong said. "What can you offer to enter my library?"

"I can make you Wan Shi Tong, he who knows more than ten thousand things," I challenged.

The owl tilted his head. "Do you think you're funny?"

"Haven't you read the books your little minion stole?" I smiled. "I wrote them."

The owl made that weird sound again. It seemed like some kind of secret language.

The fox left and came back with a book that the owl started reading. With each page he flipped, his eyes widened.

"This… This… How do you know this!" he asked, eyes wide open. "It's my first time seeing something like this. The examples proves it work…"

I mean, with no Pythagoras in this world, there's no way they'd know about the Pythagorean theorem.

Not to mention, I had made a book full of examples and problems.

He read another book.

"The Sin and Cosine… How to measure a mountain with a pencil," he repeated while skimming.

"I can even teach you how to calculate the diameter of this planet," I said as I crossed my arms.

It was useless mathematical knowledge for me anyway. But for scholars, it was a gold mine.

The owl gave me a look that only a crazy fangirl would give an idol.