Oh. My. Fate?! (BL, Volume 12, Part 2)

279 An Almost Finished Project

Back in the Nine Heavens, Qiu Ling quietly listened to An Bai's latest report. That group of half-bloods under his lead had — together with the people from the Court of Justice — managed to go through all the relevant materials in the Tower of Wisdom. Now, all that was left was to compile the information for future reference.

Qiu Ling nodded and then couldn't help but sigh right after. "It's been a long time since you've started working on this project." Yes, it had indeed been long ago. This had started during Jing He's trial and now ... that had already ended several months ago. Even a place as big as the Tower of Wisdom could be combed through down to the very last page in those thick volumes if they just worked diligently. It was a pity that some other things weren't that ... easy to deal with.

An Bai could imagine what was going through his king's mind but right now certainly wasn't the right moment to discuss that. "Compiling the information will take time but having more hands or eyes won't necessarily speed the task up. On the contrary, the more people work on it, the more easily information might be lost or included twice in the final book. It's best to have a set group to work on this who will look through everything carefully even if it is slower."

Qiu Ling inclined his head. "Have you decided who is going to be responsible for this?"

An Bai inclined his head once again. "There are a few of the half-bloods who have turned out quite gifted in this regard. Chances are, they might continue similar studies after this so I'd like to give them the chance. There are only a handful of them and whether they'd be interested in this is still a question I'd like to ask them personally."

"Mn, I agree. Matters over in the dragon realm are slowly coming along as well so they might be more interested in working on that. I believe it should be up to everyone else. Also, the Nine Heavens' Court of Justice should naturally have people who are already well-versed in this task. We might even leave it to them if nobody among the half-bloods wants to."

At the side, the Heavenly Emperor scoffed.

Qiu Ling didn't even bother about him. This guy didn't have many opportunities to legitimately complain about any of his decisions so he should let him have this. If he wanted to think that the people of the dragon realm were just that willful, then ... well, he could be his guest.

An Bai lowered his gaze, putting his king's example in his eyes and not saying anything about it either. Instead, he focused on the question at hand. "The Court of Justice certainly does but they have a lot of cases to work on and we've kept them busy long enough. I've spoken to senior official Yi Yun to get a rough idea of his subsequent plans and he mentioned that it might be possible to just have one or two people from the Court of Justice in the team and otherwise use the clerks from the Tower of Wisdom itself. When it comes to compiling information, their skills aren't low either."

In fact, it might be wrong to compare their skills this way. Both were able to do this task well enough. The difference was in the type of information they would usually deal with: The officials looked up information for their cases so whatever background information was needed, they would scour the books for them and finally write out a summary with the most important points and interrelations.

On the other hand, the clerks were doing research into topics for the sake of gaining new knowledge. They would also look through the information they already had on hand but they would especially look at what was still missing and needed to be filled in. They might even find contradicting information and would then go on to clarify which was right and which was wrong, adding to the knowledge available in the Nine Heavens.

They were actual scholars so this kind of task that needed them to look through already gathered information and make sense of it was almost too easy for them. Of course, they each had their own areas of expertise and none of them were likely to be related to the current project so they would be interrupting their usual tasks for something they had to newly get invested in. But then ... that might not be too bad. It might be the beginning of even deeper research in the future. He'd certainly welcome that.

Originally, Qiu Ling might not have been as up-to-date on the different palaces of the Nine Heavens as An Bai but after pursuing Jing He for ten years, then living here for a while with Jing Yi during the trial, and finally coming back to wait for Jing He's return from the High Heavens, he had definitely gained the missing knowledge. So hearing An Bai's suggestion, he knew why this might not be such a bad idea.

"He isn't wrong. In fact, I am in favor of this. The two of you should discuss the maximum number of people you want in the team based on the amount of information you have, then choose the ones from the Court of Justice and our people who are suitable for and willing to do the task. However many people you are missing, they should come from the Tower of Wisdom."

"I will do so." An Bai nodded but then hesitated for a moment. "This ... after this is done, what about the others?"

Qiu Ling raised a brow. "They should return home, shouldn't they? I mean, home to the dragon realm."

"Mn, but ... just like this?" He looked at Qiu Ling questioningly.

"Well ..." Qiu Ling wasn't entirely sure what An Bai meant. Most likely ... "I should talk to them first. As I've said, it was a long project and according to your reports, they did a good job. That ought to be recognized."

An Bai smiled and inclined his head. "Yes, Your Majesty. When would you like to do so?"

Qiu Ling tapped the table and finally got up. "Honestly, let's go right now. We can figure out who wants to stay at the same time. It's a good opportunity."