The group headed towards the manuals library; Seph was looking forward to seeing which manuals he could get. He was also looking forward to shoring up his weaknesses.
Kafka was quiet after the initial meeting; he was back to his quiet self from the tournament. He stroked his cat as he was looking straight ahead, yet he was still aware of every person they passed by.
He didn’t trust the older disciples of this sect, which only pushed him to open up and trust in his peers from the legacy trials more.
Seph asked him just to have a conversation going, “Where else will you take us after the manuals library?”
Kafka responded in a low voice. “After this, there is only the training courtyard, but you better visit the courtyard in the morning; seeing it now won’t be the same experience. It’s very busy early in the mornings only where everybody trains, and there are martial art instructors that teach people the right way to strike, dodge, footwork, and the right stance and so on.”
Seph thought for a second and then said, “I think I need something more instant than learning footwork for months. Do you think there are footwork manuals to give me a fast-dodging skill or something?”
Kafka responded absentmindedly, “Yeah, there is actually, there is something for everything, the only issue is to get permission to access these manuals.”
Lilith got confused and asked, “Permissions?”
“Yes, it’s not open to everyone since some manuals are limited to one use per year, and so on. They don’t have many repeatable manuals over there, mostly time-locked manuals.” Kafka stopped for a second and then continued, “But it’s better you learn that from the librarian, learn the system, and see what you would like to do.”
Lilith whispered to Seph, “My father never withheld anything from his followers like that; this sect is a mess.”
Seph nodded to her in agreement and said, “We will work to make it a better place; I’ll strive to rise in the ranks to the point of changing the rules. Or maybe all they need is more manuals, which we could hopefully find somewhere out there in the world.”
Lilith wasn’t pleased that they as the newbies would need to be the catalyst of change, but she nodded anyway, she thought they should do more, that the lazy elder and his core disciples should go out there and risk their lives to make that sect better, like she and Seph intended to do.
They reached the manuals library, and the entrance was a dead giveaway of what this place was.
On both sides of the closed double door, there was a big scroll hanging on each side.
The scrolls had a different message of wisdom on each of them.
One said A book is like a garden carried in the pocket.
While the other said, Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere.
On top of the library, there was a sign that had these words, Libraries are arsenals of liberty.
Seph liked the first quote but wondered about the last; he absentmindedly repeated them. “Libraries are arsenals of liberty? It feels like we are going to war.”
Lilith said, “I actually like it, this library’s most important use should be to provide us with weapons to use against our enemies, not knowledge that we will glean from its books, but literal skills that could be the difference between life and death in a combat situation.”
Seph hummed, and said, “Yeah, you are right, I am just used to the life of a peaceful scholar, all this cultivation world hostility is very new to me, but I have you unless you are planning to leave our group soon?” He let his doubts out of his anxious mind by uttering that last question.
Lilith also had her doubts; she was never friends with anyone the same as him, so she asked, as she was extremely surprised, “I am not going anywhere, are you trying to get rid of me?”
Seph waved both hands in denial and said, “No, no, I was honestly just worried that after we reached this big sect, you would rather hang with different people or something, stronger, more knowledgeable.”
Lilith puffed her cheeks in anger and chastised him. “You moron, you worried me. No, I am not going anywhere; you are not getting rid of me or shirking your promise to me that easily. We are married now.”
Seph’s mouth dropped, and he tried to form any words as he said, “M...M... Married?”
By the time he had said the word Lilith had already left him and entered the library.
Seph shouted, “Hey, stop saying shocking things and then walking away like that, wait for me!” Sun was laughing at his master as he also jumped down from his shoulder and ran into the library.
Seph sighed and said, “Not you too, Sun.”
He ran after both of them into the library; Lilith had opened the door, which was a traditional door that she opened by pulling one part of it to the side.
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Inside the library, there were shelves as far as the eye could see; the building looked huge from the outside, and it looked even bigger from the inside.
Seph was worried though, as he noticed that all the shelves were filled with books and there was not a single manual anywhere.
Next to the door there was a long counter, which was also tall and reached Seph’s chest; they couldn’t see who was behind it from where they stood, so they got closer.
Behind the disk sat an old black man, with spectacles on his eyes that were made of copper. His hair was black and curly but short, and he was so engrossed with the book he was reading he didn’t even feel the ruckus that the newcomers made.
Seph cleared his throat loudly to get the attention of the man, who looked up slowly from his book at Seph’s face, and Sun on his shoulders, and then scanned Lilith and the dragon on her head.
The old man asked quietly, “Is that a dragon?”
“Yes,” Lilith said as Baby yawned lazily on her head and released a puff of smoke from her mouth.
“I am sorry, but I am afraid that’s not allowed. The dragon has to stay outside, as it’s obviously capable of releasing fire. Fire hazards aren’t allowed in the library.”
Lilith tried to object by saying, “But she won’t do...”
The old man interrupted her and said, “This is not up for debate, young woman. Please escort her outside.”
This annoyed Lilith very much, but she resigned to following his orders and left the library and gave Baby to Kafka, saying, “Please, take care of her; we won’t be long.”
Baby immediately objected once she realized what was happening, and squirmed out of Kafka’s hands, not giving him a chance to answer Lilith.
Lilith looked sad but serious as she said, “Baby, please listen to me. Stay with this man for a few minutes; we will be out before you know it.”
Baby stubbornly continued to squirm and released angry puffs of smoke from her mouth; she understood her mistress to some extent but not to the uncanny level of Sun’s understanding of human speech.
Lilith crossed her hands on her chest and said, “Baby, stop this now, listen, I can’t go inside with you. Do you want me to stay out here and miss out on whatever Seph is learning in there?”
Baby noticed how angry her mistress became and stopped squirming but let out an angry puff of fire that went upwards from her mouth. Kafka tilted his head back dramatically in fear of getting burned.
Lilith apologized to him. “I am very sorry to put you in this situation, but I’ll be back quickly.”
Kafka replied, “You don’t have to worry, I’ll take care of her.”
Lilith went back inside and found that Seph was waiting for her so that they could both learn the same things at the same time.
The librarian welcomed her back with a smile, “Welcome back my name is Neil, I am sorry about earlier, but these books are more important than any disciple outer or inner or otherwise, they are even more important than me and I am the highest cultivated member in this sect right after the elder.”
Lilith bowed slightly, and said, “It’s okay, thank you for explaining it earlier quietly.”
Old man Neil continued, “I’ll assume you are new disciples that somehow missed the tour, I honestly don’t get out of here, so I don’t know a lot about what happens outside, and between you and me; I don’t care.”
Seph nodded eagerly. “Yes, we are. We want to know about this library and how we could get access to the manuals, if there are any manuals?” Seph ended as he looked around again, completely dumbfounded that there wasn’t a single manual around.
Neil laughed and said, “Okay, let me explain the system here; the first floor, which is where we are at, has all the normal books, where you can glean knowledge about the world of cultivation. We call them normal even though they are anything but. You don’t find these books outside with the public. The knowledge they contain isn’t common knowledge, but they aren’t manuals. This floor is available to all, as long as you will read within the library’s confines.”
Seph nodded excitedly, feeling like they were closing in on the meat of the subject.
Neil continued, “The second floor contains all the body dismantling stage manuals that we have in the sect, but you need to have sect contribution in order to get in there and choose something you could use.”
Lilith asked, “And how do we get this sect contribution?”
Neil felt that his earlier assumption was correct since they don’t even know about the sect’s contribution system. “The bounty board near the courtyard has all the posting that provide you with sect contribution, be sure to check it out.”
The duo nodded and looked a little disappointed since they thought he would tell them more.
Neil continued, “With sect contribution, you could literally get any service provided by the myriad buildings inside the sect for free.”
Seph asked fast, “Even commissioning the making of new gear?”
Neil nodded, and Seph immediately face-palmed, as he thought he could have saved his precious spirit stones and didn’t use them to commission the new gear.
Neil smirked, and said, “The third floor of the library has all the death establishment manuals, we have a nice collection, so we got you covered there too, and the fourth floor of the library we have core creation manuals, but admittedly they are few. We increase them though each once in a while when I or the elder venture outside in search of new gains for ourselves and the sect.”
Seph asked, “Can’t we pay you spirit stones like we paid the armorer and get access to body dismantling manuals?”
Neil shook his head, “I am afraid that’s not possible, we had to make one of our services based on sect contribution only, that way we get help from the disciples to take care of the sect, or else there would be no incentive for anyone to help the sect with anything at all.”
Seph nodded, and looked to Lilith, she understood him, and they both bowed slightly respectfully to the librarian as Seph said, “Thank you very much for this valuable information, we have to go now, but we will come back later once we have sect contribution.”
Neil was surprised as he asked, “What about the books? Won’t you borrow any of them?”
Seph said, “I have too many books already that I need to read; once I delve deeper into them, I might come see what you have that I don’t already own.”
Neil exclaimed, “You have that many books? I have a listing on the bounty board asking for any books the library doesn’t have. Do you want to let any of them go for contribution?”
Seph pursed his lips and then said, “Naah, I need to sort my books first and see if there are any I won’t be reading, then I will come to you with them.”
Neil said under his breath, “What a wasted opportunity. I wonder if he has books I’ve never heard of before.”
The duo left, and the librarian got up and walked between the shelves, he passed by a section that had a sign that said “Conventional Alchemy” he passed it by to another section that had a similar sign that said, “Yin Alchemy” he then reached a long wall that had two signs in the middle one said, “Qi Cultivation” the other side “Yin cultivation” he choose a book from the yin cultivation shelf, and sat on a nearby table to read.
There weren’t many disciples who came to him at this time of the day anyway, and he could finally relax and delve deeper into the unknowns of the world of cultivation.
