I spent 4 days going and coming back from Camp Yi by carriage.
Now, I only had 10 days left to use the library. The second I reached the city gates, I ran from there to Lady Vespara's house without stopping. I didn't even stop to clean myself.
The carriageman refused to go past the gate.
When I reached the guard let me in slowly, chuckling to himself. The butler wasn't outside waiting this time. I met him as I walked through the halls of the mansion.
The moment he saw me, veins thickened around his neck, and his eyes bulged wide. I was sure that if I were his servant, he would have beaten me.
"Where have you been, hunter?" He gave me no time to speak as he vaulted into another question, "Do you know how angry? How anxious my Lady has been? Were you trying to shirk your duties? Hmm?"
He angled his right hand like it was a spiked club. I chose my words carefully. "I had to speak to General Tie Bei. Wan Cheng sent me to him." The butler quieted down at that. Still visibly shaking, but not willing to push the matter any further.
"Hmmph! Come with me inside, my Lady will be there. Tell her your excuse."
I followed along with him to Lady Vespara's throne room. Not sure what would happen to me.
We didn't even knock or bow when we approached, the butler just threw me at her feet and closed the door behind himself.
Immediately, the noble lady shrieked, it was like long, filthy nails scratching against the wood of her armchair. When I looked up, I noticed that was exactly what she was doing. There was nothing besides her, so she took off a piece of her jewelry. A ring, and threw it at me.
I dodged, but she didn't seem to notice, immediately pulling another one from the repertoire on her fingers. "You ungrateful peon! You dare to come late? Four days late? Do you not grasp the distance between the earth and the skies?"
She threw her next weapon at me. "Do you think I wait on insects?"
My head was bowed low, and the safe option seemed to be not to respond.
"Speak!"
"My lady Vespara," I began, trying to think of something flattering to weave into my explanation, "I had to go on an errand for—"
"An errand?" She looked around for something else to throw, her voice had gotten more and more high-pitched the more she spoke, "Errands?" She hurled another ring at me, "Knowing you have dealings with me?"
I bowed my head so she wouldn't see my eyes or the lack of fear in them, "My lady, it was for Wan Cheng."
The box she was about to throw fell to her feet, and she froze. Slowly, she put herself back together, glaring at me as if I had gone up personally and wounded her, "So?" She got up from her throne, and took slow, echoing steps towards me, "Is that supposed to ward me off, boy?"
I didn't answer.
The Lady Vespara stopped right in front of me, "The next time you fail me, peasant, I'll have my guards drag you and that foolish tanner to the whipping posts, and have the city watch as my dogs tear you apart. "
She paused, "Understand?"
I nodded, "Of course, my lady."
"I will not extend your time. You only have ten days left to use my library. Raise your head." And I looked up at her, "You will get two hours, only, every day to access my library."
My eyes widened at that, and she revealed a satisfied smirk when she noticed, "Leave here, the butler will show you who you must speak to."
The butler led me outside, where a short servant lady stood waiting.
"Please follow me."
The butler tapped her on the shoulder before she led me away, "Make sure he never stays more than two hours. He has the next ten days."
She performed a small curtsy in acknowledgement and turned around, expecting me to follow.
The moment she noticed the butler wasn't nearby anymore, she flung off all pretense, and brought herself up to her full height, not even bothering to acknowledge me as she went forward.
At the entrance to the library, was the only time she deigned to speak to me again, "Listen here, boy." The servant got up on a stool, only to come up to my neck, and wagged her finger at me, with her left hand on her hips. "If anything goes missing, my Lady will have your whole arm. You understand?"
I was having a hard time getting over the absurdity of the situation. Nothing about the servant girl was intimidating, but I didn't want to cause any more trouble than necessary. "Yes, ma'am."
"Good, nothing goes missing and put everything back where you found it," she shooed me in, "The books on the animal you are looking for are on the table over there," she pointed her chin to the left at a desk by a large, mahogany-framed window.
"If you think you need any more information, you are allowed to go through the library searching for it. Do not even try to go through that locked door over there," she pointed at a thick door with a fat padlock and chains. 'Who did this lady think she was?'
"Fine, I understand. Can I start now?"
"Humph. Go ahead, your two hours start immediately." She slammed the door and left.
Finally, I was alone.
I took a deep breath, inhaling the aged scents of ink and parchment paper. What a feeling, I'd grown up around thatched houses, and the only way we ever heard of anything was through elders or village gossip, now I had so much information before me…I couldn't waste it! 'If this is what a noble lady like Lady Vespara has, then what kinds of collections could cultivators have?'
I would learn everything I could about the Celestial Mirror Leopard. Then? I would use the rest of the time to learn about everything else. I wouldn't allow myself to stay ignorant a second longer, especially not if I wanted to become the owner of a trading caravan in the future.
As a peasant, I understood that everything I did was me starting my path on the back foot. Any real progress I would make towards becoming a cultivator would have to be from finding out about everything I could, however I could.
– 玄 –
The third lesson: Information is the wisdom of great men, and the wisdom of failures, It is knowledge that shields the life of its listeners. Without great knowledge, even a powerful man will perish. No matter the occasion, information must always be valued at the highest order.
– 玄 –
I walked over to the desk, expecting to see just a few small scrolls of information, when… 'What is this?'
There were three books, each as big as my head, and the one on top was named Bestiary of Known Spiritual Creatures. I didn't even look at the second and third ones. 'How am I supposed to get through all of these with so little time?'
If not for the fact that the noble lady was still angry at me, I would have gone back to ask for more time. 'What was I supposed to do now?'
I put my hands on the book and flipped through to see what I was dealing with. A cloud of dust immediately hit me in the face and prevented me from being able to see anything. I opened the book to try again. This time with more success.
It was an unorganized mess. The author seemed to have just thrown in whatever animal he liked with a sketched drawing and a small note before moving to another, totally unrelated creature.
'Is this how books are usually written?' I sat down and picked the one I had opened first, and started reading, but the book had almost nothing about the Celestial Mirror Leopard. At best, it was a picture and a little note by the side that said, "No easy luck in perceiving, leave alone."
"Bloody skies…" I promptly moved to the second book and started looking again. I was halfway through the book when I turned a page and saw something,
"Celestial Mirror Leopard
The Celestial Mirror Leopard is one of those spirit beasts that migrate from place to place looking for the coldest weather."
–
My fingers froze, and I sat still, my gaze boring through the text. 'I've found it.' I leaned in.
–-
"…When one first looks at it, it resembles an ordinary leopard with its sleek, powerful body and graceful movements.
That is where the likeness ends.
Each spot on its hide is silver and reflective, almost mirror-like, especially under moonlight.
—
But that was the only part of the book that had anything on the Celestial Mirror Leopard, and it had a small drawing of the spirit beast's face.
I moved on to the third and last book, hoping this would have more useful information than the rest of the books before it. When I opened it, a musty smell wafted through and started to make the whole library smell like dead flesh.
Shaking my head, I flipped to the next page. This book was smaller, I found the information I was looking for soon enough:
–
"…The Celestial Mirror Leopard is one of the most common of the elusive animals, and with this, I refer to those groups of spiritual beasts that tend to use being hidden or imperceptible as their primary means of hunting or survival.
–
Here, there was a drawing of the beast, but it had no real detail.
–
"…Of all these animals, the Celestial Mirror Leopard is one of the most unremarkable. This is mostly because it uses the most easily perceived form of imperceptibility, the bending or manipulation of light or darkness. This does not keep it from making sound as it travels. Make no mistake, however, it is still a creature built for stealth.
A mature Celestial Mirror Leopard is usually at the peak of the first stage, and a newly born one is equivalent to a cultivator just starting on his cultivation path.
–
'Peak? They are that strong? I may have to not do this anymore.' But then I thought about Lady Vespara, and the threats she had made. 'There's no way I'll be able to escape from her.'
I looked again. I didn't know how strong that was, only that it meant it was as strong as a cultivator.
–
"…Sometimes a Celestial Mirror Leopard grows past the limits of its bloodline and breaks through to the second stage. In this case, it will wait till the full moon is at its zenith, and then go out to find a White Lunar Lilith.
If the beast is lucky, it will find one before the full moon and wait patiently for the right time.
This small plant will make it easier for the spirit beast to break through and allow it to be a little bit stronger than the average 2nd-stage beast.
A very valuable plant, it has also been known to allow humans to become smarter, increase their memory skills, and strengthen their bodies to a noticeable degree.
The one who eats this plant would be as strong as a very weak, first-stage cultivator.
–
––The foolish scholar, Li Bailuo
I blinked at the page, barely breathing, my hands gripping the edges of the parchment like they would run away.
'A flower that could boost my memory, intelligence… strength—just like that?' I thought back to Wan Cheng and how I had been treated.
If I could get there before the spirit beast, I could take it, I could eat it.
Maybe, I would… 'This has to be a trick. Where are the drawbacks? Pies do not just fall from the sky.'
Hurriedly, I searched through the tome, if there were side effects, I wanted to know.
Multiple drab sentences later, I found something.
–
"...If a mortal man or a cultivator is lucky enough to come across this plant and best whatever Celestial Mirror Leopards are around, he will find that the best ways to ingest it is to turn the whole plant, stems, roots, and all, as high as you can to the moon.
Do not throw it up in the air. It is a very fragile plant, and I assume you didn't almost die and fight off a celestial leopard to lose your plant to your foolishness or the wind
Keep this position for a minute or till you notice a white glow around the plant. Then, ingest the whole plant at once, try your best to do it all in one swallow. For maximum efficiency, you may want a flask of water around to help you swallow it down.
Now, here is how to maximise the amount of essence you can…
"Get up, your time is done."
Startled, I turned around to look at who had tapped me. It was the servant lady, 'No, its not enough time, I only need a few more minutes,'
"What? I've only been here a few minutes."
"It's been two hours and then some more minutes. Did you really not hear me hollering your name?
I was a bit shocked. Was I really that immersed in the book?
"Leave, you can come here again tomorrow."
I was itching to stay, but staying and jeopardizing his chance of coming back here again was worse than just leaving right now. I got up and started putting the books back the way I found them.
The lady started, "Stop, just leave, I'll handle it, hurry up and go."
I stopped what I was doing and left. In my heart, I was dancing for joy. It was going to be tough, but I had to get as much information out of that library as possible. If necessary, I would ingest as many potions as I could to let me do so.
I immediately headed to healer Yao Po to ask if she knew of anything that strengthened memory and comprehension, as my heart danced, 'Had I just found a way forward?'
If I were lucky, the flower would bloom before the beast arrived. Then, I could take it. Take it and become a cultivator.
I had only a few days to get ready. To turn from a mouse into a mighty tiger.