"Shushu!" Shao Yunlu's joyful voice sounded in the Jade Tea shop and fluttered into Ning Shushu's ears.
"Yunlu!" Ning Shushu's cold yet happy voice sounded.
The two greeted each other and hugged.
Shao Mingzhu stood there awkwardly, and his eyes glanced at the runes above her head. He was more interested in that than the "date" his sister was brewing in her heart.
Seemingly knowing Shao Mingzhu's situation, Shao Yunlu let go of Ning Shushu and stepped back to her brother and took him to sit down in front of her.
"Shushu, this is my useless yet handsome brother, Shao Mingzhu."
Shao Mingzhu shot her a glance when he heard "useless."
What happened to all the praises before? Shao Mingzhu snorted, not very happy with his sister's introduction.
"Shao Mingzhu, this my friend/co-worker, Ning Shushu, the most talented and prettiest girl currently in our organization!"
Ning Shushu smiled and shook her head at Shao Yunlu's introduction and stretched out her hand to Shao Mingzhu.
Shao Mingzhu raised a brow. Her voice made it sound like she was distant and cold, but her actions show she was kind and caring.
"Hello, nice to meet you." Shao Mingzhu said, shaking her hand.
"Likewise." She said, feeling Shao Mingzhu's soft and slippery hand. It made her want to pinch it, but held back.
His hands were the softest and most precious thing she has held.
If Shao Mingzhu knew her thoughts, his non-rational list would now include his sister and her.
"Hehe, how about Shushu? My brother is handsome, isn't he?" Shao Yunlu said, elbowing her brother a couple of times.
Ning Shushu smiled but didn't say anything and took a sip of tea that she already ordered before they arrived and Shao Mingzhu didn't say anything as his eyes focused on the runes above her head.
Seeing the two didn't respond nor interact with each other made Shao Yunlu's lips pout, and she got up from her seat and sat down next to Ning Shushu and pulled her over.
"Come on, don't ignore me. It's rare that you have time off and can come out to play." Shao Yunlu said.
"Yunlu, unlike you, I have stuff to do outside of alchemy. After all, alchemy is my side profession, not my main one. So I have to cultivate two times harder than normal people which rarely gives me much free time."
"Sigh, I know. That's why you should enjoy this day out, not sipping on tea and listening to me blabber all day!"
Shao Mingzhu sat there quietly and ordered himself some tea as well. As he listened, he focused on the words "Second profession," making his eyes narrow slightly.
Second profession? The friend that my sister made is no ordinary person on a social scale. She is probably from some rich family. Once you pick your main profession, others can't be cultivated, though there is a caveat to this statement. Some professions flow like yin and yang, and can be dual cultivated from childhood with the right teachers and resources. Ordinary people like me and my sister have no chance of cultivating two professions until we reach the five rank of our professions, but most people chose not to do that as cultivating another profession takes time, and you wont have an increase of strength, but you will have a minor increase in lifespan.
The main reason why rich families cultivate two professions or sometimes more is because of the lifespan rather than the strength increase. As a rune master, I should theoretically be able to cultivate all professions, but that would take thousands of years and I simply don't have the mindset nor lifespan to do such a thing.
Shao Mingzhu let out a soft sigh from his lips as he took a sip of his tea, and his eyes refocused on Ning Shushu's head.
Merit and luck? Should these be attributes? But why can I only see it above her head? And what does merit mean? Luck is obvious, but merit? She is only twenty years old or whatever my sister said, so how could she have merit?
Perhaps because Shao Mingzhu's eyes stared at Ning Shushu for too long, she seemed to notice Shao Mingzhu's gaze and looked at him with confusion.
"Is there something wrong?" Ning Shushu asked, touching the top of her because she thought her hair was messed up.
"No, nothing. I was just zoned out as I was thinking about something, my apologies." Shao Mingzhu, slightly startled.
After saying that, he turned his head to face his sister.
"Yunlu, I think you can spend some time with your friend alone. I'm going to go search and look around for some bookstores and libraries." He said, taking one final sip of his tea.
"Bookstore?" Ning Shushu asked, her eyes lighting up.
"Uh, yeah?" Shao Mingzhu said, a little surprised at her enthusiasm.
Shao Yunlu clicked her tongue a couple of times and kept turning her head between the two of them. Her eyes were dazzling like the night stars, making Shao Mingzhu have a bad prediction.
"See! I knew the two of you fit together well! Why don't we all go to the bookstore together?" Shao Yunlu asked.
"You? At a bookstore?" Shao Mingzhu looked at her suspiciously.
"What are you looking at?" Shao Yunlu said annoyedly, "I'm an alchemist, we read more books than we can remember."
"That doesn't take away the fact you never stepped into a library in your life."
"Why would I? Everything can be found on the goddess network. Why would I need to go to some ancient place that still uses books? If it wasn't for the fact you liked books, our home wouldn't have any!"
Ning Shushu smiled as she watched the two of them bicker, and a bit of nostalgia appeared on her face. This nostalgic look didn't go unnoticed by Shao Mingzhu who was observing her.
She really might be a rich girl who is separated by her family. Maybe they treat girls poorly or she could be a branch member. This world has advanced so far yet they still have such values and beliefs.
Wait, why am I profiling her? Did this body have a habit of doing so? Ah, it seems it did, well it's not bad, especially for a rune master.
Shaking his head internally, he didn't mind if Ning Shushu went with him. Actually, he didn't really want to separate from her because of the golden runes, but he wanted to go to a bookstore or library to find more information about heaven's punishments and missing hearts.
Another thing he wants to look into is people not remembering what they were doing for a long time, like mind control, but the person is unconscious for the entire time they're under control.
He has a hunch that it was some void cultivator was controlling his body for a day or two, and erased his memories as much as he could about the runes.
Speaking of Heaven's punishments, how do you even trigger it? People in this world cannot read the runes because it's etched into their cells, so how could I trigger the punishment?
This is the main question he wanted answers for, but doesn't know where to look. He couldn't go to the goddess network, a tool that is used to browse information and text and call friends. It was like the modern internet but uses the consciousness of a god.
While he argued with his sister and had his own internal conversation, he decided to take his sister and Ning Shushu with him. In fact the entire argument was useless since he was going to allow them to come anyway, but his sister's words made him want to fight her.
"If Ning Shushu wishes to come, then you can come." Shao Mingzhu said, and turned his head to face Ning Shushu.
Shao Yunlu's eyes lit up and hugged Ning Shushu tightly.
"Come with us Shushu!"
Ning Shushu felt the heat from Shao Yunlu's body and nodded her head helplessly and waved her hand at the waiter and took out her card from her left pocket.
"Miss, would you like to pay?" The waiter said.
"Yes." Ning Shushu said, waving her card around.
"Alright, I'll be back in just a moment."
After a few minutes, Ning Shushu paid for all of their tea and then exited the shop.
"Yunlu, you said you came here often when we first entered, right? Are there any big book stores in the Jade Cave Mansion?" Shao Mingzhu asked.
"Hmm," Shia Yunlu put a finger on her chin while still having her arms wrapped around Ning Shushu's right arm.
"Yes! On the fifth floor, there is a place called 'Heavenly library.' I don't know much about it, but it's the only place with books in this place that I know of."
Shao Mingzhu nodded and the three of them walked to the leaf elevator.
"Hey, Ning Shushu, I heard you cultivate two professions, and alchemy is your side one. What's your main profession?" Shao Mingzhu asked, a bit curious about her main profession.
"I cultivate the beast path." Ning Shushu responded as they headed down to the fifth floor.
A bit of surprise flashed in Shao Mingzhu's eyes, and looked her up and down, but didn't see any beast-like features on her. When one cultivates the beast path during its early tiers, you'd have some beast-like characteristics. A cat beast cultivator would have cat ears. A bear beast cultivator would have very hairy hair. But Ning Shushu had none of that.
Shao Mingzhu wanted to ask, but didn't. It was probably a family secret. Some families have things called supreme paths for professions and would let their descendants cultivate on this path.
"Really? I couldn't tell." Shao Mingzhu said with a slight chuckle.
"Hmm, the beast I cultivate is quite special." Ning Shushu said, but didn't say what beast.
Shao Mingzhu nodded and understood. It was just like he thought, and didn't bother asking any further.