— The Emperor's Imperial Record, Entry No. 46 —
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 clean myself.
When I reached Lady Vespara's house, I noticed the butler wasn't outside waiting this time. Instead, 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 excuses."
I followed along with him to Lady Vespara's throne room, unsure of 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 believe I wait on insects?"
My head was bowed low, and the safe option seemed to be not responding.
"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 as she spoke, "You left the city." 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, if I had to die by the hands of a pampered noble lady after all I'd went through, I'd prefer to have stayed back in my village. "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 slapped 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, "Understood?"
"Of course, my lady."
"I will not extend your time. You have ten days left to use my library, yes?" She did not wait for me to answer, "Raise your head." And I looked up at her, "You will get two hours, only, every day to access my library."
My eyes widened, and she revealed a satisfied smirk, "Leave here, the butler will show you who you must speak to."
He led me outside, where a short, servant lady stood waiting.
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, "Listen here, boy." The servant girl got up on a stool, only to come up to my neck, and wagged her finger at me, "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 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 does this lady think she is?'
"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 ink and parchment paper. What a feeling, I'd grown up around thatched houses, and the only way we'd ever heard of anything was through elders or village gossip, now I had so much information before me.
To me, this was a large step towards cultivation. Far bigger than any other one I'd already taken. I looked around, 'If this is what a noble lady like Lady Vespara has, then what kinds of collections could cultivators have?'
My plan was to learn everything I could about the Celestial Mirror Leopard. Then use the rest of the time to learn about everything else.
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 –
"What is this?" I walked over to the desk, expecting to see just a few small scrolls of information.
But 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 in such little time?'
If not for the fact that Lady Vespara was still angry at me, I would have gone back to ask for more time. 'What am I supposed to do now?'
I put my hands on the book and flipped through, 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, 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, "Hard to perceive, leave alone."
"Hearty 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, 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.
—
That was the only part of the book that had anything on the Celestial Mirror Leopard.
I moved on to the third and final book, hoping it would contain more useful information than the previous two. When I opened it, a musty smell wafted through, and the whole library began to smell like dead flesh.
Shaking my head, I flipped to the next page. This book was smaller, and I found the information I was looking for soon enough:
–
"…The Celestial Mirror Leopard is one of the most common of the elusive animals. 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 and darkness. This, however does not keep it from making sound as it travels.
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.
–
I looked again. I didn't know how strong that was, only that it meant it was as strong as a cultivator. I made a mental note to look for the stages of cultivation.
–
"…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… 'This has to be a trick. Where are the drawbacks? The rat who sees cheese must not assume it is food.'
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 are 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.
Keep this position for a minute or till you notice a white glow around the plant. Then, ingest the whole plant at once; you must do 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, it's 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. Did you 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 my 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 gather as much information as possible from that library. 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, 'I've 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 two weeks to get ready. To turn from a mouse into a mighty tiger.