There were a few problems that I’d have to resolve before I could return to the Library and seek out information on the Third Step. The first problem, of course, would be to properly disguise myself. I held no hope that my getaway from the Hospital was going to go unnoticed; even if they didn’t keep track of the bodies of cultivators that entered the morgue, they’d absolutely notice the disappearance of a fortune in medicine, and it surely wouldn’t take more than a few minutes for them to connect that with the strange disciple who’d shoved past everyone else to escape. And from there, it wouldn’t take more than an hour for the news to spread across the entire Sect. If there was anything that could match the incredible velocity of a Cultivator in motion, it would be gossip.

As it was, there was almost certainly going to be a notice put out to bring in a certain Outer Disciple of approximately my height and features, to politely ask questions and then rip apart limb by limb. A fate I’d want to avoid if at all possible. Fortunately for myself, there was a solution; it just required debasing myself to levels as of yet undelved by any vertebrate.

But there were no lengths I was not willing to go if it meant preserving my own life.

“I can’t believe what I’m watching,” Death muttered, watching as I shrugged off my robes, tucking them behind the bench on the outcropping. “I suppose your senses have finally taken their leave?”

“Better my senses than my soul,” I replied easily, standing and stretching in nothing more than the roughspun pair of shorts and torn shirt I wore underneath the heavy outer garments. To finish off the look, I ripped away some of the turf covering the outcropping and grabbed a handful of dirt, holding it out for a moment to catch some of the spray of the waterfall. From there it was simple to rub the mud into my hands and add a touch here and there to my face and limbs. With a grin, I spun towards Death, arms wide open. “So what do you think? Just some regular old farm boy I am, ain’t I?”

Death rolled her eyes, hopping up to her feet and walking towards the bridge leading back to the Sect. “Come on then, farm boy. Where’s this library of yours?”

“We’re going to have to move along the main road,” I answered, hands in pocket as I followed her, quickly ascending the bridge that led to one of the main islands. “As much as the Alley is more direct, it’d be too much of a hassle to deal with someone who’s just had their door stolen and wants to take it out on someone. Here, this way.”

At my direction, Death took a left, leading us both into the throngs that filled the boulevard that ran right through the Sect, the crowd immediately pressing against me to move forward. “So rather than get hassled by other Outer Disciples,” Death wondered, sticking right behind me, “you think outright getting killed by some other cultivator who notices you is better?”

“That assumes they’d ever care to notice a mortal,” I said, stepping to the side as a Disciple moved right through the space where I was. The blue-robed Disciple didn’t even seem to notice as the mortals parted around them, and she certainly didn’t look when one labourer went down underneath her feet, the sack on their shoulder spilling out onto the street. I quickly pulled the man to his feet, grabbing as many of the large round fruit that had rolled out to hand back to the man, glancing up at Death as I did so. “We’re basically nothing more than part of the landscape to them.”

“W-We’re what?” Rather than Death, it was the man in front of me who responded, clutching at his side that the cultivator had stepped on.

“Just keep it in mind,” I said to the man, quickly scooping the fruit into his sack before pressing onwards. Cultivators talking to themselves are eccentric, but I think I just look crazy.

Death’s sharp laugh rang out over the street as she leapt over my head towards a cart, the driver not even taking notice as she settled down next to him to look down at me with a raised eyebrow. “And this has only just occurred to you?”

I’m probably the most reasonable cultivator that exists, I mentally argued with the person that only I could see, dodging around the same cultivator that had almost trampled me earlier, noticing the Outer Disciple they’d apprehended. The one in blue seemed to be gesturing towards some scroll in her hands, with the weaker cultivator simply shaking their head in denial. Both of them totally ignored me, so focused were they on the depiction of my own face on the poster.

“They didn’t get your nose right,” Death observed, “not nearly crooked enough.”

Ha. Ha. Can you hear me laugh inside my own head? I kept walking past the cultivators, pushing past a few more haulers before cutting across the entire boulevard to hide behind the other side of the cart that continued to trundle along. Still, as confident as I am there’s no need to push my luck.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

It took another ten minutes of weaving through the crowds to reach the centre Isles, and another five minutes from there to carefully move along the less crowded streets that were mostly populated by other Disciples; on those roads I made sure to keep my head well down on, unable to hide amongst other mortals and instead hoping that my shabby attire and scruffy looks would do enough to dissuade a proper inspection. But fortune was on my side, even if Death wasn’t, and soon enough I stood upon the faintly misted path, the Tzangtze rushing by on both sides as I looked towards my goal…

I took a slow, deep breath.

And my next problem. Sneaking beneath the notice of a few Outer and Inner Disciples was hardly even a challenge, especially with my own experience living as nothing more than just another insect to them; I wouldn’t be so lucky in avoiding the Senior Librarian’s notice. Especially if I made the foolish decision to simply stroll through the front doors up to his desk.

“What’s the hold up?” Death nudged me. “Some bigshot cultivator inside you have to avoid?”

“That’s the who, yeah,” I nodded, allowing myself to fully exhale…and then inhale once more, filling my lungs as much as possible. There’s not a chance that I’d be able to sneak by him.

“What, so you’re going to fight him?” Death nudged me again, then outright grabbed my shoulder, pulling me to face her and her flabbergasted expression. “No, you’re not that stupid, right? Are you expecting me to drag your corpse further into the Library or something? Are you actually that insane!?”

I couldn’t help but laugh, losing all the air in my lungs. “Gods, no! Me, fighting Yun? There’s not a chance!” I shook my head, grinning. “There wouldn’t even be anything left of my body to bring back. It’ll be over the second he sees me.” It’ll be over the second I even dare to step in through those doors.

“Then what’s the damn plan, Ryan?”

Simple: I just won’t go through the doors. I inhaled, closing my eyes and then stepped towards the side of the path, to the furious rush of water blasting right along the path.

And I dove in.

Instantly, I felt my body be crushed by the immense weight of water all around me, instantly pulling me along in its grip; there wasn’t a doubt in my mind that I would have died if I was still an ordinary mortal, and even with my own advancement water was already forcing its way inside my mouth. But even if that half a year of cultivation was only barely keeping me alive-

-I did more than just cultivate! My eyes snapped open, my arm spearing out to grab at the bottom of the Tzangtze. My fingers pulled at the muck of the riverbed there, even as the current tried to wrestle me away, but there was nothing it could do to stop me from grabbing at the steel cable that had been buried beneath the constantly-moving particulate. I moved my other arm as well, securing my grip a little bit further up the cable, slowly pulling it out of its hiding place. And then, muscles flexing with the power that the Ruby Tears had granted me, I began to climb.

The Sovereign Remedy still lingered within my body, and I forced its power along my arms, taking its qi to use as my own as I fought against the Tzangtze, arm-length by arm-length. With the ridiculous medicine’s power, all aided by my own strength as a cultivator on the Second Step, I was hauling myself so quickly that I was forced to shut my eyes again, ignoring the pressure as best as I could, focusing instead on each movement I made. One. Two. Three.

Fifty four hands later, I felt the current twist into an undertow, whirling water that threatened to spin me around, to knock me against the rock the Library was built into, but I kept going. Fifteen hands later, I felt as the strength of the current faded, only to be confronted with nothing more than my own lungs demanding that I give them the air they desperately craved.

And still I kept going. Nine. Ten. One. Almost. There!

And with a splash, I emerged from the water into warm air. Gasping for breath, I let go of the cable, falling onto the ground with a low thud, leaving the wall of water behind me.

And even lying there, coughing up the water that had managed to enter my lungs, I couldn’t help but choke out a laugh. “Never thought- I’d actually get the, hah, chance to do that!”

Deep underneath the Library’s entrance, in the long halls of shelves and scrolls, you could find long hallways where they had no wall but the Tzangtze itself, the only barrier being the scripted formations that kept out the humidity, and the assumed intelligence that would keep a visitor in. And with the very last of my yuan of my stipend, I’d prepared myself a way into one of those halls, anchoring a cable into the bedrock on the other side of the hall, just in case Yun had ever decided to bar my way into the Library.

And now, that investment had just paid off.

“How about that, huh?” I laughed again, wiping away the water at my eyes, coughing up the very last of the water to look towards Death. Instead, I looked up. And up.

Senior Librarian Yun grunted, pulling the pipe from his mouth to exhale a thick cloud of smoke. “Was wondering when you’d finally use that. Welcome back, Ryan.”