After my offer to the Sect Leader, there was little to do around the palace. The red-masked guy who had brought the books took me out and used a flying coffin to get me back to the Song Clan compound where I had been staying recently. During the entire journey, neither of us spoke a word. He dropped me off and left without saying anything or giving me a date for Song Song's release.

I knew I had played all my cards and pushed my luck by going straight to the Sect Leader about this, so I kept my mouth shut and watched the red-masked guy store the coffin artifact in a storage ring. Even though he didn't have a ring on his finger, it was probably some other storage artifact like Song San's.

After that ordeal, I lay on the ground and let out a breath of relief. The soft grass cushioned me, helping all the tension from that meeting slip away. This had all been a gamble; depending on the sect leader's personality, it could have turned deadly.

I looked at the cloudy sky and couldn't help but smile. An involuntary chuckle came out.

The Sect Leader had no reason to lie to someone at my level, so he would likely keep his part of the deal.

How the hell did I pull this off? I walked into a room with one of the most powerful people on the continent, walked out alive, and even got what I wanted!

The only one who might suffer from this deal was Hu Jin. Sending two Core Elders to his location might change the threat level. I had no idea how luck and fate behaved around that guy, but there was a good chance he would survive and come out of it with some extreme benefits. So, I was not too worried about the guy.

Suddenly, a shadow blocked the sun, breaking me out of my thoughts. I turned toward the source and found Song Song wearing dark robes, a teasing smirk on her face.

What? I had just finished talking with the Sect Leader… that guy worked fast!

"How are you enjoying your freedom?" I asked.

"I would rather be killing some of my so-called supporters who conveniently forgot I was imprisoned," Song Song said with a deadly sweet smile.

I reciprocated her smile and apologized, "Sorry, I was busy with other things."

"You shouldn't joke about something like that," she rolled her eyes. "I know no one else cares about me enough to inconvenience themselves to even try and say something to free me."

It was sad that there wasn't even a twitch in her expression when she said that. Sure, she said it as a joke, but it was the kind of joke believed to be true. Well, it kind of was. As far as I knew, even her teacher hadn't tried to free her, and her father was the one who put her in there in the first place.

"How did you even do it?" she asked. "My teacher didn't explain anything, but I know only one person in the Sect can force my father to change his mind."

"So, who might that be?" I asked jokingly.

Despite her ruthlessness, Song Song was a smart girl and should have been able to figure this out on her own.

"How did you convince the Sect Leader to go against my father? This could totally blow up into an internal conflict," Song Song said.

Internal conflict? Well, they had the monstrous beasts to deal with for now. By the time they could swing their fists without worrying about monstrous beasts, tensions should have cooled.

"I call it a strategic investment," I said, the teasing smile slipping off my face as I stared into the clouds. "If I were to guess, the Sect Leader wanted to stir some tension in the Song Clan, and we were the perfect tools for that. I just gave him the reason to try it. Or, we could be optimistic and say he blindly trusted my words."

"You really went out of your way on this one…" Her tone sounded like she was sorry for making me do this, but at the same time, she looked happy.

"Yep. Now, I'm probably part of ten schemes I have no idea about, just from the Sect Leader. I'm officially in the eyes of the big shots," I sighed and looked at Song Song. "Please hurry up and get to the Nascent Soul Realm so I don't have to worry about these things, and I can just relax and read when I feel like it."

"You should be cultivating too, not just lying down and staring at clouds," she said, using her foot to lightly kick me to the side, like a mother berating her lazy son.

"Hey, some of us have average spiritual roots, which get strained quickly. If I cultivate too much, it might cause permanent damage," I grabbed a handful of grass and threw it at Song Song's face for kicking me.

Someone with Song Song's instincts could definitely dodge a bullet at point-blank range, but she didn't. The grass didn't have the momentum to reach her face, but it still got entangled in the lower part of her hair.

"I know a way to fix… Well, not fix, but somewhat mitigate that effect," she said.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

That immediately made me sit up and stop joking around. "Really?"

"Yep, there are pills that can help remove impurities from spiritual roots and improve your cultivation speed," Song Song nodded.

Removing impurities? I sensed no impurities in my spiritual roots. Also, they weren't exactly a physical thing. So, how could they even have impurities? That was interesting...

"Can you get me some of those?" I asked.

"Sure," Song Song shrugged. "Though you will only need one pill since they're not effective after that."

"I'm also curious how they work. As far as I know, spiritual roots have no impurities. So I want to test the pills and their effects first," I explained.

Song Song rolled her eyes at my words but still nodded. She might not understand why I liked knowing certain things, but she let me do my thing and would pave my way to it.

"Also, this time, please don't kill any cousins. I can't get you out of prison a second time," I warned her. "There really isn't much left to give."

"What did you give him?" Song Song frowned immediately. She almost sounded worried.

I explained what I had told the Sect Leader. Her expression slowly eased up, and she nodded.

"Why, what else did you think I gave him?" I smirked.

"Your life, deciding to become his slave, or perhaps something stupid like your lifespan," she said.

"Why would the Sect Leader need any of that?" I raised an eyebrow.

No offense to Song Song, but that was a wild theory. I was a Qi Gathering Cultivator; he had plenty of those. If he wanted lifespan for demonic rituals, he could easily get that from mortals since quantity was more important than quality for those things. At least, as far as I knew about it—not that I was very knowledgeable about demonic rituals.

"Oh, yeah, now that you represent me, you will need a storage ring," Song Song exclaimed. "You can't go around looking like a poor homeless man."

She took a bronze storage ring out from one of the pockets in her dark robe and handed it to me. The ring looked nothing special on the surface.

"Just use Qi on it, and you should get a mental image of what is in the storage ring. This one can store about two cubic meters of stuff," she explained. "Just make sure not to put a storage ring inside another. You won't like the results."

Before I could say anything or offer my thanks, she took out a wooden badge with green jade engravings and threw it at me.

"Here, this is my personal access token to the Song Clan Library. You can read pretty much anything, and the place has almost all kinds of knowledge unless it is actively kept secret and only spread by word of mouth," Song Song said.

I looked her in the eyes, and she looked as expressionless as always. It was often challenging to tell what Song Song was thinking. She was also bad at expressing herself, but this was her way of saying she was thankful and appreciated that I had gotten her out of prison.

"Can you also not kill random people for a while? I know you want to deal with all the people you think deserve it. But my word is on the line, and I don't want people to think I'm just a tool to get you out of prison. They might start taking my words with a grain of salt," I expressed.

"Sure," Song Song shrugged without raising a fuss. "I'm going to explore the house my shitty brother used to live in since I'm on house arrest and can't go out. As for you, you can now go to the library and take whatever books you need. My token is the highest access one, so you can just put books in your storage ring, and no one will stop you."

"I don't even know where the Song Library is," I murmured while examining the strange token she had given me. While I could sense that some inscriptions were used on the token, it was hard to read them.

"Just go to the big building where my father usually stays. There is a secret entrance right next to the staircase, and that is the entrance to the library," she explained.

"A library just below the Clan Leader's building? That sounds…" I put no effort into hiding just how uncomfortable being so close to Song Song's father made me.

"Yeah, well, what kind of knowledge do you think we are keeping down there? There are some writings from the Blazing Sun Immortal himself," she huffed, mock offended at my words. "Also, don't lose that badge. It's the only one I have, and even I can't get in there without it."

"Wow, okay, no pressure then," I said sarcastically.

"You know, even though this is technically just a two-person organization, I'm still the leader and could take back the badge I gave you," she smirked.

"Sorry, Honorable and Reverend, Eternally Beautiful and Fair Song Clan Lady Song Song," I said, intentionally lengthening her titles.

"Okay, that's it. Give me the badge," Song Song extended her hand toward me.

I just smiled, stood up, and leaped over the wall, landing on the cold, snowy street outside. Song Song stood atop the wall and crossed her arms.

She was just on the line where the array stopped. Her eyes wandered around as if searching for anyone else listening in, and then her gaze landed on me.

"Don't take too long, or I might just decide to destroy this house and go out on my own," Song Song said loud and clear, enough for anyone spying on us to overhear.

Those words weren't directed at me, per se. Instead, they were a threat that if something happened to me, Song Song might go on a slaughter fest. By staying behind the barrier, she also showed that she was willing to stay locked in that place as long as I was around.

"Don't worry, I will just look for some interesting books, put them in the storage ring, and come right back," I reassured her.

She nodded, and I turned toward the Clan Leader's castle-like place.

Neither Song Song nor I said anything more. We both knew we were too weak to come and go however and wherever we wanted.

.

While I walked through the snowy road, I looked around. It was winter, so not many people were out. But most of those who were out had dark hair accompanied by green or blue eyes.

Tall men, short men, some kids, women, even elderly people—every person I saw and could sense had that sense of danger about them. Not to mention the people I couldn't sense at all.

Though it felt like they were looking at me, I never caught one of their eyes, even glancing in my direction.

What a clan… No wonder they slaughtered all the other clans related to the Blazing Sun Immortal. They were a dangerous type of people.

I kept my eyes on the large castle-like building in the distance. I always followed a road toward it while acting like I wasn't uncomfortable in this street.

Ah… I really didn't want to be here… The things I did for books.

Once Song Song grew strong enough, we would make our own rules and break them whenever we found it convenient.

Actually, Song Song might. I would follow any fair rules I came up with.

Well, that wasn't something I had to worry about anytime soon. With how dynamic and violent the cultivation world was, everything might change by the time Song reached that level of power.

The only thing I had to worry about right now was what kind of wonderful books I would find in this library.