Sectgoer stretched lazily, rising from the forge. A dozen ruined spirit weapons laid strewn on the floor around him. Twisted and filthy, not a single one lacked an impurity or deviation of some sort. Turns out, forging is pretty hard. I’m doing a great job of ruining every material they send to me, but I’m struggling to actually make something that isn’t just an ordinary sword.

Well… well, even forging an ordinary sword is impressive, no? If it wasn’t so similar to talismans, I’d be helpless. But I think I can eventually figure this out! Ah… though I should probably stop by the sect’s library and pick up a manual or two on spiritual weapons. Somehow… I feel like a great many people will be angry if I don’t.

Yes, well… the sect, right? Both All-Heavens and Starbound will be angry if I fail to forge spirit weapons. Alright. To the library, the library. Ah! I’ll use looking for the library as the excuse to look for Zhang Minyan. Yes, yes.

Hey, Healer, ask what Zhang Minyan’s specialty is. That way, I can go seek it out, Sectgoer requested.

Sectgoer mounted a random treasure Healer had acquired and took to the air. A few seconds later, Healer replied, Her specialty is alchemy. Pill cultivation.

Sectgoer stopped dead. He pursed his lips.

Yeah… yeah, I feel that, Healer replied.

Sighing deeply, Sectgoer took off again. Fine, whatever. I’ll learn pill cultivation too. Goodness knows I have plenty of questions to ask her. Still, me going to a pill expert? It’s equivalent to playing the lute for a cow. It’s a total waste for me to ask a pill expert questions.

Not to be obvious, but couldn’t you ask her for a pill, instead of asking her about pills? Rogue pointed out.

Ask her for pills? How rich do you think we are? Healer asked, taken aback.

We have some money, don’t we? Rogue pointed out.

Healer shook his head. We still owe the Sect Master millions. We can’t spend that money!

Alright, alright. What if I offer to make her something, then? Or uh… I don’t know. I’ll come up with something, Sectgoer returned.

I believe in you, Sectgoer! Healer cheered.

From a nearby peak, a beam of sword light arced toward Sectgoer. Ying Lin drew up alongside him, grinning at him. “Master! Where are you going?”

“I’m off to the sect library. Actually, Ying Lin, why don’t you come along with me? You could look for techniques that are suited to you while you’re there?” Hui suggested.

Ying Lin nodded. “Yes!”

Sectgoer paused. He looked at Ying Lin. “Ah, and don’t call me Master.”

“Why not?” she asked, tilting her head.

“You’re Healer’s disciple as far as the sect knows, right? I—”

“I’ve been calling you Master this whole time, too,” Ying Lin interrupted him.

Sectgoer paused.

Ying Lin shook her head. “I don’t think the sect is paying as much attention to you as you think it is. They have eighty peak lords. You’re no Gui Delun. You’re just another outer peak lord.”

“Well, I certainly hope you’re right,” Sectgoer muttered, thinking back to that morning. He glanced at Ying Lin, then shook his head. “Oh well. I suppose you can have multiple masters, right?”

“Mhm!” Ying Lin returned.

Nodding, Sectgoer took off across the sky.

“Master!” Ying Lin called.

Hui paused. “What?”

“The library pavilion is this way,” Ying Lin said, pointing in the opposite direction.

Hui turned around. “Yes, yes. Naturally. Thank you, Elder Sister.”

Ying Lin chuckled. “You didn’t know, but you were going to fly off anyways?”

Drawing himself up to his full height, Hui nodded. “If I waited until I knew where something was to start moving, I’d never get there!”

“Ah! Yes. That is Master’s motto, isn’t it?” Ying Lin replied, laughing aloud.

“It’s a reasonable thing to say, isn’t it? If I stand still and wait, I’ll never figure out where everything is,” Hui said, putting his hands up. No one has ever shown me where to go or what to do. I need to move and find things for myself. It’s simply the way the world is.

Ying Lin nodded. “Disciple hears and understands.”

“Mmm…” That wasn’t really meant to be a lesson, but if she learned something, that’s good! Better than learning something from her romantic literature…

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Wait. Romantic literature. Ying Lin knowing where the library is. Hold on a second… Hui turned and narrowed his eyes at Ying Lin.

“What is it, Master?” she asked, tilting her head innocently.

Hui crossed his arms. “Take out that sachet of yours. How many romance novels have you stuffed in there from All-Heaven’s library?”

Ying Lin widened her eyes. “What? Me? I’ve been earnestly studying, Master.”

“Earnestly studying romance, or earnestly studying cultivation?” he asked, quirking his brow.

“Earnestly studying is earnestly studying. Studying,” Ying Lin repeated insistently.

Hui sighed. I can’t complain, because she cultivates at lightning speed, but Ying Lin… there’s more to life than romance novels!

“Ah, that reminds me. Master, how did it go at Bai Xue’s party last night?” Ying Lin asked, tilting her head.

Hui blushed. He waved his hand. “Never mind that.” I think I ended up marrying two people due to that party… er, well… when it rains, it pours? I really don’t know whether to laugh or cry, quite honestly.

“Master! Come on. Details!” Ying Lin requested, her eyes shiny.

Hui shook his head again. He lifted his hand. “Pass Zhubi over here, while you’re at it.”

Ying Lin lifted her hands to her neck, protecting the little snake. “Zhubi likes me. He’s happy on my neck!”

“Ying Lin,” Hui said, putting his hands on his hips. A second later, he waved his hand. “Ah, well, it’s fine. You can carry him for now. As long as you take good care of him.”

She nodded happily.

Look at that smile. I can’t take him away from her. She’ll get tired of carrying him and give him back to me sooner or later. For now, she can carry him around for a bit.

Actually… Zhubi’s been sleeping a lot, lately. I wonder if he’s feeling okay?

Though the last few times Zhubi fell asleep for a long time, he gained a stage. Is my tiny snake friend about to… about to evolve into an Elder Brother again?

…

Awesome! That’s great! The more sixth stage cultivators on my side, the better. If Li Xiang manages to hit fifth stage, she’ll be equivalent to a sixth stage. There’s the rot spider, and if I can get Senior Wolf and the Mountain Lord on my side… I might stand a chance!

Though… All-Heavens has eight Inner Peak Lords. At least two of them are seventh stage. Unless I can recruit Senior Chen Wuya somehow… Or actually set them off on each other. Even if I entice Han Qin to attack All-Heavens Sect, his clones are all sixth stage, so unless he enters the fray himself, there will still be a power gap. If I bring back Starbound Sect perfectly and everyone keeps their exact cultivation… Sect Master was… what, seventh stage? Sixth? Sixth sounds more likely. That’s also assuming everything goes perfectly with reviving the sect.

Ugh, I don’t know. I’ll figure it out!

“Right there, Master,” Ying Lin said, pointing out one of the peaks.

A relatively small peak hung in the air before them, chained up to a startling number of its fellow peaks. Most peaks’ chains stretched to three, perhaps four or five of their neighbors. This peak’s chains extended beyond its six or seven immediate neighbors to the peaks beyond that, and the peaks beyond that. Some of the chains branched out, spreading out beyond the immediate peaks to connect to further peaks that its chains couldn’t reach without intersecting an existing peak. Unlike other peaks, the chains wrapped around the bottom of this peak, though that’s probably a practical consideration, Hui considered. If they wrapped around the middle, no one would ever be able to pass from the middle of the peak to the top! The chains would block out the paths upward. You’d have to leave the peak and fly around to get back up!

Ying Lin patted the nearest chain as they approached. “If you’re close enough to the library, you can get a chain connected to your peak, and the library can send manuals directly across the chain… even bulk selections of manuals, sent directly to your peak. If you’re too far, they’ll do flying sword deliveries, but it costs too much to be worth it. It’s better to fly yourself, at that point.”

“Ah,” Hui said. That explains all the chains. And it also shows that my thought was right! This chain network is a kind of primitive version of my network, but… it can only handle point-to-point traffic, it seems. Hmm. Something to keep in mind…

“Master, my peak is too far, but your peak is a little closer. If you asked for a library chain, I’m sure they would—”

Hui turned. He looked at Ying Lin. “And what would you use that chain for?”

She gave him a cute look. “Reading practice.”

“Reading practice… reading what?”

Ying Lin beamed. “Romance novels!”

Hui shook his head. He turned and accelerated toward the library. As he flew, he muttered to himself, “Where did I go wrong?” I thought I did an okay job of raising a disciple, but her obsession with romance novels is…

“Master! Please?” Ying Lin cried, chasing after him.

As they flew toward the library peak, another beam of sword light hurtled toward the same landing Ying Lin pointed Hui toward. The three of them landed at almost the same time. Curious, Hui craned his neck to see if it was anyone he recognized.

Tang Fei stood across the landing, still wearing ordinary disciples’ robes with no alteration. She glanced at Hui.

Hui stiffened, flinching away. Elder Sister, I’m sorry! But it had to be done.

The screaming and dirty looks he expected never came. Tang Fei’s eyes slid off him and kept moving. She strode ahead without greeting either of them, heading directly into the library.

Oh right. I’m in disguise. Hui straightened up. He frowned after Tang Fei. Still… the Tang Fei I knew wouldn’t act like this. Was all that cuteness something she put on? Or… did something happen to her, as I suspected earlier?

“Master, do you know her?” Ying Lin asked, tilting her head.

Hui glanced at her, then nodded. “That Elder Sister once attempted to kill a friend of mine. I took her hand to save my friend’s life. It’s… something I somewhat regret, though I still think it was necessary.”

“You… took her hand? In marriage…?” Ying Lin asked, frowning.

Hui rolled his eyes. “Not her. I took her hand as in, removed it.”

Ying Lin’s eyes sparkled. She inched closer. “Not her…? Then Master, whose hand did you take in marriage?”

That’s… that’s a complicated discussion, and right now… if the people I married were to take my hands, I wouldn’t have any hands left! Hui coughed and waved his hand. “It’s an old matter. Don’t worry yourself over it.”

“Master’s marriage, or that Elder Sister’s hand?” Ying Lin asked cheekily.

“The Elder Sister—”

“So you just got married? Which one of you? To who? Was it Bai Xue? It was Bai Xue, right?” Ying Lin jumped in place, her hands balled into excited fists.

“Ying Lin,” Hui said warningly.

All at once, Ying Lin’s face fell. She shook her head.

“What?” Hui asked, somewhat exasperated.

“Master… I wanted to be there at your marriage,” Ying Lin pouted.

Hui sighed. “I was kidnapped into one of them, and the other one… I’m currently being murdered by the Matriarch. It isn’t like I could have taken you to either. One I didn’t even know about until it happened, and the other is extremely dangerous—”

“Kidnapped? Murdered by the Matriarch?” Ying Lin’s pout instantly vanished, replaced by shining eyes once more. “Master, how romantic!”

Hui wrinkled his nose at Ying Lin. “What part of that is romantic? Ying Lin, what kind of crazy romances have you been reading?”

“Only the best kind,” Ying Lin said breathily, clutching her hands to her chest.

Hui shook his head. “Ying Lin, your morals are…”