With a bit of searching he found the discrepancy. On one of the lower shelves, the side wall of the shelf was wider than it should have been. The sides of each of the shelves were slid into a groove cut into each of the shelves thick side walls. For this specific shelf, the groove extended halfway up the wall to the next shelf, gradually sloping back to its proper thickness. The front face of the shelf had finely crafted trim pieces covering up this strangeness so the only way to see it was to lean down to this lower shelf and carefully examine it from the inside. With all the Jade Tablets standing on the shelf it would make it very hard to see this missing space. After finding it, Sage stood back up and looked at the group, “Here, this depression. I found it.”
The other ‘witnesses’ came over, bending down to take a look one by one. They saw the difference after it was pointed out, but they didn’t understand what it meant. After they all took a look, Sage asked them to step back and showed them what the depression was for. He glanced back to make sure the Discipline Keeper was watching and then he grabbed hold of the two sides of the shelf and lifted one leg. He hooked his foot under the shelf and lifted. The other shelves were held securely in a notched out joint, but this one was only supported from below and that meant he could lift the side of the shelf upwards. When he did, there was a loud click and he pulled on the sides of the shelf. He felt movement and lowered his leg back down. Lifting the side of the shelf released some sort of hidden latch and now the whole shelf swung open like a door.
“As a newcomer to the Clear Sky Academy, I clearly could not have built this secret passage in your great library. Now, will you dare to call me a conspirator working together with someone very powerful in the academy, or will you see the truth that someone else is the culprit?”
The Discipline Keeper’s eyes widened, then narrowed again. He looked across the group of them and then he pointed at the open passage, “Everyone shall proceed forward.”
Then he specifically pointed at Sage, “You’re right. You are cleared of being the main suspect, and proven yourself to be highly capable. The Clear Sky Academy welcomes another expert into the fold. Now, lead the way for us. The academy requires your assistance, bring us to the villain so we can serve justice.”
This guy is still so unreasonable. This must be his way of getting revenge for the insults. I still haven’t had the chance to read through the whole library and this guy has control of the defensive arrays. I let my anger get the better of me earlier, so we’ll let this be an apology.
Sage didn’t fear this fellow if they were to have a one on one confrontation, but neither of them were alone. Sage had a small army of Nascent Souls as backup, but this Discipline Keeper had the power of the Clear Sky Academy’s defensive arrays. Additionally, there was no telling how many people could come to the man’s aid in this mountain sized institution.
Walking to the front of the group, Sage used the Phantom Mirror technique to once again show the group what had happened earlier. It took a bit longer than before to use the Timeless Eyes to return to this moment in time because of the time they’d spent searching the shelves. Since he’d decided to use the Sea Locust’s eyes to help him search he’d had to deactivate the Timeless Eyes and lost his ‘place’ in the view of the past, ending the technique had erased the ‘timestamp’ of what he’d been looking at. He couldn’t pick up where he left off, so he had to rewind the ‘tape’ all over again before he could continue watching.
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The ghostly figure walked backwards and then turned a sharp corner that led down a spiral staircase. They followed it down the stairs and they could all watch the eerie appearance of the masked face in the gloom of the narrow and dark stairway. The air felt old and stale, and the lack of air movement made Sage suspect that this passageway was sealed so tightly at every entrance that not even air could enter or escape. That would cover up for that old trick of looking for a draft to find a door to a secret passage.
After the staircase they were at the end of a passageway, one with many small tunnels and passages branching off from it in different directions. Sage brought out a Spirit Torch to light the way for the others, and he even stopped to point at the ground.
“Stale as this passage is, can you see there’s not even a tiny bit of dust on the ground? Whoever uses this place makes sure there’s no easy way to be tracked in here.”
Being forced into this situation, Sage couldn’t help but to point out this key point to show off how impressive his skills were. Hopefully, they’d all be impressed enough they would feel too guilty to let him take the blame later. He was also careful not to brag too much, just pointing out that single observation before moving on to keep following the ghost to take the third hallway on the left. He carefully peeked around the corner and then followed after the ghost once again. He wasn’t as nonchalant as he normally was, because the downside of using Hindsight in this manner to retrace the past meant he couldn’t use Foresight to predict the dangers in front of him. Sage watched the murderer’s motions carefully, not wanting to let even the slight deviation to go unnoticed.
When the person tilted to the side or leaned their back up against the wall to shimmy down a wide section of the path, Sage didn’t hesitate to do the same thing, but in reverse. The first time he even stopped to inform those behind him, “Everyone please be careful. The culprit was moving funny through here and we will need to copy them. There might be traps here, so we should copy their actions carefully.”
The group copied his actions after they saw the ghost in front of them first do them. None of the moves were that difficult, mostly just staying to the side or not stepping in the middle of the path. There was one part where they all had to crouch down and walk forward, but none of them dared to complain or do the same action as the rest. Nobody wanted to be the one to figure out what would happen if they didn’t follow the same moves. It was also quite simple for them, as even the weakest of them, the three golden haired students, were still third rank Cultivators. The academy was for all ages, but it was of quite high quality and these three young teens had already reached a level that took Sage tens of years to reach with his body's poor talent. He might have been jealous, but the luck he lacked to start with had appeared later when he found the Seed of Life.
Eventually, they stopped in front of another wall and the ghost disappeared behind it. The latch for this secret entrance was far easier to find on this side and with a simple motion it clicked open and the group spilled out into a well lit room quite unlike the library where they’d entered the secret passage. The brick walls were crusted with dirt up the level of their knees and the dirt floor was covered with a layer of straw. They walked across the room towards the only entrance which the ghost was now walking backwards out of. After leaving the straw covered room they entered a large chamber that had a huge door across from them. There was also a latticework of metal bars that extended from floor to ceiling on the side of the room and Sage suddenly realized where he was.
Boom!
They all turned around to see the source of the loud sound behind them and saw a set of narrowly spaced metal bars had dropped down from the ceiling to block the door they’d just walked through.