The carriage was rickety, but it moved swiftly pulled by fresh horses and we were making a good time towards our goal. I woke from a sleep in the early morning and despite the fact I went to bed early I was not rested at all. Fate which I suspected shared the entire household and most of the estate.

I was rudely woken up in the middle of night by a terribly sung a song about the beauty of the women from the north and the smiles of the girls from the south. I recognized one of the voices. Cultivator Li was signing with his friend, who as I discovered in the morning was none other than the wandering cultivator Irpin.

Before, I had no issue not sleeping for a day or two, but now my body was sore and unwilling to rise, yet I had to, as the servant said, because the carriage was waiting for me.

Cultivator Li came to bid me farewell and by his looks it was easy to guess he consumed enough alcohol to affect even the cultivator of his standing as his eyes were red and he shied away from the light. He was accompanied by chipper Irpin who was joking about cultivator Li’s lack of familiarity with alcohol and Haoyu Yi who was just looking displeased by the antics of his master.

I bid them farewell and boarded the carriage with the cultivation manual in one hand and my bag in the other. I was hoping I would get some reading of the manual, sadly I was simply too tired and slept for most of the ride.

We stopped for a small snack around noon and continued on the journey, exchanged the horses and traveled on forward towards Jiaomay city.

My nap refreshed me, despite the terrible state of the road and so I pulled the cultivation manual from its wrappings and looked at it.

It was not a typical cultivation manual.For starters it lacked any kind of name. It had only numbering on this front which was only half readable and same numbering on the spine. I guessed it was the sorting system Library of Ten Thousand Things used, but it was still strange. The few pictures inside were also strange and did not correspond to any cultivation manual I had ever seen. There was a remnant of a diagram written in an unknown language. The only thing I could make out of the remnant was a symbol for fire under which were several lines of the text in the aforementioned language and symbol for what might have been wind or sand. There were also pictures of strange sticks with knobs on end, whose purpose I could not phantom and more strange diagrams showing what looked like a weaving of rope with the same language describing the process.

There was of course text in the language of the Empire underneath explaining the pictures, but it was nearly unreadable I could make only a few words per page and the rest was just a black smudge, which I guessed represented parts too damaged to be readable by whatever methods cultivator Li used to copy the cultivation manual.

There were of course large swathes of text written in the language of the Empire, but those presented a colossal problem by themselves.

I checked them at night before I went to sleep, but the language of Empire in the manual was written in a form of ancient dialect, which made it slow to get through. The symbols were archaic and would take time to decipher. Luckily many texts in the Fiery Peak sect library were written in similar dialogue and so I was at least familiar with it, yet going through the book would still take time.

At least, the first few pages were intact, and I could decipher them with only minor issues. So I went down and began my work as the bumpy ride continued.

I Arn Lai was tasked by the elders of the sect to write the cultivation practices offered to our sect by a foreign cultivator who traversed our lands. To all who would read these pages and seek wisdom I offer a warning.

Knowledge written in this book is untested and unknown to our sect. It was given freely, but I hold tremendous doubts about their veracity, but I do not believe the one who shared them with our sect was sincere. I will offer a full picture of the history of this book for you to understand and judge the dangers it represents for yourselves.

The story begins with a wounded man, who was picked by one of our disciples as he was returning. The disciple helped him and gain wisdom from him, for his dress was exotic and his bearing was noble.

We have cured his wounds and tried to discover his origins. It was clear he was from a distant land At first the visitor spoke a strange unknown language, but he picked the language of the Empire with an unnatural speed in a matter of hours. He was also completely unfamiliar with the customs of the Empire and seemed to lack understanding of anything and yet when he recovered he showed a great deal of power and skill in the arts of Qi, despite the fact we could not discern his cultivation properly.

This aroused my suspicion, which was strengthened as the visiting cultivator was unwilling to explain his origin or his strange manner. I suggested we question him more, but the elders saw very little point in being forceful and were unwilling to apply pressure on this strange individual.

He of course explained his presence. He was a cultivator on a mission to apprehend an apostate to his sect. They fought each other, and he ended in the Imperial lands after the battle exhausted and wounded, where the member of our sect found him and offered him aid.

It was a preposterous lie. There were no signs of titanic battle anywhere around the sect and we sat in the middle of the Empire. There was no way a foreigner would have gotten to us, while no one noticed two fighting cultivators, even if their stage was low. Yet the Library was neutral in fights between sects as the ancient tradition dictated and thus the elders were unwilling to pry his lies out of him in fear of breaking their neutrality.

It was clear to me that the cultivator was deceiving us, but he was courteous and caused no incident during his stay in the halls of our sect. In the end he prepared to leave and pursue his supposed prey and so he asked us how he could repay our kindness. In that moment I asked him to reveal to us secrets of his cultivation, for we had saved his life and such was certainly worthy of his most precious secrets.

I knew no cultivator would willingly depart with secrets given to him by his teachers and thus he would cause offense by refusing.

My boldness clearly took him aback , but then smiled and offered to give our sects the basics of his cultivation, like it was the simplest thing in the world.

The ease with which he agreed to my request affirmed my opinion, that the man in front of me was certainly a fraud, yet I could not deny his power as he showed some truly destructive arts as he was showing his skills previously.

I did not know why was he pulling wool over the eyes of the elders, for all I know he just wanted a bed-and-breakfast to recover from someone seeing through his latest scam, but that he was a cheat I confirmed when he was dictating the basis of his cultivation, which I faithfully described in the book.

He was diligent in his explanations and provided even many illustrations with just a flick of his wrist and application of a strange technique of limited value as it did nothing more than picking some ink and sketching the picture on the page.

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

The issue was the terminology he was using. This terminology was obtuse and heavy. It comprised many warped worlds which made little sense and contradicted itself in parts. It was clear he invented these words to confuse less read minds to persuade them of his skill in the arts. Nevertheless, I wrote down his ramblings as he spoke them, altering no details. They were not merely unorthodox; they followed no cultivation logic known to me, who studied secrets of our rival sects to a great detail and tried to catch him in a lie as he explained his cultivation to me.

Annoyingly he had a nonsensical answer for every one of my questions and I could never catch him off guard and so I could not discredit his work. He was similarly disappointed with my adjustments to his incomprehensive prose and insulted me a few times, because I was changing the meaning of the text.

He would complain until I changed it back to the version he preferred, which brought further delays to our work, where he could eat our food and cultivate in the rich Qi environment of our sect. It was infuriating.

This cultivation method supposedly allowed one to extract refined Qi from random materials through complex processes and several mundane artifacts. It was clearly a method which would lead to failure, even if such a thing as refining Qi with help of just mortal metals, even by his description it would provide too little refined Qi to allow for a proper cultivation beyond the realm of Earthly Body. Its ineffectiveness was clear. It was some bogus cultivation method the wandered wished to foist some crappy fifth hand manual, yet there was nothing to do

Finally, At the end the cultivation manual was done, and I presented it to the elders.

They shared my skepticism, when they read it The cultivator was asked to leave as quickly as possible, but the elders wished no further recompense from him for such shoddy work, he borrowed the book and fiddled with it for a few hours, before he declared his git finished and walked away from our set.

We should have destroyed this book, but it was still a source of wisdom and as such we included it in the archives of our sect. So I give my warning to anyone who reads these pages.

So write I Arn Lai

It did not exactly sound promising, but still I had time and I was willing to experiment. It was not like my situation could get much worse and it was at least something interesting to read and puzzle out. The clan library was not that interesting last time I visited.

Another big stumble broke my concentration, and I looked out of the carriage.

What I saw surprised me. We were already at the familiar walls of Jiaomay city. I looked up at the sky and the sun was already close to setting. I spent much more time reading the introduction to the manual, than I expected to do.

I put the book away and look at the city I called home for seven years since my birth and would call it home again. The walls were as tall as I remembered, which was not very. They were also not thick enough to step truly determined Beast, but such creatures were rare in the land of Three Rivers and the walls served more as a deterrent to bandits coming from the central plains in the old times rather than an effective defense against truly strong Beasts.

They stretched through the valley and towards the docks at the river Asp, even now as the day was slowly ending I could see river ships moving around the docks. . This arrangement always struck me as strange, but they built it this way to prevent the city from flooding. The Asp had an unfortunate tendency to overflow every few years, and it was a bother to rebuild the city. Well, there were still buildings around the wall and the harbor, but city fathers did not care for slums of the poor or the places where servants slept. It was a time of peace after all. It mattered little that the city burst out of its protective shell a long time ago.

Even now still a significant distance from the wall we were passing buildings and taverns for weary travelers. This was the place for artisans of lesser renown and families of the better off caravan workers. It was nice to see the activity, even if the place was rather crowded. The day ended and the night fun was slowly beginning, of course the center of these festivities would be the other side of the town where the massive stables were built roughly a century ago to host caravans and traders coming from the Central plains.

Commerce was the lifeblood of Jiaomay city after all and the Silverhand clan was one of the drivers of this lifeblood of civilization. Even as a young girl I listened to lectures about the importance of the trade. This was the place where a pass through Border mountains ended and conveniently river Asp got wide enough for ships to travel. As such, our fair city was built here to serve as a relay point between the places. Caravans from Central plains were ill-equipped to travel through the Land of three Rivers and so in combination with rivers were more than willing to sell their goods here and return to their closed off world.

It allowed the city to grow rich by the standards of our little province, but it was a cutthroat world of alliances and pacts, where profit ruled supreme and everyone will backstab everyone for the slightest advantage. In retrospect I was being prepared for life in the sect since I was born.

The life of a merchant clan daughter was seemingly taken from me, when a scout from the Fiery Peak sect passed through the city and found my talent worthy of acceptance to the outer sect. I visited my family of course any disciple with means and desire did so, but these brief visits did not prepare me for a true return.

I took a deep breath and waited for the carriage to stop. I stepped out before the southern gate and gave the rider a fat tip. It was only right to do so.

“Thank you my lady, will you wish for my further services?” he smiled as he pocketed the money .

“Thank you, but no. My destination is across the city and it would take too long to get the carriage through the guard, not to mention the traffic,” I refused his services as I pointed out the long line of wagons and carriages waiting for entrance to the city.

He bid me farewell, and I stepped into the long line of people waiting to get into the city. It was certainly a novel experience. During my previous visit, I dressed myself in cultivator’s robes and all those waiting in the line moved from my way bowing and scraping. This time I was dressed in the clothes resembling a peasant and so no one moved out of my way. I nearly bumped into the man before me, before I wised up to that fact, but I could prevent an accident. Of course then the woman behind me bumped into me. I held my manual and my bag successfully, so I had to not collect either of them from mud.

The line was moving quickly and so it gave me a little time to think. The guards were checking every entrant for contraband and for the entry fee. For me, the inspection was swift. I paid my entrance fee, and the guard was even considerate enough to give me advice.

“Kid, if you think you will make it in the city as a maid forget it. You need at least a letter of recommendation and there are far worse fates for someone like you.” I looked at him confused.

“I will not apply as a maid. I have dealings with the clan Silverhand” I said, confused. I did not know why he said that, but he was willing to enlighten me.

“Well, you had that look of hopeful apprehension on your face. I hope you are not here to seek young master Xian.” he mentioned my cousin which just aroused my suspicion.

“No, I do not seek Xian Silverhand. Why would you think so?” I asked him my eyebrow raised.

“Well, the young master was on tour of the countryside and he has a reputation,” the guard would share more but a gaze from his colleague stopped him, ”Anyway, you are clear to enter the city,” he said and waved me in.

I was rather surprised. I had not met cousin Xian in a long time, but I remembered somewhat dumb boy who liked to brag about his family, not someone who would leave broken hearted maidens chasing after him, but then again people changed. The image was still odd, despite that universal truth.

I stored it for further study as I walked the roads of the city filled with travelers from far lands who sought to visit the Central plains and traders hawking their wares and the smell of foods coming out of taverns and restaurants. . The sun was on the horizon and yet the city still lived, unlike the Fiery Peak sect where the last rays of sunlight meant the end of the daily activity. It was a strange experience, but not wholly unwelcome.

I went towards the western part of the city, where the Governor’s palace loomed and the mansions of the most prominent clans of Jiaomay city were located. I knew the path well, even if I had to dodge a few brawling drunks and one celebratory procession on my way there.

The large doors of our mansion were before me still wide open. I knew they never closed, but by their sides two guards dressed in clan colors were standing glowering at anyone who was just looking at the mansion of the famed Silverhand clan, which now included me.

I stood there for a long moment. Soon I would meet my parents and the Clan head. I would have to tell them about my failure. I did not know how they would react, but I knew they would be disappointed. No mighty and wise spirit who would fulfill my wish to postpone this meeting indefinitely showed up and so I walked to the door. Guards looked at me with suspicion.

“I am Mei Silverhand. My clan and my family expect me. Allow me passage.”