Sol had not been wrong; the voice he had identified indeed belonged to the branch family member of the Aurelius Vox that he had last seen with Rax’Rathos at the acceptance ceremony in the Verdant Reflection Lake Sect Town.
The dark-red-skinned demon with long black hair that fell in curls over his shoulders conversed with a girl in the sect robes of the Verdant Reflection Sect just a few meters away, his arms laden with books, eagerly receiving volume after volume from the enthusiastic woman.
Nyx immediately questioned whether that enthusiasm was genuine for the topics she piled onto him or if he was more interested in speaking to her. With the enchanted looks he gave her, Sol suspected the latter.
Rax’Rathos did not seem to be with him, and since he did not want to interrupt the blissful moment of his fellow initiate, Sol took to perusing the shelves for interesting books, keeping the one on military procurement in his possession. Maybe he would find a shelf that dealt with military theory or summonings, where he could deposit it.
After wandering in and out of corridors for a few minutes, he concluded that this book, in particular, seemed to be very out of place. The topics here were neatly organized, and most of the floor dealt with cultivation techniques, theory, and concepts for Skin Tempering.
Sol grabbed a few books that sounded interesting while keeping an eye on the girl, who now beamed a friendly smile in his direction as she put what seemed to be the ninth book into the arms of an eager trainee.
He settled on three books in addition to his fate-encountered book on military procurement: Theory of Quantity: A Body Cultivation Breakdown, a neat little book that was only a few dozen pages thick and as small as his palm; a heavy, beautifully adorned book featuring warm-to-the-touch ice sculptures titled Yin Qi - Moonlight Shadow Technique; and an ordinary-looking book, with dozens of copies across various shelves, titled Skin Tempering: How to Break Through.
Sol had not really planned on reading today, but after his unnerving diving encounter, he preferred to sit and relax a little. If the other entrances to the library were equally “exciting,” he would probably think twice before visiting often.
Sol descended the stairs into the cozy-looking reading area toward a set of comfortable armchairs arranged around a hovering stone slab. Underneath the table was a glowing orange light source that pulsated rhythmically and emitted a pleasant stream of warmth. Taking off his necklace, he noted the rather cool temperature of the library, and the cozy stream of warm air at the table made him collapse into the chair with a relieved sigh.
The lighting was perfect for reading, and Sol quickly found himself perusing the vivid pictures in the Yin Qi technique book. Each page had a section on the left, essentially an animated set of ice sheets explaining a concept visually, and a dense chunk of text on the right, which introduced the concept in three steps.
The first sentence provided a simple overview of the concept, explaining it so plainly that even a five-year-old could understand. Then it detailed the application, usually in about one hundred words, and finally, it presented a theoretical view exploring how the Yin technique would interact with different cultivation styles and foundational techniques.
Sol quickly realized that much of the vocabulary in the theoretical section was too complicated. Without the easier explanation or the opening sentence, he would not have been able to piece together what the ice was even depicting.
Then the book suddenly snapped shut as he was reading it, almost hitting Sol in the face.
Was someone messing with him? The book would not open, even with considerable force. Sol looked around the room, but aside from a few recruits browsing the shelves and some official sect members quietly reading, only the Aurelius Vox branch family member was staring at him with a blank, neutral expression from the table next to his.
As Sol tried to store the book in his temporary storage ring, the book refused his effort and levitated out of his hand before smacking him on the head. Now the demon was audibly suppressing a laugh, quickly averting his gaze when Sol met it.
Nyx grabbed his books, moved them to the neighboring table, and pulled up a chair before addressing the boy quietly. “Why are you laughing?” he hissed. “Why does it do that?” Sol asked, wary of the book that now hovered slightly above the stone slab, seemingly aggravated by his presence.
The Aurelius Vox demon just shrugged with a sly smile and continued reading. “Who knows?”
Nyx furrowed his brows. Then the book lightly tapped against his head again, yet persistently. His counterpart once again suppressed a smile with effort.
“What was your name again? You’re related to Rax’Rathos, right? A family member of Aurelius Vox?” Nyx asked in a neutral tone. The guy was seriously pissing him off now.
That seemed to wipe the smile off his interlocutor's face.
“Branch family,” he replied with a sour expression. “Nox’Rictus is the name. I’m not telling you. Now leave me alone.”
Nyx held his gaze for a few seconds before sinking back into his armchair and nodding his head to the right, gesturing for Nox’Rictus to look. When he did, he spotted the girl who had helped him select books earlier. His head immediately snapped back toward Sol. “What?”
Nyx graciously folded his hands in front of himself, raising an eyebrow toward Rictus. “Does she know,” he began slowly, interrupted by his book tapping against the side of his head again, “that you are crushing hard on her?”
This time Sol could count the veins building on Nox’Rictus’s throat, his muscles straining against his willpower, barely holding him back from jumping over the stone slab to beat Nyx’Sol to death with his own books—or at least his murderous gaze suggested as much.
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“You wouldn’t dare,” he scoffed finally. “Do you even know who she is?”
Nyx leaned forward in his chair, bringing forth his biggest bargaining chip. “I picked a fight with Rax’Rathos. What makes you think I wouldn’t?”
He was, of course, bluffing. His body still ached from the "victory" he had achieved against Rathos, and he doubted the Aurelius Vox branch family hadn’t prepared their children well for the day they joined the sect. Another “win” against one of them, and Nyx would have to resign himself to a long recovery vacation.
“I was wondering where the bruises came from. I assumed your girlfriend taught you a lesson,” Rictus said, looking at him with pity. “It’s not easy to fight him. I can respect that.” He made a gesture with his hand toward the book that was persistently tapping against Sol’s head. It immediately complied, floating into Rictus’s hand, where he set it down on the table.
“How did you do that?” Nyx asked.
“Have you not paid any attention since entering the library? You must have passed several desks with helpers along the way.” He frowned. “Did you sneak in? How did you get past them?”
Sol shook his head. “No, I went through a secret entrance. Not many helpers there.” He remembered the welcome of a demon deeply engrossed in his reading. Hadn’t he referred him to the entrance hall? “However, someone did say I should go to the entrance hall when I arrived.”
Nox’Rictus perked up at the words "secret entrance." “Can you show me?”
Sol shrugged. “If you let me know what’s with the book? Then… sure.”
“There’s a fee for reading. One sect point for every day past thirty minutes that you spend with a book. Even just possessing it in the library counts,” Rictus explained. He moved his and Sol’s books into the middle of the stone slab and tapped it twice. A faint blue barrier surrounded their books.
Noticing Sol’s curious look, he added, “That also costs points. There are a lot of features around the library you can pay for.” He shrugged, as if to say, Nothing is free in life. “Got money? You can exchange it for points, but the sect takes a large cut. Otherwise, you’d have to do sect jobs to pay for it.”
Nyx nodded. “Yes, I have some. What jobs are there?”
“Mostly cleaning and library duty. We get access to better ones after breaking through,” Rictus said, leading Sol up the stairs toward a hallway not far from where he had entered.
“Are you close?” Nyx asked, curious about how far along Rictus and Rax’Rathos were in their cultivation progress.
“To breaking through?” Rictus scoffed. “Maybe. Maybe not.”
Perhaps the question was too personal? Sol mused about it while following him quietly.
“How about you?” the dark-haired boy finally asked as they stepped into a wide open area. Lots of sect disciples sat at nearby tables, frantically working to restore book bindings or mend pages.
“I had a rough idea, then learned something new, and now I know my idea was silly. I have a long way to go,” Sol admitted.
“How so?”
“I need to work on the rate of Qi absorption through the skin, for example,” Sol struggled to explain. He didn’t really have a theoretical understanding of what people called this—or if it was even a good thing to practice. So he added, “And the Yin and Yang balance is hard to control. I can’t keep my temperature regulated, and—”
Rictus gestured for him to stop and pointed to the wall. A round, polished marble stone slab embedded into a wooden support pillar displayed the number zero. It had a beautiful white hue intermingled with red specks. Nyx stared at it for a few seconds before his companion helped him out.
“Put money in. The slab shows your points. No one else can see how many you have.”
Sol retrieved a handful of spirit stones of differing values from his bag and passed them through the slab with ease. Upon retreating, the stone slab read [119]. He realized he wouldn’t be able to read a lot of books; Rictus had been right when he said the sect took a huge cut. One hundred nineteen days of book-lending or one hundred nineteen books for one day.
“You can sense Yin and Yang energy?” Rictus asked casually, leading him away from the slab toward a shopping area. “It’s quite difficult to do. What technique are you cultivating? Frost or fire?”
Sol shrugged. “It’s important to have a good foundation. I want to equally master the quantity and quality of my Qi control, I think.”
“Hm,” Nox’Rictus replied with acknowledgment to his vague answer.
The boy stopped at an unmanned serving station where fresh bread and tea were being served, warm and steaming hot respectively. Another stone slab, this one white and green, displayed [119]. Sol followed his example, taking a loaf of tasty-looking bread filled with meat and a set of teacups. He stored them away for later. The tentacle incident was still fresh in his mind, so he wasn’t hungry yet.
Six points were deducted, and Rictus looked at him expectantly. “Show the way. I’m curious to see your secret entrance.”
They spent another few minutes retracing their steps, valuable time Sol used to try to learn more about the Aurelius Vox family. Rictus answered only in vague generalities. The only thing Sol could be sure of: Aurelius Vox was amazing, and even the branch family was more influential and powerful than any other family in the south.
Nyx made a mental note to research this later. Rictus might not be the most unbiased source.
When they stepped through the chiseled stone door decorated with book spines, Rictus slapped his forehead lightly. “Of course. This is stone. I must have looked at the door four or five times before and didn’t see it!”
“Yeah, it’s pretty detailed,” Sol agreed, feeling his legs weaken at the thought of encountering the tentacle monster in the dark again. Hopefully, the light stayed out so he could ignore it. “How is the other entrance?” he asked, hoping for normalcy.
“Well, it’s not a secret like this. Just a small building with a long staircase. Really long,” Rictus exclaimed in exhaustion. “I feel tired just thinking about climbing it again. Many more stairs than here.”
Nyx smiled as they reached the top of the stairway. “Well, this one is probably quicker,” he said mysteriously, stepping onto the formation that dried his clothes once more. This time, he hardly felt a difference—just the removal of sweat.
“This tunnel… is it underwater?” Rictus asked, astonished by the barrier keeping the water perfectly in check.
“Yes, and the lighting is pretty dim. You can hardly see it when diving down. I couldn’t see it at all,” Sol confessed. “You want to leave through here? I’ll… stay and read some more.”
Rictus waved him off. “Yeah, yeah. Thanks for showing me.” His gaze was curious and determined.
Nyx felt a little guilty but didn’t warn the boy about the other presence nearby. Was this how the green-haired girl had felt? Had someone done the same to her when she was new? It felt mischievous.
He waved Rictus goodbye, turning back toward the library. Then the lights turned on all around him.
Rictus was no longer swimming casually into the darkness. Instead, he was being pushed upward toward the surface by Mr. Tentacles.
The grin on Sol’s face lasted all throughout the tunnel. And the stairway. Through the door. Past the curious passersby and into the reading area.
Then his face dropped. He was greeted by a familiar light blue barrier.
Right.
Rictus had locked the books.