Naath stood outside of the doors to the library, it was hard for him to believe it had been a little over a week since he had been here due to altering his body. He smiled and calmly stepped inside, once inside the librarian smiled and greeted him and said he was happy Naath was no longer ill. Naath nodded his head, smiling and continuing to walk deeper into the library. After only a minute he was in the gold ranked part of the library, other than the underground area this was the place the least amount of people would bother him. But the underground was too stuffy for Naath’s tastes.

Preferring the smell of the fresh books, the smell of the leather and the paper all joining together. He found a section about the founding of the country, boring history, and sat down to begin meditation. He cleared his mind and slowly began to circulate the second half of the empty soul method. Very quickly Naaths soul energy began to circulate and gravitate towards his core soul inside of the empty void area. Due to the unique nature of Naath’s souls or rather the fact that he had multiple souls at all, the soul energy was purified differently than last time. First the energy in his white void soul slowly began to go inside of his central soul.

As the energy slowly trickled into this area Naath observed it and slowly began to gain a deeper understanding of creation. After all, this soul sea represented creation at the highest level, without fully understanding his own soul he would simply never advance. Right now he was only working to understand creation, this was only one fourth of his soul that he would have to comprehend. If Naath weren't running the empty soul method he would probably want to cry. The energy was just barely trickling into Naath’s central soul as it was processed and then slowly released back into his creation soul.

This was not even mentioning the fact that each of his souls in this life were large enough to show signs of forming their own world before he felt the limits of his souls. Now as he was purifying the energy compared to his old life it was roughly a thousand times more soul energy he had to purify! After an hour Naath had only managed to cleanse one one hundredth of the soul energy in just his creation soul. In fact the energy was just now starting to turn into a white liquid energy more pure and clean than anything that should exist in the world.

If elder Gui were here he would be crying tears of insanity realising the level his disciple had now reached was far beyond anything he would ever achieve. Two more hours passed quietly and Naaths speed of refinements slowly began to increase over time. The more he understood creation, the clearer the image in his head and the easier he made new connections about the information. Now there was a constant stream of energy going into Naath’s central soul and a clear trickle of liquid soul energy returning to the creation soul.

In this time Naath had managed to actually refine five one hundredths of the energy in his soul. While this might seem marginal, keep in mind it took one hour for a single hundredth before. His speed had doubled in these two hours! Just as he was finishing refining the 7th portion of 100 in his soul some people walked into this section of the library. It was a group of five young cultivators about the same age as Naath’s current body. However Naath was completely oblivious due to being in the empty soul state. When the four saw Naath they all had odd expressions, they could sense that the kid meditating in the middle of the library was a mortal.

They couldn't wrap their heads around this since only noble children who had at least started cultivation like them were allowed up here. The group of four exchanged glances and a shorter boy with glasses spoke first.

“Dan, I don't think we should bother him, for a mortal to be in here his status is probably special.”

He was mocked quickly by one of his peers. “Rhyyth don't be such a cowardly bookworm. Look, this kid is not only in a section he shouldn't be in, he is completely ignoring us nobles who actually worked for the permission to be here!”

Dan, the leader of the group said “Rhyyth, if you don't want to be here and help us take care of a trouble maker and uphold justice, then fine, you can leave. Me Conner and Andrew will handle this, but after this we will be reporting you as well.”

Rhyyth without hesitation turned on his heel and left the room. He didn’t know why but he felt like whoever the boy in front of them was he had an extraordinary status and should absolutely not be disturbed! He had few good qualities, he was short, had messy brown hair, poor vision, and a weaker body than most. His good qualities were that he studied almost religiously, and that his instinct had never even once failed him when he listened. He looked back at the trio one more time and suddenly he had a strange feeling when he glanced at Naath again.

He froze, very rarely did his instinct scream at him this loudly. The last time they had was when he had met his master near the end of the old man's life, that event had changed Rhyyth’s life! He grit his teeth and turned back around and stood in front of Naath putting his arms out and saying.

“I...Can’t let you guys hit this young master, if you want to harm him you will need to step past me first!”

Dan gave him and odd look and asked “Rhyyth, the fuck? When did you grow a pair of balls? And why of all times did you choose to grow them now and get in my way of all peoples? Did you have a stroke?! Did all those books go to your head or something?”

Andrew ignored this completely and said “Fine Rhyyth if this is what you want.”

With that he threw out a punch, Rhyyth tried to dodge but was a step too slow and got hit in the jaw. He adjusted his footing and caught himself standing between Naath and their group all the same. Connor clicked his tongue and stepped forward with a kick right to Rhyyth’s stomach knocking the wind right out of him. Rhyyth still stood there despite his red face and refused to move. Dan just shook his head and nodded to the other two. They worked together and grabbed both of Rhyyth’s arms and held him in place. Dan stepped forward and first kicked both of Rhyyth’s knees with two distinct “crack” sounds ringing out.

Stolen story; please report.

Rhyyth grit his teeth refusing to scream and get Naath in potentially more trouble by bringing the librarian. Dan continued by punching Rhyyth repeatedly to vent his frustration. As he did so he asked questions that seemed directed at Rhyyth but were really asked simply to vent.

“Why did you get in my way? This kid is just a mortal with no status, why are you taking such a beating for him? Is it really worth it bookworm, all this suffering to keep a simple mortal out of trouble. Now you're just going to sit here and let me beat you till I'm satisfied then it’s this mortal brat’s turn!”

After several more minutes of beating Rhyyth, Dan finally stopped and nodded to the other two. They dropped Rhyyth who fell to the floor. Dan with a sadistic smile on his face went to step over Rhyyth and towards Naath. Rhyyth grabbed Dan's leg weakly to try and stop him, even now. When he did Dan’s temper flared and he kicked Rhyyth in the jaw causing him to lose a tooth and spit out blood. The blood splattered across the floor with a small spray of it landing on Naath’s cheek. Naath who was in the middle of the 9th of 100 refinements for his soul creation, woke up from his empty state.

When he woke up from this state he looked at the scene in front of him. He saw a shorter boy in glasses on the ground beaten and bloodied, his glasses shattered, only the frames left on his face. The boy with glasses was grabbing the ankle of the boy and the front of a group of three. Two of the three were scowling at Naath and the third with his ankle gripped was scowling at the boy with glasses. When Rhyyth saw Naath’s open eyes he smiled an ugly smile with blood in his teeth. He spoke to Naath before passing out, managing to squeeze out a sentence.

“Young master, I'm glad to see you woke up, I held them off as long as I could. Run.”

With that Rhyyth’s eyes rolled back and he passed out unable to hang onto consciousness any longer. Naath was perplexed but pieced together the situation quite quickly because Dan spoke next.

“Brat good you're awake, scram the hell out of this library now and don't come back! A simple backwards mortal like you being in here is a stain on the sanctity of this place! It’s meant only for noble cultivators like myself and my brothers here. Oh and take this trash on the floor with you!”

Naath laughed mockingly and said “Tell you what, moron, I'll give you one free punch, if with one punch you can make me move even a step I will leave. If not all three of you grit your teeth and prepare for the beating of your lives!”

As Naath spoke he stood up and glared at the three who were clearly very hostile towards him. Then he looked down at Rhyyth and his face darkened and he got angry. He let out a breath of air that seemed to actually warm the whole room and whispered to himself. “Broken knees, shattered ribs, three missing teeth, cracked skull, punctured lung, and even a cracked pelvis. You three really were vicious enough.”

Dan ignored this as his rage had already reached the peak from being mocked by the mortal brat. He put his whole body weight and cultivation into a punch directly towards Naath’s face. Naath as if he didn't even see it stood perfectly still while looking down at Rhyyth. Dan’s fist made contact and a series of crackling noises rang out, the two by the side chuckled smugly thinking it was Naath’s skull shattering. Seconds later their expression changed as Dan fell to the ground and curled around his hand, his knuckles were completely shattered and his fingers would probably not heal right without some serious care.

After all, Naath's had boned comparable to solid iron at this point! It was only natural Dan’s fist had been broken beyond being recognisable as curled fingers. In places bones were sticking out of his hand. Naath looked down at Dan on the floor and sneered, clearly he was down for the count. He then looked at the other two and asked for their names. When he heard them he memorized them for later and then stepped over Dan towards the two. They both charged forward thinking what had just happened must have been a fluke! They tried to grab Naath’s arms and hold him in place, when they grabbed Naath’s arms however he simply lifted his feet and all of his weight suddenly threw the two inexperienced kids off balance.

Naath put his feet back down and caught himself stepping back swiftly and smashing the two’s heads into one another's. They fell to the floor, twitching and sobbing softly. Naath shook his head when he saw this and spoke up.

“Now now, we're only just getting started, tsk tsk you three are pathetic. Look at the young man you beat so viciously earlier, not a single tear in his eyes. Yet you three after suffering one of the dozens of injuries he received are already on the floor crying. Dont dish it out if you can't take it yourselves!”

With that Naath let a cruel smile spread across his face, his cultivation may be sealed but the progress his bones made was not. Only the martial energy was restricted after all. Slowly but surely one by one Naath began to give each of the three matching injuries for every single one that they had given Rhyyth. After only giving Dan two more he began to scream out and the librarian scrambled to come see what was going on. What he saw made his blood run cold and almost reversed. Naath with a smile fit for the devil himself was slowly torturing three younger boys while a fourth lay unconscious on the floor.

Naath turned to him and said “ah head librarian Shu, just in time. These three mercilessly beat the boy here for trying to protect me and had planned to beat and throw me out of the library. As I'm sure you can understand I am simply giving them a taste of their own medicine. Head librarian Shu you know my identity and I don't want to use it to hush you but I want to inform you that I will not be stopped until I consider this matter settled. Please come back later to grab them when they are unconscious and send them home. Thank you.”

With that Naath turned back around and the three boys being tortured looked at the librarian with eyes pleading for help and mercy. Their dreams were crushed however when the librarian spoke his next words.

“Of course young master Naath, I have guided you in learning all these years, how could I not know your personality let alone your identity? Continue as you please, I will close off my ears young master and send them home when you are done.”

With that Naath’s smile became colder and the three being tortured would swear from this day forward Naath was the embodiment of the devil! For the next hour sickening screams rang out through the library, but true to his word the librarian had closed off his sense of hearing. After an hour the noises finally stopped and Naath picked up Rhyyth and used his soul to check on the boy's condition. He nodded his head and knew he wouldn't die but he would need at least a year of rest if he healed by himself. Letting out a breath, Naath put Rhyyth over his shoulder and carried him down the library hall like luggage.

Once he made it to the front desk he smiled at the librarian and said “Head librarian Shu, please see to it that those unruly guests are kicked out of the library permanently. I will be taking this one home with me to see to his injuries. Thank you for running the library fairly.”

With that Naath cupped his fists and walked out of the library towards his family estate.