“Ah, you again?”
The elder behind the counter squinted at Ning over the rim of his teacup, his half-lidded eyes almost as hazy as the steam curling from it. A faint but unmistakable scent of wine hung in the air-the sort of
special tea
that probably required a knowing look and two winks to order during working hours.
If Ning was being honest, the man played the role of a lazy yet mysteriously important elder a little
too
well.
Ning smiled politely. “Elder, I came to exchange a martial art and return the body-refining manual.”
He placed the Jade Skin and Icy Meridian Technique on the counter.
“Mm, you’ve kept it well.” Elder Shen gave the manual a cursory inspection before nodding. He saw countless disciples pass through the Scripture Pavilion and rarely bothered remembering them, but Ning had left enough of an impression during his previous visit to be recognizable.
“So, what are you exchanging this time?”
Ning presented two manuals, one for the Bone Forging Fist and the other for Shadow Steps. Elder Shen had already mentioned that the Pavilion possessed the former, but Ning had brought it anyway. Better to carry an unnecessary manual than make another trip because an old man’s memory had been soaked in
tea
.
As expected, Elder Shen barely glanced through the first before tossing it aside. “Already have it.”
He opened Shadow Steps next, still holding his teacup in one hand. His eyes moved lazily across the first few pages, but as he continued, some of the haze gradually disappeared from his expression.
“Hm. Clean structure, steady qi flow, sensible footwork.” He flipped through several more pages. “None of that useless nonsense people add to make a technique look profound. Not bad for a mortal-rank art.”
“Elder has a sharp eye.”
Elder Shen gave him a sidelong glance. “Flattery burns faster than cheap wine, boy. Save your breath.”
So they were no longer pretending it was tea.
Ning thought, but naturally he wouldn't voice it aloud.
The elder closed the manual and tapped it against the counter. “Still, the Pavilion doesn’t have this one. You can exchange it.”
Ning cupped his hands. “Then I’d like the Turtle Breathing Art.”
“Turtle Breathing?” Elder Shen raised a brow. “Hiding your breath, suppressing your qi, playing dead... rather cautious for someone your age.”
Ning smiled. “It seemed useful for staying alive.”
That earned a genuine chuckle. “Heh. Sensible brat. I’ve always said cowards fill graveyards slower than heroes."
Apparently, Elder Shen had grown thoroughly tired of watching young cultivators choose whatever technique had the most impressive name. Ning could understand the feeling. The elder reminded him of professors back on Earth who had watched generations of bright-eyed freshmen confidently make the exact same mistakes. Advice could be given, warnings could be repeated, but some lessons apparently required personal suffering.
“Fine. Register the exchange at the counter,” Elder Shen said. “Same rules as usual. One week.”
“Thank you, Elder.” Ning hesitated for a moment before adding, “There’s one more thing. I was looking for a book on inner demons yesterday, but I couldn’t find it anywhere.”
“Inner demons?” Elder Shen took another sip of his suspiciously fragrant tea. “There should be one on the first floor.”
“I searched there.”
“Then search harder.”
Ning stared at him blankly.
Elder Shen sighed and reluctantly added, “The first floor hasn’t been properly sorted in ages. The book is there somewhere. Where exactly?” He shrugged. “Heavens know.”
Unfortunately, that was a fair description of the first floor.
Calling it a library was generous. Scrolls lay across tables and shelves with no obvious order, books had been shoved into whatever space happened to be available, and half-open manuals were stacked in precarious towers that looked one careless touch away from experiencing the wrath of gravity. The handymen, terrified of 'misplacing' something sacred, simply swept around the chaos.
Ning’s gaze sharpened slightly. This was the opportunity he had been waiting for.
“Elder, if I may... I think I could help with that.”
Elder Shen glanced at him over his cup. “Help with what?”
“The first floor. I could organize it and make it easier for disciples to find what they’re looking for.”
The elder leaned back, his chair creaking beneath him. “You want to organize
that
mess?” He gave Ning a skeptical look. “You really are new.”
“I’ve dealt with large libraries before,” Ning said with a modest smile. “I know a few methods that might help.”
That earned a little more interest. “Oh?”
“Start by separating everything into cultivation methods, martial arts, spells, miscellaneous records, and so on. Then divide those by rank and attribute where necessary. Each shelf gets a fixed designation, and every manual gets a corresponding entry in a central record. That way, even if someone doesn’t know exactly where a book is, they can find the section it belongs to.”
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Elder Shen stopped drinking.
Ning continued, “The borrowing system could use reusable wooden tags instead of loose paper slips. Record the disciple, manual, borrowing date, and return date. Once every book has a designated place, the handymen can put things back without worrying about accidentally moving something important.”
He reached into his robes and placed a folded sheet of parchment on the counter. “I made a rough plan.”
Elder Shen stared at the parchment, then at Ning.
“You came prepared.”
“A little.”
The elder unfolded it. What Ning had called a
rough plan
contained shelf arrangements, classifications, a simple borrowing system, and even a rotation for cleaning and checking misplaced manuals.
Elder Shen’s skepticism gradually gave way to interest.
“Wooden tags... fixed shelf numbers... separate records for borrowing and returns.” He flipped the parchment over before looking at Ning again. “You even planned the cleaning?”
“If we organize everything and let it become a mess again, we’ll be back where we started.”
“Hah. At least you’ve thought it through.”
The Scripture Pavilion had only fallen under Elder Shen’s care in recent years. Its previous manager had been a diligent deacon, but after a theft incident led to his dismissal, responsibility eventually landed on Elder Shen.
Unfortunately, while the old man was perfectly capable of protecting the Pavilion, administration was another matter entirely. As long as no one stole anything important and the building remained standing, his standards for success were remarkably flexible.
The Elder Council had already mentioned reorganizing the place more than once, though.
Elder Shen rubbed his chin. “Were you planning this from the beginning?”
Ning cupped his hands with an appropriately sincere expression. “I merely saw a problem and thought I could contribute to the sect.”
“Bullshit.”
Ning’s smile didn't change.
Elder Shen laughed. “Slippery brat.”
Truthfully, Ning
had
been thinking about this for a while.
Outer Sect disciples were only allowed two hours inside the Scripture Pavilion at a time, which was already restrictive enough without spending half of it searching through piles of misplaced books. If Ning helped reorganize the first floor, however, he would have a perfectly legitimate reason to spend far more time here.
If Elder Shen made it an official mission, even better. Ning could fulfill part of his sect obligations while doing something he already wanted to do.
And then there was Elder Shen himself.
After a year in the sect, Ning had learned that cultivation wasn't only about techniques and resources. Connections mattered too. Talent might open doors, but knowing the right people made considerably fewer of those doors slam shut in your face.
Elder Shen might spend most of his days drinking suspicious tea behind a counter, but he was still a Foundation Establishment cultivator with considerable seniority in the sect. More importantly, Ning had asked around before approaching him. The old man was lazy, blunt, and somewhat foul-mouthed, but he had a reputation for being fair and occasionally offering guidance to juniors he found promising.
Ning wasn't the protagonist. Backers wouldn't fall from the sky for him.
He needed to make the effort to gain them.
Still, Ning wasn't going to force the matter. Getting on Elder Shen’s good side would be useful, but that was only a secondary benefit. What he really wanted was access to the Pavilion. After everything that had happened with his inner demon, there were far too many things about cultivation-and himself-that he still didn't understand.
Elder Shen studied him for a few moments before finally setting down his cup.
“Fine. Three months.”
Ning raised a brow. “Three months?”
“Organize the first floor. If I can walk down there three months from now and find a book without developing a heart demon myself, I’ll consider your little experiment a success.”
Ning smiled. “Then I’ll do my best. There is one thing, though.”
“Of course there is.”
“I’ll need to spend several hours here each day. Could this be registered as an official mission?”
Elder Shen stared at him before letting out a short laugh. “You really do squeeze every benefit you can out of something, don’t you?”
“Efficiency is important, Elder.”
“Efficiency, he says.” Elder Shen shook his head, though he seemed more amused than annoyed. “Fine. I’ll have it registered and assign a few servants to help you. You came up with the headache, so you can be the one responsible for making it work.”
Ning cupped his hands. “Thank you, Elder.”
...
For the next few days, Ning busied himself with reorganizing the first floor of the Scripture Pavilion.
Truthfully, the work was much easier than it sounded. The servants handled most of the actual labor, while Ning mainly decided where everything belonged, kept track of what had already been sorted, and made sure no important scripture accidentally ended up in the cleaning pile.
The servants themselves were almost excessively diligent. None of them wanted to be responsible for damaging something belonging to the Scripture Pavilion, so after Ning explained the system and assured them that they wouldn't be blamed for following his instructions, they carried them out with almost religious precision.
Ning quickly settled into a routine. He tended to his fields in the morning, handled whatever else needed his attention, and then spent a few hours at the Pavilion supervising the work.
Or, as Ning preferred to call it, reading.
Today, that arrangement finally paid off.
After several days of searching, he found the book on inner demons.
According to the text, inner demons were strange, otherworldly entities that preyed upon the negative emotions buried within cultivators. They possessed no ordinary physical form and most commonly appeared during major breakthroughs, after the breaking of important oaths, or when a cultivator's state of mind became particularly unstable.
Their attacks were equally strange. Rather than simply attacking the soul from outside, an inner demon would probe a cultivator's memories, uncover their fears, doubts, regrets, and insecurities, then use those weaknesses to provoke a heart tribulation from within.
If the cultivator failed to overcome it, the consequences ranged from qi deviation and a damaged cultivation base to outright death. Some records even claimed particularly powerful inner demons could temporarily occupy the victim's body and consume fragments of their memories before disappearing again.
Ning's expression became increasingly serious as he read through the recorded cases.
Apparently, what he had experienced was only a relatively minor manifestation. The true inner-demon tribulations encountered at higher realms were far worse, capable of creating illusions so convincing that cultivators could spend what felt like years trapped within them. More importantly, such trials became increasingly difficult to avoid as cultivation advanced. Golden Core cultivators and those beyond it would eventually have to confront their own heart tribulations as their souls grew stronger and more sensitive.
Fortunately, cultivators had spent countless generations figuring out ways to improve their chances. The book listed treasures such as the Bodhi Enlightenment Pearl and Clear Heart Lotus, along with several mind-calming techniques and preparations Ning had never heard of.
More interestingly, not every recorded cultivator overcame their inner demon by simply resisting it. Some destroyed the illusion through sheer force of will, while others confronted whatever weakness the demon had exposed and resolved it. There were even accounts of cultivators accepting the very flaw being used against them, causing the heart tribulation to collapse once it could no longer shake their Dao Heart.
By the time Ning reached the final page, much of the mystery surrounding his previous experience had disappeared.
Good.
If another one ever came for him, at least he wouldn't be going in blind.
Then, a sudden thought struck him.
An otherworldly being?
Well, that described him perfectly.
Caused qi deviation?
The original Ji Ning had indeed suffered from qi deviation.
Devoured memories?
Ning had woken up with all of Ji Ning’s memories sitting neatly inside his head.
Ning froze. "...Am I the inner demon?"
...
Thanks for reading~