37 Art

Jack chuckled at the calls of "Slacker!" and "Deserter!" as he entered his new office. In the next couple of hours, he went over all of the scrolls that Du Angliang saved in the office. When he finished he felt a deeper appreciation of Du Angliang's administrative skills.

Every debt and payment of an organization had their own neat record. 'How did the others get so indebted to Elder Yu?' Jack first wondered as he checked the new records. Once he got to the older ones he realized that the others didn't pay their bills at all in the past, only after Du Angliang took over and urged the Elder into action did they form a plan for the owed payments, with interest.

Jack smirked as he thought 'I believe that Elder Yu mentioned something about needing some extra funds for an experiment. These payments should double for the next couple of months, just so he's sure that he has enough for his projects.'

When he finished with everything Jack stood up and stretched his stiff back as he thought 'Haven't done this many calculations in a long time. It feels strangely comfortable. With this and the library, I feel like I'm back in school.' A second later he shook his head to disperse the whimsical thoughts as his face turned serious and he left the office.

After walking up the main street of Tranquil Lake Town for a few minutes, Jack reached a large arched doorway with double doors made out of some kind of black as ink wood. The door on the left had the double circle crest of the Endless Cycle Sect painted in shining silver, while the door on the right had a stylized scroll painted in bright gold.

Jack looked at, and around, the doors for a minute and couldn't find a handle. Just as he planned to bang on the doors, a voice from behind him asked "First time?"

With a start, Jack looked over his shoulder and saw an average looking young man in light blue robes smiling at him. 'Have to stop relying on cultivation to sense my surroundings.' Jack thought with chagrin as he scanned the friendly face.

He turned around to face the young man as he scratched the back of his head and said "Yeah." He glanced back at the doors and asked "How do you get in?"

The young man reached into his robe and took out a round and shining metallic stone to show to Jack, it looked the same as the library token that Jack had in his robes. Stepping up to the left door, the young man placed the token in the center of the two circles. Jack's eyes didn't blink as he watched the spirit energy illuminate thus far invisible sigils in a line straight to the other door's scroll. Once the energy reached it, the scroll unfurled and allowed Jack to see the handle for the door.

With a push on the handle, the young man easily swung the door open. He turned back to look at Jack and said "Come in."

The words snapped Jack out of his reverie and he hurried through the door after the young man.

Inside, Jack saw a beautiful little park with stone-paved paths that lead through patches of flowers and decorative bushes, even a small pond for relaxation lay in a corner. All the paths in the park led to either the entrance or to a large three-story cream-colored building that stood opposite from the entrance.

As he looked around the park with wide eyes Jack asked the young man "Do we use the complicated doors to protect this?"

The young man shook his head in amusement as he said "No, the Elders had to do it because the scum in this town cannot be trusted. If you gave them even a single chance they would slit your throat." He looked out to the park as he added "We maintain this little piece of nature out of fun."

Jack quickly lost his brief rose-tinted glasses as he blinked his eyes a few times. He looked suspiciously at the plain-looking walls that surrounded everything as he asked "Can't they come over the walls?"

A cruel little smile appeared on the young man's amiable face as he said "They can try."

Jack felt a small shiver pass through his spine as he glanced at the walls once more, this time with slight fear.

The young man broke the silence with a bark of laughter and started walking towards the large building while saying "I am Li Manning, a sixth grade outer disciple in the service of the Vast Sky Mountain, and the librarian here." He looked back at Jack with a sly smirk as he said "If you came half an incense stick of time earlier you would not have been able to enter, even with the token. We only start working after the morning meal."

Jack almost smacked his forehead as he thought 'Right, not everyone gets up at dawn here, no wonder the park's empty.', but he just pasted a slightly surprised expression on his face and said "Oh, right. I usually get up much earlier due to my job. I'm Song Tanda, fourth grade direct disciple under Elder Yu and the Eternal Rest Mountain." He hesitated a little before saying "I'm in charge of the Gravediggers."

Li Manning's brows rose as he said "A direct disciple already." A second later he added awkwardly "Under Elder Yu… Well, I am certain that you will fare much better than some of his former disciples."

Jack gave out a hollow laugh as they reached the doors of the library. This time they worked like normal doors and Li Manning unlocked their padlock with a key and led the way in.

With a few strands of spirit energy, Li Manning strengthened the Light Orbs that illuminated the huge space as he walked to a large reception desk that stood to the right of the entrance.

Shelves filled with scrolls lined all of the walls of the main hall. On top of that, three additional rows mimicked their placement with a couple of meters left in-between for browsing. The center of the hall had room for four tables with chairs where the disciples could go to read. There existed only four breaks in the walls of shelves, right in the middle of each wall, where a door led to a different room.

Jack studied the library for a dozen seconds with greedy eyes, before turning towards Li Manning and walking to the reception desk.

"Disciple Brother Li, can you help me with searching for certain topics?" Jack asked as he placed his hands on the reception desk and looked at Li Manning with his best lost-child face.

Li Manning looked at Jack with a level gaze and pointed to the side of the reception desk.

Jack turned his head and looked, only to see a wooden pricelist that stood next to the reception desk. It had four different prices listed: Help in a topic search – 1 silver coin per scroll, Private room rental – 10 silver coins per stick of incense, Access to the top floor – 1 spirit stone, Time on the top floor – 1 gold coin per stick of incense.

With disbelief on his face, Jack turned to look at Li Manning and asked "Really?"

Li Manning shrugged his shoulders as he answered with "Cultivation is an expensive way of life, we all need to make money somehow."

Jack gave a hollow laugh as he said "I need beginner information on sigils, and a couple of scrolls that describe the local geography." and counted out ten silver coins.

Li Manning gave him a professional smile as he scooped up the coins and said "Please take a seat, the requested scrolls will be with you in a few breaths."

'These things cost more than my old College books. Damned scam!' Jack complained to himself as he sat at one of the tables and waited for his scrolls.

A few minutes later Li Manning came over with ten scrolls floating in his wake. He had them all land in two piles in front of Jack and said in a practiced manner "Here are the materials that you requested, Sir. If you need anything else please do not hesitate to ask at the reception desk."

Jack stared at his departing back and cursed his professionalism for a few seconds.

The cursing continued as he studied the two scrolls that supposedly had information about the local area. One of them dated to 400 years ago, and the other to 250 years ago. They both had totally different maps and information in them. Only the area in and around the Endless Cycle Sect looked similar, the rest of it looked like the artists drew things from their imaginations. Where one had a river, the other one had a tall mountain, where one had a forest, the other had a desert. Even the information contradicted itself, one said that a mountain stood in the direction of the rising Sun, the other that the same mountain stood in the direction of the setting Sun.

After half an hour Jack rubbed his forehead in frustration and rolled the two scrolls up. He picked them up and stomped back to the reception desk.

Li Manning noticed him coming and raised his head up from a scroll with a welcoming smile.

Jack ignored the false courtesy as he stopped in front of the reception desk and said "These things don't make sense. How can two pieces of information about the same thing contradict themselves so much?" while he waved the two scrolls in front of Li Manning's nose.

Li Manning frowned as he took the scrolls from Jack's hand and unfurled them. After studying them for a minute he looked up at Jack and said "I see no errors here. Things change with time."

"No errors?! They're supposed to describe the local area, are there two different local areas that I should know about?" Jack fumed as he pointed at the scrolls.

Li Manning's face became frosty as he said "Do you doubt the work of our Seniors?"

Jack felt like someone threw a bucket of cold water over his head as he looked at the furious eyes of the librarian. 'Calm down, need to calm down. Can't let the importance of the issue cloud my judgment.' he thought as he took in a deep calming breath.

"No, of course not, I apologize for my rudeness. I'm just confused as to why the area changed so much in such a short time." Jack said as he lowered the tone of his voice into a more calming one.

After a second Li Manning looked mollified as he glanced down at the scrolls and said "Some of the Elders like to practice their spells on the outskirts of the Sect. From what I heard from my Seniors, things can get… intense."

Jack's eyes widened at the realization of what that meant for their plans as he tried one last time and asked "Do any more recent records exist?"

Li Manning thought for a few seconds, shook his head, and said "Not ones that I know of. There might exist a few diaries from Elders that traveled around the local area on the top floor that could have some descriptions in them." He looked at the crestfallen Jack in sympathy and added "Geography is not that popular among cultivators."

Jack sighed, thanked Li Manning, picked up his scrolls, and went back to his table.

He set the local area scrolls to the side and started studying the ones that explained sigils.

A couple of hours later he finished reading his last scroll. Only the few disciples that gathered in the library by that point prevented him from screaming out 'ART! It's all f*cking art! Those God damned old bastards!'