Chapter 16 - Library

Under the moonless and starry sky filled with different sizes of stars, a figure dressed in black from head to toe could be seen running soundlessly within the dark street.

The way this figure was running caused neither ripple in the air nor a single mark on the floor.

Unless one was to see this figure, they would have only thought it was a breeze that blew past.

Even if someone intentionally tried to see this figure, they would not because it was just too fast.

Running with a speed that's almost equal to that of light plus dressing in black in the dark.

The figure continued running quietly without pulsing, it definitely knows where it was going.

After running like that for almost an hour, the figure finally stopped in a quiet street.

It looked around the street which is a slum filled with dilapidated buildings and dirty beggars sleeping on the untiled floor without any fluctuations on its body, after that, it began to walk soundlessly.

At this moment, inside a dilapidated bookstore with scanty books on the shelves, an old man was currently dozing off on the counter.

"Bang….."

"Holly Mother of F*CK!!!! Which bastard was that?!"

The old man suddenly cursed out loud as he was scared awake by the loud sound.

He looked up with eyes that were about to spit out flame.

"Which motherf*cker are you to dare burst my door opened?" The old man cursed angrily, not caring about his old age at all.

"Old Qīpiàn, it seems you've forgotten me already." An emotionless hoarse voice suddenly sounded from the figure's mouth, making the angry old man pulse for some seconds.

"Ma- master, is that you?!" An unsure look replaced the stunned expression on the old man's face, as he stared intently at the figure in his front.

"Haven't I told you times with numbers to quit calling me your master, why would I want to be the master of someone that would die anytime soon?!"

"Hun!!! Ma- master, it's really you!!!" The old man suddenly exclaimed soberly, as if he could not hear what the other party had said. He stood up from his seat and began to walk slowly to the figure like someone who had lost his mind.

"Master- why?! Why did you leave for so many years?! I've waited, I've waited for you to come, I almost thought you've forsaken us!!" The old man began to burst out emotionally, his eyes getting red.

He sounded like someone who had waited several years for his wife who had promised she would not be long.

"Bang!!!!"

The old man abruptly fell to his knell when he reached the front of the figure, he looked up to the figure's face which only contained blurriness.

The emotionless feeling emanating from this figure finally changed a bit when it saw this.

"Old Qīpiàn, who told you I'm not watching you?!" The figure started with its hoarse voice.

"Hun?!"

'_'

"I've seen the wonder you've done with the Shadow's Guard, with its reputation becoming known all over the world, well done."

"Master, are you sure??"

"Yes!!"

The old man suddenly smiled brightly, with tears falling off his eyes.

"Thank you, master, I've not invested my life in vain…"

The figure looked quietly for a while.

"You know we can't talk here, right??"

"Oh!! Oh! I'm sorry master, I've forgotten myself," the old- laughed in embarrassment.

He stood up and respectfully lead the way to a small bookshelf in the store, he took a small book that was carelessly placed on the topmost of the shelf and also choose a random book from the shelf, he inserted these two books into each other from the two top, which fitted in perfectly.

After he did all this, he returned the two books which has turned into one to the space he had removed the second book, then magic happened.

The small bookshelf suddenly fell to the floor slowly, after it reached the floor, It began to sink into the hardwood, then, like a mechanism had been triggered, the hard floor was pushed downward, and a narrow staircase began to form one after the other.

The two fellows that were watching this scene acted as if they'd seen a normal thing.

"Master please!!" The old man waved for the strange fellow respectfully.

Without standing on any ceremony, the fellow dressed in black took the lead.

It began to climb down the dark and narrow step while the old man followed behind respectfully.

Where the steps lead to was a large dimly opening.

There was a long and wide table in the room with chairs surrounding it.

Mounted on these opening walls were five oil lamps which gave out the dimness in the room.

It looked like a room used for meetings.

The fellow dressed in black walked slowly to the largest and tallest chair placed at the front which looked like that of the leader, then he sat on it like it rightfully belongs to it.

The old man, who acted as if everything was as it should also take a seat a few distances adjacent to this fellow.

"Old Qīpiàn, how many spies, warriors, and assassins do we have now?"

The old man thought for some seconds before replying.

"Master, we have exactly 184 spies, 249 warriors, and 195 assassins which is 629 in total, but we are still recruiting."

"Hmm…" the figure made a sound with its throat which does not show any emotion"

"I will give you some tasks now, mind you, half of these shadow guards member might lose their lives if we are careful, and all of them if we are careless," the voice began emotionlessly.

"Thump… thump"

The old man's heart began to beat at a fast pace.

…..

'Hmm!!! Never knew this little continent would have so many counties and empires in it.' Li Yu thought as he flipped the huge book he was reading to the next page.

This is the second day Li Yu had entered the cold palace.

He had not bothered knowing the place when he had got there, in fact, he had stopped searching around when he saw the huge library.

The Library occupied more than 50 hectares of land and it was built with the intention that the original owner of this palace would have something to do when bored.

All the books here are so numerous to count and are of many types ranging from politics to history, to cultivation, to dangerous and none dangerous places, to entertainment, and more.

Li Yu who had thought he would immediately start his cultivation was completely enraptured when he saw this.

He thought he'd be able to find anything related to heaven's domain continent.

Though he had gained much understanding of the continent the Xuan empire was located in, he had gotten no hint concerning heaven's domain continent.

'Thankfully, this empire was just the tip of an iceberg on this continent,' Li Yu thought again as he flipped the book to the next page again.

Li Yu was feeling grateful that he had gone against his father's wish which had gotten him 'punished' here.

Although the original owner of Li Yu had loved to study, he couldn't do much because of many constraints, he could only study and focus secretly.

Li Yu contained reading books after books as if he had been possessed, he lost awareness of time and his surroundings. He had not even touched any of the meals brought by the head of chefs.

Also, Li Yu did not even have the time to notice that Little Liu had broken her promise of coming to visit him.