Universal Knowledge of the Dao - Chapter 96

At the first lights of dawn, Shin Sumi entered East Silver City.

As she walked through the streets, still mostly empty at that time of day, she didn’t spare a glance to the baker opening shop or the smoke starting to rise from the blacksmiths’ forges.

She headed past the first neighborhood, the artisan district and the long walls of the many officials’ mansions. She walked straight to a large rectangular building with high windows at the end of a small plaza.

The building was old and its grey stones had turned black in some parts, but the front of it was still clean and as beautiful as ever in Shin Sumi’s eyes.

“The library,” she spoke in an ushered tone despite the fact that she hadn’t entered yet.

The library wasn’t open yet, it was still too early for that. Standing in the corner of a small alley, Shin Sumi looked at it for a long time, waiting for the front door to open.

After half an hour of silent looks under her cloak, Shin Sumi’s eyes grew wide and wet as she saw a familiar silhouette pushing the two heavy wood panels open.

“Second Uncle!”

Without realizing it, she heaved a sigh of relief. For some reason she had been afraid her relative wouldn’t work there anymore. That the man who would open the door wasn’t the Chief Librarian she always knew.

Calming her heart in a way only cultivators could, she closed her eyes briefly. When she opened them, she pushed her cloak away from her head and walked straight towards the building’s entrance.

“Good morning” Yan Yan’s voice accompanied her steps.

From behind his counter, Shin Jiang lifted his head. He looked for a brief second at the teen, returning her salutations. The man’s face was emaciated and his temples were full of wrinkles, despite the fact that his hair was still black as a crow.

Shin Sumi had once asked about his wrinkles when she was too young to understand that it was not polite. Shin Jiang had laughed before responding, “some books are written in very small characters so naturally I have to make my eyes small as well to read them!”

He had pointed at his face and squinted really hard, the skin of his temples folding on itself. He had also stuck his tongue out and sent his eyes looking in different directions. Shin Sumi had laughed for an entire day after that, engraving that memory forever in her young mind.

“What? Pardon me, I wasn’t paying attention,” Shin Sumi realized she had been standing there for a second while her Second Uncle had spoken.

“I said: are you looking for something specific, fair lady?” the Chief Librarian repeated patiently.

His tone was calm and soothing, ushered as always even though they were the only two people in the building.

“I am interested in popular stories regarding the Story of the People,” Shin Sumi spoke without thinking about what she was saying.

The Story of the People was an ensemble of texts. Scrolls, parchments, carvings much older than any other writing. The mythical People, rising from the belly of the earth and ascending to the Heavens, preceded the current era by at least dozens of millenia, if not more.

While Shin Sumi indubitably knew of their existence, having seen traces of their ancient southern tongue in the Floating Continent of the Rising Star Tournament, most people thought of them as myths and legends from when they were children. Exactly like Immortals.

“I would also like a blank scroll, ink and a brush please!”

Out of nowhere the thought popped into her mind and moved to her lips, where it escaped in a soft voice.

Her uncle looked at her with a gentle smile, “that will be two coins for the writing material and one for reading.”

Shin Sumi searched the inside pockets of her cloak for a second before passing the money to him. She had decided to keep her mortal currency in her cloak because she was afraid of producing riches out of thin air by force of habit if she used her bag of holding.

The library of East Silver City was funded by the many apprentice scholars who wished to learn their ways to the ranks of officials, as such it was common practice to pay for entering the library and to rent writing tools for taking notes.

“Every book is precious to a librarian,” Shin Sumi’s Second Uncle had once explained to her, “we are not selling books here. If people want to take the books out with them, they will have to copy it first.”

Shin Sumi also knew that paying upfront before entering the reading room was a way to avoid thieves. This was the reason the Chief Librarian’s desk and counter were located right at the entrance of the building.

Walking under the massive shelves full of old and discolored books, Shin Sumi inhaled silently. Dust, leather, paper, dry ink; all of the smells instantly reminded her of why she had always wanted to be a librarian.

***

The day was coming to an end and the high windows were starting to darken when Shin Sumi stood up from her reading table.

She had spent the entire day reading books and she was just now realizing that the sun was already setting.

She pocketed her writing materials, still completely unused. She had only laid them down in front of her like most of the young scholars that had come in and out of the library all day. From her reading table she had also spent quite a good amount of time observing her uncle at work.

More than once, Shin Sumi thought about uncovering her real identity. Returning to her old life, becoming a mortal again and working here, in the middle of books.

But she knew it was only a futile fantasy. She was an Immortal.

She had come to hate something she had realized early on in the day. She was fighting internally against it but she knew it was the truth.

“Out of the thousands of books around me, none of them are half as interesting as what can be found in the world of cultivators.”

Farmer’s records, medicinal use of local plants, arithmetics, folklore,… The books in her uncle’s library were probably the finest in the entire Silver Sea region and yet to her they seemed rather insipid.

“I still want to become a librarian… However, I want to be an Immortal librarian!”

Shin Sumi put all the books she had read back on their shelves, donned her cloak and walked back to the entrance of the building.

Her Second Uncle, Shin Jiang, seemed to be waiting for her with a smile. For a split second, emotions rushed from deep within her soul and flushed her face. She wanted to go back to simpler times.

“Good luck on your scholar exams, come back anytime” the Chief Librarian said.

“Thank you Unc-, erm, thank you Sir” she promptly replied. Exiting the library, the heavy wooden doors closed behind her.

Shin Sumi let out a long sigh. As she walked through the familiar streets of the big city, she let the tears welled up in her eyes flow freely.

***

It took Shin Sumi almost an hour until she could regain enough concentration to calm her heart and stop her emotions from surfacing again. She had just reached the outskirts of the big city and the land in front of her was completely devoid of light, or rather it would be without the Copper Bell.

“Seeing Second Uncle first was the right choice. I almost broke into tears in front of him but I was able to barely contain myself” she thought as she was now on her way to East Seaside Village, the home of her parents and where she had spent the entirety of her mortal life.

A flash of green light later, Nuan was trailing along with her, flapping her wings awkwardly for a few minutes before trotting on the ground when her wings were tired.

As bats were nocturnal animals, Nuan’s black beady eyes seemed perfectly adapted to the ambient darkness.

Sometimes, a glow worm would attract the Lion Bat’s attention. Shin Sumi would then stop walking and watch her companion hunt her prey. After the events of the day and those to come, Shin Sumi felt reassured having Nuan around her.

The night breeze was almost cold but she didn’t care. She was deep in thoughts when in front of her on the familiar road, she spotted the forest, jolting her memory awake.

At about the midway point between East Seaside Village and East Silver City, a portion of the road cut through a large forest. But more importantly, it was the forest she got lost in the first day she left her home, before meeting Fen Wudao for the first time.

“This is where I found you, Nuan! Do you want to go take a look?”

Nuan seemed disinterested, or didn’t understand what Shin Sumi said. Shaking her head, Shin Sumi grabbed the Lion Bat, forcing her onto her shoulder before running through the trees.

Shin Sumi secretly hoped that going back to the forest where she had found the little nut would provoke some reaction from Nuan.

The both of them made their way between the trees in search of something. Shin Sumi’s divine sense was spread large, concentrated on her memories of the strange clearing but also looking out for the dark green wisps that had paved her way back then.

She remembered clearly her dismay when she had woken up. The clearing and the tree stump had disappeared, much like the dozens of wisps that had accompanied her.

At the time she had thought it strange but hadn’t paid much attention to it. After all she had just woken up from what could only have been a dream. Then she had found the book, the little nut, met Fen Wudao and joined the Dark Sky Starry Sect.

It had been such a life-changing day that the vanishing clearing wasn’t worth mentioning in the same sentence.

Now that she was a cultivator, however, she had hoped to be able to understand the situation more.

But after hours of searching the forest, Shin Sumi only found frustration instead of answers. She had even let Nuan go as she pleased, to no avail.

The Lion Bat was great at unearthing worms and fallen walnuts but didn’t spark any reaction from the forest itself.

“What a waste of time, playing hide and seek in the forest” Shin Sumi grumbled, “let’s go back to the road, Nuan, okay?”

There were still a few hours left before the sun would rise when Shin Sumi’s cloaked figure drew near East Seaside Village.

The Hu family farm, Pei’s tannery, the village’s school,… Shin Sumi let her senses completely take in her surroundings.

But all of that didn’t matter. She was there now.

Shin Sumi sent a divine sense impulse to Nuan. Without complaining, the Lion Bat disappeared in the leaf pattern on her wrist. How would the townsfolk react if they saw a cloaked figure in the night accompanied by a demonic looking creature like a Lion Bat?

Shin Sumi walked silently through the familiar city. She was about to turn from the main street and go in the direction of her family mansion when her heart seemed struck by a strange frenzy.

She had reigned in her divine sense as soon as she entered the village ten minutes ago but she was unaware that she had also stopped breathing entirely. How could she forget to breathe?!

Anxiety took over Shin Sumi, forcing her to calm down and steady her dantian to help regulate her body. Soon, a normal flow of air opened her lungs again.

The reason for her anxiety was obvious. What if something had happened to them? To her parents? What if they didn’t live there anymore? What if… something worse happened?

At a pace that was less than steady and confident, Shin Sumi turned in the direction of the Shin mansion.

She first saw the roof, then the gate. As she drew closer and closer, she realized the gate was open.

Stepping into the entrance to the family estate, Shin Sumi felt like her young self again for the span of a single heartbeat.

“Nothing has changed,” she observed. The pond was green, which wasn’t unusual at this time of the year. The bushes and trees seemed to be waiting for the spring, the burgeons patiently biding their time.

Like a shadow, Shin Sumi made her way to the front door of the mansion. The door was closed, as expected. Using the necessary amount of Shinsoo, Shin Sumi lept in the air, silently landing on the slanted roof.

“There always used to be an open window in here… Yes!”

Shin Sumi was now inside the house. Were it not for the Copper Bell, she would have been in complete darkness. Not that it bothered her, she knew the house like the back of her hand.

By a force of habit stronger than the three years she spent away, Shin Sumi effortlessly walked along the corridor, past her father’s office and her mother’s sewing room then down the stairs, placing her feet only where the wooden boards didn’t creak.

Shin Sumi reached her bedroom first.

It was a simple room with a large bed. The winter covers had been dr.a.p.ed over the latter as per usual for the season. At the bottom of the bed was a large wooden c.h.e.s.t, where Shin Sumi used to store her clothes.

She would have opened it and put her fingers on the soft fabric of her favorite dress but she knew that the c.h.e.s.t was impossible to open without making a horrible noise.

In her mind, Shin Sumi knew that she could have done it easily by using a sound barrier formation or something like that but she didn’t want to. She was already close to a mental breakdown and the simplest things could topple her over.

Before entering the house she had already decided that she wouldn’t stay, that she would escape before anybody woke up, but she also knew her willpower was very thin and fragile.

The rest of her room consisted of a small desk and its chair, a dresser and two shelves. Shin Sumi frowned slightly at the look of the empty shelves.

All of her books were gone. Because she was reading so much, she always had dozens of books on her shelves, but now they were all empty.

A flash of understanding lit her face right before she started blushing in embarrassment, “of course, the books belong to the library, father had to give them back with or without me…”

Not wanting to dwell in a room for a long time out of fear that she would want to stay forever, Shin Sumi joined the corridor once again.

Her brother’s room was closed and Shin Sumi didn’t stop to try and open it. Shin Wuya lived in East Silver City as an apprentice scholar in the hope of becoming a city official. Because he was much older than her, Shin Sumi had never really felt close to him, regarding him as more of a distant family member rather than a brother with the same blood through his veins.

Still placing her feet expertly on the floor so that she wouldn’t make a sound, Shin Sumi walked across the mansion’s main room. She ignored the wing of the house where the kitchen, the bathing room and the storage were located. She walked past the large fireplace, still warm from the previous evening.

Her parents’ rooms were on the other side of the building compared to her own room. They had the biggest room of course, even if it had been a long time since her mother would also sleep in the main building.

The door was open, and Shin Sumi smiled upon hearing the familiar snores. She stood there for a long time, watching her father sleeping. Only the winter breeze knew what she was saying to him in his sleep.

Shin Sumi knew that she didn’t have to enter her family mansion to begin with. It was called a mansion because it was the mayor’s house but it was only slightly bigger than the rest of the habitations in East Seaside Village.

The building itself was bigger, but the courtyard was smaller than Shin Sumi’s home in the upper valley of the Dark Sky Starry Sect. Had she wanted to, Shin Sumi could have used her divine sense to survey the entire estate without having to enter the gates.

However for some reason she didn’t want to simply feel things around. She wanted to see for herself with her own eyes. She had wanted to reassure herself that it was really her father sleeping in his bed as usual.

Silently, Shin Sumi traced back her steps through the sleeping house. She was in the middle of the main room when she stopped abruptly in place.

Her eyes opened up slightly and a shy smile grew on Yan Yan’s face. Excitedly, she slapped her bag of holding, producing an array of different things.

Tender fruits with shiny skin, delicious to the taste and impossible to find in the mortal realm, a few pieces of glowing spirit creature bones worth enough money for years to her parents. These were things that clearly came from the sect but which puzzled merchants would still buy for an exorbitant price, believing them to have come from an exotic country.

Spices and incense she had bought in Hoyan River City were also part of the bundle she left on the table. These were more common things but still fetched high prices and were hard to come by in East Seaside Village.

Finally, Shin Sumi tore part of the scroll she had bought from her uncle at the big city library. With the inked brush in hand, Shin Sumi scribbled a few lines before blowing on the paper to dry the ink and folding it.

As if it were the most precious of the bunch, Shin Sumi placed the letter she had written in the center of the treasures.

Her eyes were a bit sad and red but a deep smile shone on her face.

As she exited the main building the same way she had come in, Shin Sumi’s smile slowly faded until only a serious and painful expression remained on her face.

Very, very slowly, she walked towards the entrance of the auxiliary building.

For years now, this was where her mother had been living, never leaving her bed because of an unknown disease.

For the second time in the same night, Shin Sumi experienced a sharp rush of anxiety.

Just like before, she was holding her breath when she pushed the door open in complete silence.