I sat at the kitchen table next to Wu Yan, eating some of the delicious food Fu Yating had prepared. Though the stone home around us was humble, the way the morning light shone through the windows and reflected off the stones was… surprisingly pleasant.

It was one of those moments where you could forget everything else and just exist in the present.

“What even is this?” I asked, looking at a piece of weird white meat that melted in my mouth and tasted like chicken, just better.

“Obviously chicken,” Fu Yating replied. “Seasoned with an array of spices and smoked over some Qi-infused wood.”

“Qi-infused wood? Please don’t spend on useless things,” I said.

I wasn’t poor by any stretch of the imagination, but I didn’t want her to spend it on stupid things.

“Look around you,” Fu Yating said. “The whole Sect was burnt by something you call a heavenly calamity. Most trees were destroyed, but the ones that survived? Their wood gives the meat an amazing flavor.”

Wu Yan sat quietly with her new face, still eerily like a female version of mine, just watching us with curious, wide eyes while chewing slowly.

Fu Yating finished plating the last of the food and brought it to the table. Then, she finally sat down with us to eat.

But the moment her bottom touched the chair, I pointed to one of the faraway cabinets.

“Sorry, but can you bring me some salt?” I asked.

Wu Yan sighed audibly from the side and looked like she was ready to walk out.

Honestly? I felt proud. She had learned enough expressions to actually sigh. Progress.

Fu Yating narrowed her eyes on me. For a second, it looked like she was going to argue. But then she stood up, grabbed the salt, and handed it to me without saying a word. And just looked away.

Great. Now I was the asshole.

I stared at the salt bottle for a few seconds.

Was I the toxic one in this relationship?

Well, yeah. But we were walking hand-in-hand down that road.

What really surprised me was that she wasn’t fighting back anymore. And that made it… boring. It actually soured the start of my day. Annoying Fu Yating had become something of a daily ritual, my morning coffee, spiritually speaking.

As if she could read my mind, Fu Yating smirked. Not a smug smirk, but an elegant one. Like she knew exactly what denying me the argument would do to my mood.

Goddamn, that woman.

Still, I tried not to let it get to me. I had a meeting later with Zun Gon. Hopefully, he hadn’t changed his mind after a good night’s sleep.

After the meal, I stood up.

“That was delicious,” I said.

Fu Yating smiled sweetly. “Mmm… and yet you’re still the sweetest thing on the table.”

I stared at her.

Every conscious part of me knew she was doing this to get to me.

And goddamn, it was working. So well.

She’d found a new tactic: being obnoxiously nice. A completely different kind of psychological warfare.

Wu Yan looked between us, confused, quietly chewing. She was used to us arguing all the time. This… didn’t look like an argument on the surface, but something still felt off.

After a brief nod, I walked out toward the green yard and into the ashen grounds beyond, now slowly being covered in winter frost.

Without lingering, I wrapped myself in a skin-tight jade barrier, levitated off the ground, and shot into the sky like a rocket.

Flying this way wasn’t as nice as usual. Normally, the feeling of wind against my skin was a pleasure in itself. But today, I had serious business, and this was the most efficient way I knew to travel.

I spread my senses, scanning the Sect grounds.

Surprisingly, I found Zun Gon almost immediately. He was on the outskirts of the outer sect. He was apparently humble.

It didn’t take long to reach him. He lived in a small stone hut that looked more like an oversized outhouse than a home.

There was being humble… and then there was whatever this was. Especially when you were living like this for people who probably didn’t care at all. I couldn’t help but feel a little sorry for the guy.

I approached the hut and knocked on the rough wooden door that looked like it had been made from a refurbished tabletop.

Zun Gon opened it almost immediately. He looked the same as before. Even the wrinkles on his robes were in the exact same places. That meant he hadn’t changed clothes and likely hadn’t slept. Not that it mattered much. At Core Formation, sleep was almost optional.

“Come into my humble abode,” he said. “My manor is on the rebuild list, but there are more important things that come before it.”

I nodded, choosing not to comment on the state of the place. He’d be able to tell if I was lying anyway.

I walked inside. The air smelled faintly of moldy wood, even though the place was built entirely of stone. I didn’t linger by the door and instead sat on a wooden slab that might’ve been a table or a bed? Hard to say. Where did this guy even sleep?

“While there was some dissent among the ranks,” Zun Gon said, “in the end, everyone agreed to give you a Sky Grade Technique.”

I nodded. I didn’t care much for the politics behind it, but the outcome? That brought me joy.

Zun Gon reached into his sleeve and pulled out three scrolls, laying them on the table between us.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“There are only three Sky Grade Techniques I have access to,” he said. “You can choose one. These are just the descriptions. I’ll give you the real one after you decide.”

I barely heard him. At that moment, I genuinely wished I had six arms and six eyes just to read all three scrolls at once.

Normally, I would’ve tried to play it cool. But a wide grin stretched across my face anyway, almost splitting it in two.

And as I began reading, the excitement didn’t fade.

It only climbed higher and higher.

The first technique was Heaven’s Eye Divination Technique.

Type: Spiritual/Support (Divination + Observation)

Effect: Grants a spiritual third eye that can predict future events with terrifying accuracy. Counters illusions and allows comprehension of hidden laws.

The second was Voidstep Phantom Movement Art.

Type: Body Movement

Effect: Teleports the user in short bursts by bending space. Leaves behind afterimages that explode with spatial distortion.

The third was Silent Wind Death Sutra.

Type: Assassination + Stealth

Effect: Makes the user silent and undetectable to senses. Wind-based attacks can sever soul threads and cut through Qi armor.

I wanted them all.

Well… maybe not the first one. Any technique with “Heaven” in the name raised too many red flags.

The Silent Wind Death Sutra was very tempting. Soul-based. Dangerous. Powerful.

It might even help with Song Song, if it ever came down to a situation where her soul was in danger. If it did, I’d risk my life to steal it later.

But here and now, there was only one thing in my mind.

I’d already “seen” my own soul. I had a Mental-type technique. I was curious about destiny as a concept but in truth? I didn’t care about my fate or the future that much.

Well… I did.

Just not as much as I cared about space.

What did teleportation feel like? What was it like to shift around, fold space, break the laws of distance?

And it doubled as a powerful movement technique, something incredibly useful, especially since I’d never touched the spatial element before.

“Excuse me. Which one do you want?” Zun Gon’s voice pulled me out of my thoughts. Judging by the frown on his face, he’d probably been calling me for a while.

I glanced back at the first scroll. Yes, it was powerful, but something about the word Heaven made me feel like picking it would be like wrapping a noose around my own neck. Looking into the future too much… understanding “hidden truths”... that never ended well.

Silent Wind Death Sutra was tempting, too. Maybe even better for helping Song Song, if things went sideways.

But that was a strong if. And honestly?

The spatial technique was calling to me.

“I want the Voidstep Phantom Movement Art,” I said.

Zun Gon nodded. He took out an entirely ordinary notebook until I touched it. A strange sensation ran through my fingertips the moment I made contact.

Now that I had my hands on another Sky Grade technique, I felt… strangely calm.

My thoughts drifted to the Blazing Sun Immortal’s likely incoming calamity and how it hadn’t passed yet. But he was far enough from the Sect that it should be fine.

Actually… now that I thought about it, Hu Jin might’ve been his calamity.

Who knew how the heavens would handle that?

I’d never read about a calamity being handled prematurely before. If that was the case, would they send another one?

Would the heavens just… cook something up real quick?

Oh well.

On any other day, that kind of thought might’ve bummed me out.

But today?

Today, I had a spatial Sky Grade technique in my hands... And nothing else mattered.

"Also, your new library has been built. You can go check it out. It looks like a tower near the melted top of the mountain," Zun Gon said.

"Thanks," I replied, tightening my grip on the notebook before walking out. I summoned a jade barrier around myself, levitated, and blasted away into the sky.

At the same time, I activated my sensory abilities, keeping them sharp so I didn't crash into anyone while reading my newly acquired Sky Grade Technique.

As soon as I opened the book, the air around me shifted slightly, like the moment before a storm. The writing on the pages pulsed once, then twisted. The ink lifted off the paper, curling and writhing like strands of smoke… and then shot straight toward my forehead like a drill of black light.

I frowned, instincts kicking in.

In a breath, I summoned and reinforced a jade barrier around my head, dense, layered, fortified with my will. Whatever this was, it wasn't going to get through so easily.

But it did.

The ink-like script didn't even slow down. It phased through the barrier as if it wasn't there at all, ignoring the layered defenses like they were made of mist. I felt a strange, cold pressure against my skin, then–

It slipped into my mind.

No pain. No explosion of Qi. Just an eerie stillness, as if something foreign had entered a room it shouldn't belong in and was now looking around.

This was a kind of visible mental attack. No physical defense was going to stop it.

Interesting. That gave me ideas.

But thanks to my own Sky Grade mental technique, one geared explicitly toward mental enslavement, arguably one of the most dominant in the mental field, there was very little chance anything could enter my mind unless I let it.

The ink settled at the edge of my consciousness like a thick, hovering clump.

I examined it first, then absorbed it.

It was just structured directions with detailed instructions on how to use the Voidstep Phantom Movement Art. Not dangerous. Actually helpful.

Still, I knew what this was: an imaginary chain.

The Sect probably thought this bound me to them. Even if I perfected the technique, they could simply give the same one to someone else, indirectly weakening my advantage. That was the leash in case I ever worked against their interests.

Then again, that'd be a massive security risk. It'd be a disaster if anyone outside got their hands on one of these techniques. They could weaken the top powers who had Sky Grade Techniques. So maybe the Sect only had one copy of each, passing it down like this, letting the knowledge imprint itself on the user's mind, then disappear from the scroll.

Risky either way. But the first method was much better than losing a Sky Grade technique every time a cultivator died suddenly.

It didn't take long before I reached the so-called new library.

I hovered just above it, the wind brushing past my robes as I looked down at the strange structure below.

It was a pagoda, tall, elegant, clearly built by a talented architect. The entire structure was made of dark, lacquered wood, stacked floor by floor with perfect symmetry. The roof edges curled upward in the traditional style. Lanterns hung from every corner, swaying gently in the wind and casting a soft amber glow, even in daylight.

But it was where it had been built that made the whole thing feel... off.

The pagoda stood atop a scorched, blackened mountain, the very surface still cracked from the aftermath of a heavenly calamity. Like a wound, barely healed. The ground was ashen. The earth brittle. Not a single tree or blade of grass had grown back.

A wooden library… built on a burnt mountain.

Who was the genius that thought that was a good idea?

I just shrugged and descended to the entrance.

The scent of polished wood hit me first when I stepped inside. Then, immediately after that–

Books.

Rows and rows of shelves, filled with techniques refined and developed over thousands of years. This was the Inner Sect library, so only a handful of Mortal techniques were here and even those were research materials, not standard junk.

I took a deep breath, a grin creeping onto my face.

I was going to indulge in everything this Sect had to offer.