With a slight warmth from the snacks still in his hand, Wuqí watched as the person who had been in front of him took a few steps back and turned to leave. The arc of their clothing flared up just like when they had rushed in, exactly the same as before, as if they would come back the next day with books or a head full of leaves, just like usual.

But the next day, the person didn’t come. The snacks left on the stone steps were stained with leaves, and Wuqí stood in the courtyard, as always sweeping the leaves that would never be completely cleared away. A long chain spread out from the ground, and he held an umbrella, occasionally glancing at the distant loft.

That was the library where disciples borrowed books, and the disciples didn’t want to come near him, preferring to go to the loft far away. Usually, at sunset, a shadow would bounce in through the half-open carved wooden door, with figures outside flickering, but no one stepped inside. Finally, when the sky was completely dark, the steward in charge of the library would close the door.

“Bang—” The wooden door closed with a dull thud, a sound he had grown accustomed to over the years. This time, as it closed, a faint light seeped through the crack, and for the first time, he noticed a slight dust cloud rising as it fell in circles.

On the third day, no one came again. The number of snacks on the stone steps was halved, while the fallen leaves in the courtyard remained unchanged.

Finally, someone stepped over the threshold of that wooden door, cautiously walking in. Turning his umbrella, he saw a hunched disciple walking along the wall. Noticing his gaze, the disciple shivered and quickly pressed against the wall to leave.

There was no eye contact, nor a word spoken; the disciples here were really timid, which was quite boring. Each day repeated itself like the last, calm and without waves, only the occasional birds and beasts flying overhead, and the disciples who passed by trembling when they took a wrong turn.

When the snacks were finished, only a pile of leaves remained on the stone steps. Withered leaves fell, new leaves sprouted, life and death endlessly intertwined. Standing in the courtyard under the light with his umbrella, Wuqí took the initiative for the first time to call out to a disciple in a blue uniform who accidentally passed by again.

Facing the disciple’s shocked and nervous gaze, he asked, “…Are you outer disciples all very busy?”

The disciple looked at his inhuman vertical pupils, his mouth opening and closing, but in the end, he couldn’t make a sound and hurriedly left, scrambling away.

He ran very fast, and Wuqí thought he was just in a hurry, assuming that the outer disciples were indeed so busy that they had no time to come here for a look. —But the truth seemed to be otherwise.

Another day, another sunset, and the quiet building once again echoed with footsteps, coinciding with the sound of a broom sweeping across the bluestone slabs. Thinking it was another reckless disciple passing by, he turned to look, but instead saw a familiar figure.

With dark hair mixed with gray strands flying up in the motion, the person ran over, one hand holding a cat and the other pinching a wilted flower, crossing the wooden threshold and heading straight towards him.

Putting down the broom to watch, he hadn’t even taken a step forward when the person suddenly turned a corner, not glancing this way at all, and lifted their clothing to go upstairs.

They were gone. After going upstairs, it was an area he couldn’t see, and the hurried footsteps faded away. They had come, but not to find him.

Lin Zhusheng was in a hurry to find books. He had originally planned not to come to the library during this time, wandering around the mountain looking for small monsters. But today, luck struck, and while fighting small monsters, he found the 兰筠花 (Lánjūnhuā) he had always wanted but could never grow.

Good news: he found the 兰筠花. Bad news: the 兰筠花 was about to die.

A flower that should have looked beautiful had wilted to the point where even its parents wouldn’t recognize it. Fortunately, he had studied it for a long time because it was too expensive, and he recognized it by its appearance. Now he brought it over, trying to find an urgent way to save it. Previously, his senior brother had given him an orange-level clip, and he had never given anything in return; this flower was his only hope for a gift, and he wouldn’t give up until the last moment.

Now it was getting late, and there weren’t many people in the library. Only at the railing where he had come from was a disciple drawing talismans from a distance. He was pinching the flower while flipping through books, sitting cross-legged on a mat, the sound of pages flipping echoing.

The little cat sat beside him, watching him nervously flipping through the books, and offered a sensible suggestion, saying, “You should read more books in the future.”

When the time came to use the books, Lin Zhusheng stopped him, “Don’t talk for now.”

A thick book was flipping rapidly, and after flipping through nearly a third of it, he finally found the content he wanted to see, lowering his head to read word by word.

The 兰筠花 itself didn’t carry much spiritual energy, but it contained certain substances that required a large amount of spiritual energy to nurture. In the eyes of monsters, it had a special alluring scent, often being drained of spiritual energy and wilting. To save it, one could only use wood attribute spiritual stones to extend its life; if done long enough, it would survive.

In the past few days running around the mountains, Lin Zhusheng had picked up a lot of things that the little cat called trash and put them in a wooden box, and it seemed that there were wood attribute spiritual stones inside.

Not letting waiting become a regret, he quickly closed the book, returned it, and left.

When he left, the disciple at the railing was still drawing talismans, a small piece of paper filled with a bunch of twisted things he couldn’t understand, which he found quite amazing as he nervously ran while observing.

From the talismans to the disciple’s actions, everything was surprising. He thought the person would finish drawing the talisman and then recite a spell like “急急如律令” (Jí jí rú lǜ lìng) as a prelude, but instead, the person pulled out a teacup from somewhere, threw the talisman into the cup with one hand, and squinted to avoid while peeking into the cup, making it seem like their personality was about to split in the next moment.

It was likely going to rain again tonight; the sky was unusually red, and the wind had been blowing since the afternoon. The talisman thrown into the teacup showed no reaction, but instead, it was blown away by the wind because it was too light.

The talisman floated in the air, eventually getting stuck in a branch that emerged from the courtyard tree, unable to move. Realizing where it had landed, the disciple’s actions froze.

The courtyard was Wuqí’s domain; although he didn’t understand, many people indeed didn’t dare to approach that place. A kind-hearted Lin, passing by, asked, “Do you need me to go down and help you get it?”

It had been a long time since they had seen each other, and the moment the words were spoken, he suddenly remembered that there was actually a Wuqí here.

“No need, that one has already failed.”

The disciple, a bit disappointed, put away the teacup in his hand and the book he had set aside, quietly thanking him.

No need was just right; he remembered he was in a hurry, and Lin Zhusheng quickly left, taking the little cat down the stairs in a few steps.

He simply passed through the library, choosing an exit closer to home, and dashed back.

The sounds of birds and beasts in the mountains faded, and the chirping of insects began.

The time of sunset was precious, and such a short period passed. Wuqí waited in the center of the courtyard, waiting for the dusk to settle, waiting for the steward to close the carved wooden door, but he didn’t wait for the person he was waiting for. Finally, he realized, belatedly, that the other party must have left from another place.

He had a rough idea.

Having come to the library but not seeing him at all, he probably had been completely disliked.

In the eyes of the human race, he had committed many evils, being locked away for over a hundred years without changing his bad nature, not reflecting on himself, and ultimately using goodwill to try to exploit humans, so it was only natural to be hated.

For over a hundred years, he had faced this quiet building and the few trees that never changed, and he had grown accustomed to such silence. The broom in his hand slowly swept, watching the birds fly by in the sky, the same every day like a fleeting moment, just a blink. Only recently, the days seemed to have stretched out quite a bit.

He came from chaos, absorbing the essence of heaven and earth, enduring the long passage of time, and now, just a few days later, he found himself missing those snacks that he had never known what to call and that had little use.

The light on the horizon completely disappeared, thick clouds gathered, and raindrops began to fall.

After a few tentative raindrops, a heavy downpour followed, falling on the building and leaves. It soaked the talisman still stuck in the branches, the ink marks getting wet, and a faint blue light began to rise.

Wuqí held up his umbrella and looked up, his pair of vertical pupils moving slightly as he reached out to grab the white paper strip.

“Crack—” The chain on his foot stretched to its limit, making a sound when he tried to move forward, stopping his action. Lowering his eyes, he looked at the black chain firmly connected to the center of the courtyard.

——

Having found a way to save the flower, Lin Zhusheng hurried home and rummaged through the wooden box that the little cat called a trash can. He successfully found the wood attribute spiritual stone inside and extended the flower’s life before it completely wilted, placing it carefully in the center of the wooden table to ensure he could see it at all times.

After finishing, he took the time to tidy himself up, changed into clean clothes, and went to visit his good friend next door, whom he hadn’t greeted yet today.

The front door was too far, so he climbed in through the window of the courtyard, waving his hand to say hello while climbing in.

Zhang Jing had already gotten used to him treating the window as the front door, but every time he saw him, he couldn’t help but twitch the corner of his eye and said, “Can you take a normal path next time?”

Lin Zhusheng patted the window frame that was easy to climb, smiling as he said, “The more people climb, the more the window becomes a path.”

The only person who climbed was him, and he was the only one who kept climbing repeatedly. With a pile of nonsense, Zhang Jing twitched the corner of his eye again, suppressing the urge to bend the pen in his hand.

Handing over freshly picked fruits, Lin Zhusheng bent down to look at what he had written, raising an eyebrow and asking, “What is this?”

A piece of white paper with black squiggly lines on it, resembling the talismans he had seen today.

As it turned out, his friend was indeed practicing talismans, and because he had a father who specialized in drawing talismans, he had been practicing since childhood and had made some progress by now.

Feeling a bit curious and a bit itchy to try, Lin Zhusheng borrowed a pen and paper to lightly replicate the talisman he had seen in the library from memory, asking, “Do you know what this is? I saw it in the library today.”

“……”

He had a good memory, but unfortunately, his hands didn’t cooperate. The already abstract talisman became even more abstract in his hands. Zhang Jing squinted his eyes, looking up and down, left and right, watching until his facial muscles twitched. Finally, he found a hint of order in the abstraction, flipping through the nearby book and saying, “Is this what you saw?”

As he flipped through, he introduced, “This is the Water Convergence Talisman.”

The Water Convergence Talisman, simply put, is a talisman that draws water out of thin air. It’s a type of intermediate talisman that automatically recognizes how much water to draw based on the container, from filling a teacup to being able to submerge a large peach orchard.

Lin Zhusheng listened and looked, realizing it was indeed the one he had seen today, his eyes widening as he applauded his friend’s expertise, then suddenly realizing something was off, saying, “The one I saw was exactly the same, how did it fail?”

“That one,” Zhang Jing said, “is probably because beginners don’t know that the Water Convergence Talisman needs to be activated with water; you have to add water to the talisman for it to work.”

It needs to be activated with water, and adding water will trigger it.

And if he remembered correctly, the courtyard of the library was uncovered.

“……”

The rain that had been brewing all day fell, splashing from the window sill into the room. Lin Zhusheng silently turned his head to look at the heavy rain outside the window at just the right moment, finally slapping his head, “…It’s over.”