“Or at least it better be twenty minutes, or we’ll miss sis’s fight,” she said.

We leaped out of the stadium and darted through the school’s streets. Jing’s snake held onto my neck. The tournament stole everybody from the streets, making them uncannily empty. We darted through the streets faster than a racecar. ‘Twenty minute adventure’, indeed. We could get anywhere in less than five.

A short while later, Jing skidded to a halt and I stopped next to her. The street tiles, the cafes, and the gentle atmosphere all felt familiar. We had arrived in the district around the Black Library.

Father ahead, Esha stood in front of a cluster of five people. Across from her, a tall bulky man clutched a limp figure in his hand. The limp body must’ve been the sixth stage cultivator Esha told us about.

The bulky man pushed out his aura, crushing the gentle atmosphere. I clicked my tongue. This was no joke. His aura was at the Dao Journey stage. This could be a problem.

I narrowed my eyes. One of the four people standing around him noticed us and turned. He was the only person in the group wearing a mask, but I still knew who it was. His short stature and alertness hinted at his identity, but his white hair was a dead giveaway.

Esha didn’t flinch at feeling a Dao Journey aura. Her face didn’t even twitch. Jing ran up to stand beside her, but I stayed behind.

I darted into a tree and used control, silencing the tree. I put a seed on my head. A mesh of thin vines covered me. It formed a layer of camouflage and masked my smell. I controlled the surface of the skin on Jing’s forearm to spell, “touch my left shoulder if you need help.”

Staying hidden is always the best option. That way, I can choose when I interfere.

Er Yi’s eyes darted around, trying to find me. He couldn’t find me, there was too much space to scan. The burly man tapped his shoulder. Er Yi gave up looking for me and directed his attention at Jing and Esha. A bright white dragon sprang out from his palm. It crackled with electricity and extended, turning into a twenty meter long beast. It was many times more powerful than anything he’d shown me before.

It was so bright it was the only thing I could concentrate on. Everything else turned black.

The dragon spread its maw and roared. I exhaled slowly. A flash of light and I realized it had turned into real lightning: the unstoppable force of nature, the most powerful manifestation of storm. It disappeared, too fast for me to see. Nothing could stop this beast. I couldn’t, and neither could Jing.

Achieving that level of power at fourteen years old only happened in myths. In the real world, it might as well be impossible. Er Yi had suppressed his age.

Most people suppress their age when in their prime, but Er Yi suppressed his age when he was a child. He must’ve done it so he could sneak around without attracting suspicion. He was probably over fifty years old.

“Esha,” Jing whispered quickly.

“Yes, madam.” The light vanished along with the dragon, and everything went back to how it was before. Er Yi’s body went limp, as if he’d fainted. His knees buckled and he fell to the ground. Then he woke again. He let out a pathetic yelp and sprung to his feet. He stared, not knowing what happened.

I was just as surprised. The dragon wasn't stopped. It had disappeared. Even with my eyes, I didn't see what Esha had done.

Esha created a lightning dragon identical to Er Yi’s. It hovered above her head.

She didn’t need to speak, but her message came across clear as day: “I’m so powerful I can copy your signature move without preparation.”

Jing held out her hand, “Give him back.” The bulky man frowned but tossed the person he was holding to Jing. He turned away and walked off with his group. Jing caught the body and put a pill in their mouth.

I manipulated Jing’s skin again, saying, “I’ll keep tailing them.”

Jing nodded so slightly only somebody using the identify skill on her would notice.

I jumped between the trees, leaving Jing and Esha behind. I stayed far behind them while keeping them in sight.

Jing caught up to me a while later. She copied me, controlling the trees to cover up noise from her movements.

“Do you know who they are?” I said through her skin.

One of the vines from my makeshift camo outfit untangled from the others. It hovered in front of my face and spelled, “Nope, never seen them before. It doesn’t look like they’re here because of me. I think they caught my subordinates because I’d sent them snooping around the school. The school has Dao Journey stage faculty. The tournament’s also attracted a bunch of powerful people. They could be anybody.”

“Not quite anybody,” I wrote to her about Er Yi, and how he had a job to watch the students.

“Then maybe they really are just working for the school,” Jing wrote.

“We’ll see,” I said. “Where’d you leave Esha?”

“I left her behind and told her to come if something happens.”

The group of five stopped at one of the sides of the Black Library. They looked at the wall, waiting for something.

A group of two walked up to join them. Then a group of four. Then a group of three. They stopped in front of the wall and joined in the staring. The gathering continued to expand.

The people back in the coliseum were incredibly diverse. There were heroes, aristocrats, inventors, geniuses, monks, nobles, and more. But they had nothing on the group in front of me.

This gathering had no rhyme or reason at all.

Two were in identical sets of full body armor. They rode in with similarly armored unicorns and each carried a lance in their hands and two battle axes on their backs. If they were the only ones here, I’d think they were holy knights.

One man walked into the group alone. His red robe was a janitor’s wet dream, it was so long it wiped the floor behind him. He held a baby in his arms, still sucking on this world’s version of a pacifier.

Another man slid up to the group. He used Qi to make a layer of ice on the ground. His tractionless slippers let him slide on the ice into the crowd. He also carried a short staff, which he stuck into the ground to stop himself. Some of the congregation was normal, but they didn’t seem to find the eccentrics weird. Was I witnessing a cult gathering?

One lady wearing a white tunic and a stiff headdress walked into the crowd. I held back a gasp. I’d seen this girl before, while I was spying on the king's house.

The burly man put a hand on the wall and grunted. A quaking boom worthy of an attack from a Dao Journey stage cultivator rang out. The tree we sat in shook and Jing and I hung onto the branches.

The part of the wall in front of him exploded into dust. A web of cracks formed, reaching up three stories. But the library was over seventy stories tall. Despite his immense strength, the man had only scratched the building.

Thirty or so battle auras, all at the eighth stage or above, burst out. They attacked the library together, grinding it to pieces.

Jing released a neutral aura and Esha appeared next to her. “This has nothing to do with us, we should leave,” said Esha.

Jing nodded, “Let’s go.”

“Wait,” I said. This was the library my future students would use. “Let’s watch. They must have some plan for attacking the Black Library. The thing’s supposed to be impenetrable.”

“Reinforcements from the coliseum will arrive in a few minutes,” Jing said. “They’ll need to finish what they’re trying to do in that time.”

One member of the group punched through to a room filled with books. This wasn’t supposed to be possible. The tower master was supposed to be able to move the rooms away. Why wasn’t she doing it?

The room shuddered and began to pull away. Then it shuddered again and came back. It was as if two people were fighting for control over it.

One of the attackers could control the library as well.

The group destroyed a few walls and revealed five more rooms. The design of the library worked against it. It’s greatest strength was the ability to move the rooms around. But an enemy with the same ability could attract the rooms toward them.

Somebody landed in each of the revealed rooms. They destroyed the rooms, including all the books.

Why? Why would they destroy the books? I thought they were here to steal the books. That was something I could understand, although I still couldn’t let them do it. But they wanted to destroy the books. I knew they had to have a reason, but this seemed to be destruction for destruction’s sake.

“The rooms shouldn’t be so close together!” I yelled over the noise of destruction, “Somebody is bringing them together! Jing, how much mana do you have?”

“A bit over six thousand!” she yelled.

Another aura burst out of the library. It was neutral, like the ambient Qi of nature, but far stronger. It doubled in strength, then tripled.

“The tower master activated the Orb three times,” Esha narrated.

“Great,” Jing said, “How strong is it?”

“At three activations? It should almost double the tower master’s power. It won’t be enough, though,” she responded. They destroyed more walls, revealing more rooms. The Qi from the Orb poured into the stone, strengthening the shuddering. But the rooms still couldn’t pull away.

“They’re going to destroy all the books at this rate. Help me.” This was the library for my future students. I couldn’t let anybody take it away.

I took a wooden rod from my robes and pointed it at the group. A thousand mana drained out and I launched a seed into their midst. It expanded into an explosive bulb and exploded.

The explosion battered the surrounding houses and pushed the group back.

I flared my aura. Their auras mixed with mine, fighting for dominance.