The Peak Master didn’t answer him for a while. Two of the scroll manuals as well as a small token lifted into the air. Floating away under the Peak Master’s power as she took them into another room and set them inside a Formation that was already in the room. After a bright flash of light, she walked over and picked them up with her hands. Unrolling the scrolls slightly to show Sage their titles. Sage had no idea what the first one meant, but the second made his jaw drop.

“You’ve probably never heard of this one, ‘Forging the Forest’, but I’m sure you’re familiar with the second.”

Sage nodded his head. The second scroll was very plainly named ‘Introduction to Plant Cultivation’. Of course, that was only for the layman. For Sage, he had learned that this was the title of a book about Gardening. Not just any old gardening, but the legendary profession that tamed Demonic Plants. The book had been mentioned in the Holy Flame Sect’s library, but they had never been able to get a full copy. The few bits and pieces they’d collected over the years were the main sources of information that Sage had on Gardeners.

“As you must be aware, this is a great treasure for our Sect so I’ll be taking these two books on behalf of the Sect. For this great contribution, you can keep the rest and thank me for ensuring you’re free of any more tracking marks. You’ll also get copies of these two books and I won’t even ask what treasure you fought with them over.”

She gave a knowing wink, as Sage had used a made up excuse of them seeking trouble with him for no reason. Unless there was prior enmity, or someone flaunted their wealth, there was little reason for Cultivator’s with no relation to fight. Since the Cult of the Woodlord wasn’t a devil sect, it was most likely they’d been fighting over some sort of treasure. It’s just too bad the Peak Master was too smart for her own good. If she had known what it was that Sage found, she would have never just let him keep it.

Sage bowed his head, thanking the Peak Master sincerely, “Thank you, Peak Master. You are truly generous and even if I got contribution points instead I would only wish to trade them for the chance to read that book.”

“Hah! Of course. You don’t even know how lucky you are, as this first book, ‘Forging the Forest’ is nearly as valuable as the second! This is a book for ‘Arborists’, which are nearly as rare as ‘Gardeners’. They grow trees into magical tools, just like Blacksmiths forge metal and monster parts. These are exactly the two areas which the Cult of the Woodlord specializes in to make them our greatest rival.”

Sage was amazed, two professions he was so curious about and here he found two manuals for them!

“The leader of that group must have been someone important to have both books. He must have been talented to be pursuing two professions at once.”

She bit her lip for a moment, “Hmm, maybe they lent him both to see where his talents lie or maybe to have him choose which path to take. Either way, to leave the Sect with the books he must have been a budding genius or son of a big shot. I’ll notify my little birdies to pay special attention.”

Sage looked over to the little pink Mystic Sparrow, wondering how they could be used for information gathering. Peak Master Zhen saw him and bursted out into laughter, “Not the Mystic Sparrows. My spies. All the Peak Master’s have their own information networks. We are a sect of Professionals. We can’t just ignore the world and focus on strength. We have to keep up to date on the movements in the world of commerce and use our economic power to deal with our enemies before they even know they’re our enemies. How else could a bunch of Smiths and Alchemists stick around for so long?”

Sage nodded his head, suddenly learning of this hidden layer of the Sect. It certainly made sense. The Sect controlled a whole massive province, yet everything he’d seen showed that only one in ten members of the Sect even care about battle. How could they be so strong with such lax attitudes? There was far more to this story and Sage was glad to have some relationship to the Peak Master so he could learn more about it.

With these two manuals in hand, the Peak Master seemed quite happy and also talkative, “In truth, each Peak Master is responsible for a different part of the Sect, as well as being the pre-eminent master in their craft. We also each dabble a little in every other area. For example, I am in charge of information gathering, but that doesn’t mean I don’t also command some troops or have trading caravans.”

Such important tidbits! Sage was able to infer quite a bit by what she just said and nodded his head. Even bowing to her in thanks for her enlightenment.

“Alright, go on. Pick up your mess and go on. I’ll send a copy of the books over to you later. You did well.”

Sage left, leaving behind the three items the Peak Master took away, but storing the rest and heading back to his house. The third item was some sort of identity token, so Sage didn’t care about it. He hadn’t seen the Peak Master remove the mark on it, so perhaps she was saving it for later. Heh, maybe she’s going to use it to ambush somebody or forge fake identification.

Knowing that she was in charge of ‘Information Gathering’ put all sorts of ideas into his head about spies, ninjas, and other espionage. He had no idea whether or not any of that stuff was going on in this world, but it would be interesting to find out. Heading directly to bed, he had a night filled with dreams about Cultivator Spies seducing women and attending dinner parties with heads of state… Sects.

The next day.

After Sage woke up he took a detailed account of his gains this time. There was the Toad with mental attacks, the strange cyan sphere, and everything from the Cult of the Woodlord members. Since the Peak Master had already assured him that the remainder of the loot didn’t have any tracking marks, he took it as the truth. While he didn’t have the two important manuals, he still had a stack of others. There was the technique manuals used by the other five men along with almost a dozen that were carried by the leader. Looking through them, Sage found a full set of related techniques just like he’d gained from the Timeless Master’s Cave. Not only that, but the set was even larger than his own. There were ten different techniques that all highly complimented each other and were also wood natured.

Seems the Cult of the Woodlord lives up to its name.

One of the other scrolls was not actually a technique manual. It was actually a cultivation record left behind by a senior. Sage was curious and started to read it at which point he was astounded. From the foreword, this was copied down for a grandson by a grandfather. It was actually the old diary of cultivation guidance from an ancestor from thousands of years ago. This was impressive, but not the surprising part. The part that caught his attention was the identity of the grandfather and grandson. The grandfather was actually the blood brother to the Sect Leader for the Cult of the Woodlord, Lin Shih. A famous old fellow that even Sage had heard of before.

Looks like I’ve caused some big trouble.