It was three past midnight when Laude was forcefully awoken. It had reared its ugly head once more.

No matter how hard he tried to forget it, that cursed nightmare wouldn't stop haunting him. More than anything, Laude wanted to forget about it, but it seemed that forgetting wouldn't be in the cards for him anytime soon…

Laude let out a faint groan of pain when he abruptly awoke and cursed himself as he got up and put on some clothes. He knew from experience that he wasn't going to be able to fall asleep again, so he opted to spend his unexpected free time studying rather than mulling about that nightmare in bed.

It'd been about two months since the day that Vateria had verbally cut Laude to pieces at Windell Temple. Neither Vateria nor Laude thought that they'd been wrong about their views, so they'd both been stubbornly waiting for the other one to apologize, but...

It never happened. So ever since that fateful day, they stopped speaking to each other, and a cold war of sorts had begun. Whatever fragile friendship existed between them had frozen over and died.

Not that Laude cared much about it. His heart had long grown numb to the feeling of being wronged or despised.

As far as he was concerned, Vateria could loathe him as much as she desired. It made no difference to him, but he worried a little that enraging the Patriarch's adopted daughter would get him in trouble. In the end, though, nothing happened, much to his relief...

Nevertheless, their little spat still ended up becoming a topic of gossip among junior disciples. Not that Laude minded it. He understood it was only natural that his fight with Vateria became a hot topic, as barely anything ever happened in White Dew Society.

Unsurprisingly, there was barely anything fun to do in the literal middle of nowhere, atop a remote mountain range that no one ever visited.

It went without saying that White Dew Society didn't have any drinking bars, brothels, restaurants, art pavilions, or any other form of recreation. The closest thing White Dew Society had to 'entertainment' was an old fellow called Populus who often played folk songs on his harp in the central courtyard of the Milkwood Sanctuary.

Fun was a rarity in White Dew Society; that was known for sure…

In any case, Laude cared not for frivolity. Though once enjoyed the occasional night of partying, he now considered such mindless distractions a waste of his precious time. The faster he learned what was needed to become an elder disciple, the sooner he'd be able to leave White Dew Society on his own.

Nothing else mattered to him at the moment.

As a result, Laude had practically been living in White Dew Society's main library — the Spring Pagoda — located atop Cherry-Heart Mountain, one of the five mountains-sanctuaries that made up the entire Society.

Acadia-Soul Mountain belonged to the Patriarch of White Dew Society, Alnus Magamantro, and was the largest of the five mountains. It was generally used to grow medicinal herbs and livestock and held a couple of large sections of land for disciples to practice self-defense skills and Immortal Arts.

Ash-Tree Mountain belonged to the Head Elder Fraxinus Witherbone, the old bag of bones that disliked Laude. He was in charge of teaching disciples the Art of Consolidation and mystic theory. Aside from a big lecture hall and a small storehouse that had beginner-friendly spiritual tools and other items, it had nothing else of note.

Laude's destination was in Cherry-Heart Mountain, which belonged to Shaia Highgrove, the Head Elder in charge of teaching disciples Immortal Arts and Immortal Medicine.

Shaia Highgrove was an odd woman, to be sure. For one, she always wore a veil on her face, no matter the time of day. Her voice was also strange because it had a soft, buzzing echo. Made her sound like both a man and a woman, which always disturbed Laude whenever he heard her voice.

Still, he liked her far more than he did Fraxinus — at the very least, she didn't refer to him as an ominous sign of the apocalypse. Well, at least not openly, and that was good enough in Laude's book to rank her as one of the better Head Elders...

As he was totally behind his peers in terms of fundamental knowledge and practical skills, Laude had been given the unique privilege of having additional one-on-one sessions with every Head Elder whenever he desired it, given they had free time for it, of course.

He'd also been granted a privilege only elder disciples had— the right to enter the Spring Pagoda past curfew.

And yes, much to Laude's chagrin, an actual curfew existed for all junior disciples...

"…You'd think that they'd loosen up the rules for the older disciples, but even they have to adhere to this imbecilic curfew. I mean, I get it. There's a lot of kids in this Society, but why the hell do we have to play along with their bedtime too? Last time I had a curfew, I was thirteen!" murmured Laude bitterly under his breath as he quietly shuffled inside the Spring Pagoda.

An old lady who sat behind a tiny wooden desk at the entrance of the Spring Pagoda off-handly said, "Because if we gave the older kids special privileges, the younger ones would cry foul and throw a tantrum. It's as simple as that, kiddo."

Laude glanced at the granny and scowled at her before he started making his way to the upper levels of the library.

The old lady's name was Tilia, and she was the custodian of the Spring Pagoda, responsible for everything within the library. She wasn't very sociable, but she'd still dutifully answer any question you'd throw at her before returning to her work… but not before finding some way to make fun of you.

It'd been a tough process adjusting to life in White Dew Society for Laude if he had to be honest.

Even though everyone had been quite kind to him at White Dew Society, it'd still been difficult for Laude to adjust to his new life. After all, one day, he'd been helping his family out on the farm, and in what felt like the blink of an eye, he'd begun his journey as a cultivator.

Nonetheless, one thing in Laude's daily life remained the same — heaven-altering tribulations aside — and that was studying.

Whether a farmer, a useless politician, or even a cultivator, there was always something new to learn. Laude thoroughly believed that one could never learn too much and that old dogs could learn new tricks.

Only fools and the ignorant thought otherwise. Though flesh and bone had their limitations, the domain of the mind was limitless. It was the only place where Man could find momentary solace in this wretched mortal coil...

Laude's personal heaven was located on the library's third floor, a floor that only elder disciples were permitted to enter. The only reason Laude was allowed on the third floor was because of a deal that he had struck with Tilia — that he was not permitted to touch any of the sealed books and scrolls on that floor.

It was a shame that he couldn't read those forbidden books, but Laude coped with that loss by relishing in the fact that he'd no longer be bugged with questions by the children on the lower floors during the day.

Although Laude knew they bore no malice and were simply curious about the outside world, he got tired of their endless questions…

The only things that existed on the third floor were Laude and his beloved books… or so he had thought.

Unfortunately, today would not be another day in paradise because when Laude reached the third floor, he found that someone had already intruded upon his oasis.

A gorgeous young lady dressed in a luxurious, lavender flower-patterned robe sat alone on the vacant third floor as she concentrated on reading a small red book. The first thing that Laude noticed about her was the veil covering her face. It was of the same variety that Elder Highgrove wore, granting observers only a vague silhouette of the person's face and nothing more.

When the girl heard the creaking sound of the library's wooden floor creaking under Laude's footsteps, she turned toward the source of the noise and stared at Laude in bewilderment for a moment before she said, "..Ah, salutations. I did not expect to meet anyone at this hour. Please don't mind me, friend."

Her voice fluctuated strangely, producing an androgynous-sounding voice — it was the work of the same Immortal Art that Elder Highgrove utilized to disguise her real voice. It caught Laude off-guard, and he quickly said, "Are you perhaps a personal disciple of Elder Highgrove? I apologize if I disturbed you..."

The last thing Laude wanted was to get off on the wrong foot with an elder disciple, let alone a potential personal disciple of a Head Elder. If anything, befriending such an individual would benefit him immensely in the future if he could manage to do it.

No matter what anyone did in life, forming relationships was one of the most essential tools in life.

The girl slowly shook her head and said, "The Head Elder and I just share… similar circumstances. That is why she taught me how to hide my voice. Also, you're mistaken, my friend — the Head Elders don't have personal disciples. There's a division between trained disciples — elder disciples — and less experienced novices — junior disciples — but there are no personal favorites in the eyes of the Elders."

Laude nodded and said, "Oh, so they're lying. Well, I don't blame them. Any parent worth their salt will keep it a secret which child they love more. After all, the day that secret is exposed is when a family will fall apart. In any case... I didn't catch your name. I'm Laude Tellstar."

"You certainly have a... way with words, don't you? My name is Belladonna, but my friends simply call me Bella. Even I know who you are, Brother Tellstar. You've been the talk of the town these days! Though I suspect all that popularity has not been very enjoyable for you, I wager."

A bitter smile formed on Laude's face as he began to pull out his books from his bookbag and said, "You have no idea. It's been a painful couple of months, to be honest…."

Belladonna gestured for Laude to take a seat beside her and said, "It isn't every day that someone like you — a mortal — shows up in our Society. Most of the children here have never even left the confines of this mountain range since they were bought here, so please understand that they're just curious."

Laude chuckled and said, "You should've seen their faces when I tried explaining to them what a steam train and flying gondola were and how they function. They stared at me as if I'd come from another world. And when I started telling them about gramophones... Oh boy, the shock on their little faces was equal parts priceless and adorable."

Belladonna was quite knowledgeable about the outside world since she was an elder disciple, so nothing Laude had talked about was new to her. After all, she was allowed to travel outside, unlike junior disciples.

Despite Laude's initial intent to study, he found himself talking far longer with Belladonna than he expected.

They discussed various topics for more than an hour, and Laude inadvertently gained something he desperately needed — an in-depth perspective of the cultivation world from an experienced cultivator.

Despite what he'd picked up about the world of cultivation from books, Laude still possessed an incomplete understanding of how things functioned between Societies and the cultivation world at large.

Relations with other Societies weren't too good these days. At least, it wasn't what it was like back during the Golden Age of Cultivation. Back then — when Spiritual Qi wasn't a precious resource — Societies were quite friendly, to the point where one could even transfer to another Society to learn under another Head Elder on a subject they were interested in.

"Let's say you really like Greater Defensive Immortal Arts. It's your favorite type of Immortal Art, but White Dew Society didn't have a Head Elder that specialized in them, or you learned everything that our Head Elders knew about them and wanted to learn even more. What would you do then? Sit here at White Dew Society and hope that an expert with the knowledge you seek came to visit the Society? Certainly not." said Belladonna.

"Back then, you could just travel to another Society that had a specialist in Defensive Immortal Arts and sign yourself in as a guest disciple. It was that easy. Nowadays, that transfer system doesn't exist anymore..."

Belladonna sighed and said, "Societies today are all suspicious of foreign cultivators and refuse to let in outsiders. Societies fear each other. They're all scared of losing their leylines or Spirit Stone mines. And it makes sense; If they lose them, that Society's doomed to perish. No Society can function without Spiritual Qi..."

The word "paranoia" best characterized the prevailing mood in the cultivation world. That paranoia wasn't enough to trigger an all-out war between Societies, but it was arguably worse in a way. The pathetic bickering, endless lying, and petty fighting between once fraternal Societies had eroded almost everything that cultivators once stood for...