Reincarnated as a Fox to Bring Revolution

It took us walking for around 40 minutes before we reached the edge of the town where a large multi-story red-roofed pagoda with a mix of white walls and bare trusses on the outside was standing.

 

Hanging on the outside, there was a sign that said Library above the door with an old man sitting in the lotus position next to it.

 

The old man looked familiar, but it took me some time to recognize him before I remembered that he was the old man who had done the test for me.

 

Walking up to him, he opened his eyes before smiling upon seeing me and saying, "You have access to all the body tempering techniques, and if you read anything else, I will know."

 

He then closed his eyes once more and left us alone.

 

With permission granted, I walk over toward the doors where a few other disciples are entering.

 

However, I did not make it through as someone stopped me before entering. This person was younger than me and had the air around him that said he was a kid who was never told no when growing up.

 

"Hey, who are you?! I had never seen you before, and when you came here, you just said a few words to the elder and did not even pay anything! How come you think that you can enter the Library." he said to me with a look on his face that said he was superior to everyone.

 

I then asked, pointing out one of the flaws in his question, "Why would you know me?" 

 

This response clearly flustered him as he did not expect this answer.

 

"Well, my grandmother is an elder, and she tells me whenever someone enters the sect and who they are!" He tried to defend himself but just gave me more ammunition.

 

Holding back a smile, I asked, "Is that not a security risk?" 

 

That seemed to catch him off guard again as he shouted at me, "What are you talking about?!" 

 

I thought that I would have an increasingly harder task of holding back a smile once again as I went to respond to him, but this time, the slight feeling of mirth that I had became muted once more as I asked, "If she told you everything, then would that not mean that she would be giving you sensitive information that should not be shared and thus broke the Sect rules?"

 

"What-but-that- that still doesn't explain why you are trying to enter the library without paying! You don't even have the permission to do so!" He shouted again while changing his approach.

 

The feeling of mirth completely disappeared at this point and I did not even have the urge to smile anymore as I asked, "How do you know that I don't have permission to enter the Library?"

 

"One of my friends is a bookkeeper in the administration hall, and they tell me when something like this happens!" The kid stated with such a level of pride that I both felt bad and had to hold back the re-newed but muted urge to smile again. Especially considering what I had to say next.

 

"Is that not also a breach of security?" I asked once more, and the kid started floundering again. But before he could say anything else, the elder guarding the Library spoke up.

 

"She has permission, Xian Shi, and you don't have the authority to ban people from entering the Library. Now leave before I ban you from ever entering again." The elder said, with some pressure being released and then drawn back.

 

Turning back to the elder, I bowed and said, "Thank you for the aid, Elder." he just waved his hand, and I turned around to enter the Library.

 

Now that I am able to walk through the doors unhindered, I step past the boy who was now standing there stunned and through the threshold, causing the scene before me to change.

 

Where before the entryway looked to be a stone floor with the rest of the room covered in shadow, I now see that I am standing on a raised edge that circles the room with a few steps descending to a depressed floor. On the floor, there are rows of bookshelves running the entire length and standing perpendicular to the door.

 

A shallow staircase went up three of the walls at the back of the room. The whole ceiling provided light in the room, and it seemed to glow softly in a shade of yellow light that was soothing to the eyes.

 

Walking down into the room, I started looking between the shelves for anything that caught my eye.

 

One thing that I failed to notice was how tall the shelves were.

 

Since I was standing on an elevated platform, I thought that the shelves were around my height, but instead, they were taller than me.

 

On the shelves were blank areas where books had been taken from, as well as multiple copies of the same book next to each other. Reading the spines of a few, I find that they are all body-tempering techniques of different kinds.

 

Some focus on different elements, some focus on aspects of the body, and a few even focus on aligning oneself with certain concepts.

 

I somehow got so engrossed in reading the spines of the book that I had read all the titles of every book on the first floor.

 

Walking around the shelves, I select a few different styles of body tempering techniques to study until I come across the last one.

 

By this point, my arms were so full of books that I could not even try to reach for the last one without dropping another.

 

Suddenly, the book lifted off the shelf and floated to rest on top of the stack of books I was holding.

 

Turning around, I saw that Lou Xia was standing behind me, her hand outstretched toward the book and a smile on her face.

 

"Part of my orders was to help you with anything that you need while I show you around the sect," she said before grabbing a few books from the stack and following me as I walked to the side of the room.

 

Walking out from the shelves, I sit down on the lip of the raised stone edge that surrounds the room.

 

I made sure to place the stack of books next to me so that they were within reach.

 

The next thing that I did was reach into my inventory and pull out a notebook and pencil I asked Lou Xia to buy for me while we went shopping yesterday.

 

Placing those down on my right with the books to my left, I pulled the first technique manual from the stack and cracked it open. When I started reading, I got the feeling that something on the first page was wrong.

 

Following that feeling, I reach down to my right and grab my pencil to mark what is wrong before I remember that it is not mine and stop myself.

 

However, when I place the pencil down, a red pencil with a note next to it appears floating in front of me.

 

The note read, 'Do not worry about marking the books as they can be considered research copies, but since you don't want to use your pencil, use mine instead. I heard that red was a better color to mark mistakes in any way.' and it was signed SF. R.

 

I did not even know who this was, but when Lou Xia saw the note, she said that it was fine and that this person had a similar level of authority as the Sect Master. Just in case, I kept the note in my inventory while taking the new red pencil and following my instincts to mark what was wrong.

 

This went on as every time I flipped the page, I found anywhere from one to eight things that were wrong. Most of it seemed to be either minor or theoretical stuff, but some of it was quite major.

 

The largest issue was the placement of the stages themselves, as they did not seem to be in the right order.

 

The body tempering stage had five layers, as the manual called them; it even arranged them in the order of skin tempering, muscle tempering, bone tempering, organ refining, and finally, meridian opening/tempering. Barring the name of the last one, which was not correct either, I had a rough idea of how the stages should be ordered.

 

The first stage should be bone tempering, followed by muscle, organ, skin, and finally, meridian opening.

 

Since I could not change the entire manual without ripping it apart, I had to write this down in the blank notebook that I got, christening it my cultivation notebook from now until it's destroyed (or I forget about it).

 

Moving back to the book, I continue to read and mark what is wrong with the book until I reach the end. Setting the book down on the right of me, starting a new stack, I looked to the open door to see that it was only mid-day out right now.

 

I then calculated how long it took me to read the whole manual and found that I could read faster than I was able to in my previous life.

 

I think this is due to my new intellect stat, but I do not intend to research it as I am happy that I can now read faster.

 

Coming back from my small tangent, I grabbed the next book and started reading.