The Heavenly Demon flew through the air and landed a few meters before a sect entrance, hiding behind a tree.
"This should be the place," she thought, peeking from behind the trunk.
The security seemed to have been bumped up since the last time they were here. The disciples patrolling the perimeter had increased significantly, their eyes scanning every shadow and every movement.
Were they looking for Cipher?
If only they knew.
She wore a bitter smile.
Well, with them mostly patrolling the outer areas, she should be able to easily accomplish her mission. She scanned the entire Moonlight Sect with her divine sense, mapping out every building, every corridor, every patrol route.
Then she began formulating her plan.
With her divine sense concealing her presence, as long as she avoided someone seeing her with their eyes, she should be safe.
...
She moved.
Her body jumped from cover to cover. When a group of disciples passed by, she pressed herself against a wall, holding her breath. When a patrol turned a corner, she slipped behind a pillar.
Step by step, she advanced deeper into the sect.
A pair of disciples chatted idly as they walked past her hiding spot. She waited until their footsteps faded before darting across an open courtyard.
Another group approached from the left. She ducked behind a decorative boulder, counting their footsteps until they passed.
She continued like this - stopping, waiting, moving - until she reached a massive building near the center of the sect.
With her divine sense, she could tell this was the place she was looking for. Inside, scrolls and manuals filled every corner.
This was the library.
She approached the entrance, ready to slip inside...but she paused.
Huh?
A barrier?
She extended her senses toward it. The formation was quite sophisticated, woven with layers of protective restrictions designed to alert the sect if anyone unauthorized tried to enter.
If it was her at her prime, she could easily break through such a rudimentary restriction.
But now...
She sighed.
She slowly began decrypting the barrier, her fingers tracing invisible patterns in the air as she unraveled its components one thread at a time. Without her mind realm that made her thought process millions of times faster, she could only do it this way.
Then she heard footsteps.
Her divine sense picked up a group of disciples heading this way. Four of them, walking at a casual pace, but they would round the corner in moments.
She concentrated heavily.
Stopping now would mean losing all the progress she had made. She would have to start over from scratch.
Her fingers moved faster.
The footsteps grew louder.
One thread left.
Closer.
She pulled the final thread free...
The barrier dissolved silently.
She fell through the entrance just as the disciples turned the corner.
...
"Did you hear that?"
The four disciples stopped, their hands moving to their weapons. They had heard a faint commotion from inside the library.
"Everyone, stay alert."
They entered cautiously, spreading out to search the space. Their eyes scanned the towering shelves, the reading tables, the shadowed corners.
Nothing seemed out of place.
Suddenly, the jade talisman of one of the disciples lit up with a soft glow. She raised it to her ear.
"What’s taking you so long?" an elder’s voice crackled through.
"Elder, we heard a commotion in the library," the disciple reported. "We’re investigating now."
A sigh came through the talisman. "How many of you does it take to investigate a single library? Besides, the barrier there was made by me. Do you think I wouldn’t notice if it was broken?"
The disciple lowered her head. "Apologies, Elder."
"Leave one person to inspect and report to me their findings. The rest of you, return to your posts."
"Yes, Elder."
The disciple ended the transmission and looked at the others. Her gaze landed on one of the younger girls.
"You. Stay and finish the inspection. Report anything unusual."
"Yes, Senior Sister."
The others moved out, their footsteps echoing through the library until they couldn’t be heard anymore.
The remaining girl stood alone among the towering shelves. She looked around nervously, her hand resting on her weapon.
"There’s nothing here," she murmured to herself, trying to calm her nerves. "The Elder said the barrier wasn’t broken, so..."
A shadow dropped from above.
Legs wrapped around her neck.
Before she could scream, pressure was applied to the sides of her throat. Her vision blurred. Her body went limp.
She slumped to the floor, unconscious.
The Heavenly Demon released her and landed silently on her feet. She looked down at the girl, then sighed.
"Performing infiltration missions is beneath me as the Heavenly Demon," she muttered. "Look what you’re making me do, Cipher."
She crouched down and searched the unconscious disciple. She found a space ring on the girl’s finger and slipped it off.
Inside were a few items. Pills. A jade slip. Some spirit stones.
Useless.
She dumped them onto the floor.
Then she stood and looked around her.
Now for her real mission.
...
She moved through the library, her divine sense scanning each shelf as she passed.
She didn’t need to read entire manuals - just the first few pages were enough to gauge their value.
Cultivation technique. Basic. Discard.
Movement art. Interesting. Take.
Pill refinement. Useless to her. Discard.
Soul cultivation method. Potentially useful. Take.
Body tempering manual. Take.
Mind expansion technique. Definitely take.
She continued like this for several minutes, grabbing anything that caught her interest and stuffing it into the space ring.
By the time she finished, the space ring was almost completely full.
She paused and looked at the area she had raided.
The previously packed shelves now had noticeable gaps. Entire sections had been cleared out. What had once been a library filled to the brim now looked... well, like a regular library.
She scratched her cheek.
"I might’ve overdone it a little," she murmured.
Then her eyes widened.
"Ah, I need to get away before they notice."
She darted toward the exit, slipping out of the library and into the blind spots of the sect. She retraced her steps, moving even faster than before, weaving through patrols and ducking behind buildings until she reached the outer wall.
One final leap carried her over it and into the forest beyond.
She didn’t stop running until the Moonlight Sect was far behind her.
...
A while later, the Heavenly Demon arrived back at where she had left Cipher.
She had spent quite a bit of qi during the infiltration, but she was still far from the danger zone. She supposed she was fine.
She raised the space ring and looked at it.
"Time to see if it was all worth it."
She poured several manuals onto a wooden table she had created earlier. Manuals and scrolls spread across the surface.
The reason she had stolen these manuals was to study them. If she could mix the findings with her own knowledge, perhaps she could form a new theory.
A theory that might help her break through the limits of her current useless body.
Especially the problem of finite qi.
If she could solve the issue of absorbing qi... or maybe awaken her mind realm...
She might be able to find a solution for Cipher’s situation.
She sat down, pulled the first manual toward her, and began to read.