Inside the Library Tower, another firework suddenly burst before Chu Xisheng's eyes.
For some reason, his character panel had changed again.
The "Ninth-Rank Lower (substantial)" in the reputation field had become "Ninth-Rank Lower (firm)."
His Martial Dao Points had also gone from "11" to "16."
If there had been reasons for the Martial Dao Points he had received before, this time they had come out of nowhere.
But Chu Xisheng had no time to concern himself with any of this. He was running for his life.
Just after the "earthquake" inside the tower, a group of masked people had suddenly charged out.
They also wore inner disciples' uniforms, but they were extremely powerful. The martial instructors present had been cut down one after another before they could utter a sound.
Everyone there had scattered and fled. Chu Xisheng had reacted quickly and run ahead of the others, climbing another staircase to the fourth floor.
As he ran, Chu Xisheng scanned his surroundings, trying to find a safe hiding place.
Then his eyes lit up. He suddenly accelerated and charged onto a bookshelf standing at a corner of the corridor.
Stepping on its compartments, Chu Xisheng sprang onto a roof beam in just a few strides.
Although wooden walls divided the fourth floor into dozens of rooms of different sizes, the roof beams above were connected, with nothing blocking the way.
Chu Xisheng walked gingerly along a beam, doing his best not to make a sound or stir up any dust.
Only the footprints he left behind gave him a headache. He racked his brains but could do nothing about them.
This meant that once those thugs climbed onto the beams, they would certainly discover his trail.
Chu Xisheng soon found a concealed blind spot, but as he approached, he saw that someone was already sitting there.
She was a girl around his age, her hair arranged in an exquisite lily bun. Her features were lovely, her delicate nose straight, and a lily-shaped jeweled ornament rested between her brows. Her eyes were large and alluring.
The Lily Maiden also wore a blue-green inner disciple's uniform, but hers had clearly been altered. Not only was it more fitted, but lilies and peonies were embroidered along the collar and lapels.
Her lower legs dangled beyond the beam, swinging back and forth. She looked carefree, pretty, and playful.
Slightly surprised, Chu Xisheng thought, There's actually a beauty like this among our Zhengyang Martial Academy's new inner disciples?
But over the past three months, he had actually spent fewer than five days at the academy, so he knew few people to begin with.
Chu Xisheng smiled amiably at her. "I didn't know you were hiding here too, junior sister. Don't mind me joining you."
The lily girl gave him a sidelong glance, then casually waved a hand, looking as though she could not be bothered with him.
But Chu Xisheng's expression turned solemn. He saw a breeze stir as she waved, wiping away every footprint he had left on the beam.
Was that a spell she just used?
This girl seems to practice dual cultivation of technique and martial arts? And her spellcaster cultivation is at least eighth rank.
Chu Xisheng looked at the Lily Maiden in astonishment. Is she really an inner disciple?
Then he could no longer spare any attention for her identity. He turned his gaze downward, his expression growing grave.
Looking down from the beam, he could see streams of people pouring out of all three stairways.
They were all fellow disciples of Chu Xisheng's.
Most were pale and anxious, filing in from the stairways under the watch of more than twenty murderous-looking men and women armed with sabers and swords.
Although these thugs showed no intention of killing them, their words and actions were exceedingly brutal. The slightest disobedience brought vicious slaps and blows.
Two people had merely stolen a glance around before being beaten until blood streamed all over them, leaving them collapsed on the floor.
The thugs forcibly herded the crowd into the various rooms, then ordered every disciple to take thick books off the shelves and leaf through them.
Confusion appeared in Chu Xisheng's eyes.
The thugs' actions left him somewhat bewildered.
What are they doing? They seem to be looking for something? Could they be here for that Yazi Diagram?
Although Chu Yunyun had remained deeply secretive with him, her words made it clear that the Yazi Diagram concealed an enormous secret.
That secret was even enough to allow Chu Yunyun to reclaim everything she had lost.
Just then, in the third room from the left on this floor, a young man suddenly stood up in delight, holding a book half a foot thick.
"I found it! There's a 'Mu' after this line. It should be an annotation in Qin Muge's own hand."
The nearby thugs were all alerted. A young man carrying a tiger-headed saber, with a black patch over his left eye, immediately strode over.
He snatched the book and examined it carefully for a moment, then disappointment appeared on his face.
Clearly, the book did not contain what he wanted.
"It is indeed Qin Muge's annotation! Someone, let him out."
Resting a hand on his saber, the one-eyed young man swept a sinister, icy gaze over the academy disciples in the room. "Keep looking! Today, only those who find annotations and notes left by Qin Muge will walk out of this Library Tower in one piece. If you can't find any, don't expect to live!"
The young disciples all turned ashen and trembled with fear.
Up on the beam, however, Chu Xisheng could not help raising an eyebrow slightly at these words, an odd expression on his face.
So the source of today's calamity was still that sister he had acquired for nothing.
"That's the Bloodwind Bandit Group under Bloodwind Sword Li Daogui."
At some point, the Lily Maiden had moved beside him. She leaned down to look below with a sneer. "They're probably here for that nonexistent God-Defying Banner."
A subtle fragrance immediately reached Chu Xisheng's nose. He felt that the girl had come a little too close.
After a moment's thought, he wrote a few words in the dust on the beam: "God-Defying Banner? What's that?"
The Lily Maiden was in a talkative mood. Playing with a braid at her temple, she smiled mockingly. "A legendary treasure that can defy heaven, change fate, and seize the creative powers of heaven and earth. They say both War God Zangtian and the Foolish Old Man once obtained it and wielded it to wage war against the heavens. Many people suspect that the God-Defying Banner fell into the hands of Overlord Martial King Qin Muge.
"But I've spent more than ten days in this Library Tower, searching it from top to bottom, and found nothing. What they want simply isn't here."
Chu Xisheng's face twitched slightly. The information revealed in her words was astonishing.
She did not seem to be a legitimate inner disciple either.
He wrote another line: "May I ask your surname, and what distinguished expert you might be?"
The girl smiled freely. "My surname is Lu. I'm just an ordinary inner disciple, hardly worthy of being called an expert."
At that moment, something suddenly stirred in Chu Xisheng's mind, and he looked toward a nearby window.
Right where he was looking, a Paper Crane wreathed in yellow spiritual light suddenly darted in through the window.
Strangely, although thugs stood guard behind every window on this floor, none noticed the Paper Crane's passage. They neither saw nor heard it.
After flying inside, the Paper Crane first flapped its wings and circled the beams and pillars overhead for a while. Then its body swayed, and it glided nimbly over to hover before Chu Xisheng.
This Paper Crane came for me?
Chu Xisheng's eyes were blank with confusion. After a brief hesitation, he took the Paper Crane in his hand.
It was actually a letter. When Chu Xisheng unfolded the Paper Crane, he saw several lines of tiny writing on both sides of the yellow paper.
Chu Xisheng looked at the signature first. It was actually a vermilion official seal, bearing nine neatly formed clerical-script characters-Embroidered Uniform Thousand-Household Officer Cao Xuan of Xiushui Commandery!
The sight filled Chu Xisheng with apprehension as well as private bewilderment.
How does a distinguished Embroidered Uniform Thousand-Household Officer know about me?
And why is he contacting me with a talisman letter?
Chu Xisheng suppressed his feelings and read the words on the talisman paper, line by line.
The letter first gave a brief account of the situation, then spoke of duty to family and country, hoping he would embrace chivalry and step forward, coordinating with the Embroidery Guard from within to kill the Bloodwind Bandit Group's eighth-rank spellcaster and help the imperial court wipe out these bandits guilty of countless evils.
If Chu Xisheng agreed, he could leave a message on the talisman paper. The Embroidery Guard would launch a fierce assault from outside to support him and create an opening.
Once the deed was done, the Xiushui Commandery Thousand Household Office would reward him generously.
What concerned Chu Xisheng was that the end of the talisman letter also made a veiled reference to the siblings' "travel permits" and "household registration."
In ancient times, anyone traveling more than a hundred li from their residence needed a travel permit issued by the local authorities, or they would be punished according to law.
Great Ning administered household registration very strictly, conducting checks every three years and comparing registered households against the populace, making it easier for the imperial court to control local regions and collect poll taxes.
People without proper household registration would not only be punished as absconding households, but also could not enroll at any martial academy, conduct business, enlist in the army, take the imperial examinations, and so on.
When the two had settled in Xiushui Commandery three months earlier, they had been forced to buy travel permits on the black market.
The real Chu Xisheng and Chu Yunyun had belonged to a family migrating from Taishan Commandery in Eastern Province. They had encountered bandits, and the entire family had met violent deaths.
Their travel permits had survived, however, and the two "siblings" had bought them as proof for settling in Xiushui Commandery.
The girl also leaned her head over to read Chu Xisheng's letter.
All Chu Xisheng's attempts to hide it were futile. After all, space on the beam was limited, and he dared not make too much noise.
The girl was utterly shameless too, practically pressing her whole body against him. She was also very strong, pulling Chu Xisheng's arm back with one hand.
Helpless, Chu Xisheng could only let her do as she pleased.
Fortunately, after reading the letter, the girl withdrew, clicking her tongue. "This Li Daogui really is formidable. He's probably driven the Embroidery Guard into a corner, for them to ask a disciple who hasn't even reached the second level of the Origin-Nourishing Art to act.
"Also, there seems to be a problem with your household registration? These are the Embroidery Guard's usual methods-threats and inducements, soft and hard tactics together. Right now, they're offering courtesy before force. If inducements fail, they'll use their power to threaten you until you have no choice but to submit and risk your life for them."
Chu Xisheng's expression, however, kept shifting.
That man surnamed Cao really had seized him by his weak spot.
He could not readily abandon his current identity. It would mean all their efforts at Zhengyang Martial Academy over the past three months had flowed away down the drain. They would have to seek the Pure Yang Secret Method through other avenues.
And there was that Yazi Diagram-after working for so long, they were only one step away from the diagram that concealed such an enormous secret.
Chu Xisheng took a deep breath and calmed himself.
He turned his gaze below the beam again, observing the situation while looking at the illusory screen in his vision.
Risking his life was out of the question, but he still wanted to assess the situation before making a choice.
With Daddy System, he might yet have a chance.
Chu Xisheng scanned his surroundings, his gaze finally settling on a man.
Most of the thugs carried weapons. This man alone had a Peachwood Sword on his back and several talismans affixed to his body.
At a glance, he was clearly their spellcaster. Spells abhorred metal, and spellcasters would not carry any metal on their bodies before reaching seventh rank.
Yet the more Chu Xisheng looked, the more something seemed wrong about him.
The man's physique was too athletic. Even in a loose disciple's robe, his pectoral muscles showed.
"The man you're looking at isn't their spellcaster. He's actually a Seventh-Rank Martial Cultivator. They're very cunning. The real spellcaster has been hiding among those students all along."
As the Lily Maiden spoke, she actually snatched the talisman letter from Chu Xisheng's hand.
She forcibly seized Chu Xisheng's finger and bit it open.
The girl was immensely strong, and Chu Xisheng could not resist at all throughout the process. Dazed, he asked, "What are you doing?"
"Acting chivalrously, of course-rooting out the violent and protecting the innocent!" the Lily Maiden replied with a smile, while holding Chu Xisheng's hand and rapidly writing several lines on the talisman letter.