My eyes were scanning through the manuals like a photography machine, I didn't even need to know what's in them, I just needed to take a 'Picture' of the manual page then flip it to the other page, my goal was to store these 'Images' in my mind then organize them later as books and manuals that I can use.
Most of these manuals were completely useless to me, however, they were of such great quality that in the current time they could be considered sect foundation manuals that a whole sect can be built upon. These manuals are incredible treasures that only the Ancient Sect has possession of.
These secrets must have been lost due to the passage of time, but now I'm able to claim them as my own and then when the time comes I can use them as bargaining chips whenever I need to.
I continued scanning through the books and seemed to be running out of time, at my speed I might be able to finish the whole shelve with a minute or two above the agreed upon time. But it wasn't something that I needed to worry about.
The time kept ticking and my eyes were still zooming through the pages until I arrived to one book that made me reel back in shock.
"Imperial Algorithm," the book read and the writing wasn't your regular letters but the same imperial letters that Master Rain had tasked me with decrypting.
I shook as I was reading through the pages of the book then immediately went back to memorizing it, this was as I had thought a mathematical inscription book. But sadly I didn't have enough time to enjoy it, so I went full scan mode and memorized it all before I went to another book.
The discovery of an original book of the Imperial Algorithm will help greatly in fully decrypting the parchment that Master Rain was carrying.
It didn't take much before I arrived to the last book, and as I was in the middle of flipping through its pages, the elder came back in.
"Ling Cao, time is up," he said.
"Just two more minutes, I'm almost done," I said.
The elder didn't seem to like my answer, "We had a deal, one hour, is one hour," he said as he was approaching me, while at the same time I was rapidly flipping the pages.
"I'll add to the deal, I'll extract the poison painlessly," I said.
This gave the elder a pause, he pondered about my proposition, and before he could answer I added some words just to pressure him.
"Just one minute!" I said and then continued to flip the pages.
"Alright, hurry up, the Sect Master is waiting for you," he said then walked out of the door.
One minute passed in the blink of an eye and I was a satisfied person. Having copied everything in the books I was now able to slowly digest them whenever I had the time.
Soon I came out of the treasury, and looked at the elder in an awkward and slightly embarrassed expression.
"Sigh, let's just go, we wasted a bit of time, I don't like to make the sect master wait, it just comes back and bite me in the ass later, always." He said.
I thought the sect master would be waiting at the main hall but apparently the elder guided us to the entrance of the palace through a teleportation gate where I found a sight to behold.
At the feet of the sect master were countless heads of cultivators, so many dead ones, and most of them had red bloodshot eyes.
"This should do it, the sect is properly cleaned up now," the sect master said. "This couldn't have been done without your help," the sect master said as he looked at me in the eyes.
"That's a bit… unbelievable, I say," I replied.
"Why is that?" he added.
"I still can't fully understand, if you're this strong why did you leave these people infest your sect," I bluntly spoke.
These words were more than enough to make everyone cringe at how rude and blunt I was, however the sect master didn't care for 'Face'. A man after my own little heart.
"The fact that the Grand Elder was also a Devil Cultivator was protecting them, I couldn't advance without risking the death of a sensible force of my own sect. killing him would have costed a literal leg and arm. Not to mention the risk of my own death and the collapse of the sect," he said.
"Then, how long did it take you to discover that he was a Devil Cultivator?" I asked.
"It took far too long, so long that it was already too late to do anything about it, and we could only mitigate damage waiting for an opportunity to uproot the devil within, until you Ling Cao provided us with it," he said.
"Huh, interesting, and now, what are you going to do? Though I expect that your sect didn't suffer much since you killed off all the Devil Cultivators, they were still part of your sect, part of the force driving it, they were elders here, and with them dead, you undoubtedly grew weaker as a sect, am I right?" I said.
Some elder next to the sect master spoke, "You're being rude talking so formally to the sect master, know your place Ling Cao, just because you got lucky into taking down an elder, that doesn't mean you get to take to your elder as if they were your peers," he said.
I looked at the elder for a fraction of a second then ignored him, as I went back to the sect master, "You need to figure out a way to become more powerful, or at least fake it so that no one will know that you grew weak, your only options are to either recruit more elders, which is risky by itself since you could recruit a spy, or close up shop, and have the sect go under seclusion for a period of time until you grow your own disciples to elder seats. Either of the two options will reveal that the Ancient Sect is facing trouble, and what will you do then?" I asked.
"You're awfully blunt, Ling Cao," the sect master said.
"Let met guess, just like my father," I said.
"Exactly, anyway, I doubt that anyone will think of us as growing weaker, but we'll still be entering seclusion," he said.
"But, Sect Master?! If we enter Sect Seclusion, our lands, our profitable markets and many of our property will be taken over by outside forces," an elder spoke.
"There is nothing else we can do, entering Sect Seclusion will allow us to grow faster, not to mention we can always take back those once we're back. For now, I'll declare the sect as having entered seclusion. Call back all the disciples and all the elders, close all our shops and withdraw from all of our front positions, there is no need to worry about things that will be lost sooner or later since we lack the manpower to protect them, severing the toe to save the foot is our only option now. Ling Cao, I need to talk to you, privately," the sect master said.
"As you wish," I said and then immediately a sound barrier appeared between me and the sect master.
"What do you think, of being an Elder of the Sect," he said.
"Are you crazy? An elder, at my age, I'll be eaten alive, if you want me dead just say it bluntly."
"Why would you think that promoting you to an elder will be the death of you?" he asked.
"I'm no fool, being an elder comes with a lot of responsibility, not to mention there are a lot of people who really hate my guts and want me dead, do you even know the amount of trouble they'll be causing just to see me suffer, not to mention other elders will not have it as me being an elder, they'll have my hide for it, because I'm 'Weak', below cultivation level, and clearly out of their leagues. Sorry but I like life far more than more responsibility for no obvious gain and more work," I said.
"Fair enough, but I must award you something, just taking a treasure isn't enough," he said.
"I got awarded plenty, just have everyone leave me alone, and allow me to have my own garden to cultivate spiritual herbs, this is all I'm asking, nothing less nothing more, if you truly wish to award me," I said.
"Then consider it done," he said.
The sound barrier was immediately removed and the Sect Master announced what I just asked for to everyone.
"Of all the things you could ask for, a garden and some peace and quiet, what a foolish little lad," the same elder I ignore before said.
"That's pretty much none of your business, but you can say whatever makes you sleep better at night. I couldn't care less or give even less of a fuck for a person who'll die in three days," I said then turned my back on the old man.
"Are you cursing me with death you damn brat!" he shouted.
"Oh no, I'm stating facts, the Grizzly Poison had seeped far too much into your body, and you'll be vomiting black blood by morning, and get bed ridden by the evening, then you'll fall in a coma and never wake up, this is what will happen to you, and there is nothing, you or anyone here can do to save you, so why should I care about what you think about me, or my own choices?" I gave the man some smack then turned towards where my old palace was.
The old elder couldn't help but open and close his mouth unable to come up with a reply besides, "DAMN BASTARD!"
Which I seemed to be getting so used to it became music to my ears.
Now with a lot of knowledge of old cultivation manuals, a fuck ton of free time, I have the ability to learn cultivation techniques, improve upon my mastery of the Ancient Step, the learn the Ancient Palm technique, and finally a lot of land to make my own poison garden to improve my cultivation technique and my own Poison Arts.