Little Mortal slowly turned around.
Now he was stroking his mustache with one hand and keeping the other hand still behind his back.
When Rose saw him, her breathing stopped for a moment.
But before she could ask what the reason for the mustache was, she heard him saying,
"Assistant Rose, it's been a while.
Looks like fate allowed us to meet again."
Rose was at a loss for words because they had just met each other this morning.
But she was happy to see her savior anyway.
"Yes, Sect Master, it's been a while. It's good to see you again."
Little Mortal looked at the rest of the people and said, "Everyone, this is my trusted assistant, Lady Rose. Please give her a proper welcome."
And everyone suddenly cupped their hands at the same time, bowed slightly, and shouted together,
"Welcome, Assistant Rose!"
Rose's heart skipped a beat.
Outside, at the inn's rooftop, a certain grandmother's heart skipped a beat, too.
'Is everyone inside the inn already, that Sect Master's followers?
The way all of them together welcomed her was so in sync that it's like a cult gathering!'
Inside the inn, Little Mortal nodded, then he looked at the shocked Rose and said,
"Assistant Rose, I already talked to them about the matter of recruiting followers, and they said, with the promise that I made, there will be ten thousand potential followers.
Can you coordinate with them to gather everyone by this evening?
Right now, I need to go to the sect's library and gather information for my research team.
Because we don't have much time left, we should act fast and divide the work between us."
Rose, who was shocked by the welcome, heard him and felt that, as an assistant, she was unfamiliar with too much of the information.
"Umm… Sect Master, I just got here and don't know anything.
What promise did you make?
Where are the ten thousand potential followers?
And what urgent matter is involved that you're running out of time?"
Little Mortal jumped down from his backpack and said, "Innkeeper lady, where are you?"
The middle-aged lady who was just beside him said,
"Here, Sect Master."
He pointed at her.
"You can ask her anything you want to know.
She will cooperate with you."
Then he pointed at an old man at the back and said,
"And the old sir over there—he should be able to spread the news about recruiting followers, so you don't need to worry. Just divide the work between them."
Then he gazed down and saw the two storage rings from before.
He took a look at the two oversized (for him) rings and just tried to put them on his finger...
But the moment he put them on, both rings shrank and became the size of his small fingers.
He suddenly gasped and mumbled to himself,
"So magical… I like it."
He then looked around and started stroking his mustache, as if asking, 'What do you think about my rings?'
The Innkeeper was the first to react.
"Sect Master, your charm was already at maximum capacity. The two rings can only add a little to it."
Little Mortal smiled in satisfaction.
Rose looked around in confusion.
'Why are there some random storage rings dropped here?
And one of them seems to be a storage ring custom-made for elders!'
"Okay then, I'll see you in the evening.
Assistant Rose, I leave the matter of followers' gathering to you and our friends here."
Then he took his backpack and left the inn...
Everyone present except Rose sighed in relief when he left.
With this little demon around, they were on edge all the time.
Even those crazy grandfather and grandson were just a short episode in the daily life of this kid and just disappeared after saying two or three lines.
What about some side characters like them?
But a moment later, the inn door opened, and he came back again.
Everyone felt like crying.
'Can you just go?'
"Oh, I forgot to tell you."
Everyone's heart stopped for a moment, and they stiffly looked at him to see what he forgot to say.
"Everyone, if fate allows, let's meet again."
And he left again while you could hear him giggling 'secretly'...
The crowd stared at the door for some more time to be sure if fate would allow him to come back again, but fortunately, he didn't return this time.
Rose, as if remembering something, ran to the door.
"Sect Master, wait! Do you know where the sect's library is?"
But when she was outside, he was nowhere to be found!
"Where did he disappear to...?"
Puzzled, she walked back to the inn.
When the crowd inside saw her coming back, they smiled kindly.
This lady was a celebrity in the outer sect city for many reasons.
At this moment, Rose was in deep thought.
'What was that token with him?
It was a sect master's token, but I'm sure it's different from the one that my mother has…
And those two storage rings—one was familiar, but I don't remember where I saw it. Looks like I should ask these people about them.'
So she walked to her old friend, the Innkeeper Luna, and smiled.
"Sister Luna, it's been a while."
Innkeeper Luna smiled back and said,
"Sister Rose, thank the heavens that you came! I thought we might never see each other again!"
Rose frowned. "Why would you say that?"
Luna, with fear in her voice, whispered to her,
"Sister Rose, you won't believe it, but the little boy who just left is a real demon with lots of weird treasures and a terrible temper!
You wouldn't believe what he did!"
Rose raised her eyebrows at first, but she remembered that she had thought the same when she bumped into him in the forbidden jungle.
"Come, let's sit and talk. Tell me exactly what happened from the start. I need to know everything if we want to take care of the 'followers' gathering' that the Sect Master entrusted to us."
Rose, because she couldn't become a cultivator like most of the humans in her generation, would come to this city from time to time to be away from any cultivators in the sect, because she couldn't withstand their arrogant gaze.
And here, in the outer sect city, she was like a light that would shine on them from time to time.
Because when she was here, nobody from the sect would dare to make trouble for them—until the time she had to return to her father's sect, and their days of fear would start over again.
That's why she was a 'special mortal' here.
While Luna started telling Rose about the arrival of the 'little demon' and his 'achievements' after just joining the sect for a couple of hours, outside of the inn, on the rooftop, Lady Butterfly was eavesdropping on the conversation between the people inside.
At the moment, she was puzzled at the order given by this unknown 'Sect Master' to Rose, and she was waiting to see who the other party was to be so unruly in the sect without the slightest fear.
So when she heard him leaving, she waited for him to fly away and then catch up to him outside the city instead of facing him here for safety reasons.
But no matter how long she waited, not even a bird flew away!
'Is he that good at hiding himself?
I couldn't sense him when he was inside the inn—only his voice could be heard—and I couldn't find him when he left either...?'
So Granny Butterfly decided to go inside the inn and ask what was going on directly.
...
Meanwhile, Little Mortal, with his backpack on his back and a 'shaved mustache', was asking about the address of the sect's library from the rice shop just beside the inn...
He was embarrassed to get the address from the people inside the inn.
How could he, the Sect Master's disciple, not know where the sect's library was?
That's why he decided to 'shave' his mustache, so his future followers wouldn't recognize him when he asked them for the address.
Inside the rice shop, an old lady behind the shop counter was writing something when she heard a child's voice.
"Hello, Lady Rice Seller, do you know where the sect's library is?"
The old lady didn't raise her head and just said,
"Go out of the city from the main gate, then look to your left. There is a path with yellow trees on both sides. If you follow that path, you can reach the library you want."
It wasn't her first time. Every year, around this time, new disciples would come here and later ask for the library to try their luck and become a cultivator.
But they all had no future.
Little Mortal said goodbye and left.
"Thank you. If fate allows, let's meet again."
The rice seller was now curious about who this kid was who needed Fate's permission to meet again.
But the only thing she saw was a leaving backpack...
....
Outside of a big 10-floor building with a library sign, a tricycle parked, and Little Mortal got off.
After a whistle, his tricycle disappeared.
"It should be the library."
When he arrived at the library entrance, he saw a paper placed on a simple table in front of the entrance, and the entrance was sealed with a wall of light.
There was no guard or 'Librarian' as it was expected.
On the paper, it was written:
[Place your sect token beside the token on the table, and depending on your token, you get access to different parts of the library.]
Little Mortal stopped there for a while until a disciple came and, while pretending not to see him, did what was written on the paper.
As if both the disciple and the library token resonated with each other, the library token glowed for a moment, and then the disciple left with his token.
When he reached the 'wall of light', he placed his token on the wall and entered the library through the light wall easily.
Little Mortal, who witnessed the process, did the same.
But there was a difference.
When he placed his token beside the library token, it flipped over onto his token instead of glowing, and it stuck to it.
Little Mortal scratched his head in confusion, then shrugged and, with his now doubled-size token, tried to see if he could go in.
When he arrived in front of the light wall and tried to enter with the token, he easily passed through—but at the exact moment, all of the disciples inside the library were thrown out simultaneously!
"Ehh!?"
"What happened?"
"Fellow Daoist, you were kicked out, too?"
"I was indeed forcefully sent out!"
"Did the library array malfunction?"
"We should call the elder!"
Inside the library, Little Mortal, who had entered successfully and was oblivious to what had happened, muttered,
"Little glasses."
The familiar black-frame glasses flew out of the backpack at his command, and he put them on.
He looked around while mumbling to himself,
"Okay, we need to gather information about different cultivation levels, how you can advance, and what they use as supplements to help speed up the process. Especially information about the wood and fire roots—this way, I can plan for the last condition of becoming a guardian while I train my followers."
After that, he tapped his glasses and started strolling between the bookshelves. At the same time, a light appeared on his glasses, and it began scanning the books around him.
The glasses would mark any practical book, and Little Mortal would take them and throw them inside his backpack.
Meanwhile, outside the library, a group of puzzled disciples were looking at each other.
They didn't know why they had been thrown out, and Mr. Librarian—or the elder known as 'Wise Counselor'—wasn't here, as always. Most of them just left when they couldn't find him.
Two hours later, while some disciples were talking to each other about the problem with the library, they heard a little boy's voice:
"Junior brothers, do you know where I can find materials and herbs to make pills?"
The one with the most seniority turned around to see who was the brat calling them "junior."
But a second later, after seeing the little boy's appearance, he said,
"Senior Brother, the storehouse is to the north of here. Just take that path, and you'll see it in no time."
The little boy cupped his hands, bowed slightly, and said,
"Thank you for your time. Bye."
And left.
The group of nervous 'junior brothers', who were wondering how there could be a polite member among these black-robed evils, sighed in relief.
But they suddenly heard him again!
"Oh, I forgot to say—if fate allows, let's meet again."
Then they heard him giggling secretly while riding away on his tricycle.
They all looked at each other and saw fear in each other's eyes. They knew what it meant when he said, "If fate allows, let's meet again," and left with that evil laugh—it meant they had been targeted!
So, all of them made the same decision:
"Fellow Daoists, it's time for me to enter seclusion for some time. Farewell."
"Same here, same here."
"Indeed, enlightenment comes without any warning."
They all cupped their hands at each other and ran away as fast as they could.
Half an hour later...
Little Mortal got off his tricycle and looked at the building with the sign 'Storehouse' on it, speechless.
It was the same here—a table, a light wall at the entrance, a token, and a paper on the table that read:
[Place your sect token beside the token on the table, and choose what you need from the list. If you have enough sect merit or spirit stones, you can get what you want.]
Little Mortal brought out his notebook and added two more lines to the list of 'Complaints to Sect Master':
[...
Lazy Mr. Librarian (not even at their workplace)
Lazy Storehouse Manager (not even at their workplace)]
After that, he placed his double-sized token beside the storehouse token.
But there was no list for him to choose from, as mentioned in the note, because this token—like the other one—flipped over and stuck to the other side of his token.
So, with his new triple-size token in hand, he went to the light wall and entered smoothly.
The moment he went in, all the workers in the warehouse were thrown out.
Another group of confused disciples stared at each other, not knowing what was going on.
Inside the storehouse, Little Mortal looked around a little at this gigantic place, then tapped his glasses and gave an order:
"Scan the storehouse and find everything we need to make pills for every pill formula we picked from the library."
Then his glasses started scanning everything, and some places in the storehouse were marked.
After it was done, Little Mortal patted his backpack and said,
"Your turn, big guy. Pack it all up."
An invisible force was emitted from the backpack and started picking up everything that was marked.
Not long after, Little Mortal—on his tricycle, with his triple-size token—started riding back toward the outer sect city while listening to music.
On his way, though, by accident, he saw a sign pointing toward a peculiar place.
"Oh, the Law Enforcement Hall is that way? How about I go and take a look? What if there are more human traffickers in there?"
And so, he changed direction to the road leading to the Law Enforcement Hall.
Arriving at his destination, Little Mortal 'regrew' his mustache and walked inside the building with a solemn look.
It was time to be serious!
But a brief moment later, he walked out with a face full of confusion.
"What is wrong with this sect? Nobody was managing the library, the storehouse, and now the Law Enforcement Hall?"
The building was empty.
Little Mortal scratched his head and left while mumbling to himself,
"Maybe it's a holiday, and they left for vacation..."