The trip to his new house had Anton realizing how much he needed to be able to walk faster. Sterling was quite patient, walking at a speed he could go… but watching how he moved Anton was aware he would generally go much faster. That was exemplified by those they passed going the other way- or those who passed them on the road. It seemed that despite his new vigor, Anton couldn’t just ignore that he was an old man. He wasn’t sure if he could keep up with so many young cultivators… and walking was the least of his concerns.

By the time they arrived at Anton’s new home, it was getting into the afternoon. To be honest, Anton almost missed it. Not because it was small, but because he thought the homes in the area wouldn’t be for outer disciples. Each little complex in the area had four square buildings on the corners, connected by walls connecting them at the perimeter, and from the angle up the slope Anton could just make out that they had walls connecting in the middle.

“Here it is,” Sterling gestured. “We try to make every plot for disciples of the same rank equivalent. Of course, with land parcels that’s impossible… but we can get close. The courtyard has enough room to grow a small patch of medicinal herbs if you have the interest, with room to cultivate and practice techniques. Other disciples will likely be assigned to the others after the selection today.”

Anton nodded. “It’s actually quite a bit larger than I expected.” The home itself was about the same size as the main house back in Dungannon, without some of the little additions they’d added over the decades. Frankly, he felt it was much too large for a single person… but he wasn’t going to complain. “Thank you for your help, Sterling. I know I’m a slow old man, and I appreciate you not rushing me.”

Sterling smiled, “Don’t worry. Patience is a virtue, and we’d rather have a thousand cultivators with good attitude and perseverance than ten thousand geniuses. Nothing good comes of talent without character.” Sterling inclined his head, then pointed up the slope towards a larger building. “That building there is the meal hall for this section. I’m still an outer disciple too, and I live on the other side of it. I’ll probably see you there, at least in the mornings and evenings. Lunch is usually taken wherever you are working.” With that, Sterling took his leave. Anton turned back to his new home- finding it sparsely but furnished but sufficient for any needs he had. He considered what he would do with the rest of the day.

-----

In the end, Anton’s feet carried him all the way back to the central complex. It was too late to start any sort of job, but he could look at the job boards. Something that interested him more, however, was the technique library. He wasn’t sure what things would be contained therein, but he knew they were quite useful. There was also the issue that Anton wasn’t a fighter. Oh, he’d speared a few wild boars in his day and his archery skills were quite decent for hunting, but he’d never fought a person, and especially not a cultivator. If he was to avenge his family… he needed to be able to fight. Quite frankly, he had little idea how cultivators fought and he didn’t want to bother anyone with trying to learn from them until he’d reached the limits of what he could study on his own. That might be a day, a week, or a few months. It was a complete unknown.

He did stop by the job board to confirm where he would go for work. At least for the moment he would be going with the most familiar option. They needed farmhands, and at the very least he wouldn’t be completely lost there. Plants cultivators cared about would likely require special care, but he would at least know the basic principles. Checking his map, he determined the closest plots that were requesting new workers. A mere half hour from his new home, depending on how the terrain and roads lined up.

Libraries were not a place Anton often had reason to visit. Dungannon only had personal collections of books, and while Anton had a small collection spending money on books was a waste. Not that knowledge wasn’t valuable, but he’d learned everything he needed to from his father, or through practice. There weren’t any books about farming that would have things he didn’t know. At least, not that he had ever seen.

Strangely enough, a cultivator’s library was much the same as any other… though with a much more powerful energy flowing through the area. Anton wasn’t sure what it was all for, but he imagined some of it was involved with keeping the books and scrolls held within safe. The woman inside couldn’t be a guard at all hours of the day… though Anton felt that while she was there, nothing could happen without her. She was a young woman, but he felt like she was at the peak of Spirit Building. It was hard to tell, but he felt at least twenty stars. Was she at the stage beyond that? He wasn’t sure, with nothing to compare to… and he wasn’t sure if Spirit Building was another ten stars or not. He’d made that assumption, but he just now realized it might be wrong. “Good day, honored librarian.”

“You’re new,” the woman immediately remarked. “It is good to see new faces. You can call me Librarian Mason, or Elder Mason if you prefer.”

“Pardon my words, Elder Mason,” Anton inclined his head. “I sensed your power, but I expected an elder to be… well… quite a bit older.” She looked no older than any of his granddaughters, quite in the prime of her life.

“I’m sure you will find that cultivators are often quite a bit older than they look, however I am indeed still quite young.” Librarian Mason smiled, “I’m certainly older than most of the new recruits, but there are occasionally exceptions like yourself. What sort of technique are you interested in today? As a new outer disciple your selection will be limited for the sake of caution, but we have quite a wide breadth of available techniques.”

“I had thought I would browse…” Anton said, but as he looked over the many shelves- hundreds of them filled with books and scrolls of all sizes- he realized he would never find anything that way. “Honestly, I have no idea what would be best… but I am most familiar with archery, I think.”

“I see. May I ask what parts of your body you have refined? Some of the techniques will be better suited for you with the proper refinements.” Librarian Mason stood, gesturing for him to follow.

Anton was a bit nervous about telling her what choices he’d made. What if he’d picked a bad path? Then again, he would eventually refine every part of his body… so if that was the case, he would just have to wait longer. An elder would hopefully not judge his choices too harshly, and he didn’t sense anyone else nearby to overhear, so he cautiously spoke. “After the initial refining, I refined my meridians, then the organs in my torso and my head. I am currently refining my muscles.”

“Some techniques will be difficult before you finish refining your muscles and tendons, but proper breath control and eyesight will help greatly. You should be quite able to at least begin learning anything, however.” Librarian Mason stopped, her long hair swishing past her waist. “Here we are.” She pulled two scrolls and a thin book off the shelves. “These are the best techniques. Take a quick look.”

Anton browsed through them. The scrolls were much less impressive than the Ninety-Nine Stars scroll, but they still had a mystical quality to them. The first one was titled ‘Spirit Arrows’. From a quick look, it was a method to make arrows out of the archer’s energy, requiring no physical arrow to nock. Normally energy would not so easily maintain its form away from a cultivator without something to keep it anchored. It seemed to have serious requirements for the amount of energy used, and having the meridians refined was required.

The second scroll was “Hawk Eyes Archery”. It contained multiple techniques related to each other. One was to focus energy on the eyes to improve the eyesight, and the others were techniques for controlling arrows so they could actually hit a target at a far distance. It didn’t matter if a cultivator could see clearly a kilometer away if an arrow didn’t stay on target. Wind was a factor, but also air resistance even without any particular currents seemed to be a factor. Of course, it required the cultivator to have the organs in their head refined.

The thin manual was less mystical in nature. It was called “Thousand Arrows”, and seemed to cover every technique for firing a bow faster. That covered bow style, how to hold each bow, how to nock arrows, quivers… and then some actual special training techniques to improve draw speed and strength. It seemed that the latter would require muscle and tendon refinements to be used to their fullest.

Anton had trouble deciding which of them he liked the best. Having no need for arrows was interesting… at least as an emergency it would have value. Eyesight was quite tempting as well. Thousand Arrows… seemed interesting, but not something he was ready to study in depth yet.

“You can study them at a desk, if you wish, or in your room,” Librarian Mason’s voice stirred him out of his thoughts. “We have additional copies of Hawk Eyes Archery and Thousand Arrows. You can keep Spirit Arrows for a month without issue. Beyond that, we may send a representative to retrieve it, if someone else asks for it.” Librarian Mason held up a token with a stylized scroll on it. “This is the token of a library worker. It is unlikely anyone else will pretend to be from the library but… sometimes people make poor decisions.”

Anton nodded. “Thank you. I would like to borrow all three of these, then.” He paused for a moment, then decided to ask his question. “I am aware that the full Ninety-Nine Stars is not available for study until I have been a disciple for at least a year. However, I am curious about something. You seem to have twenty something stars… have you passed beyond Spirit Building to the next stage?”

Librarian Mason smiled. “That sort of information is not what is kept secret. We just don’t wish those we do not yet fully trust to cultivate a technique so closely associated with us. After Body Foundation, the next eighteen stars are the seven purifications and eleven orbits. It is only at the twenty-ninth star that one would step into Constellation Formation. So I am not yet at that point.”

“I appreciate the explanation,” Anton said. He wasn’t sure what the details of the purifications and orbits were, but properly judging which stage people were in seemed important. He knew there was a large leap in power upon reaching each stage- he could easily feel the difference between Body Foundation and Spirit Building. Now that he knew that Spirit Building lasted until the twenty-eighth star, he updated his thoughts of Librarian Mason from a slightly weak Constellation Formation cultivator to an exceptionally strong Spirit Building cultivator.