The huge iron jar started to roll, pushed by the caretaker and the old man. It seemed quite heavy, but after it started rolling the strength of the two Cultivators appeared to be adequate as they weren’t struggling or asking for Sage’s help. That said, they also didn’t waste time, pushing the huge jar quickly through the gates of the Clear Sky Academy and down the hallway that led to the beast cages. The grates were already lifted and they had a clear route towards a large door that had already been thrown open. It led into one of the side rooms that Sage had not looked into yet. He assumed they were all full, but from how empty this one was, it seems he was wrong.

These rooms each had two gates, a huge one for moving the beasts in and out, along with a smaller human sized door that the caretaker had been using. Now that he was inside, Sage saw a cage separating the room, segregating a walkway leading from the smaller human door and looping around the side and back of the room. That explained how the caretaker could enter and feed the beasts without any trouble, but this place seemed far from adequate for the Sunset Rain Snake. The old man and the caretaker pushed the iron jar over to the corner of the room that the cage wrapped around. In this corner of the room there was a large grate on the floor.

Ahh, waste disposal.

The old man turned the jar so that the small spout on the lid was tilted over and aimed towards the grate on the floor. That confirmed Sage’s guess: They didn’t plan on letting the Sunset Rain Snake out at all, and if it created too much venom, then it would just pour out and spill into the sewer drain. He felt it was a huge waste of a useful resource, but then he remembered that the Sunset Rain Snake’s venom lost its potency rapidly. There was just too much energy in the air that the venom would be ‘used up’ in just a few minutes if left out in the open. A container that was completely impermeable to the energy of the heavens and earth was probably quite difficult to make or acquire and so they didn’t have anywhere to store the venom. There was also no shortage of it, so they thought nothing of dumping it into the waste bin.

The only downside to this was that now it became much more difficult for Sage to try and use the snake for breeding. How could he open the jar without causing a disturbance or going unnoticed by these two?

“I must admit my surprise. I had thought we’d need to wait decades before we could find someone capable enough to catch the Sunset Rain Snake. I am Keeper Deng.”

The old man gave him a little bow and salute, which Sage quickly reciprocated, “I am Lang Sheng. I am glad to have been of service.”

After saying as such, Sage brought out the identity token he was given by the Clear Sky Academy. Sage spoke humbly, but then brought out the token in order to receive a reward. The old man smiled and didn’t hesitate to touch his own token against it, altering it to bear his mark of approval. The two nodded to each other, understanding the polite, but benefits based relationship.

Sage smiled, “I will be in the library for some time, feel free to contact me if you need any more assistance of that sort.”

“Good, very good. Deadly venom is always a trouble to deal with, it's good to know someone capable in the field.”

Nodding his assent, Sage left the room and then the area of the beast cages. He returned to the elevator and put aside his thoughts of using the Sunset Rain Snake for breeding. It was a little too much trouble for the benefits. He’d already collected plenty of the most valuable resource, the Sunset Rain Snake’s venom. Though collected was probably not the right term. After being poisoned, much of it was pulled into his Poison Dantian to keep it from killing him. Once it was assimilated into his Nine Heart Arrangement, it was moved over to take up one of his eight ‘slots’. From then on, he could produce as much of it as he wanted in the future. The ninth ‘heart’ of this technique was always reserved for absorbing incoming poisons and also to be used for mixing the others together when necessary. Even that was only a slight limitation as he could store venoms on the Inner World or in the Universe Ring and replace them with something else.

The exception to that being this new venom. Finding a container to properly store the Sunset Rain Snake’s venom was not going to be simple. It would have to be spread through the Lang Clan in the old fashioned way until they all carried it with them like the Searing Greenrose Miasma. The miasma based poison had a similar problem as it was incorporeal and affected the spirit. Putting such a thing in a container required very expensive sorts of Spiritual Jades that had similar properties to a Soul Locker like the Peachwood Ring, but made to carry a spiritual liquid rather than a spirit type being.

After receiving the mark on his identity token from Keeper Deng, Sage had achieved his goal of getting clearance in the library. The mark was to show that a Keeper, an important member of the Clear Sky Academy staff, trusted him. Usually it would take quite a bit of effort and relationship building to earn, but the Sunset Rain Snake was a very difficult problem to solve and so Sage was able to skip quite a bit of wasted time and effort due to his quite rare ability of being able to withstand its venom. Even as ‘immune’ to poison as he was, the Sunset Rain Snake’s venom was still powerful enough to leave him with only a fraction of his strength. It was no wonder that subduing it led to such a large reward.

Returning to the library, Sage met up with the same old woman librarian from before and showed his token. She was surprised to see the mark, and Sage imagined she was wondering if he always had it and was just interrupted earlier, or if he’d found a way to earn it in a very short time. They walked past the same group of three golden haired students studying together at a large table, and then reached a heavy iron barred gate in front of a staircase.

She pointed to a cloud shaped metal plate on the center of the gate, “Touch your identity token to that and you can head up to the restricted section. You were looking for rare plants and materials, right? That should be in section twelve. Take care.”

Sage thanked the woman for her assistance and he did as she said, holding the token up to the blank metal plate whereby it lit up. He heard a click and the gate made of metal bars swung open. He stepped through and pulled it closed behind himself. When it swung back into a closed position there was another click and he realized it had an automatic lock, but was not an automatic door. It only opened for him because of its weight when the lock was undone. He walked up the stairs and found a far more expensive set of shelves, but they were only as tall as his chest rather than twenty foot tall floor to ceiling shelves like the public areas of the library. They were still full of Jade Tablets, standing up on their ends like the spines of books.

Perfect. If I’m going to read the whole library then it’ll be better to start here.