For the next hour, I read through the book in hand, marking everything that was incorrect and noting down some key information. After placing it to the side, I picked up the previous book that I had read and flipped through it once more, this time noting down the important points in the book. Stacking it on top of the other book, I grab a new one to read from my left.
While I was reading, Lou Xia sat off to the side in the lotus position and meditated for some time. When she finished, I was on my fifth book, with the end in sight. Until now, I had been going through the books at a decent speed, but I slowed down now because I felt like something was trying to burn a hole in my back. This was causing me to be distracted enough to add another ten minutes to the finishing of the book. Turning to my side, I looked at Lou Xia, who had been staring at me this entire time. I decided to ask her what was wrong.
"I'm bored!" she complained like a spoiled child who had to wait for her parents to finish something. I did not even deign to give this a proper reply as I just handed her one of the books that I already finished. Taking the book, she just looked at me weirdly, asking what she was supposed to do with it, so I sat there and explained to her, "I need you to read through that book and then present to me a solution on how to fix all of its different problems."
She got even more confused for a second, then shrugged and opened the book to start reading. I now had even more time to sit here and read, allowing me almost to finish two more books while taking notes before I was interrupted again.
"I think that I have a solution." Lou Xia said from beside me after over an hour and a half of reading and creating a solution to the problems. Asking her to continue, I listened to her proposed solution and pointed out all the mistakes she still had. At this, she went silent for a few minutes before returning to the book once more. This even allowed me to finish the book I had in my hands and start a new one before Lou Xia asked me a new question.
Based on the number of solutions she had, I could see the difference in the work she put in. She was even, most of the way, fixing the technique that I gave her. That was very good, but it seemed that she could not get out of the mindset that all the stages came in a specific pattern everyone had to follow. When I asked her about it, she said that the ancestors had done it this way for a reason and if they wanted us to do it differently. I found this notion simply crazy because if everyone did that, then the world would stagnate and never move forward because no one would dare to question if the ancestors were right or wrong, let alone test it. However, while I had her willing to answer questions, I asked about the grading that I kept finding on the first page of the books.
It turns out that all the manuals were measured by the World Will and given a ranking. These rankings, from lowest to highest, were Ordinary, Mortal, Human, Earth, heaven, Immortal, Transcendent Immortal, heavenly Immortal, Primordial, Greater Primordial, and Imperial Primordial. This was a rough demarcation of how powerful a technique was. She apparently felt that the mistakes she had fixed could take the earth-ranked technique in her hands up to the Immortal level. With that, I told her that she still had not fixed the biggest mistake and that I had not marked it in the book, so she would have to find it for herself and then fix it. This seemed to cause a spark to light in her eyes as all she said was "Yes, Ma'am," before putting her nose-deep into the book.
It looked so comical that I wanted to laugh but held back long enough to return to the manuals. This time, I got a few more books in but had to stop as I started to feel tired and let out a big yawn. Getting up, I grabbed my notes and placed them on top of the books before shaking Lou Xia out of her focus. She Looked to be angry for a moment, then I told her that I needed her to carry the second stack of books because we needed to hed back to the house.
Grabbing the books, I walk out of the Library and over to the elder. When he opened his eyes, I saw that they looked at me in amusement for a moment and then went wide as he saw the amount of books we had. He chose this time to speak up and say that I was only allowed to take one as these books were ones that were still in circulation. To counter this, I reached into my inventory, pulled out the note, and handed it to the elder.
I felt nervous as he read it a couple of times, his eyebrows raised. Then, he handed the note back to me, saying that I should at least bring the books back when I was finished with them. Nodding a little too enthusiastically, I picked up the stack of books again and started to follow Lou Xia back to her house. This time, the walk took far longer than last time as we carried a stack of books each and did not want them to get ruined. By the time we got to the house, there was no more light in the sky, and all the lights were lit in the manner.
Entering the main hall, I was jumped by the maids again and reminded of yesterday. Even the same maid came up to me again, but instead of grabbing me, she grabbed the stack of books in my hand and disappeared as if she was never there. Cynthea then grabbed our attention and led us to the dining hall once more. Along the way, she reprimanded us both about missing both the afternoon meal and evening meal, as she called them, as well as how lucky we were that they saved us some food that did not even need to be reheated as they were in spatial storage.
After entering the room and being seated, we had to wait as soon as both of Lou Xia's parents walked into the room and sat down. Once they were seated, all the dishes were placed in front of us, displaying a feast that could make even people from my old life envious. I could not even hold myself back as I stacked some food on my plate and started to eat immediately once the proper customs were preserved. This was perhaps one of the few times I was happy that my grandmother forced me to learn proper etiquette.
With dinner finished I was sitting there as Lou Xia parents were asking her how her bay was and what we did. I would have loved to see their expressions, but all the mental work today had appeared to tire me out so much that I fell asleep where I was sitting the last thing I remember was Lou Xia starting to talk about what happened after we left the house.
Waking up, I find myself staring at the ceiling of an unfamiliar room and start to panic again before remembering where I was and calming down. Getting up, I scan the room and see in a small, what to normal people would be a dark corner, a sofa, and a coffee table with a stack of books on it. Trying to move without alerting anyone, I make my way over to the little sitting area and start to read once more. This seemed to last for a while as the corner I was sitting in unknowingly became bathed in light when my room doors opened again.
These maids do not want to let me sit on my own, it seems, as they grab me and pull me into the bathroom while stripping me on the way. When I enter the bathroom, I am greeted by a large bathtub full of steaming hot water with soap bubbles on top. Looking at the tub, I do not notice the two maids with me stop for a second, and the next thing I know, I am free-falling into a hot bath.
I would have enjoyed the bath if they had not constantly tried to touch my ears and tail at every opportunity. The fact that at the end of it all, they had the audacity to look crestfallen maid it all the worse. I am never doing this again with any non-kitsune maid.