A short while later, we met up with Old Man Leng's wife in the hotel lobby on the first floor. We found out that she had already handled all the hotel procedures for us, so we didn't have to worry about anything of the sort, which was awesome. As an aside, she didn't check us out or anything - apparently, she booked around a whole month for us.
"Hm...two minutes late," she said upon spotting us exit the elevator.
We walked over to her, and I spoke. "Sorry. The elevator we had been planning on entering was too full, so we had to wait for the next one. Since this is peak times, the traffic on these elevators are pretty high."
"There's always the stairs, you know..." she replied with a smirk.
"Sorry, lady, but we aren't about to descend 42 flights of stairs in one go," Xiang Peng scoffed.
Since our room number was 420, that meant our room was on the 42nd floor. This was the one time I agreed with Xiang Peng - I'm not going down 42 sets of stairs in a row. My legs wouldn't be able to take it.
"Yeah...it would take us even longer if we did that, not to mention we would be far too tired to do anything before the training today even began," Feng Mian added with a sigh. "Speaking of, Old Man Leng mentioned some more training today - do you have any idea what it's going to be?"
Mrs. Leng smiled mysteriously. "I do, yes...but telling would ruin the whole suspense and mystery my husband intended, no?"
"Suspense and mystery...for just some training?" Yu An Yan raised an eyebrow.
"Um...I don't think it's 'just some training'..." Lan Xiao Su murmured. "I mean, yesterday's paintball battle was a pretty unique form of training and above all, fun!"
"Agreed!" Qing Yue exclaimed happily, before clutching onto my arm as usual, much to dismay of the other girls. Amane, seeing this, immediately clutched at my other arm, not letting anyone else get ahead of her.
Yu An Yan sighed after hearing Qing Yue's words, then chuckled. "Yeah, hard to argue there. I got eliminated really quickly by you-know-who, but it was still fun nonetheless spectating."
She glared at me when she got to the 'you-know-who' part, and I averted my gaze.
Why am I feeling guilty? All I did was play the damn game. Ah...whatever.
"Heh. He's going to be real happy when I tell him you guys all enjoyed it," Mrs. Leng chuckled, before turning around and facing the main entrance of the hotel. "In any case, you'll find out what today holds soon enough. Follow me. Might want to be quick too, since you're attracting...quite a bit of attention."
It was then that I noticed the stares (glares) coming from all around. As usual, going around town with eight absolutely stunning girls was a problem. It would be nine if Flaria was here as well...speaking of, I should bring the topic up...
"By the way, Mrs. Leng..." I spoke up. "Can you pay for us to stay at this hotel a bit longer?"
She nodded. "You'll be staying here every night until the preliminaries for the tournament to enter Fragment. But...why the request?"
I sighed. "Well, you see...Flaria seems to like this place a lot. I wasn't sure if you were going to make us switch to a cheaper hotel or something, so I decided to ask just to confirm."
Mrs. Leng laughed. "We aren't that poor. We can afford having you all stay here, as long as you only take up one room. Let that little girl know she has her wish granted."
I smiled in return. "Thank you."
Mrs. Leng walked out of the hotel lobby, and we moved to follow her. But before that, I was met with the dubious gazes of the other girls.
"Why did you lie to her...?" Feng Mian asked, confused. She wasn't using a demanding tone or anything, just genuinely curious.
"We're not that close with Old Man Leng and his wife," I explained. "I don't know why they are helping us like this right now, but...I don't want to give them any information that they can use to their advantage. Always assume the worst - if they know Flaria is vulnerable right now...the consequences could be dire."
Xiang Peng sighed. "Haiz...Xuan Kai, you're so pessimistic all the time. No fun."
"No. This is not pessimism, but instead merely carefulness," Obsidia argued. "I respect his mindset, and agree with it. The less information we give out for free, the better. Not many people know about the...'thing' Flaria is going through right now, after all."
The 'thing' she referred to were the hibernation periods all phoenixes went through. Since people from all around us could be using Sound Magic to listen in to our conversations, she didn't specifically say anything, which I appreciated.
"Anyway, let's go. Don't want to keep Mrs. Leng waiting," I said, slipping on my hood. Mei Gui, seeing this, did the same - the little copycat. She copied what I wore as well...and now even my exact motions. I didn't mind, per se, but instead found it quite amusing.
And so, the ten of us set out for another tough day of training, not knowing at the time that today, will be the day we all take a crucial step forward in our magical journey of cultivation.
*****
We followed Mrs. Leng out the hotel, walking along the relatively empty sidewalks of District A. Since most people travelled using vehicles - although the 'cars' in here were far more advanced than those on the outside, and were pretty much levitating in the air without wheels - the sidewalks were rarely used. Old Man Leng owned one of these vehicles, but it was far too small to fit all of us inside at once.
We continued walking, all the way from the hotel to Old Man Leng's shop. When we arrived, Old Man Leng was just turning on the sign on one of his windows from 'closed' to 'open'.
"Good mornin'," he said upon spotting us.
"Heya," Qing Yue waved happily in response. "Where are we going today?"
Old Man Leng chuckled. "You'll find out when we get there, lil' girl."
Then, turning to his wife, he continued. "You got the store?"
Mrs. Leng nodded. "I can handle it."
"Alrighty then. Let's head out," Old Man Leng said with a wink.
*****
- About An Hour Later -
After a good hour of walking, we arrived before a massive tower that looked like a futuristic library. The windows were transparent, so we could see what was inside - shelves upon shelves of books, lined up neatly on every floor. At first glance, this huge structure seemed to have a good hundred floors, at the very least. The scene was grand and quite breathtaking.
"Woah...what is this place?" Qing Yue asked, eyes widening in wonder.
Old Man Leng grinned, as if he had expected our awed reactions. "Welcome to the most famous place in District A - The Library of Infinite Beginnings."
"The Library of Infinite Beginnings..." I echoed. "That's quite the...enigmatic name."
It took me a while to find the right word to describe it - enigmatic. While I had no idea what these 'infinite beginnings' are, no doubt, they provided this place with an air of mystery. To me, this building was a place of unknowns - waiting to be discovered by someone. And that makes me quite excited, to put it bluntly.
"So, what will we be doing exactly in here?" Feng Mian asked curiously.
"Fer now, I'll just give y'all a tour of this place, since it's damn huge," Old Man Leng replied. "Once we're done that, I'll tell ya guys about the actual trainin' task..."
"Well, the paintball fight yesterday was training with guns, right?" Yu An Yan spoke up. "So we should be getting some training for our actual magic..."
"...And according to its name...this place is a library," Obsidia added. "The perfect location to learn new spells and improve your magical strength."
"U-Um...but, I doubt they'll just let us read whatever textbooks are in here for free," Lan Xiao Su remarked. "Wouldn't people normally put a price tag on this kind of thing?"
Obsidia snorted. "Humans are greedy creatures. They try to profit off of whatever they can. However...it seems to me that this library is unique. Like Lan Xiao Su, I do not think they would just let us learn the knowledge in this place for free, but at the same time, I wonder if the 'payment' method is a bit...different."
"Oh?" Old Man Leng raised an eyebrow upon hearing this. "And how is it different, do ya think? Take a wild guess."
"Hmph...from what I have seen so far in The Fortress, the Magic Capital...I would say it is less 'payment', and more of a...'test'," Obsidia answered, folding her arms as a grin crept up Old Man Leng's aged face.
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