Runes • Rifles • Reincarnation

Jin Shu walked through the streets of Phoenix City once more, glancing this way and that, checking each alleyway for signs of the veiled thief who had been illegally selling naked photos of him. Even after making two full circuits of the city, he hadn't caught a glimpse of her. What he had stumbled across were several couples engaging in outdoor… activities tucked deep within the shadows of those very alleyways. Quite the surprise—for all involved.

"Haa…" he sighed, stepping out of yet another alley with nothing to show for it.

Behind him, two middle-aged women emerged from the same alley, their clothes askew. The latest clandestine couple whose fun he had accidentally ruined. Inner sect elders, no less.

"Whatever. I can't find her…" He shook his head and brushed off the search. "Let's just move on to the main objective."

He hadn't come to the city for the thief, not really. His true goal was to finally make use of the library token that had been burning a hole in his spatial earring for the past week. He'd wanted to go the day after the incident with Li Xue and the thief, but they'd decided to wait—just in case—until he had better control over his qi.

Now, after a grueling week of practice, that control had significantly improved. Jin Shu and Nano had grown used to working together, and between them they had managed to free about three percent of Jin Shu's qi from his blood. It wasn't perfect, but it was enough.

He soon arrived at the library—a massive structure perched atop a small mountain just outside the city proper. At the base, a short line of disciples had formed, queuing before a desk where, surprisingly, a core elder was personally handling entrance records.

Jin Shu joined the line behind a girl wearing a conical straw hat—just like his—though hers lacked the concealing veil.

She glanced back at him briefly, her eyes widening in recognition before she flinched and turned away.

Jin Shu raised an eyebrow at her reaction. Strange. Maybe it was just the hat—he'd startled a few girls while walking through alleyways with it on. It was possible she was one of them. Or maybe she'd only heard about it.

…Wait. Could she be the thief?

He scanned her body—not lecherously, at least not in his mind, though the veil probably didn't help optics-wise. He'd created a mental profile of the thief after confirming it wasn't Li Xue. That alone had helped narrow things down.

Li Xue was short and petite, whereas the thief—while not tall or heavy—had a noticeably fuller build. He'd put her roughly in the same size category as Biyu. Not too tall, not too small. Just… medium.

Unfortunately, that only let him eliminate the tallest and shortest women from his list of suspects—still leaving thousands of possibilities in a sect like theirs.

This girl, though? He could eliminate her. Despite her medium height, her… assets were closer to Tian Li's category. Definitely didn't match his image of the thief.

While he was mentally checking off suspects, the two of them advanced to the front of the queue.

"Pass?" the elder asked the girl in the hat.

She pulled an iron token from her sleeve, the word library embossed at its center.

Iron pass, Jin Shu noted. That's the lowest level.

His mother had recently explained the four library levels—iron, silver, gold, and jade. Jin Shu held a jade token.

The elder nodded and jotted something down in a logbook. "Name?"

"Qie Zei," the girl whispered meekly.

Jin Shu blinked. Did she say "thief"?

No way someone would name their daughter that. He shook the thought away. I'm just paranoid.

The elder wrote the name down, then her eyes flashed with qi.

"What are you hiding in your robes?" she asked, voice sharpening.

"Hic!" Qie Zei flinched, letting out a nervous hiccup. "It's… I know image-recording stones are banned, but this one's already been used! I'm not going to record anything in the library, I promise!"

"Show me."

"U-uh… could we not do it here?"

"Do it here, or you'll be banned from the library."

"Uu…" Qie Zei pouted, torn between compliance and despair. After a long moment, she reluctantly pulled an orb from her sleeve.

Jin Shu's eyes narrowed. That better not be what I think it is…

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If that orb held what he feared it did, he might actually die of embarrassment. He needed to stop them from activating it. Fast.

His first instinct was to draw a gun and shoot the orb—problem solved in one shot. But that would cause far more problems than it fixed. So instead, he pulled off his veil and stepped in front of Qie Zei.

"I can verify that the orb's already been used," he said quickly, before anyone could activate it.

"And who are you to—" The elder cut herself off mid-sentence, blinking as she got a proper look at him.

A wave of whispers rippled through the queue behind him.

"Is that… Jin Shu?"

"I think it is!"

"No way. What's he doing here?"

"To enter the library, obviously. Don't you know? A jade-level token was the prize for second place in the tournament."

"Um… who's Jin Shu? And why does that look like a man inside our sect?"

"Seriously? Where have you been the last two weeks? He's the only man allowed inside the sect. The Vice-Sect Master's son—and the Sect Master's personal disciple!"

The elder, briefly stunned, quickly schooled her expression and turned toward the murmuring disciples.

"Hush!" she snapped, instantly silencing the crowd. Then she turned back to Jin Shu. "Regardless of your status as the Sect Master's disciple and the Vice-Sect Master's son, you do not have authority over the regulations here. This is the Grand Elder's preview—her rules outweigh even the Sect Master's."

Jin Shu had no rebuttal. He couldn't argue against that. So instead, he offered a compromise.

"Could you at least place a barrier—for Qie Zei's privacy?"

"That was my plan… before you interrupted," she replied, flat.

"Oh." He cringed. Shit…

"Well… carry on then." He stepped back, placing his hat and veil back on—though the gesture was meaningless now, as the crowd had already spread word of his identity to each new arrival.

The elder glanced between Jin Shu and the still-stunned Qie Zei.

"You seem quite concerned about this image recording stone. Would you like to join us for the inspection?"

"Could I?"

"That's up to Qie Zei."

Jin Shu turned to her. "Do you mind?"

"I… um… a-are you really him? Are you Jin Shu?"

"Last I checked, yeah." He gave her a faint nod.

"Well… th-that stone… it's not mine, I swear!"

That was all the confirmation he needed. He leaned in and whispered into her ear, "Did you buy it from a girl wearing a veiled hat like mine?"

She hesitated, then gave a small nod.

Jin Shu straightened and waved his hand. "I don't need to join. Just… for the record, I didn't give her that stone. It was stolen and resold."

The elder raised an eyebrow but said nothing. She lifted her hand and summoned an opaque barrier around herself and Qie Zei.

A few seconds passed. Whispered rumors about Jin Shu's identity resumed in low tones until the barrier dropped.

Qie Zei stood red-faced and mortified. The elder looked… confused.

She turned to Jin Shu with a look of deep bewilderment. "I hope you realize I have to report this to the Sect Master…"

"Uhh… she already knows. But… feel free," he said with an awkward shrug.

She nodded, then waved Qie Zei away and motioned for Jin Shu to step forward.

"Pass?" she asked, her tone neutral, as if none of the prior events had occurred.

He held out his jade token. She marked it in the log.

"Name?"

"Jin Shu."

She recorded it, then looked up at him, her eyes briefly flashing with qi. The gaze lingered a bit longer than it had with Qie Zei. Jin Shu instinctively placed his hands over his lower half, unnerved—was she seeing through his clothes? It would explain how she knew Qie Zei had hidden something in her sleeve.

Her eyes flicked to his earring for a moment, but she said nothing. Either she didn't recognize it as a storage artifact… or didn't care.

"You may go," she said, waving him onward. Then she called up the next disciple and returned to her duties as though nothing had happened.

Jin Shu made his way up the staircase leading to the library. Halfway up, he spotted Qie Zei again. She was lingering on the steps, nervously fidgeting with her sleeves, clearly waiting for him.

She opened her mouth when she saw him, but no words came out. She just stood there, one step above him, visibly awkward.

"Did you need something?" he asked.

"Um… yes, well… here!" she blurted, shoving the image recording stone into his arms before bolting up the stairs. She nearly tripped over her own feet in her rush.

"…Oh."

He hadn't even thought to ask for the orb—but she'd handed it over anyway. He was glad to have it back… but still pissed that someone was out there selling naked photos and recordings of him. As for the girls who bought them—he wasn't really angry. If he was being honest, part of him was even a little flattered. In a weird, slightly mortifying way.

Still, if he had a choice, those images would never have existed in the first place.

Unfortunately, Li Xue had clearly been poisoned by his mother's mischievous streak. That, at least, was the working theory behind how this whole situation started.