Zhou Li still agreed. As it happened, he had been quite idle staying at home recently, and the start of the school term seemed a long way off.

In the afternoon, Mr. Jiang had all the books delivered. He used silver metallic briefcases to carry them, bringing many cases. The car's trunk wasn't enough, so he also utilized the backseat space. There were so many books that they could fill an entire wall of bookshelves or occupy an entire wardrobe. Zhou Li could only ask Huai Xu to first take them back to the temporarily uninhabited old residential area and sort them out slowly.

"Then I'll entrust this to Master Zhou," Mr. Jiang said.

"It's no trouble at all."

"This isn't 'no trouble at all,'" Mr. Jiang said earnestly. "This is a huge favor, and no one in the Jiang family fails to repay a kindness. If Master Zhou ever needs anything, just give the word. As long as it's within my power, I, Jiang Huaiming, will certainly not refuse."

"It's just a job for pay," Zhou Li said.

"Master Zhou is a principled man," Jiang Huaiming said with a generous smile. "Alright, I'll be heading back then."

"Alright. It looks like it's about to rain."

"Yes, it's going to rain soon, so I'll be off."

"Take care, Mr. Jiang."

"You're too kind."

Mr. Jiang got back into his car. The black Mercedes started smoothly, its mirror-like paintwork reflecting only Zhou Li's figure.

"It looks like the sky is about to darken," Huai Xu said, looking up at the sky.

"It's only three in the afternoon."

"I used to think clouds were oddly shaped bowls full of water," Huai Xu said, "and when it rained, their bottoms would leak, scattering water like a showerhead. But after I became a Demon and went inside a cloud, I only found thick, damp fog."

"You understand now?"

"I do." Huai Xu nodded. "Science Class taught me that."

"Science..." Zhou Li recalled, then smiled faintly. "Back in my day, we called it Nature Class."

"Where are we going now?"

"Let's go back and have a look."

"Okay."

So the two of them returned to the old residential area, greeting Lao Hui and Xiao Yuan before going upstairs.

Upon entering the room, they found metallic cases on the windowsill, the floor, and the bed, which Huai Xu had clearly tossed about haphazardly.

Zhou Li methodically opened the cases to take out the books.

It seemed Zhu Bing had already grown accustomed to staying at their place. Thinking about it, her father had remarried but hadn't had more children. Why would she want to stay there alone when she could have her younger brother's company here? Besides, Aunt Jiang didn't want her to return to Jin Palace. Based on this, Zhou Li guessed she wouldn't return to Jin Palace until high school started at the earliest. Until then, his family wouldn't move back here.

Moreover, due to Zhou Li's personality since childhood, his family members wouldn't easily enter his room.

Therefore, the books wouldn't likely be discovered if left here for a short while.

「Half an hour later.」

"WHEW..."

Zhou Li let out a long breath, looking at the empty cases on the floor and the thick layer of books on the bed. There were several hundred, perhaps even a thousand volumes. Stacked up, they could at least block his bedroom's bay window.

Mr. Jiang had said he needed help categorizing books that ordinary people couldn't read, but in reality, he had also brought many ordinary books. Had he brought all his books? Zhou Li wondered. Perhaps he had only kept a few that he could both understand and find useful.

"Let's toss these cases back at Hui Chunming," Zhou Li said.

"Okay."

Over a dozen briefcases vanished in an instant.

Huai Xu clapped his hands. Looking at the bed full of books, he said, "With your sluggish reading speed, by the time you finish all these, your and Li Daimao's child will probably be in middle school, right?"

"Will they have a higher education than you?"

"..."

"Let's take it slow. I'll try to be a bit faster and just get a general idea; it's only categorization," Zhou Li said, then paused. "I only need to carefully read the books I can use. That won't take too long."

"He didn't set a deadline, so what's the rush?"

"HMM..."

Zhou Li suddenly flopped onto the bed and picked up a thin book. It was the only one without a cover.

After flipping through a few pages, he understood.

This book, he realized, could be considered the key to all the others.

Its contents included the history of Heavenly Masters, their factions, and an introduction to the Jiang Family. It was presented professionally and in detail, with highly concise language. All comments and summaries were piercingly incisive, making Zhou Li feel that the miscellaneous books he'd read before were padded with useless content. It also provided a general overview of all the books and items within the Jiang Family's ancestral tomb, along with admonitions and instructions for their descendants.

For categorization purposes, one only needed to read this book and the titles of the others.

This book was an ordinary one, so Mr. Jiang could read it too.

It was likely placed in the most conspicuous spot.

Zhou Li sat cross-legged on the windowsill, reading intently. Huai Xu was at the nearby desk, diligently copying texts.

Outside, the sky darkened as if it were evening. Rain suddenly poured down, and a startling clap of thunder boomed, as if to awaken everything in the world. Zhou Li vaguely heard Huai Xu mention that today was The Waking of Insects. He merely grunted in acknowledgment, engrossed in his reading.

With concise language, the book sketched out a vast, mysterious world of Heavenly Masters hidden within history.

It began with the appearance of Demons in this world.

It spoke of the Jiang Family's ancestors stepping onto the sacrificial altar. Of the tens of thousands of extraordinary Heavenly Masters, only a handful survived. From then on, these few individuals gained the privilege of passing down their innate talents.

Then, it spoke of the end of that era.

At the end of the book, Zhou Li read a passage that roughly meant: The books preserved by the Jiang Family actually originated from the entire Southwest region. The family was safeguarding this precious knowledge for the entire nation and for humanity. If a new era dawned and the Jiang Family lacked someone capable of shouldering this great responsibility, they must find a way to disseminate this knowledge. At that time, there could be no room for sectarianism.

Reading this, he felt a great sense of relief. Intrigue and scheming were always distasteful to people, not to mention troublesome. When faced with two choices offering equal rewards, intelligent people would undoubtedly lean towards the one that was fair and just. If there were two paths of similar length, anyone would choose to walk the smooth one adorned with flowers.

"It's getting dark," Zhou Li glanced at his phone.

"It's been dark for some time now."

"Aunt Jiang messaged me asking where I am," Zhou Li said, looking at his phone. "She sent it two hours ago, worried I'd get caught in the rain."

"Relax. When she saw you didn't reply, she probably figured you were okay and stopped worrying."

"..."

Aunt Jiang probably assumed he was with Brother Nan. Zhou Li felt a bit aggrieved; he was always being misunderstood.

"I'm heading back now."

He found an umbrella at home, randomly packed a few books, went downstairs, opened the umbrella, and started walking back, splashing through the puddles.

"It's a floral one..." he mumbled, looking at the umbrella.

"Who's particular about that?" Huai Xu scoffed.

"True enough." Zhou Li glanced towards the tree hollow but didn't see Lao Hui or Xiao Yuan. "Will their tree hollow leak in this rain?"

"They like it that way," Huai Xu replied.

"That's good then."

At the entrance, two elderly security guards stood under the rain shelter, holding enamel mugs. They spat tea leaves onto the ground and chatted while watching the rain.

Amidst the roar of the rain, Zhou Li faintly overheard them saying that this old residential area might be demolished. He recalled Aunt Jiang and Old Zhou mentioning this during a meal a few days prior.

He felt somewhat conflicted inside. He was quite attached to this neighborhood. He loved this place, so full of life, with its mature banyan and fruit trees. This place held the traces of his upbringing.

Zhou Li looked back once more.

If the neighborhood really got demolished, where would the two little Demons go?

After returning home, he told Aunt Jiang he had found some work translating ancient texts. Everyone knew he had been 'obsessed with ancient literature' during last summer vacation and had often used Aunt Jiang's laptop to look up information.

Mentioning this in advance wouldn't take much effort, but it would effectively dispel any future suspicions if his family happened to discover these ancient books. It would be best if they never discovered them. Even if explaining only took a single sentence, Zhou Li found the potential hassle and mental exhaustion troubling.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.