Chapter 84: She is not mine but I belong to her

"Is that all you want to take for now?" The Elder of the library looked at the books she had placed on the table and asked.

As for whom the student was, he did not even bother to check. He felt it was irrelevant.

"Yes, Elder." Le Fang Ling answered with respect and discipline evident in her voice and mannerism. Even the tone she used was music to the ear for this Elder who was used to the silence and serenity of the library.

His hand, which was writing something in a parchment stopped as he paused to listen to her speak.

A little bit of curiosity made him want to take a peek at the disciple who was talking with him.

Elegant pale green robes, tall stature and beautiful face that with unparalleled features!

The disciple before him was someone who approached perfection in her outer features, which when combined with her mannerism and voice led to her leaving a good impression on Elder Mo.

Le Fang Ling clearly felt his eyes measuring her up from top to bottom. It was not that unusual for her to be looked with contempt and curiosity by other people but the way this Elder was looking at her reminded her feeling of standing in front of a scanning machine.

His eyes seemed to be searching everything on her, and coincidentally she was not far from the truth. He was indeed looking at everything about her since there were a very few number of students who could successfully make an old man like him turn his head.

Unable to hold in her curiosity and uneasiness, Le fang ling decided to be straight forward and asked, "Is there anything wrong about me Elder Mo?"

Hearing his name being called, Elder Mo lifted up his head and stared at Le Fang Ling with a curiosity even greater than before.

"Disciple, tell me something," he stroked his beard as he spoke.

"Yes, what would Elder like to know?" her smile was as harmless as ever and of course, clueless as ever. She had no idea what this old Elder wanted from her.

"You have earth grade five elemental spiritual roots, don't you?" he was pretty straightforward with hi question. Without beating around the bush, he directly jumped in to the main agenda.

To his question, Le Fang Ling answered with a nod and smile. The more she wanted to keep her spiritual root in dark from other people, more people came forward who could see it in a single glance.

"But you are focusing in you wind affinity based spiritual roots I see." He placed his hands in the beard and stroked them slowly as he went in to a thought.

"Do you have any particular art that you are learning? And by that if course I mean something related to wind based?" He asked while eying each and every reaction of her.

"About that elder, I am not sure if I have found the right one yet but I have something from my mother that is keeping me." 

"Hmm," Elder Mo looked at her once again and was thoughtful when he heard the word mother from her mouth.

Looking at her current appearance, there was no doubt that this was child of Le Zuan. Their noise and lips matched way too much for him to not notice.

After all, Elder Mo, Le Zuan, Grandmaster Lan were sworn brothers of once upon a time. As for her eyes which were in a unique shade of the blue, he felt as if he had seen those pairs before.

But no matter now he tried to think about the other owner of the eyes, he only felt his head and eyes getting cloudy.

Someone or something was making him unable to access that part of his century old memory

"Also, Elder." Le Fang Ling decided to take that god damn permission.

"I need to do a few works in the town at the foot of the mountain," Le fang Ling fiddled with her fingers anxiously as she had no idea whether she was really going to get it in the first try.

"So what? Do you want me to accompany you?" Elder Mo scrunched his nose upon thinking about this.

"No, no, absolutely not." Le Fang Ling crossed her fingers while looking at Elder Mo with eyes widened in shock.

She could not make out if what he said about accompanying her was a joke or he was being serious.

"Good, I am not someone who likes walking here and there. It simply drains my energy from the body." He mumbled out his preferences.

"Then, Elder Mo, I was wondering if I could get you know, a leave of absence for the sect for a few hours?" She rubbed her palm like a scheming businessman.

"I will be sure to make many people visit library," Le Fang Ling smiled merrily as if the deal was already done when in fact they were just negotiating.

"If more disciples were to visit the library then it is better, don't you think so?" Le Fang Ling decided to sell her point by making sure her point sounded as profitable as possible.

"I am happy with how things are," Elder Mo's expression did not change a bit as he took her bamboo name token and verified that it was indeed the owner.

"I usually do not allow students to leave, especially when it's just the beginning of the new session," his eyes stayed on her for quite a bit until he started to speak again.

"But I am making special case for you." He raised his eyebrows uncannily.

He raised his hand and pointed at the name tag that he was holding. A bright light emitted from his fingers and a copy of her name tag appeared on his other hand.

He looked at the duplicate of her name badge and compared it with the real once before he handed it to her.

"Just show it to the guards at the entrance of the sect," he leaned back in his chair and spoke.

"I have given you a permit for 1 day, which means exactly from now your time starts."

Le fang Ling took the permit with a thankful heart. She really had not expected to get the permission this easily.

But looking at the permit tag in her hand that allowed her to leave for whole 24 hours was something crazy.

She did not have words to thank him enough. Being treated nicely, it really was a different feeling for Le Fang Ling.

"Thank you Elder, I am really grateful to you." she gave a deep bow of appreciation to him.

"Hmmm," Elder Mo simply nodded his head and continued reading the book he was reading before.

As for Le fang ling, she securely placed her name tag and the permit tag in her belt and took hold of her books that she had chosen.

Right when she had reached the door of the library, she heard Elder Mo speak to her.

"Come back after 2 days, I will give you something better to practice on." Elder Mo himself was also a wind-fire based dual spiritual root bearer. It took him a great deal of training and practice to full in corporate both of the attributes in to his body.

He could only sigh at her spiritual roots. As for whether she was going to make it a blessing or a curse, it was going to depend upon her attitude towards it.

"Thank you Elder, I will." She gracefully bowed down to him and exited the library.

Seeing that the girl had left, Elder Mo too averted his eyes away from the door and turned the page of the book he was reading which read, " The Glorious History of The Twin Star Continent."

…

"Did you wait long?" Le Fang Ling asked with a raspy voice looking at Nagina who was waiting for her patiently all this time.

She had rushed here straight from the library so she was a little bit out of her breath.

"Oh, not that long. It was just a few 10 or 20 minutes," Nagina's voice was apathetic and neutral but she could see the anger directed at her.

She endured the piercing gazes and hungry looks of the older sect members who were guarding the entrance.

"I am sorry, little girl." Le Fang Ling rubbed her hair and gave a light pat in the end.

"Let's go. I got the permit for leaving." She showed the permit in her hand and grinned joyfully.

Nagina looked at the permit she was holding and decided to forgive her this once. After all, from her analysis of the data, she had found out that Elder Mo of the library was an old man who was not good to get along with.

He was always in edge and if people dared to defy him, he was more than happy to expel them from the sect at his own discretion.

Considering the bad reputation of her host and also how she still was misunderstood when conversing with edgy people.

So it was a surprise for her, when she saw that 24 hours leave token in her hand. It was hard to get an hour leave from him, but here she was flexing a token that allowed her to stay out for 24 hours.

'Maybe, the host has really grown up when I was not watching.' Nagina was filled with pride and relief. She felt the 20 minutes long wait was not that big of a deal after all.

..

At the entrance of the sect, she showed the card to the two senior brothers who were eying Nagina once in a while.

"Is she, by chance yours?" A guy with a huge mole on his face asked Le Fang Ling while licking his lips. He had indeed heard the rumors of a student keeping a magical pet so he was 98% sure, they were talking about the snake girl before them.

"Nope," Le Fang Ling snatched back the card from his hand and tightly held Nagina's wrist.

The guards: "…."

Nagina: "…."

They did not understand why her action and words were contradicting each other.

"Brothers, you do not understand the power she holds above me," she smiled as she gestured towards Nagina who was equally confused with her answer.

"It's more like I belong to her." She shrugged as she led herself and Nagina out of the door leaving behind two equally confused faces.