Chapter 38

"What's too tiny?" Jie Qiqiang felt that he had missed something crucial.

But Li Jiayi's face was passive and seemingly resigned himself to fate.

Throwing an arm around Li Jiayi's shoulders, Jiang Xiaotong teased, "What's life without a little thrill Jiayi, you're not stuck in your sect's library anymore, live a little will you. Have fun and get into all sorts of trouble. There's eldest and elder brother around."

"I would very much love to be excluded from the narrative of 'the hero defeating the Devil Venerable and saving the world' thank you very much." Li Jiayi distanced himself from the thought of entering the role of a great hero.

Jiang Xiaotong knew when to stop teasing Li Jiayi, otherwise the consequences of angering the bookworm would be highly "unpleasant". He was speaking from experience. His attention returned to the baby who he noticed had red eyes. "Little ancestor, did you cry again?"

The baby jerked her head to the side avoiding Jiang Xiaotong's cheshire cat smile.

"Did the Devil Venerable bullied you?"

Feeling his daughter's mood, Ming Yongnian reprimanded, "Xiaotong, she's in a bad mood, don't make her cry."

"Hahah, alright I won't bother you anymore little ancestor." Jiang Xiaotong turned the conversation to another direction. "Want to hear what's the buzz and fuzz out there?"

Sighing, Jie Qiqiang had a feeling he knew where Jiang Xiaotong was leading them to. "Let me guess, it's another one of your… tea?"

Jiang Xiaotong playfully elbowed Jie Qiqiang's arms. "Ohh, Qiqiang, you're learning a thing of two!"

"I don't know how you correlate tea to gossip." Jie Qiqiang supposed that he could only wonder.

"Even Huifang, Meihui, and Jinjing started to use 'tea'." Lan Jianhong said.

Jiang Xiaotong started reciting a few talks in the wind he heard while he was outside selling the loot. "Right now everyone in the cultivation and the mortal world seemed to think that eldest brother had ascended to the heavens."

Lan Jianhong snorted, falling into a bout of laughter. "Imagine all of them finding out that eldest brother did not ascend, and had turned into a watering can! For grass! A living breathing watering can for grass." He wheezed for air, stomach hurts.

Feng Delun shook his head. "Jianhong, pull yourself together."

But Lan Jianhong was still laughing.

"Jianhong, would you like me to turn you into a watering can?" Ming Yongnian gently offered.

This time Lan Jianhong choked on his own spit and began to cough. Jie Qiqiang cordially patted his back, and said, "You should've known better than to make fun of eldest brother."

Lan Jianhong wanted to say that he was just speaking the truth. Ming Yongnian had indeed voluntarily turned himself into a "watering can" for their grass project. So calling the immortal a "watering can" was stating facts. But Lan Jianhong dared not to speak anymore.

Jiang Xiaotong then continued, "Other than that, people had only noticed five of us cutting ties from our sect."

Li Jiayi was not surprised. "I'm guessing they've only noticed you, Jinjing, Qiqiang, Jianhong, and elder brother's disappearance?"

"That's right." Jiang Xiaotong nodded.

"That's to be expected. Expecting people to notice me and Liwei, is like expecting a donkey to speak." Li Jiayi muttered.

At the mention of a speaking donkey, Jiang Xiaotong recalled something. "But there is a speaking donkey!" All or them stared at him. "What's with that face! Where I came from there's a speaking donkey from Shrek."

The baby who was quiet for the entire time finally made a sound. "Ah…" Shrek is an animation…

"It's an animation." Ming Yongnian recited what his daughter had said.

Jiang Xiaotong looked at the baby accusingly, he felt betrayed. "Little ancestor, I thought we had a special connection!"

Not wanting to be part of any outrageous situation, the baby smartly avoided Jiang Xiaotong's eyes. The little baby was still grumpy from not being fed her milk last night, and Jiang Xiaotong had teased her just now. She was holding on to her grudge.

"What's an animation?" Jie Qiqiang wondered. Jiang Xiaotong must have mentioned it to them in the passing.

"It should be moving pictures." Li Jiayi vaguely recalled Jiang Xiaotong mentioning animation to them many years ago.

Jiang Xiaotong was surprised. "Have I ever mentioned animation before?"

"You did, a long time ago." Li Jiayi kept a notebook of all the things Jiang Xiaotong had mentioned from his previous life. It also serves as a dictionary for him, since Jiang Xiaotong loves to quip words from his past life. It'll help Li Jiayi understand what Jiang Xiaotong was speaking of.

"You're like a walking SSD card."

Now this "SSD card" was something Jiang Xiaotong never mentioned before.

Seeing that Li Jiayi was raising his brows in question, Jiang Xiaotong explained. "It's like that talisman token you're currently using to store books you're not allowed to copy." He wiggled his brows knowingly.

"You…" How did you know? Li Jiayi wanted to ask.

"Simple, you wouldn't be anywhere without all of your book collection."

Li Jiayi was firmly associated with the word "book" in their odd circle of family. It was a well known fact that Li Jiayi must carry a book under his sleeves somewhere. Otherwise Li Jiayi would not be the "Li Jiayi", but an impostor.

With this well established fact it would be very odd for Li Jiayi to willingly leave behind his old sect's library. A library filled to the brim with all kinds of information, history records, and all the knowledge one could possibly obtain under the heavens, in one roof. Anyone with hunger for knowledge would drool to have the opportunity to step into the library. Especially Li Jiayi, he was addicted to the books within the library. For Li Jiayi to part ways with the library briskly, there should be a special reasoning.

Very special reason to the point that Li Jiayi would have access to the books he had watched over like a hawk for hundreds of years, at any given moment even when he was outside of his former sect. Since the book and the library was protected with an array formation that prevents people from taking it out of the library, and copying it, Li Jiayi — who was greatly influenced by creative minds, like Jie Qiqiang, Lan Jianhong, and Jiang Xiaotong — had found a loophole in the ancient arrays.

Feng Delun, the master of arrays, was extremely familiar with the arrays formation in Li Jiayi's old sect's library; he had studied it once. And he must admit that it was a rather complicated array, layered over many other arrays. "How did you manage to find a loophole in those arrays Jiayi?"

Seeing that even Feng Delun the great array master was speechless, Li Jiayi felt like he was swimming in a pool of praises. "The arrays in that library were like a very firm and solid contract. A contract that seemed to have no loophole, an almost perfect contract. Layers and layers of arrays that my ancestors placed overtime from the time before the current Heavenly Emperor reigns. It's only natural that I as their successor realised the array's loophole." Jiang Xiaotong was awed by Li Jiayi's performance but then his sworn brother said, "They allowed people to read out loud the contents of the book."

"..."

No one understood what Li Jiayi had told them, except for Jiang Xiaotong and the baby, their eyes were exceptionally bright. Jiang Xiaotong exclaimed, "Jiayi, you dog! You used the talisman tokens to record yourself!"

"Ah!" Pretty booky uncle is so smart!

Like dominoes everyone came to the same conclusion.

"Turns out there's this kind of loophole." Feng Delun would note this down for future references.

"No wonder you ordered dozens of boxes of talisman tokens." Jie Qiqiang was amazed that Li Jiayi would place an order of an absurd amount of talisman tokens out of the blue two years ago. Now it was revealed that he used all of those talismans to record himself reading his book.

"You actually made an audiobook! The first ever audiobook in a Xianxia world setting" Jiang Xiaotong laughed, clapping his hands and feet to the ground in excitement.

The baby followed Jiang Xiaotong's example. Clapping her hands, legs flailing around, and squealed in excitement.

"Why are you so excited, weren't you mad?" Ming Yongnian lightly pinched his daughter's cheeks.

Reminded that right now she was supposed to be a "mad baby" and not a "happy baby", the baby quickly shut her mouth and pretended that she wasn't happy just a second ago. Her mouth was stuck out, pouting, and brows pinched together.

Jiang Xiaotong sighed when he saw the baby's act. "Little ancestor, why are you so moody today?"

The baby's expression completely stated "I wasn't happy just now". Unfortunately none of them were buying it.

Ming Yongnian took the opportunity and spoke, "Wait until everyone and… Kaijun returns before we discuss anything else."

Jiang Xiaotong, who had never heard of Kaijun asked, "Who's Kaijun?"

Without hesitation Ming Yongnian said, "My older brother."

"What?!"