Chapter 102 – Li Qinghe's Night Visit to the Third Floor of the Library!

“You’re asking me?”

Li Qinghe pointed at herself, momentarily stunned, caught off guard by Qin Yang’s counter-question.

“Heh, don’t forget who the latecomer here is?”

Qin Yang chuckled, slowly rising from the stool while holding Xiaobai, using his height advantage to look down on her as he pressed, “Since you’re well-versed in Array Formations, why sneak into the library so stealthily? What’s your real purpose?”

His words hung in the air.

A rapid-fire series of questions—Qin Yang had turned the tables on her in an instant.

Throwing her into complete disarray.

“I…”

Hearing this, Li Qinghe opened her mouth but hesitated, rendered speechless where she stood.

How could she refute this?

She couldn’t possibly admit to stealing Array Diagrams, could she?!

“……”

At this thought, Li Qinghe had no retort. She quickly averted her gaze, changing the subject: “How did you break my array formation…”

“Hah.”

Qin Yang couldn’t help but laugh at this, stroking Xiaobai leisurely as he replied, “If you’re bad, just practice more.”

With that, he stood up from the stool again, stepped slowly toward Li Qinghe, shook his head, and shot her a disdainful look.

The damage was minimal, but the insult was maximal…

Then he sat back down on the stool and continued scrolling through news to kill time.

“You!”

Seeing this, Li Qinghe’s face flushed red again, stomping her feet in anger.

You see.

She was deeply passionate about Array Formations, treating the Dao as her very life. Others could insult anything about her, but the Array Dao was her existence, and now Qin Yang’s words struck right at her heart.

Every sentence hit where it hurt.

More importantly.

She couldn’t even beat him in a fight!

So infuriating!

At this moment, Li Qinghe lowered her head and noticed Xiaobai in Qin Yang’s arms.

Human and fox locked eyes, their gazes meeting.

“Huh? What are you looking at me for, Fairy?”

Xiaobai, seeing this, drooped her beast ears and, recalling Qin Yang’s earlier actions, twisted her head and began shaking it at Li Qinghe.

After delivering the taunt, she buried her face in Qin Yang’s chest.

“……”

A second critical hit!

Li Qinghe was left speechless, completely broken by this.

For your master to shake his head at me was one thing.

But for a little fox to humiliate me like this too—that’s just too much!

“You… all of you!”

“Just you wait!”

Fuming with rage and shame, she turned and ran away, leaving behind only a disheveled figure for Qin Yang, not once looking back.

“Master, did we go too far?”

Watching Li Qinghe retreat into the distance, Xiaobai finally lifted her head and asked, “That human looked like she was about to cry.”

“It’s fine. Her mental fortitude isn’t that weak, don’t worry.”

Qin Yang replied calmly, his eyes following Li Qinghe as she left.

According to the system’s implications, if she could become an Array Grandmaster guarding a region as a woman five hundred years from now,

it proved her perseverance and talent were both exceptional. She wouldn’t lose confidence over trivial matters.

At most, she’d be discouraged for a short while before rallying and pushing forward again.

And his words now

were merely a catalyst to spur her on.

“Probably won’t be long before this girl starts taking action.”

Thinking this,

Qin Yang released his spiritual energy, enveloping Li Qinghe’s vicinity. While monitoring her movements and listening in on her, he leisurely continued killing time.

…………

A short while later.

Library Section 2.

“How dare they!”

“This is too much!”

Li Qinghe stood by a bookshelf, clenching her fists and pounding the wall, glaring furiously toward the adjacent Section 1, both embarrassed and enraged.Qin Yang’s words earlier had struck right at the heart, thoroughly tearing her apart with their brutal honesty.

Lies don’t wound—truth is the sharpest blade.

What stung more was not just her inferior skills, but even her reasoning couldn’t measure up to Qin Yang’s, amounting to a complete defeat in every aspect!

“How dare he say my Array Formations are lousy?”

At this thought, Li Qinghe slowly stepped out of the Sector 2 entrance, her gaze piercing through the rows of bookshelves to fix on the second-floor entryway, as if solidifying a resolve within her.

Fine, since you claim my Array Formations are poor, is that it?

Then I, this young lady, will definitely defeat you with Array Formations!

“Just wait until tonight when I get my hands on the Myriad Formation Diagram. Once I’ve mastered it, we’ll see how I teach you a lesson!”

Next door, Qin Yang leisurely listened to the sounds, then put away his phone and narrowed his eyes slightly. “So this girl is really making her move tonight to seize the Myriad Formation Diagram, huh…”

………………

Night fell.

The stars glittered brilliantly.

Jianghai City Library was enveloped in silence, with starlight from outside the windows spilling over the towering rows of bookshelves.

A dark figure emerged in a secluded stairwell, moving ghostlike as it gradually approached the second-floor entrance.

“Finally, everyone’s gone.”

Li Qinghe surveyed her surroundings, clad in night-walking attire that accentuated her graceful figure.

After clocking out from work, she hadn’t chosen to leave the library. Instead, she used an Illusory Array to conceal herself, hiding in a corner and lying in wait until deep into the night.

This way, she saved herself the trouble of infiltrating the place again.

“Alright, the first hurdle is cleared. Next up are the guards at the second-floor entrance.”

Calculating the timing, Li Qinghe took a deep breath, crouched low, and slowly advanced toward the second floor while flicking her fingers to activate the array.

In the next instant,

Click.

In the corner, several Starstones trembled faintly, responding to her will as they nimbly orbited around her, with Li Qinghe at the center as the Array Eye.

In a flash,

the illusion of Illusory Sumeru spread like water, distorting the minds of all living beings within its domain.

Encircled by the Starstones, Li Qinghe walked past the entrance as lightly as a passing breeze.

At the doorway, the three elderly guards furrowed their brows, suddenly feeling dizzy. The next moment, they found themselves plunged into an illusion of mountains of corpses and a sea of blood.

Overwhelming waves of corpses lunged at them, frightening them into raising their blades in defense—thus trapping them fully in the illusion.

“Success!”

Seeing this, Li Qinghe strolled leisurely past the bookshelves, brushing shoulders with these Acquired Realm martial artists standing guard.

“Heh, I’m still pretty impressive, aren’t I?”

At this thought, Li Qinghe couldn’t help but glance at the guards’ faces—their eyes were glazed over, murmuring incoherently, already lost in the illusion.

The confidence she had lost during the day was finally restored here.

“Hmph, just wait until I get the Myriad Formation Diagram. Then I’ll make that Qin fellow know exactly how formidable I am!!”

Li Qinghe smiled triumphantly, and as she recalled Qin Yang’s taunts from earlier, she steadily made her way toward the third floor.

…

However,

just seconds after she had left,

at the second-floor entrance,

a man and a fox promptly appeared.

“So the Myriad Formation Diagram she mentioned is on the third floor?”

Qin Yang rubbed his chin thoughtfully, glancing at the affected martial artists nearby and estimating they wouldn’t wake up for a while.

“Master, do you think she can get past the Array Formation on the third floor?”Xiaobai stood barefoot beside Qin Yang, her nose twitching slightly as she sensed the scents in the air. She asked curiously:

“Judging by the level of that Array Formation, it doesn’t seem like something she could handle alone.”

“We’ll know once we go up and take a look.”

Qin Yang said calmly, his gaze fixed on the third floor as he leisurely began walking forward.

(End of Chapter)