First, the painting and the calligraphy scroll, which rarely needed any sort of change at all. They’d be durable because of their high-rank materials, but the only effect they had was to assist with domain insights, and given the two Immortal Ascension cultivators he’d fought hadn’t even had nascent domains, he was pretty sure they’d go completely unnoted. Besides, they gave his office a nice atmosphere. A particularly sort of peaceful, tranquil essence.
Then, the ceramic jugs, which… no, he’d save those for later. They were too clearly high-rank items; sealing vessels meant to preserve food or ingredients, but high rank ingredients, which meant they were probably more valuable than the city he was standing in. The writing implements he could get away with, but he delicately inscribed a formation into the desk to make sure that none of them would get taken. If one of them got out, then it’d mean trouble.
A bit of finagling with his whole boundless radiance thing allowed him to grow a nice plant from one of the seeds he’d brought, a lotus with a pleasant fragrance and a nice effect on the qi flows of the room, but nothing very noticeable. That’d been one of the most difficult parts about it— using his domain in unconventional ways was always a bit more difficult than otherwise, but he’d also been growing the plant purposefully wrong to turn it into a second step plant from a ninth step seed, which had been all but physically painful to do. The sheer waste of it…
Then because why not, he grew a few more lotuses because he had plenty of seeds to spare, and with a bit of judicious misuse of spirit-concealing formations to hide his work, he smoothed out the qi flows of his office into a perfect wuxing cycle. Now the room felt almost like home. How very auspicious…
It was still missing a few things. He hadn’t brought any cultivation manuals with him from the Celestial Realm— his codex token was about infinitely times better than any other cultivation manual in existence anyways— and he could still add a few formations, and…
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It was only when Janus knocked on his door in the morning that he paused carving a grand formation in the walls to channel the power of a seven-color flame into a secondary grand concealment formation that tied into the defensive— he realized he might have gone a little bit overboard. Sheepishly, he returned the jade box holding the flame to his spiritual ring before ushering his coworker in.
Janus blinked in shock as he glanced around the room. “How long did this take you?” He paced about the room’s length, pausing next to one of the lotuses and brushing a finger over its petals. “I didn’t know that you had an artistic sense like this.”
Mingtian chuckled sheepishly. “I was here all night… I might have lost track of time a little.”
“It's nice.” Janus breathed in, deeply, savoring the moment— melancholy, Mingtian noticed. So very melancholy. “It’s very nice.” He sighed, pulling out the spare chair and collapsing into it, silent for a moment. “Beixian Port was like this, back from what little I can remember of it. This… aura of peace. A shard of the palace of the heavenly emperor, bequeathed onto us. That you’ve managed to reclaim even some little bit of it…”
“I’m sorry for your loss.”
“Don’t be.” He smiled sadly. Happily, too, in some small way that Mingtian understood all too well. “It’s not your fault. I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who wasn’t impacted by the old war. At least you’re helping.” He chuckled. “Better than most, I guess. That girl— Lily?” He nodded— “she’s one of the ones who’s had it the worst, and… well, you’ve done better than most.” For a moment, silence, before that moment broke— the echo of emotion vanishing into the early morning, pre-work quietude. “Ha! Well, you must be pretty tired— I heard that Lexi reamed you out yesterday, and you stayed here all night.” Not at all, but he was pretending to be mortal so… “I’ll cover for you today. Lexi’ll be upset but that’s only per the usual.”
“Thanks.” Honestly, he wouldn’t have minded working, but he supposed he’d take the offer in the spirit it was given. “I’m glad I was able to bring you at least this picture of home.” He nodded, and stepped out, and—
Before he got very far from the library at all, he strode into a shaft of sunlight and vanished.
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