This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist

After having her ears blown on the entire way, Rita felt like her ears had gone numb by the time she reached the library. Climbing up the hundreds of steps, she finally stood in front of the grand entrance. Guarding either side of the door were two three-tailed Moonfox guards, with a four-tailed Moonfox pacing nearby. As soon as they noticed Rita, all three of them approached.

And once again, Rita's ears were blown on three times.

The four-tailed Moonfox asked, "Which clan do you belong to?" Stay updated through empire

"Frosttail," Rita replied.

The Moonfox tribe consisted of 72 clans. If one of the clans produced a Nine-Tailed Moon Emperor, that clan would automatically ascend to royalty. Conversely, if their Moon Emperor fell, the clan would have to remove the royal markings from their faces.

The four-tailed Moonfox pulled out a golden fox tail and respectfully held it out to Rita. "May the Moon Goddess bless all Moonfoxes."

Apparently, Apache had long coveted the Moonfox's alchemical tomes and had thoroughly briefed Rita on all the necessary rituals.

Moonfoxes with six tails or more had the right to freely enter the library to study, but they were required to leave a drop of blood—preferably from the tip of their ear—at the entrance.

Rita pinched her earlobe and produced a drop of blood, pressing it onto the fox tail.

The four-tailed Moonfox stepped back, and the two three-tailed guards opened the five-meter-tall library doors for Rita.

Rita walked in with confidence, and the doors closed behind her with a heavy thud.

Inside, Rita felt as though she were wandering through a jungle of bookshelves. Overhead was a sky full of stars, with a bright full moon hanging in the middle. The gentle light from the moon illuminated the books, allowing her to clearly read their titles.

She felt as if she had entered a labyrinth, with the towering bookshelves forming the walls. As far as her eyes could see, there were shelves upon shelves filled with books. Fortunately, the aisles between the shelves were about three meters wide, and starry lights floated above.

These stars occasionally clustered together, forming various magical symbols that indicated the category of books in that section.

Rita had spent days preparing, memorizing the Moonfox language and magical symbols that were unique to the tribe.

The starlight gave the library a mysterious and enchanting atmosphere, replacing any potential sense of oppression with awe.

Rita's plan was to first locate the book Apache wanted, note its exact position, and then make her move in one go.

This was the basic professional courtesy of being the Thief God—scout the area first, then retrieve the goods.

Rita was always mindful of the **Disguise** skill's cooldown. Ever since she started using **Disguise** in Lania Kaia, she had tied a small timer to her wrist. The timer could be set to silently vibrate when the countdown ended, alerting her without making any noise.

To maximize her time using **Disguise,** she typically set the timer for 55 minutes, giving herself enough buffer time to either return to Blue Star or transform into a cat in case of emergencies.

Today, however, Rita had set the timer for 59 minutes. She wanted to push her limits and save a few cooldown-reset potions.

In preparation, she had even repackaged half of the potions into containers that could be directly consumed. She had checked with Apache to ensure the new packaging wouldn't affect the potion's efficacy. These potions were stored in her **Magician's Fake Tooth**—just in case.

What if she found herself in a situation where she couldn't access her potions in that crucial minute? In that case, she could extract a potion from her **Magician's Fake Tooth** and swallow it immediately.

She had also considered using skill stones to replace the potions, but Apache had promised to teach her how to brew these cooldown-reset potions once she retrieved the book. According to Apache, the potion-making process was more about technique than expensive materials, so Rita decided not to waste her effort on skill stones.

Strangely enough, empty skill stones had recently become more strictly regulated, and the Special Affairs Bureau only issued her ones that needed to be logged.

Aside from the potions, she also prepared small 3ml doses of her fifty-year-old *nu'er hong* wine, which she stored in the fake tooth for emergencies.

As Rita passed through the towering shelves, she moved through different sections—language, history, literature, magic, martial arts, body training, cooking... and then, **fragrance.**

Wait, what?

Rita paused in front of the fragrance section, realizing it spanned ten full shelves. These shelves were taller than the library doors, and each aisle was so long it took her ten minutes to walk from one end to the other at her current pace.

Ten shelves? This section was as large as the history section!

And the fragrance area was bustling with activity, with Moonfoxes of six or even seven tails standing every few meters, each holding a book.

Unable to contain her curiosity, Rita walked in and took a peek. She found that an entire shelf was dedicated solely to descriptions of different scents, with half of it focused on famous fragrances created by notable Moonfoxes.

The categories for making fragrances were just as varied. There were shelves for liquid fragrances, solid fragrances, bath fragrances, magical fragrances, and more.

The shelves were also divided by function, with fragrances for courtship, healing, mysticism, offense, prayer, curses, tracking... the list went on.

Rita felt like a country bumpkin entering the big city.

Huh?

Wow!

—A seven-tailed Moonfox! Better sniff their ears!

Is this for real?

—Oh, another seven-tailed Moonfox! Better go sniff and greet them again!

These fragrances are really something else…

—Another seven-tailed one! Better sniff again!

Rita couldn't help but suspect that in the Moonfox tribe, being smelly was probably a crime punishable by death.

She even wondered if the ear-sniffing tradition was less about showing magical auras and more about determining whether the other fox's scent was high-quality.

Her wrist vibrated, signaling her to drink a cooldown-reset potion. She immediately took out a potion, drank it, and then refreshed her **Disguise** skill. Her appearance didn't change, but the 59 minutes she had used up were reset.

She couldn't afford to linger any longer.

Reluctantly, Rita left the fragrance section and continued her search.

But seeing that area convinced her that she should use the escape gem Apache gave her once she got the book.

Before coming, she had specifically asked Shadow.Q to buy her a skill stone that could instantly teleport her back to Blue Star in case of emergency. She had thought she might not need to use the escape gem and could save it, but now she felt she knew too little about the foreign tribes.

With tensions high from recent discoveries of Blue Star agents in Lania Kaia, she decided it was better to play it safe. No point in being too cautious only to lose everything in the end.

After drinking her second cooldown-reset potion, Rita finally found the alchemy section. The number of books here revealed just how little the Moonfox valued alchemy. Compared to the ten shelves of fragrance, alchemy had only two.

To Apache, the Moonfoxes were a tribe that didn't appreciate their own gifts. They had been blessed with the secrets of alchemy by the Moon Goddess but chose to focus on fragrance instead. In her view, it was Apache's noble duty to help the Moonfox tribe restore the glory of alchemy.

Rita couldn't help but chuckle to herself. Yeah, right, as if anyone would dare oppose *Lania Kaia's* sun!

As Apache's apprentice, Rita felt it was only natural to assist. How much could she help? Well, as much as she could… or rather, as much as she could get her hands on.