The following days passed in relative peace. Passionate Seeker had arranged for food to be brought from Southpool, and thus Aki managed to secure a food supply. The food wasn’t anything amazing; simple dishes containing plenty of fish and root vegetables. Still, it was filling enough.

The more dire problem was the lack of a proper comfortable bed. Sleeping on a bare wooden plank didn’t quite cut it for Aki, who was used to modern comforts. After a restless night and a weary morning, Aki managed to arrange for Passionate Seeker to bring him something more comfortable.

Aki had been worried about whether delegating the tasks of a sect leader to Passionate Seeker would work out, but it went surprisingly well. Mostly due to the fact that elders in the sect actually had very little duties they had to personally attend to, as core disciples seemed to handle most of the actual work. His apprentice’s daily briefings were thus not a lengthy affair, as there wasn’t much to report on. Holding lectures for inner sect disciples was something elders were generally expected to do, but Aki decided to indefinitely suspend all lectures he was due to hold until he could figure out some wisdoms to bestow.

Aki began to accept in his heart that he was here to stay, and probably would never see his family again. It was a grim thought, and he did not want to dwell on it right now, while his position was most vulnerable. Thus, he distracted himself by exploring the magical world he now found himself in.

Aki spent the days exploring his house, admiring the scenery outside of it and studying the various jade slips he found. His house contained his main living space, a room for carving those wooden talismans everyone in the sect used, and a storage room filled with various artefacts Aki was not brave enough to touch. There were also several locked rooms which he had not managed to pry open. His favourite place in the residence though, was the quaint courtyard at its centre. In it, a small pond sat in the middle of a rocky garden. The plants in the garden let off fragrant scents, making the courtyard a pleasant place to spend an afternoon.

Through study of the jade slips, Aki had managed to figure out that the basics of the mystical powers in the world. People referred to the world around them as the “Pattern of Creation”, and the bits of light floating about everywhere were Qi that was being released by it. Being a middling sect in a minor realm, the Qi here was not especially bountiful, making cultivation rather slow. The strands of qi could be woven into “weaves” which allowed them to affect the pattern of creation. For example, strands of water Qi could be woven into weaves to create water, control water or bring forth various other effect.

The descriptions in the jade tablets made the weaves seem based on philosophical concepts and symbolic links, rather than the scientific realities of the world. Aki was not sure whether he would be able to turn his modern knowledge about the nature of matter into any super powerful techniques any time soon. Still, he was sure he could eventually figure something out for his personal use.

Aki also took some time to test out the capabilities of his new body. It still demanded nutrition and sleep like a normal mortal body would, but he felt it was not quite as necessary as it had been for him before. This did not of course affect how often he ate or how much he slept, one had to keep to one’s principles after all. In terms of the power within his new body, it was far beyond natural. He could jump high up into the air and smash pieces of rock with his fists. He could easily carry large and heavy loads and never get tired despite doing all that testing. However, after his test session he was still glad to take a break to enjoy one of the few joys he had been able to secure for himself.

Aki had been glad to discover that tea was the one mortal pleasure cultivators allowed themselves. Of course, they didn’t admit that. Instead insisting that they only drank spirit tea which provided tangible cultivation benefits and denied finding any pleasure in it. Aki found that to be a bit doubtful, but whatever, let the cultivators convince themselves of what they will.

He quickly secured tea supplies for himself, as well as a water heating magical artifact that he could activate by channelling Qi into it. His studies on Qi had not gone further than channelling it into magical artifacts, but that was enough to satisfy him for now. The thrill of being able to do anything genuinely magical at all was still with him.

Aki arranged for a proper table and a few seats to be brought into the courtyard for the sake of a proper tea-enjoying atmosphere. He was not expecting company, however his dreams of a peaceful evening sipping on tea while studying jade slips were not to be. An event he had been dreading had finally arrived.

“Master, disciple Spring Melt offers greetings. I hope I am not disturbing, I wished to discuss the water cultivation lesson we were due to have.”

Aki had not forgotten how the woman had on their previous parting enquired about a cultivation lesson and he had been dreading the moment since. Inwardly, he sighed deeply. His outward appearance on the other hand adopted the sagely appearance he was quite practiced at by now. He set the jade slip he had been studying on the table and turned to address his core disciple.

Spring Melt was standing at the entrance to the courtyard, looking vaguely apologetic for intruding as she idly played with her braid. Her bespectacled face had a rather scholarly look to it, Aki mused. In my previous life, I imagine she would have been a rather diligent researcher. One of those people carrying around massive cups of tea while they wrote pages and pages of reports in the university library.

“Your arrival is no trouble, disciple. Please sit down, let us hold the lesson immediately.”

Best get this over with as soon as possible. Aki thought.

While Spring Melt sat down on the table, Aki began to think about what he should tell her. Now, do I actually want to tell her about the nature of matter and see if she can use that for her cultivation? Maybe knowledge about atomic bonds and so forth could be used to create some super powerful technique, but do I actually want to spread techniques like that in this world?

If I do manage to start some sort of scientific revolution, that would increase the power of my sect significantly, destabilizing this whole region. I’m not sure how kindly our overlord and neighbours would look at that, so it seems like a path ripe for conflict. Besides, even if we did manage to win such a war, we would just step onto the toes of the next big fish in line. We are in an out-of-the-way backwater region right now, and I would prefer to keep it that way. I’m not too anxious about setting out on an urgent path to power, especially when I understand the world so little.

Resolved, Aki decided that he would not spread out his modern knowledge all willy-nilly. That however led to another issue: he was supposed to give lessons on cultivation, which he did not have any actual knowledge on. Aki looked at the expectant disciple sitting across from him and stroked his long beard idly. Looks like I will have to rely on my one ultimate ability: Creating plausible sounding nonsense out of thin air. Aki started thinking about what kind of story he could spin here.

Water cultivation. What is there to understand about water? I don’t exactly have a secret hidden technique lying in my back pocket for this. I’ll need more information if I am to make up something even vaguely convincing.

“Disciple, at what stage are your studies currently? What is your current understanding of water cultivation like?”

“I have had the basic ability of water walking since I integrated my water Qi string, however deeper understanding has eluded me. After acquiring my fire Qi string, I have tried to study water from that perspective, but I haven’t had much success. Fire feels closer to me due to its use in pill concocting, but I haven’t found a similar connection to water.”

Well, I understood maybe half of that. Aki mused. Still, fire and water huh? I should be able to work something out from this. Aki sipped at his tea while forming a plan when suddenly, a thought hit him. He looked at the cup of tea in his hand, and a bolt of inspiration struck him. He knew exactly what to say.

“Disciple, have you tried giving deeper consideration to water, through the lens of tea?”

“Tea, master? I don’t believe I have given it much thought. Sometimes I use surplus spirit herbs from my foraging to brew some spirit tea.”

“Brewing tea is rather similar to pill concocting, is it not? The powers of spirit herbs are refined into a digestible form through use of water and fire.”

“I suppose it is so, however the effects of spirit tea are much weaker than those of the pills made from the same herbs, so I haven’t given it much value.”

“Weaker, you say? Disciple, there is your mistake. Tea is the pathway to great power.”

Spring Melt’s face was doubtful at these claims, so Aki began to demonstrate his idea. He drank all of the tea in cup, left the tea leaves in and then added more water into the cup from his water heating magical artifact.

“I previously used these tea leaves to prepare a cup of tea, and now after simply replacing the water I have another cup of tea. Do you understand, disciple?”

“Yes... you now have a cup of weaker tea right there. I don’t quite get the point of this.”

“Ah, yes. It might be weaker, but you still admit that it is tea, am I right?”

Aki gave Spring Melt a knowing, mysterious smile, emptied the cup, and then once again filled it with water.

“Now, disciple. Would you say that this cup contains water, or tea?”

Spring Melt fiddled with her spectacles for a moment and glowing symbols began to appear on their lenses. She studied the teacup for a moment, then turned the magical symbols off.

“Currently it is 2% strength tea. I guess it can’t really be called water, it’s just extremely weak tea.”

Aki smiled victoriously.

“Precisely! Once the water is placed into contact with the tea leaves, it can no longer be called water, so it must be tea. Consider that if you were to use these herbs for pill concocting, you would get a single pill, while I, on the other hand, am now able to get as much tea as I want.”

Spring melt still looked doubtful.

“But master, surely there is a limit to this. You can only get so much tea from that, and it will get weaker and weaker right?”

“And that, disciple, is the technique that I will impart onto you.”

Aki took a deep breath, then stood up and began to give a passionate speech.

“To strive towards, and beyond that limit! To use one set of tea leaves to make as much tea as you want! To understand that tea is a matter of perspective! Believing in your heart that even if it tastes like water, and looks like water, it is still tea because it’s warm and the tea leaves are in there! The difference between the tea and water is like the difference between heaven and earth!

Aki was gesturing wildly with his hands as he grew more and more animated. He was gradually starting to almost believe in what he was saying. The words kept flowing out of his mouth, as if guided by some greater truth.

“Once you master these lessons, you will have mastered the [Infinite Tea] technique! The technique that allows you to keep up the strength of the tea, no matter how many times a set of leaves is used! The pathway to infinite power, where you are only limited by the amount of water for your tea! What is the limited power of pill concocting compared to the infinite power of tea! To strive towards immortality is to strive towards infinity! Thus, tea is the key to immortality! Do you understand, disciple?!”

His voice had grown louder and louder, until he was almost shouting the last words. Perhaps it was the memory of using the last tea bag in his apartment as long as possible that drove him, but the passion in his speech was undeniable. Spring Melt at first looked shocked, then gradually, her expression grew enlightened. It was as if the scales covering the truth of the world were falling away from her eyes. She stared at the teacup on the table, eyes full of wonder. Aki managed to calm down a bit and sat back down. Spring Melt slowly gathered herself and then gestured towards the cup.

“M-master. If I may...”

Aki gave her a proud look, drank the “tea”, noted that it really did only taste like warm water, not even a tinge of tea to it, and then handed the cup over to Spring Melt.

“Go ahead, disciple.”

She gazed at the tea leaves inside the cup, then slowly picked up the water heating magical artifact and carefully, almost as if it was a religious ritual, poured hot water into the cup.

Aki and Spring Melt both stared silently at the cup, but no matter how long they waited, the liquid did not change colour to look more like tea. It stubbornly continued to look like a cup of water with some leaves in it, rather than a cup of tea. Eventually Spring Melt sighed deeply, picked up the cup and drank from it. She remained silent with her eyes closed for a moment, and then slowly set the cup back down on the table.

“Master, it seems like I have a long way to go to master the [Infinite Tea] technique.”

“Worry not, disciple. Infinite power is naturally not easy to grasp, but even holding onto a fraction of infinity will still propel your cultivation forwards massively.”

Spring Melt’s eyes began to shine with resolve, and she stood up briskly.

“Master, thank you for sharing your wisdom with me. My eyes have been opened, and I now see that my path to further understanding of water goes through tea. I will not rest before I have mastered the [Infinite Tea] technique! This is the most resolve I have felt since I started walking on the path of cultivation! I will not fail at this!”

She bowed respectfully, much deeper than she had when arriving, then turned and left. Her steps were filled with an unshakeable resolve that had not been there when she first entered. She disappeared beyond the doorway, deep in thought, tugging at her braid in agitation. Aki watched the departing figure silently, then started to wake up from the mania he had been in.

Did I maybe go a bit too far this time?