The woman was a short one. Her black hair was in a short bob cut and her eyes shone like the moon. There was something cat-like to her lazy manner. She did not crackle with power like some of the other powerful cultivators Aki had seen, but rather seemed to fade away into her surroundings. And powerful she was. She felt quite a bit beyond Passionate Seeker in her cultivation, and she was even ahead of his core disciples, like Summer Warden. Not nearly at the level of an elder, however.

The appearance of the woman or her power was not, however, what Aki initially focused on. His eyes were instead drawn to the juicy-looking spirit lemons the girl was gnawing at greedily.

Lemons. Do people seriously just eat lemons like that? Skin and all?

Shaking the distracting thoughts out of his head, Aki began trying to piece together the identity of the girl. She had referred to him as “master”, and the only people who would do so would be his personal apprentices or core disciples. She could not be a personal apprentice, as he only had the one. I have met two of my core disciples, and the other two are supposed to be in closed door cultivation right now. The other missing core disciple is male, so she should be Winter Gale, my other missing core disciple.

His thoughts gathered; Aki carefully formed a response to ascertain the situation.

“Disciple, I was not aware that you were finished with your closed-door cultivation.”

The girl jumped off the shelf, licking her fingers.

“Oh, that? I finished condensing my lunar Qi string a few months ago.”

She straightened herself into something resembling a proper posture, and then gave a lazy bow.

“Master, Disciple Winter Gale reporting back for duty.”

Aki was rather stunned by the admission, and his mind began to race at the implication.

She finished her closed-door cultivation two months ago and had not reported for duty during that time? Her manner, those spirit fruits... Have I found the one? I must confirm my suspicions.

Aki stood up, instantly more focused than he had been in weeks. He gazed intently at the girl, then began his questioning.

“Disciple, during that time, have you done any sect missions?”

She fetched her knife out of its sheath and began absent-mindedly picking at the bits of spirit lemon stuck between her teeth.

“Hmm, no. I don’t suppose I have.”

Aki walked a bit closer, and his gaze grew more intense.

“Have you perhaps spent that time eating lots of spirit fruit?”

She glanced at the bag at her hip, then shrugged.

“I suppose I have.”

Aki was now standing right in front of her, gaze full of hope.

“Have you perhaps been mostly laying about during that time?”

She was visibly growing weirded out by the situation and backed away slightly. Her tone grew a tad wary.

“Master, what’s this about? You know me, I suppose it could be called laying about.”

Aki was filled with more happiness than he had felt combined since coming into this world. Finally! Finally, I have found a cultivator that knows how to take a vacation for lazing about, instead of working hard without end! Someone who knows the value of leisure! I have finally found a sane soul amidst all this madness!

It had been rather grating for Aki to be surrounded by nothing but fervent workaholics, but finally he had found a compatriot on the path of work-life balance! He was so overwhelmed with happiness, that he instinctively grabbed her hand into a crushing grip. It was as if he wanted to confirm that in front of him was a real creature, not an illusory mythical being that would disappear when he looked away.

“Finally. Finally, I have found you.”

He whispered softly, mind overwhelmed by finally finding a sane soul. Winter Gale, however had a rather different reaction to the sudden crushing grip.

“GYAAAAAAAAAAAA!”

The grip did not last long. After recovering from the momentary shock, the girl instantly dissolved into shadows and materialized into the other corner of the room. She gazed at her master with suspicion.

“What’s with you today master? Of course, I would do those things, you know that’s how I use my spirit bear bloodline stockpiling powers.”

She focused for a moment, and suddenly ethereal bear ears appeared on her head. She began to glow with power and proceeded to shadowbox for a few moments before letting the effect fade away.

“Hiya! See, it’s working just like normal.”

Aki stood still silently for a moment; you could almost hear his heart shattering. The happiness he had been feeling was a lie, and thus was promptly replaced by the despair of a lost chance. It was just for the sake of cultivation! Is the pattern of creation taunting me? Dangling the possibility of a sane soul in front of me like this!

He tried to gather himself, and eventually managed to offer an explanation in an emotionless, dead voice.

“Ah, yes, of course I was aware of that. I was merely analysing the development of your cultivation.”

Curse me for acting like an insane maniac! How could I be so overwhelmed by joy that I would act in such a manner! Is being a cultivator affecting the intensity of my emotions?

Aki managed to calm down after taking some deep breaths after cursing himself internally. He turned an evaluating eye to the girl.

Spirit bear bloodline huh? I initially thought there was something cat-like about her, as she had that certain manner to her. On second though however, that meandering, lazy manner can also be seen as somewhat bear-like. I suppose I wouldn’t associate bears with stealth, which she evidently possesses plenty of. Does this maybe count as some sort of prejudice in this world? Besides, a stealthy bear? Now that is a frightening thought.

Aki narrowed his eyes, as he tried to unlock the power to judge a person’s character from their appearance. Besides, that manner... She has to have some laziness in her! I refuse to believe that she is a perfectly diligent model cultivator! I refuse to lose hope!

Having recovered from his mental damage, Aki promptly turned back to business.

“So, as you are done with your practice for the foreseeable future, I take it you are ready for new missions.”

The return to business seemed to reassure the girl, so she leaned against the wall and took out a new spirit lemon to munch on.

“Yes master, totally ready. Who do you want me observing this time? Also, can I try my hand at that [Power Point] technique or whatever? I bet I can charge those bullets with tons of power!”

Aki had a feeling that his presentation technique had been misunderstood on a fundamental level but chose to ignore that for the sake of his mental health. So, she acted as some sort of spy for the previous elder Thousand Lakes, I suppose having such an asset makes sense for a sect leader. Hmm, I do have some things I would like looked at. I wonder how much she has seen while skulking about?

“Disciple, you may do as you will with that technique. However, are there any things of note going on in the sect that I may not have noticed? I have been busy with many matters.”

Winter Gale pondered on the question for a bit, idly munching on yet another lemon.

“Well, for starters a few of the disciples from Midnight Sun Hall built up some sort of thing called a [sauna], though I haven’t gone too close to observe. Just getting within 50 paces of that thing makes it way too hot for comfort!”

How hot are they keeping that thing? That is taking extreme sauna too far.

“Then there was that one incident not too long ago where some sort of really powerful artifact was activated near the edge of the outer sect forest. Left a whole patch of the forest destroyed, there was a lot of wondering about how an artifact like that ended up being used there.”

Hmm, that sounds concerning. I hope some outer sect disciple has not gotten their hands on some really powerful artifact. That would be a recipe for a main character in the making. Aki had clearly managed to block out the memory of the terrifying-bee-incident rather adeptly.

“Other than that, nothing too major. The young masters and chosen are up to their usual nonsense, but nothing too concerning. Four Seasons Hall members are having some spats over stolen foraging grounds, but you know how they like to fight over those berries.”

Well, she definitely seems to keep on top of rumours in the sect. She should prove useful for this then.

“Disciple, how good would you say you are at observing larger groups of people. My task would involve studying such a group and noting down some aspects of their behaviour.”

This seemed to spark her curiosity, as she even put away her newest spirit lemons for a moment.

“Don’t worry about it master, that’s my speciality. I’ve really gotten a hang of the [Karmic Bonds] technique recently, so using it on larger groups should be prove good practice. What are the specifics?”

“You are to note down behavioural patterns of outer sect disciples. In particular, I want to know what kinds of groups they organise themselves in and how knowledge and resources flow through people in the outer sect.”

Aki wanted to start improving things for the sect and starting from the bottom seemed like a decent idea. The first realm of cultivation was by no means easy, but compared to the others it would definitely provide the fastest returns if methods were improved. However, one cannot reform something one does not understand, so Aki wanted a nice, neat report to help familiarize him with such matters. Knowledge and material resources are the two key factors that can help a cultivator forward, so understanding the current movement of those should help him form plans of improvement.

Winter Gale pondered on the plan for a moment, before nodding to herself.

“Yes, that should be doable. I haven’t tried observation of such large groups of people before, but I’m confident I’ll manage. I wonder how much the outer sect has changed since I was last there, back then the tribute systems for the various gangs were rather interesting. Should I start immediately?”

The disciple seemed rather reliable when in mission-mode, which reassured Aki that her report should prove useful.

“Yes, you may proceed at will.”

She gave a rather more proper bow this time, before dissolving into the shadows and disappearing. She really is good at hiding her aura, my spiritual sense can’t find a thing when she doesn’t want it to.

Aki walked over onto his bed and decided to lay there while plotting further.

I really don’t know much about my sect, do I? That report should help me get somewhat more familiar with the outer sect, but the inner sect is comparatively a much more important matter. Maybe I should set off on a tour of the different inner sect departments tomorrow?

Having formed a plan of action, Aki remembered that it was not yet bedtime, and thus did not drift to sleep. Instead, he headed out to his courtyard for some afternoon tea.