Eventually Passionate Seeker woke up on her own, and Aki got to keep his lecture on being responsible with alcohol. He was sitting in his courtyard, sipping on his tea while she sat opposite him, drinking water with her hands holding her head up. I’m surprised that cultivators can even get hangovers, but I suppose I should have expected as much from spirit alcohol. Well, these types of lessons are best learned first hand.

“Now, apprentice. I trust you have learned the value of moderation. I understand that you wish to rush ahead with everything in life but taking your time with things is not a bad approach either. We are cultivators after all, blessed with longer lifespans.”

The woman raised her head up, her eyes flinching slightly at the warm noon sunlight.

“I’ve never felt like this before... Master, this talk of taking things slowly, does it relate to that experiment that you wanted me to organise?”

Aki was pleased at her astute observation. Balancing cultivation with rest seems to have been working decently for me, but I can’t be sure about that without testing this matter more. It’ll be interesting to see how other people adjust to such changes. He allowed his sagely expression fade into a bit of a familiar grin.

“You are correct, apprentice. As you know, I’ve recently adopted a cultivation schedule where I allow myself plentiful time for rest and relaxation. I have found it to work rather well, so now it is time to test how it works for others. Tell me, I don’t think you’ve relaxed and let loose as much as last night in a long time. How did it make you feel?”

Her head slumped down onto the table.

“Right now I feel like hell, certainly not any more efficient at cultivation” she sulked. However, after a moment she turned her head to the side and hesitantly added. “It was certainly not an unpleasant feeling last night; I don’t really know how to describe it. In a certain way, I do feel more refreshed... I had honestly forgotten how it felt to slowly wake up in a comfortable bed. It had been such a long time...”

Before she could slide further into melancholy ponderings, she slapped her cheeks and briskly rose up.

“But that’s enough laying about! You wish to test the effects of balance between work and relaxation, right? Then it’s high time I get back in action!”

Aki sighed. She could have spent at least another day relaxing, but maybe it would be too much for her at this stage. Aki thought for a bit on what his own immediate plans were. If I am to attempt to condense a water Qi string, I should probably pick up some water techniques. I don’t really have much in the way of self-defense right now either, so maybe that’s what I should be going for. I also need to get her started on the experiment.

“Apprentice, for the first step of the experiment, I want you to have Little Hawk follow the schedule I outlined for the experiment. I also want you to take some time off to rest every now and then. How do you think your lessons with him have progressed?”

“He has been learning all his material rapidly, truly a prodigy. Ah, I did not have the time to mention this before, but I managed to piece together new versions of the [Sauna] techniques. Can you check whether they are correct? I tried to follow your instructions more exactly this time.”

She seemed to be a bit nervous as she handed over a few jade slips which Aki immediately began scanning through.

[Sauna Steam Qi condensation. A [Sauna] ritual room is heated to a temperature suitable for plentiful sweat. Focus on relaxing your body while absorbing steam Qi from the water periodically thrown onto the stove. After temperature starts to get uncomfortable, go jump into cold water outside. Repeat cycle to utilize duality of heat and cold to form your internal steam Qi.]

Well this seems just downright pleasant compared to the last one. I may have to give it a go myself. I wonder if the next one follows the pattern?

[Saunaforged Body Tempering. Body is whipped using spirit herbs to infuse their properties directly into the muscles. This should be done while the body is as relaxed as possible in a [Sauna] ritual room, to allow the plant Qi to more easily weave into the body without resistance. More experimentation needed on specific herbs needed.].

Hmm, she actually did manage to make techniques that seem to focus on being in a relaxed state. These don’t seem too harmful. I wonder what kind of effects cultivating them would have? Are they actually effective? Aki nodded at his apprentice with satisfaction.

“You’ve done a good job indeed in discovering these techniques. You have permission to have Little Hawk cultivate both of these techniques, and in the coming outer sect competition I would like you to have a group of disciples try these techniques.”

Passionate Seeker instantly beamed with a satisfied smile.

“I will not disappoint you master. Is there anything else?”

Oh, right. Those self-defence techniques I wanted to learn...

“I also want you to teach Little Hawk some water combat techniques. I wish to observe all these lessons.”

With that, Passionate Seeker set off, still cradling her head slightly from the hangover. Now things should be underway. I wonder what I should focus on next?

Aki had started off his reforms from the outer sect and planned to work on the inner sect next, but that could wait until his immediate projects were a bit further along. Still, he did not want to wholly focus on his personal cultivation at the moment, he was supposed to be the sect leader after all.

Maybe I’ll focus on matters outside of the sect next? There’re the vassals under us, the relations with our neighbouring clans and sects, and the relationship with our liege, the Liquid Sword sect. Perhaps I should start off by examining our vassals? I’ve only taken a cursory look at them before.

Aki set off to his room to take search for the proper information. It was time for some foreign policy research!

It took Aki the rest of the day to properly finish his work, as he had to stop by the sect archives to find additional material. In the end, he managed to find a map of the sect surroundings and gather notes on key vassals.

The Thousand Lakes sect had 6 vassal organisations with over 50 members and at least 1 domain establishment elder. Of these, the largest by far was the Cold Vein sect, a sect with around 260 members which focused on ice cultivation. The next two largest ones were the Suvi and Aho clans, focusing on spirit bloodlines and pill concocting, respectively. They were both about half the size of the cold vein sect.

An intriguing one was the Palo Tribe, which rather than hold permanent territory, freely roamed through the wilds in their region. They were focused on Beast core cultivation and had around 60 members.

These were the biggest vassals by the numbers, but they were not really ones that Aki was most interested in. Relations were stable, and Aki did not have any grand ideas on what to do with them. It was the last two smaller ones that drew his eye.

First was White River Pavilion, a merchant cultivator organisation which handled most of the trade in the region. Why is trade in the region handled by a vassal of ours? I don’t like how we handle all of our sales and purchases through them. It takes control away from us, leaving vulnerabilities. Taking control of them has to be priority number one. They only have around 40 members, but their merchant expertise is very valuable.

In addition, Aki wanted to take direct control of at least one vassal, as it would open many options in the pursuit of his [Tax Evasion] technique.

The last vassal drew Aki’s eye for much less calculated reasons. The Soul Food School, which focuses on food cultivation? Why has no one informed me beforehand that such an organisation exists? Maybe they even possess spirit spices... Could they perhaps make me some hot wings? I have to make them a part of our sect at once!

His goals set, Aki began making plans. It would soon be time to set forth for a journey in pursuit of spirit spi-. Ahem, useful organisations to be integrated.

Aki’s next days passed with making plans for the trip, practicing the [Thousand Lakes Qi Condensation] technique, and picking up basic water combat weaves. Passionate Seeker chose to teach Little Hawk the [Basic Water Control] and [Six Fists of Water] weaves, as they were rather versatile and served as a good foundation for further techniques.

Aki found himself picking up the basics for them rather fast, but knew that he would not be able to use them in combat any time soon without a lot more practice. [Basic Water Control] did exactly what one might expect, allowing for a variety of ways to move masses of water around. It was not the most fast or swift technique, but it was certainly versatile.

[Six Fists of Water] was a close combat technique, using which fist strikes were enhanced with slamming shots of water. It was very easy to get the basics of this one down.

Aki however found himself struggling quite a bit with the [Thousand Lakes Qi Condensation] technique, as it required focused meditation while submerged in cold waters for a long period of time. It didn’t really match Aki’s preferences, so after thinking on the matter for a bit he came up with an option.

This technique doesn’t really feel like it matches with my path in this world. I am seeking a road of relaxed and easygoing cultivation, so should I just be blindly using the established techniques of this world to mould my Dao? Passionate Seeker managed to create a rather relaxing seeming sauna cultivation technique, so could I apply the same principle to water?

Aki thought of what relaxing in water meant to him, and memories of long sessions laying in hot tubs came to him. The feeling of snugly relaxing in the hot water... It was certainly a different perspective on water than the calm meditation in cold waters practiced at the sect. Aki decided to practice his idea and arranged for a hot tub to be brought over.

Eventually, Aki managed to get one with a heating artifact which allowed him to easily set a pleasant temperature. He chose to fill it with water from his courtyard pond, as it was the most Qi-rich he had seen in the sect. After filling up the tub with a few bucketfuls, Aki set the water to an appropriate snug heat, and settled in. He ended up enjoying the feeling of the hot water for quite a while before he remembered that relaxation was not his main purpose in this.

Oh, right. I was supposed to be developing a Qi condensation technique with this. Aki focused his mind and began to think on how it would work. I’ll have to try mixing and matching the relaxation techniques Passionate Seeker used in her sauna technique with the water-specific ones from the [Thousand Lakes Qi Condensation] technique. Aki spent many long hours in the tub testing out different breathing techniques and seeing how they affected his attempts at drawing water Qi into his dantian. Eventually he settled on something that seemed good enough, and began seriously drawing Qi in.

Aki thought that the technique somehow felt a lot more correct to him than the sect’s original one had, though the speed was not yet optimal. I wonder if creating your own Qi condensation technique allows for higher efficiency, as it is adjusted personally?

Aki lay in the tub, steadily drawing in a stream of water Qi into his core. The Qi in his dantian felt different from how it had felt with the old technique. While before it had been a calm, cold surface, now he felt a comforting embrace from it. Noticing that night had arrived while he had been focused, Aki rose from the bath, deep in thought.

Alright, I think I’ll definitely proceed in my cultivation by using this technique. Though, if I associate the water Qi with comfort too much, will it become less suitable for attack weaves? Slightly troubled, Aki regardless resolved to continue using his personal technique. I don’t plan on getting into many fights anyways. Better to have something useful in daily life instead.

After drying himself on a towel, turning the heating artifact off and emptying the tub, Aki set off to bed.