“Well time to see if you can put him in position where he will need to be punished” she says in quiet tone before clearing her throat and speaking louder “come in Zhou Xiaozi” she manages to say before the kid barges in the room.

“Lady Zhou, Lady Zhou! I came across one of the lower members of the Clan attempting to rape one of the servants, he needs to be punished! I tried to get him to stop but he pushed me away and closed the door.” Xiaozi says, with the fakest acting ever, causing Baohu to chuckle to himself in the corner. Lady Zhou replies “First of all who is this person you are talking about?”

Xiaozi hesitated for a second, the first crack of his plan showing “ummI didn’t get his name, but I know which room is his” he stutters out before I sit up and make the first rebuttal “how do you have a whole conversation with me, allegedly attempt to defend the girl, and stay long enough to know what happens, but fail to get my name? Much less find out what room is mine, not bring the victim in with you to corroborate your story?” I ask with a bit of smugness in my voice, the sound of a face being slapped going off in my head.

“You!!” He says pointing his finger at me, surprise evident in his face “Matriarch, this is the person I tried to stop from raping the servant!” Xiaozi almost yells to Lady Zhou. I chime in again, “See, he doesn’t even know who the servant I allegedly raped is, and while that may be forgotten, how would I even stop him? He is supposedly the ‘young master’ who would have a much higher cultivation than me, who isn’t even at the first stage of the mortal realm” I say, prompting Lady Zhou to intervene.

“What do you have to say about that Zhou Xiaozi, how do you fail to stop someone who is not even at the low stage of the Mortal realm, while you are at the high stage of the mortal realm?”

Zhou Xiaozi stammers “He-he is lying, I am the Young Master of the Zhou Clan! He is in the wrong!” I mentally wind up my palm for the most disrespectful and childish comeback ever, quickly saying “rapist say what?”

“What?” Xiaozi says, not thinking. I continue, “You see, he is such an idiot he admits he raped the servant by the Pagoda, trying to blame it on me” Lady Zhou giving me a disapproving look at my strategy and use of cheap insults.

“That’s not where I tried to rape her, you see Lady Zhou he is lying!” He blurts out, not realizing what he admitted to. I just give Lady Zhou a look, shrugging at the idiocy. Lady Zhou facepalms, deciding to just send the would-be rapist off to his room, with the intent of having a discussion with the clan Elders. “I will have a word with Elder Bulang after I show the Elders the work Zhou Minzie has done with the records room at noon tomorrow”. She says, deliberately specifying noon before Xiaozi is out of the door.

She turns to me once he is gone, “why did you make up that childish nonsense at the end?” I reply, abbreviating a plan to make him think I can be underestimated when approaching his father, making it the next attempts seem even more far fetched, discrediting the Young Master before I even need to do anything. Lady Zhou smiles a bit after that, hinting that the showcasing of the records would be a bit earlier, making Xiaozi’s likely plan to sabotage me come when all the Elders are in the records room, guaranteeing Xaozi’s disgraced exile, and making it easy to rope in the father as well. Now that everything for the near future is more or less laid out, I am sent back to my room, with the expectation to spend long days studying for the next week or so, and that everything I need to brush up on will come to my room by the time I wake up.

I arrive back at my room, stopping a servant for something light to eat on the way back. While I wait for the food to arrive, I get my study space set up, making sure I have at least a few sheets up paper set aside on the desk, along with a couple pencils, as well as a small supply of paper, pencils, and other useful items set in a convenient place in the instance I need it. My food arrives just as I finish getting things ready for the coming days, eating the few steamed buns that I managed this late in the night. While getting ready, I wonder how the events at the record room will transpire tomorrow, shrugging it off before going to sleep.

[Path of Knowledge Rank 4]

Waking up bright and early, taking the rank up as a good sign of what’s to come, I open my door, noticing a not so small stack of books and scrolls, bringing them in and separating everything by subject before beginning my studies.

Unbeknownst to me, Xiaozi was even more idiotic than had been assumed, as he arrived with a couple torches, intent on burning it down and blaming it on me. The plan went up in flames instead, as he was caught “torch-handed” in front of all the Elders, blurting out loud “Father I thought the rest of you weren’t supposed to be here until well after the fire had begun”. This condemned both of them, getting the Father stripped of his Elder status, the son removed any privileged status, his cultivation crushed, and exiled in shame.

Waking up after briefly nodding off late that night I am amazed at the series of Path notifications I received.

[Path of Knowledge Rank 5]

[Technique: Split Focus]

[Path of the Young Master obtained]

[Path of the Young Master Rank One]

[Technique: Young Master’s Right]