While I certainly did not have many possessions, mainly a handful of outfits that were provided to me, my phone, and a couple scrolls of interesting stories I had copied with Lady Zhou’s permission, I was also given one of the branch’s copies of their local and common spirit beasts within the Empire. While normally that handful of books and scrolls would’ve necessitated a trunk or safely transport, my Filing Cabinet Technique had enough space to take care of that for me, even if I had not developed the Technique to really begin handling a significant number of documents.

What really began to take up space and require careful packing was the “homework” I was being given to complete by the time I arrived in Gungzhou. I was given a couple hundred copies of years old documents that any Scholar would be required to have organized and readily accessible. I was told that while on the road I would need to design and implement an organizational method for the documents within a smaller trunk I was provided. It would be scored when I arrived at the Zhou Branch in Gungzhou, with the only hint I was given was that it would be better if it was intuitive rather than comprehensive.

The other thing of note that I was given was a few “business” outfits, or in modern Chinese terms, elaborate and dress-like outfits. I also asked Lady Zhou if I could have a few outfits in a more Earth-like style, as I would much prefer a suit rather than an airy and complex dress. Lady Zhou told me that if I would like something that made me stand out, potentially inviting trouble for myself, then I will need to perform well on my little homework test, at which she will contact someone she knows in the city to have me explain the design of it. With all this combined, I would have a notable, but not “substantial” number of possessions to deal with, enough to fill maybe half a wagon, but then I find out about the gifts, guards, and trade goods coming along with me. The supposed wagon, with me moderately comfy in the back of it, turns into a few wagons, a couple dozen guards, and some Clan merchants. It became even worse when I was told that there were a few of the guards that were there specifically for me, not as part of the general contingent of guards.

I still carried my phone like any American would, even though I still couldn’t figure out a use for it in this world. You may think that after weeks of being in this world that it would have died, considering you could use a phone for a day on Earth, not even use any energy intensive apps, and it would die. Funny enough, due to the world being being charged by Qi, it provided the tiniest of charges to the phone, to keep it charged all day, even if the smallest of usage started to deplete the battery. I wouldn’t be surprised if in a city or high QI zone I could be watching movies all day and my battery not go down at all. But then without an internet connection or phone signal my phone isn’t that useful. I have a couple idle clicker games, sure, and even a proper phone game or two, but those lost their fun really quickly, even to pass time in this world. The only real benefit I got with it was I could do math easier with the calculator, not that it was hard with my Techniques to effectively become a calculator, when I was doing my question creation marathon, I tried, for shits and giggles, to go through every possible combination of multiplication and addition of the numbers between one and a hundred. I did the math for all of them, ensuring my memory Technique worked on it, and now I no longer to actually work the math out for those numbers. Given enough time, I could do subtraction and division for those numbers, increase the number cap up to a thousand, and practically instantly know the answers for the instances those numbers come into play. If time hadn’t been an issue, and I wasn’t told about getting effectively smarter as my cultivation rose, I may have tried that.

As I finished getting my personal stuff together and put into trunks and set aside for servants to get stowed in my wagon, Bao Bao did his shadow teleportation thing, popping out of the shadows just off to my left. “Lady Zhou and I have our final parting gift, since you so dearly wanted some alcohol, I have brought a couple bottles of some of the weaker Qi infused wine we have, she hopes to have you to the medium Stage of the Mortal Realm, pushing the high Stage.” He says, opening one of the bottles and pouring me a glass.

You know how they say don’t succumb to peer pressure? This guy had me downing glasses of the stuff like I was never going to drink again. After we were halfway through the first bottle, I was curious why he wasn’t drinking, until I saw him take a shot of a third, jade bottle. Then I realized he had better alcohol, and I was going to drink two whole bottles myself. Suffice to say, I managed to persuade him to let me have a bit of his alcohol. This was immediately a bad idea, after one sip I was immediately sent to the bathroom, shitting and throwing up in turn. When I came out, he congratulated me on the middle Stage, and then stuck with my wine, which still left me in hell by the end of the night. While I can’t be sure, I am pretty sure I told him about the time I made out with this one girl in school, to seem cool and all, he just laughed it off, as if that wasn’t worthy of an accomplishment. At least that’s how I told myself when I tried to arm wrestle him, absolutely drunk and slurring every word I said. By the time I was getting dangerously drunk, Baohu passed me a glass of water, which surprised me, since he thought a single glass of water would do anything. He left me before I could call him out on it, throwing the whole glass back, assuming it would be like throwing a cup of water onto a burning building and hoping it would stop the fire. To my surprise, it wasn’t actually water, but a nasty tasting elixir, which instantly stopped the drunken haze and reinvigorating me from my deathly drunken stupor. It didn’t exactly wake me up but left me in good enough condition to get a shower and head to sleep.

[Cultivation increased: Mortal Realm, Middle Grade]