Arriving back at my room, the evening just having started, I think I can still get a couple hours of reading in, despite the events at the pond earlier. Thinking I wouldn’t be able to focus on anything serious, I instead opt in for some formations reading. I pull open a couple introductory books on formations, hoping to expand my narrow focus of formation knowledge. One of the first things I notice is the other academic reasons they used for defining cantrips differently. Cantrips as a whole don’t do any refining of the Qi that is drawn in from the environment or channeled by the user. Meanwhile the true formations filter and refine the energy such that either elemental Qi of the specific nature, or neutral Qi, is being used. The fireball cantrip, for example, uses solely fire Qi, but the Qi being channeled into the formation is converted to fire Qi. That is why elemental formations and cantrips can be greatly powered by the specific environment. There are whole sects that use specific Earth or Fire cantrips specifically because they live around volcanos, and the ease of the cantrip, combined with their environment, bumps their martial prowess enough to contend with weaker threats, but greater than what a cantrip would normally handle. An elemental formation can do the same thing, being strengthened by the environment, but those who focus in on those formations tend to undergo processes to elementally alter their Qi pools, making it so that the normal filtering process that would occur would not drastically reduce their practical Qi levels.

However, most formations are largely neutral in term of Qi, and the higher tier formations are so intensive in terms of Qi they have some level of Qi gathering built into them, allowing them to take on elemental effects without taxing the one activating the formation. This collective piece of information, put cantrips in a new light, giving the practical reasons for why cantrips channel quicker, are normally weaker, but have a greater ability to “power-up” compared to true formations. This allows cantrips to surpass actual tier one formations in elementally heavy environments, and in the super rare circumstance you’re in a nearly pure environment of one specific type of Qi, they can overpower some tier one formations. In the end, they are still just beginner steps to take, but in the right circumstances can be an overlooked attack method that would be able to break the only formations capable of being activated quick enough to stop them.

After looking through some more basic information to back up what I knew, I perused through some more formations, deciding to pick up some more formations that were not as closely connected to what I am doing now, but still could be used for things in my career path. I spent some time learning a couple elemental formations after seeing the two main Young Masters of this branch. I went with a water whip formation, that would create a tendril of water largely used for capturing, but could be used as a weak attack, as well as a dehydrate formation. I decided to go with these for multiple reasons, the biggest of which being the idea of a huge part o the formations being used for restriction. This would allow for the “cuffing” and subdual of those who try do attack me, the clan, or who are just being annoying. Additionally, since books don’t high humidity environments, it can be used to remove atmospheric water. The other big reason was that I was noticing this branch, if not the whole clan had some kind of focus on water. I wasn’t completely sure, but I had been picking up on any mention of elementally aligned paths tending to be water based. When I saw Zhonglei and his sister, that further provided me evidence about my idea. From there I decided it might be worthwhile to at least pick up something along the path. After spending a little bit of time reading over them to make sure I had memorized everything, I practiced them both a couple times to get a feel for them, even if they were fairly unstable. Deciding that today had been a very long day, the whole mess with possible embezzlement of spirit herbs at the one farm early in the morning, the extra studying and the “Young Master fight”, I figured it was a good time for some rest. Preparing my clothes and other stuff I would need for work in the morning, I set aside my pile of work scrolls and writing book. After that I got ready for bed, finally getting some well needed rest.

[Path of the Young Master rank 9]

[Path of formations rank 6]

Waking up to Path advancements was nice, even if I was a bit upset I didn’t also progress in my Scholar Path, but I guess I was mostly doing due diligence yesterday, and I haven’t learned the outcome of my actions yet. After a solemn moment, I decided it was finally time to get ready, I took a quick shower, using the oh so great formations based shower. I didn’t spend too long in the shower, as I didn’t want to lose track of time, as I did that too much back on Earth until I wizened up. Getting out after five minutes, I put on some more of the “formal” clothes I’ve been using as work clothes. Seeing that I’ve almost gone through all the new outfits, I make a mental note to get my stuff cleaned after I come back from work in the afternoon. With half an hour left before work, I manage to get a servant to bring me some Chinese porridge and a nice hot cup of coffee. Spending the next fifteen minutes eating and drinking my breakfast, I use this time for a bit of relaxation before the storm arrives soon.

When the time comes, I head over to the office like any good worker bee would. A quick bit of traffic only temporarily slowing me down, as I am already beginning to get used to the slight delay, and walk in to the office with five minutes to spare before work officially starts. When I come in, I notice the Head secretary and another man, who looks like he would be the Senior Lead for the room. I get waved over where a short conversation ensues about the information I revealed yesterday. They manage to tell me that something had been fishy about the farm for a few years now, as the father used to be very exact and when I brought forth my allegations, it was enough for a more formal investigation to begin.

They continue to tell me it will be a couple more days at least, but that sometime tomorrow I’ll likely get some document requests to transfer over everything so they can use it for their interrogations. After that work proceeds normally. I have dozens of forms I need to approve, review, or otherwise look into. After spending some time doing my normal due diligence I notice another weird form. While this one doesn’t smell of corruption or anything like that, it just has a lot of weird figures, far above what I would’ve thought it would need. I send in some information requests about the project the form is needed. I first see that the project associated with the form has a history of these figures needed for funding, and they have always been approved with no questions ask, so I assume there has been no recent changes to it. Digging a bit deeper I come up to what the project is really about. Turns out this farming project is the “can we artificially grow this instead of waiting for the normal process”. While there is a low level information restriction associated with the project, mainly just preventing the exact numbers and a delay on updates for the project, it’s the type of project that definitely bleeds a clans funds, but they definitely do provide benefits. Seeing that nothing more is suspect about this project, I file the proper approval paperwork. Additionally I make a note about this project, providing just enough information so if I came across it later, I would recognize the project, and I note how it’s unusual, but the seemingly suspect numbers are correct, and leave the past figures as an example of what they would look like.

Continuing on, I come across more minor problem cases, mainly just clerical errors, but sometimes just unusual values associated with seemingly normal projects. After finding nothing suspect about these forms, I put in the forms that need minor corrections in the filing cabinet to be sent over to those workers for corrections, while I filed the approval paperwork for the unusual projects. I end up using up a whole page that day just doing the details and other identifying information for the research projects. I double check that nothing too detailed was written down, as I don’t won’t the accusation of “corporate espionage” to come my way by some stupid Young master or jealous clan member. A couple hours have passed, with most of my work getting finished, I decide another cup of coffee would be welcome. I head over to one of the secretaries, and ask about putting in an order for coffee. I know it would look bad if I asked her to get coffee, but I was pretty sure they still handled the ordering of coffee, even if it was just them putting the order through some servant board to get it brought over.

While relaxing and sipping my cup of coffee, one of the younger leads walks over and decides to chat me up. I didn’t particularly care to remember his name, even though [Perfect Recall] does it anyway, but that’s just how little I cared about this one guy. Not to disparage this guy, but he didn’t come off very cocky and annoying. If it wasn’t for the fact that I saw some of the results of his work, I would’ve thought he was a case of nepotism, but this guy definitely knows what he is doing, even if he has an overinflated and exaggerated sense of his own abilities. Not wanting to risk anything this early in my stay here, especially since this would just be an innocent level of conflicting personalities, I politely maneuver myself out of the conversation, citing the need to get back to work.

I get back in my office, as it is almost 11am now, and work through the last of my paperwork I need to do. There was nothing particular about these last few forms, pretty much all in order, so mostly just filing the approvals away, but one of them was missing some signatures of stuff, purely administrative delays, that’s all. After that I send it back out for fixes, and about half an hour later, all the documents that had needed corrections came back in. I quickly get the corrected forms fixed and filed away, before getting my space tidied back up. When I decide to head out for the day, I do the few quick nods to the people I know so far, even a quiet thanks to one secretary who did my coffee order, before heading back to my room. Once again, I find a servant and get some dumplings delivered to my room, ready to enjoy some hot food before my afternoon study session is to begin. With everything settled, I relax back in my room, waiting for the food to arrive.