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“Yes? What is it?” I asked. I tried to present a calm façade even though I didn’t care about rituals. I wanted to focus on my plan for a pill factory, but I needed to appear diplomatic.

“While you will be at the center of the ceremony, there are also five positions for your subordinates, similar to the Flower’s Seeds. Do you have a list of individuals you wish to fill those positions?”

I shook my head. “No, I don’t have anyone selected. You can have the Minister of Personnel, Minister…”

“Minister Bei,” she provided.

“Yes, Minister Bei. You can have him appoint people to those positions at his discretion.”

“Do you have any requirements for the people he selects?”

“No, let him choose as he thinks best.”

The conversation was wearing on me, and I wished she would leave as soon as possible. Over the past years, my nascent plan to automate Rank 0 pill production had become the cornerstone of my plan for acquiring the spatial fire seed, and I was getting close to the finish line. In the meeting with the ministers, my plan for several independent alchemy factories was scrapped, and I needed to rework it to use only a single building. Worrying about rites and rituals was the last thing on my mind.

I could feel my cultivation technique driving me, pushing me to focus on perfecting my plans, but I didn’t even try to reign it in. Over the past years, the effects had started increasing in intensity beyond what I experienced in my past life. I theorized that the small errors in my dantian were potentially exaggerating the effects. The technique’s effects might have also been somehow resonating with my own desires.

Either way, it didn’t matter. This was what I had wanted when I chose focus and dedication as the main aspects of my technique. The only saving grace was that it also commanded me to try to maintain the appearance of civility through the personability modification.

“Of course, Lord,” she said. “Do you have any requirements for how—”

“Minister Jin,” I said, trying to put an end to this. “I trust you to handle the details as you see fit. I have no requirements for the ceremony. You have more knowledge than I do about how it should be carried out, so I leave it in your capable hands.”

“Of course, Lord. But—”

“I apologize, minister, but there are urgent matters I must attend to.”

Leaving the minister to attend to her duties, I had a servant guide me to my new office, which was large and empty. The space hadn’t been used in a decade, and the previous Groom had cleared out almost everything when he left, but it had a desk, table, and chairs. That was all I needed.

I reached into my storage bag and brought out several blueprints I had made over the past years. How would it be best to change these to work with a multi-story building? I could treat each floor as a completely independent area, but that felt like it lacked finesse. If everything was in one building, there should be a synergy that comes from it. The problem was I didn’t know what that would even look like.

Sitting down, I started sketching out ideas for potential changes to my blueprints.

The night quickly passed, and I didn’t realize how long I had been working until a servant interrupted me to introduce Minister Jin.

“Minister,” I said with a nod. “Is this about preparations for the ritual?”

“Yes, Lord. The ceremony will begin in one hour. We should leave immediately.”

“Of course, one moment,” I said. I looked down at the blueprints on my table and made a few final notes. Realizing what those changes would mean, I flipped to another page and scribbled an idea. With that, I needed to change…

“My Lord,” said Minister Jin.

“Right, right.” I placed my notebook into my storage space and followed the woman out. She took me to an ornate coach that carried us through the city.

Even though a new city lord was about to be sworn in, the city didn’t rest. Wagons were constantly moving goods to keep the city running. I watched as we passed one wagon that was pulled to the side of the road while workers unloaded its goods.

An epiphany hit me. “I’m doing this wrong,” I muttered. If everything is in one building, the bottom floor can be a warehouse for storing and shipping goods. Automated lifts could carry supplies to where they are needed. If I do that, I’ll need more floor space, though. I pulled out my notebook and started writing.

I didn’t notice that the carriage had stopped until the minister spoke up. “Lord, we have arrived.”

I placed my notebook away and donned the mask of a Lord. This was an official occasion, and I had to take it seriously. Even if I didn’t want to be here, I knew it was necessary, and I would play my part.

The ceremony for inducting a new city lord was held in the Water Temple, which was the oldest structure in the city and among the oldest in the entire country. The Water Temple was constructed at the exact midpoint of the kingdom’s original northern border, and because of its importance, North Lake City grew up around it.

As I stepped out of the carriage, I studied the temple. It was made of old, weathered rock, and while it did show signs of aging, it was still in excellent condition. When viewed in qi vision, I saw thick bands of qi spreading out from the building. I couldn’t be sure, but I guessed that they were headed in the direction of the other temples, connecting the formation together.

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Regarding formations, there was what seemed to be a thick layer of qi fog covering the entire temple that prevented me from seeing the details of how the structure was supposed to function, but it wouldn’t have made any difference if I could see. The Bagua Formation was created by someone of at least the Formation King level, and I was barely starting to grasp the basics of a Formation Grandmaster, so whatever formations had been inscribed here were far beyond what I could understand.

The outer structure of the Water Temple was a perfect stone octagon with steps on every side leading up ten meters to an unroofed platform surrounded by a thick wall.

When I ascended to the platform, I saw Mei, her Seeds, the other ministers, and important members of various clans and organizations from around the city. In the middle of the octagonal platform, there was a smaller square platform. In the middle of the square was a pentagonal platform, and in the middle of that was a final circular platform.

The innermost circle was large enough for only one person, and the pentagon and square each provided sufficient space for a single person on every side.

Mei approached me, gently linked arms with me, and guided me to the platform, but she did not step onto it. I separated from her and I walked alone to the middle of the circle where I knelt down. Five men I didn’t know stepped forward and took positions around the pentagon, and four of Mei’s Seeds took positions around the square.

Mei and Minister Jin stood in front of me at the base of the platform, and the other onlookers gathered around them.

“As the seasons turn, Flowers grow,” began Jin. “The hour has come for the Flower to take a Groom. Lord Su Fang has been chosen to fulfill this duty, and so the burden of lordship over North Lake City passes onto him. May all bear witness this day.”

When he finished, the minister and Mei placed their hands on the base of the square platform. It began to glow with a faint light, and the Seeds on that platform each placed a hand on the pentagonal platform. As it began glowing, the five men each placed a hand on the circular platform I was kneeling upon.

A bright light covered my entire platform, and a beam shot into the air. Unseeable from my position, that beam was greeted by eight others from the other temples around the kingdom. Encased in a brilliant beam of light, I couldn’t see anything, but I felt my body beginning to change.

Energy flooded into my system. It felt nurturing, like it wanted me to expand beyond what I was, but it wasn’t kind. There was life and growth but also death and decay. It was a cycle that forged and reforged the world through countless evolutions. The cells of my body began dying away, but each time they did, they were replaced anew.

When the beam of light faded, I felt worn out. I had not been prepared for such an experience. I could have looked into this ritual and found out what it was, but I hadn’t. I was too focused on my own project and had considered this a meaningless exercise in pageantry. Because of that, I couldn’t even be sure what had just happened to my body, but I had a good idea.

The Minister of Rites stepped forward and crossed to the innermost circular platform where I was recovering. She removed a large affinity testing orb from a storage bag and placed it in front of me. Knowing what was expected, I stood shakily and placed my palm on the orb.

I wasn’t sure what would happen. Usually, these things had problems with multiple affinities, and they wouldn’t work well unless one was far higher than the others.

I channeled my qi inside it.

As I expected, at first, I was greeted by nothing but a chaos of twisting lines. The more I channeled into the orb, the more that chaos disappeared until only a few lines were left. As those gradually faded, a small, stylized tree came into view. The more I pushed, the clearer and more colorful it became. When I was finally spent, the tree was a vibrant amber hue.

“Peak six-star wood affinity,” announced Minister Jin. “May North Lake City prosper in the coming years!”

The people around the stage clapped politely, but they weren’t too excited, it wasn’t their affinity that just got a major boost after all. They were respectful of the new Ruler, though.

Speaking of which, the moment Jin finished this pronouncement, karmic energy began slowly entering my middle dantian. I had finally been officially recognized by the city. Gaining a new appreciation for such rituals, I determined to be far more patient with Minister Jin when she insisted on discussing them with me. I wasn’t sure what those five men gained from their participation, but I didn’t believe for a second that it was nothing. If I went through this again, I needed to be better prepared.

After the ceremony, I immediately wanted to return to my blueprints, but when Minister Jin said there was more to take care of, I didn’t argue. She took me to one of the four buildings within the City Lord’s Complex I hadn’t yet visited.

“This is the Water Library,” she explained as we entered. “It is the repository of techniques maintained for the city lord’s use. While it does hold a variety of cultivation techniques, the main purpose of this library is to store key crafting techniques for the various professions. Flower Mei previously established rules for gaining access to these techniques, but as the new lord, changing such regulations is within your purview.”

I gazed at my new treasure trove. “Follow Mei’s guidance on this for now,” I said without needing to think about it. “What is the quality of the techniques here?”

“They vary from Low-Yellow to Peak-Profound, but don’t expect too much,” Minister Jin warned. “These techniques have been accumulated by various Lords over the centuries, but if there was anything rare or outstanding, it wouldn’t have been placed in the library. The main function of these manuals is to guide craftsmen without clans or other backing.”

I bobbed my head, but I didn’t care too much about quality. Quantity had a quality of its own. With enough techniques that tackled the same problem from different angles, I could begin working on refining and improving them.

“Did you just bring me here to show me the place?” I asked. I was glad she did, but it seemed a little strange if that was her only purpose.

“No, Lord. Please follow me.”

She led me to the top floor of the building where a heavy door was closed and guarded by a deadly formation. She placed her hand in the center of it, and the door opened smoothly. Inside was a much smaller library. To the side, there was a small stone block that Minister Jin gestured toward.

“Place your hand here.”

I did, and the stone lit up.

“You can now access this room on your own. It contains the library’s Rank 4 techniques. There are only a few, and each one is precious.” She walked to a plinth in the middle of the room that held a large tome. “This is the cultivation technique designed for the North Lake City Lord. Do not remove it from this room. You must come here to study it.”

“What grade is it?” I asked with greedy eyes. “Yellow? Profound?”

The minister shook her head. “Ruler techniques do not have such grades. Every technique is beyond valuable, so grading them in the way of lower techniques is not possible. At best, I could say it is a Yellow technique, because it is one of the worst I have ever heard of, but by the same measure, I could call it a Heaven technique because it is also one of the best.”

“Thank you, Minister Jin. If there is nothing else, I will begin my studies.”

“That is all, Lord. Good day.”

After the woman departed, I walked up and placed my hand on the technique to try and see if I could get some information from the System. The answer wouldn’t change anything, I would have to cultivate it no matter what, so I hoped I could get my answers for free.

“System, how much would it cost to raise this technique to Peak-Yellow?”

Cost 1.1 billion credits.

“How much for High-Yellow?”

Cost 400 million credits.

“How much for Mid-Yellow?”

Cost 0 credits.

So, it was a Mid-Yellow technique. It made sense. If people here only had access to this level of technique, it was almost certainly one of the worst possible. Was this just a problem of this Kingdom? Were Ruler techniques only so rare here? If that was the case, they should still know the rough grade of their techniques, shouldn’t they?

Setting my questions aside, I read the introduction of the manual but stopped after only a few pages. It was clear I needed to let my karmic energy build before I could proceed. Since I couldn’t take it with me, and I couldn’t copy it to my technique library, I set aside further cultivation until I was better prepared.