The Magistrate: Chapter 41 (Patreon)

Chapter 41

Unintended Consequences

Once Lingling agreed to Patriarch Lee's betrothal offer, preparing her to be introduced to the Lee Clan took a couple of months. The elaborateness of her introduction ceremony was directly proportional to the value Patriarch Lee placed upon the marriage. Patriarch Lee had extended Tobias's sister the same amount of respect as a sister of a branch patriarch of a second-tier noble family.

Patriarch Lee met Lingling first in his reception hall, where Lingling performed a tea ceremony for him. Then he invited her potential suitors in one by one, so she could meet them. None of the boys had been enthusiastic about the meeting, going so far as to sneer whenever they looked at her, and Lingling had left the ceremony deeply hurt.

The day after the ceremony, Tobias sat in Patriarch Lee's garden to hear his friend's true thoughts on his sister.

Patriarch Lee winced at the directness of his question. "If I'd known you would ask for my actual thoughts on your sister, I would have had my majordomo inform you I was busy."

"I'm concerned your family doesn't respect her, which is why I need your honest opinion. I won't take any offence at anything you say."

"In my experience, anyone who says that ends up offended."

Tobias nodded because he'd experienced the same thing in his previous life. "Perhaps, I should have said that any ill feelings from this conversation will pass given enough time."

Patriarch Lee sighed. "You're correct that my family doesn't respect her. Your sister is neither a great beauty nor a refined or well-educated one. You're humble beginnings have also tarnished her reputation. The boys were encouraged by their parents not to show a favourable disposition."

"Can I rectify this?"

Patriarch Lee shook his head. "My family holds you in high regard, but your sister is borrowing your status. It would be different if you're family had built a name for itself outside your achievements. However, the fact that they haven't can't be overlooked.

"Can she rectify this?"

"Not using traditional methods."

"Then there's a way?"

"Instruct her in the ways of cultivation."

"She's too young."

Cultivating at the age of thirteen was incredibly dangerous for anyone who wasn't a prodigy. The chance of chi deviation drastically rose. Tobias wasn't going to risk that just so Lingling wouldn't repeatedly be rejected by the different members of the Lee Clan.

It would also hurt her long-term potential, but Tobias hadn't shared that discovery yet, waiting to trade it to the Great Clans for public protection.

"Your ability to explain the complexities of cultivation is superior to anyone outside my clan. If you wish to improve your sister's prospects, enhance her comprehension of cultivation to such a degree that no one in my family will question her brilliance. We are first and foremost a cultivator family. Beauty, refinement, education all come second to that."

This was something Tobias felt capable of achieving. Lingling was the brightest of his siblings. He'd just need to motivate her correctly.

Tobias smiled, noticing something else about the suggestion. "This wouldn't happen to be an underhanded way of forcing me to begin writing my new book?"

Patriarch Lee smirked. "Only if you felt that such a book was necessary to educate her correctly?"

***

Lingling was waiting just inside the gate when Tobias got home. How long she had been sitting on the bench wasn't clear to him, but he suspected it had been since he left. With his cultivation, he could see the impression of dried tears on her cheeks. The clear dislike the boys displayed had left a painful impression on her. A painful impression that Tobias did not want to grow worse.

Tobias took a seat beside her and put his arm over her shoulder, pulling her into a hug.

Lingling burst into tears again. "Patriarch Lee hates me, doesn't he?"

Tobias leaned down and kissed the top of her head. "Patriarch Lee doesn't hate you."

"He doesn't?"

"No. He said you weren't a great beauty, highly refined, or well educated, but he didn't hate you."

"I know I'm not pretty."

"He said you weren't a great beauty, that's not the same as saying you're not pretty, and I happen to think you're adorable."

"You have to say that."

"Actually, as a great beauty myself, I don't."

Lingling gave a small giggle, and then her face dropped again. "I studied really hard."

"I know you did, I was there, but those boys have been studying just as hard since they were four years old."

"They all hated me."

"They don't hate you."

"They looked at me like I was dirt."

"Their parents told them to make a bad impression."

"Because I'm ugly, unrefined, and uneducated."

Tobias realised he wasn't helping her by joking. "Did you like any of the boys?"

Lingling buried her face in his robe. "No."

Anyone would hear the lie. "Good. Then I won't have to teach you how to make their parents like you."

Lingling timidly lifted her head. "You can do that."

"I can."

Lingling wiped her cheeks. "Maybe you should teach me. If only so I'm ready when you find another family to make a betrothal offer."

Tobias smiled. "Which one did you like?"

Lingling blushed. "I told you I didn't like any of them."

"Oh, you liked them all."

Lingling punched him in the kidney. "I don't."

"It's okay to think they're handsome."

Lingling squirmed. "Were they handsome?"

Tobias chuckled. "Some of them were."

"I didn't notice."

"Lingling, I can't teach you what you need to know to make their parents regret their actions yesterday, unless you're actually interested in some of those boys. You know how little free time I have."

Lingling sighed. "I might have thought some of them were handsome."

"Do you want me to help you make their parents regret making their sons look down on you?"

Lingling nodded.

"Starting in ten days, I'm going to teach you about cultivation. The next time you see those boys, you're going to know more about cultivation than all of them combined, and their parents are going to be begging me to let you come and spend time with their sons."

"Really?"

Tobias leaned down and kissed the top of her head again. "Just wait and see."

***

The Lee Clan had been supplying Tobias with simplified cultivation manuals for over a month. The purpose of the manuals wasn't only to make the original text easier to understand, but also to provide a reference for him to understand the others. Even before the manuals were completed, Tobias's understanding of cultivation was extensive. After he'd received them, it had become encyclopaedic.

The deep traditions of the cultivation world had destroyed cultivators' ability to clearly understand what they were trying to achieve, and understanding their thought process wasn't helpful. Everything about their techniques and methods was so muddied by tradition that doing anything except for building a new system from the ground up was counterproductive.

Tobias had spent five days breaking down all the basic cultivation manuals into their relevant components, sifting through them to find the underlying steps and skills that were needed to perform them.

From those steps and skills, he'd organised the manuals into groups where they had overlapping requirements. He'd then taken those groups and divided them based on where they deviated from each other. Any manual that had entirely unique steps or skills was then completely removed. The results of his organisation left him with three distinctly different methods for basic mortal realm cultivation, each between two and five levels of difficulty. They accounted for a little over three-quarters of all the original manuscripts.

Tobias' idea wasn't to improve existing manuals. That would take lifetimes of work. Instead, he wanted to build a training program which would create a basic understanding and skillset for what was required for various methods and techniques.

The idea came from his understanding of Great Clans and sects. Each of them had a unique set of cultivation methods and techniques, which all required skills that overlapped, giving them an advantage when progressing. This advantage was always lost when members went off in their own direction, because they didn't have a fundamental set of skills for them to draw upon.

Gathering all that information was only the first step; the second step required creating these basic cultivation exercises that would allow a cultivator to more easily progress. Tobias couldn't do that, but he knew people who could.

Patriarch Lee continued to frown as he read the last page of Tobias's extensive notes, piecing together the information he had gathered, while assessing whether or not he could fulfil his request to create the cultivation exercise Tobias wanted.

Tobias sat across from him, in the garden, enjoying a bowl of pork ramen, while he waited for his friend to make his decision. Hours had passed in silence as Patriarch Lee read and reread the pages he'd been given.

Patriarch Lee put down the final page and waved over a servant. "Go to Majordomo Lee and tell him to bring a jar of Immortality Wine."

The servant bowed. "As you wish, Patriarch."

"Is this celebratory drinking or have I given you a headache?" Tobias asked.

Patriarch Lee slumped into his chair and stared at the ceiling of the pavilion. "I honestly don't know. You're either completely wrong or the greatest cultivation genius The Three Kingdoms has ever seen. Either way, I need a drink, and I can't risk offering anything less than my best in case you're right. This moment might go down in history as the beginning of a new age, and it could tarnish our family forever if I don't offer you the respect you deserve."

Tobias wasn't concerned about that. "Can you create the cultivation exercises?"

"You've already created them. You're notes hold more information than any manual or manuscript we gave you and make creating these cultivation exercises entirely unnecessary."

"Only for someone like yourself," Tobias pointed out.

Patriarch Lee lowered his gaze. "Tobias, I'm saying unequivocally that what you have already given me is greater than my clan's wildest expectations." He picked up the notes and shook them. "This is a fundamentally different way to approach cultivation, and even if you've incorrectly established which skills need to be learned to master various cultivation methods and techniques, my family can use this to produce training methods which will work for us."

"I'm aware."

Patriarch Lee placed the notes back on the table, suddenly comprehending why Tobias wasn't as shocked and excited as he was. "How much further can you take this?"

"I don't know. I only began ten days ago."

Patriarch Lee groaned. "You're definitely an unparalleled genius    

Tobias shrugged. "Are you going to make the exercises for me?"

"Of course, I'm going to make them. This is my moment to leave my mark on history, so don't you dare thank me for this."

"I'll also need a version made by those less talented than you." Tobias handed over a short list. "These are the members of your family whose translations I respect the most."

"I'll make sure they offer their best work."

Tobias nodded, respecting his friend's request not to thank him for his help.

Patriarch Lee suddenly chuckled.

"What's so funny?"

"I realised that if your assumptions are correct and these exercises work the way you believe, every member of my family who scorned your sister will now sit before her humbled."

"Will that cause you problems?"

"No. But you should be prepared to expect numerous invitations from all of them."

Tobias smiled. "Numerous invitations I will have to turn down because my sister is now in secluded study."

Patriarch Lee roared with laughter.