Reed walked down the main street, towards the lord’s mansion. He wasn’t nervous anymore. Even the guards who always seemed to glare at him simply passed him by, watching others.

  “...” Reed stopped in front of the Mangrove estate doors. There were no guards like there were at the town lord’s estate, so he approached the door and knocked.

  Knock. Knock.

  “...” There was no sound for a moment, until the large doors creaked open and a brown robed man with chainmail underneath peaked their head out.

  “Red Heaven?” The man asked.

  “Yes.” Reed nodded.

  “Welcome to the mangrove estate.” The man bowed, opening the door enough to let Reed enter.

  Inside, Reed saw several more men in brown robes covering full body chainmail, swords at each of their waists and a golden bear embroidered on their backs.

  Unlike the lord’s manor, the mangrove estate was like a bunch of serene gardens, with buildings 1 or 2 stories scattered around and connected by covered wooden walkways, with some interior walls separating some areas.

  Reed’s gaze took in the sight, then settled on a grey robed woman approaching him. They stopped in front of him and bowed. “Master Green Ink and the young miss are in the scroll pavilion.” The woman informed him.

  “...I see… Can you lead the way?” Reed wondered if they expected him to just know where that is, so he asked just in case.

  “Yes.” The woman responded, before leading Reed through the open wooden corridors that overlooked the various gardens.

  “Thank you.” Reed said instinctively, making the woman flinch. Reed hardened his gaze and thought what he did wrong this time, though it was pretty obvious this time.

  Soon, the two came across one of the one story buildings and the woman quietly slid the door open, revealing a library of sorts with a few desks set up, one of which was covered in paper and ink, where Green Ink was rubbing his forehead with his eyes closed, while an innocent looking young girl played with the paper in front of them.

  “Well. It looks like you're having the time of your life.” Reed commented as he approached the two.

  “Please…” Green Ink began. “Don’t…” He sighed wearily, opening his eyes. “Since you're here, let's take a break to have some tea.” He stood up.

  Reed followed Green Ink back outside, down into one of the gardens and to a stone table. The young girl bounced along behind him, carrying a thick stack of paper to the stone table.

  Another gray robed woman soon brought a tea pot with three cups on a tray, placing it on the table before bowing and leaving.

  Reed almost thanked the woman and instinctively said, ‘thank you’ again, but stopped himself in time.

  Green Ink let out another sigh. “Ever since she saw you fold that paper construct. She’s ignored me even more than she normally does, trying to fold the paper.”

  “Ah. My apologies.” Reed responded, watching the young girl try folding something with the paper. He was surprised she hadn’t figured it out yet. Or maybe she had and was just seeing what else she could do.

  At the same time, Reed wondered exactly what he was here for. Was he just here to chat? Because the young miss wanted him to show her some more origami or something? Because Green Ink wanted to discuss something about talisman? Or maybe all of the above?

  “It’s fine, it's fine.” Green Ink waved his hand dismissively.

  “Hmm…” Feeling the conversation lull already, Reed thought about something to talk about.

  “Thank you for telling me more about talismans yesterday. I checked some scrolls on Qi types and such and changed my methodology. I can see why I barely passed despite the simplicity. It was easily five or twenty times the efficiency with just a bit of reading on Qi types.” Reed talked about his experiences last night.

  “Hmm… So fast?” Green Ink looked at him apprehensively. “Could I see?”

  “Hmm? Of course?” Reed responded, not really expecting to be asked to show his skills again so suddenly.

  Green Ink waved his hand and Reed noticed someone in gray robes hiding behind a bush rush off.

  Suddenly, Reed felt a piece of paper stabbing at his hand and looked down to see the young girl trying to shove a piece of paper into his hand.

  Reed took the paper and held it up. “Can I tear this in half without activating it?” Reed asked.

  “At the Qi Refining realm, yes. However, not without any cultivation.” He responded, taking the page from Reed and tearing it in half for him. There were some blue sparks, but it didn’t completely burn up.

  “Thank you.” Reed wasn’t able to stop himself thanking Green Ink as he took the pages, but unlike the servant, Green Ink nodded in acknowledgment.

  So I just can’t thank the servants? Reed thought, recalling few of those in power had acknowledged the servants much if at all, using a hand gesture whenever they needed something.

  As he thought, Reed folded the two halves into a paper shuriken.

  The young girl seemed just as amazed as the paper plane and took the paper shuriken before throwing it as you would expect it to be thrown before rushing off to find it again.

  “Hmm. Out of curiosity, what's her name? She hasn’t spoken at all.” Reed asked.

  “Mangrove Spirit. She’s the only granddaughter of Mangrove Dragon, the Mangrove family’s patriarch.” Green ink introduced as the girl in question ran back to the table with some leaves somehow stuck in her long raven black hair.

  “She’s mute.” Green Ink said as Mangrove Spirit tried shoving another piece of paper into Reed’s hands.

  “I see.” Reed folded a different, slightly more complex paper plane, which held the distance record. Instead of passing it to the girl, Reed gave it a calculated toss, letting the plane fly far. The plane cleared a large pond in the garden before landing on the wooden steps of one of the covered wooden paths winding through the gardens.

  Mangrove Spirit ran after it, jumping straight into the pond and continuing in a straight line.

  “...” Reed widened his eyes slightly at the unexpected action.

  “...” Green Ink looked on wearily.

  “...I didn't expect her to run through the pond… Sorry.” Reed felt bad for the man.

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  “...It’s fine… She’s supposedly been like that since she could crawl…”

  The two went silent for a moment, watching as Mangrove Spirit picked up the paper plane with water dripping from her dress and turned around, tossing it back to this side of the pond.

  “Wait. Is there no cure for muteness?” Reed asked. There was something as magical as arrays and talismans, so there were surely other magical medicines or such.

  “It’s not a disease or defect. It’s because of the Hollow Mangrove physique that sometimes appears among the Mangrove family bloodline.” Green Ink shook his head.

  “...The Hollow Mangrove Physique?” Reed asked.

  “It’s not a particularly powerful physique compared to the other clans…”

  No. I have no idea what you mean by physique in this context. Reed thought as Green Ink began an explanation.

  “...It’s a simple physique that has a far larger dan tian than normal and can hold far more Qi, but as a consequence makes some ordinary functions harder, such as speech or eating.”

  Dan Tian. Reed had seen the word a few times in the scrolls and such he was reading, but still didn't know what it was.

  The servant from before who was hiding behind some trees returned, carrying a large tray that held various talisman making equipment.

  Since Reed had already promised to show his improvements, he took a brush and ripped it in ink before drawing out a Fire and Earth Attraction talisman.

  Green Ink stared at the two for a while, before taking the Earth Attraction talisman and activating it.

  Quickly, dirt and rock seemed to materialise from nothing, forming a several centimeter sphere of rock and dirt to appear in the air before falling down and turning to dust that quickly dissipated into nothing.

  “...Seven centimeters wide…” Green Ink mumbled, taking the Fire talisman and activating it. This one lasted almost 8 times longer than the one Reed showed at the examination.

  “...If you showed these in the examination, you would have cleared the exam with just these two.” Green Ink spoke after remaining silent for a while.

  “Well… I was effectively missing an entire piece of talisman and array craft I didn’t know about before you told me, so it’s not surprising.” Reed responded. He was surprised he passed at all with what he showed.

  “...I don’t think there's any introductory talisman scrolls or books in this town…”

  “Not that I could find.” Reed agreed.

  “And it can take years for a mortal to practice a single character to the precision needed…”

  “Um…” Reed wasn’t sure where Green Ink was taking this.

  “Won’t you be a third level talisman master in a few weeks at this rate.” Green Ink looked at Reed.

  “What level are you?” Reed asked.

  “...Third level… I’m considered a prodigy in the field.”

  “...” Reed wasn’t sure what to say to that. “Well… I have a lot of work to do on my actual cultivation. I need to go find a technique and some herbs or something.” Reed eventually responded.

  Comparison truly was the bane of one's existence. Reed thought. He was quite aware of himself. He never amounted to much since even now he wanted to just lie down in bed reading, but anytime he did put in effort, he had never failed at the very least.

  “Master Green Ink!” Someone shouted.

  Reed and Green Ink looked over to see an armoured soldier rushing over to them.

  “The magistrate requests your assistance. There was a lead on the cultists that led to them finding an array underground.” The soldier explained quickly, stopping and bowing in front of them.

  “Hmm?” Green Ink hummed for a moment, before speaking. “Alright. We’ll have a look.”

  Reed wondered if he should go home now, but curiosity was quickly becoming his bane.

  After all. There was no good entertainment here. Even the novels in the sunny scroll pavilion and such were mostly lackluster.

  “May I follow? I’m curious.” Reed asked.

  “Hmm? You weren’t going to come?” Green Ink asked.

  Oh. I guess he just expected me to come.

  The soldier quickly led the two out of the mansion and through the town.

  ??????????????

  Following the soldier, Reed and Green Ink arrived outside a building near the Red Tray Pavilion, one decorated in redwood and glazed tiles, standing a proud three stories, overshadowing the surrounding two story buildings.

  Soldiers with spears and some metal armour pieces over thick red gambisons were neatly lined up in two rectangles either side of the building's entrance.

  Reed and Green Ink followed the soldier inside. Wooden fragments crunched and shuffled under their boots as they approached a wall that had been smashed through, revealing a thin stone staircase leading underground.

  Seeing the guard and Green Ink go down without hesitation, Reed followed a moment later, steeling his nerves at the dark passage.

  …

  “Green Ink! You're here!” A man with long black hair, in silver embroidered blue robes with a purple gold sash called out with a smile, cupping a fist without bowing.

  The group had just walked through thin stone passages and arrived at an open stone chamber underground. A large blue and silver tapestry was spread across the floor, symbols carefully embroidered everywhere. From the ceiling, a massive, polished silver disk sat. Almost like a mirror.

  “Brass Fang.” Green Ink bowed and cupped a fist. Reed followed his example.

  “This is?” Brass Fang looked at Reed.

  “Red Heaven.” Green Ink introduced, before turning his attention to the tapestry.

  “Hmm…” Dark Quill was already crouched over a part of the tapestry, before standing up and cupping a fist to Green Ink.

  “Have you discovered anything?” Green Ink asked, cupping his fist in return.

  Reed felt the constant paying of respects with the cupping a fist salute was excessive.

  Dark Quill shook his head. “I can only tell that it's a formation. This array is just a single part of it.”

  The two turned to look over the tapestry, studying it.

  “What uses do mirrors have in formations?” Reed asked.

  “I’m not sure. Formations are too varied and almost any material could be used in some way for one.” Dark Quill spoke, stroking his beard before turning to Reed. “Speaking of which, what are you here for?”

  “...Well… I was with Green Ink just before and…” Reed started, realising that out of everyone Green Ink was actually the somewhat abnormal one, not trying to test him in any way and even expecting him to follow along.

  “And?” Dark Quill pressed.

  “...I was bored…” Reed decided that telling the truth probably wouldn’t hurt him here.

  “...”

  “Fair enough.” Brass Fang, who’d been listening in commented on the side. “Speaking of which, Red Heaven.”

  “Yes?” Reed turned to Brass Fang, the magistrate.

  “Tell me about the guy… Halberd Moon.”

  “Halberd Moon? Anything specifically?” Reed asked.

  “What's he been doing and what's he been talking to you about.”

  “Hmm…” Reed considered what they'd done. They hadn’t talked about anything illegal, he didn’t think. He glanced at Brass Fang, who had a kind smile on, but whose eyes were intently focused.

  “At first… he bought some mirrors from me. Then we talked about mechanisms and I designed him a hidden door mechanism. I traded him the blueprint for some materials on talisman and arrays. I showed him some mirrors made by different artisans…" Reed recounted their conversation topics.

  “Hmm… A hidden door mechanism… And mirrors…” Brass Fang stroked his chin while humming. “How many mirrors have you sold him and when did you give him the blueprint?”

  “Uhm… The blueprint I gave on the same day I met Green Ink… So 5 days ago… The mirrors… One, two… twenty… forty… forty-five…” Seeing Brass Fang’s increasingly intense gaze, Reed struggled to remember. “Forty-five.” Is what he settled on. However 22 of those might be thrown out since Halberd Moon wanted uniformity.

  Brass Fang pointed to the polished silver hanging above the tapestry. “Did you sell him that?”

  “No-no… The mirrors I sold him had glass over the top of the polished silver and were slightly curved, about this big.” Reed used his hands to show how big they were.

  “Hmmm…” Brass Fang stepped back while humming, his eyes drifting off.

  “Be careful of Halberd Moon.” Green Ink interrupted. “His background is strange.”

  Reed thought about it. Halberd Moon had been nothing but helpful to him so far, treating him to meals and being very generous with his pay.

  Then again, one man's trash was another man's treasure, beauty lies in the eye of the beholder. The mirrors may only be worth 20 or so silver at most to the Jade merchant as a luxury product. However a large set of identical mirrors could be worth the 2 gold premium sold to a formation expert.

  Reed didn’t want to suspect Halberd Moon to be a part of some cult, but as he looked at the tapestry and the polished silver above it, the circumstantial evidence was against him. He could understand Brass Fang’s focus if it was his job to catch the cultists.

  Reed stood around with Green Ink and Dark Quill, learning a lot about arrays and formations alike as the two analyzed the tapestry and setup. They concluded that this room was only one part of a much larger formation.