Year 658 of the Stable Era,

Fourteenth day of the tenth month

Dawn:

Yeung Lin woke just before the first crow of the cock. He rose out of his meditative form, brushing aside strands of ebon hair as the first rays of the sun reached through his window and were caught in his mirror array. His body had gotten quite used to the sun’s cycle across the mountain over the last couple centuries, and he was able to reliably rise before the livestock. Most days, these days.

Sometimes one of the spirit beasts kept by a fellow instructor or an aspiring disciple would crow before he could rise, returning to him once again those feelings of annoyance that he experienced when they had stolen his sleep from him as a disciple. But such an occasion was rare these days, and sometimes, almost welcome.

Monotony was an insidious trap that many cultivators fell into over the years.

There was a fine line between routine and stagnation, and while Yeung Lin was loathe to admit it, sometimes he looked back fondly on those reminders of his bittersweet youth. Even if it was quite aggravating in the moment.

He made sure that his kettle was topped off as it began to heat up, the carefully set formation of mirrors and carved statuettes having finally caught enough of the sun’s rays to activate. It had been a fun little creation, he reminisced as he changed his clothes. He could have simply used a talisman or a spell, or even a quick application of fire qi to raise the temperature of the water, but such a brute force solution wouldn’t have taught him as much as developing this little formation had.

He had had to figure out the best way to harness the properties of heat that sunlight possessed, the proper types of stone to use to achieve the precise type of fine control he wanted to best maintain the temperature of his tea, and how to smelt the mirrors that would capture the sun’s rays. He had ended up going with bronze for those.

Brass had proved itself to be too inefficient after it was etched with the proper inscriptions, and silver far too efficient. It had taken him three sticks to stop it from setting his entire room ablaze, and two years before he could convince the instructor in charge of the dorm that it was safe enough for regular use.

That said, perhaps it was time for him to look back into the use of silver mirrors in different applications of his formation. Perhaps it had a use in heating forges, or as a defense mechanism against demonic beasts… Of course, it would only work well during the day, when the sun was out, but with the right material substitutions and modifications, perhaps sufficiently bright flames would be able to stand in…

Quickly, Yeung Lin called his notebook out of his storage ring. Flipping its strained pages open, he thumbed his way to the most recently used page, where he wrote down his idea.

-Consider applications of Tea Formation #17-221 with silver mirrors. Smithing or beast defenses. Addition of formation pieces to use fire instead of sun?

He gave his notebook a measured look as he contemplated the way its spine was starting to bend.

He might have been overdoing it with the added notes again. The book was almost thrice it’s original thickness from all the extra sheets and addendums he had been slipping into it lately, and he suspected that it was reaching its limit. It wouldn’t do to have another one burst. It was always such a pain to restitch a book, not to say anything about the embarrassment he would suffer running around another courtyard grabbing pages before they got ruined.

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That had been perfectly fine when he was a student, but now that he was an instructor, he had a certain level of respectability to maintain. He made another note at the end of his book.

-Recompile notes

Then, catching sight of the same note on the other side of the spread, he added another word.

-Recompile notes, URGENT!

He circled the note for emphasis. He briefly considered writing it on the back of his hand to doubly remind himself, but decided against it at the last minute. He had the kids today, and it wouldn’t do to show them such an undignified side to himself.

If only there was a way to allow his notebook to simply absorb new pages the same way that he absorbed qi. The fact that he could slide notes between pages was what had first motivated him to switch from his old Endless Scroll to bound notebooks in the first place. He might have never needed to worry about running out of room in it, but he had always hated how it was unable create more space to let him expand on ideas that needed more words. But perhaps he could fix that. As his kettle began to whistle, he made one last note in his notebook.

-Notebook that can accept new pages? Growing spine, binds to pages. Increase durability. Wooden spine? Consider living wood, perhaps ivory or pewter to enhance wood qi efficiency on inlay?

He snapped the notebook shut, or rather, gently closed it so that the spine wouldn’t explode, before carefully storing it in his ring just as his kettle began to whistle. The spoon he had linked to the formation swiftly scooped a serving of tea from a caddy into his teapot just before the kettle filled it. The mirrors shifted as it did so, focusing the amplified rays into the Crimson Dolerite pedestal beneath it.

It would store the excess heat for later, be it for a second pot of tea now or when the sun had set. It would also prevent a fire, which was the safety feature that had most impressed the sect when he had developed it. He had received quite a few Contribution Points when he had submitted the design to the sect, and he still made a tidy sum of additional income each year from its continued use.

Straightening out his robes, he took an appreciative whiff of the aroma.

It was oolong today. That was nice.

He had carved charm into the base of his tea caddies so that they would shuffle around while he was out, ensuring that he wouldn’t know what sort of tea he would start the day. It was a small trick, but a good one for ensuring that his routine remained varied.

He waited a stick for his tea to steep, using the time to go over his schedule for the day. Today was going to be particularly busy, as several extra tasks had aligned, but it was nothing he couldn’t handle. When his tea finished, he enjoyed three slow cups as he watched the sect come alive from his window, savoring the moment.

General members milled around as they pulled carts of deliveries, boxed high with goods either too sensitive for spatial compression or too mundane to warrant its use. Every now and again he spotted a disciple jogging around them, either on their way to early morning lessons or simply to refine their physiques as they enjoyed the morning air. A few street stalls had begun to open, and the faint sounds of calls for hot tea and morning buns began to meld into the morning murmur.

Lin had run one for a while, back when he was a disciple. The profits had been small, but they’d paid for the materials he’d needed for his talisman experiments at the time. And given him the opportunity to buy tea in large enough quantities to truly master the art of the perfect brew, at least as far as North Continental greens were concerned.

As he poured a fourth cup, he checked his timepiece. His internal clock had been slightly off lately, and he wanted to ensure that he wasn’t running late. It was nine seconds to twelve minutes to seven, just two seconds ahead of where he’d expected, so he still had room for improvement.

It was just enough time to finish the pot though, and as he gulped down the two cups, he called his flying sword to him from its place by his cushion. The scabbard flew to his back, its sash neatly tying itself across his chest as his sword swooped out the window. With a quick hand sign, he drew the last drops of tea from the cup and kettle into his mouth, enjoying one final mouthful of the tea before leaping from his balcony. His sword caught him as fell, carrying him off to his first destination of the day.