Another ten months passed by in a flash, and Liu Yuming turned eleven. Yuming had struggled these past few months. Although he practiced Meridian Tempering whenever he got the chance, he still felt his progress was slow relative to where he'd like it to be.
Among the children his age, Liu Yufeng, who had a high-grade spiritual root, as well as a few well-connected children with mid-grade spiritual roots, had surpassed him. Yufeng was nearly at the point of opening his first meridians and barely awakening his spiritual sense, which made the other children jealous.
Liu Yuren and Liu Yiling, whom Yuming had befriended, were still as nice as ever to him, assuming he would rise eventually. Most other children remained slightly wary, but secretly enjoyed the fact that he wasn't the fastest anymore; they quietly resented that spiritual root quality heavily correlated to outcome.
During the past ten months, Yuming picked up odd jobs wherever possible. He ruled out jobs like Refuse Removal, where cleaning the damage done to his marrow nearly eliminated whatever gains he made. Some decent jobs were not available due to his being on probation. The best jobs were competitive, but his small body and complete lack of combat experience left him out of the running.
Through his work, he made nearly 1500 spirit caddies, which was equivalent to one or one and a half spirit stones. Adult Liu Family cultivators at the Marrow Tempering stage usually made quite a bit more than that, but it was actually just slightly less than what typical low-level cultivators from smaller families earned.
Without exception, all of his earnings went to Marrow Tempering. He had tried to turn his money into better sources of income, but found that he had far from enough to do this.
On this day, Yuming strode into the Merit Hall and took a look at the board. Most of the postings were the usual, but one caught his attention immediately.
Merit Archive Pavillion
Junior Scribe
Reward: 15 spirit caddies / shift
Note: Interested candidates go to Pavillion at 10 AM Saturday
A smile crept onto Yuming's face. Zhenyuan Mountain contained a number of libraries, archives, and repositories. Yuming was most familiar with the Far Lantern Library, which was for children growing up on the peak, but he had visited Merit Archive Pavillion as well.
The Pavillion functioned as both an archive for various merit ledger entries and low-level contracts, and also as a library for basic techniques. It wasn't strange that scribes were needed. Although Dantian Awakening—and technically even Meridian Unblocking—cultivators had spiritual sense, it wasn't until the Qi Condensation stage that the sense was developed enough to accurately read jade slips. The target demographic of Merit Archive Pavillion were those below the Qi Condensation realm—in fact, even mortal martial artists with the Liu surname would go at times.
Yuming smiled sheepishly. He was excited about his future financial prospects.
….
The day of the interview arrived, and Yuming made his way to Seasonal Blessings Peak early in the morning.
Other youths were traveling the same direction—most were older than him. Yuming kept his gaze forward.
The Merit Archive Pavilion rose at the edge of Seasonal Blessings Peak with prominence. Its stones were dark, its roof tiles thick, its windows narrow. A formation band circled the entire structure; the formation was clearly in better condition than its neighbor at the Merit Hall.
Yuming wasn't the first to arrive. A few dozen candidates dotted the hall, mingling a bit with each other, but the atmosphere was clearly tense. There were a few children interviewing, and it was technically a "junior" position, but fifteen spirit caddies per shift was enough to make many adults swallow their pride and come.
Yuming exchanged courteous bows with a number of the people he recognized. Over the past year, some people at the Merit Hall had recognized him as the boy who had an Earth-grade spiritual root. Even though he had a "Probation" badge on his chest, people were still eager to befriend him. Due to his talent, people assumed he might reach Foundation Establishment one day. Most people wanted to be friends with him, and no one wanted to get on his bad side.
Yuming gradually learned the art of ending conversations quickly.
A desk stood ahead, and behind it sat a middle-aged steward with a stiff black cap and a ledger open before him. Two attendants stood nearby with stacks of blank bamboo slips and paper.
When Yuming approached, the steward's eyes flicked over him—first the small frame, then the probation badge. Her brow rose slightly, and she smiled.
"Ah, is this Young Master Yuming?"
"Senior Sister flatters me."
"How old are you now?"
"Eleven."
"What a diligent young man! Best of luck!" she said with a smile, as she handed him a slip: Copyist Candidate — No. 47. Yuming accepted it with both hands, and let out a slight sigh of relief. He doubted that his probation would bar him from this job, but he wasn't quite sure. Now, at least the first part went well.
A few minutes later Yuming and the other candidates filled a central hall and were handed brushes and bamboo paper. After everyone settled in, an elegant woman in a qipao spoke from the front of the room. "Welcome. I am Liu Wanyue, and I will be overseeing this interview today."
Yuming's ears perked slightly upon hearing her name. 'Wan' was the generation name for direct-lineage women a generation above him, indicating that this woman had a background. He listened as she continued. "Part One of this interview is copying. Copy exactly what you see. Same characters, same stroke order, same spacing. You will be evaluated on the quantity and aesthetic of your writing."
Liu Yuming lowered his gaze. The text wasn't poetry or technique. It was a merit contract—names, dates, seals, obligations, and penalties. This writing could not afford ambiguity. One wrong character could turn "loan" into "gift," or "one month" into "one year."
He steadied his breath, set his wrist, and then he began to copy. He didn't rush, but wrote as he had in the library: stroke order, then spacing, and finally ink pressure. When the ink ran thin, he paused to grind more, not caring that others were already half a page ahead.
Around him, brushes scratched faster and faster. Someone's sleeve brushed a wet line and smeared it. Another candidate clicked their tongue, trying to blot out a mistake. Yuming didn't look up once.
After an hour, Liu Wanyue stopped the exam, and Yuming was pleased to see that his final character had already dried. He listened to the instructions for the next round. "Our scribes must possess discerning eyes that tell truth from fiction. You will all receive four documents, please identify which is a forgery, and why. You have fifteen minutes"
With that, she flipped her sleeve and four documents flew to each interviewee's desk.
Yuming examined the four documents. There was a merit receipt, a purification bath token voucher, a duty assignment, and a minor loan contract.
Yuming had plenty of experience with merit receipts, so he looked at that one first. It was messy, far more messy than these merit receipts usually were, but bureaucratic employees were rarely enthusiastic about their jobs and a sloppy receipt not being re-done made sense. Everything else about it looked correct.
He hadn't seen a duty assignment slip before, but nothing seemed wrong about it. He temporarily assumed it was okay and put it aside.
The two that concerned him most were the minor loan contract and the bath token voucher. He hadn't seen a loan before and didn't know where to start. The bath token had a faded watermark compared to many of the others he'd seen.
Liu Wanyu said we should have discerning eyes… eyes… Is that a hint? If I had a basic eye technique, I could determine the authenticity of the watermark. Yuming pondered the interviewer's words for a moment, before deciding he was overthinking.
The allocated time was drawing to a close when Yuming had a realization. Haha! This loan contract has a clause about probation being a punishment for a minor breach. I'm the master of probation, this can't get by me! A smile filled his face as he started writing on the answer sheet.
This loan was underwritten by the Merit Archive Pavillion with Merit Hall acting as an enforcer. None of those parties are directly authorized to extend prohibition. Only a branch of the Discipline Office can! Liu Yuming knew quite a bit about the jurisdiction of the Discipline Office—he had diligently studied their rules and authorities due to his probation.
The watermark on the bath token still looked suspicious, but he was almost certain the loan was forged, so he felt confident when he heard Liu Wanyue end the round.
"The final round will have you examine a shift payout ledger. There is a hidden error that caused the bottom totals to be incorrect. Find the error. You have five minutes."
5 minutes! People throughout the room broke into sweat. Cultivation techniques that helped with math were vanishingly rare. Math was generally only done by mortals and low-level cultivators—below the notice of anyone who could write such a technique. Besides, the deductive capabilities of more powerful cultivators would be naturally stronger; there was no need for a dedicated technique.
The document was titled 'Week 74 — Active Duty Payout Ledger.' On the ledger, each row had a name, task, gross pay, deduction, deposit refund, and net pay. At the bottom, the Net Total was of course Gross − Deductions + Refunds. There were dozens of rows. Most of the candidates frantically scribbled in their notes, trying to brute force the basic arithmetic within the short timeframe, praying they didn't make a mistake. Yuming thought for a moment and then decided on another approach.
Yuming noticed that "Deposit Refund" was normally blank, and when it wasn't, it was five spirit caddies.
He knew what tag deposits were for. Most of the tasks in the Merit Hall required laborers have an identity tag to pick them up. The tag lasts for the entire season, and a small deposit was kept at the Merit Hall until the tag was returned at season's end. Importantly, Yuming remembered a specific rule: "A tag deposit is refunded only when the tag set is returned and the season's duty file is closed."
Refunds only when a season's duty file is closed.
The ledger only covered one week, one registration period. If a laborer returned their deposit, they would no longer be active, and would not be able to receive another refund in the same period.
Yuming's eyes slid down the column. There were two entries with "deposit refund" filled in. That already felt off. Not impossible, but if that happened, the ledger would usually note it: tag surrendered, file closed, or reassigned. These two refunds were written like ordinary wages. Worse, they were tied to the same name: Liu Qiming.
Yuming reread the lines once, then stopped looking at the entries at all. He went straight to the bottom totals. The page listed "Refund Total: 5", but he'd already counted two refunds. He circled both refund entries neatly, then wrote a single sentence in the margin: "Deposit refund recorded twice; totals off by +5."
With that, he put his brush down, clicked his tongue, and patiently waited for the interview to conclude.
….
After the room emptied, one woman—Liu Wanyue—remained, carefully flipping through the answer sheets of each interviewee. When she saw the name "Liu Yuming," her hand paused, and she scrutinized carefully, her eyes widening slightly.
He did well. I don't even need to correct his answers for him to get the job, this will be easier. She pondered for a minute, thinking of instructions her grand-uncle had given her earlier. I wonder what he wants… If he just wants to draw him closer to our Zhan Branch, isn't this too obvious?