[Exchanging Renown for Wisdom...]
[Exchange Rate: 9th Rank - 100:1]
[Exchanging...]
[ 3,935 Renown ---> 39.35% Wisdom!]
[9th Stage Scholar]
[Scholarly Acumen: 7.3%]
[Wisdom Accumulation: 46.65% (7.3% refined)]
Yin suddenly felt a sharp spike in his mind, as if an arrowhead was piercing his brain.
It left as quickly as it came, yet when it left, inexplicably, Yin felt that his mind was clearer!
He moved his vision into his mind, seeing that the internal space had actually expanded several times!
From the initial small space barely able to hold the abacus, now it was over five times larger, holding more than enough space for the abacus!
'As I thought, Wisdom is actually like the total mental power I have!' he said, while looking at the abacus in the centre.
It was a modern abacus, pure black in colour with a dozen or so stones, lined up in two sections...
Besides this, it was rather simple, not looking like much more.
There was a faint look of regulators left and right, but they were very faint, not yet usable.
'This is the representation of my scholarly acumen - by refining it more and more, my mental tool will improve greatly!' Yin said, though he knew that while this was the case, relying solely on one path to increase your mental acumen was very slow.
As everyone knows, the first ten percent of acumen are the easiest, thirty percent is manageable with effort, yet going further requires hard work and a lot of time.
This is why there are other paths -
Instead of focusing solely on one tool and one path, you use several tools and paths to form your acumen!
'Initially I wanted to just do the Abacus, thinking that adding more will be unnecessary since my wisdom will rise at the same speed as my acumen... but if my wisdom rises so fast, shouldn't I try to gain more?' Yin wasn't sure.
Partially, today was actually a lucky pull which he had planned for a long time. On the other hand, he didn't even know whether it would benefit him...
Just then, he thought back to the five integration factors and asked what each of them meant -
The information came fast. County was county, clan was clan, faction was his own lineage and everyone depending on him. It could also integrate existing factions, but he needed to have a sufficiently high rank in that faction.
Family was his direct family starting from him, meaning he, his wife and his children, his grandchildren and so on. This could basically be understood as his own branch in the family, not including those that came before him. After all, he was his father's second son and wouldn't inherit the magistrate lineage, so he was technically a new branch already, they had just not yet formally separated the family.
Lastly is the reputation - this was the way other people perceived him. Whether it was good or bad, the renown gained depended on how deep his impression was on other people, how many people had heard of him, and how strong those people are. To unlock reputation, he had to achieve a certain level of reputation. A few strong people seeing him didn't directly elevate his level, since he was unknown otherwise.
'Usually other paths would be useless, and focusing solely on the abacus wouldn't be wrong, but... when it comes to reputation, then scholars are a lot better than officials! In that case, shouldn't I try to add more mental tools?
No wait...'
He suddenly realised there was a flaw in his thinking. But when he thought about it, he couldn't quite put his finger on it. What was he missing? What did he overlook? What-
Just as the confusion on his face became apparent, he saw his attendant open the door and enter it with the box of items, "Master, I was late-"
"Why is that?" Yin asked right away, his expression slightly stern.
He trusted his two servants the most, which was why he didn't hire more. So any mistake has to be questioned and corrected right away.
"Master, the eunuchs in the court asked about your background. I was unwilling to tell them, but they insisted and said it was under the command of the emperor..." Heiluan answered quickly, hoping his master wouldn't scold him.
"Just that? If someone else asks you about my background next time, make sure to ask for a bribe! Everyone can look into it, why not take the benefit for ourselves? We will split the profit 90-10." Yin breathed a sigh of relief when he heard this, a feeling of delight spreading in his mind.
No way the emperor asked about it, that was impossible. After all, the emperor was too busy to be bothered with so many things.
It was likely the eunuch that wanted to know this specifically, wanting to look into Yin's background and keep his name in mind.
If the emperor were to ever ask about him, this eunuch would use the opportunity to talk with the emperor.
Yin didn't care about all the plays between the eunuchs, what he cared about was that the chance the emperor knew him just increased by a lot!
"Alright, let's go back! By the way, tell me again all we know about the Ying Clan in the Yangling province." Heiluan told the driver to take off from inside by knocking on the wall three times, then he nodded and looked into his own mind, various information appearing...
Naturally his closest servants had to have taken a path too -
The general term for Yin's Path of Wisdom, it referred to all those that used their mind to refine themselves.