seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years V

- Thirteen to Sixteen - 

Ji Li kept his cultivation up, but he couldn't neglect his learning. Hua Jing gave him a long break before teaching him the last three arts of the Emerald Brilliance Empire. Surely the first four were important, especially the fourth, being a subject that could later be used in cultivation. Yet all those were cultural arts of all countries, the last three being the most important and unique to the empire.

5. Dancing! Not the usual dancing like one would expect from an ancient Chinese world, no. The dancing ranged from calm sword dances to wild rain summoning dances. It not only helped one move more, but it especially helped the flexibility, flow, and creativity of the dancers. On every banquet, there were many dancers and entertainers. Usually, one was expected to just watch, but as officials, they would also practice and perform their knowledge and expertise to the host. It was to show their own preparation and respect towards the host. The host himself would also dance at least once, making it an example for all the guests of how majestic his was. There were specific dances for both parties, making it less embarrassing for when a host was less experienced than a guest, as they couldn't compare directly. Especially as the host dances were calm and majestic, not showing off. This was a unique practice in the Emerald Brilliance Empire, as they enjoyed the liveliness of dancing, regardless of the style they used, it was still showing off their vitality.

6. Craftmanship is one of the very important professions in the empire, and it was adapted as an art to have at least some skill in this category. There were many kinds of craftsmanship's for the different people of the empire. To start off, embroidery, sculpting and pruning were very popular in this art. But there was a large variety of craftsmanship one could follow and practice, making it very obvious to all the commoners in the country that their noble people not only idled around with things that were very far from them, but also did things that they considered their livelihood. It enclosed the distance created by ranks but at the same time produced a stronger effect of reverence among the working class. They would revere those who practiced their craftmanship and did much better than them and at the same time does not have envious and jealous feelings, as they knew that those people were of noble standing but went down to learn, instead of laying around all day.

Ji Li personally had a different craftmanship, which wasn't very popular in the imperial city. It wasn't that it was shunned or the sort, most craftsmanship's were accepted if they were nice to look at and weren't too lowly. It was seen as an honor to gift someone their own creations, being a sign of closeness. The reason for its unpopularity was the difficulty behind it and the time one needed learning it. For Ji Li it was not a problem, as he learned that once in a cultural museum in his past, and from then on went to classes now and then to deepen his knowledge. Now he spent even more time in this world, time with valued and professional craftsmen from the empire, all invited by the Eunuch Ceremonial Hall to give him some motivation, as the profession was difficult but also very valued.

He chose the profession of potter, working with clay and making several creations, which he kept to himself and didn't gift anything yet. As a child of a relatively famous family in his past, he had seemed many works and was truly astonished sometimes. In his father's bureau especially, there were some works that inspired him to start with this profession, and he nearly perfected his knowledge in this life, surprising the teachers but also making them admire him, for he did better than them. Especially when he crafted a musical instrument made of clay, which sounded very epic.

7. Planting, the art of planting is to give back the seeds of life to earth and ensuring the everlasting environment of the empire, making it never die out. Before this Art was added, there were many who trampled and forgot that nature was the main economical source of the empire, ruining vast lands and destroying the future of the empire. The art of planting involved not only planting a seed, but it also includes searching for them and caring for them, till they sprouted. It was one of the requirements of the trainee eunuchs to plant a seed and care for it, only those seeds that sprouted gave them the chance to graduate. Sprouting a seed was the beginning of an arduous task, but it also showed that one had potential on the path of planter, making it necessarily for every and all officials to learn at least the basics of this path.

Ji Li, like all the other trainee eunuchs would do, started caring and planting a seed. It was a normal seed, and he did it once he started learning. It was something that made him calmed, and he was also excited, because he planted a tea herb and hoped very much to finally make his own tea… being so young came with disadvantages, like not being able to follow his tea addiction. If he planted and harvested his own tea plants, no one would know how much he consumed!

Ji Li played and learned how to use his own instrument, which he also used in his past life, making him very happy for having crafted it. He learned a lot during all those years, especially the seven arts were difficult but also very different from each other, giving him a lot of headaches to master those he was less proficient in. There were no problems with most of them, besides the dancing! He seemed to be somehow cursed, no matter how he tried or memorized the steps, he could only follow them, and his movements looked elegant and had a certain flow to it, but at most it looked like he was walking elegantly. There was no feeling to his dances, and especially the sword dances seemed like they were just replicas and could at most gather the admiration of those not knowing. For any swordsman, they would just need a look to know that his dances weren't able to sustain in battle at all. 

At first, he felt a bit reluctant to accept, but he was fine with it in the end. At least he looked elegant, that was what mattered in a show-off when he was visiting someone and was asked to dance. He also didn't cry for his lack of talent in this regard, as he really didn't want to move his body so excessively. He had a brain and a strong mind; couldn't he just think more to compensate for his lack of movement? He planned that in the future, he would never place any importance in his training of swordsmanship's, but he had to at least learn movement techniques and abilities. If he had that, he was fine with not being able to comprehend any deeper and join the weapon faction. He liked Immortal Arts, which he had yet to see, as he couldn't practice them, and Hua Jing strictly rejected every time he asked. At least he had his music instrument and music arts, even without any abilities, he could use the instrument very strongly and the sounds were domineering and epic in the listeners ears, making them revere the world pictured by the sound.

As he progressed in his knowledge, he never stopped and slowly stepped into the high rank as he was still learning the dancing. At the end of this three-year span, he finally joined the ranks of peak body strengthening cultivators, at the young age of 15, two years earlier than Hua Jing, who was already a genius in this regard. After he stepped into the realm, he cultivated diligently for his last year while learning the art of planting and stabilized his realm, being ready to advance any time. So, he stopped putting any focus on this, because he knew that only Intermediate Eunuchs would get one Nature's Gift, since most people would need years longer than him, barely making it till they became an Intermediate Eunuch, or even holding to the fruit for a few years after attaining the rank. 

The ranks from Junior Eunuch to Senior Eunuch didn't have any requirements for rank, and only later would one truly need a higher cultivation to advance the ranks. For now, at least, Ji Li was happy. He didn't have to work hard, learned leisurely and taught his two mentors, who lived up to his expectations and stepped into the peak rank shortly before they had their official ceremony of becoming Junior Eunuchs. They surely were talented, but it was also because they enjoyed a lot of resources at Ji Li's side. At least now they wouldn't be too useless when they advanced to Intermediate Eunuch a year later and followed Ji Li in his tasks, which was decided by the trio long ago!