Chapter 130: There Is No Such Thing

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“Is this the reward for competence?” Lu Mei ponders after Liu Jin tells her what Elder Xue has entrusted him with. “Not only more work but more difficult work as well?”

She sighs theatrically, her red locks swaying lightly as she shakes her head.

“I have often wondered how it is that certain people end in positions so ill-suited to them. I believe I may have found the answer. They were exalted to incompetence.”

The odd phrase gets a raised eyebrow from Liu Jin.

“Exalted to incompetence?”

“If your duties and responsibilities increase with every job well done, you’ll eventually receive one beyond your abilities,” Lu Mei explains. “Isn’t that just asking people to make a mistake?”

Liu Jin rolls his eyes at her pessimism only to blink a few seconds later, his comeback left forgotten on his lips.

She does make a frightening amount of sense.

“I believe I just realized something about the world I did not wish to know.”

“I believe they call that maturing. I wouldn’t know anything about it.”

Liu Jin and Lu Mei laugh, but it does not last long. The weight of the challenges ahead cannot be overcome by such fleeting lightness. It hangs over the room and drapes it in its dourness.

“I do not intend to become someone who eventually finds an obstacle he cannot overcome,” Liu Jin says.

“Good. I never once took you for that type of person.”

The outrageous words come naturally from Liu Jin’s lips, and Lu Mei accepts them without a second thought. Some would call them arrogant, but what else is there for them to say? The time for modest goals is long gone. The battle they are in is one between Emperors. Power is not enough. Skill is not enough. Intelligence is not enough.

If one does not aim to succeed in spite of all logic, one cannot win.

“However,” Liu Jin adds, throwing a meaningful glance at the room, “I would not go as far as to say the only reward for a job well done is more work. Otherwise, you would not have been able to make yourself quite so… comfortable.”

Before Liu Jin had gone into isolation training, he and Lu Mei had shared a single office between them, though it was Liu Jin who used it more often, usually to receive complaints from the other divisions, a task both tedious and thankless.

In his absence, well…

Liu Jin’s desk has been left untouched, but that’s the only part of the office that is the same as he left it. A hand-knotted rug with intricate patterns covers the floor. The sofa they are resting on is soft like a cloud and large enough for them to lay on opposite ends of it without touching. Multiple cushions are scattered over the floor, and tapestries hang over the walls. A stick of incense burning in the corner gives the room a pleasant scent.

There is also a large perch where Soaring Feather’s much smaller perch used to be, but Liu Jin decides not to think about the implications of that right now.

“I wondered when you were going to comment on it.” Her amber eyes shine. “Well, do you like it?”

“It is comfortable, though I have to wonder how necessary the change was.”

“Comfort is a necessity. What more justification does one need?” Lu Mei airily waves her hand. “What use is power if you cannot enjoy it?”

“To do things that require doing and enforce a stable system?”

Lu Mei stares at him.

“You are precious. I truly did miss you these past two weeks.”

“It is good to be here,” Liu Jin says, a smile forming on his face. “How have things progressed during my absence?”

“Bu Jing has returned twice to challenge you,” Lu Mei tells him, her playful smile fading.

Bu Jing. A former disciple of the Medical Pavilion who worked for Elder Cheung. During the banquet, his alchemical skills proved inferior to Liu Jin’s. His combat skills, however, are an entirely different matter. Bu Jing is someone who is already in the Third Level of True Realm. Liu Jin would have surely lost against him before.

What would happen if they were to fight now?

“I was planning on advising you to avoid him, but I wonder if that is needed now.” Lu Mei’s Qi brushes against his, feeling Liu Jin’s new strength. “You have done quite well for yourself.”

“I was in a good place to advance,” Liu Jin says as his Qi responds in kind. “You, who have advanced despite this, are equally worthy of praise.”

Lu Mei has grown by another level in his absence, putting her in the Second Level of the Spirit realm. There is something different about her Qi, but he cannot quite put his finger on it.

“You’re too humble,” Lu Mei says, but there is no praise in her words. “I recommend boasting a little more in the future. It will help stop the weak-willed from acting against you, and there are so many weak-willed people.”

“If the Eternal Flame Clan were filled with weak-willed idiots, it wouldn’t be the Eternal Flame Clan.”

“The implication being that it is strong-willed idiots we’re dealing with?”

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“Have you?”

“I haven’t had to deal with Bei Hong, which is not to say he hasn’t come here to drop disciples. I just delegate dealing with him to other people. You should give it a try. It opens time for…” Lu Mei stretches, making herself more comfortable on the couch. “Relaxing.”

“I can see that.”

“It is not as if I have been neglecting my duties. Feel free to check the records or ask Khong Hu if you have any doubts. The Medical Pavilion has been fulfilling all its duties properly. There has been no neglect or blatant favoritism.”

Though Liu Jin plans to check the records, he doubts anything he finds there will prove Lu Mei a liar. He’d ascertained as much before even stepping into this room, making sure to visit every floor in the building and seeing how things have been operating in his absence.

However…

“Does that mean I can encounter subtle favoritism?”

“But of course,” Lu Mei replies without shame. “There’d be little point in having the Medical Pavilion otherwise, wouldn’t it? But don’t worry. I am aware of your scruples. It’s not the sort of thing that would put anyone’s lives in danger.”

Liu Jin sighs, well aware Lu Mei is not wrong.

When Liu Jin had ordered those belonging to Lord Feng Shang’s faction to be treated fairly, there had been some grumblings from others, but his decision had not been wrong. The power of the Medical Pavilion cannot be blatantly abused lest the Elders supporting Lord Feng Shang find cause to take away Elder Xue’s control over it.

However, that does not mean they have not been taking advantage of the Medical Pavilion in other ways. After all, it had been through the Medical Pavilion that they had taken away Lord Feng Shang’s chances of winning glory through the Crimson Cloud Tournament. That is over now, but that does not mean there aren’t other ways of leveraging control of the Medical Pavilion.

“Making patients from Lord Feng Shang’s faction stay more time than they should to keep them from reinforcing their ranks. Ensuring those in Lord Feng Gui’s faction are treated promptly and so on. They don’t really harm the patients but do allow us to take advantage of our power.”

They are not the sort of things Liu Jin would come up with. His upbringing has ensured he takes the job far too seriously for that.

However, they are the sort of things Elder Xue wouldn’t have a problem with and would even encourage. Furthermore, they are the sort of things the other disciples would expect, and that would mollify their desires somewhat, keeping them away from more flagrant abuses of authority.