I Want You to Help Me Cultivate

What one thought about by day, one dreamed of at night.

That saying surfaced in Shirou Emiya's mind.

Yesterday, he had carried Wa Lord on his back for a long time. The sensation of her snake body coiling around him had lingered stubbornly, and sure enough, he had dreamed that night. In the dream, a smiling, voluptuous Snake Demon dressed in nearly transparent, gauzy clothes approached him. Then, his upright self adjusted his monk's robes, stirred up his powerful mana, and shouted, "Demon, I want you to help me cultivate!"...

What the hell was that nonsense...

Today, the formal appointment for the Zhou Family's Chief Steward had been issued. Shirou Emiya had expected to deal with a mountain of troublesome procedures.

Wa Lord had not officially begun her "reforms" yet. Based on his fixed impression of the Zhou Family, Emiya had guessed that he would need to obtain ancient-style credentials such as a Fish Token, Waist Badge, Ivory Tablet, and Appointment Certificate... Who would have thought that Wa Lord had issued an order early this morning, specifically allowing Emiya to complete the process quickly by signing a modern contract.

At present, aside from a small minority, most Zhou Family members still did not know Emiya. Combining yesterday's rumors of Emiya carrying Wa Lord into the underground palace and the family elders supposedly fainting from rage, the men and women bustling about looked at him strangely, as if he were some pretty boy kept by the Zhou Family head.

Emiya shrugged, too lazy to explain. Rumors were rumors, after all. With the Zhou Family's support and his talent for Projection, it would not be long before he could prove his abilities. Then everyone would naturally see him in a different light.

Compared to that, he was more concerned about why Wa Lord was nowhere to be seen today. She seemed to be very busy.

"This is the final report compiled after the family investigated the Death Servant attack site and analyzed the collected samples." Zhou Yuxuan, whose injuries were no longer a serious concern, handed over the report. He had experienced the entire incident firsthand, so there was no one more suitable to answer Wa Lord's questions.

"...So, no valuable evidence was found after all?"

In contrast to her gentleness yesterday, Wa Lord wore an icy expression today.

An envoy personally appointed by the family head had been attacked by an unknown mixed-blood faction while meeting with Emiya, who had still been considered a guest at the time. This was a provocation against the Zhou Family's honor. Even though the enemy had ultimately been wiped out and their own side had suffered little damage, Wa Lord could not possibly show the slightest leniency.

More likely, the enemy had intended to disrupt the relic exploration led by the Zhou Family, only to be discovered by the Zhou Family by chance. If those Death Servants had truly been deployed perfectly and caused losses among the later-arriving members of other families, the Zhou Family would not have been able to clear its name even by jumping into the Yellow River.

Zhou Yuxuan lowered his head dejectedly. "Yes. Unfortunately, the site was destroyed too thoroughly. Perhaps the Great Word of Power was simply too powerful... But Chief Steward Emiya cannot be blamed for that."

"Blame him? Heh heh, how could I blame him? I haven't even thanked him enough yet!"

Zhou Yuxuan heard Wa Lord's attitude change the moment Emiya was mentioned. She instantly shifted from a frigid winter to a warm spring day, then said with a smile blooming across her face:

"Hehehe, thanks to Shirou's righteous deed, we have an opportunity to turn the situation around..."

Remembering something, Wa Lord's mood warmed. She deliberately kept him in suspense. "The reason is—well, Zhou Yuxuan, even without evidence, you can guess. There are only so many prominent families capable of raising Death Servants. There are even fewer suspects who would dare covet the Zhou Family's authority and challenge us..."

"The Chen Family!" Zhou Yuxuan blurted out almost immediately.

"That's right. Ever since the Chen Family attached itself to that Western Gattuso Family—if I remember correctly, weren't they originally a bunch of gangsters who cleaned up their image and rose to power?—the Chen Family has become restless. They are always the ones jumping around the most. Now it seems their loyalties had long since shifted..."

"Wa Lord, do you intend to use this incident to settle accounts with the Chen Family?" Zhou Yuxuan frowned. The biggest problem now was the lack of clear evidence against the Chen Family.

"Give up on the idea of looking for evidence. Do you believe that? Even if the corpses had been left intact, you still would not have found convincing evidence on those two Chen Family members. The Chen Family had already 'made arrangements abroad.' Those personnel and Death Servants were surely brought in from outside. If we searched for evidence within the domestic Chen Family, wouldn't that be heading in the wrong direction and letting them withdraw unscathed?

"...Besides, there is no need to find evidence. Change your approach. Take the initiative and make all the prominent families target them. When they are abandoned by everyone, beat the dog while it is down and leave the Chen Family with no foothold anywhere on the Divine Continent... And all it takes to drive this forward is one small plan."

Looking pleased with herself, Wa Lord sorted out a document titled "Feasibility Report on Human meridians, Inscribed Arrays, and Refining Essence into Qi." This was the result she and Shirou Emiya had consolidated after discussing cultivation methods, then holding meetings and consulting with several masters from the Inner Alchemy Sect of the Daoist Sects.

Once it was verified and supported by sufficiently convincing successful cases, every family would flock to this cultivation method. Forget the mere Chen Family—even getting all the clans to join forces and destroy them would not be impossible.

"Zhou Yuxuan, you previously said that you observed miniature arrays constructed from metallic elements within Shirou's body. You suspected they were the 'Magic Circuits' he described, correct?"

"Yes. The construction of those arrays is far too exquisite. They are arrays formed from combinations of Daoist Runes spread throughout the body—Alchemical Arrays—arranged into an array formation, an Alchemical Matrix. Wa Lord, from what I sensed, it seems like a complete organ... Do you understand? Like a living system..."

"Mm... An excessively precise system. It seems the construction of this new system cannot proceed without Shirou's guidance for now."

Wa Lord's gaze shifted as she gently closed the documents, doing so with excessive care. In her eyes, this was undoubtedly a plan that would set off a tide for a new era.

"Oh, right. I promised to open the Zhou Family's treasured collection to Shirou. Make the arrangements."

"Yes, it has already been arranged."

"Your name is Zhou Minhao?"

The visitor was a mild-mannered young man wearing a Tang Suit. He stood straight, and none of his movements carried any excess. Like Zhou Yuxuan, he looked rather thin but radiated a sense of vigorous vitality. He was probably a trained martial artist.

"That's right, Chief Steward Emiya. I was ordered to take you to the family treasury. Is now convenient?"

"Then let's go now. Lead the way."

Shirou Emiya set off at once. Other than analyzing the Noble Phantasm structure of the Dragon Severing Platform and learning Projection, he had nothing particularly urgent to do right now.

Emiya possessed exceptional eyesight and memory. Once he fully mastered Projection, he would only need to see an ordinary Noble Phantasm once to remember its construction and successfully project it.

Thus, during his time at the Clock Tower, Rin Tohsaka had pulled off something astonishing—she had submitted more than a thousand applications to the Clock Tower just so Shirou Emiya could enter the British Museum and secret Clock Tower locations to view their collections...

Of course, Rin's intentions had not been entirely pure. She had wanted Emiya to project famous paintings and the like for resale, to earn money and cover household expenses.

Unlike Wa Lord. Wa Lord had arranged this in order to help Emiya cultivate.