"Today I shall teach you methods of appraisal! What is this?"
"Agarwood timber."
"Correct. Now look at this piece. If the tree was less than ten years old and the wood had only a faint fragrance, what would it be called?"
"Whitewood."
"Good. And what is this?"
"It looks like ant-sunk agarwood eaten by termites?"
"Very good. And this?"
"Er... I... I don't know..."
Smack! "Remember this: it is earth-sunk agarwood!"
In an outer court classroom of the Incense Accumulation Sect, a middle-aged man held a disciplinary ruler as he explained the objects on the shelves to a group of children around ten years old. He detailed the distinction between agarwood timber and agarwood, then explained what names such as whitewood, ant-sunk agarwood, earth-sunk agarwood, water-sunk agarwood, fallen agarwood, and kyara meant.
He wore the robes of an Incense Accumulation Sect teacher. Clearly, he was a mortal disciple who had graduated from the outer sect but been eliminated from further advancement because he lacked spirit root aptitude.
Unlike other sects and factions, which valued cultivation most, the Incense Accumulation Sect placed learning first. Once these mortals had completed Li Ling's prescribed ten years of basic education and the higher education required for outer sect advancement, then passed a difficult examination and earned a teaching certificate, they stood equal to immortal masters and enjoyed considerable status.
Outside the sect, such people could serve as attendants or managers at incense workshops, equivalent to master artisans capable of refining magical artifacts, or to the spirit incense artisans like Li Ling before he began cultivating. Within the sect, they were formal disciples, registered with the Ascension Court and receiving salaries and allowances from the Civil Administration Court. Yet they belonged to the Transmission Hall and were directly governed by Li Ling, the sect master