The Royal Study was usually a place of silence. Today, it felt like a waiting room for an execution.
Shen Yi sat behind his massive desk (still on the three pillows). He had cleared away the Confucian classics and replaced them with a blank sheet of paper and a abacus. Ye Lan stood by the door, peeling an apple with a dagger that was definitely too large for a six-year-old.
The three "recruits"—Guo Da, Su Wen, and Lin Xia—stood in a line, trembling. They were the rejects. The Trash. They expected to be scolded or sent to clean the stables.
"Sit," Shen Yi commanded. There were no chairs. They sat on the floor.
"Let's skip the pleasantries," Shen Yi said, his voice echoing slightly with authority. "You three think you are trash because a rock told you so. The rock was wrong. I am right."
He picked up a brush and dipped it in ink.
"I am not looking for playmates. I am looking for Executive Officers. I am offering you a contract. You give me your absolute loyalty, your lives, and your futures. In exchange, I fix you."
The three exchanged confused looks. Fix them? They were broken.
Shen Yi pointed his brush at the large boy. "Guo Da. Step forward."
Case Study 1: The Heavy Industry Division
Guo Da shuffled forward. He tried to bow, but he stumbled, his heavy foot cracking a floor tile. He went red. "I'm sorry, Your Majesty! I'm so clumsy!"
"You aren't clumsy," Shen Yi said, sipping his tea. "You weigh three hundred pounds."
Guo Da blinked. "No... I weigh eighty pounds. The doctor said..."
"Your flesh weighs eighty," Shen Yi corrected. "Your bones weigh two hundred and twenty. You have the Heavenly War God Body. Your skeleton is made of hyper-dense organic metal. You trip because you are trying to move like a butterfly when you are built like a siege tank."
Shen Yi opened a drawer and pulled out a heavy iron paperweight. "Catch."
He threw it. Hard. Guo Da flinched, raising his arm to block. CLANG.
It sounded like a hammer hitting an anvil. The iron paperweight bounced off Guo Da's forearm. There was no bruise. There was no pain. Guo Da looked at his arm, wide-eyed.
"Normal cultivation methods try to make you 'light' to gather Qi," Shen Yi explained. "It doesn't work."
Shen Yi threw a scroll at him. It was an ancient text he had found in the library, used to prop up a wobbly table leg. Manual: The Immovable Vajra Sutra.
"Stop trying to dodge," Shen Yi ordered. "Stop trying to be fast. Your job is to stand there, take the hit, and then hit them back once. If you break the floor, good. That means the floor was too weak."
Guo Da clutched the scroll to his chest. For the first time in his life, someone wasn't telling him to lose weight. They were telling him to become a mountain. "I... I will be your shield, Majesty!"
Case Study 2: The Intelligence Division
"Su Wen. Step forward."
The sleepy boy yawned, scratching his head. He didn't look scared; he looked bored. "Your Majesty," Su Wen mumbled. "Can I go back to sleep? The world is too loud."
"It's not loud," Shen Yi said. "It's slow."
Su Wen froze. His sleepy eyes snapped open, revealing a terrifying sharpness.
"You have Profound Insight Dao Acumen," Shen Yi diagnosed. "Your brain processes information fifty times faster than a normal human. When people talk to you, it sounds like they are speaking in slow motion. That's why you sleep. It's the only way to turn the noise off."
Shen Yi pushed the abacus towards him. "I suspect the Ministry of Revenue is laundering money through the grain tax. Here are the ledgers for the last ten years."
He pointed to a stack of paper taller than Su Wen. "I need you to find the pattern. Not the math—the pattern. Find the missing variables."
Su Wen looked at the stack. To anyone else, it was homework. To him, it was a puzzle. His eyes lit up. He grabbed the abacus. His fingers moved so fast they blurred. Click-clack-click-clack.
"Found it," Su Wen said, thirty seconds later. "In Year 4, the grain shipments to the West correlate with the rise in silk prices in the East, but the transport costs remain flat. Someone is teleporting the goods or faking the inventory. It's a 15% discrepancy."
Shen Yi smiled. "Correct. That's Prime Minister Wang's slush fund." He tossed a jade token to Su Wen. "You are now my Chief Strategy Officer. Your cultivation is simple: Solve problems. The harder the problem, the stronger your soubecome. I promise you, working for me will never be boring."
Su Wen held the token, a grin spreading across his face. "Finally. Something to do."
Case Study 3: The R&D / Chemical Division
"Lin Xia. Step forward."
The girl didn't step. She swayed. She was sweating profusely, her skin flushed red. She looked like she was burning up from the inside.
"You are dying," Shen Yi said bluntly.
Lin Xia nodded weakly. tears welled up. "My father said... I have the Fire Poison."
"Well your father is a quack," Shen Yi said. "You have the Nine Cauldron Rainbow Lotus Flame inside your dantian. It's a divine fire. But your body is too weak to contain it, so it's cooking your organs."
Shen Yi reached into his personal "Snack Box" (Bag of Holding). He pulled out a small, blue pill. It wasn't a normal pill. It was the Ice Heart Pill—a treasure worth 50,000 gold taels that Shen Yi had stolen from the Royal Treasury that morning (he told the guard it was a breath mint).
"Eat this."
Lin Xia hesitated, then swallowed it. Instant relief. Steam literally poured out of her ears. Her skin turned from beet-red to a healthy porcelain white. She took a deep breath—her first painless breath in years.
"That pill is a temporary coolant," Shen Yi said. "To survive, you need to learn Alchemy. You need to use that fire inside you to refine pills instead of burning your own kidneys."
He pointed to a bronze incense burner in the corner. "That is now your laboratory. I will supply the herbs. You will supply the pills. First, you will learn to make Cooling Pellets to keep yourself alive. Then... we make explosives."
Lin Xia fell to her knees, weeping with relief. "Thank you... Thank you, Your Majesty!"
The Closing Statement
Shen Yi stood up on his booster seat. He looked at his new team.
Guo Da: The Unbreakable Tank.
Su Wen: The Supercomputer.
Lin Xia: The Nuclear Reactor.
Ye Lan: The Blade.
"The Empire is sick," Shen Yi told them. "The Ministers are corrupt. The Generals are arrogant. The Treasury is leaking." He slammed his small hand on the desk. "We are going to fix it. We are going to restructure this entire dynasty. It will be hard. It will be dangerous. But if you stick with me... we will rule."
He pulled out a tray of Royal Honey Cakes. "Meeting adjourned. Have a snack. Then, get to work. Guo Da, go hit a tree. Su Wen, finish the audit. Lin Xia, read this chemistry book."
The three children bowed, their eyes burning with a new fire. They weren't trash anymore. They were The Emperor's Chosen ones.
As they filed out, clutching their manuals and cakes, Ye Lan closed the door. She looked at Shen Yi.
"Weak," she judged, taking a bite of her apple.
"They are investments," Shen Yi corrected, leaning back on his pillows and closing his eyes. "Give them three years. You won't be able to beat Guo Da in an arm wrestle."
Ye Lan scoffed. "Unlikely."
"Bet?"
"Two roast ducks."
"Deal."