The blank form mocked Xiaolong from its position on her writing desk, its empty fields radiating the particular smugness of inanimate objects that knew they were winning.

She had been staring at it for an hour.

The form itself looked simple enough—clean lines, organized boxes, clear labels indicating where information should be recorded. But the labels themselves created complications that dragons were never meant to navigate. "Incident Classification Code (see Reference Manual Section 4, Subsection B)." "Spiritual Contamination Source Type (consult approved taxonomy)." "Estimated Recovery Timeline (use standard metric intervals only)."

Xiaolong picked up her brush, dipped it in ink, and wrote "Master Yuan was corrupted by Black Dao techniques, I purified him, he recovered" in the largest box on the form.

She set the brush down and examined her work. Direct. Accurate. Complete.

The form seemed to radiate disapproval.

Elder Wei had delivered the paperwork yesterday evening, with a smile that held a subtle "we really must catch up on all the formalities you've conveniently side-stepped during your time here" quality, explaining that formal incident reports were required for any event involving corruption by sect leadership.

"Really, our administrator should have prepared the forms and seen them submitted the same day as the incident," he had said with an apologetic sigh. "Her oversight, not yours. But now that Master Yuan is almost fully recovered, it's time this administrative gap was filled."

The form's lines sat there, waiting to be filled, while Elder Wei's expectation pressed against her shoulders.

Dragons didn't do paperwork. When a dragon wanted to record something, they simply declared it, and their word became permanent record, enforced by the weight of their nature. If another dragon questioned the account, they fought about it. Very straightforward. Very efficient.

This form represented the opposite of straightforward efficiency.

She glared at the paper. The paper maintained its insufferable blankness in all the sections she hadn't filled.

The problem wasn't the writing itself—she could form characters perfectly well. The problem was understanding what the form wanted. What did "Incident Classification Code" even mean? How were Black Dao energies classified? Was the classification about origin? Type? Potential damage if left untreated?

"Primary spiritual manifestation classification" could mean six different things depending on whether they were asking about initial symptoms, peak severity, or purification methodology.

She'd already destroyed one form. Not intentionally—her spiritual pressure had spiked during a particularly intense moment of frustration, and the paper had spontaneously combusted. The scorch mark on the desk served as a reminder that losing control wasn't the best way to resolve administrative puzzles.

Xiaolong took a slow breath, centering herself, and began writing.

"Date of Incident (Lunar Calendar Format)."

She knew the date. Obviously. She'd been present for the entire Master Yuan corruption crisis. But the form wanted lunar calendar format, and she'd been using the solar calendar since arriving at the sect because Li Feng used it and she'd never bothered learning the conversion methodology.

Her spiritual pressure flickered with irritation. The inkstone rattled slightly on the desk.

"This is absurd," she muttered, setting down her brush. "I purified Ocean Depth Realm corruption. I fought a cosmic serpent. I cannot be defeated by paper."

The form offered no sympathy.

She tried Section Two: "Incident Classification (Select Primary Category)." The options included "External Demonic Influence," "Internal Qi Deviation," "Formation Malfunction," "Spiritual Beast Attack," and twelve other categories that didn't quite match what had actually happened. Master Yuan's corruption involved external sources but manifested as internal deviation, which technically made it both categories simultaneously.

There was no box for "both categories simultaneously."

Xiaolong reached for the form, intending to flip it over and check if the reverse side offered better options. Her spiritual energy, still elevated from lingering frustration, transferred through her fingertips into the paper.

The form crumbled into dust.

She stared at the small pile of disintegrated bureaucracy on her desk, feeling the particular shame that came from accidentally destroying something through insufficient control. If dragons had gods to invoke in moments like these, Xiaolong would have used several invocations right then.

"This is going well," she said to the remaining intact forms stacked beside the destroyed ones. They maintained ominous silence.

A knock at her door interrupted her glaring contest with the paperwork.

"Come in," she called, grateful for any distraction.

Meihua entered carrying a covered dish and a small teapot, her expression brightening when she saw Xiaolong. "Honored Master, I brought morning tea and those sesame cakes you liked from yesterday's—" She stopped, taking in the scattered forms, open manuals, and Xiaolong's expression of deep existential suffering. "Is everything well?"

"I'm being defeated by paper."

Meihua set down her delivery and approached the desk, her gaze sweeping across the administrative chaos with the systematic attention of someone cataloguing disaster. She picked up the first form, read Xiaolong's single-line entry, and her eyebrows rose.

"You wrote your report in the preliminary summary box."

"It's a summary."

"That box is for the Records Department filing clerk to fill out after reviewing the complete documentation." Meihua set the form down gently. "Your actual report goes in Forms 2 through 7, depending on incident complexity."

"There are seven forms?"

"For this type of incident, yes. Corruption of sect leadership requires comprehensive documentation across multiple categories." Meihua was already organizing the scattered papers, her movements carrying the confident efficiency of someone in familiar territory. "You'll need the Incident Report Form, Spiritual Contamination Analysis Form, Purification Methodology Documentation, Witness Statement Compilation, Recovery Timeline Projection, and two copies of the Formal Resolution Certification."

Xiaolong stared at her disciple. "How do you know this?"

"I processed Elder Liu's documentation after the spring flooding incident. And I helped archive the records from the demonic beast incursion three years ago." Meihua pulled a chair closer to the desk and sat without waiting for an invitation, her attention fully absorbed by the paperwork challenge. "The system is actually quite logical once you understand the underlying organizational framework."

"It seems deliberately complicated."

"It's systematically comprehensive. Different."

Meihua picked up the reference manual and flipped to a marked section with the ease of someone who had internalized the entire structure. "Each form serves a specific archival purpose. The Incident Report establishes a chronological sequence. The Contamination Analysis provides technical data for future research. The Methodology Documentation allows other cultivators to replicate your purification technique if needed."

She spoke with growing animation, her usual nervous deference replaced by confident expertise. This was Meihua's domain—structured systems, proper procedures, organized information flow.

Xiaolong recognized the reversal happening and found herself oddly charmed by it.

"Would you..." She paused, swallowed pride that had accumulated over five millennia. "Would you be willing to help me complete these forms?"

Meihua's face transformed with poorly concealed delight. "It would be my honor, Honored Master."

"Just Xiaolong. If you're teaching me, we're equals in this."

The girl's smile could have lit the chamber without lanterns. She pulled the forms into organized stacks, arranged the reference manuals within easy reach, and withdrew a fresh brush and ink stone from her sleeve.

"Let's start with the basic Incident Report. This one is straightforward—just chronological documentation of events." She positioned a blank form between them. "Begin with when you first became aware of the situation."

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"Master Yuan returned to the sect displaying signs of corruption."

"Good. Now we need the specific date and time."

Xiaolong frowned. "Six days ago. Morning."

"The exact date according to the sect calendar. And the time using the standard system. And morning isn't precise enough—we need the hour, preferably the quarter-hour if you can recall."

"Why does the quarter-hour matter?"

"Because if anyone needs to correlate your timeline with other witness accounts or environmental factors, precise timing allows proper cross-referencing." Meihua consulted a small calendar she'd produced. "Six days ago was the seventh day of the ninth month. Do you remember what hour?"

"Shortly after dawn assembly. Perhaps the hour of the rabbit?"

"Perfect." Meihua wrote the information in the appropriate box with neat characters. "Now, describe your first observation of Master Yuan's condition. Use objective terminology—what you saw, sensed, or heard, rather than conclusions you drew."

"I sensed corruption threaded through his cultivation base."

"That's a conclusion. What observable indicators led you to that conclusion?"

Xiaolong considered. Meihua was right—the corruption itself wasn't directly visible. "His spiritual pressure carried an irregular quality. The energy didn't flow smoothly but stuttered in places."

"Excellent. That's observable data." Meihua recorded it precisely. "Continue with additional observable indicators."

They worked through the chronological sequence, Meihua patiently guiding Xiaolong through the distinction between observation and interpretation, fact and assessment, description and analysis. Each detail required specific placement in predetermined categories, and Meihua navigated the system with the confident ease that Xiaolong brought to elemental manipulation.

"No, that section is for spiritual contamination source classification, not the contamination effects," Meihua corrected when Xiaolong tried to describe the corruption's impact. "Effects go in Form Three. This section needs the technical designation for the corruption type."

Xiaolong looked at the reference taxonomy Meihua had opened. The classification system contained perhaps fifty different corruption types, each with subcategories and specific identifying characteristics.

"This is more complicated than cosmic ley line navigation."

"The complexity serves a purpose. Precise classification allows researchers to identify patterns across incidents." Meihua traced down the page, then paused, her finger hovering over two different entries. "Based on your description of the corruption's behavior and Master Yuan's symptoms, this appears to be Type III Corrupted Cultivation Deviation with External Source Contamination, but..."

"But?"

"The voluntary versus involuntary subtype designation." Meihua's confident expression faltered. "Subtype A is involuntary contamination—ambush, forced corruption, deception. Subtype B is voluntary adoption of prohibited techniques. I don't actually know which applies to Master Yuan's situation."

"You seemed certain a moment ago."

"I was making assumptions based on the fact that he traveled for cultivation advancement and returned corrupted." Meihua set down her brush. "But I shouldn't speculate without evidence. That's an improper documentation procedure."

Xiaolong considered what she'd observed during the purification—the way the corruption had layered itself through Master Yuan's cultivation, presenting as enlightenment rather than invasion. Her understanding of his actions remained incomplete, but certain conclusions seemed reasonable.

"Let's give him the benefit of the doubt," she finally said.

"Subtype A, then?"

"Yes. Involuntary contamination. It will be up to Master Yuan himself to clarify the sequence if he chooses." And she would make sure he knew such clarification was required, both to rectify her partial understanding and for his own closure.

They continued through the forms, Meihua explaining each requirement with patient thoroughness. When Xiaolong tried to simplify her purification technique description to "I cleansed the corrupted essence," Meihua gently redirected her toward the technical specification format that would allow other cultivators to understand and potentially replicate the method.

"You need to document the specific approach. Did you force the corruption out? Dissolve it? Transform it? Each requires different capability levels."

"I helped it remember its original nature before inversion."

"That's... not in the standard taxonomy." Meihua consulted her references, flipping through sections with increasing speed. "Recognition-based purification isn't listed under approved methodologies."

"Because it's not an approved methodology. I invented it specifically for Master Yuan's situation."

"Oh." Meihua set down the manual, her expression cycling through surprise to concern to what might have been scholarly excitement. "Then we'll need to file a Supplemental Technique Documentation form along with your incident report. New purification methods require separate archival classification."

"More forms?"

"Just one additional. But it's important—you've potentially developed a technique that could help future corruption cases." Meihua was already pulling another blank form from her supplies. "This is actually quite significant."

The afternoon progressed with Xiaolong following Meihua's patient instruction through increasingly detailed documentation. The witness compilation required listing every person present during the confrontation, their cultivation levels, and their positions relative to the incident. The recovery timeline demanded estimates for Master Yuan's return to full function across six different capability categories.

"I can't predict when his social confidence will recover," Xiaolong protested.

"That's fine. You can mark that category as 'insufficient data for projection.'" Meihua indicated the appropriate designation. "The form allows for uncertainty."

They reached the signature requirements, and Meihua explained the necessary sequence—Elder Wei's authorization first, confirming Xiaolong had permission to submit the documentation. Then, Elder Liu's verification of technical accuracy. Finally, Master Yuan's acknowledgment once he recovered sufficiently to review the account.

"Can't I just gather everyone together and have them sign simultaneously?"

"The sequence matters for establishing the responsibility chain. Elder Wei authorizes the submission, Elder Liu verifies the content, Master Yuan confirms the accuracy regarding his personal experience. Each signature validates a different aspect."

"So I need to track down three different people in the correct order."

"Yes. Though Elder Wei is usually in his office during afternoon hours, and Elder Liu should be in the cultivation resources pavilion around now."

Xiaolong stood, stretching muscles that had gone stiff from prolonged sitting. "Thank you, Meihua. This would have taken me days without your help."

"It's my pleasure, Honored Master. I find systematic organization... soothing." Meihua organized the completed forms into a neat stack. "Helping you with administrative procedures is far less intimidating than trying to sense elemental essence when you tell me to 'just feel the harmony.'" She smiled. "We all have our strengths."

The observation landed gently but accurately.

Xiaolong had been experiencing exactly what Meihua faced during cultivation lessons—being thrust into a system that seemed simple to the expert but completely baffling to the novice, struggling with requirements that felt arbitrary without understanding their underlying logic.

"I understand your frustration better now," Xiaolong admitted. "When you couldn't immediately sense what I was describing during our elemental lessons."

"And I understand why you kept saying explanations wouldn't help—because some knowledge lives in doing rather than documenting." Meihua straightened the stack once more. "Maybe we're both struggling in unfamiliar territories."

"But improving."

"But definitely improving." Meihua offered the completed forms. "You'll do fine with these. Elder Wei is expecting the report, so he'll sign promptly. Though... you might want to practice your formal request phrasing. The Records Department is particular about proper protocols."

"There's a formal phrasing for asking someone to sign paperwork?"

"Three variations depending on the elder's rank and your relationship to them. I can teach you if you'd like?"

Xiaolong considered refusing on principle, then remembered her ink-stained struggles from earlier that morning. "Yes. Please."

They spent another fifteen minutes practicing proper request formulations, Meihua correcting Xiaolong's casual phrasing into bureaucratically acceptable language.

By the time Xiaolong departed her chambers, she could properly request Elder Wei's "esteemed authorization of submitted documentation per sect archival protocols" without her voice betraying how absurd the whole thing felt.

Elder Wei signed the forms with his usual smiling patience, clearly aware that Xiaolong had received substantial assistance with the paperwork. Elder Liu examined the technical sections closely but approved the documentation without alteration.

Master Yuan's quarters were in the recovery wing, where he'd been resting since the purification. Xiaolong found him sitting up, looking significantly healthier than six days ago but still carrying the exhausted quality of someone whose entire cultivation base had been recently restructured.

"Xiaolong." He attempted a formal bow from his seated position. "I owe you my life and my sanity."

"You owe me your signature on these forms, apparently." She spread the paperwork across the small table beside his bed. "Administrative requirements for corruption incidents."

Master Yuan's laugh turned into a cough, but his eyes held warmth. "Even cosmic dragons must answer to the Records Department. Some forces transcend all cultivation levels."

He read through the documentation with care, his expression growing thoughtful as he absorbed the technical details of his own corruption and purification. When he reached the sections describing the Black Dao techniques that had twisted his essence, his hands trembled slightly.

"This is accurate," he said quietly. "Painfully so."

"Should any part be rephrased?" Xiaolong asked. She wasn't sure how sensitive Master Yuan was to direct recounting of the events.

"No, this is... necessary. The clarity helps." He looked up. "Did Meihua help with the forms?"

"How did you know?"

"Meihua's handwriting is distinctive. And it's clear she assisted with the technical phrasing. I recognized some turns of phrase from the flood documentation she processed."

"I see." Xiaolong considered the elegant characters populating the paperwork. "You've noticed her attention to detail, then."

"Hard to miss." He glanced through another section. "But you already knew that."

"I've been learning the breadth of her expertise. It's humbling."

"As it should be." Master Yuan signed the final form. "Humble dragons are rare, aren't they?"

"Non-existent." She collected the paperwork. "At least, until recently."

He nodded, weariness returning to his features. "A rare miracle, indeed, to see an immortal dragon transformed. One can only hope to witness such wonders in a lifetime."

As she prepared to take her leave, Xiaolong stopped before the doorway and glanced back. "We've marked the cause as involuntary contamination. But if you'd like to clarify the sequence of events for your own sake, I suggest you spend your rest considering those events carefully. Then we'll talk."

Master Yuan looked up. "You suspect more than you've written down, I think."

"I'm placing my trust in the one Li Feng and Meihua respect so much," she said evenly. "And allowing that individual to do the right thing when they're ready."

She waited until he nodded before slipping out to let him rest.

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