If you die, I will be able to inherit your cultivation.

Over the next few days, Zhou Ming greeted Liu Sandao and then plunged into the Marquis's library.

Third-class and second-class servants could only go to the specially provided study.

However, once someone reaches the level of steward, a portion of the Marquis's library will be opened to them, and Zhou Ming can freely view the bottom two floors.

There weren't many books on the two floors, only a little over a thousand, but for a servant of humble origins...

It's already a great blessing to be able to see these books.

Speaking of which, this can be attributed to the Marquis's rival when he was young. As the young Marquis of the Duke's Mansion, he was quite a tyrant in his small territory in the capital.

His rival's background was comparable to that of the Marquis.

The Marquis once competed with the other party, but unexpectedly, he was defeated by the opponent's attendant with poetry.

In contrast, the Marquis's own attendants were illiterate and could not read a single word.

Since then, upon returning to the Marquis's residence, the Marquis ordered all the servants in the residence to study and learn to read and write, and to cultivate their literary talents.

This rule has been followed ever since. After the Marquis came of age and established his own residence, it became the established rule that all stewards and servants of the Marquis's residence must be literate.

In fact, this was only the Yongning Marquis's residence; other aristocratic families did not receive such treatment.

Zhou Ming plunged into the library, mainly selecting books that could help him understand the world and began to read them thoroughly.

According to our understanding, the Great Xia Dynasty has been established for over six hundred years and has a profound cultural heritage.

The territory of the Great Xia Dynasty stretched from the border of the Dayan Dynasty in the west to the border of the Great Yuan Dynasty in the north.

To the east, it is blocked by a continuous mountain range called Duanyunling. It is said that the mountain is so steep that even birds cannot fly over it, and no one has opened up a road to the other side of the mountain range for hundreds of years.

To the south lies the vast, endless sea, where fishermen have made their living by fishing for generations, yet they cannot say what land lies beyond the sea.

A great river called the Wuding River flows from north to south through the entire territory. Its source is in the mountains within the territory of Dayuan, and it rushes for thousands of miles before finally flowing into the Endless Sea.

The Great Xia Dynasty ruled over the Nine Provinces, and Youzhou, where Zhou Ming was currently located, was the northernmost of the Nine Provinces, right next to the border of the Great Yuan Dynasty.

According to the information he pieced together from the books, further north beyond the territory of the Great Yuan Dynasty lay a primeval forest known as the Endless Forest.

Legend has it that on the other side of the forest lies an even larger world, teeming with merchants and teeming with powerful figures.

But this is just a legend, because no one has ever made it through that forest alive. Those who have gone either turned back halfway or never returned.

During the few days that Zhou Ming spent reading in the library, the karmic network between his eyebrows never stopped.

Within a few days, the more than 100,000 newly generated phantoms had all solidified, steadily transforming into a causal chain suspended within the network.

And new phantoms are constantly emerging, growing by tens of thousands every day.

Zhou Ming has now developed a habit.

I glance at the cause-and-effect network twice a day, morning and evening, to confirm that it is expanding normally, and then I can put the matter aside with peace of mind and stop thinking about it.

That afternoon, news came from the main house: the young lady was coming back.

The gatekeeper of the Marquis's residence was the first to be notified, and then the news spread like wildfire throughout every courtyard and room.

The steward, servants, and guards of Haitang Garden all sprang into action, and the garden sweepers swept the area inside and outside the main gate again.

The fire in the kitchen stove was reignited, and Liu Sandao put on his faded blue apron and stood back in front of the stove where he cooked for the young lady.

The clattering sound of chopping vegetables has been going on since morning.

According to the rules of the Marquis's mansion, when the eldest daughter returns from a long journey, all the stewards and servants must go to the main gate to greet her.

Zhou Ming is now the kitchen manager, so he is naturally among them.

After changing into clean clothes, he and several other stewards from Haitang Garden waited early outside the main gate of the Marquis's residence.

The fallen leaves on the stone path in front of the door have been swept clean, the bases of the two stone lions have been wiped clean, and the lanterns hanging on the lintel have been replaced with new red gauze, swaying gently in the evening breeze.

After waiting for about an hour, the sound of rapid hoofbeats finally came from the street corner.

The young lady's convoy appeared at the end of the street corner, the setting sun casting a thin golden hue over the entire procession as it slanted down from the west.

At the head of the caravan were four guards leading the way, their swords hanging from their saddles, riding identical black horses, their hooves making a uniform sound.

Following closely behind was the young lady's carriage, made of dark wood, with low-hanging curtains obscuring the view of who was inside.

Following behind was the accompanying entourage, but to Zhou Ming's surprise, apart from Su Mingyue in the carriage, everyone else was...

Including Chunlan and Dongmei, all of them rode tall horses.

Chunlan rode a chestnut gelding, while Dongmei rode her usual big black horse.

Several second- and third-class maids also rode their own horses, with bows and arrows and light crossbows hanging on their backs.

The air of demure young ladies that had been tightly restrained by the rules of the Marquis's mansion was replaced by a neat and dashing temperament.

This group doesn't look like a bunch of maids who have lived in the inner quarters for a long time; they look more like female guards from a military family.

Just as Zhou Ming was drawn to the spectacle, he subconsciously glanced at the heads of the group of people riding tall horses and was immediately stunned.

Chunlan, Dongmei, the second and third-class maids, and the guards on the perimeter—everyone had a chain of cause and effect hanging over their heads.

It was not a phantom, but a solidified chain of cause and effect, each strand thick and strong, gleaming in the setting sun with a luster that only Zhou Ming could see.

Especially the one on Dongmei's head, which was many times thicker than when he first discovered it, and stood firmly above her hair bun.

The carriage stopped at the main entrance, the curtain was lifted from the outside, and Su Mingyue stepped down on the footstool.

She was still wearing the same plain light blue jacket she had worn when she left home, without any embroidery, except for a very thin silver-white trim around the neckline.

However, the clothes were worn down by the wind and sand during the journey, and the cuffs were slightly rolled up, with a faint gray stain on the lapel.

Her face was free of makeup, and the aloofness and indifference in her eyes remained unchanged, yet there was something more indescribable about it.

Like a knife that has been repeatedly tempered, after being drawn and returned to its sheath, the blade is still the same blade, but it is thinner, colder, and more silent than before.

Then Zhou Ming looked at the top of her head, but there was nothing there.

It is clean and pure, without any causal chain or illusion.

This contrasted sharply with the surrounding guards and maids, all of whom were covered in chains of cause and effect.

Zhou Ming was taken aback at first, then chuckled to himself.

This is so normal.

Given the way these powerful families operate, how could they possibly allow their direct descendants to cultivate a technique of unknown origin?

Even if the "Scripture of Crossing the World" could allow people to quickly reach the Skin Refining Realm in just a few days, they would not take the risk.

The practice of aristocratic families is always to test the techniques repeatedly, using people to fill in the gaps until they are certain that the technique has no hidden dangers and that its origins are thoroughly understood, before considering letting their direct descendants handle it.

Before this, even if this cultivation technique could allow mortals to ascend to immortality in one step, they could remain unmoved.

Or rather, they didn't need to be tempted at all, because they had as many maids, guards, and servants as they wanted to test their skills on their behalf.