Chapter 66: I'll Teach You!

"Big Dog... this is a bit too much!"

Inside the courtyard, Cui Yan, who had followed him all the way, finally couldn't help breaking down. "I remember the place you were assigned to was Fuquan County, not Fuguigui County, right? Did you strike a gold mine? How could you possibly afford a mansion like this?"

His first thought was that it had been bought, as a courtyard of this scale could never be rented out.

"Don't talk nonsense." Zhang Rui glared at him. "Gold mines are publicly owned by the court. Privately mining gold is the crime of treason. This mansion was given to us by someone."

"I..." Cui Yan almost choked to death. He had been conservative in his assumptions, thinking it was purchased, but it turned out to be a gift?

"Zhang Big Dog, are you hiding something from me? We've only been apart for three years, and you're doing this well?"

Since the conversation had reached this point, Zhang Rui looked at him and probed in return, "I should be asking you. Second Dog, are you hiding something from me? The moment I left, your life took off like a whirlwind. Speaking of which, you've always been dogged by bad luck; was I affected by you back then when I had it so miserable?"

"Bah!" Cui Yan was furious and was about to retort when Lady Luo, having seemingly finished organizing the newly bought items, walked in with the fourth sister and the elderly mother. "Husband, come and take a look. How do Mom and Fourth Sister look in these outfits for the banquet?"

"Banquet?" Zhang Rui was momentarily stunned before it registered. Ah, yes, there was a palace banquet the day after tomorrow.

He was still wasting time with this fellow and needed to prepare in advance.

"Did my wife receive the invitation?" Zhang Rui asked, standing up.

"Oh, I almost forgot to tell my husband," Lady Luo said hurriedly. "Shortly after my husband left this morning, someone sent by the Empress Dowager arrived with the invitation."

The moment the words "Empress Dowager" were uttered, the smile vanished from Cui Yan's face. He lowered his head, his eyes deep with a chilling intent.

Zhang Rui, who had been secretly observing Cui Yan, immediately noticed his abnormality and was left speechless internally. Truly, being too attractive to a certain degree was a sin; this uninvited romantic fortune could be deadly.

Besides, how old was that Empress? It seemed that whether in ancient times or modern times, men and women alike all favored the young and beautiful.

By the way, was Cui Yan's drastic change in appearance caused by himself?

If so, and he was still able to use a brush during that period of AFK idling, wouldn't that be far too坑 (devious)? Because he had no idea how many times he had used it during that time or how many side effects it had produced, he didn't even know how many traps he had dug for himself!

"Husband?" Lady Luo noticed that Zhang Rui wasn't looking at her but was instead secretly sizing up Second Dog, and her heart skipped a beat.

Could it be true when her husband said he had no interest in Miss Nightingale? But if he wasn't interested in beautiful women, was he interested in beautiful men?

Surely not? This Cui Yan had grown up with her husband since they were children!

"Oh, oh... Ahem..." Zhang Rui snapped out of it and hurriedly smiled, "My wife has a wonderful eye. These two outfits look dignified and grand without being overly ostentatious. They are truly lovely. Are they ready-made?"

"Naturally, they are ready-made," Lady Luo smiled. "There wouldn't be enough time to custom-make clothes in these short two days. My husband should be wearing his official uniform anyway. I heard tomorrow is the Six Ministries' rest day, so husband, you can take off this outfit tonight and I'll wash it. Winter clothes dry slowly, so we'll probably need to bake it."

"Sorry to trouble you, wife." Zhang Rui nodded with a smile. "Let's arrange dinner first, and find a room for Cui Yan. Oh, by the way, is Nightingale here?"

Nightingale?

Cui Yan stared at Zhang Rui in astonishment.

"Big Brother, Mother said not to get involved with that seductive woman!" Fourth Sister Zhang Meng said with dissatisfaction.

The elderly mother also furrowed her brow. Between a harsh daughter-in-law and that seductive vixen, she still found the harsh daughter-in-law somewhat more agreeable.

Lady Luo's smile stiffened slightly, but she maintained her gentle demeanor. "She's still in Zhiluo Courtyard. Servants deliver three meals a day. She never steps out, so she must be waiting for my husband. Would you like to go over?"

"Hmm... Alright, I'll go over now." Zhang Rui stood up. With the palace entry the day after tomorrow, some matters needed to be tested tonight; time was of the essence.

A look of disappointment flashed in Lady Luo's eyes upon hearing this, but she still nodded obediently. "I'll lead husband there."

"Wait!" Cui Yan blurted out in shock. "Miss Nightingale is at your house?"

The top courtesan of the Qingfeng Pavilion, for whom princes and nobles had to queue up just to scatter money?

"She's clamoring to become my husband's concubine!" Lady Luo joked, feigning generosity.

"Really?" Cui Yan stared blankly at Zhang Rui, recalling the complaints the two of them had made back then on the bridge.

In those days, Big Dog had been drunk and made grand declarations: "Don't bully a young man into poverty! Thirty years in the east, thirty years in the west! She's out of reach now, but in a few years, even if she wants to be a concubine, I'll have to think about it!"

Could this kind of empty boast actually be fulfilled?

"Second Dog, sit for a moment." Zhang Rui turned back to look at him. "The two of us brothers will drink and chat tonight." With that, he walked directly to Lady Luo's side. "Wife, shall we go?"

"Alright..."

Cui Yan stood dazed, watching the two of them leave together for a long while before finally snapping back to his senses.

That damn scoundrel!!

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"Is Master Zhang finally willing to come and see me?"

Nightingale looked at Zhang Rui, who had changed into casual clothes, with a grievance-laden expression; the haughty attitude of the previous day had vanished completely.

The moment she arrived at the Zhang residence, she had been watched all day by that little girl in white. The girl hadn't done anything other than sit quietly outside the courtyard, but the evil entity within Nightingale's body had been frightened like a mouse seeing a cat. Having lived with it for over a dozen years, she had never seen it fear anyone like this before.

The capital was a crouching tiger, hidden dragon place, and she had seen plenty of powerful individuals. To name one, Old Master Lu was a top-tier hidden sorcerer, and the high level of the evil entity within him always caused the thing inside her to subconsciously shy away. But being terrified to this extent was a first.

According to intelligence, that young woman was a martial artist, but according to sorcery theory, evil entities feared martial artists the least!

Zhang Rui glanced behind him; Lady Luo was sensible enough to have departed early.

"Your wife is quite tactful. Master Zhang, if you also dismiss that tactless girl outside the courtyard, we can do whatever we please." Nightingale stood up, her graceful figure brimming with allure even when wrapped tightly. Even someone skilled in endurance like Lu Chengfeng would have thoughts upon seeing her, yet for some reason, the gaze this fellow surnamed Zhang cast her way was chillingly indifferent.

This was completely different from back then!

Zhang Rui sighed inwardly. She was undeniably pretty, and a beauty to boot, but unfortunately, she had an evil entity attached to her.

"You're different from other sorcerers. Can the evil entity on you really not be hidden?" Zhang Rui asked the question he had wanted to ask since the first time he saw Nightingale.

When they first met, he had assumed Nightingale was suffering from some kind of haunting, believing it was a means of control used by the Lu family, so he hadn't asked much. He hadn't expected her to be a sorcerer herself.

"You can see it?" Nightingale's expression froze in shock.

Indeed, she could not control the evil entity attached to her. Although she was born with seductive bones and extremely high aptitude, the Lu family had always held back in her cultivation. Thus, unlike ordinary sorcerers who could store evil entities in their Dantian, the evil entity on her could only be concealed through illusion.

This illusion originated from the evil entity itself; even a great sorcerer like the family head couldn't detect it. How could this fellow see it?

Zhang Rui curled the corner of his mouth, immediately understanding. So it was another one of those illusion tricks?

With such a creature clinging to her, it would be a miracle if he felt any interest in her. If Liu Yifiti had a giant maggot crawling all over her, could you get an erection?

"The Lu family said you are an uninitiated sorcerer?" Zhang Rui cut straight to the point.

Nightingale's expression flickered between green and white, turning quite unsightly. In the past, those men who couldn't see the thing on her would be utterly infatuated, and she would secretly sneer, wondering how they would react if they knew her true appearance.

Now she was seeing it—it was this deadpan, desire-free look right in front of her.

"Why is Master Zhang asking this? Surely you don't need an uninitiated sorcerer?" Nightingale said coldly.

Previously, she mocked others for failing to see through it; now that someone had seen through it, she felt a surge of恼羞成怒 (shame turning into anger).

"I actually need one quite a bit." Zhang Rui nodded, curious. "How do you people usually go about it?"

"Are you serious?" Nightingale looked at him in bewilderment. Although she hadn't fully believed this fellow was a formidable sorcerer expert before, his ability to instantly see through her illusion wasn't fake. How could he know nothing about sorcerer initiation?

"Please enlighten me!" Zhang Rui smiled.

He wanted to acquire his own power, and currently, there were two problems before him: first, there was no spiritual energy in the surrounding environment, making it impossible to cultivate in the manner of his discarded web novels; second, there was no inheritance. After all, those were just scrapped web novels, mere fiction. Even if they had a cultivation system, it was just a system, and no novelist would actually write down the genuine cultivation methods—if they had that ability, they'd be founding a religion instead of writing novels.

Therefore, there was no inheritance.

Without inheritance and without spiritual energy, gaining power required taking shortcuts. The Lu family had delivered a fine item to his doorstep, but to utilize that centipede seed, Zhang Rui needed to understand the basic workings of sorcerers.

Namely, how these people extracted power from evil entities.

"The methods are mostly similar." Nightingale frowned as she stood up, pointing to her navel. "Generally speaking, one links their Dantian to the evil entity. All evil entities can absorb vital blood, vital essence, and even the resentment of the deceased. However, none of them possess the ability to digest these rapidly. Humans have this capacity while evil entities do not, which creates the possibility of cooperation. Master Zhang should already know this; although the initiation methods of various great families differ, they are largely the same."

"It amounts to nothing more than channeling qi into the Dantian of a mortal without spiritual power. Disciples who do not yet know how to control evil entities will have their elders capture less dangerous evil entities for them to fuse with. Once they adapt to it once, they naturally master the method of fusing with evil entities. After that, the efficiency of subsequent fusions depends on the individual family's heritage."

Nightingale narrowed her eyes as she looked at Zhang Rui, a thought dawning on her for the first time: could this fellow actually not be a sorcerer at all?

"If that's the case, why can't you do it, Miss Nightingale?" Zhang Rui asked directly.

Nightingale gritted her teeth upon hearing this. "Is Master Zhang deliberately mocking me?"

"I have no intention of mocking you." Zhang Rui shook his head. "I'm being serious. Did the Lu family not let you fuse with that evil entity because you couldn't, or because they wouldn't allow it?"

"What does Master Zhang think?" Nightingale sneered. "If it were you, would you allow a sorcerer outside your family bloodline to master the family's core system?"

"I would..." Zhang Rui nodded immediately.

"See, Master Zhang, you even said—uh? What did... what did you just say?"

"Want to learn?" Zhang Rui looked at the dazed Nightingale. "I'll teach you..."

Nightingale: "!!!"