In the blink of an eye, five days had passed.

Zhou Ming's life was extremely routine:

Wake up, go to the Kitchen to eat, go to the Martial Arts Training Ground to tell stories, return to the Kitchen for lunch, go back to the Martial Arts Training Ground to tell more stories, return to the Kitchen for dinner, and go back to his room to sleep.

The entire routine was as precise as the shadow on a sundial, and every day was exactly like a copy-paste of the last.

Two days ago, he had "healed" his feigned limp, and his gait had returned to normal. However, he still deliberately slowed his pace, not daring to appear too agile all at once.

Dongmei had completely forgotten her original intention for calling Zhou Ming to the Martial Arts Training Ground.

Terms like Monkey Fist and Horse Stance had been absent from her mouth for a full five days.

In their place were questions like, "What happened to that swordsman later?", "Can that broken sword actually be mended?", and "What did you mean when you said that villain wasn't as simple as he seemed yesterday?"

Her small stool had been moved from the center of the Martial Arts Training Ground to the coolest spot under the shade of a tree. Next to it, there was even a small tea table, holding a pot of herbal tea and two coarse porcelain bowls.

Zhou Ming's own seating had also been upgraded from the dirt ground.

At some point, a short wooden stump had appeared; although it was uncomfortable to sit on, it was still better than sitting on the ground.

However, Zhou Ming's worries did not diminish as his days became more comfortable.

Three days ago, the more than one hundred new Causal Chains that had appeared between his eyebrows had all solidified.

Each one had transformed into a solid thread, hanging within the Causality Web, shimmering with a luster only he could see, alongside the Causal Chains of Fang Yuan and Zhuzi.

But since then, the number of Causal Chains had not increased at all—not even by one.

There were no new additions, nor any breakages; they just hung there, as if frozen in place.

For the past two days, Zhou Ming had been waiting, occasionally focusing his mind to look between his eyebrows.

He had even developed a habit: every so often, he would sink his consciousness in to take a glance, only to find everything exactly the same each time.

This made him somewhat anxious.

If the scripture did not spread, the Causal Chains would not increase, and the speed at which he grew stronger would be slowed down.

Although he currently possessed the strength of the second level of Qi Refining by relying on the few broken Causal Chains.

But what level was the second level of Qi Refining considered in this world?

Was it enough to protect himself?

He had no bottom line in his heart; he was even tempted to sneak out of the estate again to spread the scripture.

At night, he lay in bed with his hands behind his head, staring blankly at a small patch of spiderweb that had newly formed on the roof beam.

Out of habit, he sank his consciousness into the Causality Web between his eyebrows again, scanned it listlessly, and prepared to turn over and sleep.

Then, he sat up abruptly.

Between his eyebrows, the first batch of Causal Chains that had appeared were breaking one by one.

Zhou Ming widened his eyes, staring at that Causality Web.

Those that were breaking were the very first Causal Chains he had planted with his own hands.

These were the ones he had planted on the first day he snuck out of the Marquis's estate, when he traded white flour buns for the beggars in the ruined temple outside the city to recite the text.

Now, he could recognize the arrangement and thickness of those Causal Chains even with his eyes closed.

He was all too familiar with these Causal Chains.

They were the thinnest and weakest in the entire Causality Web.

From the first day they were planted, they hadn't grown any thicker, always maintaining that malnourished appearance.

Now, they were dimming one by one, cracking, the threads at both ends silently scattering, their luster extinguishing, and vanishing completely from the Causality Web.

Zhou Ming counted subconsciously. One. Two. Three. Four. He counted all the way to nine.

The nine beggars in the ruined temple—all of them had broken.

Not a single one remained.

He sat on the bed, his eyes open in the darkness, his mood unexpectedly calm.

He felt no anger.

To put it bluntly, the life and death of these beggars really didn't have much to do with him.

From beginning to end, not a single one of them had recited it a hundred times, not one had cultivated any magical power, and not even a trace of Qi sensation had been produced in their Dantian.

Even if they died, he wouldn't inherit any cultivation base.

When he taught them to recite the scripture, it was merely to test the rules of his Golden Finger.

The facts proved that the rules were indeed real; it was just that this group of people hadn't lived up to expectations.

Yet he was puzzled.

Very puzzled.

A group of beggars living in a ruined temple, the most lowly and insignificant ants in Yuyang Commandery—who would go out of their way to kill them?

Not killing one or two, but all nine of them, not a single one left.

This matter reeked of something strange.

Could it be the Marquis's estate?

After the Marquis's estate pried the origin of the scripture from Zhuzi's mouth, did they follow the trail to the ruined temple?

In order to thoroughly investigate the source of the scripture, did they send people overnight to the ruined temple to take care of those beggars?

It was possible.

Noble families had always operated with the style of rather killing one hundred innocent people than letting one guilty person escape.

But there was another possibility.

It was done by the people behind the more than one hundred newly solidified Causal Chains.

Perhaps some noble family had discovered the secret of the scripture and, fearing it would leak, sent people to clean up all traces of those who might have come into contact with it.

Although those beggars hadn't succeeded in cultivation, they had, after all, recited the scripture. In the eyes of those with ulterior motives, they were living witnesses who had to be erased.

Zhou Ming had no way of knowing the truth.

He sat in the darkness for a while, then lay back down on the bed, channeling the two strands of Qi in his Dantian to slowly circulate twice, as if to soothe himself in this way.

Regardless of who did it, the affair at the ruined temple no longer had any direct relation to him.

Early the next morning, Zhou Ming got up as usual and went to the Kitchen to eat breakfast.

This morning, Liu Sandao had made millet porridge with scallion pancakes. Zhou Ming ate two pancakes and drank two bowls of porridge, filling his stomach completely, and then headed to the Martial Arts Training Ground as usual.

When he reached the perimeter of the Martial Arts Training Ground, he saw that Dongmei was already sitting on her small stool under the old locust tree.

Walking closer, he habitually glanced above her head, and his footsteps came to an abrupt halt.

Above Dongmei's head, there was an extra Causal Chain.

Zhou Ming thought his eyes were playing tricks on him; he blinked hard, then focused his mind to look again.

There was indeed a Causal Chain hanging above Dongmei's head.

That Causal Chain was still very faint, very pale, almost translucent, as if it would dissipate with a gust of wind, but it undeniably existed, with one end connected to Dongmei and the other disappearing in the direction of his eyebrows.

When did Dongmei acquire the Dushi Sutra?

Several possibilities flashed through Zhou Ming's mind in an instant.

Dongmei was Empress Su Mingyue's head maid and had always lived in seclusion within Begonia Court; it was impossible for her to have obtained the scripture he had distributed earlier without his knowledge.

There was only one possibility: Empress Su Mingyue had already obtained the Dushi Sutra.

Taking the speculation further, it must have been that after Madam Zhao pried the scripture from Zhuzi's mouth, she had copied a version and given it to the Young Miss.

The Young Miss then had her personal maid try it first.

All of this had happened within a few short days, and Dongmei had only just begun to recite it.

That was why her Causal Chain was still very faint; by comparison, the previous batch of solidified Causal Chains must have been the result of others in the estate reciting it.

This logic locked into place in Zhou Ming's mind, and he could find almost no flaws in it.

Regarding how to handle this Causal Chain of Dongmei's, his first reaction was that he wasn't very happy about it.

He couldn't put his finger on why it felt awkward.

Perhaps it was because Dongmei sat under the same tree with him every day—he told stories and she listened—and he had grown accustomed to this pure relationship that was untainted by anything else.

Now, without her knowledge, a Causal Chain connecting her to him hung above her head; it was like dropping a drop of ink into a cup of plain water.

But he also understood that the scripture had already spread within the Marquis's estate, and this was an irreversible trend.

"Zhou Ming? What are you spacing out over there for? Hurry up and come over!" Dongmei's voice came from under the shade of the tree.

Zhou Ming snapped out of it, composed his expression, walked over, and sat on his wooden stump.

"Today, I'll tell you about the six major Schools besieging Bright Peak." He cleared his throat and began.

But as he told the story, he realized that today, not only was he distracted, but Dongmei was distracted as well.

She sat on her small stool, holding her tea bowl without taking a single sip, her gaze fixed in the direction of the bamboo forest, wondering what she was thinking about.

When Zhou Ming reached the part where Zhang Wuji learned the Great Shift of Heaven and Earth, Dongmei just hummed in acknowledgment without asking any follow-up questions.

Zhou Ming continued to tell how Zhang Wuji appeared at Bright Peak; Dongmei hummed again, still without asking follow-up questions.

When Zhou Ming told the third turning point that should have made her slap her thigh in excitement, she didn't even bother with a "hmm" and just stared straight at the bamboo forest, as if she were wrestling with the bamboo.

Zhou Ming couldn't continue either and stopped talking.

Dongmei snapped back to reality and waved her hand impatiently: "You go back first. Let's leave it at that for today; we'll listen again in a couple of days."

Returning to the Kitchen, Zhou Ming sat on his usual stool, holding a bowl of herbal tea, and sank his consciousness into the Causality Web between his eyebrows.

Sure enough, there were a dozen or so new Causal Chains.

Unlike the previous hundred or so, most of these dozen or so were still very faint, clearly planted just a short while ago.

He looked at them one by one and found Dongmei's among them; hers was one of the weakest and faintest among all the newly added Causal Chains.

She must have just started reciting it, and currently, she had probably only read it a few times.