For the next few days, Zhou Ming greeted Liu Sandao and dove headfirst into the Library of the Yongning Marquis Mansion.

Third-class servants and second-class servants could only go to the designated study rooms.

However, once one reached the level of a steward, a portion of the Yongning Marquis Mansion's Library would be opened to them, and Zhou Ming was free to browse the bottom two floors.

There were not many books on these two floors, only about a thousand volumes, but for a servant of humble origins, being able to see these books was already a tremendous stroke of good fortune.

Come to think of it, this was all thanks to a rival of the Marquis of Yongning from his youth, a young marquis of a Duke's mansion who was quite the bully in his own little corner of the capital.

The rival's background and status were on par with the Marquis of Yongning's.

Back then, the Marquis of Yongning had once clashed with him, only to be unexpectedly defeated in a debate of poetry and prose by the rival's attendant.

In contrast, the attendants by the Marquis of Yongning's own side were illiterate and knew nothing.

Since then, upon returning to the Yongning Marquis Mansion, the Marquis of Yongning had issued an order commanding the attendants in the mansion to read, write, and Cultivate literary talent.

This rule had been passed down ever since, and after the Marquis of Yongning came of age and established his own mansion, it became the established rule that all stewards and servants of the Yongning Marquis Mansion must be literate.

In truth, this was only the case in the Yongning Marquis Mansion; other noble households did not have such treatment.

Zhou Ming dove into the Library, primarily selecting books that would help him understand this world to read through.

According to what he learned, the Great Xia Dynasty had been founded for over six hundred years and possessed a profound foundation.

The territory of the Great Xia Dynasty started from the border of the Great Yan Dynasty in the west and reached the boundary of the Great Yuan Dynasty in the north.

To the east, it was blocked by a continuous mountain range called Duanyun Ridge; it was said that the terrain was so treacherous that even birds could barely cross it, and for hundreds of years, no one had opened a path to the other side of the mountain range.

To the south lay the vast, endless sea, where fishermen had made a living by fishing for generations, yet they could not say what land lay on the other side of the sea.

A great river named the Wuding River flowed from north to south, traversing the entire territory; its source was in the mountains within the Great Yuan Dynasty, and it surged 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 currently resided, was the northernmost of the Nine Provinces, bordering the frontier of the Great Yuan Dynasty.

According to the information he pieced together from books, further north, past the territory of the Great Yuan Dynasty, was a vast, primitive forest known as the Endless Forest.

Legend had it that on the other side of the forest lay an even more vast world, where merchants traveled endlessly and experts were as numerous as hair on an ox.

But this was only a legend, because no one had ever been able to cross that forest alive; those who had gone either turned back halfway or never returned.

During the days Zhou Ming spent reading in the Library, the Causality Web between his brows had not stopped for a single moment.

The over one hundred thousand newly formed phantoms had all solidified within a few days, steadily transforming into Causal Chains hanging within the web.

And new phantoms were still emerging continuously, growing at a scale of tens of thousands every day.

Zhou Ming had now developed a habit.

He would glance at the Causality Web every morning and evening to confirm it was expanding normally, then he would put the matter aside with peace of mind and stop thinking about it.

That afternoon, news came from the main residence: the Eldest Miss was returning.

The gatekeeper of the Yongning Marquis Mansion was the first to be notified, and then the news spread like spilled mercury through every courtyard and room.

The stewards, servants, and guards of the Begonia Court all sprang into action; those sweeping the courtyard swept the inside and outside of the main gate once more.

The Kitchen fires were stoked brightly again, and Liu Sandao tied on his faded blue cloth apron, standing back before the stove where he cooked for the Eldest Miss.

The rhythmic thudding of chopping vegetables had been sounding from morning until now.

According to the rules of the Yongning Marquis Mansion, when the Eldest Miss returned from a long journey, all servant-stewards were required to go to the main gate to welcome her.

As Zhou Ming was now the Kitchen steward, he was naturally among them.

He changed into clean clothes and waited early outside the main gate of the Yongning Marquis Mansion with the other stewards of the Begonia Court.

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

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

The Eldest Miss's convoy appeared at the end of the street corner, as the setting sun slanted down from the west, gilding the entire procession with a thin layer of gold.

At the very front of the convoy were four guards clearing the way, with waist sabers hanging at their saddles, riding uniform black horses, their hoofbeats perfectly synchronized.

Following closely behind was the Eldest Miss's carriage, the carriage body crafted from dark wood, with the curtains hanging low, making it impossible to see who was sitting inside.

Further behind was the accompanying entourage, but to Zhou Ming's surprise, apart from Empress Su Mingyue in the carriage, everyone else, including Chunlan, Dongmei, and the other senior maidservants, were all riding tall horses.

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

Several second and third-class maidservants were also riding their own horses, with bows, arrows, and light crossbows hanging from their saddles.

The aura of sheltered boudoir ladies, which was usually strictly suppressed by the rules in the Yongning Marquis Mansion, had been replaced by a sharp and spirited demeanor.

This formation did not look like a group of maidservants who had long lived in the inner chambers, but rather like female guards from a military family.

Just as Zhou Ming was attracted by this formation, he subconsciously glanced at the heads of the people riding the tall horses, and was immediately stunned.

Chunlan, Dongmei, those second and third-class maidservants, and the guards on the perimeter—every single one of them had a Causal Chain hanging above their heads.

Not phantoms, but Causal Chains that had completely solidified, each one thick and sturdy, shimmering in the setting sun with a luster that only Zhou Ming could see.

Especially the one above Dongmei's head; it was countless times thicker than when he had first discovered it, steadily solidified above her hair bun.

The carriage stopped at the main gate, the curtain was lifted from the outside, and Empress Su Mingyue stepped down onto the footstool.

She was still wearing the same plain, smoky-blue long jacket she had worn when she left; it had no embroidery, only a very thin, silver-white trim pressed along the collar.

However, this garment was no longer crisp from the wind and sand of the long journey; the cuffs were slightly curled, and there was an inconspicuous gray smudge on the lapel.

There was no makeup on her face, and the cold, indifferent air between her brows remained as it was, yet there was something indescribable added to it.

It was like a blade that had been repeatedly tempered; after being unsheathed and resheathed, the blade was still the same blade, but it was thinner, colder, and more silent than before.

Then Zhou Ming looked at her head, and there was nothing.

Clean, with neither a Causal Chain nor a phantom.

It formed a sharp contrast with the guards and maidservants around her, all of whom had Causal Chains above their heads.

Zhou Ming was stunned at first, then he chuckled inwardly.

This was too normal.

With the ways of these noble clans, how could they possibly let their direct Bloodline Cultivate a Cultivation Technique of unknown origin?

Even if the Dushi Sutra could allow one to quickly achieve the Skin Refining Realm in just a few days, they would not take the risk.

The approach of noble clans was always to experiment repeatedly first, using people as fodder, and only after they were certain that the Cultivation Technique had no hidden dangers and its origin was completely understood, would they consider letting their direct descendants touch it.

Before that, even if this Cultivation Technique could allow a Mortal to ascend to the heavens and become an immortal in one step, they could resist the temptation.

Or rather, they didn't need to be tempted at all, because there were as many maidservants, guards, and family retainers as they needed to test the Cultivation Technique for them.