Chapter Sixteen: Entering the Imperial Court

  The three of them rushed back to the academy and briefly recounted what had happened. Xun Shuang listened very carefully, afraid that they might have missed a single detail.

  "Divine Envoy, I've lived for so many years and have never heard of any Divine Envoy. But judging from the moves that black-clad person made, it's undoubtedly a Daoist divine ability. This 'Qimen Dunjia' is actually a compilation of both Yin-Yang and Daoist schools. The inner temple of the Daoist sect must be hiding this book, why would they need to steal it from here? Zhibo, you don't have any divine abilities, take this 'Qimen Dunjia' away and study it carefully."

  Xun Shuang appreciated Zhang Rui, this young man, who had resilience and perseverance. It would be a pity if such a person were to remain ordinary. This "Qimen Dunjia" is like mechanical skills, even those without spiritual powers can learn it. I might as well give it to this kid to take care of.

  Back in the dormitory, Zhang Rui was still unable to calm down for a long time. Although Xun Shuang didn't know about the divine envoy, it didn't mean that Zhang Rui didn't know either. This was probably another one of Zhang Jiao's tricks, but as Zhang Jiao's master, Nan Hua seemed to be turning a blind eye to this matter. It really fit the Daoist character of non-action.

  Zhang Rui opened "Qimen Dunjia", and felt that the content inside was incredibly mysterious, covering astronomy, geography, numerology, yin-yang, five elements, eight trigrams and so on. With his own intelligence quotient, even using 21st-century knowledge, he couldn't understand it thoroughly. It seemed like he had no fate with this book.

  "Stupid kid, are you really going to study it? As far as I know, the book 'Qimen Dunjia' is even older than my birth year, how could there be no book spirit inside? Have you forgotten how you brought me out?"

  "Right, I forgot about that." Zhang Rui patted his forehead. Once Guo Jia and Xi Zhi fell asleep, they could proceed with the plan to deceive Shu Ling.

  At night, after Xi Zhi and Guo Jia had fallen asleep, Zhang Rui opened the book and let himself recover to a state of emptiness. He began to flip through the pages again. This world seemed to still have some rules, just like this book that was read a hundred times, it actually worked. Zhang Rui once again descended into the world of the Book Spirit.

  This time's world is a circular yin-yang boundary, and the passage is naturally S-shaped. The surroundings are also filled with black and white light.

  "Little one, who are you and how did you enter this realm of yin and yang?" a voice faintly came.

  "Senior, I am a student of the Yingchuan Academy, and I was studying the art of Qimen Dunjia. I don't know how I ended up here." Zhang Rui seemed to have more experience than last time.

  "Little one, you truly are a person with great luck, to have entered the realm of reading books a hundred times. Unbeknownst to you, many sages and gods among the various schools have not even reached this realm. If you're willing to stay here and study with me for ten or eight years, you'll absolutely become a god-like figure; if you're willing to stay for several decades, reaching the realm of a quasi-sage is also not impossible."

  This book spirit is also too lonely, and it actually starts to persuade Zhang Rui to stay in this yin-yang realm to accompany itself.

  "It's not possible, it's not possible. In this world of yin and yang, there are only the two of us, how boring is that." Trying to deceive Zhang Rui, that would be a joke. Unbeknownst to him, in the 21st century, what's most valuable is a scammer. Damn, just searching on Baidu, there are countless scams. There are those who pretend to be ill, those who claim to be pregnant, those who say they have no money to go home, those who sell their bodies to bury their fathers, and even those who scam people into marriage, etc., etc., too many to count.

  Then Zhang Rui talked about other people's delicious food, fun places, beautiful scenery and famous rivers.

  "Indeed, Shū Líng said on the way: 'Since there are so many fun things, do you want to go out?'"

  "Of course I want to, I still have many things to attend to, how can I waste time here."

  "I can help you get out, but you also have to agree to one condition." Fooled again, indeed fooled again.

  "Haha, what conditions? You speak quickly, I'll agree to them all."

  "It's nothing much, just that you have to take me with you when you go out. Since I was created in this world, I've never seen the outside world before. It sounds so interesting what you're saying."

  "Alright! Let's go out now."

  Just like last time, the book spirit entered Zhang Rui's mind again, but this time it didn't bring the same nourishment to his entire body as before. Zhang Rui only felt two streams of spiritual light traveling along the meridians towards his eyes.

  Zhang Rui felt that his eyes were very comfortable, as if they were being moistened by water. Gradually, Zhang Rui's eyes began to change, one turning white and the other black, at this moment Zhang Rui had a feeling that he could see through the world with just one glance.

  Zhang Rui looked through his eyes and saw the parents on earth, leading himself to buy clothes, as if he had just finished the college entrance examination and successfully entered university. The new self in the new clothes happily went out to find Xiao Wen to watch a movie... All these scenes were truly reflected in Zhang Rui's eyes.

  It's good this way, it seems that the self on earth hasn't disappeared after all, I no longer belong to that world, as long as my parents are happy and there is that girl... Zhang Rui's heart can finally be at ease.

  Open your eyes, still in the dormitory where you are, your own eyes have become somewhat different, seemingly seeing farther and more detailed. Open the door, people outside the academy come and go, is this what they call "thousand-mile eye spirit communication"? It's going to be so convenient to sneak a peek at girls taking baths from now on.

  Shake off this unreliable idea. Zhang Rui woke up Xi Zhi and Guo Jia, and they started their morning exercise.

  ..

  In the previous life, there was a famous saying: The fastest and slowest, longest and shortest, most ordinary and most precious, easiest to be ignored by people, and also the easiest to make people regret is time.

  Two years passed in the blink of an eye. In 183 AD, 19-year-old Zhang Rui grew a bit taller and was already 1.85 meters tall. The rustic farmer still looked the same, while Guo Jia's little ghost head had caught up with him due to better nutrition and had grown quite a bit taller.

  For the past two years, the three brothers have been supporting and encouraging each other. They found joy in the dull cultivation, and their days were rich and comfortable. Zhang Rui's progress over the past two years can only be described as rapid, and to distinguish between the two major book spirits, they are called Xiao Mo and Yin Yang.

  It's meaningless to stay in the academy any longer, and next year the large-scale Yellow Turban Rebellion will erupt, so I must make early preparations.

  "Zhi Bo brother, can't you not go?" Little Guo Jia said reluctantly. Xi Zhi had always been a humble door, and going to Luoyang would only add trouble, while Guo Jia was still young, so the two continued to stay at the academy.

  "I'll go ahead and pave the way for the two of you, to lay a good foundation for the future. You both work hard on your studies, I will write to you often. Goodbye brothers."

  Zhang Rui took out the dragon's wings, and under the gaze of Xi Zhi and Guo Jia, slowly rose high and flew far away. Xun Shuang in the distance also withdrew his gaze, a good man's ambition is in all directions, and this time it was reflected in that sentence: The qilin is not an object in the pool, once it encounters wind and clouds, it transforms into a dragon.

  Don't deceive the white-bearded old man, don't deceive the poor young man. There will be a day when the dragon wears phoenix clothes, and there will be a day when pants are worn with holes. It's really the world of young people now, Xun Shuang thought to himself if he should also retire, turned around and walked towards the principal's office.