Ability Exchange

After a sigh, Li Nuo accepted reality.

A working stiff was still better than being dead, even if it meant being tired.

He picked up a copy of the Book of Law and prepared to study it carefully.

The cultivation of the Legalist school wasn't particularly complex. The first step was to diligently study the works of the Legalist sages, to understand their proposals and grasp their philosophies. Of course, just like the Confucian school, studying alone wasn't enough for Legalist cultivation.

The Confucian school aimed to govern the world, while the Legalist school aimed to enforce laws. Both paths required entering officialdom.

Li Nuo could skip this step. Thanks to his father's status, he could adjudicate cases even as a commoner.

This made the cultivation process very simple for him. He could handle cases at the County Office during the day and study Legalist classics at night. If things went quickly, he could truly enter the Legalist school in a year or two; if slowly, in three to five years.

For ordinary people, cultivating the Legalist school was somewhat difficult.

Although Legalists could grow stronger simply by judging cases, the prerequisite was judging them correctly. If a case was judged wrongly, their cultivation could even regress instead of advance. This feedback on cultivation wouldn't manifest immediately but would accumulate over time, leading to a qualitative change from quantitative changes.

Therefore, even Legalists couldn't determine if a case was judged correctly or not by observing changes in their cultivation.

Fortunately, Li Nuo wasn't ordinary.

The Codex would tell him immediately whether he had judged correctly or not.

The Legalist school controlled rules. Even a novice could wield some simple power of heaven and earth.

For example, the art of confinement was a skill possessed only by those in the fourth realm of Martial Arts. However, the Legalist art of confinement differed from the Martial Arts' object manipulation. Object manipulation essentially involved using one's True Qi to control objects, whereas the art of confinement touched upon the very origin of heaven and earth. The power of origin was something only those in the sixth realm of Martial Arts could control.

Of course, the amount of heavenly power they could control differed vastly.

One would need to cultivate the Legalist school to the sixth realm to possess the strength to contend with experts of the sixth realm of Martial Arts.

"Uphold the rule of law, reform and strengthen the nation, beneficial in the present, with merits that last for ages..." Li Nuo copied down important passages while reading to deepen his memory. However, after writing a few characters, he noticed something was wrong.

While the handwriting on the paper wasn't extremely ugly, it certainly wasn't beautiful.

Li Nuo was all too familiar with this handwriting; it was his own. Yet, during the day, he could write in the elegant "hairpin flower" style of the Female Assassin, but at night, he reverted to his original form.

Li Nuo immediately thought of the Codex.

After bringing up the Codex, Li Nuo quickly discovered the anomaly.

The portrait of the Female Assassin had become much dimmer than before, like the difference between a color photograph and a black-and-white one. It wasn't just her; the portrait of the goatee-wearing thief on the second page had also darkened.

Among the four portraits, only the concubine of Steward Zheng was bright.

Three portraits were dim, and one was bright. The difference was that the portrait of the merchant named Cui Ze on the fourth page had never been bright from the beginning.

Li Nuo fell into thought. The dimming of the Female Assassin's portrait meant his handwriting had reverted to its original state. This indicated that the abilities he gained from apprehending people were not permanent but had a time limit. Judging by the time, this limit was likely one day.

He had thought they were permanent skills, but it turned out to be a one-day trial. Li Nuo was slightly disappointed.

He had to admit, her handwriting was quite beautiful and pleasing to the eye. If only his own handwriting were that good... Just as this thought arose in Li Nuo's mind, he saw the Female Assassin's portrait light up again.

After a slight pause, Li Nuo realized something. He picked up his brush and wrote a few characters on the paper. As expected, the characters flowing from his brush transformed back into the beautiful "hairpin flower" style.

Though his ability had returned, Li Nuo wasn't particularly happy.

There was no such thing as a free lunch in this world; everything came at a price.

He immediately stood up and examined his body carefully. He found no missing parts and felt no discomfort.

Only then did Li Nuo relax and close the Codex.

His gaze inadvertently swept across the cover of the Codex, then immediately shifted back.

"Name: Li Nuo."

"Lifespan: Twenty-five days."

Li Nuo's body trembled, his face filled with disbelief. No, he had twenty-six days of lifespan just a moment ago, how could it suddenly be one day less?

It wasn't even midnight yet, and the sky outside wasn't dark!

Wait, could it be that the price for lighting up the Female Assassin's portrait and regaining her calligraphy ability was his own lifespan?

Although his lifespan had only decreased by one day, for Li Nuo, who had less than a month left, this was still a significant blow. What was the use of good handwriting? Moreover, it was highly likely that what he had exchanged for a day of his lifespan was merely a one-day calligraphy trial, a complete waste of life.

It took Li Nuo a quarter of an hour to recover from the heartache.

He could only comfort himself, thinking that even trial cards had their benefits. At least, he didn't have to worry about accidentally pilfering things and getting caught one day, which would be a huge embarrassment.

However, the concubine's lover's portrait had always been dim. Did that mean he had no notable abilities or specialties?

As for Steward Zheng's concubine, although her portrait was bright, Li Nuo had no idea what ability he had gained from her. The Codex offered no hints about these things; he could only discover them himself.

Li Nuo shook his head, let out a long sigh, and temporarily put these thoughts aside, burying himself in his books again.

Steward Wu stood outside the window, watching Li Nuo read diligently. A look of relief and joy appeared on his face.

He knew it; how could the Master's son be an idiot?

Compared to the Young Master he knew before, the current Young Master truly resembled Minister of Justice Li Xuanjing's son.

He had watched both the Master and the Young Master grow up. These past two days, he finally saw a shadow of the Master in his youth in the Young Master. They were equally intelligent and quick-witted, equally diligent and studious. Even their looks were as handsome as each other.

People said the Young Master wasn't worthy of the Young Madam. Now, it seemed, with one skilled in governance and the other in martial arts, they were a match made in heaven.

As he thought this, a figure walked in from outside the courtyard. Steward Wu saw her and quickly bowed, "Young Madam..."

Li Nuo was reading in his room when he heard a knock at the door.

He opened the door and saw Song Jiaren standing outside. He felt a little uneasy, wondering if she was there about him stealing the purse.

Seeing the woman raise her hand, Li Nuo instinctively shielded his head.

Song Jiaren tucked a stray strand of hair behind her forehead and said, "Get ready and come with me..."

As dusk fell, a luxurious carriage pulled out of the Li Manor.

Li Nuo sat inside the carriage. So his wife hadn't been looking for him to settle scores. Today was the sixtieth birthday of the Song family's old matriarch. As a granddaughter, Song Jiaren needed to return to the manor to celebrate, and as her husband, Li Nuo had to accompany her. He was supposed to go earlier in the day, but he had been at the County Office all day and was now going, which was actually a bit late.

Li Nuo had heard from Steward Wu that the Song family were military nobles of Great Xia. When Great Xia was founded, they had followed the High Ancestor and made significant contributions. Although they were not as powerful as they once were, they were still a distinguished family in Chang'an.

The Li family, on the other hand, came from humble beginnings. It was only from his father's generation that they entered officialdom. Li Nuo could be considered a genuine second-generation official of the Li family.

It was said that Li Nuo's father and Song Jiaren's father were close friends in their youth. At the time, both their wives were pregnant. They made a pact: if they both had sons or both had daughters, they would become sworn brothers. If they had one boy and one girl, they would be married. Thus, the current situation came about.

This made Li Nuo sigh with emotion. For a promise made over a decade ago, the Song family was willing to marry such an outstanding daughter to a fool. The ancients truly kept their word.

However, the Song family didn't entirely lose out.

From a personal perspective, his wife marrying him was like a toad getting a swan, or the finest cabbage being fed to a pig.

But from a family perspective, the marriage between the Song and Li families was a complete climb onto a high branch.

Even Song Jiaren's uncle, the current head of the Song family, was only a fifth-rank military officer.

His own father, however, was a third-rank official in the court. There was a full four-rank difference between their positions, and the power and resources they controlled were worlds apart.

Looking at it this way, he was actually the cabbage