West City, Chu Mansion.

Since Chu Ming moved in this morning, many nobles and merchants have been sending congratulatory gifts one after another.

His promotion to Imperial Scholar was not deliberately publicized, but these visiting dignitaries and noblemen were obviously well-informed.

The position of Imperial Scholar is merely a Senior Eighth Grade, a significant official rank in Baiyuan County, but not very prominent in a county city like Xirong County.

However, the duties of an Imperial Scholar are quite special, involving the management of books, compilation of exam questions for county trials, inaugural examinations, etc.

Many of those who came with gifts were targeting the power of compiling questions for the county trial and inaugural examinations; their intentions can be easily inferred.

Besides that, some people who are more well-informed know that Chu Ming, this Imperial Scholar, was personally promoted by County Magistrate Xiao He, so they wanted to make friendly overtures.

But without exception, no one was able to meet Chu Ming, though a considerable amount of gifts did make it into the Chu Mansion.

Chu Ming was helpless about this; the servants, retainers, and guards of the mansion were all directly arranged by the Commandery Mansion, making the personnel relations quite complex.

He thought that if Housekeeper Fang were here, he would certainly manage things very well.

Little Shan wanted to help, but...

At this moment, Little Shan brought a list to the room where Chu Ming was located.

"Young Master, this is the list of gifts sent today, just delivered by Uncle Yu."

The Uncle Yu mentioned by Little Shan was Yu Cheng, the one sent by County Magistrate Xiao He to help Chu Ming manage the mansion.

Yu Cheng had been at the mansion for half a day and had put many affairs in order, including the record of gifts.

Every gift, who sent it, and what was sent, had to be clearly recorded.

This gift list was not only given to Chu Ming but also sent to the Commandery Mansion for the record.

Chu Ming took the list and glanced over it, finding gifts from more than a hundred nobles and merchants.

Merchants comprised around eighty percent of the list; practically every notable merchant in Xirong County was on it.

The remaining twenty percent were officials, ranging from ninth-grade to sixth-grade officials, with none above sixth grade visible.

In Xirong County, a fifth-grade official is someone with enormous power; the Inspector General of the Imperial Examination Hall is also just a fifth-grade official.

Such grand figures would certainly not send gifts to an eighth-grade Imperial Scholar.

Chu Ming’s eyes suddenly flashed when he scanned the latter part of the list.

"Wan Family... twenty pieces of jewelry, three thousand taels of silver, one hundred taels of gold."

The list included congratulatory gifts from the Wan Family.

An enemy sending gifts was inherently intriguing, but what was most peculiar was that the Wan Family’s gift quantity far exceeded those of other merchants.

Normal merchants’ gifts included two or three pieces of jewelry and a thousand taels of silver, with larger ones offering five or six pieces of jewelry and one thousand five hundred taels of silver.

But the Wan Family’s gift quantity was three to four times larger.

Chu Ming appeared contemplative.

The Wan Family sending such hefty gifts was certainly not an act of goodwill.

He set down the list, his face remained as calm as ever.

In the face of absolute strength, any conspiracy and trickery would become futile.

The Mountain and Sea Tiger and Python Blood Refining Scripture - Refining the Internal Organs had currently been deduced to the Middle Internal Organ Stage, with six of the eleven-colored arches over the Cultivation Technique Lake having already solidified.

This meant that he could currently cultivate to the realm of three organs and three viscera.

He had already completed nurturing two organs and one viscera, typically one organ or one viscera per day.

In three more days, he could achieve three organs and three viscera.

According to Chu Ming’s plan, once refining the internal organs reached perfection, he would eliminate the Wan Family’s threat.

There were very few at the Refining Organ Perfection level even within the Tiger Armor Army; commanders like Huo Buyan were only at the late stage or perfection.

Once he completed this cultivation step, no one in Xirong County could stop him.

Chu Ming sat cross-legged, surrounded by piles of books.

"After the sixth path of the rainbow bridge solidified, the speed slowed down. I need to make the most of my time reading."

The deduction of Mountain and Sea Tiger and Python Blood Refining Scripture - Refining the Internal Organs is based on the three Great Lakes. The Cultivation Technique Lake and Mountain Scripture Lake cannot be expanded for the time being, only the Book collection Lake can be continuously expanded by reading.

As each book was read, fragments would occasionally gather over the Book collection Lake and fall into the lake once they reached a certain weight.

The Book collection Lake then transported the lake water via bridges to the eleven-colored rainbow bridge over the Cultivation Technique Lake.

Thus, by late afternoon, the seventh-colored rainbow bridge had solidified.

Chu Ming didn’t stop, continuing to use the numerous abilities of Reading, persistently flipping through books.

With the ’Nothing Escapes the Eye’ ability unlocked through the Reading skill cap break, progress had slowed considerably and was now only at ’37’.

Ordinary books like poetry and song compositions, politics and history, even after reading stacks of them, wouldn’t increase the progress by more than a point.

He had speculated that this might be due to severe homogeneity.

After all, his ability was that anything read could be accumulated into the Book collection Lake and remain in his memory, making this phenomenon understandable.

Chu Ming got up to light the candles and looked at Little Shan, who was busy outside, with a bit of helplessness.

Since Little Shan moved in this morning, she hadn’t stopped once.

This courtyard was still named ’West Willow Garden,’ the same as in Baiyuan County.

And the reason for Little Shan’s constant hustle was simple: to make the new courtyard just like Baiyuan County, or more accurately, like Liuu Town.

Because this little girl said, Young Master was used to it.

Little Shan had said the same thing back at Baiyuan County.

"Young Master, the meal isn’t ready yet." Little Shan continued with her arranging and cleaning work after delivering a pot of hot tea.

Chu Ming returned to his desk and kept on leafing through the books.

The role of an Imperial Scholar usually had little work, only becoming busier when nearing the county trial and inaugural examinations.

County trials only happened once a year, and there was still over half a year until the next one, and inaugural examinations were about the same.

In essence, an Imperial Scholar was a leisurely position with special privileges.

Besides the main duties of the Imperial Scholar, Chu Ming also had to do another task—deciphering the Mountain Scripture.

But... he had finished deciphering the Mountain Scripture long ago, now he only needed to release progress daily, which basically required no time.

Thus, Chu Ming had ample time to expand the Book collection Lake.

The effectiveness of ’Nothing Escapes the Eye’ was remarkable; a book like Poetry, Politics, and Military, with its thickness, could be finished in just half an hour to an hour at the current speed.

Normal books were even faster to go through.

Chu Ming would pull a book with his left hand, laid it open on the table, followed by the sound of rapidly flipping pages, and within a quarter of an hour or less, the book would be tossed to the right side.

He repeated this process, with the books on his left dwindling rapidly while the books on the right piled up.

He now faintly felt that the more books he read, the greater his Spiritual Power became—different from the physical enhancements aimed at robust health.

This Spiritual Power seemed more like what he had uncovered after exploring the mental suppression effect of Sword Gourd Spirit.

"Sword Gourd Spirit..." he frowned slightly.

While the Sword Gourd Spirit was already at perfection and even allowed him to derive the effect of mental suppression, unlike Reading, it had not yet broken any boundaries.

On the panel:

[Sword Gourd Spirit (Perfection)]

[Evaluation: Comprehended through extensive reading of travelogues, enhances perception, can be actively initiated, allows inner vision, detailed observation of the surrounding environment, or rough outer vision of others’ Qi Blood strength]

The Sword Gourd Spirit granted three major special effects: inner vision, detailed observation, and probing Qi Blood strength, each tremendously beneficial to Chu Ming.

Mental suppression wasn’t listed among these, yet it was a tangible effect, as evidenced by intimidating the Blazing Fire Tiger Horse at the Tiger Armor Army camp.