Chapter 48

After arguing for a while, Zhang Gui finally understood.

It turned out that the process of his Divine Cong evolution was quite long, and it was already the night of New Year's Eve.

Outside the house, the spring rain was like a tide.

Inside the house, Qiedan Jiena stood by the bed, touching Zhang Gui's forehead, wiping her tears and pulling him as she said:

"It's good that the fever has gone down.

Guigui, you must be very filial to your Amu in the future.

She was so upset this time because of your dizziness.

She almost set fire to the house of your heartless father, and even broke into the main residence of the Pingyang Zhang family.

She said if anything happened to you, she would crash into the stone lion at the ancestral hall,

and ask the Zhang family ancestors: for a child in the family, even if he is not a legitimate son and his status is not enough, he was exhausted to the point of fainting because of the clan's affairs approaching the New Year.

The adults just watched him die without asking—what kind of family or clan logic is this?

She forced the adults in your clan to send a doctor to see you."

"Enough, enough.

I feel sorry for my own son; do you need to claim credit?" Caiyang Duojie waved her hand to stop Qiedan Jiena's words and turned to instruct her son:

"This matter is mostly thanks to your good brother Jiujiang for his help.

He is now a student at the Famous Academy, and the adults in the hall also give him some face.

Plus, you are after all a true descendant of the Pingyang Zhang family; there are hundreds and thousands of children in the clan with similar circumstances, and they would all feel sad for each other.

Zhang Qitai just sat in the position of clan head and didn't want to get a reputation for being ungrateful and heartless to his relatives, so I managed to make a scene and succeed.

Otherwise, what if I had crashed to death."

Hearing his mother say this, Zhang Gui wiped his tears and said slowly: "No matter what, it is all thanks to Amu."

Seeing him looking listless, Caiyang Duojie hurriedly began to drive away her younger sister and nieces, "Enough, enough, shedding tears on New Year's Eve is unlucky.

You guys hurry to the main room to drink and keep watch for the New Year.

Guigui's body is better, and we are all relieved, go, go."

They say maternal uncles are close, maternal uncles are close, breaking bones connects the tendons, but actually, how can an aunt compare to a real mother.

Shedding two more tears, Qiedan Jiena, Qiedan Sangjia, and the others continued to keep watch for the New Year and eat the feast.

Only Zhang Gui and his mother were left in the room.

Zhang Gui jumped off the bed with a 'thump' and blew out the oil lamp.

"Amu, I have prepared for tonight for a long time.

There is no time to explain the matter in detail now.

After I leave in a moment, you go to the main room and keep watch for the New Year with the aunt and cousins.

Say that although my illness is getting better, my body is weak and I still need to rest more.

In short, I will be back tomorrow morning; before that, don't let anyone enter this room."

After speaking, without waiting for his dumbfounded mother to react, a thick, pitch-black slurry surged out of his Lu Gate.

It flowed onto the ground and turned into a fungal mat.

Two arms stretched out from the mat and gently pushed open the door.

In the dark night, Zhang Gui stripped off his clothes, and his body turned into a semi-metallic state.

He performed the Zongheng Flying Kick Knight technique, combined with the Divine Cong 'Swift Legs', and flew into the night.

He disappeared without a trace in the blink of an eye.

Caiyang Duojie blinked and came back to her senses, hurriedly ran out of the door in the rain, turned around to close the door carefully, rubbed her stiff face, and walked toward the main room.

Before she even entered the door, she laughed and cried loudly:

"Guigui is tired and said he wants to sleep.

We women will keep watch for the New Year; let him rest well.

Young people have strong vitality, illnesses come fast and go fast; wait until tomorrow morning to decoct two more doses of medicine for him to drink, and he will be eight-tenths better.

Hey, speaking of illness, last year Guigui's uncle was still here, who would have thought he would be gone this year..."

On this side, the mother was putting on an act.

On that side, the son in the night rain had already slipped out of the town like a ghost.

The fungal mat evolved from the Primordial Spirit spread out three zhang, three feet, and three inches with Zhang Gui as the center, moving with his footsteps; it was truly magical.

A flash of lightning streaked across the sky.

Behind him, Pingyang Town was brightly lit.

In front, the Xuanzhi Mountain range was like a giant beast prostrating.

Rushing into the forest, there were no more people around.

Zhang Gui couldn't wait to experiment with the main Divine Cong 'Ember'.

He discovered that the ability brought by 'Ember' was to rapidly cool down after activating the steam 'Explosive' power, by utilizing the characteristic that steam takes away temperature when it evaporates.

Thermal expansion and contraction caused the hostile target to collapse naturally.

After continuing to walk through the mountains, Zhang Gui arrived at Mushroom Valley.

At the entrance of the Great Stone Cave Mansion, Lao Sang Gui led a group of Stone Corpse Soldiers who had regained their youth through mysterious rituals, ready to go.

Seeing them, Zhang Gui had a direct feeling that he could already refine a hundred Stone Corpse Soldiers.

"Adding a main Divine Cong involving the Primordial Spirit, and gathering the three treasures of 'body, heart, and spirit', I have made progress in everything all at once.

It's a pity that there are neither corpses nor time now, otherwise I could have had much more chance of winning."

A thought flashed through his mind; he didn't speak, just stood still and stared expressionlessly at his soldiers for a while, and three words popped out of his mouth,

"Follow me!"

The Stone Corpse Soldiers responded in unison:

"Fight to the death for the King!"

Following Zhang Gui, they rushed into the rainstorm.

Wangbei Manor, Great Zheng Hall.

More than a hundred third-cabinets and senior clerks of the Shuanghu Rong family, together with the farm guards, sat around the second-cabinet Song Huawen at dozens of round tables.

The two young masters of the Rong family who nominally presided over the business—don't look at how they don't submit to each other when doing serious work, but they have similar interests in eating, drinking, and playing.

They didn't even put Pingyang Town, which had a level of prosperity comparable to a superior county in the Southern Kingdom, in their eyes.

Early on New Year's Eve, they brought enough travel expenses and took their personal attendants who were always flattering them;

the farm guard chiefs who needed to be won over and shown favor;

and the martial supplicants who were very useful when showing off and shaking their prestige, and went straight to the Siyang Commandery City.

The young masters all held the title of big cabinet, so even if they broke the rules, Song Huawen, who was the actual person in charge, couldn't say anything.

After all, no matter how high the ability of the dog raised by the family is, and no matter how old it is, it is just a dog.

At this time, the wind was dark and the rain was urgent outside.

The fire dragon in the hall was burning brightly, the heat was steaming, and the noise of people was very lively.

After three rounds of wine and five flavors of dishes.

Song Huawen stood up with red cheeks and raised his wine glass again.

In front of the master, he was a 'fake Song Weng', but in the eyes of all the third-cabinets and clerks of the Shuanghu Rong family, he was a big figure.

He handled millions of gold and silver every year, made countless profits, and never lost once.

Starting as a small clerk and working his way up to second-cabinet in his whole life, he never spilled a drop of soup or leaked a drop of water in his work; it was simply magical.

He could be called a role model for those below him.

As soon as they saw Old Song stand up, those who saw him immediately shut their mouths, and those who didn't see him didn't make noise anymore when they noticed the anomaly.

Within a few breaths, the hall was silent.

Song Wenhua coughed lightly,

"This is the third cup.

The two big cabinets went to Siyang Commandery City to clear up relationships, leaving us here to spend the New Year.

Things shouldn't exceed three; after drinking this cup of wine, everyone should disperse and go home to keep watch for the New Year with their families."

When the Shuanghu Rong family was just a traveling merchant, there was no rule that cabinets and senior clerks could bring their relatives with them.

Of course, merchant firms that did business all over the world didn't have such rules either.

But when powerful families took root to operate large farms connected together, they inevitably had to let the managers settle down in the farm and work for generations.

Only after several generations like this would a large number of 'family-born slave children' appear, forming power in the local area.

Otherwise, no matter how much money you have, you are just a so-called 'traveling merchant', not a powerful clan.

So, just after buying the first farm of the Pingyang Zhang family, all the third-cabinets and senior clerks of the Rong family who had families brought their families with them.

Some third-cabinets even brought their fathers and mothers.

And for the first New Year after moving, according to the rules, everyone gathered together to eat and drink, which was considered a year-end feast.

After that, everyone would go back to their own homes and wouldn't start work until the eighth day.

But an accident suddenly occurred; before Song Huawen finished speaking, the hall door was kicked off.

A figure flew in.

(End of chapter)