Once I enter the pass, great Confucian scholars will surely debate the classics for me.

"Dong dong dong..."

Zhou Qingfeng, who was sitting cross-legged on the bed absorbing turbid energy, heard a knock on the door. He slowly stopped his exercise, opened his eyes, and a look of doubt appeared on his face. Who would knock on the door so late at night? Could it be that Butler Qiu had forgotten to tell him something important?

I got up, walked to the door, opened it, and saw Ye Tingxiu standing there.

Ye Tingxiu's forehead was wrapped in gauze, but he still looked unruly and defiant.

Zhou Qingfeng frowned slightly: "Is something the matter?"

Ye Tingxiu pointed at Zhou Qingfeng and said, "Of course I have something to talk to you about, otherwise why would I come here to chat with you? Listen carefully, I'm not satisfied with you getting first place in today's magic assessment, I want to challenge you to a duel."

Zhou Qingfeng: "..." No, buddy, what's wrong with you in the middle of the night?

Zhou Qingfeng rolled his eyes at Ye Tingxiu and pushed the door shut with both hands.

Ye Tingxiu raised his hand to block him: "Hey, hey, what do you mean? Are you admitting defeat or giving up? Let me tell you, even if you admit defeat, it won't work. I have to defeat you fair and square, with my own hands!"

"If you don't accept the one-on-one challenge, I'll come back tomorrow. If you still don't accept tomorrow, I'll come back the day after tomorrow."

Zhou Qingfeng looked at Ye Tingxiu and felt somewhat helpless for a moment.

He really didn't want to fight Ye Tingxiu one-on-one. Winning would bring no benefit, and losing would be embarrassing. Most importantly, if he fought Ye Tingxiu one-on-one, he would become Ye Tingxiu's whetstone, and Ye Tingxiu would only become stronger with each challenge.

If it were a one-on-one fight, Zhou Qingfeng would only choose an opponent stronger than himself to hone his skills.

But judging from Ye Tingxiu's attitude, he won't give up until he achieves his goal.

So Zhou Qingfeng said, "It's too late today. Come find me tomorrow at noon."

Upon hearing this, Ye Tingxiu beamed with joy, withdrew his hand from the door, and said, "Alright, I'll come find you tomorrow. Goodbye."

After saying that, Ye Tingxiu turned around and left with his head held high.

Zhou Qingfeng shook his head and casually closed the door.

I'll leave the mansion early tomorrow morning to avoid that annoying Ye Tingxiu.

The next morning, Zhou Qingfeng took off his servant's clothes, changed into his own clean clothes, and left the city lord's mansion with his waist token in hand. He wandered around the bustling streets, going wherever there were crowds.

Before long, we arrived at the most bustling riverbank.

A great river runs through the entire city, and as far as the eye can see on both sides of the river, there is a scene of prosperity.

Inns, teahouses, pawnshops, restaurants, pleasure boats, and general stores.

Vendors carried their wares on shoulder poles along the streets, horse-drawn carts carrying goods came and went in an endless stream, blacksmith shops hung up swords for sale, and people carrying knives and swords could be seen everywhere on the streets. Girls from brothels stood on painted boats, waving small fans and laughing and beckoning to passersby.

For a moment, they forgot that they were living in a wicked world.

This cheered Zhou Qingfeng up considerably, and he stopped in front of a bookstore as he passed by.

“Ruyu Bookstore…” Zhou Qingfeng looked up at the bookstore’s signboard, lost in thought. He thought that the best way to understand the world was to read books, so he went inside.

The bookstore owner greeted me with a smile: "Welcome to Ruyu Bookstore. Do you have any books you'd like to read, sir?"

Zhou Qingfeng said, "No, I'm just looking around."

"Please feel free to browse," the bookstore owner said with a smile, gesturing before returning to the counter.

Seeing this, Zhou Qingfeng leisurely strolled through the bookstore with his hands behind his back. The bookshelves were filled with all kinds of books, including romance novels, fantasy novels, historical books, and biographies. Most of them were ordinary reading materials with nothing special about them.

By chance, Zhou Qingfeng noticed that the bookstore owner was acting strangely. He was hiding behind the counter with his head down, seemingly looking at something, and occasionally looking up warily to see if anyone was approaching, as if he was afraid of being discovered.

Upon seeing this, Zhou Qingfeng frowned slightly, his curiosity piqued. He even put the history book he was holding back on the shelf, then tiptoed to the counter, stood on tiptoe, and leaned down to look.

The bookstore owner was flipping through a pornographic book. The book was full of pictures and text, and the characters in the pictures were so lifelike that they seemed to be living little figures on the page, which was quite magical.

Zhou Qingfeng was surprised, but even more interested: "Shopkeeper, what book are you reading?"

"Holy crap!" The bookstore owner was startled and jumped up. He immediately closed the pornographic book and hid it behind his back. When he saw that it was Zhou Qingfeng, he immediately denied it: "What book? I didn't read any book."

Zhou Qingfeng said with a mocking expression, "Really? I clearly saw you looking at porn just now..."

"Shh, what yellow? There's no yellow, kid, don't talk nonsense." The bookstore owner was so frightened that he quickly raised his hand to shush, then ran out from behind the counter and nervously looked around the door to make sure no one heard or paid attention.

Then he turned his head and whispered, "I do sell banned books here, but I usually only sell to acquaintances."

"Now that you've found out, I won't hide it anymore."

"Since you're a new customer, I'll give you a 10% discount if you want it."

Upon hearing this, Zhou Qingfeng said with interest, "Then I'll take a look first before deciding whether to buy it or not."

"Come here." The bookstore owner pulled Zhou Qingfeng to the counter, then took out a pile of banned books from under the counter and said, "Look around, pick whatever you like. Every single one of these is a treasured copy of mine. You can't buy them on the market."

"Oh? Then I'll have to take a closer look." Zhou Qingfeng bent down and started selecting books one by one.

Upon seeing a book titled "Unofficial History and Anecdotes," I asked in surprise, "Is this also a banned book?"

The bookstore owner chuckled: "This book records many bizarre and strange events, so much so that many people regard it as a book of demons. Therefore, the Python Sparrow Dynasty has explicitly prohibited the circulation of this book among the people."

"Of course, that's the official version. In reality, this book records some disgraceful things about the imperial family and some very sensitive content, which has had a very bad impact on the empire. You understand?"

Upon hearing this, Zhou Qingfeng nodded in understanding and casually flipped through the book.

At first, I was indifferent, but then I gradually became engrossed.

The book records various extraordinary people and unofficial histories, as well as bizarre and unusual tales, which greatly broaden one's knowledge and horizons. Moreover, the language is extremely straightforward and easy to understand, which is clearly the intention of the author of this book to make it widely circulated.

Turning to a page, Zhou Qingfeng took a closer look.

The Python Sparrow Dynasty was nominally the empire that ruled this land.

Because the empire's territory was too vast, and many demons and monsters wreaked havoc in the regions, the Python Sparrow royal family was unable to control the entire empire.

Therefore, the royal family allocated land and population to city lords, who then governed their territories independently.

The city lord only needs to pay tribute to the royal family regularly and in fixed amounts each year, and obey the calls of the Python-Sparrow royal family.

For millennia, rebellions led by cultivators have sprung up across the empire, but none have ever coalesced into a unified movement, ultimately proving fleeting. To this day, no one has been able to overthrow the imperial rule.

[In the most serious incident, the rebels even marched to the capital, their instincts to kill the emperor and seize power. However, all they demanded was that the emperor lower taxes, depose the city lord who ruled them, and replace him with a new one.]

How ridiculous, how absurd, how ridiculous this is!