Chapter 205: Chapter 122: Humiliation and Defiance
Tutoring School?
No such thing as a tutoring school!
Only noble lords possess literacy. You want a noble lord to come teach you? Even money won’t do!
Zhang Chen’s face fell upon hearing this, wondering if he was going to miss the opportunity to learn how to read and write.
Zhang Qingyan observed Zhang Chen’s disappointed expression and her lips curled into a charming arc: "But luck is on your side, you met me today! I can point you to a bright path."
"Since you know I’m a commoner, why are you helping me?" Zhang Chen cautiously asked instead of accepting outright.
"Because I’m just an ordinary person too." Zhang Qingyan sighed softly: "I don’t know why I’m helping you; I just hope that if I disappear silently from this world someday, someone will remember me and come to my grave to pay respects."
Zhang Chen was stunned upon hearing this; he knew Zhang Qingyan’s identity as the stand-in for Prince Wang Zhang Xiaohua. She has been living in Prince Pingbian’s Mansion for years, knowing countless secrets within, and the Mansion would never let her leave alive.
Either stay there for life or vanish from the world.
"There’s an old Confucian scholar in the city, named Chen Sanliang. This person once advised the Emperor of Zhao with ’A gentleman’s grace, cut by the fifth generation,’ and petitioned against Prince Pingbian with ’Ten crimes list,’ to pacify Prince Pingbian’s anger, the Emperor exiled Chen Sanliang to the Northern Land, hoping to quell the Mansion’s wrath. Prince Pingbian, to display magnanimity, didn’t put him to death but confined him in Northern Land. Later, he was unaware of his limits, secluded for ten years and founded the theory of ’Flow,’ criticizing Confucian Saints’ teachings as ’useless studies,’ immediately angering scholars worldwide. Now not only nobles can’t tolerate him, even scholars can’t stand him." Zhang Qingyan finished speaking and turned to leave.
Zhang Chen stood there, watching Zhang Qingyan’s departing figure, letting out a quiet sigh: "It’s difficult indeed!"
"I say, if this scholar refuses to impart literacy knowledge, just return my gift money." Zhang Chen stepped forward, shouting at the thatched cottage.
"What are you shouting for! Is this a place you can run wild in?" The door suddenly opened, and a man wearing a straw robe took Zhang Chen’s gift box, tossed it out: "Take your stuff and scram, lest you pollute this place."
The gift box was thrown open, revealing emptiness inside, only the box remained, no treasures.
"Where’re my silver and jewels?" Zhang Chen’s face turned somber.
"Boy, you’d better be sensible. This is the teacher’s place for quiet cultivation; where would your treasures be? If you’re not sensible, we’ll hand you over to the authorities, let them teach you a lesson." The man’s voice from Yellow Heaven Dao was full of coldness and ridicule.
Zhang Chen stared coldly at the man before him, surprised that even as a God, someone dared to misappropriate his possessions.
"Fine! I misremembered, what treasures? I must’ve brought an empty box." Zhang Chen finished speaking and turned to leave promptly, knowing the man was a Martial Dao expert, whose previous punches and kicks already ruptured his blood vessels internally leaving dark injuries while his skin remained intact - clearly a refined Dark Force.
He certainly didn’t want close combat!
Seeing Zhang Chen leave dejectedly, the man in Huangli Temple’s Daoist robe smirked coldly without further concern, just a wealthy merchant after all, whereas he was nobility!
To crush him would be nothing more than a flick of a finger.
Walking through the mountains, Zhang Chen’s eyes revealed a cold gleam; no one could embezzle his possessions!
"I’ll empty all valuables from that cottage!" Zhang Chen reached the mountain’s base, opened his Dharma Eye to observe the mountain, finding no mysterious aura, just ordinary people.
"So, all knowledge is in noble hands, no wonder there’s no literacy even in Huangli Temple." Zhang Chen mused.
At that moment, a thought circulated within Zhang Chen’s mind:
"Surely the higher-ups in Huangli Temple are literate; could they actually be nobility too?"
"They must be nobility! Otherwise, even if they excavated something from the Ancient Divine Demon Tomb, ordinary folks who can’t read wouldn’t have any way to decipher it!" Zhang Chen’s eyes held an unexplainable glint: "It’s an era held by noble families, knowledge is monopolized by them, the families trample commoners underfoot."
He thought of the future; without Huang Chao, his era might face the same problem.
"Their nine clans should be exterminated, best to eliminate completely." Zhang Chen mumbled to himself, then summoned the Fox Spirit.
The Fox Spirit glanced at Zhang Chen’s empty box, eyes bright with delight: "You succeeded in becoming a disciple?"
Zhang Chen stared intently at the Fox Spirit, making it restless: "Why’re you staring at me like that?"
"Did you deliberately hide from me, that becoming a disciple requires nobility?" Zhang Chen questioned the Fox Spirit.
The Fox Spirit responded with grievance: "Brother, I’m a monster, how would I know human customs."
While speaking, the Fox Spirit stealthily observed Zhang Chen’s expression, sensing his likely failure in becoming a disciple.
"I’m going to empty every valuable in that thatched cottage!" Zhang Chen’s voice was icy.
"Alright! This is simple, tonight we’ll go for it, leave it to me." The Fox Spirit patted its chest in assurance: "I promise to empty it to such an extent that even mice would leave in tears."