"I thank Miss Zhang for the gesture." Yun Lei said, taking a sip of wine from the cup the maids had placed before him. He was someone who never liked bitter things but he did have a lot of appreciation for the Yun Family's wine. He quite enjoyed it.
"That wasn't all I came here to say." Zhang Fenfeng pulled out yet another scroll from her sleeves. "I would like to personally invite Young Master Yun and Young Lady Yun to the Moonlight Gathering that is being held at the Flower Garden Pavillion, on the 23rd day of the 9th month."
Yun Lei, of course, had no idea what the Moonlight Gathering even was. Given that he had no reason to refuse, he would have just accepted. However, he wasn't the only one who had been invited. He glanced towards Yun Meili, who subtly nodded her head, before speaking.
"It would be our honour."
The dinner didn't last for much longer. Both parties didn't have much to say, so, after an almost silent dinner, the guests were escorted to the gates of the Estate where they took their leave.
"What happened?" Yun Meili asked the question once more since she hadn't received an answer yet.
"This..." Senior Mo opened his mouth but since he didn't know what he should have said, he glanced towards the Young Master for guidance.
"Oh, it was nothing much. I went to the Flower Garden Pavillion and was fed stale soup and watered-down wine."
"Such a thing happened? At the Flower Garden Pavillion?" Even Yun Meili was surprised at that revelation. She knew better than both Senior Mo and her husband just how prideful Zhang Fenfeng was. Yet that prideful Third Young Lady, who would go to any length to protect her family's honour, had allowed such a thing to happen? To the son-in-law of the Yun Family, no less?
"I was dressed like a commoner." Yun Lei added upon seeing the confusion on his wife's face.
He was fully aware of the fact that if he had gone in there while looking like a noble, he would have received the best possible hospitality. The restaurant staff had only dared to treat him like how they had because they assumed he was a commoner.
No matter how badly the restaurant treated a commoner, they would never dare to speak about it. Even if they did, they would just be labelled a liar. After all, who would believe a commoner over the staff of the restaurant that represented the Zhang family? It would be better for them to just shut their mouths and bow their heads.
His mistreatment angered him however, what had truly infuriated him was the fact that those slimy bastards could have gotten away with treating hundreds of commoners the same way. He was by no means a beacon of morality but he still believed that nobles had a duty towards those under them.
That was also the reason why the meeting had just made him dislike Flower Garden Pavillion even more. He thought that Zhang Fenfeng had only come to apologise to him because he was a noble. Had he known that she had already ordered her guards to execute the guilty staff before even realising his identity, he would have never thought this.
"What's the Moonlight Gathering?"
"It's a grand feast held by the Zhang Family every year on the autumn equinox. All of the young talents of the entire eastern region are invited to this feast, giving them an opportunity to mingle and form relationships." Senior Mo explained to the Young Master.
She must be scheming something. Yun Lei thought to himself. Inviting a cripple to a gathering of young talents was a bold move, to say the least.
Although the Third Young Lady of the Zhang Family seemed to have come with good intentions, he simply didn't buy it. He presumed that she had some sort of a plan he hadn't seen through yet and it probably had something to do with the invitation he had received.
"Hmm, I see. Well, we can cross that bridge when we get there. It's quite late, we should head to bed." Yun Lei concluded. He was just way too tired to be thinking hard about anything.
Before the sun had risen the next day, Yun Lei had already made his way to the training grounds where Cai Huan was waiting for him. What was in store for him was more running but, he only had to run five laps that day. After all, the captain was worried the young noble might end up dying if he ran twenty laps every day.
Five laps were, by no means, an easy task for Yun Lei but, compared to twenty, he felt like he was in heaven. It was a very sweaty and thirst inducing heaven but it was heaven nonetheless.
Next were a few simple exercises. Three sets of ten push-ups, ten sit-ups, and ten squats. Training the body was a gradual process so one had to start slowly and work their way up.
His arms shook like a leaf in the wind after just the second push up, he could barely lift his head off the ground after the third sit up and having to do squats after running five kilometres was a nightmare.
However, he persevered and got through the routine. Whether or not he had performed those exercises properly even once was something that could be debated but he had indeed done it and was finally free for the day.
The moment he got back to Yun Meili's room, he dipped himself in a nice, cold bath. The feeling of his entire body being chilled after having to use more of his physical strength than he had ever before was very satisfying.
Feeling refreshed, he checked the black book, as he always did, and found no changes whatsoever. Normally, he would have been quite disappointed at that development but that day he had no time for disappointments. After all, there was a small pile of books on the table.
"Senior Mo sure is efficient." Yun Lei said out loud with a chuckle before opening the book on the top of the pile. The title of the book was 'Languages of the Northern Continent'.
The letter that Senior Mo had left for him explained that the two languages Yun Lei had told him to find out more about had been identified. One of them was simply the common language of the Nothern Continent. However, the other was a language lost to time.
With the combined hard work and effort of many scholars over the years, they had been able to translate a few words. However, most of the language would forever remain beyond the understanding of the current era.
Yun Lei didn't mind this all too much since the Soul Splitting Art was written in the common language of the Northern Continent anyways. He quickly got to work, reading through all of the books, one by one. With each book he read, his understanding of the language grew. By the time he was done with all of them, he was perfectly fluent in it.
A small part of his head had wondered why these particular books weren't in the Yun Family's Library but the answer didn't interest him to the point that he would think about it for more than a few moments.
Yun Lei put down the last book upon the table before he took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He recalled all of the contents of the book he had briefly skimmed through, remembering every last word and every last detail. He perfectly recreated the book in his head, just as it was back in that cave. Except this time, the words weren't just meaningless scribbles, he fully understood everything they said.
"The Soul Splitting Art is a forbidden art only for the bravest of those amongst us."
That was the first sentence written in the book after the title. The words that followed it were enough to leave Yun Lei in complete shock.
"Or perhaps, stupidest would be the more appropriate word to describe them. Only the stupidest of people would ever be brave enough to willingly consume the Soul Shredding Poison, which is precisely what must be done in order to cultivate this art."
What the fuck is this? The Young Master let out a curse but given what was going through his head, he couldn't help it.
Yun Lei had ended up consuming the Soul Shredding Poison because he had wanted to end his life. Then, he had somehow wound up, of all places, in the Forest of Endless Trees. This would have never even happened in the first place, if not for the poison.
In that forest, he had somehow stumbled upon the small cave, which he could have easily missed had he chosen to go in any other direction. Among the tens of books in the bookshelf there, he had picked up a few books at random and one of them had ended up being the manual for the Soul Splitting Art which required someone to consume the Soul Shredding Poison before they could cultivate it.
Could something of that level even be considered a coincidence anymore? He very much believed that coincidences could happen but, one big coincidence after another had to happen for things to align that perfectly.
Things had been so perfect and natural that Yun Lei had never even bothered thinking about it too deeply. He thought that the alchemist had simply given him the wrong poison by accident. The way he had found that cave was completely natural too. He simply followed the sound of water because he realised that he needed a source of it in order to survive in the forest.
Given those circumstances, it would have seemed insane to think that his actions were somehow being guided in a particular direction. But now that he had realised just how perfect it all was, he truly didn't think it was absurd to assume that it was.
And when he took the black book into consideration, that assumption seemed to have even more weight. The book had told him to learn archery not long before he was thrown into the wild where he had woken up practically atop a very well-made bow and a quiver full of arrows.
Who could have done it? Was where Yun Lei's mind went next. Given that he knew who the 'author' of the black book was, thinking about the mysterious Emperor whose voice he had heard almost nine months ago was natural. Perhaps, the old lady who had sold him the poison was also working with him.
He could come up with so many speculations that it was starting to overwhelm his mind. He realised that his thoughts could be seen as unreasonably paranoid but the fact that something felt off about the whole ordeal couldn't be denied.
"What a mess." He said out loud, shaking his head.
Perhaps, all of it was just a massive coincidence. He sure hoped that it was. But just because he hoped for a certain outcome, didn't mean that he could simply disregard every other outcome entirely.
Yun Lei thought it was appropriate to start from the very beginning. The incident that led to the death of Ren Lei and his rebirth as Yun Lei. He would start investigating how the paper packet full of that agony inducing poison had even gotten into his hands in the first place.
It might have been by accident but the old lady who had sold him the poison had caused him a world of hurt. Since he remembered exactly how she looked and even where her shop was, tracking her down wouldn't have been all that hard. Perhaps, he would find the answers he wanted from her.
As for the Emperor, he would just have to start looking into every empire that existed to the north of the Ether Cloud City. It was like a shot in the dark but at least he knew the cardinal direction he needed to aim towards.