After sighing, Li Nuo finally accepted reality.
Being a working man was better than being dead, no matter how tiring it might be.
He picked up a copy of the Legal Classics and planned to study it in detail.
The cultivation of Legalism was not particularly complex; the first step was to diligently study the works of the Legalist sages, to understand their principles, and to grasp their ideas. Of course, just like with Confucian cultivation, merely studying books was not enough.
Confucians wanted to govern the country and bring peace to the world, while Legalists wanted to enforce the laws. Both required entering officialdom.
This was a step Li Nuo could skip, thanks to his father's status—the trials and investigations were available to him even as a commoner.
Thus, cultivation became very simple for him; he could handle cases at the County Magistrate's Office during the day and study Legal Classics at night. At this rate, it could take one or two years, three to five at the most, before he truly entered the door of Legalism.
For ordinary people, cultivating as a Law Practitioner was somewhat difficult.
Although Legalists could grow stronger by adjudicating cases, it required making correct judgments. Wrong judgments could cause one's cultivation to regress instead of progress, and this feedback on cultivation wouldn't immediately manifest but would accrue over time, leading to qualitative changes from quantitative changes.
So even among Legalists, one could not determine whether a case was judged correctly based solely on fluctuations in cultivation.
Luckily, Li Nuo was not an ordinary person.
Whether or not a judgment was incorrect, the Law Code would tell him instantly.
Legalists controlled rules, and even new practitioners could harness some simple Power of Heaven and Earth.
Take the Imprisonment Skill, for instance—this was an ability of the Martial Path's Fourth Realm; unlike the Martial Path's Object Manipulation, which primarily used one's True Qi to control objects, the Imprisonment Skill touched the source of Heaven and Earth, and source power was a strength controlled only by warriors of the Martial Path's Sixth Realm.
Naturally, there was a vast difference between the two in the amount of Power of Heaven and Earth they could manipulate.
At the very least, one had to cultivate to the Sixth Realm in Legalism to match the strength of a Sixth Realm warrior in the Martial Path.
"Enforcing the law strictly, reforming to become stronger, benefits are immediate, achievements last for epochs…" Li Nuo copied down the key points as he read, deepening his memory. However, after writing a few words, he noticed something wrong.
The characters on the paper were hardly ugly, but they were far from attractive.
This handwriting was all too familiar to him—it was his own script, but during the day, he was able to write in the delicate Hairpin Flower Small Regular Script just like that female assassin. In the evening, his handwriting reverted back to its original form.
Li Nuo immediately thought of the Law Code.
After pulling up the Law Code, Li Nuo immediately noticed something unusual.
The portrait of the female assassin had dimmed significantly, resembling the difference between a color photograph and a black-and-white one. Not just the female assassin's, but also the portrait of the goateed thief on the second page had darkened.
Among the four portraits, only the concubine of Assistant Minister Zheng remained bright.
Three dim portraits and one bright—the fourth page that featured a merchant named Cui Ze had never lit up from the start.
Li Nuo fell into thought— the dimming of the female assassin's portrait and his handwriting reverting meant that the abilities he acquired through apprehension were not permanent but had a duration. Based on time estimates, this duration was very likely just one day.
He had thought it was a permanent skill; unexpectedly, it was just a one-day trial card, which made Li Nuo somewhat disappointed.
He couldn't help thinking that her handwriting was quite beautiful, eye-pleasing. If only his handwriting could be as attractive… Just as this thought surfaced in his mind, he saw the female assassin's portrait light up again.
After a slight start, Li Nuo realized something and wrote a few words on paper. As expected, his handwriting returned to the beautiful Hairpin Flower Small Regular Script.
Despite having regained the ability, Li Nuo was not particularly happy.
There were no free lunches in this world; everything had its cost.
He immediately stood up and carefully checked his body, finding no missing parts or any discomfort.
Li Nuo then relaxed and closed the Law Code.
His gaze inadvertently swept over the cover of the Law Code, and in the next moment, it shifted back.
"Name: Li Nuo."
"Lifespan: 25 days."
Li Nuo's body trembled, his face filled with disbelief. No, just moments ago, he had 26 days remaining, how could it suddenly decrease by a day?
It wasn't even midnight yet, and it wasn't dark outside!
Wait, could it be that reactivating the portrait of that female assassin and regaining her calligraphic abilities cost him part of his lifespan?
Though it was just a day less, for Li Nuo, who had less than a month left, it was still a significant blow. What use was good handwriting, especially when it was likely that he had traded a day of his life for just a one-day calligraphy experience card—a total waste of life.
A quarter of an hour later, Li Nuo finally recovered from his heartache.
He could only console himself that even an experience card had its benefits. At least, he didn't have to worry about always unintentionally pilfering and potentially getting caught red-handed, which would be utterly humiliating.
However, as for that concubine's adulterous husband, the portrait remained dark. Did that mean he possessed no remarkable abilities or specialties?
As for Assistant Minister Zheng's concubine, though her portrait was lit, Li Nuo had no idea what ability he had acquired from her. The Law Code offered no hints; he had to discover it on his own.
Li Nuo shook his head and let out a long sigh, temporarily setting aside these matters to continue reading his book.
Housekeeper Wu stood outside the window, watching Li Nuo intently read; a smile of relief and joy appeared on his face.
He knew it. How could the son of the master be a fool?
Compared to the former young master, the current one truly resembled the son of Minister of Justice Li Xuanjing.
Both the master and the young master had grown up under his watch. These past days, he finally saw the youthful reflection of his master in the young master—they were equally intelligent and shrewd, equally diligent in their studies, and even their appearances were equally striking.
People often said the young master was unworthy of his lady. Now, it seemed the couple, one literary and the other martial, was truly a match made in heaven.
Thinking this, a figure walked into the courtyard, and Housekeeper Wu hurriedly greeted, "Young Madam..."
Li Nuo was in his room reading when a knock at the door came.
He opened the door to see Song Jiaren standing outside, which made him somewhat nervous. She couldn't be confronting him over the pilfered wallet, could she?
As he watched her raise her hand, Li Nuo instinctively covered his head.
Song Jiaren tucked a loose strand of hair from her forehead and said, "Get ready and come with me..."
...
As the evening darkened, a luxurious carriage drove out of the Li Mansion.
Sitting inside the carriage, Li Nuo realized his wife hadn't come to settle scores. Today was the sixtieth birthday of Old Mrs. Song, and as a granddaughter, Song Jiaren needed to return home to celebrate. As her husband, Li Nuo had to accompany her. He was supposed to go during the day, but he had been at the County Magistrate's Office all day and was now somewhat late.
Housekeeper Wu had told Li Nuo that the Song family was a noble Daxia family. At the founding of Daxia, they had followed the Great Ancestor and made significant military contributions. Though not as powerful as at their peak, they were still a noble family of Chang'an.
The Li family, on the other hand, came from humble beginnings. His father was the first in their family to enter the civil service, making Li Nuo a true second-generation official.
It was said that Li Nuo's father and Song Jiaren's father were close friends in their youth. When their wives were pregnant, they had agreed that if both children were boys or both girls, they would become sworn siblings. If a boy and a girl were born, they would marry, thus leading to today's arrangement.
This made Li Nuo reflect: to honor an agreement made over a decade ago, the Song family was willing to marry their outstanding daughter to a fool—truly, the ancients were staunch in keeping their promises.
However, the Song family didn't completely lose out.
From a personal perspective, it was as though an unworthy man had lucked out with a beautiful wife, akin to a toad consuming swan meat or fine cabbage fed to a pig.
But from a familial perspective, by marrying the Li family, the Songs had allied with a more prestigious clan.
Even Song Jiaren's great-uncle, the current head of the Song family, was a fifth-rank military officer.
Meanwhile, his own father was a Standard Third Rank official at the court—a difference of four whole ranks in official position, with vastly different powers and resources.
Looking at it that way, he was actually the prized cabbage…