Three days of daily patrols passed in a blur. On this night, Xu Qi'an, Song Tingfeng, and Zhu Guangxiao formed a team, dressed in black patrol uniforms and short cloaks, with copper gongs hanging from their chests and swords at their waists, walking lightly on the streets of the inner city.

As the night grew cooler, the falling flowers turned into frost on the ground.

The night in the capital was silent. In the winter season, there were no insects or birds chirping, making Xu Qi'an feel as if he were in a peaceful countryside. Occasionally, he could hear the neat and uniform sound of footsteps and the clashing of armor plates, which were the footsteps of the imperial guards patrolling the city.

After half an hour of patrol, Song Tingfeng led his two colleagues to the top of a small building to overlook the criss-crossing streets.

"Patrolling the streets is the duty of the imperial guards. Our main responsibility is to deal with those who climb walls and jump roofs," Song Tingfeng stood on the roof, facing the night wind, squinting his eyes. "Only climb to the rooftops during surveillance. Unless it's a major case, don't climb recklessly. There are countless experts in the city, and if you climb the rooftops, you might get killed by a sudden sword attack from a corner."

After a pause, he added, "Of course, Nightwatcher will definitely avenge you, collect your body, and distribute compensation."

"How much is the compensation?" Xu Qi'an asked.

"The copper gong is worth 300 taels of silver," Song Tingfeng said. "It's quite generous. Three hundred taels of silver is enough for your wife and children to live a wealthy life."

However, 300 taels of silver can only afford to sleep with Fu Xiang, whose price has skyrocketed... Xu Qi'an joked, "Yeah, then your wife will remarry, spending your money, sleeping with your son's wife, and hitting your son."

"..." Song Tingfeng stared at him without saying a word. After a moment, he squeezed out a sentence, "I suddenly feel lucky that I haven't settled down yet."

Zhu Guangxiao nodded in silence.

...

The next day at noon, Xu Qi'an, who had only slept for five hours, woke up refreshed.

He dipped a pig bristle toothbrush in some tooth powder and brushed his teeth under the eaves.

Tooth powder was the ancient version of toothpaste, made up of nine Chinese medicinal ingredients, including ginger, soapberry, asparagus root, rehmannia, euryale ferox, sophora fruit, wild ginger, lotus leaf, and green salt.

In addition, there was another ingredient that Xu Qi'an had never encountered in his past life called the "cleansing pill." This thing directly elevated the cleaning, whitening, and deodorizing effects of toothpaste by several levels.

Toothpaste in his past life was far inferior to tooth powder in this era.

There was no doubt that this was the work of the alchemists in the Bureau of Astrology.

The existence of alchemists made the lives of the common people more convenient and healthy. They were actually very powerful, but the system of sorcerers was relatively short in history and had not formed a comprehensive theoretical teaching system. Xu Qi'an's chemical theory just happened to make up for the shortcomings of the alchemists.

He climbed over the wall to the main house. At this time, his aunt and sisters had already finished their lunch. They were going to practice breathing and meditating in the afternoon and study the "One Sword to Cut Heaven and Earth," so they didn't go to the theater to listen to music and eat. Xu Qi'an asked the kitchen to reheat the leftover rice and vegetables and ate hastily.

He didn't immediately immerse himself in cultivation, but instead went to the inner courtyard to play with Xu Lingyin for a while, and then chatted with his seventeen-year-old sister with a melon-seed face and big eyes, discussing the story of Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai.

"I'll write some novels for my sister later as a boudoir reading material," Xu Qi'an laughed.

"Is it still a love story like Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai?" Xu Lingyue smiled brightly.

"No, it's more exciting than those two.""What is it?" Upon hearing the words "stimulating" from Xu Qi'an, Xu Lingyue blushed.

"Yuan Zhi Kong."

Unfortunately, my writing skills are not good, and I can't remember the details of the novels I read in my past life... Otherwise, I would have made a lot of money by writing erotic stories... Xu Qi'an sighed helplessly.

Passing by Xu Xinnian's room, he heard the sound of reading books.

"Xin Nian, aren't you at the academy?" Xu Qi'an stood by the window and asked.

"I was just looking for Big Brother." Xu Xinnian took a booklet from the desk and walked to the window, handing it to Xu Qi'an.

"This is what the teacher, Mu Bai, and Yu Ping asked me to give to Big Brother. I came back this morning, and you were still sleeping."

Xu Qi'an curiously opened the booklet and casually flipped through a few pages, finding that the content of the booklet was very strange.

Some were words, some were illustrations, like a hodgepodge of various things put together.

Xu Xinnian explained softly, "This book records the unique skills of various major cultivation systems. The three great scholars put together the spells they collected and gave them to you."

I smelled a sour taste... Xu Qi'an's eyes shone.

Xu Xinnian continued, "The sixth rank of Confucianism is called a scholar. The core of this realm is 'learning', which can record the spells seen with a pen and paper. Big Brother can ignite the paper with his Qi and cast the spells recorded on the paper."

Confucianism is simply invincible assistance. Xu Qi'an controlled the corners of his mouth, restrained his joy, and nodded, "Thank you. Please convey my message to the three great scholars. I will visit them another day to thank them and discuss poetry with them."

As the saying goes, courtesy demands reciprocity. The three great scholars gave gifts for no reason, so there must be a reason.

Xu Xinnian said, "Hmm," waved his hand, "Go ahead, don't disturb me reading. I will go back to the academy tomorrow."

Don't be jealous, Xin Nian, Big Brother still loves you!

Xu Qi'an left happily.

...

At dusk, Xu Qi'an changed into his Nightwatcher uniform and rushed to the yamen without stopping.

He arrived at the yamen before the inner city gate closed and met with his colleagues, Song Tingfeng and Zhu Guangxiao, to begin their evening shift as office workers.

The night in the inner city was quite calm, and it was not until late at night that Xu Qi'an and his two colleagues caught two small thieves who had escaped the patrol of the Imperial Guard.

According to Song Tingfeng, this kind of small achievement was worth at most five taels of silver.

Xu Qi'an stood on the roof of a restaurant, overlooking the capital city in the night.

Chewing on fried beans, Song Tingfeng asked, "Ning Yan, what is your unique skill, and what are its characteristics?"

Xu Qi'an truthfully replied, "It is very practical and has even greater explosive power, but it doesn't last long... Hmm, after using it once, I will enter a short period of weakness."

There is nothing in the world that cannot be cut with one sword. If there is, then run away... At first, Xu Qi'an thought it was just a joke from the author.

But he didn't expect it to be a valuable piece of advice. The essence of this unique skill is to be a real man in one second, and then become exhausted after using it.

The advantage is that it has strong explosive power. Xu Qi'an suspects that when he reaches a high level of cultivation, he will be able to cut people of higher ranks.

Song Tingfeng and Zhu Guangxiao looked at each other, and the former smiled and said, "Do Fu Xiang know that you have poor endurance?"

Xu Qi'an was a shameless person. He raised his sword finger and sighed, "They have all been cocooned recently."

Zhu Guangxiao didn't understand, and Song Tingfeng was stunned for two seconds before cursing, "Damn it, you're really a quick-witted person."After chatting for a while, he took advantage of Song Tingfeng and Zhu Guangxiao's inattention and tore out a page from the book gifted by the scholars from the small mirror made of jade.

The paper depicted a pair of clear and bright eyes, corresponding with the divination spell of the Astrology Department.

There were many of such low-level spell books, which were auxiliary spells and relatively less precious.

Xu Qi'an planned to have some fun and familiarize himself with the use of the book.

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"Sss!"

The Qi ignited the paper, and the fire instantly lit up, also attracting the attention of Zhu Guangxiao and Song Tingfeng.

Xu Qi'an felt a pain in his eyes, and in his line of sight, various colors appeared, making the whole world seem like a colorful oil painting.

White was the most numerous and dense, followed by red, with light red and dark red, and then purple.

Red mixed with purple, light purple, and heavy purple... The last one came from the direction of the Imperial City.

This was Qi... the Qi that everything in the world possessed. Xu Qi'an had a sudden enlightenment in his heart.

At this moment, he saw a peculiar color, located in the direction of the Imperial City. It was a color as gorgeous as a rainbow.

"Colorful... It is completely different from the royal purple representing the imperial family, but it is located in the Imperial City... Taoist Master Jin Lian said that I have a deep connection with the woman who rides the royal carriage. The evaluation that the Taoist Master gave to that woman was that she had a magnificent and rare Qi in the world..."

"Clear Qi... also in the direction of the Imperial City. I remember Cai Wei said that Clear Qi represents the Confucian or Taoist sect... Hmm, that is the Human Sect?"

"Huh, why is the color of the Official Brothel Sector green... Many of the women in the Official Brothel Sector are family members of criminals... I might be overthinking it. I'll ask Cai Wei later what green light represents... Huh, it's gone?"

He saw a touch of green Qi in the Official Brothel Sector, flashing and disappearing.

Finally, he looked towards the Astrology Department, the highest building in the capital that overlooked all the mountains.

"Ah..." Xu Qi'an suddenly screamed and fell off the roof of the tavern.

He writhed in pain on the ground, covering his eyes and screaming continuously.

Zhu Guangxiao and Song Tingfeng were shocked and jumped off the roof. One drew his sword and guarded while the other went forward to check.

"What's wrong with you?" Song Tingfeng asked anxiously.