Chapter 2: The Mandate System

It was not just the gangsters surrounding them who were interested in this "Du Mu"; even Ye Zhengliu herself felt a bit unsettled when she thought about the life of the historical Du Mu.

Common knowledge: Du Mu, the famous "little fresh" poet. Generally, the public's impressions of him are:
He was heartbroken after breaking up with a songstress ("The candle has a heart and laments our parting, shedding tears for us until the dawn");
So, before leaving, he had to praise the songstress lavishly ("Slim and graceful, just over thirteen, like the tip of a cardamom sprout in early February");
He took a fancy to someone else’s songstress, but the owner wouldn't give her up ("Suddenly uttering wild words that shocked the guests, the powdered faces turned back in an instant");
And those lines that are so easily misinterpreted: "Stopping my carriage to admire the maple woods at dusk," "Where does the fair lady teach one to play the flute," and "Across the river, they still sing 'The Late Courtyard Flowers'..."

Ye Zhengliu: "..."
Could this be a flag for being misunderstood 100% of the time? Master Du Mu, you are giving me a very ominous premonition!

The Island Master held the "Du Mu Card" in his hand, lost in long, silent contemplation.
It is said that except for the card owner, others holding someone else’s card can only see basic information like the name and the image on the card. As for the card’s skills and detailed information, it remains unknown to all but the owner.
Thus, the Island Master peered at the card from every angle, but after a long time, he could not decipher any mysteries from it.
The card displayed only the two characters "Du Mu," accompanied by a fine-lined portrait of a man with arched eyebrows and a three-stranded beard. If Ye Zhengliu had seen it, she would have recognized it instantly from her school literature textbooks.

After a while, the Island Master asked, "Du Mu, has anyone here heard of this person?"
Everyone expressed that the name was entirely unfamiliar.
This newly summoned card was passed around among the group repeatedly.
Several men critiqued the name and the portrait on the card, yet none could offer any real insight.
One man muttered, "Du... Mu... I have never heard of this name. Besides, the Du family hasn't produced anyone famous, so I assume there is nothing to fear."
Ye Zhengliu curled her lip subtly.
One could tell at a glance that this man was ill-informed. Had he ever heard of Du Fu, Du Yuesheng, or Truman (?), he wouldn't be saying such things.
Another man was interested in Du Mu’s appearance: "There is a romantic look between the eyebrows of this portrait; he must have been quite lucky with women."
The men exchanged glances, showing that subtle, knowing smirk that says, "If you're talking about something scandalous, I'm all ears."
Ye Zhengliu: "..."
She also wanted to know, Master Du Mu, why is it always you who gets seen through?

The square-jawed Island Master coughed, and the men instantly fell silent, wiping the smiles from their faces.
The Island Master scrutinized the card again before eventually tossing it back to Ye Zhengliu.
"Ninety-nine out of a hundred character cards are trash. Looking at this man, he seems unremarkable and looks like a philanderer; he is likely just a small-time character obsessed with wine and women. No need to worry—send her to the fighting arena."

If the Island Master called Du Mu a philanderer, Ye Zhengliu would have nothing to say.
But to categorize Du Mu as a "small-time character"...
She felt this man was missing the "beating" of the "Ode to the Epang Palace" and did not know what it meant to "make later generations mourn for those who came before them."

As if touching something unlucky, the Island Master clapped his hands and walked past Ye Zhengliu without a second thought, heading straight out of the hall. The others who had been sitting in the seats of honor, critiquing Ye Zhengliu’s fate, followed the Island Master’s lead and left the hall one by one.
In an instant, the only ones left in the hall were Ye Zhengliu, who was kneeling on the ground, the two guards holding her, and the elegantly dressed young man who had activated her spirit.

He slowly switched his folding fan to his left hand, then plucked the card back from Ye Zhengliu’s palm, examining it with interest between his fingers.
Ye Zhengliu looked at him and suddenly realized that when the others were passing the card around, this man hadn't even reached out to touch it, let alone hold it.

"Know why they say this is a trash card?" the young man asked suddenly.
...What arrogance. Ye Zhengliu thought to herself.
Until now, she hadn't even had a proper look at her own card.
However, out of trust in the name "Du Mu," she believed that there would be no trash cards under that name.
...At most, the awakened skills would be a bit romantic and sentimental.

The elegantly dressed young man suddenly laughed.
He held the card a foot away from his brow, yet his gaze bypassed the card, falling directly onto Ye Zhengliu’s face, not missing a single expression.
"How did the Hall Master teach you? Do you really have no common sense at all?"
He chided her lightly, his voice low as if speaking to himself, but the content that followed made Ye Zhengliu wish she could prick up her ears to listen carefully.

"There are several ways to classify cards. The simplest is to divide them into animals, plants, objects, things, and characters. The functions of the first four are generally traceable, but character cards... because people have a thousand uses, you never know what you might get from them."

"No matter how ignorant you are, you should know that character cards are extremely risky. You might draw an unknown pawn, or you might encounter countless bizarre ways to apply them. For instance, I once saw someone who drew a tailor, but the card's skill was to blow out a candle... what use is that?"

"It is often said that 'one card determines your life,' because the first card you receive determines the direction of all your future cards. For example, if your first card is a character card, then all subsequent cards will only be character cards. If the way to use the first card is to get a piece of advice from the person’s life, then no matter how many cards you get later, you won't magically gain the ability to summon the character to fight outside the card."

The young man spoke at a leisurely pace before slowly placing the card back into Ye Zhengliu’s palm, leaning down to give her a faint smile.

"They say that ninety-nine out of a hundred character cards are trash, but the very last one can be called a god-tier card."
He stared at Ye Zhengliu, the fragrance on his body growing more intense.
The scent had no substance, yet being in this air, which smelled of a mix between flowers and fruit, Ye Zhengliu felt as if she were being bound layer by layer.
The young man whispered to her: "Will you be that god-tier card?"

"..."
Receiving no answer, he was not annoyed, just unfolded his fan with a *swish*, covering the faint, enigmatic smile on the lower half of his face.
"I always take the shortcut in life; I am Mu Yaoguang." The young man blinked at Ye Zhengliu, half of his face hidden behind the flower-adorned fan, while the fragrance around them grew thick. "Since you are so good at using others' strength to your advantage, you should know how to use my name."

"Be careful." He walked past Ye Zhengliu with a light step, his robes stirring up a hallucinatory fragrance.
There was a hint of laughter in Mu Yaoguang’s voice, making his words sound unthreatening, like a joke between friends: "Don't use me too excessively; I will get angry."

Until Mu Yaoguang's footsteps had faded away, the faint fragrance still lingered in the hall, refusing to disperse.
Ye Zhengliu suddenly heard heavy breathing.
At first, she thought it was her own, but then she realized the sound was coming from behind her.
It was the two guards who were holding her with their staves.
The two of them helped her up from the ground and whispered, "We are taking you to the arena," their movements and voices far more gentle and compliant than when they had first thrown her into the hall.

Ye Zhengliu suddenly realized that when the young man had leaned in close, these two guards had been holding their breath, never daring to breathe normally.
She looked down and saw several bean-sized wet marks falling onto the ground—it was sweat dripping from the guards' foreheads.

***

On the way to be escorted, Ye Zhengliu carefully studied her card.
When it was first summoned, she had been very clumsy with it. But after a few experiments, she discovered that the card didn't necessarily need to manifest physically; she could examine it entirely in her mind.
This Du Mu card emitted a faint golden light, and the seal-script character "Heaven" in the top left corner was even more radiant. The fine-lined portrait of Du Mu, surrounded by this golden aura, actually carried a hint of nouveau riche flair.
Below the photo were a few lines of dark gold text.

Name: Du Mu (courtesy name Muzhi)
Skill 1: The Shepherd Boy Points to Apricot Blossom Village (lv1)
Skill 2: I Truly Have a Long-term Strategy; One May Slowly Whip and Lash (lv1)
Skill 3: A Ten-Year Dream of Yangzhou (lv1)

The color of the "Name" was slightly lighter than the golden light, and the color of the skills was even lighter than the name.
Perhaps this was why those people had passed the card around and still failed to discover how to use it—it is said that when you hold someone else's card, apart from the name and image, you cannot see any secrets regarding the quality, function, or hidden information.

Ye Zhengliu looked at her card and swallowed hard.
Are the skills actually famous quotes the person said during their lifetime?
If Mu Yaoguang was telling the truth, and "one card determines your life" is correct, then all future cards will be like this...
When she draws Li Bai, Du Fu, Su Shi, Xin Qiji...
She would be able to do thirty-two whip kicks with a single leg while spinning toward the heavens like a swan!

There was still a large empty space under Skill 3. Ye Zhengliu stared at it, feeling ripples flash across it, wondering if it was yet to be discovered or simply not yet awakened.
But even as it was now, Ye Zhengliu was pleasantly surprised.
No one had given her guidance on how to use the card, so she had to explore it herself.
Literally, the "Shepherd Boy" line seemed to be a way for a "fairy to point the way," and the "Ten-Year" line was quite famous because the sentence that followed it was "winning the reputation of a fickle man in the brothel"...
Ye Zhengliu: "..."
Anti-vice and anti-pornography starts with me; Master Du Mu’s card only manifested the first half of the poem, which was clearly giving Ye Zhengliu some face.
As for the "whip and lash" part...
*Cough*, although it doesn't look very serious, Ye Zhengliu could stake her integrity on the fact that this is a very serious poem expressing one's desire to request troops for a campaign.
As everyone knows, scholars all have that martial arts dream, and more or less, all of them have written a few military poems about defending the nation.
Although later generations of netizens have almost ruined Du Mu's poems, looking back at the vast history, Du Mu was, after all, the poet who wrote, "With the five-colored thread of my life, I wish to mend the garments of Emperor Shun."

Ye Zhengliu tried these skills one by one.
She recited "The Shepherd Boy Points to Apricot Blossom Village" in her heart. The moment she finished, the scene before her suddenly changed.
A pale green, wide, eco-friendly, and healthy large arrow suddenly appeared out of thin air, marking the direction for Ye Zhengliu in the most straightforward way.
She peeked at the two guards escorting her, only to find that they were completely unaware of the bright, eye-catching arrow.
The arrow in front of her snaked to the left. Ye Zhengliu looked down, noting the footsteps of the two guards.
One step, two steps, three steps... sure enough, they turned left!
Is this the function of pointing the way?
Then, what would the line about requesting troops, "I Truly Have a Long-term Strategy; One May Slowly Whip and Lash," do?

Ye Zhengliu recited this poem in her heart as well, and she saw two thin arrows branch out from the large arrow, extending along the ankles of the guards and forming on their bodies.
Ye Zhengliu turned her head nonchalantly to look at one of the guards.
Her gaze followed the trace of the arrows, from the guard’s instep to his shin, and finally stopped at his lower abdomen.
Where her gaze paused, three circles appeared, marked "①, ②, ③" from bottom to top.
① was the shape of a footprint, ② was just a narrow toe, and ③ was two fist marks.
As for the temples on both sides of the guard’s head, a pair of bright red "④" symbols appeared simultaneously.

Ye Zhengliu lowered her eyes and pondered for a moment, then understood.
This was an attack sequence!
If she wanted to ambush this guard, she could suddenly turn, face him and stomp on his toe, then kick his shin, hit his abdomen with both fists, and then separate her hands to strike both his temples simultaneously!
The previous skill was an artifact for pointing the way, and this skill was clearly a beginner’s tutorial for fighting!
She realized that Du Mu really "had a long-term strategy"—he could even provide hand-holding instruction!

Perhaps because Ye Zhengliu’s gaze was too blatant, the guard showed signs of defense, pulling his shoulders in and changing his stance.
As his posture changed, the positions and order of those numbered circles changed synchronously.
—This was actually a real-time skill.
Nothing more to say, except that Master Du Mu is forever the god.

Ye Zhengliu smiled kindly at the guard and turned her head back obediently.
Urged by her excitement, she tried the third skill—"A Ten-Year Dream of Yangzhou."
After she silently recited this sentence in her heart, Ye Zhengliu was shocked to find that the flow of time seemed to become extremely long and slow, as if everyone had fallen into a vast, worldly dream.
In her own mind, a feeling suddenly surged that she needed to count down five seconds.
Looking at the two guards beside her, it was as if someone had deliberately dragged out time in an instant. Their eyes flooded with a dazed sleepiness, and their feet, which had been lifted high, remained stuck in place, looking quite comical.
However, Ye Zhengliu could tell that they weren't completely motionless.
Their feet were falling at an extremely slow speed, but because the speed was so slow, they appeared frozen.
If a normal person walked at this speed, they would be treated as a performance artist on the street.
At the moment when the two guards’ time was slowed, Ye Zhengliu’s own time flow remained normal.
So this "A Ten-Year Dream of Yangzhou" was actually a killer move to slow down time.

Ye Zhengliu turned her head and looked at the two guards on either side, her gaze lingering on the long swords at their waists. She knew that if she wanted to draw a sword and kill them now, neither guard would have a chance to escape.
But in the end, she restrained herself and did nothing.
—After all, this is an island, surrounded by the sea, and guarded by troops, making it difficult to escape. She was unfamiliar with the place and should not act rashly.

In a flash, the five seconds of slowed time passed. Ye Zhengliu walked with her head down as if nothing had happened, while the two guards looked at each other with confusion and suspicion.
—Why did it feel like this girl just shook her head like a fan?
—Maybe I didn't sleep well last night and got it wrong.
—*Yawn*, so sleepy.
They would never know that in those few short seconds, they had already walked along the edge of life and death.

Ye Zhengliu focused on thinking about how to use this card.
Each of these three skills was quite useful on its own, and combined, they were even more lethal.
Use "The Shepherd Boy Points to Apricot Blossom Village" first, then "I Truly Have a Long-term Strategy; One May Slowly Whip and Lash," and finally, don't forget to use "A Ten-Year Dream of Yangzhou." The opponent would become a living target with a pre-marked sequence and slow reactions!
Besides that, in certain critical moments—such as evading guards or finding a way off the island—these three combo skills would also be quite useful.
Of course, she still needed to figure out the number of times these skills could be linked, the cooldown times, how long each skill could last, and the range of influence.

But before that...
A surreal, magnificent, and high-pitched female voice rang out in Ye Zhengliu’s mind!
[Verification... One card possessed, preset system activated.]
[Identity Bound]
[Dungeon module loaded...]
[Mall module loaded...]
[Profession module loaded...]
[Guild system loaded...]
["Heavenly Mandate" — Activated!]