Chapter 22

"Is this for me?" Yanzhi asked in surprise, holding the box of watercolor in her hand.

Tang Jie smiled and said, "Yes, when I passed by the Treasure Hall today, I saw this new shipment from the Edge Sea. I remembered it's Sister Yanzhi's birthday today. Since Sister is named Yanzhi, this watercolor is most suitable for you. I had some silver from Madam's reward, and after buying medicine for the elders, there was still some left, so I used it as a birthday gift. I hope Sister won't mind."

In fact, she was not much older than Tang Jie, but due to her position, the servants in the Wei family usually called the madam's maids "sister."

Yanzhi gave him a sidelong glance and smiled, "You are thoughtful, but I doubt it was just a coincidence. It must have been intentional."

Tang Jie smiled but did not answer.

Among the six major sects of the Qixia Realm, the Thousand Emotions Sect and the Edge Sea Pavilion had the most women, so the cosmetics from the Edge Sea were well-known. This small box of watercolor, even if it was just an ordinary one, would cost no less than seven or eight hundred coins. Yanzhi absolutely did not believe that Tang Jie had bought it on a whim, but because of this, she developed a better impression of him.

After accepting the watercolor, Yanzhi looked at Tang Jie and said, "You are a considerate person. Not bad, do your work well."

With that, she turned and left.

She did not make any promises to Tang Jie, but he knew that with this gift, Yanzhi would not cause him any more trouble in the future.

Of course, he had to send gifts to Yanzhi and also get along well with the other servants.

Fortunately, he was now tasked by the young master to tend the flower garden and create various floral arrangements. Although the previous arrangements were already done, children get bored easily, so they usually wanted new ones after a while.

To keep changing the arrangements, he needed resources, such as wire frames. Tang Jie already had some authority, but after Wei Tianchong's initial enthusiasm waned, he no longer cared about the process, only the results, so the servants he had assigned were taken back.

Without supervision, Tang Jie could embezzle some of the materials and even had some purchasing power. Some merchants, to get business from the Wei family, would flatter him and give him extra benefits. Thus, he had some gray income, which, though not much, was enough to buy the favor of the other servants and build good relationships.

As for embezzlement... what kind of servant doesn't embezzle?

Those officials who want promotions and the long lines of people at the civil service exams, are they all there to serve the people?

After bidding farewell to Yanzhi, Tang Jie returned to his flower garden to continue working.

Tending the garden had attracted the young master's attention but also increased his workload, reducing the time he had to study array arts.

For Tang Jie, if he could not improve his array arts as much as possible before entering the academy, he might not have much time to study them in the future.

This made him somewhat troubled.

Today, as he looked at the garden full of flowers, an idea suddenly struck him.

Why not use this garden to study array arts?

For a while, to avoid being discovered, he had been doing purely theoretical research, memorizing the contents of the True Interpretation of Array Arts so well that he could recite them fluently. All he lacked was the opportunity to practice.

Xu Muyang's array arts emphasized learning from nature, which fit the current situation.

Of course, this was the Wei family, so he could not set up dangerous or lethal arrays, but he could create some illusionary mazes. If necessary, he might even create a maze for the young master to play in, but he had to be careful not to let anyone notice.

The Wei family had spirit masters, so Tang Jie knew he had to work hard to hide his arrays.

Different needs required different applications.

Arrays were often used for defense, like the ancient city walls on Earth, which were barriers for major sects. However, some arrays were designed to lure enemies into traps, which required them to be perfectly hidden.

Xu Muyang's philosophy of learning from nature was well-suited for hiding arrays, which was why he could silently set up the Eight Gates Locking Heaven Array without being detected by He Chong before it was activated.

Since that was the case, he would study the techniques of hidden arrays.

In the True Interpretation of Array Arts, Xu Muyang had a dedicated section on hidden arrays, mainly discussing how to hide them.

To hide the existence of an array, it had to be naturally integrated into the environment, making every plant and tree part of the array's structure. All things have spirit, and the spirit energy flows through them, producing the desired effects due to different combinations.

Some places in the world were naturally perfect for arrays because they unintentionally followed the principles of spirit energy flow.

What Tang Jie needed to do was understand the nature of the spirit energy in each plant, how it flowed, and then arrange them in a special way to combine them naturally.

However, making the array form the desired pattern and still function was not easy. Even the True Interpretation of Array Arts did not record this, as Xu Muyang had never needed to use arrays in a garden. So Tang Jie had to study it himself.

This research took him more than half a year.

During this time, he focused on combining horticulture and array arts, and nothing else happened. The servants, having received his favors, no longer caused him trouble. Although Shimu and Shimeng were still unhappy after being ordered around by him, they did not dare to take revenge because the young master liked Tang Jie recently, so they were cautious.

Today, Tang Jie was still busy in the flower garden, creating a garden maze.

A plant maze was the hardest array to detect. Even if someone got lost in it, they would think it was a natural wonder and not an array.

However, combining the two was not easy. A natural maze relies on complex paths to confuse, while an array uses the flow of spirit energy to produce effects. The principles behind them were completely different, so looking at the array from the outside would not reveal its true structure.

Tang Jie had racked his brain but could not find a solution.

Today, as he continued his research, he suddenly heard a girl's voice, "Hey? What's this?"

Tang Jie turned around and saw a graceful young girl walking towards him, wearing a moon-white flowered jacket, golden embroidered shoes, and a jade hairpin, her steps swaying beautifully. She was followed by two maids.

Tang Jie recognized her and quickly bowed, "Fourth Miss."

This Fourth Miss was Wei Qingsong's daughter, Wei Die, who was a few days older than Wei Tianchong and was the fourth of Wei Danbo and Wei Qingsong's seven children. Tang Jie had seen her twice before, but only from a distance.

Seeing her approach, Tang Jie naturally bowed.

Wei Die looked at the garden and said, "You must be Tang Jie. I've heard your name quite a few times recently. I also came to see your work a few days ago, and it was quite good. But what are you making now? I can't see it at all."

Tang Jie quickly replied, "A maze."

"Maze..." Wei Die's eyes showed a hint of helplessness, "Isn't the Wei family itself a maze? Why go to such lengths to create another one?"

Her tone was filled with endless resentment.

The two maids beside her coughed lightly, but Wei Die seemed unaware.

This young girl, about the same age as Tang Jie, seemed to have a lot on her mind.

Tang Jie pretended not to notice and smiled, "The Wei family is vast, so calling it a maze is not an exaggeration. My maze, however, is small but intricate, and different. If Fourth Miss is interested, you can try it."

"Forget it," Wei Die shook her head. "The paths are so complex, just looking at them from the outside makes me dizzy. I don't know what it would be like to go in. It's a lot of effort, I hope your young master will like it."

She looked at Tang Jie, "You put so much effort into this, I suppose you have your heart set on the Moon Washing Academy?"

Tang Jie bowed, "If I can go, it would be the best."

He did not hide his desire, but Wei Die's eyes showed a hint of frustration, and she said resentfully, "Why... why can servants like you strive for immortality, but women like us don't even have the chance? What's the point of being a Fourth Miss? I'm not even as good as a maid!"

With that, she stomped her foot and turned to leave.

Tang Jie watched her go, shaking his head.

So that was the reason.

Even a young lady had fewer opportunities than a servant, no wonder she was angry and dissatisfied.

However, Tang Jie thought it might be good for her. After being in the Wei family for so long, he had learned a lot.

The Wei family seemed grand on the surface, but behind it were countless dark secrets. If Fourth Miss did not want to get involved in this mess, it was better for her to stay away.

Perhaps the old patriarch of the Wei family had the same thought?

As he thought, Tang Jie suddenly felt a shock and muttered, "Grand on the surface, dark behind..."

He remembered Wei Die's words, "The paths are so complex, just looking at them from the outside makes me dizzy..."

"Damn, why didn't I think of this? I'm so stupid!" Tang Jie slapped his head and scolded himself.

He realized he didn't need to try to combine a natural maze with an array.

Combining nature and arrays was like trying to combine Chinese ink painting with oil painting; no matter how hard you tried, it would always look strange.

But what if he set up an array within a natural maze?

Since they couldn't be combined, he could simply add them together.

The outside would be a natural maze, and the inside would be an array maze. The outside would deceive the onlookers and hide the true array. They would complement each other perfectly, so there was no need to force them to merge.

This was like hiding a bit of oil painting in a corner of a large ink painting. If you didn't pay attention, you wouldn't notice it. If the ink painting itself was detailed, it would be even easier to hide.

Hiding!

Hiding was the key, not true integration.

Sometimes, the problem wasn't that he was thinking too complexly, but too simply!

At this moment, Tang Jie realized his mistake, scolded himself for wasting time, and started modifying the maze again. This time, he no longer tried to force integration but used the natural maze to hide the real array.

Since the array was not large and only affected a limited area, it would be hard to detect even for a spirit master without using spirit energy detection.

Two days later, Tang Jie completed his work and personally led the young master through the maze.

Wei Tianchong got lost in the maze, feeling dizzy and confused, but found it very interesting, calling it fun repeatedly. He did not realize that the array was secretly affecting him.

This was the first time Tang Jie had truly used an array to trap someone, and he felt a sense of joy, finding array arts quite interesting and even developing a liking for them.

He couldn't help but think of Xu Muyang's words, wondering if he really had a hidden love for array arts.

In the following days, Tang Jie kept changing the array, creating various strange mazes that Wei Tianchong enjoyed immensely.

Of course, to satisfy the young master, Tang Jie would sometimes secretly let Wei Tianchong out of the maze. Wei Tianchong, unaware that Tang Jie was letting him out, thought he was clever and cheered excitedly, not realizing that his mood was being controlled by Tang Jie, who could make him happy or sad at will.

When a person's mood is controlled by another, it often means that person is under their control. The young master began to look at Tang Jie differently and got closer to him, which made Shimu and Shimeng increasingly jealous. The hostility that had diminished gradually resurfaced.

One day, Wei Tianchong, having nothing to do, suddenly decided to have a barbecue at Yinglong Mountain.

The word "barbecue" was taught to him by Tang Jie. Sometimes, when Wei Tianchong and Tang Jie talked, Tang Jie would tell him stories and interesting things.

Modern young people often have barbecues, which Tang Jie mentioned casually.

Initially, Wei Tianchong did not pay much attention to the idea of setting up a grill in the mountains and roasting meat, but this time, he decided to try it.

He decided to invite Tang Jie along.