Celestial being

"Zuo Chong, tomorrow you..." Yuan Ming's mother said as she walked into the study. When she looked at Yuan Ming, she was stunned.

Yuan Ming's mother has no talent for cultivating immortals and has always been just a mortal. She was once unparalleled in splendor, but now she cannot escape the wear and tear of time. Her skin is no longer smooth and delicate, her figure is a little thin, and wrinkles have climbed up her forehead and the corners of her eyes. What was once long black hair is now a lot more beautiful.

She looked at Yuan Ming, her body was trembling, but she was speechless. Tears fell in large drops, quickly soaking her cheeks.

She slowly walked towards Yuan Ming and carefully touched his cheek with her hands. She didn't even dare to use force, for fear that everything she saw was a dream and that if she used a little force, she would wake up from the dream.

Yuan Ming held his mother's hand on his cheek, feeling the warmth coming from the palm. Thousands of words, but in the end they only condensed into one simple sentence.

"Mom, I'm back."

…

"Elder Cha, the disciple responsible for monitoring the Yuan Mansion came to report that Yuan Ming has returned home."

At the Taoist temple in the center of Qujiang City, a middle-aged man wearing a purple gold Taoist robe respectfully reported to a female alchemy cultivator.

The man was the new national master sent by Changchun Temple, named Miao Qing. His cultivation level was much higher than that of Yuhu, and he had even reached the peak of foundation building.

Although the title of Grand Master of the Jin Dynasty sounds very intimidating, for a sect that cultivates immortality like Changchun Temple, he is actually no different from a steward responsible for handling external affairs.

In the Changchun Temple, any monk with some talent would not want to take up this position, but this position is very important. In a sense, it is equivalent to the appearance of the Changchun Temple. Therefore, without some background and means, And he cannot be a national teacher.

Fortunately, there is no shortage of foundation-building disciples in Changchun Temple who have a certain background but are not very talented.

Taoist Priest Yuhu was like this, and Miao Qing was like this too.

However, compared to Yuhu who was only in the early stage of foundation building, Miao Qing's identity and status were much higher.

He is the only son of an elder named Miao in Changchun Temple. He should have a bright future, but he was seriously injured while exploring a secret realm. His foundation was damaged from then on, and he will never be able to break through the pill formation.

In desperation, he could only stop thinking about going further and began to help deal with various common affairs within the sect. Because of his outstanding methods, he won the praise of many Jiedan elders.

After the death of Yu Hu, Changchun Guan has been arguing over who will be the next national master.

People from the royal family definitely don't have to think about it. After all, the position of national preceptor is set up to restrict the royal family. If one of them takes the position, it would be putting the cart before the horse.

But among people who are not from the royal family, there are very few people who are willing to take over the mess left by Yu Hu.

What Yuhu did was said to be for the benefit of the young emperor Liu Tianming, but in fact it was a disguised attempt to suppress the authority of the royal family. It would have been fine if it had been accomplished. But now not only has it not been accomplished, but it has also ruined the reputation of the Imperial Master. .

If you take over at this time, you will be targeted by the royal family. Any slight mistakes will lead to a further lowering of the public's evaluation of Changchun Temple.

Against this background, Miao Qing rushed to the shelves and was jointly appointed by several elders to take on such a hot potato.

Those elders didn't want to target him. After all, if they could do bad things well, they would gain prestige and benefits that couldn't be exchanged for a hundred good things.

However, Miao Qing is much more practical than them. After taking office, he directly adheres to the principle of not doing good work. Except for his own job that has been set long ago, he ignores everything else.

Facts have proved that his strategy is effective. After the initial limelight passed, basically no one cared about his performance as a national teacher.

If nothing else goes wrong, as long as he has been in office for thirty years, he can be transferred through operations to manage the Xiashifang City near Qujiang City, where the real lucrative positions will be.

Unfortunately, six years ago, an accident occurred.

"Why didn't the disciple arranged at the city gate report it, but the disciple responsible for surveillance came first?" Hearing Miao Qing's words, the female alchemy cultivator opened her eyes and asked lightly.

She has a pair of pink and phoenix eyes, willow eyebrows like the moon, and red lips like fire. She wears a green shirt to outline her concave and convex figure, which is extremely attractive.

On each of her ears, there was a sapphire earring wrapped in a faint spiritual light, with runes faintly flashing on it, which looked quite extraordinary.

"This... maybe Yuan Ming put on a disguise when he entered the city, and they didn't notice it in time." Miao Qing lowered his head and said.

"Didn't we issue a magic weapon that could see through the disguise? In the end, you still didn't take it seriously. Send me an order to confiscate their monthly money and give each of them ten magic whips as punishment." Elder Zha looked calm. said.

Miao Qing nodded in agreement, but couldn't help but sigh in her heart.

The disciples responsible for monitoring and guarding are all just practicing Qi. Yuan Ming was building the foundation when he left the capital. Now that he has been away for nearly twenty years, his cultivation may have increased. Even if those disciples have magical weapons, Yuan Ming wants to hide them. It's easy, so why is this the responsibility of those Qi refining disciples?

But he only dared to think about these words in his mind and did not dare to say them to this "selfless" elder face to face.

"In addition, since Yuan Ming has returned home, all the manpower arranged in other places should be withdrawn and transferred to watch outside Yuan's mansion. You can go there in person and bring Yuan Ming to see me." Elder Zha said. Shi said again.

Miao Qing sighed quietly. Although she was reluctant in her heart, but under the pressure from Elder Zha, she could only nod in agreement and turned around to make arrangements.

The night is getting dark.

Yuan Ming sent his sleeping mother back to her room, talked with his father for a long time, and then returned to his cabin.

The furnishings in the house were the same as when he left them, and despite the gap of twenty years, they were still spotless.

Yuan Ming looked around the room and couldn't help but feel a burst of emotion in his heart, but now was not a good time to recall the past. He still needed to find out the intentions and trends of Changchun Temple as soon as possible.

Soon, Yuan Ming found a transmission note from his storage bag and silently cast a spell to activate it.

"Your Majesty, I have returned to the capital and found out that there is an elder from Changchun Temple who is under surveillance because of Zuo Qinghui's incident. I wonder how much you know about this matter? Can you tell me the inside story?" Yuan Ming whispered to the transmission note. said.

A blue light rose up from the transmission talisman, but dimmed after a moment. It seemed that Yuan Ming's words had been transmitted to another corresponding talisman.

But soon, the transmission talisman in Yuan Ming's hand lit up again, and Liu Tianming's voice came out from it, but there was only one sentence:

"In the backyard of Tianming Bookstore, the mountains and rivers will eventually come to an end."

Then, the transmission talisman completely turned into flying ash and fell.

Yuan Ming frowned and thought to himself that it was true.

Although the content of the jade slip placed on his father's desk is simple, only those in Changchun Temple can understand such a precise situation. Among the royal family, only Xiao Xiao is so close to his Yuan family. Emperor Liu Tianming is alone.

As the saying goes, one emperor and one courtier, even Liu Tianming's imperial grandfather did not pay much attention to Yuan Ming and Yuan Zuochong.

However, Yuan Ming did not expect that Liu Tianming was also in the capital now, and the meeting place was at Tianming Bookstore, and there was coded communication. Perhaps he had sneaked out just for this matter, making it inconvenient for him to have direct contact with him.

While Yuan Ming was thinking, there was a sudden knock on the door outside the house.

"Young Master, National Master Miao Qing is here to visit and would like to meet you." Fu Qing's voice came from outside the house.

"...Tell him that I went out to Fangshi for business and am not at home now. Let him come back tomorrow." Yuan Ming whispered for a moment, and then ordered.

"Yes." Fu Qing took the order and retreated.

"Wait a minute, if he doesn't believe me and insists on seeing me, I'll ask him to wait in the front hall and tell me that he has notified me and will be back in a while. Don't let him disturb my parents." At this moment. Yuan Ming remembered something, quickly opened the door, stopped Fu Qing, and added.

"My subordinates understand." Fu Qing nodded.

Yuan Ming looked at Fu Qing's leaving figure and thought about the purpose of Miao Qing's arrival.

After meeting his parents, he did not deliberately conceal his identity, so many servants in the mansion knew about his return.

If the people watching outside the house were not blind, they would definitely have noticed this situation. What's more, it is still unknown whether there are mortal spies from Changchun Guan among the servants in the mansion.

If it were an ordinary monk, he might not attach importance to the role of mortals, but the national master who was at the political center of the Jin Dynasty would certainly not despise these ordinary means.

Taoist priest Yuhu is an example.

However, no matter where Miao Qing learned about his return or what the purpose of his visit was, Yuan Ming was not prepared to pay attention to him.

All responses will have to wait until he meets with Liu Tianming before they can be completely decided.

…

After a stick of incense, Tianming Bookstore.

After disguising himself, Yuan Ming avoided the Changchun Temple monks who were monitoring Yuan Mansion, and quietly came to the backyard of Tianming Bookstore, which had long since closed.

Many rooms in the backyard were still lighted, and the book club's clerks were proofreading and engraving plates by candlelight, printing the next batch of books to be sold.

Yuan Ming's spiritual consciousness swept across the book club and soon found the residence of the book owner.

He stepped forward and knocked on the door. Not long after, the bookstore owner, who was over fifty years old, quietly opened the door. Seeing a stranger standing outside the room, a look of surprise appeared on his face.

"Who are you?"

"The mountains and rivers will eventually come to an end." Yuan Ming spoke the code word calmly without taking off his disguise.

Hearing this, the surprised expression on the shopkeeper's face quickly disappeared, he opened the door a little more, and introduced Yuan Ming into the house.

"We don't meet here. Please come here. Your Majesty has been waiting for you for a long time." The shopkeeper whispered, walked quickly to the wall, and took down a volume from the bookshelf.

With a slight sound, the floor slowly opened, revealing a staircase leading underground.

Yuan Ming walked towards the basement with a calm expression. The shopkeeper of the book club did not follow him. He just waited for Yuan Ming to go deeper and then closed the secret passage again.

The stairs were not long, but the end was blocked by a stone door with restrictions engraved on it. Before Yuan Ming could react, the stone door slowly opened, and Liu Tianming came out with a smile on his face.