The Empress's No.1 Lackey

Waiting for the destined one... Outside the soup and pancake stall, Zhao Douan squinted his eyes.

Through the steaming bowl on the table and the misty white vapor, he carefully examined this uninvited guest.

He was certain he had never seen him before.

An instinct from within his body reminded him that the old man before him was no simple figure, yet he felt no malice.

"May I ask for your esteemed name?" asked Zhao Douan.

He understood that the Capital was filled with experts, and the temple and court were just a corner of this world.

Zhang Yan Yi shook his head with a smile:

"I am but an obscure official within the Heavenly Master Mansion, nothing more."

The Heavenly Master Mansion!

Zhao Douan was taken aback, was this mysterious and secretive old man a Magician from the Heavenly Master Mansion?

As for the words "loose official," he had also heard of them.

Within the Heavenly Master Mansion, priests were divided into two kinds:

One was the "service priest," responsible for the daily operations of the Heavenly Master Mansion and its many practical affairs.

The other was the "loose official," who solely focused on cultivation without taking on any additional duties.

The latter often possessed higher cultivation, and although they held no power in their hands, their status was esteemed; Jin Jian belonged to the "loose officials."

"I have little interaction with the Heavenly Master Mansion, but may I know the purpose of your visit, sir?" inquired Zhao Douan, puzzled.

Zhang Yan Yi looked at him with interest and said:

"My humble self happened to hear Priest Zhu Dian mention that a Martial Artist with a strong Divine Soul has emerged in the Capital. Coincidentally, the path I follow has stringent demands on the Divine Soul, so I came to have a look."

Indeed, it was Jin Jian, fond of invisibly spying and a blabbermouth... Zhao Douan was stunned for a moment and said with a strange expression:

"What do you mean by that, sir? You couldn't possibly be here to take on a disciple, right?"

He said the latter part in a teasing tone.

But Zhang Yan Yi just smiled and quietly looked at him.

"..." Zhao Douan's teasing demeanor gradually faded, and his expression grew even more strange:

"Are you serious, sir?"

Zhang Yan Yi smiled and said: "When one finds a promising seedling, is it not appropriate to wish to take them under one's wing?"

No... It's not a matter of whether it's appropriate or not, you're openly poaching from the Royal Family... Also, isn't this too hasty? Just hearing about someone and you just show up?

Zhao Douan was rendered speechless, soon realizing that this indeed seemed like the style of a "loose official."

The Heavenly Master Mansion, as the "orthodox national religion," had extremely strict recruitment policies. Service priests were one thing, but "loose officials" rarely took on disciples.

Like the legendary Heavenly Master Zhang, who in his lifetime spanning hundreds of years, only accepted a mere six students.

The Divine Dragon Temple was similar.

Therefore, when word spread that there was a cultivation genius born somewhere, the priests from the Heavenly Master Mansion and the monks from the Divine Dragon Temple would compete fervently to win them over.

Much like Tsinghua and Peking University fighting over the top scholar of the college entrance examination...

The more formidable the Cultivator, the less they adhered to the customs of the mortal world, and the more unconventional their style of conduct.

"Thank you for your high regard, Old Sir. However, I have already been inducted into the Imperial Family as a Tributor, and I am following the Martial God's legacy left by the Great Yu Grand Ancestor," Zhao Douan declined tactfully.

Zhang Yan Yi asserted boldly:

"The Great Yu Grand Ancestor has been dead for so many years, what can he teach you? Being personally taught by me as my disciple, wouldn't it be a hundred times better than contemplating some broken portrait?"

Damn... Zhao Douan almost broke out in a cold sweat. Were all the priests from the Heavenly Master Mansion this capricious?

And dare to say anything?

Obviously, he couldn't guess the true identity of the old man before him.

After all, such an idea was too bizarre; Heavenly Master Zhang was a person akin to an immortal, even the Empress held him in the highest esteem.

He was a supreme figure of the world, whom even Yuann Li and Li Yanfu had no chance to see in person.

He was an earthly immortal who had rarely set foot in the mortal world for a hundred years.

As a "transmigrator" himself, he had his unique confidence, but at least for now, did not feel that he was qualified to seek an audience with Heavenly Master Zhang.

Let alone for Heavenly Master Zhang to corner him in the middle of the night, seeking to take him on as a disciple.

He wouldn't dare to dream of such a thing!

In his view, the old man before him probably did have some status and ability within the Heavenly Master Mansion, being able to converse with Jin Jian.

But to think that with just a few words he could lure him to betray the Royal Family was far too preposterous.

"Senior, please watch your words!"

Zhao Douan glanced around to ensure their voices were low enough, and said earnestly:

"I am fortunate enough to have caught the Saint's favor and entered the Martial God's path. I am fully satisfied. Please, no further mention of taking disciples!"

Zhang Yan Yi's gaze was strange as he said,

"Young man, don't be hasty in rejecting; why not ask which deity this old man cultivates?"

"…Which one?"

The Old Heavenly Master, with his rosy cheeks and narrow eyes, lifted a finger, dipped it in the soup bowl before him, and wrote two upright characters on the table.

"Heavenly Dao?" Zhao Douan raised his eyebrows and asked,

"Is it the one that corresponds to the 'Saint' from the Divine Dragon Temple?"

He had gleaned some secrets during a casual conversation with the Empress at the top of Emperor Tower.

Like when he opened his Heavenly Eye to observe the celestial phenomena at night, the vast expanse of blue sky over the Heavenly Master Mansion was in truth the main deity cultivated by the Daoists: the Heavenly Dao.

According to the Empress, the Heavenly Dao and the Saint were two paths of cultivation that did not pale in comparison to the Martial God.

"As far as I know, there are not many priests in the Heavenly Master Mansion who cultivate the Heavenly Dao, but at least, there is one for every person... Old Sir, please don't deceive the younger generation with ignorance," Zhao Douan said with disdain.

He felt the old man was flying a false flag to fool him.

Zhang Yan Yi just smiled and didn't explain; instead, he counter asked,

"Heavenly Dao isn't stronger than Martial God?"

How would I know… Zhao Douan shook his head and casually prevaricated,

"Heavenly Dao may be formidable, but unfortunately, I follow the human Dao."

What he really wanted was an excuse for the stubborn old man to give up and stop bothering him.

Zhang Yan Yi laughed, "You speak grand words at such a young age, as if you clearly distinguish between Heavenly Dao and human Dao."

Ordinarily, Zhao Douan wouldn't have argued with him.

But tonight, intoxicated and feeling slightly dizzy, after being lectured by this unfamiliar old man, he felt displeased and retorted offhand,

"What's so hard to tell apart? In my view, the Dao of Heaven takes from what has excess to supplement what is deficient. The human Dao, on the other hand, does not act this way; it takes from the deficient to serve those with excess. Who can be rich enough to serve all under heaven, only one with the Dao."

These were famous lines from Laozi's "Tao Te Ching." While the first two sentences were nearly universally known, the last sentence was not very famous.

In his previous life, as Zhao Douan strove for a career in the civil service, he had learned Laozi's five-thousand-character classic by heart.

Now, drunk and speaking off the cuff, he had no particular scheme in mind.

Unexpectedly, these words struck a chord with the stubborn old man, causing him to fall briefly into a trance.

The Dao of Heaven takes from what has excess to supplement what is deficient… the human Dao, takes from the deficient to serve those with excess… to serve all under heaven, only one with the Dao...

Zhang Yan Yi pondered over the words for a moment and looked at the young man opposite him with a hint of surprise.

With his level of understanding, of course, he would not be astonished by such a point of view.

What surprised him was that such a concise and profound statement had come from the mouth of this drunken, mortal libertine.

Things seemed to be getting interesting.

Zhang Yan Yi, with a testing intent, asked,

"Oh? Then in your opinion, what is the 'Dao'?"

Without hesitation, Zhao Douan recited,

"The Dao that can be spoken is not the eternal Dao; the name that can be named is not the eternal name… the nameless is the origin of Heaven and Earth; the named is the mother of all things. Thus, always without desire, one can observe its wonder…"

Zhang Yan Yi initially listened with great interest, but gradually, the Old Heavenly Master's laid-back nature faded, and his narrow eyes slowly narrowed.

Zhao Douan, however, stopped reciting.

"Why did you stop talking?" Zhang Yan Yi felt uncomfortable as if his reading had been interrupted.

Zhao Douan matter-of-factly stated, "That's all I have to say; I am done."

Zhang Yan Yi pondered for a moment and then shook his head,

"What you've said is too abstract; it doesn't count as true enlightenment. If you could condense it into one sentence, then you'd truly understand."

One sentence? To explain the Dao in one sentence?

Zhao Douan snorted lightly and, caught in his drunkenness, imitated the Old Heavenly Master by lifting a finger and dipping it in the wakeful soup.

He pressed it against the decayed wooden desk and with clumsy penmanship wrote one stroke at a time,

"Dao begets one…"

Just as he wrote these three characters, lightning flashed and thunder boomed through the clouds above the Capital.

"Boom!"

Vicious, web-like lightning split the dark night.

Then, immediately afterward, like a torrential downpour, raindrops the size of beans began to fall chaotically from the sky.

One stroke, startling heaven.

…

There's something to attend to tomorrow, the update might be later than usual.