Trickery and deception?
Before receiving the order and coming here, Zhou Jibai had originally harbored such thoughts, even thinking it necessary to capture the person behind the mischief. However, looking at the lush, verdant mountain forest before him now...
Zhou Jibai: "..."
Zhou Jibai: "!!!" This is...
He subconsciously reached out and touched the thick fox-fur cloak on his body. If he wasn't mistaken, it was currently mid-November, and the frost had already descended this year, right?
Who could tell him, what on earth was going on?
Yet at this very mont, Zhou Jibai wasn't the only one shocked. Witnessing such a truly bizarre sight with their own eyes, the group of guards who had followed him were equally dumbfounded.
Their eyes were wide open, wider than anyone else's.
"B-Big Brother? This..."
Could they have truly encountered a real immortal?
"Nonsense! What gods and ghosts exist in this world?" Reacting, Zhou Jibai instinctively spoke up with a stern rebuke, his already sowhat dark complexion now appearing even more rigid and cold.
However, anyone familiar with him wouldn't find it difficult to notice that his voice right now held a definite trace of... emptiness.
Especially after the group arduously broke through the crowd of people and climbed up the mountain.
"It... it's actually all real?"
There were no signs of the plants having been transplanted later, and these flowers and plants on the ground... after repeatedly confirming the sensation under his hand...
Zhou Jibai: "!!!"
"Hey? Hey... hey! What are you few youngsters trying to do!"
Seeing the group stand motionless for a long ti, so tourists behind them had already beco quite displeased.
"The County Magistrate said earlier, no one is allowed to damage the plants here!"
After the frost descended, the middle of the month was truly cold. The biting cold wind constantly assailing the mountain cliff was exceptionally harsh. Even so, it couldn't stop the continuous waves of people climbing the mountain to pay their respects.
Especially those scholars and talented individuals from the nearby prefectures and counties. Those skilled in poetry and painting had been coming particularly frequently from the start, and each ti they ca, they inevitably brought brushes, tools, and the like.
Many people didn't even spare the flowers and grass on the ground, or the leaves hanging from the branches.
If Magistrate Wang hadn't intervened in ti and dispatched officials daily to supervise, this vast mountain would likely have been picked bare by the constant stream of visitors long ago.
Even so, quite a few people, thinking they couldn't take anything away, simply plucked a leaf, popped it in their mouths, chewed it up, and swallowed it.
Strangely enough, perhaps due to the placebo effect, after eating a lot of these things, many genuinely felt their bodies beco remarkably lighter.
Once this news spread, the number of daily visitors increased even more.
Therefore, right now, seeing a few out-of-towners not only looking around and touching things but also occupying the spot and lingering without leaving was extrely conspicuous and annoying.
If not for the fact that these people's clothing, accessories, and overall imposing aura were visibly extraordinary, the crowd of tourists behind them would have already started cursing.
What kind of people are these? They look decent enough, but they're stealing and eating so blatantly, without even bothering to hide it?
The group of guards, who hadn't yet recovered from their shock: "..."
They were guards, Imperial Guards at that. Which one of them wasn't respectable and from a distinguished family? And yet now...
"B-Big Brother?"
Silently retreating under the crowd's strange and dissatisfied gazes, after making so inquiries, the group fell even more silent.
Especially after presenting their identities and being led by the long-prepared Magistrate Wang to admire that "Masterpiece from the Immortal Master's Path to Enlightennt."
They confird there were no drug reactions, no incense burners or similar items anywhere around, yet they indeed felt clear-headed and sharp-eyed.
Moreover, due to a martial artist's keen senses, Zhou Jibai could even feel that the old injury which always caused him so discomfort on cold, overcast days seed to strangely lessen its discomfort when he was near this place.
Zhou Jibai, confirming his senses were not mistaken: "???"
At this mont, it felt as if sothing was silently shattering.
Taking a deep breath of the cold air, Guard Zhou imdiately turned his head, his gaze exceptionally urgent as he looked at the man before him:
"Dare I ask, where is that exalted personage?"
***
Truly worthy of being soone serving before the Emperor!
Even though he felt sowhat tense under the other's almost fierce imposing aura, Magistrate Wang still forced himself to stand firm at this mont. After bowing respectfully, he slowly began to explain:
"To be frank with you, sir, you are a step too late. The True Master has been in seclusion for a long ti now!"
To be more precise, ever since the initial stages of entering the Dao, that True Master had been in seclusion.
She only ca out once midway to entrust a disciple at the temple to deliver so items to the ho of her benefactor's teacher, Lady Yang.
Presumably, this was the legendary sudden breakthrough, requiring her to seize the ti to stabilize her cultivation!
Thinking of the als that had been returned untouched so ti ago, along with the explicit ssage that no more needed to be sent, Magistrate Wang couldn't help but secretly click his tongue.
Honestly, it's been almost half a month now!
Truly worthy of being an accomplished exalted personage!
Just as Magistrate Wang was silently marveling, Guard Zhou, after hearing this: "..."
It's been so long, are they sure the person inside is still alive?
His gaze swept over the other man's face, full of admiration and worship that seed utterly genuine. Then, recalling all the miraculous sights he had witnessed on the way here, after brief consideration...
Guard Zhou silently closed his mouth.
Half an hour later, having confird that this exalted personage's date of exiting seclusion was indeed undetermined, Zhou Jibai didn't dare be negligent. As soon as he returned to his lodgings, he imdiately wrote down everything he had seen and heard today in a secret morial, word for word, ordering his subordinate to deliver it to the imperial capital post-haste.
He himself personally led his n to guard the temple, keeping watch day and night, fearing that this True Master might truly disappear.
But two days later...
After repeatedly confirming there were no hidden entrances or exits nearby, and no traces of anyone coming or going. Staring fixedly at the room before him that still showed no movent whatsoever, the great Guard Zhou couldn't help but feel doubt arise in his heart again:
Seriously, is this person... really still alive?
At the sa ti, within the imperial capital, Emperor Xuanwu, having received the secret morial: "???"
Has Zhou Si lost his mind from a fever?
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