CHAPTER 551: CHAPTER 322: THE LEGEND OF TAOIST LIU

Outside the Illusion Realm, Thousand Mechanism Pavilion.

Stone Girl Xiaoxuan is on holiday today, and she’s currently sitting on the grass playing cards with several Big Head Taoists.

The three Stone Men are fighting against Old Ascender.

Xiaoxuan is the one being hit as Old Ascender.

However, for the sake of making the game more interesting, she activated the Stone Man network, and now, the two Big Heads opposite her are in intelligence online mode.

It’s more fun, but it’s also more challenging for her.

Xiaoxuan’s face is covered with strips of paper at this moment.

"Two twos!"

Not wanting to lose again, Xiaoxuan sneakily tossed five cards out.

"Xiaoxuan girl, there’s no need for this, we remember the cards," said Taoist Mu, sitting opposite her, softly.

Xiaoxuan, "Slipped, slipped."

Taoist Jin, "You’ve slipped three times already, I was too embarrassed to say the first two times."

Xiaoxuan, "..."

Being exposed on the spot, Xiaoxuan was somewhat embarrassed, so she decided to go all in and directly disconnected the Stone Man network.

In an instant, the intelligent Taoist Mu and Taoist Jin became dazed, reverted to struggling with counting, and could only play by digging in the dirt.

"Continue, continue," Xiaoxuan said, as if nothing was wrong.

"Okay..."

Although Xiaoxuan’s intelligence was also lowered, she relied on her third-grade elementary arithmetic skills to heavily suppress the two Big Head Taoists who had been reduced to kindergarten level.

The situation reversed abruptly.

But playing like this is somewhat unfair, even passersby couldn’t help but disapprove.

"Xiaoxuan, isn’t this wrong?" Chen Qin appeared behind Xiaoxuan, carrying a bamboo box full of books, with Li and Rongrong on his head.

Xiaoxuan was startled, turned back to see Chen Qin, and quickly gathered up the cards, intentionally changing the subject.

"Chen Qin, hehe... that, where are you going with so many books?"

Chen Qin, "The Taoist wants to check something, and I’m idle anyway, just helping run errands."

Xiaoxuan nodded, then asked, "Why don’t you use a Spatial Magical Artifact for storage, but instead hug these books? Is there something special about them?"

Chen Qin, "These are..."

"They’re just ordinary books. Xiaoqin carries them to appear busy walking around instead of strolling empty-handed. In my view, she’s just idle."

Before she could finish, Li interrupted from her head.

Then, due to this truthful but annoying remark, Xiaoqin shook her head and threw Li off.

"Don’t listen to Li’s nonsense. How could I be so boring? These are treasures, I’ll be off now."

Having said that, Chen Qin dashed away without waiting for Li to return to his post.

...

Inside Jade Book Tower, Tang sat amidst a pile of books.

After knowing the Liang Song Kingdom’s demise was related to the Human Emperor Banner, he began to investigate the history of that period.

After filling the gap left by the Human Emperor Banner, many perplexing, self-contradictory events connected.

The sources of these clues, in fact, were mostly stored on Dragon Tiger Mountain all along.

Because the Ancestral Master rebelled against Liang Song back then, his first core rebel group mostly hailed from local backgrounds.

Among them, two were from Bianjing and achieved great things.

One was Tang’s ancestor, known as Wine Immortal Tang Zhen.

A Bianjing native, he was once a down-and-out scholar who fled during the turmoil in Bianjing, wandered for a long time, and by chance, joined the Ancestral Master.

However, since he was just a commoner at the time and left the city early, he knew nothing about what happened there.

As for the other person’s real name, no one knows, only referred to as Taoist Monarch Liu in ancient texts.

Taoist Monarch Liu was both a mentor and a friend to the Ancestral Master, with a friendship across generations.

According to his handwritten account, before the chaos in Bianjing, he was an official in the city but often faced exclusion due to his integrity not conforming to others.

Thus, he too knew nothing about what transpired in the city...

Taoist Monarch Liu said so himself.

Tang, having flipped through books for a while without finding much, tossed them aside and circled around the mountain of books.

He was pondering one thing, how did Zhang Ze do it?

Tang already believed eighty percent of Zhang Ze’s narrative about the past.

But he couldn’t figure out why this boy was so impressive, even more capable than him.

Killing the Emperor, stealing the treasure banner, creating chaos in Bianjing, and escaping unscathed... what an incredible plan this must have been!

Tang put himself in that position and asked himself if he could achieve this.

"It shouldn’t be?"

...

Inside the Illusion Realm.

Zhang Ze and Lu Chen had smoothly taken Xiangfei out of the Imperial City, ridiculously smoothly.

They were wandering around Bianjing, pondering which gate to exit from.

The four gates of Bianjing were guarded, the guards being key ministers of the kingdom—two Princes of the Royal Family, two Generals.

These four weren’t ones that Taoist Liu’s Cyan Ox could scare off or withstand.

Of course, forcing one’s way out wasn’t impossible either, but doing so risked revealing their identities. Only as a last resort would Lu Chen choose this.

"What do we do now?" Lu Chen asked quietly, riding the Dragon Steed.

"Adapt to the situation, act according to circumstances," Zhang Ze replied calmly.

Lu Chen glanced at him, thinking how familiar those words sounded; she often addressed her disciples like this as Sect Leader when out of ideas.

"You have no plan, do you?"

Lu Chen’s cold words pierced through Zhang Ze’s facade.

"How could I not? As the saying goes, practice diligently as a beggar, roam leisurely as a hero. We must find opportunities in movement..."