Late at night, while Song Yunjian was taking a walk through the National Teacher's Manor, he ran into the equally restless Rong Yu. They simply stood together before the Savage Landscape Painting Scroll in the courtyard, silently awaiting the National Teacher's return. Looking up, they could see a newly built Tower of Many Treasures, its carved beams and painted rafters resembling a moonlit lady from a resplendent landscape painting. Treasure light spilled from the top-floor windows. Inside lay a heap of ancient ritual vessels the National Teacher had obtained from the Great Shaman. Their forms were primitive, their texture rough and unpolished—far less exquisite in design than latter-day magic treasures.
They chatted idly about anecdotes from the capital, but both were distracted. A nation could not go a day without its ruler, and the Great Li Dynasty could not lack the National Teacher's stabilizing presence.
Earlier, a bright moon had appeared from nowhere and risen slowly into the sky. Every Dao Cultivator could sense the vast Dao aura stirring ripples through the Haoran mortal realm. Though the moon's outline soon faded, such an omen still filled those with sharp eyes with alarm and uncertainty. Who knew what earthshaking event was about to occur in the human world?
Song Yunjian suddenly said, "They're back."
In the covered corridor opposite them, Pei Qian and Guo Zhujiu, the teacher-disciple sisters, had appeared, along with the female Sword Immortal Zhu Su and the Earthly Branches Twelve, including Zhou Haijing.
At the sight of such a noisy crowd, Song Yunjian felt relieved, yet when he did not see the National Teacher among them, he hurriedly asked, "Where is the National Teacher?"
Xie Gou grinned. "Little Master waved his hand, and we were all tossed back here. Mountain Lord needed to see Lu Chen. Before we