Night Watchman on Patrol

Daoist Master Sun suddenly burst out laughing. "Well, well! Liu Qi and Cao Zu are here too. They stay away for ages, then arrive in a bunch. Zhan Ran, bring the two gentlemen here. Bai Xian and Su Zi certainly command respect. My Great Xuan Du Temple... how does that saying go, Old Master Yan?"

Yan Zhuo replied, "No business for three years, then one sale feeds you for three."

The female Daoist Chun Hui accepted the order and was about to take her leave when Dong Huafu suddenly said, "The old Abbot went out personally to welcome Elder Su, but he's sending Sister Zhan Ran to greet Liu and Cao. Scholars tend to take things to heart. They'll enter smiling and leave cursing us in the street."

Daoist Master Sun stroked his beard, thinking Dong Heitan had a point. "What a headache. My legs have gone sore all of a sudden. I can't walk."

Chun Hui hesitated. Liu and Cao had traveled together from the Vast Heaven and Earth to the Azure Sky World. In both cultivation and reputation, they deserved to be honored guests of the Great Xuan Du Temple.

As Dong Heitan had said, it would indeed be improper for the Patriarch to favor one guest over another. By the old Abbot's usual practice, the solution was simple: pretend he was away and leave his disciples and grand-disciples to worry about it. But with Su Zi here today, the Patriarch seemed to have put himself in an awkward position.

Outside the gates of the Great Xuan Du Temple stood a handsome young man in white. A broken willow twig hung at his waist, its slender surface inscribed with countless lyrics through immortal arts.

He was Liu Qi, whose fame among the common folk of the Vast Heaven