"May I ask, Immortal Sir, why has Laojun summoned me?"
After pondering for a moment, Zhang Qi rose to his feet and cupped his hands in greeting.
"I dare not accept such a title! I truly dare not!"
Upon hearing this, the white-haired old man waved his hands repeatedly, even bending at the waist several times. "Lord Zhang, you shame this humble immortal. Just call me Taibai, Taibai will do."
Wei Zheng, seated nearby with a teacup raised to his lips, trembled at the words "humble immortal," spilling the scalding tea directly onto his robes.
Ignoring the burn, he stared fixedly at Taibai Jinxing's old face, which was grinning like a chrysanthemum, wondering whether he was dreaming.
Who was Taibai Jinxing?
He was one of the Five Planetary Lords, among the highest-ranking civil officials in the Heavenly Court.
If judged by the human imperial bureaucracy, this old man's standing before the Jade Emperor was even higher than Wei Zheng's before Li Shimin. He was, without question, a sitting prime minister.
And someone like that had actually called himself a "humble immortal" before Zhang Qi?
The sight was simply absurd—
"Taibai... Star lord,"
Zhang Qi's eyelids twitched. For a moment, he could not make heads or tails of it. "Aren't you being a little too polite?"
"You jest, lord Zhang."
Taibai Jinxing hurriedly explained, his tone even carrying a hint of ingratiation. "Laojun addresses you as a fellow Daoist."
"How could a humble immortal like me dare put on airs before someone who can discuss the Dao with Laojun?"
"A fellow Daoist?"
The moment those words came out, Wei Zheng sprang straight up from the stone bench.
He had worked alongside Zhang Qi for more than ten years.
Over those years, Zhang Qi had developed the curved-shaft plow, gunpowder, and waterwheels,