Shi Feiyang followed the prefect to the county offices, where the county magistrate kept them company and ordered tea served.
The prefect asked Shi Feiyang for his Daoist name. After a moment's consideration, Shi Feiyang said his surname was Long, and the prefect addressed him as Dragon Perfected One.
Shi Feiyang also asked about the prefect's circumstances. The prefect concealed nothing, giving his surname as Lin and his name as Lin Jia. "My ancestral home is in Nanchang Prefecture, Jiangxi. My forebears served as officials for generations. I loved tales of immortals from childhood, and as a youth I traveled everywhere seeking immortals and the Dao. Despite running into one dead end after another, I never found a true immortal. Yet Heaven seemed moved by my sincerity, for I happened upon two Sword Immortals fighting with magic. They ultimately killed each other, and I found a booklet on one of their bodies containing a method for refining swords. After many more years of painstaking effort, I finally mastered sword arts."
Shi Feiyang nodded in approval. "Your affinity with immortality was quite considerable, then, to have encountered such a stroke of fortune."
"I never cared for an official career. And ever since Elder Zhang passed away, factional strife has raged at court. His Majesty has gone years without holding court, and the whole place is shrouded in foul smoke and miasma. I've repeatedly wished to resign and return home, but my generation of the family is too thinly populated, and I'm its only official. In the end, I must consider the family's interests, and so I've never managed to break free." Lin Jia gazed out through the main doors and sighed. "What a pity, what a pity. Time has hurried past, and now my temples are gray. The dream of soaring