Veil your light and mingle with the dust-wouldn't that be splendid?

Xiahou Lie tore away all pretense; the dagger finally emerged as the map unrolled.

That played straight into Chen Wei's hands. He had been waiting for the man to lose his composure.

Now was the moment to slap a charge on him.

"Lord Xiahou." Chen Wei's voice was calm and unhurried. "Under a general directive, I have been ordered to investigate the fruit case at Flower-Fruit Mountain thoroughly. Yet you have repeatedly obstructed the investigation. Could it be that you are the mastermind behind it?"

He firmly saddled Xiahou Lie with the enormous charge of defying the Heavenly Laws and destroying an immortal paradise.

The charge was far too grave.

If proven, it would surely send him to the Immortal-Slaying Platform.

At those words, Xiahou Lie suddenly sneered.

He swept aside his robe, raised his legs, and propped both cloud boots on the magistrate's desk.

"Lord Chen, Lord Ma."

"You two have only just entered the ranks of Heavenly Immortals. You're at the age when your blood runs hot and you want to make your mark in the Heavenly Court. I understand."

"But the Heavenly Court's immortal hierarchy is as vast as a sea of smoke."

"The gods and buddhas filling the heavens are as numerous as the hairs on an ox. Even the Bright Hall alone has eight hundred immortal officials, if not a thousand."

"Why should all the other immortal officials veil their light and mingle with the dust, while only you two rise from the mud unstained? Do you really think hanging an immortal registry jade token at your waist makes you perfected lords who uphold the Heavenly Dao?"

"Immortal officials. Immortal officials."

"First, you are immortals, seeking enduring life and perfected fruits of the Dao. Only afterward are you officials, whose work is to welcome arrivals, see off departures, and steer the boat with the current! Merit is what lets you escape the Three Calamities and Nine Tribulations. Yet you refuse a thousand years of merit placed right before your eyes and insist on fighting to the bitter end. If you aren't planning for your own cultivation and future, are you doing it for all the beings of the Three Realms?"

Xiahou Lie tapped the desk as he lectured them in the tone of a seasoned veteran.

The entire hall fell silent.

Chen Wei quietly listened to Xiahou Lie's grand pronouncements, then picked up the thread as though it were only natural. "Exactly. I carry out my duties for all the beings of the Three Realms."

Xiahou Lie froze, then opened his mouth to laugh.

Beside them.

Ma Muzhi slowly drew his hand from his sleeve. Clutched in his palm was a Recording Stone.

It was a magical instrument specifically used to keep records when the Heavenly Court's immortal officials investigated matters in the lower realm.

"Lord Xiahou!"

Ma Muzhi waved the Recording Stone in his hand, his face the picture of honest simplicity. "That grand speech of yours was a string of pearls, every word worthy of deep reflection. However, the Recording Stone has recorded every bit of it. Unless you can leap beyond the Three Realms and exist outside the Five Elements, once we submit this stone to the Bright Hall, your guilt will be nailed firmly to the board. There'll be no escaping it."

At those words, Xiahou Lie's confidence faltered.

He had calculated every possibility, yet never imagined these two greenhorns would use a Recording Stone.

Chen Wei stepped forward, shielding Ma Muzhi with half his body. His right hand rested on the Heavenly Immortal Token at his waist as he met Xiahou Lie's gaze coldly.

The standoff lasted a long time.

Grinding his back teeth, Xiahou Lie forced out a few words. "The mountains are high, and the rivers run long. We'll see!"

"Thank you for your auspicious words, my lord." Chen Wei returned the courtesy with clasped hands, leaving not a single opening. "I shall indeed climb higher with every step. Lord Ma, bring the Recording Stone. We're returning to the Heavenly Court to report."

The Clear Pool, Heavenly Court.

Still dressed in a plain Daoist robe, Taibai Jinxing sat beside the pool. Before him, the images cast by the Recording Stone slowly faded.

Xiahou Lie's brazen words still seemed to echo through the courtyard.

Chen Wei stood thirty feet away with his hands lowered and his head respectfully bowed.

Taibai Jinxing did not look at the Recording Stone. His gaze rested on the Dragon Carp swimming through the pool. "A thousand years of merit, right before your eyes, yours for the taking. You two have only just become Heavenly Immortals, precisely when you most need reserves to consolidate your fruits of the Dao. Were you truly not tempted in the slightest?"

It was a question aimed straight at his heart.

An ordinary immortal official would surely have proclaimed his loyalty, swearing that he regarded merit as dung and cared only for the Heavenly Court.

Chen Wei did not follow that script.

He advanced half a small step, bent slightly at the waist, and answered honestly. "In answer to your question, Star Lord, I was tempted."

Taibai Jinxing turned his head and glanced at him. "Oh? If you were tempted, why didn't you take it? You could have taken it, found an excuse to close the case, and made everyone happy. The Mountain God would have gained peace, and you would have gained cultivation. Veil your light and mingle with the dust-wouldn't that be splendid?"

"I was tempted, but I could not take it." Chen Wei's expression was solemn, his words ringing firm. "First, I began as an Immortal Official of the Bright Hall. My Heavenly Immortal rank and my post in the Discipline Inspection Bureau were both gifts from you, Star Lord. My foundation lies not in the lower realm, but with you."

"To sever the great road to heaven you bestowed upon me for a mere thousand years of merit-I would never commit such folly."

"Second, the Mountain God's eagerness to silence us with a thousand years of merit proves that immense karmic entanglements lie behind this matter. If I coveted that flyspeck profit before my eyes and rashly closed the case, I would surely suffer the backlash when the truth came out."

"Therefore, I would rather offend the Mountain God than accept that red-hot gold brick."

There was not a trace of righteous grandeur in his speech, only a weighing of interests and absolute allegiance to his superior.

After hearing him out, Taibai Jinxing raised a finger and pointed at Chen Wei twice through the air. "You, you really are an honest scoundrel. You calculate the accounts so shrewdly. Far more pleasing to the eye than hypocrites whose mouths overflow with virtue and morality."

This was the Heavenly Court's Bright Hall.

An honest scoundrel always lived longer than a hypocrite.

An honest scoundrel's weaknesses and desires were plain to see. Easy to control meant easy to employ.

"You handled this matter well." Taibai Jinxing picked up his fishing rod and calmly set the course. "Pay no further attention to the Mountain God's temple. A mere immortal of the lower realm cannot stir up any waves."

"Take my personal token and make a trip to Mount Potalaka in the South Sea."

"Oh, and this Auspicious Cloud is yours."

With a sweep of Taibai Jinxing's sleeve, a jade-colored token and a mass of cloud settled steadily into Chen Wei's palm.

Suspecting nothing, Chen Wei held the token in both hands and bowed deeply. "I accept your command and shall depart at once."

Mount Potalaka in the South Sea was the sacred domain of Guanyin Bodhisattva, she of great mercy and compassion.

He asked neither the reason nor the danger.

When a command came down from above, he simply carried it out.

Chen Wei backed out of the courtyard.

Beyond the Moon Gate, Li Yin stood with his hands behind his back. Seeing Chen Wei emerge, he slowly turned his head, undisguised hostility showing on his perpetually haughty face.

This fellow had repeatedly secured private audiences with Taibai Jinxing. He was an enemy, not a friend.

Chen Wei met Li Yin's gaze without shrinking back. He merely bowed slightly. "Greetings, exalted immortal. I still have official duties to attend to, so I shall take my leave."

Having delivered the proper official pleasantries, he turned and left.

Only by ignoring arrows fired from the shadows could he leave the archer feeling an even sharper bone lodged in his throat.

Taibai Jinxing's assignment took priority. Chen Wei had no time to worry about anything else and immediately rode his cloud toward Mount Potalaka at full speed.

He had to admit, the Star Lord had given him a fine treasure.

Standing atop the cloud, Chen Wei looked down at the Auspicious Cloud beneath his feet and recalled what he had experienced when he first entered the Heavenly Court.

Running errands for an exalted immortal meant precisely this sort of toil.

He could forget about peacefully drinking tea in the Bright Hall. The Four Heavenly Gates, the Four Great Continents-the Three Realms were vast, and he had to run everywhere.

Along the way, the sour, sweet, bitter, and hot were his alone to taste.

As he pondered this, the clouds ahead suddenly opened.

A faint strain of Buddhist chanting reached his ears, mingled with the sound of the tides.

Above the boundless blue waves of the South Sea, an immortal island flickered into view. The Purple Bamboo Grove swayed in the wind, and the fragrance of lotus blossoms hung in the air.

He had reached Mount Potalaka.

Chen Wei gathered his wandering thoughts, unable to keep from marveling inwardly. The Auspicious Cloud the Star Lord bestowed on me really does travel astonishingly fast.

However.

Chen Wei's nostrils twitched slightly.

Throughout the flight, he had felt that a faint, cool, unusual fragrance lingered within the Auspicious Cloud beneath his feet.

It did not seem like Taibai Jinxing's style. Was it more like something a woman had used?