Yang Niansan froze in place.
Her bellyful of official rhetoric had been sealed shut by Chen Wei's single invitation to eat Tangyuan.
She could neither retreat nor advance.
Seeing that the moment was ripe, Chen Wei stopped talking at just the right time. With a turn of his wrist, he produced a Jade Pendant about an inch square.
The jade was warm and lustrous, with a faint blue-green glow circulating within.
"Lord Yang, don't be nervous. I was only joking with you." Chen Wei walked around the main desk and approached Yang Niansan, gently offering her the Jade Pendant. His tone was warm. "When you went to the Jade Pool on duty two days ago, you put yourself in danger and suffered an injustice. I haven't forgotten."
"This pendant!"
"When I was cultivating in the mortal realm, my master's wife gave it to me with her own hands. Worn on the body, it calms the heart, soothes the spirit, and dispels evil miasma. Of course, for immortals of our attainment, the object itself hardly counts as a rare Magical Treasure. But the meaning it carries is a sincere wish to protect a younger generation."
It was a lengthy speech, brimming with heartfelt sincerity.
Chen Wei sighed and pushed the Jade Pendant a little closer. "Today, I'm passing it on to you, Lord Yang. First, to soothe the fright you suffered at the Jade Pool. Second, as a small token of my regard. Consider it a little concern between colleagues."
As his words fell silent,
Ma Muzhi secretly raised a thumb inside his sleeve.
Brilliant.
Chen Wei's maneuver was truly unfathomable!
Giving gold or silver was vulgar, and giving magical treasures attracted attention. Only an object bearing an elder's affection was impossible to refuse. On the surface, this Jade Pendant was meant to calm Yang Niansan's nerves. In reality, it was meant for the lofty Third Holy Mother behind her—the Great Heavenly Venerable’s nephew—to see!
To curry favor with the Third Holy Mother, first curry favor with the immortal she favored.
What was this called?
One thread connecting both ends!
Advancing and retreating with perfect measure, slaying immortals without a trace, giving gifts without leaving a mark!
Old Ma had guessed correctly.
That was precisely Chen Wei's intention. Whether the Jade Pendant had actually come from his master's wife was utterly irrelevant. What mattered was that, wrapped in the right story, it became a priceless personal favor.
Yang Niansan looked at the Jade Pendant held before her and blinked.
Female immortals had little resistance to warm, lustrous accessories to begin with.
"Well... how could I possibly accept?" Yang Niansan declined in words, but her tone had long since lost its earlier chill. She could not hide the fondness in her eyes.
Seeing this, Chen Wei immediately struck while the iron was hot and stoked the fire.
He stepped half a pace closer, reached out with both hands, and placed them on Yang Niansan's shoulders without the slightest hesitation.
"Take it!"
"We're all colleagues. Why draw a line between us? You've worked hard and suffered for it. How could I offer no acknowledgment at all? We serve in the Censorate, bearing humiliation and shouldering heavy burdens. In the end, isn't it all for the living beings of the Three Realms, for a bright and upright world under the Heavenly Court?"
Whatever else was said, he had planted the grand hat of service to the Three Realms firmly on her head.
With that, Chen Wei turned and walked back to the main desk, hands clasped behind him, leaving Yang Niansan with the proud, solitary silhouette of a man whose heart embraced the Three Realms.
With his back turned, he naturally failed to see it.
The instant his hands touched her shoulders, Yang Niansan's jade-white ears had flushed crimson.
When had a dignified Holy Mother ever had her shoulders patted so casually by a male immortal?
Had this happened on Mount Hua, she would already have cleaved at him with a ray of divine light from the Treasure Lotus Lamp.
But she was currently serving as an assistant in a male guise, and he had invoked both fellowship between colleagues and the living beings of the Three Realms. She could not lash out.
I look like a man right now. He didn't mean anything by it! Yang Niansan reassured herself, and the knot in her thoughts came undone.
After a while,
the atmosphere in the hall eased.
Yang Niansan coughed lightly and tucked the Jade Pendant into her sleeve. When she spoke again, her voice was considerably softer.
"You're too kind, sir. Your subordinate... thanks you for the gift."
"Um, sir, shall we continue discussing the recruitment of Immortal Officials?"
Hearing this, Chen Wei slowly turned around, a warm smile spreading across his face.
That's more like it.
Once you've accepted my gift, your hands are tied.
"This is easy enough." Chen Wei swept a hand through the air, his tone full of trust. "With Lord Yang on the job, I can rest easy. I'll leave the recruitment of Immortal Officials entirely in your hands, including drafting the Immortal Recruitment Notice, posting it, and conducting the subsequent interviews!"
His words were beautifully phrased.
In truth, as the Chief Official, he was simply delighted to enjoy some leisure.
Outside the Jade Radiance Hall in the Heavenly Court.
A white jade wall soared into the clouds here, reserved for the various offices of the Heavenly Court to post recruitment notices. Before it, a sea of clouds churned, crowded all day with Loose Immortals who had ascended from the lower realm or were seeking connections everywhere in hopes of landing a cushy post.
Under the Heavenly Court's rules, the placement of the Immortal Recruitment Notice mattered a great deal.
The most prominent spot, right in the center of the white jade wall, was occupied year-round by important offices.
The Folk Customs and Morals Inspection Bureau's Immortal Recruitment Notice, meanwhile, hung all alone at the very edge of the wall, in a remote corner beside a stone pillar.
Not only was the spot out of the way, but even the Immortal Paper bearing the notice had most of its heading obscured by the golden notice of the neighboring Thunder Department Heavenly General Recruitment Office. Only the words "Discipline Censorate" remained visible.
In the office's outer hall.
Yang Niansan paced back and forth by the threshold, her pretty face full of disbelief.
"That can't be!"
"I weighed every word of that Immortal Recruitment Notice and cited the classics! How could not even one Loose Immortal come for an interview?"
"Lord Yang, don't get anxious when something happens." Seated comfortably in an armchair, Chen Wei skimmed the foam from the surface of his tea. "We're a newly established Bland Government Office with no perks, after all. Our name sounds strange, and our authority is unclear. Those Loose Immortals below are shrewd, every last one of them. They're all waiting to see what happens. This is called planning before acting. Perfectly normal."
Ma Muzhi offered no opinion on that.
Both he and Chen Wei had clawed their way up from the very lowest ranks of clerical Immortal Officials. They knew exactly what sort of beast the Heavenly Court was; they could navigate its ways with their eyes shut.
The Folk Customs and Morals Inspection Bureau?
The moment Loose Immortals heard that name, they made their calculations: it handled neither the Immortal Jade paid as salaries nor the files awarding merit, much less the distribution of Heavenly Peaches and golden cores. It sounded like an office with nothing but turnips to offer.
What prospects could there be in joining it?
Serving in the Heavenly Court was about dimming one's light and blending into the dust, about sharing in the flow of fortune.
Yang Niansan clearly did not understand these twists and turns. She merely assumed her notice was not compelling enough. Gritting her teeth, she said, "No, I'll go rewrite that notice right now and post it dead center! I refuse to believe..."
Before she could finish,
a sudden series of footsteps sounded on the cloud path outside the office.
A figure stepped through the clouds and appeared hesitantly outside the Censorate's entrance.
The newcomer was a rather young-looking male immortal who did not even have a decent immortal robe. He was plainly a greenhorn who had just ascended from the lower realm and knew neither the height of heaven nor the depth of earth.
The Loose Immortal stood beyond the threshold, craning his neck to peer inside.
Sharp-eyed Ma Muzhi immediately spotted this able-bodied recruit who had delivered himself to their door.
At long last, a living, breathing creature had come calling. How could he let him escape?
Ma Muzhi assumed an imposing air and strode to the entrance. "What immortal stands outside? What sort of conduct is this, poking your head about? Do you know this is an important office of the Heavenly Court?"
The shout made the young man shudder, and he hurriedly withdrew his gaze.
He took half a step back and cupped his hands. "This humble immortal is... Xiao Yan! I saw your bureau's Immortal Recruitment Notice outside the Jade Radiance Hall and felt drawn to it! I've come for an interview!"
Before you continue