Tongming Hall, the Left Commissioner's Office.
The black plaque with gold lettering that had hung there for who knew how many years was gone. In its place was a brand-new plaque carved from ten-thousand-year purple goldwood, with a ring of Dust-Avoidance Pearls inlaid around its edges.
And it wasn't just the plaque.
Even the two jade qilin at the office gates had been replaced.
The entire Left Commissioner's Office had been renovated, inside and out.
"My lord, you're back!" Seeing Chen Wei descend from his cloud, Ma Muzhi hurried forward, his face wreathed in smiles.
Chen Wei nodded and looked around the newly renovated office.
Seeing this, Ma Muzhi hurried to explain. "My lord, I took it upon myself to renovate the whole office. Li Yin has been sent down, and an office he used, chairs he sat in-what rotten luck! How could we keep using his things?"
Chen Wei said nothing.
Old Ma had handled this rather well. Times had changed.
Ma Muzhi chuckled, stepped half a pace aside, and beckoned to the immortal official directing the Mighty Warriors. "Lord Zhong!"
"Coming!" Zhong Heng scurried up to Chen Wei, nodding and bowing with a radiant smile. "Lord Chen, what do you think? Are you satisfied? If not, we'll keep replacing things! Until you're satisfied."
Chen Wei blinked. It all came back to him.
Back when he was still a Loose Immortal and Hou Zong had banished him to the Immortal Works Bureau, this was the fellow who had forced him to sign and put down his thumbprint.
Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west.
In the Heavenly Court, the tide turned far faster than it did in the mortal world.
Zhong Heng nodded and bowed, his face full of flattery, his body even trembling slightly with nerves.