Just now, when he was holding the mooncake and seeing the bright moon in the basin, it might be one of the rare highlights since Emperor Yuande began to seek immortality in his later years. He had never held the gift of immortality in his hands so truly.
Even when seeing auspicious signs from heaven on New Year’s Eve was just a glimpse of flowers blooming in the garden, which was only visible but unattainable. Mooncakes, on the other hand, are tangible and can be seen, touched and eaten.
At the moment when the mooncake melted into the water without a trace, Emperor Yuande even felt a moment of blankness in his heart.
"This... I... this... What should I do? What should I do..."
The old emperor showed a rare look of confusion in front of his ministers at this moment. He looked at the basin of water and found it was not turbid at all, not even a trace of mooncake residue.
He had a feeling that once the mooncake entered the water, it would really be gone.
Emperor Yuande looked at the old eunuch not far away.
"I didn't catch it?"
Seeing the emperor looking at him, the old eunuch on the side was horrified and whispered repeatedly: "I don't know, I don't know..."
"I didn't catch it... I didn't catch it..."
Emperor Yuande looked at his right hand which was still trembling slightly, then when he came back to his senses, he suddenly looked towards the Taichang Envoy in the hall.
Yan Chang, who was also in a daze, suddenly felt as if ice water was poured over him and his whole body was cold. He was afraid that the emperor would vent his anger on him.
"My dear Yan, you only have one mooncake?"
How could Yan Chang dare to tell the truth at this moment? Even if he did, he couldn't produce another mooncake. He could only kneel on the ground in panic, holding the jade tablet.
"Your Majesty! This is a gift from an immortal. It is rare to have such a gift in the world. How could I possibly keep any of it and how dare I keep any of it?"
Seeing that Taichang's words were sincere enough, and he had indeed just presented the mooncakes given by the immortal, to be fair, if they were living in different places, not many people would be able to present this mooncake.
Looking at the ministers in the court, all of them were silent, even the censors who usually advised against the law assembly remained silent. Emperor Yuande glanced around and finally returned his gaze to Yan Chang.
Seeing the other party kneeling on the ground as if he had committed a serious mistake, Emperor Yuande felt so depressed that he had nowhere to vent his anger. It took him a long time to suppress his temper.
"My dear Yan, please stand up. You have presented the mooncakes given by the immortal as a reward. I will give you a hundred taels of gold and a copy of the imperial calligraphy and painting. My dear Yan and the other dear ministers of the Ministry of Rites will have to put in more effort in the affairs of the water and land ceremony..."
"As you command!" "As you command!"
Yan Chang stood up and accepted the order with several ministers of the Ministry of Rites beside him. They breathed a sigh of relief. It didn't matter whether they were rewarded or not. The greatest luck was not being held accountable.
"Let's withdraw from the court."
After saying this, Emperor Yuande stood up, and the old eunuch on the side said loudly.
"Retreat~~~towards~~~"
When the old eunuch was about to catch up with the emperor, he saw the emperor squinting his eyes and glancing at him and the dragon throne. He immediately understood what he meant and waved to the two young eunuchs beside him, pointing at the copper basin.
"Pick it up and carry it with you, and don't spill a drop!"
"yes!"
Two young eunuchs stepped forward, lifted the copper basin, and carefully left with the emperor.
Some courtiers in the hall looked at each other in bewilderment, some gazed in curiosity, some came over to greet Yan Chang, and some censors looked at Yan Chang coldly and left directly.
. . .
On August 20th, the new round of top rankings for various prefectures in Dazhen was announced, but in the capital, the most grand event was naturally the 70th birthday of Emperor Yuande, which was also the beginning of the grand water and land ceremony.
Before this day, monks from Yuhuaishan Mountain had already come to Jingji Prefecture by riding the wind or clouds. Now, on the outskirts of the capital, there were at least twenty or thirty real immortal cultivators present, which was a rare sight.
It’s just that everyone knows the proceedings of the ceremony in advance, and no one will show up in the first few days.
Early in the morning of that day, many idle citizens and some people who had gathered in the capital from all over Dazhen just to watch the excitement, all rushed towards the east of the city.
The huge platform was extremely eye-catching. It was taller than many buildings in the capital city of Gyeonggi Province. And in the empty space of the Dharma Assembly venue in the east of the city, there were not many buildings that could compare with the main platform.
Like many other people who were looking for trouble, Ji Yuan followed the crowd to the east of the city. When he arrived, the crowds of people were already jostling for position.
"Hey, hey, hey, stop pushing!" "Where is the emperor? Did he go to the stage?"
"I don't know. The imperial guards are separated over there. Maybe they haven't gone up yet?"
"Oh, this platform is too high. I can't see what's going on above!"
"Yeah, we can only watch those mages take the stage for a while."
"What's so interesting about this?" "It's okay, it's Jiutian, and those vice-stages are not high."
"Hey, stop making noise. Look over there. Are the mages coming over here?"
"There are so many weird ones, it must be!"
…
Ji Yuan wandered left and right, but there was a lot of noise everywhere and there was no good viewing point. It would definitely not be suitable to fly into the air on a day like today, and there was no tall tower to be seen around. He felt inexplicably envious of those "contestants".
At this moment, the three-meter-high platform was blocked by a large number of imperial guards holding spears and halberds, making it impossible for the common people to get within twenty meters of the platform. At the same time, the mages who had gathered from all over Dazhen were coming together from all directions.
Emperor Yuande's imperial edict stated that anyone from any class of people, including monks, Taoists, Confucianists, and laymen, could come here as long as they were great people, so there were really quite a lot of people, and there were all kinds of people.
Some are monks, some are Taoists, there are countless others wearing strange clothes and having weird hair colors, there are also quite a few who look like dwarfs or are as big as giants.
At this moment, when the people saw this group of "magic masters", they immediately became excited, but they did not have much awe.
"Look, look at that guy over there. His face is painted like an actor's. Is he also a wizard?"
"What's that? Look at the one in the west, he has so many iron rings on his face, and that one, his hair is like a bunch of knives..."
"Over there! That wizard has a real body!"
"Oh my, it really is, what a master, with such a big snake wrapped around his body!"
…
While the people were discussing, the officials from the Imperial Astronomical Bureau and the Ministry of Rites on the high platform were also watching the magicians below from the edge.
Yan Chang looked at these strange people and couldn't help rubbing his forehead. He felt much better until he saw two beggars, one old and one young, in one of the teams.
After all the mages stood still, Yan Chang nodded to some of his colleagues, and then gave the next instructions to the guards.
The officials slowly retreated to the corresponding positions on the platform. Many guards with high martial arts skills stood on the edge of the platform. Almost at the same time, they all used all their energy, puffed out their chests, and shouted loudly.
"Please all the mages come on stage~~~"
The guards used their roaring skills, and the sound waves rolled in all directions. Some of the many mages below even had their ears buzzing. Some were arrogant while others looked a little nervous. They all walked towards the stage.
Emperor Yuande, who was sitting at the center of the altar, could not help but stand up and look at the mages coming from the other three directions. The rest of the ministers also stood up with him.
"My dear Yan, do you think the immortal who danced with swords under the moon is here?"
"Uh... this humble official really doesn't know!"
Facing the emperor's questions, Yan Chang didn't dare to say anything more. The emperor didn't really think he could get the answer from him, but just wanted to ease the tension brought by the expectation.
When all these "mages" came up, Emperor Yuande's expression suddenly changed from full of expectation, and he sat back in his seat.
For a long time afterwards, Yan Chang and officials from the Ministry of Rites read out some matters concerning the water ceremony. It was inevitably a bit lengthy, and many "masters" became drowsy.
"If anyone fails to respect the etiquette and acts as a vain official, he will be executed immediately!"
Two eunuch guards with profound inner strength stood up and shouted to repeat themselves.
"If anyone fails to respect etiquette and acts as a vain official, he will be executed immediately~~~~!"
All of a sudden, many "mages" woke up.
Yan Chang held the yellow imperial edict in his hand and read it aloud.
"Congratulations to Dazhen for its everlasting rule, and to your majesty for his eternal glory!"
The surrounding imperial guards and imperial guards roared in unison, and a group of court officials and royal relatives also spoke out.
"Congratulations to Dazhen for its everlasting rule, and to your majesty for his eternal glory!"
The mages in the field felt the lightning gazes of the guards, and recalling the etiquette they had been reminded of before, they also shouted together.
"Congratulations to Dazhen for its everlasting rule, and to your majesty for his eternal glory!"
…
There were roars on the platform, and the imperial guards below the platform also roared loudly, making the area around the platform shrouded in a thick and solemn atmosphere. Even many ordinary people could not help but shout along.
Ji Yuan's body fell to the outside, with his hands behind his back and his head raised up to look up at the sky above the altar, and what he saw was naturally the aura of humanity.
'This Dazhen still has a strong foundation. Even if Emperor Yuande starts to make stupid moves and falls, it is far from the end of its luck.'
Amid the sound, naked strongmen holding hammers stood in front of a large bronze gong at the four corners of the platform, swinging the hammers with all their might.
“Dang~~~~~”
The deafening sound of gongs announced the start of the water and land ceremony.
What followed was an even more lengthy "casting and practicing" phase, during which magicians from all walks of life sat cross-legged or danced on the stage, praying to the heavens for Dazhen and the emperor in their own ways, and they were not allowed to leave until the end of the day.
The emperor himself and a group of ministers left afterwards, some returned to the palace, some returned to their residences. Anyway, the ones who really needed to be paid attention to were the masters who would be determined by the magicians in the remaining eight days.
The emperor also knew that there must be many people who were just filling in the gaps, and what he wanted to meet was naturally a master who truly had supernatural powers.
. . .
Among the crowd of mages, the old beggar held the hand of the young beggar, glanced coldly at some special existences among the four or five thousand "mages", and then lowered his head to look at the table.
At the moment when the energy of humanity was at its peak, lines like iron painting and silver hooks gradually appeared on the table, silently using the energy of humanity to control the energy of all the "mages", pulling them down under the energy of humanity, and obscuring their spiritual perception to a great extent.
"Boom..."
The sky had been covered with dark clouds at some point, with thunder flashing in the clouds but no rain falling. The oppressive might of heaven made both mortals and demons on the stage feel uneasy.
High above the clouds, there are eight dragons swimming around. These lightning and dark clouds are not only the result of dragon-related magical powers, but most of them are attracted by the aura of the high platform.
The dragons and snakes in the sky used their eyes to pierce through the clouds and looked down. On the small platform below, as small as a cake, a mysterious piece of calligraphy was shining brightly.
"Ka...Boom..."
A flash of lightning fell from the clouds in the sky and directly hit the gong on the corner of the altar, causing the surrounding strong men and guards to jump away in panic, and the "mages" who were close to them were even more panicked.
When the common people who were watching around the altar saw the lightning and thunder, they quickened their pace and went back to their homes. They wouldn't be able to see anything today anyway.
For some reason, the departure of these people brought greater anxiety to the many evil demons and heretics on the platform.