"Your Majesty, I will follow you."
The soft candlelight shone on his handsome profile. Lu Liangsheng held the old man who was only a soul, and flicked his sleeves towards the palace maids and eunuchs who were standing around with their heads bowed. His figure became blurred, and a magical light enveloped the emperor and rose up. In the blink of an eye, it sank into the dome.
In an instant, the palace maids and eunuchs standing around moved. Out of the corner of their eyes, they saw His Majesty sitting upright on the dragon throne. They looked at each other in bewilderment. The eunuch who served him closely approached carefully and called out, "Your Majesty."
Seeing no response, he gritted his teeth and reached under his nose. His face turned pale, and he abruptly withdrew his hand and stumbled towards the palace gate.
The ministers who were waiting outside were talking in low voices. Yang Guang and Dugu Jialuo were comforting each other under the palace eaves. When they heard the palace door open, countless eyes turned to the door.
Seeing the expression on the eunuch's face, Dugu Jialuo let the silk handkerchief that she was clenching in fall to the ground, and she stood up tremblingly.
"Your Majesty..."
The woman suddenly panicked, and regardless of Yang Guang's support, she ran to the palace gate like crazy. Seeing her husband sitting peacefully on the dragon throne, she tried hard to suppress her emotions, but tears flowed across her wrinkled eyes and dripped down her cheeks.
Behind her, Yang Guang came in with his lips tightly pursed. Looking at his father who passed away peacefully, he knelt down on the ground with a bang. Outside the door, the civil and military officials who had been waiting for a long time all knelt down on the ground.
"Your Highness..."
Suddenly, a voice in the crowd shouted, "Look, in the sky, oh... that's not the Imperial Master... and His Majesty—"
The four words 'and Your Majesty' at the end immediately stimulated all the civil and military officials present. They subconsciously raised their heads to look at the night sky where the man was pointing. A figure with a faint blue light was floating up into the night sky, leading an old man.
"Really, Your Majesty—"
"Queen, Prince, please come out and see His Majesty in heaven!"
“… I, your Majesty, have also seen it!”
Some people even disregarded etiquette, stood up excitedly and shouted towards the sky. The crying mother and son in the bedroom supported each other and ran out. Dugu Jialuo ran out of the palace eaves, stood in front of the stone steps, looking at the light flying outside the imperial city in the night sky. She could no longer suppress her emotions and shouted hysterically towards the light that was getting farther and farther away.
"His Majesty-"
The woman's voice echoed over the palace for a long time. In the distant pale blue light of the law, the moon was trembling and humming softly under the scholar's feet. Lu Liangsheng was holding the emperor's hand and overlooking the thousands of lights below that looked like a galaxy. The old man had an unobstructed view of them.
"This... is the Chang'an I protect? I never thought that she would be so beautiful..."
At this moment, Yang Jian was standing at a height that ordinary people could not reach. Looking at the houses and buildings with lights on below, a smile appeared on the corners of his mouth.
"In the past, I also liked to stand on the high building in the palace and overlook the whole Chang'an, but I have never seen her innermost appearance from such a high place..."
The wind blew his hair, and Lu Liangsheng turned his head and asked softly.
"Does your Majesty think it's worth it?"
The bright and endless lights below shone in the old man's eyes. He looked at the streets below, the people strolling in the night market, and the even more vast and magnificent Chang'an. He looked at the mountains and rivers that seemed to have no end in the dark night, and they all seemed to emerge one by one in his eyes.
"National Master... Actually, I never thought of becoming an emperor at first. I wanted to be a Duke of Suiguo and do more practical things for the people. But because of my appearance, the emperor was suspicious of me... Later, when I led the army to pacify Qi, I never thought of becoming an emperor. I just wanted to unify the world and let the people live and work in peace... But..."
Yang Jian raised his hands weakly, his expression dazed, "But, in the end, I still became the emperor..." He paused and stopped talking. His palm lightly brushed across the dragon robe on his body, without any substantial feeling.
"National Master, the safety of the Sui Kingdom will be in your hands from now on. Please encourage A-Mo and make him a wise ruler."
"Your Majesty, even if you don't tell me, I will do the same."
It is true that Lu Liangsheng, as the imperial teacher, does not get involved in state affairs, but that does not mean he cannot urge the emperor on and answer his questions. However, it is easy to influence one person, but Lu Liangsheng is not very confident in influencing individuals, big and small, in a country.
At the side, Yang Jian saw the problem in his heart and said with a smile: "It is indeed difficult for a national teacher to maintain the safety of the world even if he has the ability to know everything. Even if there are many like-minded people around to help, there will be times when it is difficult to take care of everything. Why don't I give you some advice?"
"Your Majesty, please speak."
"Wanshou Temple recruits some children of appropriate age and trains them to kill evil spirits!"
Lu Liangsheng shook his head. The old man in front of him was not a cultivator and did not understand the difficulties involved. He explained, "The method of cultivating Taoism is not something that everyone can practice."
"I didn't ask them to practice Taoism. They just need to learn some methods to slay demons and monsters. In the future, they can pass these methods down from generation to generation. In the future, they will be able to spread them among the people. Not only will they fight against demons with deep Taoism, they will also have the means to suppress ordinary ghosts and monsters."
Speaking of his expertise, Yang Jian immediately put aside his previous sadness and started to work out little by little for Lu Liangsheng on how to plan and operate the enterprise. In less than a cup of tea, he even came up with a name for it.
"Jing means stability, so let's call it Jing Yao Si!"
The man and the soul chatted in the night sky for a while, and also toured the entire Chang'an. Lu Liangsheng saw a ray of dark energy spreading on the street below and heading towards the imperial city. Knowing that they were coming to pick up the emperor, he pulled over the old man who was still looking down.
"Your Majesty, City God Ji has arrived. Let's go back."
“Just… just came?”
He was still somewhat reluctant, but he knew where his soul should go after all. Yang Jian took another look at the prosperous night view of Chang'an, then followed Lu Liangsheng to fly to the imperial city.
In the palace, white banners were hung everywhere at this time. The emperor's death had always been prepared in advance. When the light of the Dharma disappeared into the night sky, the palace was already busy. The emperor's body was placed in a coffin, and a brazier was set up outside the palace. The burning flames rose, and wisps of ashes with sparks floated up.
Dugu Jialuo, dressed in plain clothes, was still crying. Yang Guang stood beside his mother, returning the greetings to the ministers who came to pay their respects. Most of the founding civil and military officials did not leave after paying their respects, but stood beside, looking at the coffin and shedding tears.
"Don't worry, Your Majesty. We old ministers won't live long. You wait for us down there!" Han Qinhu opened his voice, his gray beard bulging with anger as he roared, "I am your Supreme State Lord in life, and I will be the King of Hell in death to save Your Majesty's reputation!!"
"Fuck you, can't you say less!"
Wu Jianzhang quietly kicked him and said, "What do you mean we only have a few days to live? What if after a few days, we are still alive?"
At this moment, a gust of cold wind blew up, and the brazier under the eaves rolled up a wave of fire, blowing the burning yellow paper inside everywhere, and the white flag hanging on the palace door swayed wildly.
“What…what happened?”
Someone cried out in surprise, and a thin layer of mist gradually rose from the ground. The soldiers holding weapons and guarding the square outside also shouted loudly.
“Who are you?!”
However, the words that were shouted out stopped abruptly the next moment. The guarding soldiers turned pale and lowered their heads, not daring to look.
Then they saw in the mist, a strange team carrying a sedan chair came lightly on the white mist. The figures moving in front and behind the sedan chair were tall and thin, wearing official robes that they had never seen before, and wearing bamboo hats on their heads. They couldn't see their faces clearly, and they seemed to be swaying on stilts.
It stopped in the aisle between the civil and military officials and did not move.
The civil and military officials on both sides looked at each other in bewilderment at this strange team. They had some guesses about what kind of team it was, but some didn't understand and wanted to step forward with clenched fists, but were held back by their colleagues.
"He's going up there to seek death. From the looks of it, he must be the messenger who came to pick up Your Majesty..."
Sure enough, just as the words fell, a ray of Dharma light descended over everyone's heads. Yang Guang, who was standing over there, saw two familiar figures in the gradually disappearing Dharma light, and his face was stunned for a moment. Dugu Jialuo, who was kneeling on the cushion, also raised his head and shouted in surprise.
"His Majesty!"
He stood up to meet her, but was blocked by invisible magic power. Lu Liangsheng bowed and said, "Queen, His Majesty is dead. It's not good for your health to be close to the soul."
Yang Jian also nodded, as if he was still alive, and waved his hand.
"Jia Luo, don't be sad. Look, I'm fine. Just live peacefully in the world. I'll follow the City God to the underworld to look around and buy some property. When you come down in the future, you can live with me! Okay?"
Seeing her husband's irritable look, the woman, who was originally sad, glared at him fiercely, but in her heart she recalled how they looked when they were young.
"How could I let my wife go? I cried so hard for nothing."
As if he had escaped from life and death, Yang Jian chatted and laughed with his wife for a few more words, gave Yang Guang some instructions, and then walked down the stone steps in a very free and easy manner, walked past the civil and military officials, and bowed to them one by one.
"My lords, we must establish a new king soon. You don't need to see me off. Come down later and pay your respects to me."
Suddenly, a bunch of civil and military officials turned green in the face.
After saying this, Yang Jian lifted the curtain of the sedan chair and sat in it, then he pulled aside the small curtain at the window. When he turned the sedan chair around, he took one more look at his wife and children under the palace eaves.
Gradually disappeared into the mist.