The night wind blew over the palace eaves, the burning lights were warm, and within the bedroom curtains, people tossed and turned. Thinking of the chaotic army outside the city, they couldn't fall asleep peacefully. Yang Guang opened his eyes, untied the quilt and sat on the edge of the bed. The concubine who was sleeping with him tonight stood up and stroked the emperor's back with her hand.
"Your Majesty, what's wrong with you? Are you worried about what's happening outside? Aren't there the Imperial Master and the generals outside? Everything will be fine."
"Well, the Imperial Master has his own way."
Yang Guang turned around and smiled at her, holding her delicate hand and putting it back into the quilt, gently patting the quilt: "You sleep well, I'll go out for a walk and get some fresh air."
As he spoke, he drew aside the curtain and came out, casually put on a single piece of clothing, opened the palace door and walked out. The cool night breeze made him a little more sober. Under the light, he saw the outlines of palaces standing in the darkness in the distance. After a while, he asked the personal eunuch who followed him to the side.
"What time is it?"
"Your Majesty, it's already four o'clock." The eunuch was on duty and knew every moment. He looked at the emperor and whispered, "Your Majesty, go back to sleep for a while."
Over there, the figure looking in the distance took a deep breath, hugged his clothes, and suddenly smiled.
"I can't sleep. There are a bunch of thieves at the door who want my life. No one can sleep. Tell me, why does this man become the emperor?"
These words frightened the eunuch beside him so much that he trembled with fear and quickly lowered his head, not daring to answer.
"Look, this is the emperor. He has great power. Many people want to sit in this position." Yang Guang didn't care about the eunuchs' reactions. He raised his head slightly and looked at the night sky with only a few stars. "Then tell me, if the gods want to kill the emperor, is it because the emperor did something they don't like?"
"… Recently I have been thinking, am I being an emperor for the sake of the people of the world, or for my own lust for power? Sometimes I wonder what kind of life the gods in heaven lead, why would they break their heads to come down to earth… They come down to earth for no reason, to mess up the world. In their eyes, are people's lives, my life, and a country just like us squatting on the side of the road watching a bunch of ants busy going in and out of their holes?"
"I am the emperor in front of my millions of subjects, and I should act like an emperor in front of these gods... I cannot be looked down upon."
Amidst the mumbling, a palace guard came over here. When he arrived in front of Yang Guang, he bowed and said, "Your Majesty, there is news from outside the palace that the altar over at the Hibiscus Pond has been completed."
Listening to the guard's report, the emperor turned his gaze to the southeast of the city, smiled and nodded, then chuckled and walked into the bedroom, "Change my clothes, summon the soldiers of the Imperial City Department, and follow me to the Wanshou Temple to watch the state master ascend the altar and descend the divine soldiers!"
"yes!"
The night was dark and the brightly lit palace was busy.
Soon after, the sky turned from pitch black to blue and then dimly lit.
In the southeast of the city, amid the sound of the lake water lapping against the shore, a Taoist temple stands in the distance under the dark blue sky. Lights are burning in the window lattices, illuminating a slightly hunched figure cut out on the window paper, sketching and writing with a brush.
In the light of dusk, a figure that floated out of the scroll descended, and her scarlet nails moved the wick to make the candlelight brighter. She looked at Lu Liangsheng, whose silver hair fell like a waterfall on his shoulders, with her beautiful eyes, and sat quietly aside.
On the desk, a list surrounded by a gloomy aura was spread out, with dense handwriting recorded on it. Next to it, there was a scroll with gold patterns on the edge. Both ends of the scroll were engraved with gilded talismans. On the blank pages of paper, there were pictures of thumb-sized figures with distinctive armor and different looks and expressions. The tip of the pen moved around, outlining thin fonts next to the portraits and writing down the other person's name.
Oh oh… oh oh oh~~
Outside the window, the rooster kept in the temple crowed loudly. The sleeping toad calculated the time, opened his eyes, sat up suddenly, yawned, crawled to the end of the bed, opened the wardrobe, and threw out clothes one by one to choose.
The woman who had been sitting quietly on the edge of the bed stood up and walked to the window, looking outside. The sky was just getting bright, and the outline of a high platform could be seen outside the temple.
"Sir, the time has come."
"just."
At the table in front, Lu Liangsheng also put down the last stroke when the cock crowed. Looking at the scroll filled with his paintings, he put down his brush, took the painting and blew away the ink that had not yet dried on it, then slowly rolled it up and tied it with a red rope.
The list of the underworld cannot be used directly in the human world, let alone in matters such as offering sacrifices to heaven. However, it is different for the matter of conferring gods, so he worked together with Lao Sun to refine a blank scroll, copied down the existing heroes on the list, and painted their portraits at the same time, so as to more accurately confer the titles.
Lu Liangsheng actually didn't have much confidence in conferring the title of hero to the spirit and fighting against the magic of the gods in heaven. He looked at the sky outside, then turned his gaze to the bronze mirror placed in front of him, looking at his old face reflected in it.
“Hopefully this is the right step.”
At the side, Hong Lian brought a wooden tray, took the wooden comb from it, stood behind the hunched figure, raised the corners of her lips, and smiled softly, "Young Master is naturally right, and he is always right."
As if talking about something happy, he laughed even more brightly and added, "You are always right."
Lu Liangsheng looked at the woman reflected in the bronze mirror combing his white hair, with a happy smile on his face. He also smiled: "There is no absolute truth. I just follow the thread of the Ten Thousand Spirits Formation, the Devil Star's Advent, and the Kongtong Seal to realize what I should do. Maybe the Heaven has already prepared it and just asked me to do it. It is the biggest."
"Heavenly Law... I don't care about Heavenly Law. In my eyes, you are the greatest."
"where?"
Hong Lian, who was combing her hair, stopped combing it, thought for a moment, then reacted, clenched her fist and lightly hit Lu Liangsheng on the shoulder.
"Young Master, you have learned bad things from Taoist Sun."
Nie Honglian pounded it, took the peach wood comb and continued to comb the hair, then rolled it up into a bun bit by bit, turned around and floated to the clothes rack, took the Qilin cloak on it, and put it on Lu Liangsheng while saying, "Sir, aren't you worried about Yuanba? He's been away for such a long time, and Yuanfeng is still in Taiyuan..."
At this time, the Taoist's voice was heard outside the building.
"It's the fifth watch, Old Lu, the gates of heaven are about to open! Don't miss this wonderful time!"
Hearing the shouting outside, Hong Lian took out a auspicious cloud jade belt and tied it for Lu Liangsheng. The latter smiled and nodded, continuing with what the woman had just said.
“With Yuanba’s divine power and the magic weapon I gave him, even ordinary gods and immortals can’t do anything to him. When he left, I read his fortune and it was a good fortune, so he will be fine… As for Yuanfeng, Taiyuan said something to him before, telling him to retreat to Chang’an if things are impossible. As long as he doesn’t get carried away by his passion, he should be back soon.”
After saying that, Lu Liangsheng straightened his robe collar in front of the bronze mirror, shook the woman's hand, and said, "It's okay." Then he took the scroll on the table and walked out of the room and downstairs. In the dim sky, the Taoist, Zhu Ganglie, Lu Pan and the other eight people, even Li Jinhua, Lu Laoshi and Lu Xiaoxian, had all gotten up early and were waiting there, guarding the three animals, special incense, candles, money and paper that had been prepared long ago.
The Taoist saw Lu Liangsheng coming out of the attic and took stock of the things he had prepared.
"Master Lu, do you think it's enough? If the three animals are not enough, I'll let the old pig take over!"
After he finished speaking, he was kicked on the butt by Zhu Ganglie next to him, "Go to hell, you want me to be the worshipper, aren't you afraid of making those evil spirits fly away?"
Amidst the jokes, Lu Liangsheng looked up at the sky, said no more, put on his auspicious cloud shoes, raised the scroll in his hand, and strode towards the mountain gate.
"The gates of heaven are about to open. Time is running out. Let's go to the Conferred God Platform!"
The eastern sky was turning pale as a fish belly. Inches of golden light broke through the gaps in the clouds and shone through, pushing away the hazy blue sky that enveloped the heaven and earth.
The gate of heaven opened.