The night at the beginning of February, after all, is a little shorter.

Around midnight, the sky was already overcast, and the red lanterns hanging everywhere in the West Garden were still lit, illuminating the dark palace buildings and the zigzag roads under the promenade.

A team of twenty or thirty people walked neatly from the end of the corridor, and only saw it clearly when it got closer, it turned out to be a team of guards wearing red unicorn suits, followed by four brocade guards wearing flying fish suits, and among the four brocade guards, there was a young man wearing a lake blue Confucian robe and a sheepskin jacket. The young man was silent.

As he walked, he pondered in silence and said, 'If someone asks what the Imperial Palace Ouchi is like after going out, how should I answer?' It seems that he is probably pretending to be mysterious...... 'From the moment he stepped into the palace gate, he was surrounded by these big men layer by layer, and he couldn't see the front and back at all.

Wrapped up in this way, he walked outside a palace. The leading guard spoke, and the door of the hall opened silently, and the leader of the guards said to Shen Mo: "You can go in by yourself, as for the brother of Beisi, please wait in the side room." ”

Zhu Shisan nodded, gave Shen Mo a 'good luck' look, and left with his subordinates, and the team of internal guards also followed the leader to continue patrolling, leaving Shen Mo alone, standing alone at the door of the main hall.

"Come in......" came an old voice from inside.

'Well, this emperor is too approachable, isn't he? Shen Mo was greatly surprised, so he obediently crossed the threshold and entered the temple.

The two Taoist boys closed the door of the hall again, and silently saw that in the main hall, there were nine rows of red candles, the candles flickered, the light smoke fluttered, and sometimes there was a crisp sound, reflecting the empty hall becoming more and more silent.

By the bright candlelight, Shen Mo saw a three-legged covered gossip furnace more than eight feet high in the center of the main hall...... The top is hollowed out according to the image of the gossip, and a faint white smoke continues to emerge from the hollow.

As he was surveying the copper furnace, he heard someone behind the furnace, "Come here." ”

Shen Mo followed his words, and saw an old Taoist priest with pale hair, wearing a gossip purple silk fairy robe, holding a whisk in his hand, sitting cross-legged on a purple futon...... Looking at the age of this old man, he has to say that he is seventy or eighty, which does not match His Majesty.

Seeing his hesitation, the old Taoist priest said lightly: "Poor Tao Tao Zhongwen." ”

"It turned out to be a heavenly master, and the student was disrespectful!" Shen Mo hurriedly saluted.

"You sit down." Tao Zhongwen didn't look up, just pointed to the futon opposite with a whisk, and then instructed Xiaodao Tong: "Make the alchemy furnace prosperous." ”

"Yes, Master." The two little dao boys began to pull the bellows together, and the fire of the alchemy furnace suddenly brightened, and the sound in the hall became louder and louder.

In the sound of the bellows and the crackling fire, Tao Tianshi twisted a crisp wicker from the basin at hand...... I don't know where I got the green leaves on it. The old Taoist priest finally spoke: "Don't move, let the poor Dao remove the bad luck for you." ”

Shen Mo hurriedly remained motionless, watching the old man throw the watery wicker on his face, and after nine strokes, the old man asked him to wash his hands and face with the water in the basin, and then threw the wicker into the Dan furnace, which was considered to have completed the work of dispelling evil spirits.

Seeing that the old man had already finished his work, a strong urge to change careers surged in Shen Mo's heart...... Grandma's, I knew that being a Taoist priest was so awesome and so easy, I took the trouble to study and do a lot, and said, 'Heavenly Master, please accept me.' I endured it and endured it, but I didn't say it.

Tao Tianshi's beard is white, and his body is thin, but his eyes are deep and bright, as if he can perceive all the world's conditions, and the silent psychological changes have not escaped his gaze, and he smiled faintly: "I'm very envious, right?" ”

Shen Mo was slightly stunned, and when he knew that this old man had already lived a fine life, it was useless to talk nonsense to him, so he nodded and said: "I really admire him, and I even have the urge to apprentice, but I don't know if you will accept it?" ”

"Collect, why not?" Tao Zhongwen was surprisingly happy, which made Shen Mo completely confused, and asked forcefully: "You're not joking, are you?" ”

"Of course not." Tao Zhongwen smiled faintly and said, "If you are willing, Poor Dao will accept you as a registered disciple." ”

It turned out to be a registered disciple, not really let me be a bull's nose. Only then did Shen Mo relax his heart, and he continued: "That day, Lan Daoxing begged me to help you no matter what." I managed to get His Majesty out of the customs ahead of the ......"

Shen Mo hurriedly saluted again: "Your old man's kindness, the disciple will never forget." "His ability to climb along the pole is better than that of a monkey.

"It seems that he is willing to be a disciple of Poor Dao," Tao Zhongwen smiled happily: "Poor Dao Lao Huai is very relieved, then I have one to say to you, and two to say." ”

"Student...... Oh no, the apprentice listened. He said silently.

"The reason why Poor Dao helps you is because those who help others are helped by others." Tao Zhongwen sighed loudly: "Poor Dao is eighty-one this year, I won't tell you, my old eyes are dizzy, I am weak, I moved a few years ago to return to the countryside, and the idea of living in the countryside, but I have not been able to get what I want, do you know why?" ”

"Is Your Majesty's retention too earnest?" Shen Mo asked softly.

"That's one aspect." Tao Zhongwen said lightly: "But more importantly, I have three worries in my heart and can't go away in style." ”

"Dare to ask what are the three worries?"

"One is to 'be prepared for danger in times of peace'." Tao Zhongwen said slowly: "Since Your Majesty's Imperial Pole, my Taoism has flourished, and it has been like Zhongtian for thirty years...... It can be said that it is the most in 500 years. ”

"It's all the work of two generations of Heavenly Masters." Silence was suspicious of sycophancy.

"It's not the credit of the two of us, it's just because Your Majesty has Taoist Huigen...... Thousands of years later, the rise and fall of the two gates of Taoism and interpretation, are determined by the emperor's likes and dislikes, if you catch up with this generation of emperors like to believe in Buddhism, it will be like the Zhengde years, the whole country destroys the Tao and worships Buddha; If the next emperor were to do the opposite, that would be the current situation. ”

Tao Zhongwen said very soberly: "The core of my Taoism is Tai Chi. Tai Chi is endless, but it is not forever prosperous, but exists in a cycle of prosperity and decline, and non-prosperity. The emperor worships the Tao, and the Taoist gate washes the bad luck of the first emperor, and destroys the Buddha and the temple in the whole country, which is a bit too much. In fact, Shamen, like my Taoist, has experienced several Dharma tribulations, destroyed and revived each time, and then stood after being broken. After the revival, it brought to the Taoist gate a lot of disasters, such as the Huichang law, Tang Wuzong destroyed more than 4,000 temples, and returned 260,000 lay monks and nuns, the ban on Buddha can not be said to be incomplete, but Xuanzong succeeded to the throne, the Buddhist temple was restored, Liu Xuanqing, Zhao Guizhen and other more than a dozen Taoist real people returned to Huangquan, the past can be learned! ”

Although as a secular person, he didn't know much about the dispute between Buddhism and Taoism, Shen Mo still understood Tao Tianshi's worries, and said softly: "You are always worried...... In the future, Buddhism will make a comeback and intensify its revenge on Taoism? ”

"Yin Jian is not far away...... Tao Zhongwen sighed, lowered his voice and said: "The old man is more than eighty, and he may die at any time, Your Majesty has been practicing for a long time, and his skills are improving, and he will inevitably achieve great success within ten years, and he will soar to the throne, and when the new emperor ascends the throne, it will be a great killing and robbery of my Daomen." ”

Shen Mo couldn't help but chuckle in his heart, and said secretly: "Why do you seem to be hinting to me that Your Majesty has ten years of life at most?" But there was no way to ask this, so he could only follow Tao Zhongwen's train of thought and say, "What does the heavenly master mean?" ”

"I hope that someone will be able to rescue the Daomen at that time, and don't let my disciples and grandchildren all become headless ghosts......" As he spoke, the old heavenly master actually saluted Shen Mo and said in a trembling voice: "Humble words, can you help the old man?" ”

Shen Mo was busy helping the old heavenly master, crying and laughing: "You are always looking for someone to take care of the orphans, and you also want to find the elders, the most unfortunate has to be the Shangshu Shilang and the like, what can I, a small man with sin, do?" ”

Tao Zhongwen sat back on the futon and said, "Pavilion Elder? Yan Ge Lao and I are about the same age, and it is not certain who can survive whom; Li Mo is a person who gets up fast and falls quickly, I am not optimistic about him; As for Xu Gelao, he should have been the most suitable candidate, but unfortunately he is an old slippery head, and he must be self-protective at the critical moment, and it is too unreliable to expect him. As he spoke, he looked at Shen Mo and said, "Humble words, you would rather die to defend Zhao Wenhua, you are much more reliable than them." ”

'I care if Zhao Wenhua dies? Shen Mo was depressed in his heart, and said with a wry smile: "My character is no problem, but you can't help but think too highly of me, just ten years, I can't enter the cabinet as a minister, and what I say works?" ”

"Don't be presumptuous," Tao Zhongwen shook his head and smiled: "As a teacher, I am good at face-to-face, looking at your face, the heavenly court is full, the height is towering, the eyes are sharp, and the eyebrows are inserted in the temples, it is the appearance of a young man's ambition, and he can enter the cabinet at the age of thirty!" Believe me, the old man's predictions are never wrong. ”

Shen Mo still didn't believe it, but Lao Dao said: "If you say that you have not entered the cabinet after ten years, our agreement will be invalidated. ”

Having said this, Shen Mo naturally nodded in response, such a long-term conditional promise is simply the least tiring of all promises.

"As for the other two things, they are all small things that can be done at that time." Tao Zhongwen said softly: "One is my unsuccessful grandson, the loser must be in his generation, please take care of Gu Ze when the time comes." ”

"That's fine." Shen Mo nodded and said, "The student will do his best." ”

"The third ......" Tao Zhongwen's face suddenly showed a look of cowardice and said: "Can you never leak it, you are the real owner of the Hundred Flowers Immortal Wine?" ”

(To be continued)