The night sky was washed clean, dotted with stars.

The highest building in the Great Feng's capital city, the Observatory, was the office of the Celestial Master's Court.

A young girl in a yellow skirt climbed up lightly. When she passed the seventh floor, she heard a noisy commotion coming from the alchemy room.

A group of alchemists in white robes were arguing, their faces turning red.

"Why did it fail again? The steps are so simple."

"I told you, it must be the amount of salt."

"No, I think it's the water."

"Is it fire? I saw Senior Wan boiling the salt just now."

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"It's too difficult. The alchemy spell to turn salt into silver is too difficult. I can't do it."

The girl named Chu Caiwei twitched her mouth and muttered, "These people are still making fake silver."

Two days ago, she brought the story of turning salt into silver back to the Celestial Master's Court, and her fellow disciples didn't believe her.

Salt can turn into silver?

Even a three-year-old child wouldn't believe it.

But soon, the case of fake silver was solved, and the emperor felt that fake silver was extremely powerful and mysterious, and ordered the Celestial Master's Court to refine fake silver.

So, the alchemists of the Celestial Master's Court began their hard work, working day and night, and putting in long hours of work.

From two days ago until now, they fought and failed repeatedly.

"Caiwei, it's Junior Sister Caiwei!" Someone shouted excitedly.

In an instant, the exhausted faces turned to her, and their eyes lit up.

"Junior Sister Caiwei, how is this fake silver made?"

"Junior Sister Caiwei, come and help me see if there's a problem with the steps. You're the only one who has successfully refined fake silver."

They surrounded the girl in the yellow skirt.

Chu Caiwei had to enter the alchemy room and watch her fellow disciples refine fake silver.

"Failed again!" A white-robed alchemist who was operating on site sighed.

"Junior Sister Caiwei, where did we go wrong?" The white-robed alchemists posed a humble and inquiring attitude.

There's no problem. I refined it the same way back then... Chu Caiwei pondered, "This is an ancient alchemy technique, profound and obscure, not something that can be learned just by learning it. It needs to be taught in a simple and easy-to-understand way to take root. I will teach you all a mnemonic, remember it well."

The fellow disciples posed a listening attitude.

"Hydrogen, helium, lithium, beryllium, boron, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, fluorine, neon, sodium, magnesium, aluminum, silicon, phosphorus!" Chu Caiwei breathed out this amazing mnemonic word by word.

"Is this a solution?" The fellow disciples didn't understand, they understood each word, but when combined, they were confused.

"I don't know what this is either..." Chu Caiwei smiled mysteriously and said nothing."Genius, genius, the person who wrote this mnemonic is truly a genius in alchemy," a white-robed senior brother exclaimed.

"Where is this genius? Don't be ridiculous, senior brother!" Chu Caiwei said with a smile.

"Caiwei junior sister, who told you this mnemonic? Did you meet a master in alchemy who gave you guidance?"

Chu Caiwei thought to herself, "Good question!" and threw the blame lightly.

"That person is called Xu Qi'an, the nephew of Xu Pingzhi, a green-robed seventh-grade member of the Imperial Blade Camp. You can find him," she said.

As soon as they heard that he was a martial artist, the white-robed disciples were unhappy.

"Ridiculous! Our Celestial Observation Court is full of talented people, and we still need to look for outsiders to make fake silver?"

"And he's a martial artist."

"It would be a joke if it got out."

According to different cultivation systems, several interesting chains of contempt have formed.

The Taoists look down on the Buddhists, and the Buddhists disdain them in return.

The sorcerers look down on the wizards, the wizards look down on the gu masters, and the gu masters look down on the sorcerers.

Then, the Taoists, Buddhists, sorcerers, wizards, and gu masters all look down on martial artists together.

As for Confucianism, sorry to say, but everyone here is trash.

However, Confucianism has weakened in recent times.

"Caiwei junior sister, can you guide us?"

Caiwei snorted, "Next time for sure!"

She squeezed out of the group of white-robed senior brothers and continued to climb the stairs.

Actually, she didn't understand it either.

Last time at the government office, she had successfully made fake silver in one go, but when she tried it again privately, she failed.

She had completely replicated the previous process, but it still failed, and she didn't know why.

On the top of the Observation Tower, there was not a normal eave, but an octagonal platform that matched the Eight Trigrams.

Therefore, it was called the Eight Trigrams Platform.

At the edge of the Eight Trigrams Platform, an old man in white lay on the table, holding a wine glass in one hand and propping his head up with the other, seemingly drunk and not drunk, looking down at the capital below.

The girl in the yellow skirt knew better than to disturb him. The master usually liked to sit on the Eight Trigrams Platform and drink while enjoying the view, and didn't like to be disturbed.

Nianbei squinted his eyes and said, "I'm focusing on observing the mortal realm."

"Is Caiwei here?" the old man in white asked with a smile.

"Master." The girl in the yellow skirt smiled and ran over, standing at the edge of the Eight Trigrams Platform, her skirt fluttering.

"Does the Emperor have any rewards?"

"A few hundred taels of silver and a few pieces of silk." The girl in the yellow skirt said, "Master, what exactly is fake silver?"

"I don't know," the old man in white said.

"Is there anything that the master doesn't know in this world?"

"Too many, too many," the old man in white laughed, "The master doesn't know where those thieves went nineteen years ago.""You always talk about the despicable thieves from nineteen years ago, but you never tell me who they are or what they stole."

The old man in white stood up and sighed as he walked to the edge of the octagonal platform. "What they stole was quite remarkable."

"Do you know who made the fake silver?" The Bureau of Heavenly Records was the birthplace of the sorcerer system, and all alchemists in the world had a connection with the Bureau of Heavenly Records, even if they were not born there.

Behind the silver tax case, an alchemist was involved and created this strange object, which was not something ordinary people could do.

"Of course, I know."

......

In the small courtyard, in the main room.

Xu Qi'an lay on the bed, staring blankly at the crisscrossing beams illuminated by the moonlight coming in from the window.

He worried about his future, feeling both anxious and excited.

With his knowledge from a nine-year compulsory education, he could easily stand out in the backward feudal society and become the most outstanding person.

However, a society where the monarch's power was supreme often meant that human rights could not be guaranteed. Today, one could be a young model in a clubhouse, but tomorrow, they could be exiled or sent to the army.

This was a phenomenon that would make any modern person feel worried.

As he thought about it, Xu Qi'an fell asleep. When he woke up, it was already bright outside. He put on his black official uniform, tied his belt, tied up his long hair, and hung his simple sword at his waist.

He was tall, straight, and handsome.

One had to admit that ancient clothing added to one's appearance and temperament, but it was too troublesome when going to the bathroom.

He climbed over the wall to his uncle's house and had breakfast with him. Then, the uncle and nephew went to work together. Xu Pingzhi resumed his official position, and everything was back to normal.

The County Office of Changle was a suburb of the capital, and the yamen was located in the city, about six or seven miles from Xu's house. Xu Qi'an had no horse or carriage, so he had to take the No. 11 bus and arrived at the county yamen in about fifteen minutes.

The Changle County Office faced north and south, with two stone lions at the entrance that were as tall as a person. The large red-brown painted doors had peeling paint, and there were two drums on either side.

The structure of the county yamen was worth mentioning. The most important person was the magistrate, called the main official. He had two assistants, the county magistrate and the main clerk.

These three were imperial officials with ranks. In Xu Qi'an's era, they were considered to have positions.

Below the three imperial officials were the historians, also known as the leaders.

But without a rank, they were not influential.

Next were the Three Classes and Six Houses: the Three Classes were the Soap Class, the Quick Class, and the Strong Class, responsible for ceremonies, public security, and arrests, respectively. The Six Houses corresponded to the six ministries of the imperial court.

Xu Qi'an was a bailiff in the Quick Class, also known as a catcher.Upon entering the yamen, Xu Qi'an saw the clerk taking attendance. Li Dianshi, who was standing in front of the hall, noticed Xu Qi'an with his waist and hips adorned with a simple knife and was stunned. His expression was as if he had seen a ghost in broad daylight.

The yamen runners noticed their leader's abnormal expression and turned their heads to look. Then, they also made the same expression as if they had seen a ghost.

"Xu, Xu Qi'an, are you a human or a ghost?!" someone asked in a trembling voice.

Li Dianshi noticed Xu Qi'an's shadow on the ground and felt relieved. He spoke calmly, "What nonsense are you talking about in the courtroom? Do ghosts have shadows?"

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this.

Xu Qi'an thought for a moment and replied, "I guess I could be a walking corpse."

Li Dianshi was shocked, and the yamen runners were nervous.

Xu Qi'an quickly apologized, "Just kidding. I have been released from prison, and I have seen Dianshi and my colleagues."

Li Dianshi asked, "What happened?"

They had heard about Xu's family being imprisoned for tax evasion.

"Of course, it's all thanks to my uncle's efforts to redeem our family's reputation. The emperor is merciful and has pardoned our family's crimes." Xu Qi'an immediately recounted the story and gave credit to his uncle. He also showed the certificate given by the Jingzhao Prefecture yamen.

At the same time, he was aware that although the missing tax money had been found, the verdict had not been handed down yet. This meant that the tax evasion case was not yet resolved, and the yamen runners in Changle County were still unaware of this.

After attendance was taken, several familiar catchers immediately approached Xu Qi'an to congratulate him.

"Xiaoning, you must treat us to drinks."

In this era, friends were addressed by their courtesy names, not their given names. When introducing oneself, one used their given name, not their courtesy name.

"Yes, good fortune follows a narrow escape. I'll treat you all to drinks."

"I heard that the new brothel in Lingshui Street has bought a batch of Qingguan people. Xiaoning, let's go there tonight."

Treating them to drinks was fine, but having to pay for sleeping with women was too much. Xu Qi'an was about to refuse, saying that he had no money, when he suddenly stepped on something hard. He looked down and saw a broken silver coin. Was it really true that good fortune follows a narrow escape? He immediately stepped on it and pretended to look around at the scenery.

After the others had taken a few steps forward, Xu Qi'an quickly bent down and picked up the silver coin. He calmly put it into his money pouch without changing his expression.

After walking through the long corridor and sitting in the side hall on the west side for a few minutes, Li Dianshi came in with a gloomy expression and looked at Wang Butou. "Old Wang, the county magistrate wants us to go to the inner hall."

Wang Butou's face turned bitter, and he left without saying a word.

Xu Qi'an watched Wang Butou's back disappear and asked, "What's going on? The boss's expression doesn't look good.""During your time in prison, there was a murder case in Kangping Street. The victim was a wealthy merchant. The county magistrate was furious and scolded Wang the Catcher every day," said the guard.

"It's just a dead merchant. The county magistrate doesn't need to be so angry," Xu Qi'an said while cracking melon seeds.

Since ancient times, human life was a major case, but as a fifth-ranked county magistrate in the suburbs of the capital, it shouldn't be that serious.

"Well, that merchant had a relationship with a certain high-ranking official. They must have put pressure on the county magistrate," the guard said. "Besides, this year is the year of Gengzi."

"Gengzi year?" Xu Qi'an didn't understand.

"Jingcha!" The guard clarified.