The people from the Criminal Department quickly left, taking Xu Qi'an, who had been labeled as a criminal, with them.

The old man with white hair finally withdrew his qi and didn't even look at Xu Pingzhi. He grabbed Young Master Zhou's arm and said, "Young Master, let this old servant take you back home to bandage your wounds."

As they walked out together, Young Master Zhou shouted, "I want that kid dead."

"Alright, alright, this old servant will take care of it," the old man said with a kind smile.

"No, I'll go myself."

"Whatever Young Master wishes."

The two of them left the county office with their attendants and disappeared. Xu Pingzhi suddenly breathed heavily, as if he had almost drowned. His whole body was soaked with sweat.

"I will file a complaint to the emperor!" Xu Pingzhi said word by word.

"You won't be able to see the emperor. The palace is forbidden, and even the Imperial Guards with a hundred households can't enter. You also don't have the right to make a petition," Magistrate Zhu sighed. "Just forget it."

"I can't, I can't..." Xu Pingzhi was sometimes fierce, sometimes desperate.

Magistrate Zhu thought for a moment. "The only thing you can do now is to find Ci Jiu. He's a juzi from Yunlu Academy and might be able to help."

Although Yunlu Academy was suppressed in the officialdom and had almost no room to survive, the scholars who lived there were not weaklings. They were a group of disciples of sages who were not only good at convincing people with reason, but also good at convincing people with force.

Therefore, when Xu Xinnian was able to escape the fate of exile, he was only stripped of his official position and reduced to a commoner.

...

Zhaixing Building!

Captain Wang rode his horse to the tallest building in the capital. There were no soldiers guarding it, but as he approached, he found that there were no people around Zhaixing Building.

The Bureau of Astronomy was a legendary place where the chief official observed the stars and determined the calendar. They were exiled immortals who could communicate with the celestial beings.

The alchemists of the Bureau of Astronomy were widely known among the people for their works, which benefited the common people. Compared to other systems, the astrologers of the Bureau of Astronomy were the most accepted image of immortals among the people.

No one dared to come to the place where the immortals lived.

Captain Wang wanted to turn around and go back home several times, but he held back.

He bore a great psychological pressure and stopped his horse in front of Zhaixing Building, tremblingly tying the reins to the carved railing on the stone steps.

He gritted his teeth and went up the steps.

The foundation of Zhaixing Building was six meters high, higher than the roof of an ordinary house.

With a nervous heart, Captain Wang arrived at the first floor of Zhaixing Building. The interior was well-lit, and sunlight shone through the rows of holes in the walls, with dust floating in the beams of light.

Captain Wang saw rows of medicine cabinets, young people in white robes sitting together, discussing something passionately.

He saw someone holding a book studying hard, someone sleeping on the table, and someone boiling medicinal herbs.It is rumored that the immortals of the Sitiang Monitor are all skilled doctors who save lives without charge... Wang, the headcatcher, now believes it.

"Who are you?"

A white-clothed man noticed Wang and approached him, scrutinizing him.

It can be hard to make great work when its stolen from "p𝑎wread.com".

There were no soldiers guarding the Sitiang Monitor, but very few civilians dared to approach without restraint. Only those who were seriously ill and knew they had no hope of survival would come here to try their luck.

Wang was a little restrained, his throat rolling, and he stuttered, "I... I am a headcatcher from Changle County Yamen."

So?

The white-clothed man looked at him without speaking.

His eyes were sharp, as if he could see into people's hearts. Wang felt immense pressure and almost gave up on his younger brother Xu Qi'an and left.

"I... I came to find Sister Caiwei..." Wang said.

"Sister Caiwei?" The white-clothed man scrutinized Wang again. Seeing that he had nothing in his hands, he thought to himself, "You didn't even bring food, and you came to find Sister Caiwei?"

"What's the matter?"

Wang took out a book with a deep blue cover from his arms. "A friend asked me to bring this book to Sister Caiwei and add a sentence: Xu Qi'an is in trouble, please save him."

The white-clothed man took it and flipped through it casually. The words on it were distorted like chicken claws and were difficult to read.

He lost interest and held the book in his hand. "Sister Caiwei is not here. She went out to play. You can either wait here or come back later, or give me the book, and I'll pass it on to her."

"Thank you, sir." Wang ran away.

"Brother, what's the matter?"

A white-clothed man next to him watched Wang's hurried departure and asked.

"A headcatcher came to find Sister Caiwei. It must be urgent... Take this book to the seventh floor and give it to Brother Song. Ask for his opinion."

...

Song Qing is the leader of the six alchemists of the sixth rank, the fourth disciple of the Monitor. In the Sitiang Monitor, everyone can claim to be a disciple of the Monitor.

But in fact, the Monitor only taught six disciples, known as the six sons of the Monitor.

Other disciples were taught by these six, well, Chu Caiwei is the youngest disciple and has not yet graduated, so she is temporarily not qualified to teach her younger brothers and sisters.

Song Qing had just returned to the capital not long ago and heard about the tax silver case. Under the eager anticipation of his fellow disciples, he took over the fake silver refining.

The white-clothed alchemists in the 996 blessings were overjoyed.

"Failed again, Brother Song. Can't even you do it?"

"Nonsense, how could Brother Song fail? It's just that creating and developing an alchemy technique requires countless failures to summarize.""As long as Senior Brother Song can grasp the intricacies, our Celestial Observation Court will have another skill in our hands."

After twelve consecutive hours of hard work, Song Qing waved his hand. "Everyone, stop talking. I need some peace and quiet."

Despite not sleeping all night, Song Qing's eyes were still bright and even a bit excited. As a fanatic of alchemy, he welcomed any challenge in the field.

It wasn't a matter of the dosage of salt... After several summaries, he could roughly determine that the temperature of the flame needed to be controlled to melt the salt, but not let it boil... The key was in the thunder and lightning... Song Qing pondered.

He had already realized the key to the problem, but without a concept of voltage, he could only try again and again to control the intensity of the thunder method.

"It's amazing that simple salt can be used to refine fake silver. The person who created this alchemy is truly a genius." Song Qing sighed. If he could make friends with this talented person, his life creation plan might make a huge breakthrough.

At this moment, a disciple in white climbed the stairs to the seventh floor - where the alchemists gathered.

The white clothes were the uniform of the Celestial Observation Court's disciples, which looked no different at first glance. The difference was in the chest. The alchemist's chest was embroidered with a furnace.

The disciple who came to the seventh floor had herbs embroidered on his chest, indicating that he was a ninth-grade mage - a physician.

Also known as a healer.

"Senior Brother, a constable came to find Sister Caiwei just now and brought a message: Xu Qi'an is in trouble and needs help urgently."

The disciple with herbs embroidered on his chest said, "I thought it might be something urgent, so I came up to inform you, as Sister Caiwei's friend."

Xu Qi'an... Song Qing felt that this name was somewhat familiar, but couldn't remember.

"Did that person say anything else?"

The disciple with herbs embroidered on his chest handed over a deep blue book with a seal on it. "Only this book was left behind."

"These characters are simply hideous..." Song Qing took the book and opened the first page, immediately feeling a sting in his eyes from the twisted characters that looked like chicken claws.

The opening sentence was a preface: Equivalent exchange, the unchanging principle of alchemy - Edward Elric.

PS: Why shorten it? The matter of a scholar reading cannot be called short. It's concise!