"What a good thing..." Xu Qi'an's face was shocked, thinking to himself, "Lord Jianzheng, are you going to take out a mirror and tell me, 'If you're my brother, join the Heaven and Earth Society!'"

While he was still stunned, he suddenly heard a breaking sound coming from the direction of the stairs.

Two iron lumps, one black and one gold, shot towards Jianzheng at a rapid speed, whistling past two golden gongs and Xu Qi'an, flying towards Jianzheng.

The two iron lumps melted during their flight, turning into a bright iron liquid that splashed like water onto Jianzheng.

The two streams of iron liquid merged together, outlining the shape of a long knife.

"Chi Chi"

Faint water vapor was born out of nowhere, hardened by a solid core. When it landed in Jianzheng's hand, it had become the prototype of a long knife.

Jianzheng held the knife blank and wiped it with his other hand. A dark golden long knife appeared, with a restrained color on the blade and a sharp edge.

Jianzheng flicked his finger, and the knife blank flew and landed in front of Xu Qi'an, cutting into the bluestone like cutting tofu.

The two golden gongs without knives stared at the dark golden long knife with fiery eyes.

This is alchemy?!

This is clearly magic. Shouldn't alchemy be about extracting and separating substances in bottles and jars?

Xu Qi'an's three views were strongly impacted.

In shock, Xu Qi'an realized that Jianzheng was only giving him a gift, but also slapping him in the face.

He was telling me, "Young man, you know nothing about alchemy..."

The appearance of this knife was between the Tang sword and the Tachi of the previous life, more curved than the Tang sword and straighter than the Tachi.

The blade was slender, reaching four feet long, with a low-key, luxurious and restrained appearance, but also very cool.

"Thank Jianzheng." Wei Qingyi said.

"Thank you, Lord Jianzheng."

Suppressing his joy, Xu Qi'an took off his robe, wrapped the blade, and held it in his hand.

The sharpness of the blade was too strong, easily injuring oneself or others.

Wei Yuan bowed to Jianzheng, leading three subordinates to leave the Heavenly Observer Pavilion.

When he went downstairs, Xu Qi'an met Chu Caiwei and Princess Chang, who seemed to be going to the Gossip Terrace.

Under the gaze of Wei Yuan and Princess Chang, he pulled Chu Caiwei's hand and walked away.

"Do you have time tonight? I'll treat you to dinner at Guiyue Tower." Xu Qi'an proposed a date.

Who knew that Chu Caiwei, a foodie, would refuse with one bite, "I have to go to the imperial palace later, and I'll stay at Princess Chang's mansion today."

There were endless pastries and delicacies in Princess Chang's mansion. Although the food at Guiyue Tower was delicious, how could it compare to the palace chefs?

"I see... After His Majesty's ancestral sacrifice, come to my house for dinner." Xu Qi'an thought it would be better to just make a simple version of chicken essence. The consumption at Guiyue Tower was still a bit expensive.

"Will you give me some to eat?" Chu Caiwei remembered.

Theft is never good, try looking at [ pawread.com ].

"Sure."

"Okay." She nodded too.

Xu Qi'an smiled, "****."

The two separated, Chu Caiwei led Princess Chang up the stairs, and Xu Qi'an followed Wei Yuan downstairs. Xu Qi'an looked up and happened to see Princess Chang looking down at him.

Their eyes met, Xu Qi'an grinned, and Princess Chang remained expressionless. When she couldn't see Xu Qi'an's figure anymore, she gently pursed her lips.

On the way, he met a man in white clothes and handed the black and gold knife to him, instructing him to give it to Song Shixiong to make a handle. He would come to pick it up tomorrow.After leaving the stargazing tower, Wei Yuan entered the carriage, and Yang Yan looked at Xu Qi'an and waved his hand, asking, "Can you drive a carriage?" Xu Qi'an shook his head. Who would drive as a serious person? Yang Yan nodded and handed him the reins before entering the carriage himself. Xu Qi'an was confused for a moment before realizing that the expressionless leader was trying to train him.

...

The Eight Trigrams Platform.

Chu Caiwei sat on the edge of the platform, swinging her feet in small boots while enjoying a bag of preserved fruits. The Crown Princess stood beside her, her skirt fluttering like a fairy. "Supervisor, I have always had a question," the Crown Princess said in a clear and pleasant voice. "The Ren Clan moved into the Imperial City, bewitched the Emperor to cultivate, and has ignored the court for nineteen years. Yunzhou is still plagued by bandits, and disasters are frequent in various places. The court's control over the southern region is becoming weaker and weaker, and the various northern tribes have ambitious plans. What are you waiting for?"

After a long time, no one answered. The Crown Princess turned around and saw that the supervisor had closed his eyes and fallen asleep. Chu Caiwei said impatiently, "Princess, don't mind this old man. He's so old that he'll only live for a few more years."

"Do you know that gong?" The Crown Princess changed the topic.

"Yes," Chu Caiwei smiled and squinted her crescent-like eyes. "Xu Ningyan is talented and speaks well. I find him quite interesting."

...

The Health-Preserving Hall.

Heng Yuan, who had been waiting quietly among the surrounding residents for two days, finally saw something unusual. A ninth-grade small official in a green robe led a group of craftsmen into the Health-Preserving Hall. Soon, there were banging sounds from inside that lasted until dusk.

Heng Yuan waited until night and confirmed that there were no Nightwatchers or white-clad members of the Heavenly Observation Court lying in ambush before leaving the civilian's house and entering the Health-Preserving Hall to investigate.

To his surprise, he found that the Health-Preserving Hall's gate had been replaced with a new one, the bumpy ground had been paved with bluestone slabs, and the old stone tables and stools had been replaced with new ones. The doors, windows, eaves, and various utensils had all been repaired or replaced.

Lu Zhishen, a burly man, stood in the courtyard, silent for a long time. The old officials in charge of the Health-Preserving Hall were light sleepers and woke up when they heard the noise, holding a lantern to investigate. "Master Heng Yuan, you're back?" The old official was pleasantly surprised and said, "You don't have to beg for alms anymore. The court has just allocated funds to make up for the silver owed in previous years. In the afternoon, craftsmen came to repair the courtyard."

"Allocated funds?" Heng Yuan whispered.

"Yes, two hundred taels of silver," the old official said with relief. "The children and elderly people in the courtyard have their expenses for next year, and I plan to give each of them a set of winter clothes tomorrow. It's really timely. Otherwise, many of our old friends wouldn't be able to survive the winter."

...

Xu Qi'an was awakened in the middle of the night and felt annoyed. He thought, "Which lunatic is chatting in the group in the middle of the night?" He took out the mirror from under his pillow, walked to the table, lit a candle, and glanced at the message. "Six: Numbers one and three, have you discovered my hiding place?" "Two: Baldy, why are you making noise in the middle of the night?"Number Two has a bad temper and seems to have been awakened by the noise.

[Nine: What happened?]

Taoist Master Jin Lian spoke up, reminding the members of the Tian Di Hui that something must have happened to Number Six.

Number One didn't say anything and was probably peeking at the screen again.

Xu Qi'an couldn't figure out what was going on and remained silent as well.

[Six: Ha, I didn't expect my hiding place to be exposed so quickly. But it doesn't matter, I brought all the children I saved from the health-preserving hall in the east city here.

This place has been barely surviving with a few old officials who have nowhere else to go, as well as a group of homeless children and elderly people.

But today, the court suddenly remembered this place and sent people to repair the yard and make up for the unpaid silver from previous years. The old officials had gone to the Ministry of Revenue a few times before, but were all driven out.

I know that there's no way there would be silver allocated without a special reason.]

If it was Nightwatcher who found him, Number Six wouldn't be surprised. But Number One and Number Three were able to find his hiding place so quickly, which surprised Lu Zhishen.

[One: It wasn't me.]

Number One immediately denied it.

If it wasn't Number One, then it must be Number Three. As a student of the Yunlu Academy, he had discovered Number Six's roots due to the case of Ping Yuanbo, but didn't take any action against Number Six. Instead, he helped from behind the scenes.

Number Three was truly a man of integrity.

The members of the Tian Di Hui felt even more admiration for him.

[Two: Did you do it, Number Three?]

...It wasn't me, I didn't do it. Don't overestimate me. Xu Qi'an remained silent.

If I don't explain, just take it as my admission. If everyone finds out the truth later, I can still say that I didn't admit it!

In addition, Xu Qi'an thought of something. Two days ago, he sold Number Six to Wei Yuan. With Wei Yuan's means and the clues he provided, it wasn't difficult to find Number Six's location.

But how to settle the many children that Number Six had saved?

If it were Xu Qi'an, his first choice would be to check the health-preserving halls all over the capital.

According to Number Six, besides Wei Yuan, who else could control the court officials?

Of course, Number One also had this ability, but he had just denied it.

They found the culprit who killed Ping Yuanbo, but didn't arrest him. Instead, they made up for the unpaid silver for the health-preserving hall, repaired the yard and sent people to do it.

"Wei Yuan..." In the dim candlelight, Xu Qi'an whispered.

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