Inheriting a Taoist temple, the story begins with Wu Zetian offering incense.

Chapter 307 A Meteorite Falling from the Sky, Just Like Liu Xiu's! [Seeking Monthly Tickets]

Since leaving the palace, Li Dan's heart had been pounding between surprise and shock. Hearing that his mother was still alive, his heart nearly jumped out of his throat.

It's been eight years since she was buried, so how... how did I hear news about my mother again?

In an instant, a mix of fear, shock, cowardice, and tension washed over him. Fortunately, he had been eating well and was in great health recently, otherwise he could have easily fainted from the shock of the news.

Princess Taiping, holding her brother's hand, said:

“Brother, don’t panic. This is a long story. First, go to the main hall and pay your respects to Immortal Master Yiyuan. Then I will tell you about Mother.”

At this moment, Li Chengyi arrived in a large group with his wives, concubines, and children. He was dressed in military uniform and carrying two lances. When he saw his elder brother Li Chengqi, he handed him one. The two brothers stood under the porch, ready to protect their father, the retired emperor, and their aunt, Princess Taiping.

Looking at the empty streets of Daozhengfang, Li Chengqi began to consider moving:
"Second brother, are there any empty courtyards left in this neighborhood? I recently had someone read my fortune, and they said I should live in a place east of Chang'an. What do you think..."

Li Chengyi pretended not to understand and carefully wiped the horse spear in his hand:
"Since it's east of Chang'an, I suggest you move to Lishan Villa. It's further east, in the mountains, the air is fresh, and the food is healthier..."

Before he could finish speaking, Li Chengqi raised his leg to kick him, but Li Chengyi nimbly dodged it, a smug smile on his face.
"Haha, you think I lost those thirty pounds for nothing?"

The two brothers started bickering like a pair of protective beasts. In the end, Li Chengyi gave in and said he would help Li Chengqi find a courtyard, but it wouldn't be too big. After all, Daozhengfang was the location of the immortal's Taoist temple. If it was made to be more luxurious and grand than a Taoist temple, then they could just wait for their grandmother to kick their butts.

Inside the hall, Li Dan respectfully bowed to the Taiji diagram, then sat on a prayer mat and listened attentively as Princess Taiping began to tell "the story of our mother."

After Princess Taiping finished speaking, Li Dan breathed a long sigh of relief:

"So, she's not our deceased mother, but someone from another world?"

Princess Taiping nodded:

"Yes, to be precise, she has no blood relation to you or me. She was just a concubine of the Zhenguan era... but she is willing to acknowledge our descendants. This is a blessing for both of us."

As Li Dan relaxed, tears began to fall again, one after another.

“You are your mother’s good child, and Sanlang is her beloved grandson. Am I not also your mother’s good eldest son?”

Princess Taiping was delighted:

"If you had come sooner, you would have known by now. In the future, Sanlang can build you a separate courtyard in Daozhengfang. Then you can find an excuse to move here and we siblings can chat often."

Upon hearing this, Li Dan quickly nodded and said:

"That would be best, but will Saburo agree?"

Princess Taiping picked up the tablet and showed the picture of Wu Zetian:
"When Aunt Gongsun returns, you can have her record a video to send to Hunyuan Palace so that Mother can see it. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. With Mother's word, Sanlang will have to obey."

Thinking of the suffering he endured during the Wu Zhou period, Li Dan said weakly:
“I’m more worried that my mother will execute me first… Won’t she really lose her temper and kill people indiscriminately?”

Princess Taiping nodded:

"Now my mother is the housekeeper of the Immortal's Residence. She is gentle and virtuous and never loses her temper."

While the brother and sister were chatting, Li Longji rode his horse at breakneck speed to the edge of Kunming Pool. Chen Xuanli had already arrived ahead of them and conducted reconnaissance with a drone.

Hidden in a dense forest covering thousands of acres on the east side of Kunming Pool are tens of thousands of servants drawn from various households. They are clad in armor and armed with weapons, clearly having received training.

The situation was dangerous, and Chen Xuanli urged Li Longji to leave immediately upon seeing him.

Li Longji smiled and took a long fishing bag off his horse, then propped up an aluminum alloy stool by the water's edge. He opened the bag and began mixing bait, clearly intending to cast a couple of times.

Gao Lishi wore a bomb suit under his official robes, which looked bulging. He took out a walkie-talkie from his satchel and asked Li Longji for instructions:

"Your Majesty, should we inform General Xue?"

General Xue is Xue Ne, the son of Xue Rengui, the famous Tang Dynasty general who pacified the Tianshan Mountains with three arrows. During the last military parade at Lishan, he was ordered to stay in the parade camp to train the troops and has not left Chang'an since.

Li Longji's original plan was to go fishing at Kunming Pool and, incidentally, have Xue Ne lead cavalry to quell the rebellion.

But when the time came, Li Longji changed his mind again, because he was unsure whether the Lishan camp had been infiltrated by powerful clans... Even the 10,000 cavalry couldn't resist the temptation, so it seemed that the troops in the Lishan camp would be even less able to resist it.

He tied the main line and leader line separately, then fastened the hook, and slowly and methodically said to the fisherman:
"On the way here, I just realized something. Since the Five Clans and Seven Noble Families and the Guanzhong aristocracy intend to replace me, they must have also planted people in the Lishan camp. After all, there are 70,000 to 80,000 troops outside the city. If they want to rebel, they will definitely take care of the Lishan camp in advance."

Li Bai sat to the side, holding a shovel, and began to scoop corn from a jar into the water.

"What do you plan to do? Are you planning to transfer troops from elsewhere, or hide in the South Mountain and play hide-and-seek with these bandits?"

Li Longji baited the fishing hook with corn, cast the line beautifully, and cast the hook to the spot where Li Bai had baited the spot: "To be honest, I want to use metaphysical methods to wipe out these people. I ask my uncle for help. The more bizarre and fantastical the better. This will help the powerful families submit and the people support us. Otherwise, if one family is not in chaos, another will be in chaos. In the future, we won't be able to take care of anything else. Just suppressing the rebellion will keep us busy enough."

The power of metaphysics?
Li Bai took out his token. Could it be that he was going to use the token to pray to his master and obtain the support of Hunyuan Palace?
The thought had barely crossed my mind when it was rejected by the poet himself... How could I trouble my master with such a trivial matter? Don't I, the eldest disciple of Hunyuan Palace, have any dignity?

At this point, Chen Xuanli had already begun to order his soldiers to dismount and form ranks. He hadn't noticed it until he used drones to scout, but after flying over them once, he discovered that the surrounding woods were densely packed with human heads. This frightened the commander of the 10,000 cavalry, and he had an urge to immediately carry Li Longji and flee.

However, it is precisely at this time that you should not run, because running means you are guilty and afraid, which clearly shows that you have no backup plan.

On the contrary, sitting by the water to fish makes it even more difficult to gauge the depth of the situation.

He felt that a thousand cavalrymen were too few, so he launched a drone to check on the naval preparations on the other side of Kunming Pool. When he flew over, he found that the naval forces had changed their armor.

Everyone was dressed in black clothes and armor, just like the people lying in ambush in the dense forest. Even the flags they carried were not the Tang Dynasty dragon flags, but their surname flags.

There were members of the Cui and Wang families, who were clearly not from the imperial court.

Chen Xuanli hurriedly put away the drone, rushed to Li Longji's side, and whispered:
"Your Majesty, the navy has mutinied. This place is extremely dangerous. Please make plans as soon as possible."

Gao Lishi also looked nervous, fearing that His Majesty would mess things up.

Li Longji chuckled and turned to look at Li Bai:

"Uncle, what other tricks do you have up your sleeve? You won't let me become a wronged soul in Kunming Pool, will you?"

Li Bai silently took out the scholar's pen from his bosom:
"I have accumulated merits little by little to this point, and I did not want to take this step. After dealing with the powerful families, I would like to ask Your Majesty to allow me to go to the Hongwen Academy to read the classics and cultivate my noble spirit."

Li Longji stared at the ugly calligraphy brush and asked:

"What is this?"

"The Confucian treasure—the Confucian Scholar's Pen—can be activated with merit. I'll go into the details later. Let me tell you about a miracle you like first... I wanted to solve the problem in a mortal way, but they insisted on forcing me to take action. Oh well, what can I do when I'm the chief disciple of the Hunyuan Palace!"

These arrogant words, coupled with the poet's righteous and awe-inspiring expression, made Li Longji involuntarily think to himself:
"If someone can act so pretentiously in their teens, what will they be like when they grow up?"

Li Longji thought of the Grand Magus Liu Xiu, who used a meteorite strike to pave his path to becoming emperor, and said:
"How about a meteorite? If you can accomplish this, I will bestow upon you the title of the Great Tang Sage of Literature!"

He had thought this title would appeal to Li Bai, but the little guy was quite disgusted with it.

"Confucianism has many sages, but there is only one Poet Immortal. Let the title of Literary Sage go to someone else... As an immortal, I should be free and lofty, how can I be burdened by the title of sage?"

After saying this, the poet got up and went to the embankment of Kunming Pool. Looking at the dense forest where the rebels were hiding not far away, he wrote the four characters "[Meteorite Falling from the Sky]" in running script in the air.

As soon as I finished writing them, these four characters seemed to ripple on the water, drifting in the wind.

Li Bai raised his hand and pushed forward forcefully, and the four characters immediately floated upwards into the dense forest, growing larger and larger.

Finally, it burst open with a loud bang high in the sky, scattering sparks of fire. These sparks grew larger and larger until they became the size of a washbasin, trailing long flames as they fell from the sky and crashed heavily into the dense forest.

"boom!!!!!!"

As meteorites rained down, thousands of acres of dense forest were instantly turned into a living hell. Many people were crushed into mincemeat, and severed limbs were scattered everywhere on the ground. Some who were lucky enough to survive had their legs broken and lay on the ground groaning in agony.

Upon witnessing this scene, all ten thousand cavalrymen knelt down and paid homage to Li Bai.

They were prepared to sacrifice themselves, but they never expected that such a huge crisis would be easily resolved by this young Taoist priest... What is a master? This is it!
When the meteorite fell, Li Long originally planned to fish alone in the snowy river, but he couldn't resist the temptation of this miracle. He took Li Bai's phone and took a selfie in the firelight of the meteorite.

The photo wasn't very good; the angle was wrong, the expression was a bit exaggerated, and the ceremonial robes weren't quite right. But with the meteorites rolling down from the sky, the expression didn't matter anymore.

In the distance, at Sanhui Temple, representatives from various families were discussing a victory banquet, but a meteorite that suddenly appeared in the sky shattered their dreams.

Seeing the dense forest where the rebels were buried burst into flames, they panicked completely and didn't know what to do.

Meanwhile, the plans in Chang'an were proceeding at full speed. Li Linfu, who had always been unsuccessful in his time as a member of the imperial clan, could finally muster all his strength to show off his power.

He led a cavalry force composed of imperial family retainers and foreign soldiers from the West Market to Yiyuan Temple to capture the retired Emperor Li Dan, force him to ascend the throne, and then carry out reforms.

The foreign tribes in the West City participated in this coup and even provided a huge amount of funds. Their religion was banned and their churches were demolished, so they took this opportunity to seek revenge.

As this group of rebels marched triumphantly through the entire city of Chang'an, entering Daozhengfang with an air of superiority, Princess Taiping, holding a token, paced back and forth in the courtyard, waiting for someone destined to come to her...

(End of this chapter)