Traveling through countless heavens, an immortal being

The heights are immeasurable, the clouds are light and the sky is clear.

…………

Tender grass shoots were beginning to sprout on both sides of the official road at dusk. Lear, holding a dragon-headed cane and carrying a red gourd, sat on the back of a blue ox, meditating and regulating his breathing.

After an unknown amount of time, Lear felt the blue ox stop moving. He opened his eyes and looked ahead, seeing a river no more than two zhang wide.

At this moment, Qingniu spoke up: "Reporting to Master, after crossing this river, it's another three miles to the prefectural government."

Lear jumped off the blue ox, opened the gourd and drank a couple of mouthfuls of water. He then told the blue ox to lie down, raise its head and open its mouth, poured some water for it, and then put the lid back on, put the gourd back on his back, and slowly walked to the riverbank, leaning on his dragon-headed cane with his left hand.

He stood on the bank, grasped the dragon head, and dipped the dragon-headed cane into the river to test its depth. He found that even with the dragon-headed cane, which was three heads taller than him and about 1.9 meters high, he couldn't reach the bottom.

Lear pulled his cane from the river, channeled his magic into it, and tossed it into the sky. The dragon-headed cane transformed into a wooden bridge spanning the river. Only then did he turn and beckon the blue ox to cross the river together.

After crossing the river, Lear used his magic to turn his cane back into his hand, and then sat on the back of the blue ox, slowly heading towards the prefecture.

After walking a little over a mile, Lear seemed to sense something and looked up at the sky, where three shooting stars seemed to be streaking across the horizon.

Before the three shooting stars had even completely fallen, the blue ox heard the sound of the approaching wind. It immediately stared up with its big, round eyes and asked, "Master, am I seeing things? Why are stars falling from the sky?"

"I'm not seeing things, something did fall, but I don't think it was a star."

As soon as Lear finished speaking, the three shooting stars flew to Lear and the Green Ox and hovered in mid-air, emitting a golden light that illuminated the surrounding area for three zhang.

Lear stared in astonishment at the three things floating in the golden light.

The scroll in the middle was shimmering with light, and on it were written four cloud-script characters that the old Taoist priest had taught him before he was born. He could see them clearly but could not believe it, because the scroll clearly had "Secondary List of Investiture of the Gods" written on it in cloud-script!

The one on the left looks ordinary, somewhat like a bracelet made of stainless steel, but the moment Lear saw it, he knew its name: it was clearly a Vajra Bracelet!

Lear also recognized the one on the right; it was a ceremonial headdress, and the more he looked at the shape of the headdress, the more familiar it seemed to Lear.

It seems to be the headdress worn by Taibai Jinxing in the Journey to the West TV series I watched in my previous life. It is shaped like a fish tail and should be called Taiqing Fish Tail Crown.

This headdress is extraordinary; only the leader of the Taiqing lineage can wear it. The statue of Laozi in the Ancestral Hall before the transmigration wore this headdress, although the shape was slightly different.

Looking at these three things, Lear felt a surge of dread. None of them were easy to take. The fact that these three things had fallen from the sky was probably closely related to the events to come.

Indecisiveness leads to disaster.

This is the first time I've ever time-traveled in two lifetimes, and I can't let my fellow time-traveler folks down!

Lear quickly figured it out. He first took down the middle section of the Investiture of the Gods supplementary list, then put the Vajra Bracelet on his wrist. Before he could do anything, the Taiqing Fish Tail Crown automatically fell onto his hair and was put on.

The dragon-headed cane emitted a wisp of spiritual light obtained from the old City God of Heyang County, which transformed into a white jade lingzhi hairpin. Li Er held the hairpin and fumbled to put it on his head. After putting it on, he used his magic to conjure a mirror to check. It was just right, not crooked at all.

With a flick of his sleeve, Lear dispersed the mirror, took the red gourd from behind his back, cut off a strip from the silk ribbon wrapped around it, and carried the gourd back on his back. He then used the cut ribbon to tie the less than one-foot-long supplementary list of the Investiture of the Gods to the hollowed-out dragon whiskers of the dragon-head cane, before beckoning the blue ox to continue heading towards the prefectural city.

..........................................

In the Imperial Preceptor's residence in the capital...

The Imperial Preceptor changed into a bright red gauze robe embroidered with the Hetu and Luoshu, wore a pure gold and jeweled hibiscus crown, cloud-patterned shoes, and carried a rattan whisk. He led his disciples and a group of dragon princes and phoenix grandsons to set up an incense table in the central courtyard to welcome the special envoy from the Heavenly Palace.

The group had been waiting here before noon. If it weren't for the presence of the Imperial Advisor, the princes and princesses would have already run away. However, since the Imperial Advisor was there, they were too embarrassed to leave first and could only wait patiently.

The incense and candles on the altar were already half-burned when the celestial official finally arrived.

He stood atop a cloud in mid-air and offered a few words of encouragement before taking out a rectangular jade box from his sleeve and tossing it to the Imperial Advisor.

The Imperial Preceptor flicked his whisk and used his magic to gently hold the jade box in his hand. The Celestial Official then spoke to the dragon princes and phoenix grandsons about the old saying, "Heaven values ​​life and encourages good deeds," before ascending to heaven on a cloud.

The Imperial Preceptor instructed people to remove the incense table and arranged for a group of dragon princes and phoenix grandsons to take turns on duty at the Hall of Gathering Immortals. After making the arrangements, he picked up the jade box and turned to leave.

They walked hurriedly, as if carrying a rare treasure.

……

In the rear hall of the Imperial Preceptor's residence, the Imperial Preceptor stood beside the painting table, his narrow eyes gleaming with greed. He impatiently threw his whisk on the table and opened the jade box with both hands.

When the box was opened, the Imperial Advisor was stunned. He looked at it again and again until he confirmed that the contents of the box were real. Only then did he tremble as he put the lid of the jade box aside and reached into the box with both hands to take out the contents.

The Imperial Advisor held the object up in front of him and examined it over and over again countless times before finally collapsing into a chair, his face ashen.

Holding up what it was, it looked at it carefully and suspiciously in the light from the window, growing more and more frightened the more it looked.

"How could it be a ruler? How could it be a ruler?!"

It thought it was a certificate bestowing upon it the title of immortal or a magical artifact bestowed upon it by the Heavenly Palace. To its utter surprise, it turned out to be a common measuring ruler carried by the master craftsmen of the Heavenly Crafts Institute and every craftsman on earth!

The Imperial Advisor held the ruler for a while before putting it back into the jade box.

It gazed at the jade box before it and murmured to itself, "A ruler... a ruler... a ruler is a measuring instrument; it is standardized and measured. Only with a ruler can one know the measure..."

As the Imperial Advisor spoke, he looked up at the roof beam, as if he wanted to pierce through the roof and reach the heavens.

"Was this ruler given to me so that I would know my limits?"

"Unfortunately, it's too late to turn back now..."

The Imperial Preceptor looked down at the ruler in the jade box in front of him, his eyes vacant. He seemed to understand the purpose of the Heavenly Palace's bestowal of treasures. However, the Blood River Pill was about to be completed, and most of the old king's descendants, except for the three direct princes, were in the Imperial Preceptor's mansion.

As long as these dragon sons and phoenix grandsons are thrown into the alchemy furnace, the Blood River Pill will be completed. It will surely be able to devour half of the nation's fortune and force a breakthrough. At that time, only the Heavenly Heart Incarnation can descend to the mortal realm to take it. Even if the Heavenly Emperor personally takes action, it is confident that it can escape unscathed.

The Grand Preceptor's face was now showing faint cracks. His usually amiable face had become a hideous and twisted one, and his eyes were devoid of human form, emitting a crazy and dangerous dark demonic light.

The skin that the Grand Preceptor was wearing was about to be torn apart by its true form. Realizing that he was losing control of his emotions, the Grand Preceptor hurriedly made hand seals and used his internal energy to adjust himself. This skin of a terrestrial immortal was hard to come by, and it would be difficult to find a replacement if it was damaged.

……

Three hours later, the Imperial Preceptor, having finished adjusting his energy, slowly lowered his hands. He picked up a polished bronze mirror from the painting table, looked it over, and confirmed that the cracks had been repaired by his magic. Only then did he place the mirror upside down on the table.

The Imperial Advisor stood up, closed the jade box, took it in his hand, turned around and placed it in the middle compartment of the Treasure Pavilion a few steps behind the painting table before turning away.

As the palace doors closed, the only light in the unlit rear hall was the faint, dim blue glow emanating from the jade box, as faint and dim as the hope of this world...