Reminding this Dragon Province Daoist, Great Spring truly only has a Yao Jinzhi, blessed with too much fortune, and a passing-through Sword Immortal who has transformed from youth to young adulthood.

Chen Ping’an asked with a smile, “Does Your Highness find Governor Yao amusing? Do you find it laughable that Immortal Yao is a crippled governor with a missing arm? Or do you find it even more comical that Immortal Yao survived the battlefield, when it might have been better to simply add a memorial tablet to the Yao family shrine?”

Liu Mao’s heartstrings instantly tightened.

In the next moment, Liu Mao felt as if he were riding on clouds, then his shoulders suddenly slumped, his aura stagnated, and his spiritual energy became as heavy as a mountain. He unknowingly sat down on the chair.

Chen Ping’an waved his sleeve, and the empty brush holder on the table flew towards Liu Mao. Liu Mao gently caught it. It was a yellow bamboo brush holder, with a bas-relief depicting a reclusive scholar amidst ancient pines, an old item from the palace.

Chen Ping’an walked towards the bookshelf, “I seem to recall that the monarch of a kingdom would unseal a jade-inlaid golden brush every year in the first month, to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new. Is something missing from this empty brush holder?”

Liu Mao said calmly, “If one is determined to find fault, one will always find a pretext. Sword Immortal Chen, this is enough. Since the situation is now in your favor, do as you please with my life.”

Liu Mao held the horsetail whisk in one hand and the brush holder in the other, and sneered, “Having cultivated the Daoist arts, even if one hasn’t yet mastered them, has one advantage: a tranquil mind. If Sword Immortal Chen’s visit to Yellow Flower Temple today is for the sake of violence and intimidation, then simply draw your sword. Let this poor Daoist experience once again the style of a Sword Immortal. It would also be good to show off to my two disciples, so they know their master’s cultivation is mediocre, his realm not high, but he once exchanged Daoist techniques with a Sword Immortal. Of course, on the condition that Sword Immortal Chen shows mercy, striking but not killing.”

Chen Ping’an looked around. From the lamp on the desk, the two scriptures, to the various objects including the calamus on the flower stand, he couldn’t find the slightest mystery. Chen Ping’an raised his sleeve, and a wick slowly separated from the lamp, scattering the flame, yet not drifting away, resembling a lantern placed on the table.

The two volumes of Daoist classics floated up, their pages slowly turning, the spiritual energy of the heavens and earth gathered around the temple, as dense as water, ripples rippling, slowly caressing the walls and ground.

As Chen Ping’an casually strolled through the room, the Yellow Court Scripture and the Scripture of the Flying Nymphs, the two scriptures floated in front of him, one on the left and one on the right, turning the pages on their own.

Liu Mao sighed softly, “Sword Immortal Chen is so suspicious, no wonder you were able to become such a young Sword Immortal.”

Chen Ping’an turned a deaf ear, walked to the bookshelf, the books tilted outwards, the pages rustling, the sound of books echoing in the room, like the sound of flowing streams.

Chen Ping’an lightly stroked the two scriptures that had been turned to the last page with two fingers, they floated back to the desk and slowly landed. He smiled, “A bookshelf full of books is true wealth, and a heart without worries is a true immortal. The wealth is real, this bookshelf of books cannot be bought with just a few snowflakes, as for immortals, forget it. At most, I am suspicious, but Your Highness must have a guilty conscience… This book is not commonly seen, and it is actually the official first edition and first engraving permitted by the Confucian Temple? Master of the Temple, may I borrow it for a read?”

Chen Ping’an put a copy of “Celestial Phenomena and Constellations” into his sleeve. Books involving celestial phenomena and geography were all classified as forbidden books by the imperial court, and private possession was not allowed among the common people.

Chen Ping’an stopped in front of the bookshelf. Inside the room there was no breeze, yet the books of the Daoist temple were still turning pages extremely fast. Chen Ping’an suddenly pressed his two fingers lightly against an ancient book, stopping the page turning. It was a set of ancient books that were not widely circulated down the mountain. Even in the book pavilions of the immortals on the mountain, they were mostly left to gather dust.

Because this set of “Master Heguanzi” are “lofty in words” but “grand and impractical”. The knowledge expounded in the book is too lofty, profound and obscure, and it is not some method of Qi refining that can be relied upon. Therefore, it has been reduced to a book purely used to decorate the facade by collectors in later generations. As for the authenticity of this Daoist classic, even two vice-leaders of the Confucian Temple inside the Confucian family quarreled over it, and they even exchanged letters and fought a pen war. However, later generations mostly regarded it as an apocryphal book.

Liu Mao glanced at the movement over there and sighed softly, “Weeping with sorrow, assisting in joy, strange spies stopping each other.”

Chen Ping’an sneered, “Didn’t it also teach your monarch the art of facing south? Why didn’t the Third Prince learn it well? So, it is not good for rich people to read too many books. The more principles they understand, the fewer principles they know.”

Chen Ping’an suddenly fell silent. There were several adjacent books on the bookshelf: “Sea Island Mathematical Manual”, “Detailed Explanations of Algorithms”, “Nine Chapters on Mathematical Art”…