Chapter 587: Summoning the Embroidered Uniform Guard
Li Daoxuan, seeing that they had stopped moving, switched his Co-sensing. With a whoosh, his consciousness returned to the test-01 body.
The moment he returned, he heard the restaurant server's voice: "Sir, sir... please don't scare me, sir... just move a little."
He turned his head and saw a server standing before him, a look of terror on his face. Only when he saw Li Daoxuan's head move did the server let out a sigh of relief. "Phew, sir, you finally moved. You've been sitting here for so long, you scared me half to death."
Li Daoxuan replied, "I was contemplating life. Why are you making such a fuss?"
The server, feeling utterly overwhelmed, said, "All the dishes you ordered... they've gone completely cold..."
Li Daoxuan waved a hand. "It's alright. Take all these dishes out and give them to the poor people in the alley next door. I'm quite full after my period of contemplation."
The server was speechless.
Li Daoxuan cheerfully picked up his birdcage and ambled down from the restaurant. He watched as the server poured the leftover food into basins and distributed it to the refugees in the nearby alley. Only then did he leisurely make his way back to the Celestial Fertilizer shop.
At this moment, Padi Tu and Wang Tang were out acquiring property and were not present. Only Zheng Gouzi and the other brothers were guarding the shop. Li Daoxuan beckoned, and Zheng Gouzi immediately scurried over eagerly. "What are your commands, Heavenly Lord?"
Zheng Gouzi cupped his hands and promptly departed.
Before long, Wu Shen and Shi Kefa both arrived.
The two high officials were in good spirits. As soon as they arrived, they saw the Celestial Fertilizer shop operating as usual, with farmers queuing up to buy fertilizer for immediate use as soon as spring arrived. Some farmers had even bought it to lay down as base fertilizer during winter plowing.
With the recent rains and snow, next year was sure to bring a bountiful harvest.
Upon seeing Li Daoxuan, Wu Shen cupped his hands and chuckled, "Master Li, it's truly thanks to your people guarding the Celestial Fertilizer shop. The Prince of Qin's estate's men aren't causing trouble anymore, ha ha ha."
Shi Kefa also smiled.
However, Li Daoxuan spread his hands. "You two won't be smiling for long."
Wu Shen blinked. "What?"
Shi Kefa's face stiffened.
Li Daoxuan took out a map of Xi'an Prefecture and pointed to a patch of woods where the Prince of Qin's estate's deadly assassins were hiding. "According to my intelligence, the Prince of Qin's estate has laid an ambush here to intercept and kill our Celestial Fertilizer transport team."
At his words, both Wu Shen and Shi Kefa gasped simultaneously, as if all the air had suddenly been sucked from the room.
Wu Shen's expression darkened. "Is this intelligence reliable?"
Li Daoxuan merely smiled without a word.
Zheng Gouzi, however, snorted. "You two sirs still haven't quite grasped the Heavenly... *ahem*... Master Li's capabilities. His intelligence is never mistaken."
Wu Shen's brows furrowed deeply.
Shi Kefa said in a low voice, "I'll immediately summon the Embroidered Uniform Guard."
"That's more like it," Li Daoxuan chuckled. "Constables or local garrison troops are useless against the Prince of Qin's estate. Only the Embroidered Uniform Guard will do."
Wu Shen, feeling a heavy burden, asked, "Sir Shi, can the Embroidered Uniform Guard be relied upon? Since the Eunuch Party fell, both the Embroidered Uniform Guard and the Eastern and Western Depots have waned in influence. Their strength isn't what it used to be, is it? I haven't even seen you summon them to protect the Celestial Fertilizer shop."
Shi Kefa gritted his teeth. "For something like protecting the Celestial Fertilizer shop, I didn't dare casually deploy the Embroidered Uniform Guard. I feared the Emperor would blame me for making a mountain out of a molehill, using them to bully a princely estate, which would only benefit the Prince of Qin's estate. But if the Prince of Qin's estate truly dispatches assassins disguised as bandits, that's a major incident. Deploying the Embroidered Uniform Guard is completely justified. And don't you underestimate our Embroidered Uniform Guard; dealing with a mere handful of the Prince of Qin's estate's personal guards is no problem at all."
Wu Shen nodded. "Good. Then I'll await your good news. Remember to capture them alive; don't kill them all."
Shi Kefa nodded. "Your subordinate naturally understands that."
Having settled their discussion, the two officials cupped their hands to Li Daoxuan. "Thank you, Master Li, for providing this intelligence. Next, we'll need the Li family to cooperate in a little performance."
Li Daoxuan smiled. "Of course. Gouzi."
Zheng Gouzi stepped forward. "Present!"
Li Daoxuan instructed, "Get ready. Our Celestial Fertilizer is almost sold out. The convoy will return to Chengcheng County to fetch several dozen more carts of fertilizer."
Zheng Gouzi replied, "Will do."
Everyone went to their posts, attending to their respective duties.
Li Daoxuan was idle once more. This time, he didn't need to sit outside the Prince of Qin's estate. He simply lay down comfortably in the Celestial Fertilizer shop, then initiated his Co-sensing. With a whoosh, his consciousness leapt out... Let's see how many mediums there were in Xi'an city for him to Co-sense with.
The next instant, he found himself in a bookstore. Quite a few copies of "The Tale of Dao Xuan Tian Zun Exterminating Demons" were already for sale, and books like "Soaring High" and "Treading Through the Firmament" had also arrived.
With another jump, he found himself on a rich young lady's handkerchief. There was a piece of Chengcheng embroidery on it, and the Heavenly Lord was embroidered right there. The young lady was reaching out to touch the Heavenly Lord. "Oh, the embroidery from Chengcheng is truly exquisite."
Li Daoxuan intently perceived the sensation: the young lady's soft, delicate hand. *Not bad, not bad.*
With another leap, he found himself in a slum. There was a half-height clay sculpture of Dao Xuan Tian Zun, but its face was poorly carved, quite abstract. The moment Li Daoxuan Co-sensed into it, he felt as if he had a crooked mouth. *A Crooked-Mouth Dragon King?*
A group of poor people were kneeling before the crooked-mouthed Heavenly Lord, begging for something.
Another jump...
Suddenly, Li Daoxuan's vision brightened. He appeared inside a building filled with lit candles, and the furnishings within made him exclaim in surprise.
It wasn't a Chinese style!
It was Western style!
This was a Western church.
*In Xi'an city, there's actually a Western church?*
Li Daoxuan was greatly surprised. He looked more closely and realized he had Co-sensed onto a small clay statue of the Heavenly Lord. This statue was also very abstract; its facial features bore no resemblance to his own. It was placed on a table, and a middle-aged man in a Chinese robe and a missionary were both observing the statue, one after the other.
Li Daoxuan wondered in amazement: *Who are this middle-aged man and missionary? Why are they staring at me?*
He heard the missionary, speaking in broken Chinese, ask, "Sir Wang, is this the Dao Xuan Tian Zun who has recently arrived in Xi'an?"
So the middle-aged man in the Chinese robe was Sir Wang. He nodded. "Father Jin Nige, this 'immortal' called Dao Xuan Tian Zun is not a Daoist deity at all. It is very likely a false god of some heretical cult. Its spread, however, is incredibly fast. The moment it reached Xi'an, it began to proliferate rapidly, far faster than Catholicism."
Li Daoxuan heard the keywords "Sir Wang" and "Father Jin Nige," which made things easy. He immediately switched his consciousness back outside the box, opened the internet, and entered those two keywords to search...
Father Jin Nige's name, Li Daoxuan had only heard the pronunciation, not knowing the exact characters. But that was not a big problem. Searching using the Pinyin "jinnige," combined with keywords like "Xi'an," "Wang," and "Catholicism," would make the search much easier.
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