Chapter 29 Deception

  Tong Guan became excited: "The immortal master said, the immortal master said..."

  Wen Fei faintly shook his head: "Heaven's secret cannot be revealed!" He was deeply in love with this phrase, it was absolutely the best choice for pretending to be mysterious.

  In fact, Tong Guan is a deep and profound person who has experienced many storms. He has seen even more people pretending to be gods, so he was not someone who easily believed in things.

  However, this time he supervised the northwest and came to see Wen Fei in order to please Song Huizong. Originally, he had some doubts about what Zhang Shu Ye said in his memorial. Although he did not believe that Zhang Shu Ye had such a big nerve to deceive the emperor with this kind of joke. But what Zhang Shu Ye said was extremely absurd and made people dare not believe it.

  It wasn't until he came over early in the morning that Wen Fei was not startled, but when Zhang Shu Ye took him to see the traces of the car bomb explosion, he was stunned.

  Although it has been so long, the traces of the explosion that day are still clear. A huge deep pit, a range of tens of meters of charred black, and the wreckage of the truck left over from the explosion, all deeply shocked Tong Guan. This is why he personally brought the basin to wash his face!

  So with all this, Wen Fei's words would be taken so seriously by Tong Guan. If someone else had said these things, they would have been dragged out and executed long ago without a second word from Tong Guan.

  "Master Xian, this must not be spread around!" Tong Guan felt a bit embarrassed. He had just been appointed as the supervisor of the northwest region and hadn't achieved any great merit or harbored grand ambitions. Regarding Wen Fei's "prophecy", he was both terrified and thrilled!

  Wen Fei burst out laughing: "Don't worry, I naturally won't speak nonsense. Brother Zhang definitely won't either!"

  Tong Guan looked at Zhang Shu Ye with his eyes, and Zhang Shu Ye was shocked in his heart, but he quickly nodded without falling. Compared to Tong Guan, Zhang Shu Ye had more confidence in Wen Fei. It's worth knowing that after knowing Wen Fei for so long, Wen Fei was almost invincible, and had already made Zhang Shu Ye's confidence in him almost burst!

  Tong Guan was shocked in his heart, but for Wen Fei, the two were even closer. It's like going to a brothel together, which can make everyone's relationship more intimate, and sharing some secrets can also make everyone's relationship more intimate.

  Tong Guan originally came because Song Huizong valued Wen Fei, and he hurried to make a show of it for Song Huizong's sake. Of course, it wasn't sincere service to Wen Fei, but rather a very clever form of flattery. Naturally, Wen Fei wouldn't be foolish enough to let Tong Guan actually serve him in washing up, although he did want to try the taste of having a great treacherous eunuch from history wash his face.

  But thinking of Li Bai's past experience, it's better to forget about this matter! In the past, Li Bai was pleased for a moment, letting Gao Lishi remove his boots and Yang Guifei grind ink for him. Although he enjoyed himself at that time, he was resented by others. No matter how great Li Bai's reputation was, he still couldn't stay in Chang'an and had to wander around the world in a dejected manner?

  So Wen Fei suppressed this impulse and randomly wiped his face. But then he heard Tong Guan still pretending to say: "Looking at the immortal master, our family has said that we have come to serve..."

  After Wen Fei finished washing up, the three of them arrived at Zhang Shibo's big tent and sat down properly. Tong Guan then took out a scroll and said with a smile: "This is an imperial edict for Master Wenshen!"

  As soon as Wen Fei heard the emperor's decree, wasn't that an imperial edict? He was suddenly shocked and hesitated about whether to learn from TV dramas, kneel down on the ground, and shout: "Long live the Emperor, long live, long live!"

  But Zhang Shu did not kneel down, and Tong Guan also had a relaxed face, directly handing over the scroll.

  Is that it? Wen Fei was shocked, thinking it would be like in the TV shows, with incense and fresh flowers first. Then the imperial envoy would read out the sacred decree, while the recipient knelt on the ground to listen. Who knew it would be so casual, handing over the decree himself, leaving Wen Fei feeling utterly bewildered!

  But it is not known that the etiquette of the Song Dynasty was simple, and generally when meeting the emperor, it was just a bow and courtesy. As for kneeling down to see the emperor, or even kneeling in front of things used by the emperor, this disgusting thing only existed after the Ming and Qing dynasties!

  Moreover, what Wen Fei is holding now can't be considered an imperial edict. In the Tang and Song dynasties, only after being signed by the prime minister and checked by those officials in charge of reviewing imperial orders, following formal procedures, could it be called an imperial edict. The emperor's private instructions were not considered official imperial edicts, and court ministers did not recognize them, they had no legal effect! That's why Tong Guan and Zhang Shu Ye looked so relaxed.

  Wen Fei didn't know this principle and was puzzled in his heart. He opened the scroll to take a look, and he was thoroughly stunned. Although it was all traditional characters on top, he could still understand them, at least by guessing and estimating roughly. Originally, he thought that the imperial edict was written with flying rhetoric, but unexpectedly, it was written like plain language! It's just that he heard Zhang Shuye say that Wen Fei was a man of high virtue and unparalleled magical power. He was very eager to meet Wen Fei and so on. As for those official titles and wishes, not a single word was mentioned!

  Tong Guan was a man of discerning taste, and upon observing Wen Fei's countenance, he noticed that it didn't look too good. He couldn't help but smile as he explained: "Master Wenshen, don't be annoyed. You've achieved such great merit! With the boundless power of the law, you've incinerated so many Western Xia people in one fell swoop. The imperial court and the officials will naturally not forget this achievement..."

  "The immortal master was punished for this matter and cannot return to the Upper Realm..." Zhang Shuye helped Wen Fei speak, telling Tong Guan how Wen Fei had used forbidden magic to help the Song Dynasty defeat the Western Xia, resulting in punishment from the higher-ups and being demoted to suffer. In fact, Wen Fei only vaguely mentioned a few words, while the rest was filled in by Zhang Shuye's imagination.

  Tong Guan listened and stood up with respect, saying: "I will thank the noble teacher on behalf of the official family!"

  Wen Fei waved his hand with a carefree expression, saying: "It's not a big deal anyway, I've got someone above me too. Let's just consider it a trip to relax and travel!"

  Tong Guan was even more impressed, first by Wen Fei's magnanimity and secondly because he had someone backing him up. He couldn't help but wonder who the powerful figure was behind Wen Fei.

  At this time, the Heavenly Court had just appeared. The Jade Emperor was also recognized as a relative by Song Zhenzong only decades ago. At this time, the gods worshipped by the official sacrifices of the Great Song changed from time to time, but they could not escape Haotian, Wufang Sheng, Ganshengdi, Riyue Xingzhushuai, and Shankan Dizhu.

  In China, from beginning to end, the highest and greatest god has always been Haotian. Until the Qing dynasty, the highest god worshipped by the imperial court was also Haotian. I still remember that in the book written by Er Yue He for Kangxi Emperor's stele, there is such a scene: "Your minister governs the mountains and rivers, Aixinjueluo Xuanye respectfully informs Haotian Shangdi..."

  As for Zhenwu Dadi, he was a rising deity at that time and did not have the same importance as later on. Tong Guan thought for half a day but still couldn't figure it out!

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