Chapter 399: Chapter 223: The Top Dog Among Tigers: Gu Yuanzhang
"Elder!" a few of the Daoists called out hesitantly, their reluctance clear.
Lu Yuan patted the dust from his pants without looking up. "What? Is there a problem?"
"Of course, of course not!" the leading Eldest Senior Brother said with a laugh.
"Alright then," Lu Yuan said sarcastically, "we’ll be taking these four chestnut horses. You don’t all need to guide us. The rest of you can go get busy. Go on, go grab your loot."
The three Daoists laughed awkwardly. They felt wronged but had no way to vent their frustration. With forced smiles, they said, "Elder, we won’t dare do it again."
Lu Yuan, Su Liyan’s mother, and two trusted retainers swung themselves onto their horses.
Three Daoists on horseback led the way.
The Eldest Senior Brother shouted, "The rest of you, run back and prepare for a lecture."
"Yes, Eldest Senior Brother!" the four remaining Daoists replied, cupping their hands in a salute.
The group shouted, "Hiyah!"
They slapped the horses’ rumps and galloped toward Le Shen Temple.
「After roughly half an hour.」
Lu Yuan and his party arrived a hundred meters from the gates of Le Shen Temple, stopping a short distance from the Daoist temple.
All riders were required to dismount a hundred meters from the Daoist Temple’s entrance.
The Eldest Senior Brother dismounted, took the reins of Lu Yuan’s horse, and said, "Elder, Le Shen Temple is just ahead!"
Lu Yuan leaped gracefully from his horse.
Su Liyan’s mother dismounted on her own.
Seeing this, the two retainers also dismounted. They took hold of the reins for their own horses and Su Liyan’s mother’s, worried the animals might run wild and disturb the Daoist Holy Land.
This Le Shen Temple wasn’t located on a mountain, but right inside the Imperial City.
Of course, the temple wasn’t in the city center. But even tucked away in a corner, it occupied a vast area.
Otherwise, the Daoist Temple couldn’t possibly house so many deities.
Both Le Shen Temple and the Celestial Dynasty Palace possessed door plaques bestowed by the Emperor himself, a sign of their illustrious status.
Lu Yuan and Su Liyan’s mother walked in the lead, with the Daoists following behind them.
They covered the hundred-meter distance in just a few minutes.
Even from outside the Daoist Temple, Lu Yuan could already see its resplendent, golden-tiled halls.
Lu Yuan marveled internally. ’A Royal Daoist Temple... they’re certainly loaded. So grand. It’s much larger than Guyang Temple.’
Then he looked at the plaque above the main gate, which bore four large, golden words: "Dao Suppresses Heaven and Earth."
Lu Yuan gazed at the plaque, read it aloud softly, and nodded. "Not bad, not bad at all."
Although Lu Yuan was no expert in calligraphy, he could tell the four words weren’t particularly well-written. ’I could probably write something like that myself,’ he thought.
The only reason these four unimpressive words were hanging above the main gate was entirely due to the large, red seal stamped by their author.
A plaque bestowed by the Emperor, emanating the karmic fortune of a Dragon Emperor, was enough to intimidate all the world’s villains and was impervious to all arts.
As long as the national fortune of the Divine Ling Empire held, the Emperor’s Dragon Emperor fortune would persist. No matter if you were a Da Xingzi with hundreds or even thousands of years of cultivation, you wouldn’t be able to take a single step into the Imperial City.
Such was the majesty of an Emperor!
Lu Yuan made to walk into the temple.
Two Daoist Children at the temple gate blocked Lu Yuan’s path. "Patron," one said, "this is a Royal Daoist Temple. It is not open to the public today. Those without an invitation are asked to return another day to pay their respects."
The Eldest Senior Brother shot out from behind Lu Yuan and scolded them, "Show some respect! Now move!"
The two Daoist Children were of low status, little more than gatekeepers.
Upon seeing Daoist Wang, the head disciple of the third generation of their own temple, they knew better than to argue and quickly stepped aside.
Daoist Wang said, "Elder, after you."
Guided by the Daoists, Lu Yuan’s party was led to the reception hall of Le Shen Temple.
The Eldest Senior Brother, Daoist Wang, arranged for Lu Yuan and Su Liyan’s mother to be seated. The two retainers stood at attention on either side of Lu Yuan, slightly behind him.
The Eldest Senior Brother, Daoist Wang, bowed at the waist and said, "Elder, please wait a moment. I will go and fetch my master."
Lu Yuan picked up a teacup from the table and took a sip. "Mm, not bad. Pre-Qingming Yuhua tea."
Enshi Yulu, Xinyang Maojian, Top Grade Golden Bud... Lu Yuan had drunk them all.
There were no carbonated beverages in this era. A good cup of tea was far more delicious than any modern concoction.
Hearing her son-in-law’s praise, she raised her own teacup for a sip. ’Mm, not bad,’ she thought. ’It’s tea.’
Su Liyan’s mother wasn’t a tea connoisseur. The only distinctions she could make were between green tea, black tea, and oolong tea; identifying the specific varietal was impossible for her.
A moment later, several middle-aged Daoists entered through a rear door of the reception hall.
Lu Yuan and Su Liyan’s mother rose to their feet. Su Liyan’s mother pressed her palms together in a devout gesture of respect.
The middle-aged Daoists glanced at Su Liyan’s mother. ’Oh? A member of the Half-demon Race?’ one thought.
But seeing her devout and respectful gesture, the middle-aged Daoists didn’t want to be impolite and returned the salute.
The head disciple of the third generation, Daoist Wang, made the introduction. "Master, this is Elder Lu. He holds a Daoist Elder Order."
The leader, an old man with a white beard, swept his duster to the side, stepped forward, and bowed. "Fellow Daoist, may I see the Daoist Elder Order?"
Without wasting words, Lu Yuan pulled a square, golden token from his robes and handed it over.
The white-bearded old man held it, turning it over several times in his hand. He confirmed it was genuine—one of the three legendary tokens passed down by Sect Ancestor Zhang Daoling.
The Three Ancestors of Taoism—Ancestor Yellow Emperor, Daoist Ancestor Laozi, and Sect Ancestor Zhang Daoling—had each left behind three such tokens. Currently, the whereabouts of only seven were known; the other two had been missing for over a century.
The other Daoists who had arrived with the white-bearded old man were also stunned to see the token.
One of them had even seen Lu Yuan spar with a disciple from the Celestial Dynasty Palace on the Northern battlefields. Even back then, Lu Yuan possessed the strength to force a retreat from the youngest prodigy of the Celestial Dynasty Palace’s second generation.
Su Liyan’s mother took the opportunity to get a clear look at the square, golden token in her son-in-law’s hand. She grumbled to herself, ’That girl... Her husband obtained such a token and didn’t even say a word to me, her own mother! This is an immense honor!’
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