I have a Taoist temple that connects me to other worlds

“Uncle Emperor…”

Li Xiangyue looked at the disheveled figure in the prison cart, utterly astonished.

She would never forget that face, a member of the royal family, a king who ruled over a fiefdom—the Marquis of Pingnan.

The Marquis of Pingnan was the current Emperor's younger brother, and it was said that he had once been a step away from the throne.

Later, for some unknown reason, he gave up the throne, which was then taken by the current Emperor.

The Marquis of Pingnan's fiefdom was in the South, a land of abundance.

Among the royal princes, the Marquis of Pingnan was the most powerful.

From a very young age, Li Xiangyue had learned from her father that the Marquis of Pingnan had always disliked the current Holy Emperor and often opposed him.

However, the Emperor cherished their brotherly bond and had never made things difficult for the Marquis of Pingnan.

Even during the Marquis of Pingnan's most lawless times, the Holy Emperor had only issued edicts of condemnation and had not taken any punitive measures against him.

She had always thought that the Marquis of Pingnan was different from other members of the extended royal family, and that the Emperor would never make things difficult for him.

But she never imagined that she would see the Marquis of Pingnan in a prison cart, looking so disheveled with his hair unkempt.

“Even Uncle Emperor has been captured and brought to the Imperial Capital, could it be that Brother Jiang's guesses are true… The Emperor, he wants to drink the blood of his own family…” A terrifying thought surfaced in Li Xiangyue's mind, and her face turned deathly pale.

Such a speculation was simply too terrifying, and she couldn't bring herself to believe it.

However, now that even the Marquis of Pingnan had been captured, it was hard to say whether the Emperor would still consider their blood ties.

“No, I have to go and see.” Li Xiangyue watched the prison cart disappear into the distance, and she inexplicably thought of her mother and sisters.

A thought popped into her head, and she paid the bill, left the silver, and got up to leave.

She followed the prison cart all the way, perfectly blending her figure into the crowd.

When the prison cart entered a sparsely populated alley, Li Xiangyue took out a large cloak to cover herself.

The moment she put on the cloak, her presence vanished.

This was a life-saving treasure that Jiang Wen had given her, called the Hundredfold Concealment Cloak.

It was said that this item was made from the whiskers of a true dragon, and wearing it could conceal one's aura and hide one's form.

Only a True Person in the Dao Palace Realm had a chance of seeing through the disguise.

Ordinary mortals and Life Fire cultivators would not be able to sense the wearer's existence.

Jiang Wen had accidentally refined this treasure, so he gave it to Li Xiangyue as a life-saving tool.

Wearing the Hundredfold Concealment Cloak, Li Xiangyue followed the prison cart to a mysterious place.

As soon as she stepped through the gate, she felt a chill.

Within this courtyard surrounded by high walls, there were densely packed black houses.

Countless black-armored soldiers were stationed everywhere, guarding this vast courtyard tightly.

Following behind the black-armored cavalrymen, Li Xiangyue quickly arrived in front of a detached house.

She tried to walk in, and the scene she saw at first glance shocked her.

“Imperial Concubine Mother…” she whispered.

…

Leaving aside Li Xiangyue's infiltration into a mysterious place where members of the Li Imperial Clan were imprisoned, Jiang Wen had once again begun a trial.

When Jiang Wen opened his eyes, he was sitting in the cold duty room, the leather armor of the prison guard digging into his shoulders.

The oil lamp reflected on the register on the table, the words “Death Row Prisoner” marked in cinnabar were glaring.

Outside the window, cries and wails echoed, and the prison held more than three hundred displaced people suffering from the plague.

He knew that this was another trial, but he didn't know what this trial was testing.

“Chief Chen, the Prefect has sent a message.” A handyman, shrinking his neck, handed over an official document.

“Before midnight tonight,” he gestured with a throat-slitting motion.

Jiang Wen patrolled the prison with a lantern, and the stench of decay hit his face.

In the deepest part of the prison cell was a scholar, the festering wound on his wrist vaguely showing the talisman of the Way of Peace.

“Your Honor, please be aware!” The scholar lunged at the bars, “This student was only drawing Rebirth Talismans for the plague-stricken villagers!”

At the third watch, Jiang Wen stood in front of the dungeon gate.

His left hand held a bucket of kerosene, and his right hand clutched a prescription taken from the apothecary's house.

The Prefect's deadline was approaching.

If he opened the gate to save the people, the entire city might be infected; if he set fire to the prison, three hundred innocent souls would never be reincarnated.

As the clepsydra dripped to its end, he unhesitatingly smashed open the medicine storehouse and threw rhubarb, Atractylodes, and other medicinal materials into the well.

When the festering skin of the plague victims touched his arm, golden lines quietly crawled up his neck—this was the backlash of miasma that the mortal body could not withstand.

Seven days later, Jiang Wen collapsed in front of the Prison God Temple.

The apothecary's apprentice, whom he had protected in his arms, was delivering medicine from house to house, and the “Plague Prevention Measures” that the scholar had carved with his last breath covered the long street.

In the crude pottery bowl offered by the people, a fragment of jade given by a prisoner on his deathbed glowed faintly.

…

Golden light flashed, and faint words echoed in his ears.

When Jiang Wen opened his eyes again, he had come to another world.

In a smoky workshop, Jiang Wen's thumb calluses rubbed against the carpenter's square.

He was the leader of the craftsmen building the imperial mausoleum, and at this moment he was staring blankly at the topographical map—according to the blueprints given by the Imperial Astronomical Bureau, the aqueduct would pass through the fishing village eighteen miles away.

“Foreman Jiang, this is the hard-earned money from the Ministry of Works.” The scribe pushed over a sandalwood box, with gold ingots pressing down on the revised map, “It's just moving three miles, those commoners' broken houses…”

On a stormy night, Jiang Wen ran barefoot through the muddy field ridges.

He carried the village's land deeds in his arms, with the torches of the Ministry of Works' pursuers behind him.

The old fisherman stuffed his grandson into his arms: “Take the child and go! Our ancestral graves are here, we will die here…”

When lightning split the darkness, Jiang Wen swung his axe and cut off the dragon vein stake of the imperial mausoleum.

The flood washed away the newly built altar and also protected the village's ancestral hall.

After that day, Jiang Wen did not escape.

He allowed the officials to arrest him and entered that inescapable prison.

On the day of the autumn execution, the old and young of the fishing village knelt on the long street.

Jiang Wen looked at the executioner's ghost-headed knife and thought of the unfinished aqueduct blueprints.

When blood splattered on the white silk, the ink line in his arms popped out half an inch, pointing straight at the sky.

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…

Six trials, six lifetimes.

When Jiang Wen stood in front of the bluestone giant wall again, it seemed that a long time had passed.

The sea of clouds remained, and he smiled.

He simply opened his palm, and a golden key slowly entered his hand.

He had passed the nine trials of the Tai Divine Secret Vault.

“These nine trials of the Tai Divine Secret Vault are truly remarkable.” Jiang Wen sighed.

Although it was only a moment in reality, he had experienced nine lifetimes.

Upright heart, understanding the Way.

Now he had gained some insights.

His originally solid realm had faintly loosened, and his ascension to the realm of a sage might not be far off.

“Let me see what treasures are inside this Tai Divine Secret Vault.” Jiang Wen raised the key and inserted it into the bluestone wall, and the stone wall shone brightly with blue light.

The hundred-zhang giant wall slowly turned into nothingness.

Before his eyes was a rainbow bridge ten thousand zhang long, with a sea of clouds churning beneath it.

Jiang Wen walked onto the rainbow bridge, and trillions of rays of light poured out.

The sea of clouds churned before his eyes, and seventy-two white jade floating islands hung in the sky.

The islands were connected by colorful glazed fairy bridges, and the bridge bodies flowed with molten gold refined from stars.

In the center of the distant main island stood a towering Star Tower, its tip piercing through the nine layers of the sky, shining with the sun and moon.

The palaces on the floating islands were all made of ten-thousand-year-old cold jade, and the eaves were hung with silver river-condensed ornaments.

When the breeze blew, it played the sound of the Great Dao of heaven and earth.

The pillars were coiled with lifelike five-clawed golden dragons, and the East Sea pearls inlaid in the dragon's eyes reflected the stars of the heavens.

When the dragon's whiskers swayed gently in the wind, they scattered fine star sand.

Two Qilin jade statues stood in front of the main hall, and the purple flame lamps in their mouths had been burning for three thousand years without extinguishing.

In the firelight, the afterimages of the Tai Divine Palace True People of past generations comprehending the Dao were faintly visible.

Seven silver rivers hung down from the top of the Star Tower, and the water droplets splashed on the edge of the floating islands, turning into spiritual mist.

Hundred-zhang green phoenixes shuttled through the mist, and their wings brought up brilliant light rain when they flapped.

Under the fairy bridge, koi carp leaped out of the water and transformed into dragons, their roars shattering the flowing clouds, revealing the thirty-three alchemy pavilions hidden behind the clouds, and the glow emitted from the alchemy furnaces dyed half of the sky crimson gold.

On the floating island on the east side, ten thousand spiritual swords were inserted into the meteorite iron hills, and the bells tied to the sword tassels rang without wind, playing celestial music.

On the floating island on the west side, nine hundred bronze cauldrons were displayed.

The central Star Platform was crystal clear, and the ground was inlaid with a whole piece of Big Dipper Star Marrow.

The flowing Qi of Chaos was sealed in the Star Marrow, sometimes turning into mountains and rivers, and sometimes condensing into urban scenes.

When Jiang Wen stepped onto the Star Platform, a ten-thousand-mile landscape map suddenly unfolded under his feet.

The dragon vein of the Imperial Capital transformed into a golden-scaled swimming dragon under his feet, with each dragon scale engraved with the town-country incantation secretly passed down by the Tai Divine Palace.

The clouds suddenly parted to both sides, revealing a golden body Dharma figure suspended above the sky.

The thousand-zhang phantom held the sun and moon in its hands, and the Milky Way was wrapped around its hair.

When it opened its mouth, its voice was like a grand bell: “He who sees this secret treasure shall bear the heart of heaven and earth.”

Before the words could finish, all the floating islands lit up with runes at the same time, and the Nine Heavens Cloud Realm completely awakened.

Spiritual Qi condensed into solid golden lotuses, blooming one after another at his feet.