The villain is right beside me

"This fate... the person is right in front of me... This fate... the person is right in front of me..." Yunxi muttered a few words for a long time, then smiled and said, "Boring."

Everyone was even more confused, and after listening for half a day, they finally said it was boring.

When Mu Qing saw her stand up and was about to leave, the old man smiled and said to Mu Qing, "Sir, why don't you take a test?"

Mu Qing dispelled his doubts, sat directly in front of him, and said: "Sir, you are quite capable. I almost believed what you said before."

"Oh? So you don't believe it?" said the old man.

Mu Qing smiled and said, "I've seen a lot of fortune-telling. How about you take a look at my face first? Then I'll tell you what you want to tell me."

“Sir, you have an extraordinary face. I see that you have a full forehead and a square chin…” The old man shook his head, his eyes shining, as if he was a poor man who suddenly met a big customer from whom he could extort a huge sum of money.

"......This is a person with the appearance of a dragon and a phoenix among men. In the court, he is an emperor, and in the rivers and lakes, he is a tyrant. His future is limitless." After listening to him halfway, Mu Qing continued to speak. They opened their mouths at the same time and closed their mouths at the same time. Their words were exactly the same, word for word. Even the exaggerated tone of exclamation and praise in the last sentence "his future is limitless" was so lifelike!

The old man suddenly burst into laughter: "Young Master, you are such an interesting person. I don't think there will be anyone like you in this world!"

Mu Qing was startled, and pointed at the words "face" written on the table, and said, "In this case, take a closer look at my face. I want to know... can I fulfill my wish?"

"Your face is interesting. I have seen many people and read their faces, but I have seen faces like yours before, but..." The old man's expression changed from relaxed to solemn. He looked at Mu Qing's face again, and the more he looked, the more doubtful he became. It was as if he had seen through the mask and saw Mu Qing's true face.

"Sir, please feel free to speak." Mu Qing took out ten taels of silver.

"You have sword-like eyebrows and bright eyes, and you look like a scholar, but you have the potential of a dragon. Your future is limitless, needless to say. What puzzles me the most is your fate."

Yunxi next to him stared at Mu Qing blankly.

"Young master, your nose bridge is broken and your golden pillar is missing, which means you will die young. I have also met people with a similar fate as you. Even if their ancestors have great merits and blessings, it would be difficult for them to live for more than ten years. You have already surpassed this limit, and eh?! This... this is really strange..." The old man said casually as he looked at the person, and was suddenly shocked by what he said!

“Looking like you, sir, you should have passed away more than 20 years ago. How come you are still alive in this world? This is not surprising, because if there is a master of Taoism who can perform magic, he can easily do it. But you actually…” Cold sweat dripped down the old man’s forehead.

Mu Qing frowned. What does this guy mean? Is he exaggerating?

"Young Master, your nose bridge is broken. People with this kind of physiognomy will die midway through their lives without fail. And Young Master, there is no sign that anyone has used any mysterious magic on you, yet you have lived to this day, and have such extraordinary abilities... Could it be that you have changed your fate, or that you are not in the destiny... This... This..."

As the old man spoke, he felt that what he said was really inexplicable and made no sense at all! But his years of experience in physiognomy would never be wrong, and he couldn't help but feel lost. He stared straight at Mu Qing's face, and his left hand kept pulling at his sparse whiskers, breaking several of them without noticing.

These words, which the old man himself thought were too absurd, sounded like thunderbolts in the clear sky to Mu Qing. Cold sweat dripped down his face!

The root of my mountain was broken, which should be the reason why I came into this world after falling off the cliff. But what did he mean? Did I die a long time ago?

"Sir?" Mu Qing tried to call him.

After a long time, the old man woke up from his confusion, his face was decadent. He said weakly: "It seems that I am still not very knowledgeable. Your peculiarity seems ordinary and magical, but it is hard to explain. I can't see through it, and I can't explain it. It seems that my fortune-telling reputation for many years has been ruined by you." There was an indescribable sense of despair in his words.

The people around him looked at the old man with a strange expression. Many people felt that he was talking nonsense, but Mu Qing had to admit that he was half right!

He is not from this world.

Mu Qing smiled and said, "It's okay, sir, you are a god. I just heard you predict two words. It really opened my eyes. May I know your name, sir?"

The old man was very pleased when he heard the steps ahead, and then he laughed, thinking that this guy was planning his steps. So he pondered for a while and said, "I am an idle person who has been away from the world for a long time... As for my name, it is just a nickname, so I won't mention it."

"The old gentleman must be a senior master. I am sorry for your disrespect." Mu Qing laughed and did not ask further questions: "Sir, you have mysterious means. Can you predict another word for me? Oh, but this is for others."

The old man was stunned, and said without thinking: "Young Master, do you want to have your fortune told? You must know that the word must be written by the person himself..."

Mu Qing knocked out another large piece of silver.

The old man chuckled and took out a banknote: "What do you want to test, young master?"

Mu Qing picked up the pen and said, "Identity!" He wrote the word "forget".

When the old man lowered his head and saw this word, his eyes suddenly lit up. When Mu Qing raised his eyes, he took a look and saw that the old man's eyes were so deep that he said that there were galaxies stretching across the universe.

There was a change in the old man's eyes when he looked at Mu Qing. Mu Qing only heard one sentence in his ear: "Who are you?" The voice was very low and very strange, and seemed very frightened and a little unbelievable.

Mu Qing didn't understand what the old man meant. Just as he was about to ask, he saw the old man suddenly smiled and waved his hand to everyone, saying, "I only test three people a day. You are breaking the rules."

"Sir, I will give you another sentence: If the heart is not dead, the Tao will not be born; if desire is not extinguished, the Tao will not exist."

Mu Qing was stunned for a moment. He closed his eyes and thought about it for a while before opening them. He found that the table and chairs opposite him were still there, but the person was gone.

"Where are the people?" Mu Qing discovered that neither the passers-by who had just watched nor the sign placed here seemed to exist. People were coming and going on the street, and no one noticed this place.

"Disappeared." Yunxi had a strange look on her face: "He just disappeared out of thin air, and I couldn't stop him."

Note that she said vanished out of thin air. No movement, no trace, just watching him disappear.

It can be seen that this person has extraordinary powers and even Yunxi can't do anything to him.

"What happened just now?" Yunxi asked curiously. From her perspective, when Mu Qing wrote the word "forget", the old man waved his hand and said something unexpected happened. She did not notice anything wrong with the old man's eyes, nor did she hear what the old man said.

It can be seen that the old man actually saw something, which is why he blurred it the first time.

Mu Qing thought carefully about every word the old man said. He seemed to understand something, but also seemed more confused. He stood up in bewilderment, as if he had a dream, and said, "Let's go."

Yunxi looked at his staggering body and frowned. She vaguely felt that Mu Qing's soul seemed to have left his body in an instant, but came back the next instant. It was so brief that it made her feel a little confused.

The two found an inn to stay in. Finally, at the second watch that night, Mu Qing asked about Lao Wang, but he seemed to have disappeared and did not answer.

Until dawn, Lao Wang was still silent, and Mu Qing didn't ask him anything. Yunxi came and said that he had arranged some connections for him and allowed him to enter the court and become an official.

The real great hermits are those who hide in the court, get along with everyone, do not show off, act in a low-key yet indispensable manner.

Mu Qing never understood why she insisted on staying in seclusion from the court, but he didn't ask too many questions. A few days later, he took part in the imperial examination under the name "Niu Daben".

Why do I still have to take exams even though I'm already cultivating immortality?!

Mu Qing sat in front of the desk, with walls blocking his way on both sides. It was of no use to him who had spiritual awareness. After receiving the paper, he was not in a hurry to answer it. He kept thinking about a sentence in his mind.

After a long time, Mu Qing wrote his name without moving a single stroke. Soon after, his paper was taken away, but he did not stand up immediately.

If the heart dies, the person dies. If the person dies, how can the Tao exist? The purpose of practicing Taoism is to achieve immortality. If the heart is dead, what is the point of practicing Taoism?

The heart dies and the Tao is born, isn’t this a contradiction?

Perhaps this "Tao" is the Great Dao, which always exists between heaven and earth. If one wants to realize the Dao, one must die in the heart? Desires must be extinguished?

Or does this death have some other meaning?

At this time, someone knocked on his desk, and Mu Qing woke up and left the examination room.

Even after he went back, he kept thinking.

The old man asked himself who he was at that time? If he saw something from the word "forget", did he know my secret? Then this question was not directed to me, but to Lao Wang?

"Hey! You haven't eaten or drunk for a whole day! What are you thinking about? The results are announced!" Yunxi tapped his head and took him to see the list. Sure enough, the second place on the list was the name "Niu Daben".

"Why can't you choose a good name... Niu Daben, I am handsome, elegant, and handsome..."

"Hehe, do you think I don't want to give you a good name? Do you know how hard it is for me to find you an identity?" On the way here, Yunxi kidnapped a scholar with no background and no identity, forced him to reveal his identity, ancestral home, family background, etc., made him rich and powerful, and then let him go.

Mu Qing wanted to cry but had no tears.

"Now that you have become a juren and a master, you can serve as an official in the court. Can you buy some property and a house?" Yunxi found him an identity. He lost his parents in childhood, his wife in middle age, and took exams for ten years. All his property and private land were sold. It can be said that he was penniless.

At this time, a eunuch came over and announced that those who passed the imperial examination would go to the palace to meet the emperor tomorrow so that everyone could get to know each other.

Some people saw Mu Qing's poor appearance, but they did not despise him. They congratulated him, and some asked if he had a wife. Some asked where he lived. Some praised him constantly, and some flattered him.

The third and first place also came up and called each other "brother".

At this moment, Mu Qing felt quite touched. Somehow, a text he learned when he was a child suddenly popped into his mind.