Striving for Science C82

"Miscalculated?" Aunt Juan stared at a scroll of "Don't Be Angry" hanging on the wall, speechless for a long time before saying, "Master Yunfeng personally calculated it, there shouldn't be any mistakes."

So where exactly did the change occur?

The beast is bound, which is good for now. But Heavenly Dao is unpredictable. They were able to escape this time without knowing, but what about the future?

In the past year, the celestial phenomena have been changing from time to time. The masters in the Imperial Capital who rarely leave their mountains have been startled by these constantly changing celestial phenomena and have come out of seclusion.

***

"Great misfortune." On top of the tall golden roof, a master wearing a Taoist robe, his beard and hair all white, his face turned instantly yellow after casting a divination, and he looked like he was about to fall to the ground. Fortunately, the man standing behind him reached out to support him.

"Master, please take care of your health." Yunfeng and the man in the green robe helped the old man sit down.

"The beast's whereabouts are unknown, it should not be in the human realm, but..." The old man's voice was weak, he covered his chest and coughed violently, "Heavenly Dao is showing signs of change, I don't know if it's good or bad."

There are not many relevant records in ancient books, but when Heavenly Dao changes, there will definitely be major events.

Heavenly Dao changes, it sounds like a simple phrase, but how many living beings will be involved?

The old man closed his eyes wearily: "I am powerless."

"Master, although we are cultivators, we are all ordinary people under Heavenly Dao. You don't need to blame yourself." Yunfeng put a spirit pill into the old man's mouth, he looked up at the sky, the wind blowing his Taoist robe, "Heavenly Dao is heartless, but people have feelings. We will eventually find a glimmer of hope in every dead end."

"You are right." The old man grabbed Yunfeng's arm, his hand was very old, but when he grabbed Yunfeng's arm, he used a lot of strength, "We still have a glimmer of hope, I can't figure out what this hope is, but I vaguely see that this hope is located in the south, with mountains behind it and water on all sides."

South, mountains behind, water on all sides...

This range is too wide, many places in their country are mountainous and hilly terrain, just the Yangtze River and the Yellow River span multiple provinces, not to mention other rivers and lakes, where do they start looking?

Yunfeng gritted his teeth, ready to cast another divination to see if he could figure out where the hope the old man mentioned was.

"Daoist Yunfeng." The person next to him noticed Yunfeng's actions and quickly stopped him, "Daoist Yunfeng, don't be impulsive, you've been calculating frequently lately, I'm worried that it will harm your lifespan."

"If it can save more people from fire and water, I'll live a few years less, so be it." Yunfeng was quite open about it, "In the next life, I'll be a good man again."

"Not necessarily, maybe you'll be someone else's good daughter in your next life." Uncle Zhang grabbed Yunfeng and threw him next to Master Yan Yin, "Don't go around making trouble, things have already come to this point, no matter how much you calculate, it's useless. If things were that easy to solve, would Heaven still have any face?"

***

However, Heaven did not care about face, and was so angry that its features became blurred.

Dao Nian didn't expect the people online to be so sharp-tongued. He, who considered himself to be emotionally stable, smashed a mouse. Liu Mao silently handed him a new mouse, "Sir, don't pay too much attention to the online comments."

"I can ignore other things, but not Chang'an."

In various parts of the country, some netizens who had argued with Dao Nian discovered that it suddenly started raining outside their homes. On this day, many local weather forecasting agencies welcomed another wave of angry scolding from the public.

The relevant departments responsible for weather forecasting were also anxious. They didn't know what was going on recently. It was clear weather, but it would rain as soon as they said it would, without any warning, and it didn't follow the scientific rules of rainfall, leaving them baffled.

They even suspected that the satellite monitoring the clouds had malfunctioned. Why were there no cloud images captured above the rain-affected areas?

Until a notice came from above, saying that there were strange weather conditions recently, don't panic, and don't publicize it too much, just carry on as usual.

Anyway, the weather forecast has been scolded for so many years, being scolded again this year is still bearable.

While netizens across the country were still struggling in the rain, Shen Chang'an sat in Director Du's office, feeling his worldview crumble further. Their department spent all day promoting science and opposing superstition, yet the deputy director was a master, and the director seemed like a wise person who knew everything.

No wonder when he was transferred to Wuming City, everyone else was unaware of his past, but Director Du knew it all.

"Director, Aunt Juan, why would experts like you stay here?" Shen Chang'an looked at Gao Shujuan. "I heard the security department is short-staffed."

"Do you know how Wuming City got its name?" Du Zhonghai looked at Shen Chang'an.

Shen Chang'an shook his head.

"Legend has it that thousands of years ago, Wuming City was covered in vast stretches of phoenix trees. People saw a phoenix with bright golden light, and from then on, the city became Phoenix Island. Later, through the changes of time, it was renamed to its current name, Wuming City." Du Zhonghai looked at Shen Chang'an with an enigmatic expression, waiting for his shocked reaction.

"Dragons and phoenixes, every place has these kinds of legends. My mom's hometown has a mountain less than a kilometer high, and they insist there's a dragon in it, even naming it Dragon Mountain." Seeing Director Du's expression, Shen Chang'an realized his answer wasn't satisfactory, so he chuckled dryly, "Could there really be phoenixes in the world?"

"Perhaps there were once." Du Zhonghai shook his head. "As for now, well, sigh."

Okay, he understood. There weren't any now.

"Wuming City may seem ordinary, but it's a place with a very special geographical location." Du Zhonghai lowered his voice, stood up, took out a talisman, and stuck it on the door, whispering, "We speculate that immortals live among ordinary people here."

Shen Chang'an: "..."

"A small city like Wuming City, filled with spiritual energy, with traces of immortals, it's definitely not a simple place." Du Zhonghai said, "We want to know what exactly attracts the immortals."

"What, are you going to compete with them after you find out?" Shen Chang'an asked frankly, "Isn't that asking for trouble?

"Of course not competing with immortals for things, we just want to control these uncertainties." Du Zhonghai smiled helplessly, "Humanity itself is very weak. To live peacefully and happily on this land, we must continuously pass down culture and knowledge, we must be prepared for the unexpected, only then can we minimize all harm."

Humanity's ability to develop comes from a sense of crisis.

Shen Chang'an roughly understood what Director Du meant. There were always too many complex and unknown problems for humanity to solve, but every difficulty solved brought more security.

Director Du and Aunt Juan weren't unaware of this, they just couldn't remain indifferent.

"Since the beast has been subdued by the King of Hell, I'll report this matter." Aunt Juan's mood was a bit low, even the curls on her forehead seemed a bit listless.

"If you're worried, why don't we ask again?" Seeing Aunt Juan's cheerful smile replaced by worry, Shen Chang'an felt that these masters weren't easy either, constantly worrying about this and that, and they could only be nameless heroes.

"How do we ask?" Du Zhonghai and Gao Shujuan were both a bit taken aback.

"Just ask the King of Hell or the City God." Shen Chang'an said, "It's a matter concerning the people of the world, they should be willing to make a trip."

Gao Shujuan: "..."

Du Zhonghai: "..."

"Let's try it first, what if they're willing to help?" Shen Chang'an looked at the office environment, unable to be as meticulous as at Uncle Zhang's house, an altar might not be fully prepared, "Let's set up an altar and try?"

"Here... here?" Du Zhonghai twitched his mouth, suspecting his ears were playing tricks on him.

"The King of Hell isn't someone who cares about formalities." After the beast incident, Shen Chang'an had a good impression of the King of Hell. He said, "I'll go to the bathroom to freshen up."

"Alright." Gao Shujuan said, "I'll go prepare the things needed for the altar."

***

Ding Yang and the others were worried that Director Du and Aunt Juan would vent their anger on Shen Chang'an. Then they heard Aunt Juan tell them to go buy fruits and cooked beef and mutton, and they couldn't help but ask, "Aunt Juan, are we having a group meal in the department?"

"What gathering? Go take care of business first." Aunt Juan laughed and scolded, "All you think about is eating."

"People are iron, rice is steel, you'll be hungry if you don't eat for a meal, right?" Ding Yang saw that Aunt Juan's complexion had improved a lot, and he ran out of the office with a cheerful grin, shouting from afar, "Remember to reimburse us for this!"

Chen Panpan, wearing high heels, ran a little slower, and said with a dry laugh, "I'm going to buy some dried fruit."

Xu Ze sat as steady as a mountain. He took out his phone and called home, then said to Aunt Juan, "Aunt Juan, my family has a shop that sells roasted suckling pig. I've had someone send one over."

Aunt Juan was about to praise him when Xu Ze slowly said, "Please rest assured, I will try my best to get the internal price, and we won't charge our department's delivery fee."

Aunt Juan: "..."

Xu Ze saw Aunt Juan's expression and felt a little doubtful about what they were about to do. Aunt Juan and Director Du were usually very difficult to get into an argument over work matters. Now, they suddenly asked everyone to prepare these things. Shen Chang'an went into Director Du's office and didn't come out for a long time. When he came out, he washed his face and hands. This situation was very similar to his father's way of paying respects to his ancestors during the New Year.

The young man was quick on his feet, and the employees at Xu Ze's place were efficient, so they quickly got everything ready. Aunt Juan glanced at the three people squatting at the door, peeking in, and shut the door mercilessly.

"Aunt Juan, even if you're not going to share the roast pig, at least let us smell it!" Ding Yang leaned against the door, saying to Xu Ze, "No wonder this roast suckling pig shop is so expensive and still does such good business. It's because their food is so good."

"Thank you for the compliment." Xu Ze smiled modestly.

Ding Yang: "..."

"You two, stop it." Chen Panpan sniffed, frowning, "Can you smell that? A scent of incense?"

"Incense?" Ding Yang said nervously, "What are they doing in there?"

They're the Civil Service Department, you know? If people find out about this kind of activity, how can they educate others?

"Quiet down." Xu Ze looked at the window, where the curtains were swaying slightly, his expression serious.

The windows in the room were closed, there was no wind coming in, why were the curtains moving?

Also, isn't the temperature in the room getting colder?