Three months had passed in the blink of an eye.
As the year-end lunar month approached, the Divine Pivot Institute's Fengtian Order began to align with the climate changes, bringing down auspicious snow across Great Yong to ensure a better harvest for the coming year.
In Yu State, the snow was already thick and swirling.
Before Great Yong, harsh winter snow might have spelled disaster, leading many mortals to face hunger and cold. But now, a harsh winter was a prime opportunity for the bigwigs of Di Hong City to earn merit and political achievements.
Solving the hunger and cold across Great Yong could indeed be considered a Big Merit.
All factions in Di Hong City viewed this as a lucrative opportunity and tacitly divided this large pool of merit, distributing warming materials and providing relief to the mortals.
Under such conditions, it was rare for people to struggle to survive the harsh winter.
In a certain sense, this was a true solution to the mortal people's hardships.
After the various county offices cooperated with the upper echelons in distributing resources, they also completed the busiest time of the year and enjoyed some leisure afterward.
Yu State Xinle County was always , except... today was different.
"Go, go, go, leave at once! Don't make trouble here."
With a reprimanding voice, a youth in a cotton coat was shoved out from the county office's gate, slipping on the icy ground.
"Master Li is a renowned philanthropist within ten miles of Xinle County. How could he be connected to your sister's disappearance?"
A gray-clad constable stood on the steps, arms crossed, and coldly threatened the youth, "Do not come back. Next time, we won't be so polite!"
The youth, too anxious to stand up, exclaimed, "I'm telling the truth! Daoist Chen from the temple calculated it, and he can testify! Just investigate!"
"Daoist Chen? Haha, that charlatan who spends all day drinking? You believe him?"
"True Daoist cultivators don't practice fortune-telling. That drunken Taoist who only drinks and swindles money claims to tell fortunes?"
"Were it not for his elder being in the Daoist registry, we would have long arrested him for sweeping justice!"
"Don't come back, get lost!"
Among the curses, the youth endured the pain of a sprained ankle, limping away, and made his way to a dilapidated Daoist temple in the county.
Inside the temple, a Taoist in a worn Daoist robe sat on the ground, leaning against the threshold, holding a jug of warm wine, reeking of alcohol, and grinning at the youth.
"What's wrong? Did you hurt your leg?" The Daoist smiled, looking at the youth.
The youth sat down, frustrated, furrowing his brows, "Daoist Chen, they all say you're a fraud and don't trust you."
"Do you?" Daoist Chen asked with a smile.
"You know so much, you could even cure my tuberculosis easily, of course I trust you." The youth sighed, "But the county office doesn't believe, how can we search the Li Family?"
Daoist Chen chuckled, casually patted his gourd, and a drop of wine flew out, landing on the youth's sprained ankle.
The youth's swollen ankle visibly shrank upon contact with the wine drop, soon returning to normal.
"Daoist Chen, you truly have real skills!"
The youth rejoiced, moving his ankle freely, exclaiming, "I heard there's a Daoist academy in the county where Taoists can cast spells, and might even see real Daoist cultivators. Are you from that academy?"
He even fantasized that this often disreputed drunken Taoist before him might be a legendary Daoist cultivator merely playing in the human world.
"The Daoist academy, ah..."
Daoist Chen mused upon hearing this, a trace of memory in his eyes, "I indeed stayed at the Daoist academy, but... that was long ago."
"You're really from the county's Daoist academy?" The youth grew more excited, immediately kneeling and kowtowing, "Please, Daoist Chen, help find my sister. She's been missing for so many days, I'm really worried. You're from the Daoist academy, the Li Family wouldn't dare offend you."
"I just stayed at the Daoist academy."
Daoist Chen shook his head, "It doesn't mean I'm truly a Taoist of the academy, and it wasn't the Daoist academy in Yu State."
"Not Yu State?" The youth was taken aback, "Then where?"
"Liangzhou, Qingdu, have you heard?" Daoist Chen asked with a smile.
"Liangzhou, Qingdu?" The youth shook his head.
He had never really left Xinle County in his life; even going to the county was just a thought, let alone the distant northwest Liangzhou.
"I heard Daoist Chen has an elder who is a Daoist master?"
The youth knelt, kowtowing, "I beg the Daoist to be kind, ask your elder for help, as long as we find my sister, I'd be willing to serve the Daoist all my life!"
"An elder, ah..." Daoist Chen sat there silently after hearing the youth, as if recalling someone.
After a while, he sighed, "I did have an elder who was a Daoist master, but... he passed away."
At that moment, a flash of lightning across the sky appeared in his mind.
"Passed away?" The kneeling youth was stunned, feeling a deep sense of helplessness, and slumped to the ground.
His forehead touched the cold ground, yet it couldn't match the chill in his heart.
Daoist Chen glanced at him, "You looking down on me, kid? Do you really need my elder to come out?"
The youth paused, then bitterly smiled, "Daoist, that's the Li Family, I heard they have quite the background even in the county. You don't have the Daoist registration, the Li Family probably won't even let you in..."