Chapter 1644 — I Have a Dream: The Wayfarer's Chapter
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
Yu Chenzi hastened to look, and saw a rather handsome middle-aged man striding swiftly into the imperial study; this man's most distinctive feature was his beard. His mustache was trimmed with great neatness, descending from either side of his upper lip with not a single superfluous hair, while on his lower lip and chin there remained only a wisp of beard, and together the whole formed a fork.
"Meng Yungui! " Yu Chenzi knew him. Of the Heaven Court's four great Heavenly Masters, the hardest to deal with was Meng Yungui.
Yu Chenzi was in charge of Jingping's diplomacy, and he had studied the four Heavenly Masters, the four Heavenly Kings, and the four Colored Emperors of the Heaven Court, and was familiar as well with such powerful ministers as the Seven Dukes, the Three Masters, the Chief Minister, and the Junior Minister.
In Jingping he had under him a dedicated crew whose business was to study the character, tastes, weaknesses, psychology, families, and backgrounds of the great ministers who held power in the Heaven Court, keeping a dossier on every influential and weighty official.
As for Meng Yungui, the information he knew was plentiful: the man was of human descent from Yuhua Heaven; he had become a god in Yuhua Heaven, taken office at the Heaven Court, and then entered the Daoist school to pursue his studies, taking the Dao Master of the Daoist school as his teacher to learn the arts of calculation. His attainment in these arts was extremely high; he could well be called the most towering master of the arts of calculation in the entire Heaven Court.
On this score, Meng Yungui was Yu Chenzi's senior uncle by apprenticeship. After all, Yu Chenzi came from a collateral branch of the Daoist school, the Qingyun Heaven Daoist School, and the Dao Master of the Heaven Court was that school's founding patriarch. "Chaos calculation means chaotic data, and yet out of the chaos one must seek a high-probability outcome, so hazy reckoning is what is needed.
To outwit Senior Uncle Meng Yungui would be truly too difficult. His attainment in the arts of calculation is simply too high. " Yu Chenzi stepped quickly forward, kowtowed to Meng Yungui, and said, "Yu Chenzi of Qingyun Heaven pays respects to Senior Uncle Meng!
" Meng Yungui looked at him and said coldly, "A disciple of the Qingyun Heaven Daoist School?
You have some nerve! You dare to show off your arts of calculation in front of me, playing the advocate for Mu Tianzun and trying to hoodwink His Majesty!
Your Majesty, slay this villain first to consecrate the banners! " Hao Tianzun laughed. "Heavenly Master Meng, Yu Chenzi is your own disciple-nephew; why must you kill him at first sight?
" Meng Yungui hastily bowed and knelt, saying, "Your servant studied the arts of calculation under the Dao Master; the Daoist school's arts excel at precise computation. Your servant also studied the way of painting for a hundred years under the Star Lord Wenchang, and once sent more than a hundred gods and demons versed in painting to spy on Mu Tianzun and draw down every detail of his bearing and expression.
Your servant's knowledge of Mu Tianzun exceeds even Mu Tianzun's knowledge of himself! Mu Tianzun is the sort who never sheds a tear until he sees the coffin; as long as a single thread of hope remains, he will fight to the bloody last! And that man stops at nothing—every posture, every expression of his can be feigned!
" He swept an icy glance over the gods and demons in the imperial study who were versed in painting.