Clearly just dealing with one demon should count as a handful of difficulties. One minute Tang Seng falls into the water, that's a difficulty. The next minute the four disciples are starving, that's another one. Tang Seng hasn't even left the Great Tang's borders, and it's nearly ten difficulties already. But by the time they'd finished fetching the scriptures from the Western Heaven and tallied up the difficulties, dammit—how is it still missing one?

In that era when Saints concealed themselves, Tathagata was already the pinnacle of the immortals in the mortal world. Can't he count from one to eighty-one?

It's just that he couldn't be bothered.

Anyway, no matter if this was done perfectly or not, I've already arranged it for you. Nobody can nitpick, and nobody dares to say it was done wrong.

But now, Nezha definitely can't handle things as casually as Tathagata did. Whether you're mindful or not, the two Saints of the Western Sect are watching from above. Though their detection methods might not break through the Daoist Ancestor's barriers, given the timing in the Primordial era, even if they guessed in the dark with their eyes closed, they could still figure out what item the Daoist Ancestor gifted.

Nezha holds the Hongmeng Purple Qi—below Saints, it's a secret; above Saints, it's an open secret.

Though he's now leading ahead of everyone else, it doesn't mean others have no chance. Whether he can ultimately step onto the Saint Position in a blaze of triumph, no one knows. That's also why the Saints haven't acted yet.

Of course, another key reason is that Nezha has Nuwa backing him. If someone else had the Hongmeng Purple Qi in their hands, they wouldn't talk of righteousness. The moment anyone found out, it'd just be taken away with a "You're too unlucky to keep it. Hand it over!"

Back at Ziwei Palace, Nezha resumed his dull daily life of beautiful companions and idle songs.

While waiting for the Peach Banquet to commence, he was also sorting through the Journey to the West. For the first time acting as the planner, Nezha realized this job was incredibly challenging. It couldn't be too easy, where the Stone Monkey would bulldoze his way through; nor could it be too hard, leaving the Stone Monkey stuck in an absolute deadlock. Every trial needed thoughtfulness, every trial required growth, and most importantly, there had to be precisely eighty-one difficulties. It wasn't easy at all.

"Nezha, what are you thinking about with that frown on your face?"

Long Ji, lying in Nezha's arms, rubbed his face as she asked.

Nezha sighed and replied, "I'm thinking about a monkey."

Long Ji couldn't understand why he'd be thinking about a monkey while her warm body was in his arms! Could it be that her charm didn't even match that of a monkey?

Unclear on the matter, Long Ji lifted the hem of her skirt, revealing her long legs wrapped in white silk stockings, and slid them against Nezha.

"Nezha, I'm already wearing the stockings Sister Daji mentioned. Are they still less interesting than a monkey?"

Nezha tightened his arms around Long Ji's slender waist, his hand resting on her leg to feel its smooth and soft texture. Instead of answering her question, he asked in turn, "What do you think would happen if a monkey looked after the Peach Garden?"

Long Ji froze upon hearing the question, then burst out laughing. She even forgot the jealousy she'd felt over the monkey.

"You've got to be joking. What kind of idiot would have a monkey watch over the Peach Garden? That's just insane."

Nezha watched Long Ji laugh uncontrollably, then nodded in agreement.

"Indeed, not the smartest move."

...

Afterward, Nezha revisited the Journey to the West and found there was one person he couldn't bypass, and that was Saint Taiqing. The role of Lord Lao Zi of the Great Monad was critical in Journey to the West; many operations, both onstage and behind the scenes, required this leader of the Three Pure Ones to give his approval.

Now that the Mystic Sect was divided into Buddhists and Daoists, though Nezha's master Nuwa seemed to be somewhat isolated, Nezha himself held significant positions in both camps. In Buddhism, he had a Buddha position, and in Daoism, above him stood the Three Pure Ones, and below were Emperor Ziwei, the Jade Emperor, and the Queen Mother.

Nezha could somewhat represent the Daoist sect, but he still needed to keep the leader of Daoism in the loop.

Before the Peach Banquet, Nezha made his way to Doushuai Temple to pay his respects to Lord Lao Zi of the Great Monad.

Lord Lao was usually behind closed doors, appearing very busy. In truth, he was indeed busy, but only depending on his mood. As the embodiment of Saint Taiqing's Self-Corpse, his cultivation was the lowest among Taiqing's Three Corpses, as it was the last one severed. Hence, Taiqing had assigned him to oversee the Heavenly Court.

This oversight didn't really require much hands-on effort from Lord Lao; it was more about symbolizing support for the Daoist Ancestor's arrangements. On regular days, Lord Lao focused on alchemy, playing chess, and going for strolls.

Moreover, Saint Taiqing had transferred his passion for elixirs entirely to Lord Lao. As a result, Lord Lao became an alchemy maniac, with his favorite pastime being the development of new elixirs.

When it comes to research and development, especially for someone as unmatched in the field as Lord Lao, the investment became an endless pit.

Given his oversight role in the Heavenly Court, there was no way Lord Lao would fund his experiments from his own pocket. The Heavenly Court's storerooms had a stockpile of unused medicinal herbs—why let them go to waste? Lord Lao made ample use of them, and no one dared to utter a single complaint, ensuring that 80% of the immortal herbs left by the Ancient Demon Court ended up in Doushuai Temple.

However, Lord Lao's alchemy wasn't about producing elixirs for practical use; his rank didn't require such validation. For him, it was purely a playground to explore the boundaries of alchemy, leading to a multitude of whimsical and eccentric immortal pills emerging from Doushuai Temple.

Lord Lao would test these pills himself, but he certainly wouldn't ingest them—who better than him knew how outrageous the effects of some of his concoctions could be? So where did these pills go?

They were all sent to the Heavenly Court's storerooms as offerings to the Great Heavenly Venerate. "I'm not taking your immortal herbs for free; I'm making pills for you!"

Hao Tian wasn't a fool; back in the day, he worked at the Daoist Ancestor's side as his bellows assistant. As such, he didn't touch a single one of those pills.

With the Heavenly Court's finances now tight, these pills found a new purpose—they became salaries for the Heavenly Court's immortals.

A pill from Lord Lao Zi's alchemy—just the name alone could multiply its market value hundreds of times.

However, these pills were products of Lord Lao's experimentation. Some came with descriptions of their effects, while others bore no labels at all. For the immortals receiving these "salaries," it was entirely luck of the draw.

There's a story of one immortal who swallowed an unlabeled pill to break through to the Heavenly Immortal realm. Sure enough, being a product of Lord Lao's alchemy, it successfully propelled him to that level. However, the spiritual energy consumed during the breakthrough turned out to be just a side-effect of the pill.

The pill's true function? Reversing Yin and Yang.

Now, that immortal, once a 30-something middle-aged man, was entirely transformed into a goddess-like female immortal. Key point: completely and irrevocably transformed into a female immortal. He could no longer revert to his original state—she was permanently a female immortal now.

It's said that for the longest time afterward, she didn't dare leave her house. What would her former friends think? What about her past colleagues? And what about the little fairy she once pursued romantically?

The most unfortunate twist? For her next paycheck, she received yet another of Lord Lao's pills—another unlabeled one with strictly random effects!

This immortal had a fiery temper. In a rage, she swallowed the pill on the spot. As for the aftermath…

Her cultivation advanced another step, but the Heavenly Court gained a new loli-styled Little Fairy.

When Nezha first heard the whole story, he could only marvel at the terror of Lord Lao's pills. He even enthusiastically began studying how to make pills that could turn immortals into lolis but, well…

When the pill was fed to Qiongqi, it nearly knocked it out cold.

And that's the story behind Lord Lao and Doushuai Palace's fame within the Heavenly Court. If you thought Lord Lao was tirelessly laboring to make pills for the immortals under some gruelling quota system, you couldn't be more wrong.

He was living the good life, enjoying his time on the job, while other immortals slogged away bitterly every day just trying to survive.

...

Nezha was very familiar with Doushuai Palace. He had a great relationship with Jin Jiao and Yin Jiao, so he was always able to stroll into Doushuai Temple whenever Lord Lao was out for a stroll.

Now that his cultivation had advanced, looking back, Nezha realized that Jin Jiao and Yin Jiao were, in essence, two pills brought to life—a Golden Core and a Silver Pill.

It seemed these two pills had some special significance to Lord Lao, which is why Jin Jiao and Yin Jiao received his favoritism, taking on the roles of child attendants and practically acting as half the masters of Doushuai Palace.

This time, Nezha came formally. Stopping a good distance from the palace doors, he bowed and said, "Disciple Li Nezha humbly requests an audience with Senior Uncle Lao."

Though Lord Lao was Saint Taiqing, Taiqing himself was not Lord Lao. Here, Nezha couldn't address him by the title of Saint.

The doors of Doushuai Palace opened, and, as expected, Jin Jiao and Yin Jiao poked their heads out.

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