Junior Uncle is too cunning.

Li Shundao didn't speak to Xiao Sheng and Cao Bao. He just glanced at them and turned away. He was relieved to see that Liu Lian was completely alright.

Xiao Sheng didn't notice anything amiss. Cao Bao, standing to the side, looked at Li Shundao sitting on the throne with a hint of confusion in his eyes. He felt like he had seen the Celestial Venerable before, but he couldn't quite remember where.

"Brother, don't you think the Celestial Venerable looks familiar? I feel like we've seen him somewhere before," she whispered to Xiao Sheng, quickly recalling her memories.

Cao Bao's words only made things worse. Xiao Sheng glanced at Li Shundao again, and he did look somewhat familiar. However, he still gave Cao Bao a stern look: "You look familiar to everyone. Listen carefully!"

Seeing Xiao Sheng's stern expression, Cao Bao knew that this was not a time for jokes. Their trip to the Heavenly Court was due to a chance encounter. When Li Shundao went to Zhongding City to pick up Liu Lian, he happened to meet a wonderful man named Jin Guyi. He gave Jin Guyi a task: to recruit ten Golden Immortals within three days in exchange for a chance to go to the Heavenly Court.

Unexpectedly, Jin Guyi actually succeeded. Jin Guyi was also a good brother of Xiao Sheng and Cao Bao, since they were both from Zhongzhou and were both wandering immortals. There were very few people who could become Golden Immortals.

As the largest and most prosperous city in Zhongzhou, Zhongding City has attracted branches of all ten major merchant guilds in the prehistoric world. Even other first-rate, second-rate, and third-rate merchant guilds have flocked to Zhongding City, hoping to gain a foothold.

Since Xiao Sheng and Cao Bao have become Golden Immortals, they definitely need cultivation resources, but Wuyi Town doesn't have any, so they can only go to the nearest Zhongding City to buy them.

Jin Guyi was one of the local bigwigs in Zhongding City. The three met by chance and became friends.

However, Li Shundao gave them too little time, so Jin Guyi had no choice but to invite some friends from Zhongding City. As for Xiao Sheng and Cao Bao, they would have to talk about it another time.

Fortunately, the Ministry of Finance was severely short of manpower because some of its personnel had been transferred by the current Minister of Water. Even with the large number of people brought by Li Shundao, it was only enough to maintain the Ministry of Finance's situation, as talent was still extremely scarce.

Especially those powerful beings who can become Golden Immortals, they all come from sects and factions, with resources and influence behind them, and most of them are unwilling to come to the Heavenly Court to be controlled.

As a result, the Loose Immortals became the talent supplier for the Ministry of Finance. However, there were very few Loose Immortals who could break through to the Golden Immortal realm on their own. Moreover, such people must have exceptional talent, otherwise they would not have been able to break through to the Golden Immortal realm.

More importantly, most of the people who are able to break through to the Golden Immortal realm yearn for freedom and are used to a carefree life; very few of them bother to get involved in the murky waters of the Heavenly Court.

Although they had someone to rely on, there were too many rules and regulations in the heavens, and even more powerful figures above them. Since they had chosen to be wandering immortals, how could they possibly endure such control? Therefore, the Heavenly Court recruited very few Golden Immortals each year. Otherwise, the former Heavenly Venerable of Finance would not have been so stingy as to transfer so many Heavenly Officials away at once.

It's not that the Heavenly Court is short of people, especially people who are trusted and loyal. This is only because of the Jade Emperor's influence; otherwise, he would probably have emptied the upper echelons.

Li Shundao was also lucky. He had the support of the God of Wealth Sect, a great sect in the ancient world, which provided him with at least a batch of Golden Immortals. The Lingbao Sect also provided some people, which helped him get through the most difficult period.

However, the Ministry of Finance continues to recruit, and has even increased its efforts, especially offering very generous rewards for successful referrals.

At this time, Jin Guyi had already become a fourth-rank official in the Ministry of Finance, a mid-level cadre, and thus had the right to make recommendations. So he took the opportunity to recommend Xiao Sheng and Cao Bao.

At that time, Li Shundao was in seclusion, and the Ministry of Finance was in charge of Lingyu Zhenren, Wangyue Liulian and others. With the Lingxiao Society and the God of Wealth Sect in hand, it would be easy to investigate the origins of Xiao Sheng and Cao Bao.

The two had impeccable backgrounds and their strength had reached the Golden Immortal realm, so Lingyu Zhenren and others took them into the Heavenly Court, where they initially served as fourth-rank Gods of Wealth.

Actually, this is still a Golden Immortal level expert. If you are below the Golden Immortal level, without someone's recommendation, you can only start from the Ninth Rank Heavenly Official and slowly climb up.

Jin Guyi also benefited greatly. In addition to Xiao Sheng and Cao Bao, he recommended many of his friends, and most of them were accepted. Because of his meritorious recommendation, he was promoted to the Southeast God of Wealth among the Nine Gods of Wealth.

It should be noted that although the Nine Gods of Wealth are only a third-rank celestial official, they control all the manpower and resources in the entire southeast, and their power is only below that of the Civil and Martial Gods of Wealth, the President of the Lingxiao Society, the Sovereign God of Wealth, and the Middle God of Wealth, Wangyue.

Xiao Sheng and Cao Bao are indeed worthy of being the owners of the Treasure-Dropping Coin in their previous lives. They both possess unique talents in the Way of the God of Wealth, especially their respective paths of attracting wealth and treasures. Although both are branches of the Way of the God of Wealth, they are both at the Innate level. If they have the opportunity or receive guidance from Li Shundao later, they may be able to truly comprehend the essence of the Way of the God of Wealth, just like Li Shundao.

Since entering the Heavenly Court's Ministry of Finance, the two have made numerous contributions, both large and small. They even resolved some issues related to the operation of the God of Wealth's Path, reducing the time required for such operations. In the end, Lingyu Zhenren and others promoted them to the rank of Third-Rank Heavenly Officials for their merits.

As Li Shundao listened to the reports from Lingyu Zhenren and the others, he couldn't help but feel a little tempted. Speaking of which, Xiao Sheng and Cao Bao were really suited to his path as the God of Wealth. Whether in his past life or this life, although they were not involved in the Investiture of the Gods this time, they still ended up in the Heavenly Court's Ministry of Finance after many twists and turns.

In their previous lives, the five gods of wealth in the Ministry of Finance were: Zhao Gongming, the Martial God of Wealth in the Central Route; Xiao Sheng, the God of Wealth in the East Route; Cao Bao, the God of Wealth in the West Route; Chen Jiugong, the God of Wealth in the South Route; and Yao Shaosi, the God of Wealth in the North Route. Among them, Xiao Sheng and Cao Bao served as the Gods of Wealth in the East and West Routes, respectively.

It should be noted that when Jiang Ziya conferred titles upon the gods, in order to suppress the power of the Jie Sect, he did not confer upon Zhao Gongming the title of Heavenly Venerable of the Ministry of Finance, but instead divided him into five Gods of Finance, which meant that they jointly managed the Ministry of Finance. In fact, each of them was one-fifth of the Heavenly Venerable of the Ministry of Finance. Because Zhao Gongming served as the God of Finance of the Central Route, his status was slightly higher than that of the other four.

Xiao Sheng and Cao Bao were able to reach their positions not only because Jiang Ziya used them to check Zhao Gongming, but also because of their individual abilities.

As the God of Wealth of the East, Xiao Sheng is responsible for a very wide range of matters, including attracting wealth from the East, and overseeing transportation, urban construction, real estate, building materials, shipbuilding, shipping, water conservancy, and more.

Cao Bao's Western God of Wealth, the Heavenly Venerable of Treasures, is in no way inferior to Xiao Sheng's Eastern God of Wealth. It not only attracts wealth from the west but also oversees jewelry, handicrafts, mining, metallurgy, chemicals, metal products, energy, and more.

The more Li Shundao thought about it, the more he felt that Xiao Sheng and Cao Bao were definitely his most perfect disciples.

When he took human form and chose the path of the gods, he obtained four innate supernatural powers: attracting treasures and wealth. However, Xiao Sheng and Cao Bao's paths were to attract treasures and wealth. Isn't this a preordained master-disciple relationship?

Although he was tempted, Li Shundao did not make a decision immediately. After all, taking on a disciple was a big deal. Once the master-disciple relationship was established, it would be no less than a blood connection, or even closer. So it was better to observe and investigate further!

After all, he had only met Xiao Sheng and Cao Bao twice. Once was when he was undergoing the Golden Immortal Tribulation. Including this time, it was only twice. He had no idea about their character and personality. It was best to investigate them thoroughly before making a decision. Anyway, they had already joined the Ministry of Finance, so they were already his. It didn't matter whether he ate them sooner or later!