Cui Beihai untied the wine gourd, pouring wine all around, where the wine splashed, the dense hands emitted bursts of black smoke, quickly retracting back.

Then a giant walked out of the woods, as tall as two zhang, with a human face on its chest that was constantly moving, expressing various emotions, shocking and terrifying to behold.

Cui Beihai released seven-colored smoke from his gourd, these were the spirits and monsters he had subdued over the years. Some evil ghosts with obvious misconduct, demons with low cultivation, all had been turned into wine by him.

The giant grabbed the eyes of the human face on his chest, blood flowing from those eyes, the face roared, emitting a miserable howl.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The seven-colored smoke gradually dissipated, and finally the wine gourd exploded, the giant's feet and hands had been severed, its remaining body was almost as tall as a zhang, turning into sludge and rushing towards Cui Beihai like mercury overflowing.

Cui Beihai leaped to dodge in mid-air, at this moment two wizards-looking figures emerged from the forest, one shaking a magic tool made of a skull, the other swinging a black whip attacking him in mid-air with no support, catching one of his arms.

"These are An Lushan's people!" Cui Beihai made a decision in an instant, if he delayed any longer he would not be able to escape, so he immediately used the force of the whip to counter-roll, rushing towards the two attacking wizards, grabbing his waist badge and throwing it forcefully into the air.

"Move the mountain! Fill the sea!"

With a cracking sound, the bones broke, the two wizards were crushed to death by the huge stones that appeared out of nowhere, another stone crushing the sludge-turned giant, firmly pressing it underground.

Cui Beihai's left arm, which was caught by the whip, had lost sensation, hanging coldly by his side. He tore open his sleeve and found a butterfly tattoo appearing on his arm, spreading towards his shoulder - obviously, the wizards had cast a death curse on him in collaboration.

Cui Beihai cut off his own arm with a sword, not for the sake of survival, but to fulfill his unfinished mission. He stopped the bleeding from the wound, took big strides towards Chang'an, the golden color of the "mountain" character on his waist badge had faded away.

Li Bai saw the ugliness in the court, as well as the demons hidden in the mansions of the nobles, plotting and ready to move. Li Bai had seen Cui Beihai twice at the Taishi Bureau (Qin Tianjian), he had become much thinner, and had lost an arm. When Li Bai asked him, he just smiled faintly and drank the wine in his cup in one gulp.

In the tenth year of Tang Tianbao, after a heavy drink with Li Bai, he left Chang'an and went to Luoyang to join the army.

In the twelfth year of Tang Tianbao, Li Bai climbed a height and sadly wrote the words "Climbing high, looking at the mountains and seas, filled with sorrow for the ancient past." He deeply missed this friend, but Li Bai never received any news from Cui Beihai again.

Soon, in the first month of the fourteenth year of Tang Tianbao, a secret report was sent to the Taishi Bureau (Qin Tianjian): a demon star was seen in Zhuozhou field, controlling the military forces. This was almost a clear indication that An Lushan was about to rebel. Obviously, this was a trap left by Cui Beihai.

However, this secret report did not attract the attention of the Emperor, who had no doubts about the loyalty of An Lushan. In the second month of the same year, An Lushan sent a deputy to the court, requesting new personnel appointments: as many as thirty-two Han generals were to be replaced by non-Han generals, almost nakedly declaring that he was going to replace all the officials with his own people, warning everyone that he was going to rebel!

The Minister of War Wei Jiansu and Yang Guozhong, together with the emperor, expressed their opposition, but were reprimanded by the Emperor, causing a sensation in the court.

That same year, An Lushan rebelled, plunging the great Tang Empire from a time of poetry and wine into a situation of raging flames. Wherever An Lushan's army went, many counties surrendered, many villages were burned.