Chapter 72: Paying Respects to the Seal

Over the past week-plus, Chen Yaozu couldn't get in touch with Ceng Hongbing, but he did see news reports of Florida and several surrounding states being ravaged by a hurricane.

He guessed the typhoon was too big, so communications were cut off, and he didn't take it to heart.

Over this week-plus, he himself returned to normal life, played two matches, still advancing — Round of 16 to Quarter-finals, Quarter-finals to Semi-finals, and immediately next came the Semi-finals, Finals.

After confirming safety, Ceng Hongbing's fleeting romance had also returned to normal life; that kid went back to school too, though he probably had psychological trauma now.

During this week-plus, when he saw Mikhailov again, he finally learned why Mikhailov knew he had divination skills, could know someone's background through face reading — why he had killing intent toward him!

Underworld!

Was this fear of his identity being exposed? But he also learned why the other party didn't dare send killers that day; at the time he gritted his teeth, recalling a line — in the movie, Add Money Resident once told his Junior Brother: "This secret of yours, I'll eat for a lifetime!"

So, when Antonio returned to South America and Cindy planned to stay, Chen Yaozu found Mikhailov and had his wife help get Cindy a work visa.

Mikhailov was extremely conflicted at the time, pondering — if Chen Yaozu explicitly came to blackmail him, the stone in his heart would've settled.

But Chen Yaozu bought gifts, found him, used the politeness of an Eastern person asking a favor, and even took out 20,000 US dollars as a gift to have his wife help process a work visa...

He couldn't tell whether this was ultimately blackmail, or an Eastern person's normal attitude of gift-giving to ask a favor?

But this matter!

He still couldn't refuse to help; if he refused, it would be fine if this was just an Eastern person's habitual gift-giving to ask a favor, but what if the other party was thinking of using the secret to blackmail — if you don't agree, he flips the table.

So Mikhailov, with a guilty conscience, could only cover his nose and go back to his wife, process this work visa at very high speed, and even found Cindy a job.

As for the Fuzhou Gang side, after Chen Yaozu finished the Quarter-finals match, Honggun Ayu waited outside the venue with the new Successor Zhou Jiping and his wife.

They had no choice but to come; Head Hall had already sent people, started secretly investigating what happened, and were preparing to come to the Hall openly to ask why the Hall Master was replaced without reporting to Head Hall?

Choosing a Hall Master themselves without waiting for Head Hall to confirm the candidate — was this wanting to rebel and such.

This made Honggun Ayu, who personally killed the old boss, feel he'd already put his neck in the noose, just waiting for when Head Hall's people come pull the trapdoor — he'd be dragged down by a rope tied to hundreds of pounds of stones and have his neck snapped.

Including the new Successor Zhou Jiping — if he gets in trouble, he won't fare much better either.

So, upon receiving the task Chen Yaozu gave — help him get a Dragon Tiger Mountain Celestial Master High Merit purple Taoist robe — he didn't say another word, immediately called Domestic.

Found someone to go to Dragon Tiger Mountain and donate a sum of money, just to view the purple Taoist robe worn by Dragon Tiger Mountain's Celestial Master High Merit.

Then photographed every single detail, returned to Fuzhou Changle, found the best garment factory, spent heavily, insisting on making this garment in the shortest possible time.

To get this purple Taoist robe as fast as possible, A Yu had his people slap a 200,000 US dollar check in front of that factory manager.

200,000 US dollars for one garment — more expensive than even Italy's top luxury clothing; if this required design ideology, it might be very troublesome.

But if it's just copycatting, spending this money to get the best garment at the fastest speed, 200,000 US dollars is enough.

Pattern-making, cutting — still very simple; just embroidery is slightly harder, after all a Taoist robe has many patterns.

But hard refers to ancient times; now it's much easier — input program and patterns, automated embroidery is lightning fast.

There's also gold thread pressing — actually not that hard either.

Some say 996 is hell.

But some also say 996 with sufficient overtime pay is actually what many dream of.

If the boss puts up 100,000 US dollars as bonus, distributes it to all positions making this garment — the harder you work the higher the bonus, the better you make it the higher the bonus, the faster you make it the higher the bonus.

You'll discover?

What 996 — is that 996? That's a blessing!

So, in just one week, Honggun Ayu got a purple Taoist robe worth over 200,000 US dollars.

Perhaps, without the weight of Eastern Taoist Association recognition backing it, and removing those purple ritual robes passed down generation after generation, basically this Taoist robe is already the most expensive purple Taoist robe to date.

After receiving the Taoist robe delivered directly by plane, A Yu brought Zhou Jiping and his wife, rushed to the locker room outside the venue where Chen Yaozu played the Semi-finals.

He needs protection; Zhou Jiping and his wife also need protection.

Although the Los Angeles Hall is now under his control, people's hearts are floating; Head Hall's prestige remains unshakeable.

Without Chen Yaozu's mysterious means of protection, his outcome won't change; Zhou Jiping's outcome won't change either.

The reason he brought Zhou Jiping, and brought both husband and wife, was just to see if Chen Yaozu could, on account of Zhou Jiping's face...

And at this moment Chen Yaozu in the locker room also happened to receive a call — Ceng Hongbing's distress call.

Ceng Hongbing said on the phone: Florida and South Carolina, Georgia — three or four states — all flattened by a powerful typhoon; the river is floating with many people, the mountains also have quite a few hanging.

Anyway locally it's wailing everywhere; where the hurricane passed, those wooden houses were basically all flattened, except those far from the storm center where losses weren't that big.

Right now that side urgently needs grain and water, medicine, tents, and most importantly garbage bags — thick garbage bags for holding bodies.

Because those floating in the river, hanging on trees — they need to be fished out, put in garbage bags, and buried.

Chen Yaozu was somewhat doubtful: "Is it that serious? Why aren't there many reports online? Only knew there was a typhoon there, didn't know it was this serious!"

Ceng Hongbing's voice on the phone carried heavy resentment: "I'm not clear either!

The past few days there was no signal, even less electricity.

Roads impassable, my car got flooded too.

Federal Emergency Management Agency people blocked all entrances/exits; supposedly rescue teams came from outside, but were all stopped by FEMA people from entering.

Disaster victims could only spontaneously organize settlement points, bring generators to generate power — I only then had a chance to charge my phone and call you.

An old lady was very kind, forcibly pulled me into her cellar to survive a tornado, but couldn't survive the flood that immediately followed.

When I buried her, there wasn't even a coffin, not even a black plastic bag — merely found a dirty bed sheet to wrap her, dug a pit and buried her.

Then joined the rescue of others — but too many dead! We lack everything now..."

Ceng Hongbing rambled on for a long time, listing what was lacking inside; he actually knew in his heart Chen Yaozu didn't have much money — only the several hundred thousand US dollars seized from the Fuzhou Gang.

Even if Chen Yaozu took those several hundred thousand US dollars to buy supplies, he might not be able to deliver them in.

Because FEMA people indeed blocked all major entrances/exits.

And also issued warnings to all spontaneously arriving rescuers — unauthorized rescue is called illegal rescue, can be prosecuted and jailed.

Yes, illegal rescue! So even if someone wants to bring things in, it's basically very difficult.

But he just subconsciously called Chen Yaozu to say these things — just wanted to ease his mood and release pressure.

These days he helped with the rescue, carried corpses, searched for people trapped on the mountain, people hanging from trees.

He was under tremendous psychological pressure! He had finally managed to get through to a fellow countryman he subconsciously believed had vast divine powers, so of course he had to vent to his heart's content.

Chen Yaozu listened quietly in the locker room; he could tell this Northeastern man had encountered a disaster he had never faced before, and was on the verge of collapse.

The psychological pressure this situation gave him was even greater than owing over a million, because in the domestic environment there was something to depend on, but here there was not.

A person accustomed to an environment with support, when facing a large-scale natural disaster yet having no support, always collapses more easily than others.

As for the disaster victims in Florida and several other states, because they never had expectations, they also did not have the psychological gap of disappointment.

As for whether Chen Yaozu would come or not, he was just saying it casually, to vent a bit and relieve the pressure in his heart.

Unexpectedly, after Chen Yaozu listened silently, he actually agreed: "Alright, I'll think of a way to get some of these things, and then do my best to send them over, but I dare not guarantee how much."

He came to America just to survive; once he settled down and obtained status, he could survive.

But after surviving, then what?

What else to do? He sometimes fell into confusion.

When he got the marriage-application temporary green card, he did not yet have this confusion. But Mikhailov told him that after finishing the matches, his official green card might come even faster.

No need to wait two years; it might come down in one year. An athlete as formidable as him, invincible on the field, could completely apply for the Talent Introduction Program.

He could guarantee it! Only under the condition of no worries about status did he have this confusion about what to do afterwards — continue being a high school teacher, then occasionally moonlight using his half-baked skills plus the two daily divination chances granted by the talisman? Wasn't that a bit too plain? And now, while listening to Ceng Hongbing vent about the various collapses he encountered during rescue in those few places in Florida, he suddenly wanted to go.

So he opened his mouth and agreed to Ceng Hongbing, saying he would bring things over; at the moment he agreed, he heard the talisman's prompt.

【The benevolent love people, one of the Four Virtues of the Go To Gate.

Possessing a compassionate heart, performing acts of compassion — only this is great virtue.

Now, the Master of Talisman has benevolence in his heart, great goodness; you may gain an insight into the Deduction Technique once more, which can help your basic Deduction Technique advance a step further.

Another reminder: before setting out, first worship the Seal!

Confucius traveled the world, gathered seventy-two disciples and three thousand followers; thus the cultural lineage was transmitted.

Now, after you worship the Seal, when you devote yourself to rescue matters, you shall have merit added to your body, consolidating the one lineage of Daoist tradition under your Seal.

When worshiping the Seal, it is best to have forty-nine disciples worship together.】

Immediately after, a stream of information about the Deduction Technique surged into his brain, drawing him into a state of slight epiphany.

But this epiphany lasted a very short time; he felt he had gained something, yet also felt there was still much he did not understand about the Deduction Technique.

He stood there in a daze, pondering and savoring the aftertaste, when the old coach walked over: "Chen, you've been spacing out here since you finished the call, what happened?"

Chen Yaozu snapped back and replied: "A friend called me, said the disaster in Florida is very severe, countless dead and injured; I'm a bit puzzled why there isn't much news about it online."

"Oh!"

The old coach, long accustomed to such things: "Perfectly normal. You say those disaster-stricken states are red states, the Big Golden Hair's base.

The worse the disaster there, the better — that way the Big Golden Hair's votes will take a severe hit.

And online platforms are still controlled by the President's side; naturally not much would be released.

If you want to know the most real news, you can download a TT; that's your Eastern platform, the President's side can't control it.

Moreover, even this platform pushes according to big data; California is a blue state, so regarding the situation there it's mostly schadenfreude, attention is low, and pushes are few.

So it's perfectly normal that you don't know these news.

Alright, you've got friends waiting outside, they've been waiting a long time!"

A Yu and Zhou Jiping and his wife waited outside, watching one team member after another leave, never seeing Chen Yaozu; they thought there was another back door, so they hurriedly stopped an old man to ask.

Only then did they learn Chen Yaozu was inside making a call; the old man invited them into the locker room, but how would they dare enter? They just said waiting at the door was fine, extremely respectful.

It was still the old coach who figured he'd better call for them, so he came in and happened to see Chen Yaozu in a daze.

"Oh!"

Hearing someone was waiting for him, Chen Yaozu quickly changed clothes, grabbed his bag, and walked out of the locker room, where he saw Fuzhou Gang's Honggun Ayu and the newly appointed Los Angeles Hall Master Zhou Jiping; the couple knelt before him with a thud.

The old coach following behind Chen Yaozu was instantly stunned by this sudden turn of events.

"Mr. Chen, the purple Daoist robe you requested has been made.

I guarantee it is exactly the same style and specification as worn by the Celestial Master on Dragon Tiger Mountain.

Wonder if Mr. Chen is satisfied?"

Honggun Ayu lay prone with both hands on the ground, head touching the back of his hands, and said loudly.

Behind him stood Zhou Jiping holding a folded Daoist robe high with both hands, and his wife.

"Please, Mr. Chen, verify!"

Extremely respectful, because A Yu had analyzed the pros and cons for him.

This Hall Master of his — even saying that if he and his wife could not obtain Chen Yaozu's protection, even though he is already Hall Master and the entire Los Angeles Hall has been cleansed once by A Yu, barely counting as grasped —

Once Head Hall people come down, they can directly overturn this grasp.

Because they just took over, people's hearts are floating; if given a year of operation time, only then could they say they are not afraid of Head Hall.

But how would Head Hall give them a year to develop? These days without an outbreak, it's because after receiving the news, they sent people to quietly investigate the situation.

The outbreak should be in these one or two days.

At that time Honggun Ayu may face death by a thousand cuts, and as the new Hall Master, Zhou Jiping and his wife likely won't fare much better.

So their only chance of survival now is to find a strongman to shelter under, and that strongman is the utterly mysterious Chen Yaozu.

This is the reason for their current extremely low posture!

After all, this is already their only chance to survive; how could they not be respectful in attitude and firmly clutch this thigh? Chen Yaozu nodded, took the purple Daoist robe from Zhou Jiping's hands, and with a shake of his hand unfolded it.

Zhou Jiping and his wife glanced at each other, both tacitly understanding the other's meaning, and simultaneously stood up.

"Mr. Chen, let us help you try it on, see if it fits!"

Before Chen Yaozu could refuse, the Daoist robe was taken by Zhou Jiping and his wife and draped onto him.

He could only stretch his arms into the sleeves, experiencing once the addiction of a landlord being served.

This scene, falling into the old coach's eyes, left him somewhat dumbfounded. What kind of procession is this? Just who is this Chen?

He's advanced in years, has traveled north and south for decades; how could he possibly fail to recognize that the purple outer robe draped over Chen Yaozu right now is a specific attire of an Eastern religion?

So, Chen, the American football Tomorrow's Star, has another mysterious religious identity?

Chen Yaozu had just draped the purple Taoist robe over himself when he received the Talisman's prompt: "Wear Purple Robe, can Worship Ancestral Gods, Mirror in Heart, Seal in Hand, Disciples as Swords, Three Returns to One, All Paths Open! Choose Mao Hour, Great Sun Rising, at the moment Purple Qi Comes from the East Worship the Seal, Sacrifice Three Pure Ones, can open the Twenty-Fifth Overseas Taoist Parish, you serve as Los Angeles Parish Treatise Merit, Seal Mastery."

Chen Yaozu rejoiced in his heart, couldn't help laughing out loud: "Good! Good! Good! A Yu, Hall Master Zhou, Madam Zhou, thank you! Rise!"

Zhou Jiping and his wife knelt again behind A Yu: "Zhou Jiping, beg Mr. Chen for protection, we have reached a life-and-death juncture.

Beg Mr. Chen to save us!"

Chen Yaozu glanced over; without using the Talisman's twice-daily opportunity, merely with the basic Deduction Technique he had just comprehended again, he could see that both their faces indeed bore the appearance of calamity.

A turn of thought and he knew what was going on: "People from the Fuzhou Gang Head Hall have come?"

A Yu nodded: "Yes, although we cleaned up the Los Angeles Hall, people's hearts are floating now, still not a monolithic block.

So, please Mr. Chen protect us.

Otherwise the three of us only have a dead end!"

Chen Yaozu calculated in his heart; accepting them seemed beneficial to himself.

Then he remembered he needed forty-nine people to Worship the Seal; would it not be simple for this Fuzhou Gang to find forty-nine disciples?

So he agreed.

"Good, I agree, let's leave here first and talk!"

Then he turned, said goodbye to the old coach, and led the three of them away.

After they left, the old coach finally took out his phone and called Mikhailov.

"Hey, Mr. Sergei, do you know what I saw?

That Chen, he actually has another mysterious identity; he's definitely a religious Big Figure!"

(Chapter End)