Chapter 11

"Peng!"

Another puff of gray-white smoke rose from the ground; this time it was no longer empty, but hid a three-foot-tall old man.

The old man leaned on a cane, spinning rapidly like a spinning top whipped by a whip.

Like a drill bit, he drilled out from underground.

After drilling out of the ground, he slowed down and finally stabilized his figure completely.

Standing steady, the white-bearded old man immediately followed General Guan's example, and toward Daoist Qingsong... or more accurately, toward the "As if I were here in person" purple-gold token in Daoist Qingsong's hand, he prostrated.

His attitude was as respectful as a son seeing his father.

Daoist Qingsong flipped his right hand, and the plate-sized, palm-thick token disappeared.

He looked the old man up and down, sneering repeatedly, "Even changed clothes, no wonder..."

General Guan looked at the old man and saw that his attire was very similar to the previous "Sha Qiu Kingdom Prime Minister".

He also wore a leopard skin as a skirt, wrapped around his body, obliquely revealing half of his withered chest.

He is the Great Shu Cavalry Commandant, and Great Shu is called "Western Shu" in the Great Qin officialdom, while there is another Shu Kingdom east of the Liushahe, called "Eastern Shu".

Eastern Shu and Western Shu are both descendants of the nobles of the "Ancient Shu Land" of Nanzhan Zhonghua, who migrated ten thousand miles under the order of the Qin Emperor, bringing chariots and common people to establish themselves in the west.

Logically speaking, Eastern Shu is east of the Liushahe, closer to the Central Kingdom, and its civilization and education should be superior to their "Western Shu".

But a dignified Wenhui Hall University Scholar actually changed into barbarian attire, with hair loose and clothes left-lapelled, and converted to the Sha Barbarians?

This is not just as simple as changing a piece of clothing.

General Guan vaguely understood something.

Sure enough, Daoist Qingsong didn't give the old man a chance to argue at all, didn't even let him speak, and directly ordered, "Where did you hide Sha Man Yu? Hurry up and hand the person over."

"Envoy, please observe clearly, this little god has never hidden Sha Man Yu." Earth God Zou Qing tilted his head to look at the scroll on General Guan's waist, his wrinkled old face sincere, "The Shadow God Map of Sha Man Yu was drawn by this little god personally.

The news of her being in Sha Qiu was also collected and passed to Zhang Lingguan by this little god; this little god has always been loyal to Great Qin and has never forgotten the grace of His Majesty the Human Emperor!"

General Guan subconsciously touched the scroll inserted in his belt, and the doubt about its origin was finally answered.

"Loyal to Great Qin..." Daoist Qingsong was still five feet tall, still a baby-fat doll face, but at this moment, his cold eyes swept over the Earth God, and even General Guan on the side felt a suffocating pressure and coldness.

"Zou Qing, before sending the Shadow God Map, you might have still had a thought that you were still a Great Qin subject and wanted to serve the Human Emperor.

This poor Daoist estimates that at that time, you were still wearing a high hat and a wide belt, wearing my Great Qin scholar robe."

Earth God Zou Qing's old face twitched a few times, and he buried his head lower.

Daoist Qingsong scanned the shrine built by Sha Man Yu and sneered, "Sha Man Yu enshrined the Heavenly Emperor, enshrined the Daoist Ancestor, enshrined the Western Buddha, but the one who ate the offerings and absorbed the Sha Barbarian incense was you.

Since you enjoyed the Sha Barbarian incense, you naturally assumed the divine duty of protecting the Sha Barbarians.

As a result, you betrayed the Sha Barbarians.

That day, this poor Daoist observed the astrology at night and vaguely sensed the anomaly of the Sha Qiu Kingdom, so I immediately sent the Zhang Lingguan to ask you for information about the Sha Qiu Kingdom, and you sold Sha Man Yu without hesitation.

After selling her, you should have quickly suffered the backlash of the incense, and even the Sha Barbarian dragon vein issued an angry roar at you.

At that time, you began to understand that you had established a relationship of shared honor and damage with the 'Sha Qiu Kingdom'.

The Divine Way is an appendage of the Human Way.

You are damaged, the Sha Qiu Kingdom is unaffected, but if the Sha Qiu Kingdom's national destiny declines, you, who accept the Sha Qiu Kingdom's incense, will inevitably suffer heavy damage.

The more incense you eat, the tighter the connection, and the heavier the backlash.

Even the puff of smoke that summoned you out just now has an incense smell that cannot be hidden, which shows how greedy you are, completely ignoring cause and effect and source, muddle-headed, refusing no one, chewing and eating in big mouthfuls."

Initially, he didn't have a plan to come to Sha Qiu personally.

With the Earth God secretly watching, not to mention Guan Huchen having the Thousand-Mile Eye, even if an ordinary general were arranged to come, it would probably be foolproof.

But Sha Man Yu still ran away.

It wasn't that Guan Huchen had a problem, but that the Earth God had changed.

After arriving at Sha Qiu and personally observing the astrology, Feng Shui, and dragon vein of the Sha Qiu Kingdom, Daoist Qingsong suddenly realized.

Previously, he mocked that barbarian saints were not saints, because heavenly favor is in China, and barbarians do not get heavenly favor, so even if a born saint is born, they cannot grow up.

In fact, he had one more sentence he didn't say: Heaven helps those who help themselves.

Heavenly favor can be earned through effort.

Sha Man Yu and the Sha Qiu Kingdom already have some heavenly favor at this time.

Everything goes smoothly, meeting difficulties and turning them into auspiciousness, is heavenly favor.

Even the Earth God, who was ordained by Great Qin, realized the "Heavenly Secret" at a critical moment, secretly defected to the barbarians with the noble status of a Chinese scholar, abandoned his scholar clothes for barbarian clothes; if this isn't heavenly favor, what is?

If it weren't for him holding the Human Emperor's order, equivalent to the Human Emperor personally suppressing it, it almost let Sha Man Yu and the Sha Qiu Kingdom escape this disaster.

But no matter how great the heavenly favor is, can it be greater and thicker than the Human Emperor's heavenly favor?

The Chinese Human Emperor is half the sky, and the Human Emperor's will is stronger than the Heavenly Will!

"My Lord, please observe clearly, this little god has been the Earth God of Western Sha for three hundred years, and for the past three hundred years, I haven't had a full meal for a single day. The Sha Barbarians don't worship the Earth God at all, and there is no Earth Temple.

This little god is hungry without food, thirsty without water, and has no roof over my head, exposed to wind and sun, scorching heat and bitter winter, only able to endure hard.

Sometimes encountering reckless spirits, I was forcibly summoned and driven to do the work of a slave, chopping wood and lighting fires, pushing mills and pulling carts, even more bitter than when this little god was a tenant farmer as a mortal.

Sha Man Yu built the shrine, not just to sacrifice to the Daoist Ancestor, Heavenly Emperor, and Buddha.

She didn't know how to write, so she dictated the sacrificial text, clearly stating to respect heaven and earth and worship the righteous gods.

That is to say, she opened the sacrifices to all righteous gods of heaven and earth.

This little god didn't steal the offerings of the Daoist Ancestor and Heavenly Emperor either.

This little god is among the righteous gods who enjoy incense, just with a slightly larger appetite."

Hungry for too long, with a slightly larger appetite, swallowing all the incense, this is very reasonable.

But explaining the large appetite is just the beginning; the key is "betraying Great Qin and shielding Sha Man Yu".

The old Earth God tangled for a moment, then honestly admitted, "My Lord is worthy of being a high-ranking person who attained the Dao in Zheng-Yang Palace, seeing through this little god's problem at a glance.

When this little god was alive, I also heard the saying 'incense is poisonous'.

But until I tried it myself, I didn't understand the goodness and poison of incense.

This little god once reached the position of a high official in the Eastern Shu Kingdom, and served in the Legalist Academy of the Great Qin Wenhui Hall for three years, witnessing the prosperity of the human world, enjoying fragrant cars, beauties, and rare delicacies.

But compared to incense, beauties are like withered bones, fragrant cars are like torture instruments, and delicacies become dung.

And how delicious incense is, is how vicious it is.

This little god was ordained as a god for three hundred years, and enjoying the Sha Barbarian incense has only been a mere three years.

Three hundred years of bitter cultivation cannot compare to the backlash caused by three years of incense.

Completely unable to bear it, unable to resist."

The old Earth God sighed with a complex expression, and hurriedly expressed his loyalty, "But my Lord also truly wronged this little god; this little god really didn't intentionally hide Sha Man Yu, because, because..."

He stammered and couldn't spit it out.

The more curious Daoist Qingsong was, the more impatient he became, shouting, "The Human Emperor's order is here, and you still dare to play tricks! Great Qin ordained you as a god, and you are the Earth God.

Even if this place is bitter and cold, can it be more bitter than the endless reincarnation, more bitter than the torture of the eighteenth level of the underworld?

The Human Emperor can exempt you from reincarnation and underworld punishment with one word, and can also make you suffer ten thousand calamities with one word.

If you dare to forget even this, this little Daoist can help you restore your memory."

He didn't take out the Human Emperor's order again, but activated the power of the "Human Emperor's Envoy".

His divine sense entered the Earth God's body without any obstruction, instantly controlling the "Western Sha Xin-Mo Hao" Earth God talisman at the core.

"Daoist Grandfather, spare my life! This little god... no, this little subject, this little person... servant, servant is Great Qin's servant, the grace of His Majesty the Human Emperor can never be repaid." The Earth God wailed miserably, kowtowing repeatedly.

"It seems that this poor Daoist's memory recovery technique is indeed effective." Daoist Qingsong smiled.

"Effective, very effective, Daoist Grandfather has great divine powers and high magic power, this servant has completely remembered, and has also completely realized." The Earth God's mouth was as bitter as if he were chewing dung.

"This servant didn't hide Sha Man Yu, because it was completely unnecessary. With that group of useless Western Shu barbarians on Sha Qiu, they couldn't catch her at all, and were instead played around by her."

General Guan, who was eating melons and watching the show, was angry.

He climbed up, pointed at the old Earth God, and scolded, "Bastard, who are you calling barbarians? My Great Shu monarch is a relative of the imperial family, and you Eastern Shu people are the barbarians."

Earth God Zou Qing raised his head to look at him, then quietly glanced at Daoist Qingsong, and finally his lips moved a few times, but he didn't speak.

Daoist Qingsong didn't say anything either.

Eastern Shu and Western Shu originally didn't like each other.

Back then, the Human Emperor arranged them on both sides of the Liushahe, never expecting them to be harmonious.

The Li family of the Western Shu royal family and the Ba family of the Eastern Shu royal family were mortal enemies for thousands of years in the ancient Shu land, with deep blood feuds; how could they be harmonious?

How dare they be harmonious?

"This little Daoist previously observed the astrology and calculated that although Sha Man Yu's life star flickered unsteadily, the intention to jump out was obvious; she wanted to leave Sha Qiu very much, but she didn't succeed, and at this moment she is still in this land." Daoist Qingsong said.

The old Earth God was stunned and replied, "This servant doesn't understand astrology, but regarding Sha Man Yu's idea of leaving Sha Qiu, this servant is very clear and understands.

It is not that she only had this thought today.

From the time this servant paid attention to her and Sha Qiu, she didn't hide the thought of leaving the Sha Barbarian tribe to seek immortals and visit the Dao outside.

If it weren't for this servant secretly exerting great effort, no matter how the Lord calculated and deduced, you wouldn't have found her."

Daoist Qingsong asked curiously, "What great effort did you secretly exert?"

A smile of one part pride and nine parts flattery appeared on the old Earth God's old face, "Sha Man Yu admired the immortal Dao, vainly hoping to become a great power who travels to the North Sea in the morning and Cangwu in the evening; when she was young and weak, she didn't dare to leave home alone.

When she grew up a little, she still feared the mountain spirits and wild monsters outside, so she often used her clever tongue to incite Sha Barbarian warriors to go out together to apprentice and learn arts, and achieve true immortality.

Several times she almost succeeded.

This servant's ability is insufficient and my divine powers are meager, but playing the role of a demon ghost to stir up wind and black smoke to scare them is very simple.

Sha Man Yu tried to travel far several times, but was scared back by this servant within a day or two.

After many times, she became more and more terrified, and the Sha Barbarian warriors she incited also completely lost heart and stopped paying attention to her."

Daoist Qingsong looked strange, "You seem to be asking for credit from this little Daoist?"

"This servant wouldn't dare, this servant is just happy to be able to serve the Lord, Great Qin, and His Majesty the Human Emperor." The old Earth God lowered his head.

——If you hadn't tossed around blindly, the dragon vein under Sha Qiu might not have been raised; you are still asking for credit, you idiot! You deserve to be backlashed by the incense; the connection with the Sha Barbarians is so deep, the previous backlash was just an appetizer; wait and see if you die miserably or die by being sliced into a thousand pieces.

Daoist Qingsong's expression was light, but in his heart, he treated the old Earth God as a dead person... eh, should be a dead ghost, he had already died three hundred years ago.

"Why did you stop her from going out to seek immortals and ask about the Dao?" Guan Huchen couldn't help but ask.

He thought the old Earth God stopped Sha Man Yu for her own good, to save her from dying in the wilderness.

Traveling is difficult, seeking immortals is even more difficult, and encountering jackals, tigers, leopards, and mountain spirits is extremely easy.

Especially in the Sha Qiu wilderness, there are no immortals at all; you have to walk thousands of miles to the Shu Kingdom... even in the Shu Kingdom, there are only Human Immortals; he has lived for more than forty years and has never met a true god or immortal, mere Sha Barbarians, what are they dreaming of!

But the old Earth God obviously blocked the road, not out of pity for her life.