Chapter 163: Divine Power Cannot Overcome Heavenly Fate

Outside Fucheng, as Xu Qing and the others prepared to spur their horses and head back to Linhe, Guo Dongyang was still inquiring about the details of subduing the demon, such as whether the mottled great tiger on the granary roof had been a helper summoned by Xu Qing.

"Great tiger? What great tiger? Did you see a great tiger?"

Xuan Yu remained silent before outsiders, while Guan Dazhuang shook his head and said, "I did not see one."

Guo Dongyang shamelessly grabbed Xu Qing's arm, pulling him aside like an old child who always wanted to know things children ought not to know.

"Brother Xu, I'll call you Brother Xu, so just reveal some truth to your old brother; I've been scratching my heart and clawing my guts all day, it's truly unbearable."

Truth? Do you want to hear corpse-talk instead?

"Brother Guo might not be seeing things; cats are the masters of tigers. Perhaps yesterday my cat, to make catching mice easier, went and found an apprentice to help. That is not impossible."

Hearing this, Xuan Yu seemed quite pleased, and Guan Dazhuang did not think Xu Qing's words were wrong either; he and Sun Erzhuang had both taken refuge in the Cat Immortal Hall, so it was no exaggeration to call them disciples or students of the Immortal Hall.

Guo Dongyang had traveled north and south for many years, having met people of a thousand faces and a thousand expressions, and encountered events that were strange and bizarre.

People like this always possessed some degree of insight and scheming.

Seeing that Xu Qing was unwilling to reveal more truth, Guo Dongyang ceased his further questioning.

However, at the moment of parting, Guo Dongyang suddenly asked a question to the man in yellow robes beside Xu Qing.

"Does this gentleman prefer meat dishes or vegetarian fare in his daily life?"

Guan Dazhuang answered instinctively, "I eat mostly meat and dislike vegetarian food."

Xu Qing suddenly turned his head to look at Guan Dazhuang, his gaze unfriendly as he said, "How old are you, yet you are picky about food? When we return, you will eat only vegetarian fare for three days to correct this habit of being too picky!"

Realizing he had spoken out of turn, Guan Dazhuang immediately clamped his mouth shut and glared fiercely at Guo Dongyang, who had tried to draw words from him.

The latter's scalp tightened, as if instantly stared at by some fierce bird or beast, and a chill ran through his entire body.

Watching Xu Qing and the others depart, Guo Dongyang chuckled, whistled, and returned to the tea house.

On the road back to Linhe, a carriage appeared with a plain-clothed old driver and a delicate young lady sitting inside the cabin.

The old man's beard and eyebrows, a foot in length, had been shaved off by Xu Qing; now, disguised and changed in appearance, Guo Zixu showed not the slightest trace of his former identity as the Rat King.

Guo Qiao'er's face was veiled in white gauze; she rarely showed her face in public, and now sitting inside the carriage, she looked like a pampered daughter of an old wealthy landlord, and without some cultivation, one could not see through her illusion art.

However, seeing how this father and daughter, even after 'bankruptcy,' still squandered incense offerings to maintain their human forms, Xu Qing could imagine how wealthy the Grey Immortal Hall had once been.

A centipede, even when dead, does not stiffen.

Xu Qing estimated that the old man Guo probably still held onto quite a bit of incense offerings.

On the official road outside Fucheng, the carriage moved slowly.

Xu Qing had rented the carriage from a horse agency, and the horses carrying everyone were ordinary mortal horses.

Along the way, other carriages passed Xu Qing; he had not paid attention at first, until a monk riding a thin donkey backwards overtook him, at which point he immediately noticed something was amiss.

Why is my horse so slow?

Xu Qing glanced sideways at the horse, seeing the red jujube horse covered in sweat, every step seeming to drag a weight of a thousand jin.

"Immortal Xu, how many jin do you weigh?"

Xuan Yu also seemed to have noticed something wrong; he looked up in confusion, scrutinizing Xu Qing.

"I'm not sure; I have never been weighed. Why does Xuan Yu ask this?"

Xuan Yu turned his gaze to the panting horse and reasoned logically, "Look at this horse, exhausted to this extent; surely someone is too heavy, otherwise how could it not even catch up to that monk's stubborn donkey?"

Hearing this, Xu Qing looked at the monk riding the donkey backwards not far away, seeing the other party with a large belly, like Maitreya Buddha, smiling cheerfully at them.

"That monk must be laughing at us!"

Once the cat's competitive spirit arose, it began urging the driver Guo Zixu to catch up quickly.

"I know! If it isn't Immortal Xu, then it must be Dazhuang who is too heavy; such a huge tiger must be weighing the horse down until it can barely breathe!"

Guan Dazhuang said gloomily, "I weigh only around eight hundred jin; an inferior horse can carry a thousand jin, and this is a vigorous, prime horse; even pulling a two-thousand-jin carriage would be no problem, so how could it be because I am too heavy?"

Having finished speaking, Guan Dazhuang looked at Guo Qiao'er inside the carriage and exclaimed, "People say 'the thousand-jin Young Lady,' but I say the friend Guo's daughter is the heaviest of all."

"Dazhuang, read more books from now on; at the very least, I'll find you a teacher, and if that fails, we can attend a private school for a few days when we have time."

Xu Qing spoke earnestly; after he finished, Guo Qiao'er replied softly, "This humble one weighs less than fifty jin."

"."

Less than fifty jin; upon hearing this, Xu Qing fell completely silent.

Let's just say, a five-jin rat is already very large!

Xuan Yu, having heard the whole round, finally fixed his gaze once more on Xu Qing: "It must be that Immortal Xu is too heavy!"

Xu Qing flatly denied it: "I am a weak and frail Licentiate; at most I weigh one hundred and fifty jin; how could it be that I am too heavy? It must be that this horse has a leg ailment, and the cunning agent sold me an inferior horse!"

Xuan Yu stared into Xu Qing's eyes and said seriously, "A few days ago when it rained, I personally saw you step into the ground under the eaves, sinking this deep."

The black cat raised one paw high above its head, the height from the carriage floor reaching a full foot and a half.

Xu Qing was left speechless.

An Iron-Armored Corpse weighs as much as molten iron, and a Silver-Armored Corpse even more so.

Xu Qing estimated that he himself now probably weighed no less than Guan Dazhuang, perhaps even heavier.

In his daily travels, he often used the Lightness Art, or pasted Horse-Stepping Talismans inscribed with the words 'White Clouds Ascend,' reciting the Crane-Feather Riding Clouds Incantation to lighten his own burden, and also to prevent others from noticing any anomaly.

Today, sitting in the carriage, he had not cast the Lightness Art.

Xu Qing lifted his robe hem and looked again at the Horse-Stepping Talisman pasted on the inner side of his trouser leg, only to find that the talisman pasted half a month ago had faded characters and lost its effect.

No wonder!

No wonder he always felt the horse's strength was off; it turned out the Horse-Stepping Talisman's durability had run out!

After discovering the problem, Xu Qing casually peeled off the old talisman and replaced it with a new one; the next moment, everyone in the carriage suddenly lurched backward as a strong pushing sensation instantly struck them.

Inside the cabin, the Rat Lady quickly stretched out her hands to steady herself; Xuan Yu and Dazhuang also reacted very swiftly, only the driver Guo Zixu, caught off guard, nearly got thrown off the carriage.

"This horse is most strange; how did it suddenly become so powerful?"

Xu Qing said as if nothing had happened, "What did I say? It's still a problem with the horse; look, now it's running fast again."

Xuan Yu watched the horse speed up more than twofold, and his thoughts turned once again to mocking the donkey-riding Monk.

"Horse, run faster! Catch up with that big Monk!"

Gu Zixu, eager to show off before the Cat Immortal, pulled the reins with all his might, shouting as the date-red horse, freshly lightened, strained to give chase.

After not much chasing, the Monk riding the donkey backwards appeared once more in the group's line of sight on the official road.

Seeing the carriage pursuing, the Monk was startled; how did this group look as if they were coming for him?

The big Monk swept his wide monk sleeves across the donkey's rump; a Buddhist talisman ignited without wind, and as the ash scattered, a line of scorched golden characters was seen burning into the donkey's hide.

Twirling his prayer beads and chanting the sutra, the next moment the thin donkey, nearly caught, once again pulled away from Xu Qing's carriage.

Xu Qing glanced curiously at the departing donkey.

Strange to say, the thin donkey's steps ahead did not look particularly fast to the naked eye, yet it managed to pull away from the carriage, appearing as if it were shortening the earth into inches, gliding along the ground.

While Xuan Yu was still encouraging Gu Zixu, Xu Qing quietly peeled off the horse-talisman from his own body; the next moment, the horse's speed visibly slowed down again.

Xuan Yu knew not the reason, so Xu Qing spoke up in time: "I see that Monk is no ordinary person; Xuan Yu, do not forget what happened outside Jinmen before."

Cats have heavy playfulness; once a mood is struck, they forget the losses suffered in the past.

Prompted by Xu Qing, Xuan Yu instantly came to his senses.

Meanwhile, on the road to Quyang Commandery, the Monk riding the donkey backwards was twirling his prayer beads, muttering to himself, as if divining something.

Although there was some incense scent on that carriage, these people were clearly not well-intentioned; perhaps they were not conducting any proper business, but rather operating profane shrines and profane sacrifices, swindling incense offerings.

"Hmm? That carriage driver is clearly an old man, yet how does he manifest a female appearance, and a widow at that?"

The fat Monk frowned; while he sped up the twirling of his prayer beads, a thick incense scent overflowed from between his fingers, then drifted into the air, like a golden ribbon connecting heaven and earth.

The vegetable-selling old woman, the singing courtesan...

When divining the courtesan, the fat Monk's fingers suddenly paused, ceasing further divination.

"Do not ask more than three times"; this is a rule known to all skilled diviners.

The fat Monk has always adhered to the pure precepts and rules; he was unwilling to break the rules of the divination path.

"All forms are illusory; Amitabha."

After the fat Monk's backwards-twirled prayer beads paused for a moment, they resumed normal twirling.

Jingxia Street, the Corpse Worker's Shop.

After Xu Qing returned to the shop, he had Sun Erzhuang cook dishes; he himself set up an offering table and incense altar, first to establish a new branch hall, and second to let Gu Zixu and Gu Qiao'er become familiar with the Immortals of each hall, a group gathering for everyone to bond and share a meal.

On the table, Xu Qing had specially left an empty seat for the Black Crow, with a stick of incense planted above it; Gu Zixu did not understand, so he informed the other that this was the seat of the Hall-Pressing Immortal, Uncle Guo.

"Uncle Guo has gone far away on official Immortal business; though he cannot return in time to celebrate, he should not be forgotten."

After Gu Zixu and Gu Qiao'er established vow talismans and joined the Immortal Hall, Xu Qing felt that the incense available for withdrawal in the Main Hall's Dharma Realm had increased by about twenty thousand.

"Friend Gu, this incense..."

Having just finished the red-grain fine water, Gu Zixu, with a thick tongue, said: "Since I have joined the Immortal Hall, this incense is naturally a gift from me to the Cat Immortal Hall; I only hope that in the future, the Patriarch will remember the intentions of Qiao'er and me, allowing my old man and I to obtain a measure of peace."

Xu Qing was speechless.

This old man still felt uneasy in his heart, so he merged this incense into the Cat Immortal Hall as a token of loyalty.

"I will temporarily accept this incense; in the future, if Brother Gu and Miss Qiao'er need to use incense, you may also seek me to withdraw it."

Gu Zixu shook his head and smiled lightly; two thousand strands of incense are not easy to accumulate; even if he wanted to withdraw it in the future, how much would the Cat Immortal Hall return to him?

In the end, it was merely scattering wealth to ensure safety!

After the Feng Shui Hall was built, Gu Zixu and Gu Qiao'er dug a Rat Residence beneath Jingxia Street as their dwelling.

The two brothers, Dazhuang and Erzhuang, returned to the Circle Hall to continue acting as Immortal agents for the mountain villagers, assessing matters and accumulating incense.

At the end of the eighth month, the Cat Immortal Hall had nearly forty thousand strands of incense.

On this day, Xu Qing, with one hand playing with valuable ornamental walnuts and the other holding an extra-large birdcage, led Jin Luan out the door.

He had rare leisure these past few days, and just happened to have time to go to the Flower and Bird Street to assess matters for Second Master Feng.

That Second Master, in his early years, did not know what dirty thing his family offended; besides him, not a single person in the family survived.

Even though he survived by luck, Second Master Feng dared not marry or have children; wherever he went, he had to carry 'Uncle', letting that rooster protect his safety.

Xu Qing had always remembered this matter; Second Master Feng had expended great effort to find the burial coins for him to refine the Yin Gold Coffin, an act of kindness he could not ignore.

Moreover, while others might fear dirty things, he was the least afraid of such things.

In terms of dirtiness, who could be dirtier than him?

Xu Qing, carrying the somewhat displeased Jin Luan, humming a little tune, like nothing was wrong, strolled all the way out of Jingxia Street.

However, what Xu Qing did not know was that shortly after he and Jin Luan left, a porcelain-carved little girl suddenly appeared in the empty Corpse Worker's Shop.

That little girl wore obviously ill-fitting adult clothes; when walking, she had to lift the hem with her hand to avoid tripping.

After about a cup of tea's time, the little girl in the green collar and white shirt suddenly vanished; the wide robes, lacking support, immediately scattered on the ground.

Moments later, the robes writhed, and a black cat crawled out from the scattered robes.

Flower and Bird Street, the courtyard of Second Master Feng.

The bodyguards of the Tai'an Escort Agency were chatting idly with Second Master Feng and others.

Seeing Xu Qing enter carrying the magnificent big rooster, the group of bodyguards sighed in amazement for quite a while.

"Hah, this big rooster, I'm afraid it won't fit in a single pot to stew."

The one speaking was that Gold-Hanging Bodyguard with a mouth sweetened by honey.

"Hongwu, if you don't speak, no one will think you're mute!"

The Chief Escort glared at the other with no good temper; know that in the eyes of these troublemakers, the things raised in those birdcages, the cats and dogs held in their arms, were no less dear than their own sons and daughters.

If you dare to say in front of someone that you want to stew the chicken in their cage, not getting beaten up by them would be the lightest outcome!

The Gold-Hanging Bodyguard let out a dry laugh and changed the subject: "Where were we just speaking? Oh right, Second Master doesn't know the news from the capital yet; a few days ago, the Sacrificial Altar was completed; when His Majesty the Emperor went to observe the ceremony, the rebels of the Heart of Heaven Sect almost succeeded in assassinating the Emperor!"

The Chief Escort's head throbbed hearing this; this heartless thing, it would have been better to continue talking about stewing the chicken.

Xu Qing heard the news brought by the Golden Tiao Master from the capital and only then learned that the Five Luo Protectors of the Tianxin Sect had once again committed a great outrage.

However, the plan failed. The Tianxin Sect had originally spread word, intending to have the Five Luo Protectors jointly attempt regicide while the Dog Emperor attended the completion ceremony of the Sacrificial Altar, but in the end, only two Protectors went to carry out the assassination.

These two Protectors were not lacking in strength and were first-rate experts on the Jianghu, yet they still failed to accomplish their task.

As the saying goes, human effort cannot overcome divine power, and divine power cannot overcome the Mandate of Heaven. The fortune of the Great Yong Dynasty has not yet been severed; the melon of changing dynasties may seem to grow larger and larger, but in truth, its insides are not yet ripe, and the Tianxin Sect assassins were merely the hand that pat the melon for all under heaven to test its ripeness.

Xu Qing gazed at the melon and sighed, but he still had plenty of time; he would live his days slowly, collect corpses slowly, and one day he would wait for the melon to ripen and the stem to fall.

(End of this chapter)