Chapter 236

The incense in the Baosheng Dharma Realm was draining at a speed visible to the naked eye; by the time all the vengeful spirits of Ruyi Temple had been delivered, the water level in the blood lake, formed by condensed incense, had already dropped by more than half.

As the water level fell, the blood lake shrank accordingly. Xu Qing watched the blood lake turn back into a small pool, feeling a bit of heartache.

Yet it was a pain mixed with joy; at this moment, those infant spirits, having been washed of most of their resentment, were circling around Xu Qing, looking just like young swallows seeing their mother return to the nest, their feelings of attachment and longing overflowing.

Xu Qing only felt his corpse growing warm, and his heart warming as well.

However, if these lingering traces of resentment and baleful energy were not completely dissolved, the souls of these infants would still be unable to find release.

As the Baosheng Niangniang, Xu Qing could perceive the emotions of these children. He spoke: "I have learned of all the sins committed by the master of this place, that Bai Yun demon Daoist. As the chief culprit who murdered you, he will certainly be punished; this is the promise of Baosheng Temple."

Under the blessing of the incense, Xu Qing's words seemed to receive a response from the void—this was the vow made by the Baosheng Niangniang. Upon hearing this, the last wisp of resentment on the infant spirits dissipated.

As the protector of Baosheng Temple, Xuanyu also felt the incense draining from the Dharma Realm.

"Does Immortal Xu not find it a pity?"

"Pity for what?"

"That incense."

Xu Qing was stunned for a moment, then smiled slightly: "The Cat Immortal Hall was created by you and me to deal with disasters; the incense in the hall is already sufficient. As for the incense of this Baosheng Temple—Xuanyu, have you ever heard the saying: 'When poor, attend to your own virtue; when successful, benefit the world'?"

"Although we lack the ability to benefit the world, we can at least allow these homeless children to find release. Does Xuanyu not think that this is the very meaning of Baosheng Temple's existence?"

Xuanyu stared unblinkingly at the smiling Baosheng Niangniang before it. It seemed to see a soft radiance reflecting off Immortal Xu's face; at this moment, the Baosheng Niangniang truly seemed like an immortal from the heavens descended into the mortal world.

At this moment, who could possibly associate the Immortal Xu before them with the unlucky funeral director from the mortuary?

"Immortal Xu's scent is so strange."

"Scent?" Xu Qing was surprised.

He lifted his wide, long sleeves and sniffed; besides a faint floral fragrance and the exotic scent of the blood lake's incense, there was no other odor.

"It's just very pleasant, a scent that makes others want to draw near."

Cats are creatures with few family ties. Xuanyu was separated from its mother at a very young age; to be precise, the farmer who kept the cats had a food shortage and could not afford to feed the extra kittens.

The mother cat was spiritually aware and knew the farmer would eventually abandon her children. To ensure her kittens, who lacked hunting skills, could remain in the farmer's home, the mother cat left the farm alone one day and never returned.

Although Xu Qing had formed a bond with Xuanyu, he did not understand this habit of cats, nor did he know of Xuanyu's past.

In the end, what Xuanyu felt was merely that childhood memory hidden deep within its mind, one that was already on the verge of disappearing.

At this moment, the zombie and the cat both felt very satisfied, not feeling the slightest regret for the incense lost by Baosheng Temple.

However, there is another saying in this world: "Plant melons, reap melons; plant beans, reap beans."

The good cause planted today might bring unexpected good fruit in the future.

To turn to another matter, a hundred miles away on the Qu Yang official road.

The Bai Yun Daoist, having been snubbed by the Shang family, was sitting in his carriage, feeling indignant.

He could not understand it; the Gu family had clearly promised to let him refine and repair their Daoist soldier techniques, but now, after the Gu family married into the Shang family, they had suddenly reneged. That cold, intentionally distant attitude was completely different from before.

"Who exactly is meddling in this?"

Thinking it over, the Bai Yun Daoist could only think of one possibility: someone knew of his connection to the capital and had informed the Gu family. Otherwise, the Gu family, desperate to perfect their Daoist soldier techniques and restore the former glory of the White-Robed Army, would never have easily severed their cooperation with him.

"If someone from the capital comes to ask, how should I answer?"

Just as the Bai Yun Daoist was worried and depressed, his carriage-driving disciple suddenly spoke: "Master, at this banquet, the Shang family didn't donate a single cent of incense, while the Zen Master Jinghai of Cizhao Temple received hundreds of gold."

"If we had known, we shouldn't have come to the banquet at all."

"..."

There was silence in the carriage for a moment, then a voice devoid of joy or anger came out: "Money is but an external object. We who cultivate the Dao value cultivating the heart and reaching far, remaining indifferent to fame and wealth. Besides, those mortals, even with gold and silver, how long can they enjoy it?"

"But Master, when you went to the banquet, you even gave the Shang family a pair of jade locks. How could they be so disrespectful to you..."

Before the disciple could finish, the Bai Yun Daoist's just-calmed emotions surged again.

"Say no more! Returning to the Daoist temple to cultivate with a focused heart is the proper path."

The old Bai Yun Daoist took a deep breath and exhaled slowly.

Those who cultivate the Dao must have a calm spirit when facing major events; as the saying goes, "a calm spirit leads to a relaxed mind."

He was merely having a bit of bad luck; as for the affairs of the Shang and Gu families, he had plenty of time to deal with them.

"Immeasurable Heavenly Venerable..."

Thinking of this, the Bai Yun Daoist's mood improved slightly. However, just as he finished his prayer and before his words had settled, he felt the restrictions placed on the alchemy room in the back hall being forcibly broken!

Immediately after, his magic treasure alchemy furnace was destroyed. The Bai Yun Daoist let out a muffled groan; his connection to the furnace was completely severed!

"Who is it?!"

"What's wrong, Master?" the disciple driving the carriage pulled the horses to a stop, asking with concern.

"Someone has broken into my alchemy room and destroyed my furnace!"

The Bai Yun Daoist's face was dark and uncertain.

"Could someone be trying to steal the pills?" the disciple asked in shock.

"The temple is guarded by your fellow disciples; who would dare break in? Besides, the alchemy room is in a secret chamber in the back hall, isolated by restrictions. Who from the outside could find it?"

The Bai Yun Daoist's eyes were filled with malice as he hissed: "It must be some greedy, rebellious wretch who took advantage of my absence to steal the immortal medicine from the hall."

"Ah? Where would the senior brothers get the guts? Could it be that the White-Haired God is acting up again?"

"You mean Yuan Gong? I shattered his statue years ago. Now that the path to heaven is broken, he cannot descend to this realm, and his avatar left in Yunmeng Mountain has no incense to sustain it. How could he destroy my alchemy room?"

"Enough, let me divine the matter."

The old Bai Yun Daoist couldn't figure out the mystery, so he simply took out his divination plate, lit sandalwood incense, and divined to the heavens.

"Xuanji turns the pivot, all phenomena return to storage, stars shift and constellations turn, heavenly secrets fall upon the plate!"

The deep purple divination plate bloomed with a faint blood-red light. The old Bai Yun Daoist felt a response, and all the hexagrams instantly pieced together a result—

A high-ranking court official, granted a third-rank title by special exception, enjoying imperial favor, but the children's palace is empty, with no offspring, and the yang fish on the divination plate are all hidden, indicating a female form.

The Bai Yun Daoist had never heard of a third-rank female official in the current court, and besides, a third rank could hardly be considered the pinnacle of officialdom.

Only eunuchs have a maximum rank of fourth, and the only person currently granted a third-rank title by special exception is the Grand Superintendent of the Neiwu Prefecture, the Director of the Mirror-Reflecting Bureau, Liao Jinchong.

The Bai Yun Daoist certainly recognized this half-man, half-woman grand eunuch, but this person was clearly already dead, and the hexagram also indicated a dead person.

How could a dead person break into his alchemy room and steal his immortal medicine? The old Bai Yun Daoist frowned tightly, assuming the divination plate had malfunctioned, and prepared to try a different method.

"Dragon soars in the mysterious sea, tiger crouches in the bright hall, Vermilion Bird holds the prophecy, Black Tortoise carries the image, four symbols generate and overcome, five elements set the direction!"

This time, the Bai Yun Daoist used the four symbols and five elements for the deduction. As the incantation fell, the divination plate spun rapidly, the blood-red light seeming to condense into substance.

A registered disciple of Ruyi Temple, the Scabby Daoist?

As the hexagram appeared, the Bai Yun Daoist was utterly stunned.

What kind of stray cat or dog is this?

The Bai Yun Daoist had an impression of the Scabby-headed Daoist; he was just a bandit who was ugly and had delusions of grandeur, usually doing things like robbing houses, yet dreaming all day of becoming an immortal.

Could a piece of trash like this, who didn't know a single character and had extremely mediocre talent, break into his alchemy room and destroy his furnace, which couldn't even be melted by earth fire?

Don't make me laugh!

The Bai Yun Daoist didn't believe it; he calculated again: "I am a man, not a fair maiden..."

What is all this?

"Ask no more than three times." The Bai Yun Daoist felt blood rushing to his head; his face turned red, clearly having lost his cool.

"One last time, one last time! My divination skills are praised even by the bald donkeys of Cizhao Temple; could I really not calculate my own affairs?"

The old Bai Yun Daoist became ruthless, simply using all his life's learning to drive the divination plate in his hand with all his might, calculating once more.

"Heaven's luck, Earth's virtue, Man's limit! Three talents descend, the spiritual fetus manifests!"

The divination plate reversed, and eye-piercing fetal blood seeped out. It turned out that the divination plate in the Daoist's hand was not carved from wood or cast from copper and iron, but refined from the fetal bodies of infants!

"Let me see what kind of monster you are."

"Wait! Slow down! I won't calculate anymore!"

"Boom—"

In the middle of a clear day, on the official road, a thunderbolt exploded, and the carriage parked in the middle of the road instantly shattered into pieces.

When the smoke and dust cleared, the old Daoist who had previously worn cloud-crane robes and looked ethereal had disappeared, replaced by a ragged, black-faced old man with a trendy hairstyle.

Looking at that attire and that charred temperament, he would at least be a nine-bag elder in the Beggar Sect.

Spitting out a mouthful of blood, the Bai Yun Daoist looked at the broken jade talisman in his hand, feeling immense heartache.

"Yuan Gong! It really is you!"

In the eyes of the old Bai Yun Daoist, besides the White-Haired God Yuan Gong, who else could command heavenly thunder to strike people?

The thunder today was no different from the heavenly thunder he encountered when he refined the Nine-Turn Mysterious Pill years ago.

The Bai Yun Daoist looked at the charred figure lying on the ground not far ahead.

Walking closer, it was an acquaintance.

Wasn't it his prized disciple? It was just that now, his disciple was cooked beyond recognition!

Skipping over the disciple's corpse, the Bai Yun Daoist applied Bai Yun Talismans and Crane-Rising Talismans to his legs, while holding a horsetail whisk engraved with Xun-wind runes. As he kicked off the ground and chanted the Returning Cloud Incantation, flicking the whisk, his whole body soared into the air, crossing mountains and rivers, and sped toward Ruyi Temple.

Yunmeng Mountain, Ruyi Temple.

After clearing out all the demon Daoists in the temple, the demonic energy on Xuanyu was on the verge of spiraling out of control. Although Xu Qing had experience with Tribulation Crossing, that was as a zombie; he didn't know much about the process for demons.

The only bit of experience he had came from the White Immortal Lady at the Hundred-Grass Cave in Yuehua Mountain.

The zombie and the cat were both encountering this for the first time. Xu Qing, having survived the lightning disaster, told Xuanyu to suppress the urge to condense its demon core, and then poured out all the magic treasures and pills he had on him, usable or not.

"Don't panic! Absolutely don't panic!"

Xuanyu, sitting cross-legged in front of the Daoist arena, watched Immortal Xu, who was busily setting up the altar rituals for it, and its previously restless heart inexplicably calmed down.

After setting up the rituals, Xu Qing burned quite a lot of offerings for Heaven, the gods of the Thunder Department, and the immortals in charge of heavenly punishment and laws. The spiritual incense was top-tier, the kind recognized by the ghost marshals and ghost kings of the Ancient Yin River Path, followed by the three animal sacrifices.

Anyway, whether it was useful or not, Xu Qing reported it according to the proper procedures.

After all, demons are different from anomalies like zombies.

It is not easy for demons to cultivate, and the disasters they face are more severe than those faced by humans, who are favored by heaven. To increase their chances of surviving the tribulation, demons are constantly looking for various shortcuts.

One of the most common methods is to attach themselves to human cultivators or sects. Through long-term contact with humans, demons naturally become tainted with some "human energy," which is what is known as human merit.

Correspondingly, when the Heavenly Dao senses this merit, the intensity of the disaster it sends down will also decrease.

This is one of the reasons why fox demons like to form bonds with humans.

Besides this, some spiritually aware demons, on the eve of their tribulation, will follow their instincts and seek out temples and Daoist shrines to worship gods and Buddhas, also to increase their chances of surviving the disaster.

This is somewhat similar to how candidates before the imperial examinations like to go in groups to worship the Literary Saint and the Literary Star.

Whether it works is another matter, but no demon who has survived the disaster has ever said it doesn't.

In this way, it has been passed down for a long time, forming a characteristic culture where demons, before crossing their tribulation or even when not crossing one, like to gather at temples and shrines to worship gods.

As the head of the Cat Immortal Hall, Xu Qing naturally had to arrange everything for Xuanyu, who was about to take the great demon examination.

After worshipping all the gods associated with the heavenly tribulation, Xu Qing didn't forget to categorize various pills and talismans and hand them to Xuanyu.

His cautious and meticulous manner, always feeling that something was not prepared well enough, seemed even more attentive than when he himself crossed the tribulation.

On the side, Xuanyu finally couldn't help but speak: "Didn't we already worship these gods once before we came out to wander?"

Xu Qing showed the expression of someone who had been through it, saying with feeling: "You don't understand; this is called 'too much courtesy is never a burden.' Worshipping a few more times is never a bad thing."

Just as the two were talking, Xu Qing suddenly turned his head to look toward the temple gate.

"Xuanyu, your chance for revenge has come!"

Before the words fell, a sound of air being torn came from outside Ruyi Temple. Xuanyu also sensed that hateful aura.

"It's you?"

The old Bai Yun Daoist landed in front of the Dharma altar. When he saw the faces of Xu Qing and the young girl before him, his brows immediately furrowed: "Why are you two... wait! Demonic energy, this little girl is a demon!"

"No! This aura, it's a Nine-Life Mysterious Cat!"

The old Bai Yun Daoist was both shocked and delighted. However, when he sensed the evil aura coming from the young man in front of him, he instantly sobered up.

Scanning the surroundings, the old Bai Yun Daoist couldn't feel a single trace of living human aura. The entire Daoist temple seemed as if everyone had evaporated into thin air, with only the thick, lingering smell of blood in the air indicating everything that had happened here before.

"So my foundation was destroyed by you!"

The Bai Yun Daoist reacted quickly. If everything in the temple was done by Xu Qing and the others, why did he suffer a backlash from heavenly thunder when he deduced the heavenly secrets?

However, Xu Qing and Xuanyu clearly didn't intend to give the old Daoist a chance to think.

"Old man, your time has come!"

(End of chapter)