Chapter 295: The White Immortal Hedgehog Comes to Join

Chen Liuxian was determined to achieve cultivation, but he simply refused to bow to Xu Jia. One can only say that the karmic debts of three lifetimes still retain their lingering power.

But his luck was poor; not long after leaving, he was captured by mountain bandits.

He had no choice but to claim he was an apprentice at a medical clinic and pharmacy who knew how to treat illnesses, which saved his life.

This wave of mountain bandits and brigands was later absorbed by a larger group of bandits and brigands, and he was unearthed along with them.

Mountain bandits get sick too; there is much baleful Qi in the mountains, and now that it is freezing cold, headaches and fevers are inevitable. It is very easy to die of illness, and if there are symptoms of contagion, one is thrown out into the ice and snow—if asked, they are already dead.

His skills were not bad, but he was often powerless. Every time he saw a bandit die of illness, he would fall into a strange state of mind; he hoped the bandits would just die quickly to rid the people of a scourge, yet seeing a life slip away right before his eyes, he could not help but be moved.

Furthermore, after being in contact for a period of time, he discovered that whether these were mountain bandits or brigands, only a minority were truly wicked and vicious. Most were like him, dragged up the mountain by force. They also missed their elderly mothers and were afraid of killing, but they described their suffering over and over again until others grew accustomed to hearing it and he became numb to it; they were living, breathing people too.

Sometimes in the middle of the night, he fantasized about the imperial court sending troops to suppress the bandits, but then he thought, if they really suppressed the bandits, then he would become a bandit himself and would certainly become a military merit for the soldiers; his ears would be cut off to tally the merit.

He also fantasized about escaping down the mountain, but he did not have the courage.

It was not until this day that he followed the brigands down the mountain to raid a village and seize grain. One could not survive on the mountain in winter, but one could barely survive at the foot of the mountain. The brigands also ate wild vegetables and tree bark, but if they ate wild vegetables and tree bark before becoming brigands, and still ate wild vegetables and tree bark after becoming brigands, wouldn't that have been for nothing?

Just as they went down the mountain to rob that day, a sudden gust of black wind blew, and then everyone felt as if a thousand needles were pricking their bodies at random, leaving them unable to move.

Chen Liuxian heard a voice: "Grandmother, why do we bother with them? We should head to the Poyang Water Mansion sooner."

"We have always practiced medicine and saved people to accumulate Merit, but the path is fraught with calamities. By accumulating more good affinities and good deeds, when we face calamities of our own in the future, we will not have to fear them."

Chen Liuxian clearly saw a little white-haired old woman leading a group of young men and women walk right past them.

The old woman among them walked straight up to the bandit leader: "Killing is a sin, saving is a merit. To kill one to save a hundred, the merit outweighs the sin. I originally did not wish to create killing karma, but if I leave, I fear dozens more lives will be lost at your hands. Their vengeful spirits will come to claim their lives in the future, and they might just come to find me and ask why I did not kill you."

"Sigh, how about this: I will place a needle in your heart. From now on, whenever you harbor the intent to kill, the needle will prick you. If you truly kill someone, the needle will pierce right through you."

The bandit leader said coldly: "Which path of demon-crone are you? You kill to save people, but is my killing not also to save people? My brothers cannot survive and are just trying to beg for a bite to eat. If you don't let us beg for a bite to eat, won't the thousands of old, weak, women, and children on the mountain starve to death?"

"Either way, it's death. No matter what you do, I am not the only group of bandits, and this world did not become chaotic because of me."

The old woman was troubled: "You, what you say also makes some sense. If I kill you, those thousand-plus mouths all rely on you to be fed. To starve those thousand-plus people to death would be my sin. But if I don't kill you, these people will immediately die at your hands. It is truly a dilemma."

"That's simple. I'll just bring these villagers up the mountain too. Everyone eats together and wears clothes together."

The old woman shook her head: "To force hundreds of good people up the mountain to be bandits, and then have them kill people in the future—wouldn't that be my sin? No, no!"

The bandit leader cursed: "Damn old woman, this won't do, that won't do. Either way, it's death. Following me, there is at least a hope of survival. At the very least, next time they won't have to fear being robbed a second or third time. What's wrong with that?"

A man beside her was furious: "Audacious! You dare to insult my grandmother!"

The old woman waved her hand: "His creating verbal karma is his karma. Why are you getting angry? You are just wasting your Merit and cultivation for nothing."

"How about this: I heard that they are recruiting displaced people over at Poyang to reclaim wasteland. They provide three meals a day and lodging, living in large communal dorms and eating in large canteens. It is just a bit tiring to work, but one can always survive. You pack up, take the old and young on the mountain, and come with us over there."

………

It was the first lunar month at this time, and there had been several snowfalls in recent days. Sanqing Mountain was covered in a vast expanse of white, and at the foot of the mountain, the snow melted and fell again and again.

The ice on the river had already been developed into an "ice cube business" by the Golden Toad. They had built several large ice cellars and sent people to chisel ice into the cellars to store it until next summer.

Once the ice broke, the boats could pass, all delivering goods to the Poyang side.

After the Salt and Iron Bureau successfully refined steel, improved steel farming tools began mass production, all for the sake of reclaiming wasteland and farming in Poyang when spring arrived.

With the Shunji Xiao Longwang presiding, at least tens of thousands of acres of paddy fields could be opened up there. What needed to be done was to build dams to store water at key locations and dig out the silt from the bottom of the lake during the winter dry season.

This part of the work had already been undertaken by Hai Sanniang and Kui Qing. Hai Sanniang was most skilled at rooting through silt, and her wild boar descendants had also obtained cultivation methods; they rooted through the lake bottom silt there, and then, through the lesser demons, it was transported to the reclaimed fields. The ox demons led by Kui Qing would pull heavy plows to deep-plow the land. Their brute strength could even plow flat stones, and besides, these were prime plains formed after the shrinkage of Poyang Lake, which basically had no stones.

Poyang was originally connected to Yunmeng Marsh, but now that they were separated, they became two large lakes: Poyang and Dongting.

Because of the schistosomes, also known as Water Gu Disease, the common people dared not develop the reed marshes into paddy fields. Furthermore, the hard work of reclaiming wasteland might not end up benefiting them in the end, so these fields were wasted.

After all, after waking up early and working late to open up a few acres of fields, before the grain could even be planted, a landlord might stand up and claim these reed fields were contracted by his family, specifically for making straw mats...

Now, there was no need to fear. This place was all under the management of Xu Jia. Whoever dared to be blind would be bankrupted by the Golden Toad through financial means within a few days, turning directly from the landlord class into the lower-middle peasant class.

As for the schistosomes and Water Gu Disease, Xu Jia had passed down the "Gu Technique". This magic was originally a side-door evil art used to cast Gu to harm people, but now it was "used for good, it becomes good," and it was just right for targeting Water Gu Disease. Moreover, by promoting the drinking of boiled water and eating cooked food, it was not so easy to catch the disease.

The thousands of people brought by Bai Laotai were quickly absorbed. Rows of brick and tile bungalows stood by Poyang, one after another. Men and women lived separately, with a heated brick bed (kang) running from end to end, covered with reeds and chicken feathers.

One room could house two hundred people, like a human breeding center.

The environment could not be considered very good, but people would not freeze to death. The cold wind blowing from the ventilated windows on both sides was soon diluted by the heating. Various smells mixed together, making one want to retch.

This group of people was forced to go to the bathhouse to bathe.

Providing heat to the heated brick beds was a huge boiler, which was also the canteen kitchen. Coal was burned underneath, so this canteen had to provide meals for two hundred people, requiring them to start making breakfast in the middle of the night. After breakfast, they had to make lunch in the morning and dinner in the afternoon, so the fire was always burning and never stopped.

The excess heat from boiling water and cooking would follow the flue into these strip-shaped houses, heating the brick beds so that these people would not catch a cold even if they slept naked.

It was just that one had to wear clothes to work outside in winter, and there were few clothes here. Whoever went out to work wore them, which belonged to a shift system.

This was very unfavorable for reclaiming wasteland and farming, but there was no other way. Chen Liuxian was also arranged here. At this time, he had been devastated to the point where he no longer had any delicate skin or tender flesh; being a bandit was not easy, and he looked like a refugee.

First, he was arranged to go to the large bathhouse to remove the filth from his body, and then he was led to be registered in the household records. He shouted that his surname was Chen, that he was not a displaced person, and that he was an apprentice of Li Dafu of Bao'an Hall, but no one paid any attention to him.

However, because he had some medical skills, he was arranged to the "Health and Hygiene Room." There was a Gu Po here who burned Talisman Water and practiced the Gu Technique. She tested Chen Liuxian's medical skills and felt they were not as powerful as her own Gu Technique for treating illnesses and dispelling evil, but there were too many people here, and many had Water Gu Disease. She could not look after them all, so she said: "From today on, you will follow me to learn the Gu Technique."

Chen Liuxian then saw with his own eyes the Gu Po take a bamboo tube, light some Mugwort, chant a spell, and apply it to the navel of a patient with a big belly. A moment later, batches of wriggling little worms appeared inside the bamboo tube, and the man's big belly also subsided.

"Is this an Immortal's magic?" Chen Liuxian asked curiously: "You want to teach me this?"

The Gu Po rolled her eyes at him: "What kind of Immortal's magic is this? It's just the skill of casting and retrieving Gu, playing with bugs. You haven't seen a real Immortal. A few days ago, a huge dragon flew up in the sky over Poyang. That was a good dragon, the new Shunji Xiao Longwang. Going further back, there was an Immortal who hacked a dragon to death. That one was a wicked dragon—no, it wasn't hacked to death, it was suppressed at the Tie Zhu Temple over there. The God Immortal worshipped in the temple is that very Immortal who hacked the dragon."

……

Inside the Poyang Water Mansion, the Bai family's old woman brought her clan to register. Inside the Water Mansion, strange and peculiar spirit demons, of all shapes and sizes, with high or low cultivation, were all queuing up to register.

A huge plaque hung there: "Poyang Office of the Jiangnan West Circuit Earth Division Yamen".

The Shunji Xiao Longwang was presiding over the work, and there were other demons, such as Huang Pipo, and Chang Yuying, Chang Yu'e...

Cat demons, dog demons, chickens, ducks, geese, sheep, pigs, cows, horses—a whole bunch of the five domestic animals and six poultry. Most of those who had lived with humans for a long time without dying were very easy to become enlightened and turn into demons. Added to that were mice and sparrows; they went around spreading the word one by one. How wide could their circle of friends be? It was basically the circle of poultry and livestock.

This was also why Kui Qing on the shore could lead a group of ox demons to work hard.

Besides these, there were fox demons, weasel demons, snake demons, mouse demons... these families like Hu Jinhua and Huang Pipo also came, many of them dragging their families along.

Furthermore, there were also frog demons, toad demons, house spider demons, cockroach demons...

Anyway, there were no pure wild demons; they were basically all closely related to humans.

One could even see a Chinese cabbage demon, a garland chrysanthemum demon, an amaranth demon... they were all from a vegetable patch, called the "Caipu Sanxian". Fortunately, they were not eggplant, chili, or potato, otherwise, they would be the "Three Fresh Vegetables of the Earth".

It is said that two hundred years ago, it gained sentience after being irrigated by a spray of dragon urine.

These demons have mediocre skills in Dharma combat and mediocre professional skills, but they primarily "understand human nature" and all yearn for peace.

As for the recruitment of the Virtuous that Xu Jia envisioned, there were not many.

Therefore, when Bai Laotai brought her clan of descendants, it still attracted sufficient attention, and Shunji Xiao Longwang received them personally.

"I, Bai Qinghua, pay my respects to the Shunji Dragon Lord."

Shunji Dragon Lord saw that this Bai Laotai and her family were hedgehogs who had achieved Didao, so he asked: "Old lady, there is no need for such formalities. May I ask where you come from?"

"I come from the north. In the north, the earth emits a murderous aura, mud dragons walk everywhere, and in many places, the Earth Dragon Turning Over occurs. My Dongfu was shaken to collapse, and coupled with the abnormal winter cold, many of my descendants were frozen to death. Thus, I made up my mind to migrate south. On the road, I heard that the Poyang Dragon Lord was recruiting the Virtuous, so I came to seek refuge."

"It is not I who am recruiting the Virtuous, but Lingbao Xu Celestial Master who is recruiting the Virtuous," said Shunji Xiao Longwang.

Bai Laotai actually knew about this matter, but she just used it as a conversation starter to understand more.

"Human Celestial Masters have always deeply detested demons and ghosts. This Lingbao Celestial Master... why is he recruiting the Virtuous among our demon kind?"

"Because he wants to build a Dao Kingdom. Xu Celestial Master discovered a fertile land overseas suitable for building a Dao Kingdom, but his own foundation is shallow and he lacks capable assistants, so he wishes to recruit the Virtuous. Furthermore, this Celestial Master once made a Great Vow to treat all sentient beings with equal regard, so he does not discriminate. Look at that fox demon with a gold dot between its brows; it was personally enlightened by this Celestial Master, who established the Fox Immortal Hall. Now it walks the path of the God Immortal, has a hundred disciples in the incense hall, cultivates Dharma Power, and accumulates Merit, gaining ten or a hundred times more in a year than in previous cultivation."

"In recruiting the Virtuous, he recruits such Virtuous demons, good demons, and moral demons who are willing to establish incense halls. The Celestial Master is willing to transmit the Register technique."

"Look, this is the Taiyin Daoist Citizen Register Technique." Shunji Xiao Longwang placed a small white mouse demon on the table: "Pray to Taiyin!"

The small white mouse demon prayed honestly and soon drew in a patch of moonlight, which turned into a round ball, wrapping him up until he slowly refined it. As if stuffed, he turned into a mouse ball and was massaged on the belly by Shunji Xiao Longwang to help him digest.

Bai Laotai was shocked: "It is daytime now! Moreover, he actually obtained such a large patch in one prayer; we usually only draw in and refine a single thread or wisp."

"Indeed, this is the Taiyin Daoist Citizen Register Technique. The Taiyin Star is there regardless of day or night, and the same goes for Taiyin Star Lord. Once you obtain this Daoist Citizen Register, you become a registered believer of Taiyin Star Lord and naturally receive some care."

"Furthermore, there is the Virtue-Promoting Great Vow Register, which can help the old lady survive the Five Hundred Year Earth Immortal Tribulation!"

Bai Laotai's Calamity was indeed approaching. Hedgehog cultivation involves many Calamities. The first is the Plucking Thorn Tribulation, where they encounter mischievous children who pluck their thorns out one by one to play with. If the old thorns are not plucked, new ones will not grow. Only after passing this Calamity do they possess the ability to treat illnesses with acupuncture.

The second is the "Insect Tribulation," where blood-sucking ticks specifically attach to their bodies, potentially sucking them dry to death. After passing this Calamity, they can treat insect-borne diseases.

The third is the "Wheel Tribulation," where they are crushed by wheels on the road. If they survive, they pass it and henceforth possess the ability to treat injuries from falls and blows.

The fourth is the Fire Tribulation, where raging fires or wildfires will rise to roast them to death. If they survive, they possess the ability to treat burns and scalds.

The fifth is the Water Tribulation, where they are thrown into water until they drown. If they are rescued, they will be able to treat andrology and gynecology diseases...

Each time they pass a level of Tribulation, they gain an extra ability to treat illnesses and save people, until they pass nine Calamities, at which point they can become an Immortal, achieve Didao, join the Heavenly Hospital, and become a Heavenly Physician.

But besides this, there is the Five Hundred Year Earth Immortal Tribulation and the Thousand Year Tribulation. Treating illnesses and saving people or animals is "Human Dao," not "Heavenly Dao." The Five Hundred Year Earth Immortal Tribulation and the Thousand Year Tribulation are murderous auras emitted by the Heavenly Dao, which do not shift due to the good deeds of the Human Dao.

Therefore, when Bai Laotai heard that this Register could help survive the Earth Immortal Tribulation, she could not help but be excited, yet she was also full of anticipation mixed with suspicion.

"This only exists because Xu Celestial Master made a vow; it did not exist before," said Shunji Xiao Longwang. "If the old lady is interested, you can open a Bai Family Immortal Medical Hall to treat illnesses and save people. The Merit is immeasurable. If you teach disciples, the Celestial Master will not be stingy with this Register technique."

(End of chapter)