Chapter 191: Immortals Pointing to the World

The eternal lamp in the stone cave temple had not yet gone out. Borrowing this lamp, the Little Xiao Shimei finally saw the thin blood mark on Shixiong's forehead. She felt distressed and guilty, so she immediately cut a long strip of cloth from her body, walked up, and wrapped it for him carefully.

Lin Jue didn't refuse, just said with a smile: "Xiao Shimei, you have to wrap it quickly."

"I will!"

"Otherwise it will recover."

"!"

"But Xiao Shimei has good sword technique." Lin Jue saw that she didn't speak, so he smiled and said, "With Xiao Shimei's ability, it would be enough to eliminate demons alone."

"Shixiong is the powerful one!"

The Little Xiao Shimei replied while wrapping circles on his head.

Actually, it was just a very thin blood mark, and there was no need to wrap it at all. She wrapped it in two or three times, looked at it carefully for a few times, and then returned to the wall and sat down.

I don't know what time it is, but I think the night is already very deep.

Lin Jue took out his night watch lamp from his luggage, lit it with the lamp-lighting technique, and placed it on the god platform, together with the eternal lamp, illuminating this stone cave.

The fox also lay down at his feet.

The person and the fox hadn't seen each other for several days.

Lin Jue couldn't help reaching out and touching its head, asking casually: "Where have you been playing these few days?"

"Guarding!"

The fox also answered seriously.

"Just guarding?" Lin Jue said, "Didn't dig any holes?"

"Guarding in the hole!"

"You..."

"I..."

The person and the fox whispered, and after a while, when Lin Jue turned to look, the Little Xiao Shimei had already fallen asleep against the wall beside him, breathing evenly.

So you get tired too?

Lin Jue smiled and didn't make a sound.

The dim lamp light beside him was just right, belonging to the category of being able to see without being dazzling, which was indeed suitable for sleep. And at this time, the Green Seedling God was dead, the night watch lamp was lit, and there was his own fox lying beside him, so Lin Jue's heart was rarely relaxed.

But

"Whoosh..."

A new page had indeed appeared in the ancient book—

Fox Illusions, also known as Fox Many Yaoguai Illusions or Fox Immortal Illusions, are a form of illusionary art.

The system of illusionary arts is complex and vast, with countless varieties: auditory and visual hallucinations, obscuring vision and entering the mind, creating scenes to bewilder people—the list goes on. Most are complex to practice, but foxes alone use them with such supernatural skill, and they are fond of using illusions to tease people, which is why people often call this type of spell "Fox Illusions."

Practicing this type of spell requires an understanding of the human heart, or collecting "illusion qi" from people's prayers through the path of incense. If casting a spell on someone, one must also carefully search for flaws.

The deeper the attainment, the more real the illusion, and the wider the casting: beginners can cause one person to have visual and auditory hallucinations; those with profound skill can cause many people to have them, making it hard to distinguish truth from falsehood; those with great power can make hundreds or thousands of people play and slaughter each other, and even after a lifetime, they might find it difficult to distinguish what was real and what was illusion.

"So that's how it is."

Lin Jue held the ancient book and pondered.

It must be that he and his junior sister had guarded this temple for too long, eating poorly and sleeping poorly, leaving them physically and mentally exhausted, which created an opening and gave this Green Seedling God a chance to take advantage.

This kind of spell is also different from the supernatural power of the Cuiwei City God: the Cuiwei City God used divine path supernatural powers, which were abilities granted to him by the incense system and the people's wishes, mainly used to eradicate evil; the junior sister could naturally fear nothing with her clear heart. But this was a proper, orthodox spell, and it would not cut you any slack just because your heart was pure and kind.

This Green Seedling God is truly cunning; even in such a situation, it still observed for half the night and made some movements.

The purpose of the two coming here was not simple to begin with, and hearing the movements, it was inevitable that they would worry about a demon raid in their sleep. Having this worry gave it another chance to take advantage, and it happened to perfectly match its illusion spell.

"The demons in this world..."

Lin Jue couldn't help but sigh, putting away the ancient book.

Then he leaned against the wall and closed his eyes.

At this moment, his heart was almost completely relaxed.

This relaxation was truly rare, which made this night-watch lamp seem all the more satisfying and showed that he had made a good choice.

Nothing happened in the second half of the night, and even the wind stopped.

He slept until the next morning.

The fox went to call the Second Senior Ma Shidi and Third Senior Ma Shidi early in the morning; they would probably arrive by the morning.

Lin Jue was afraid they would be too worried, so he took off the cloth wrapped around his head. At this time, just as he had said, the bloodstains were already almost healed.

"Junior brother and junior sister have great skills! The Green Seedling God that even the Junior Uncle couldn't eliminate was actually eliminated by you two!" The Third Senior Ma Shidi led the horse to the front of the temple, looking at the stinking skin bag on the ground. "Just this thing?"

"It's all thanks to the Senior Ma Shidi's skills!" the junior sister said.

"This skin bag is very tough; our spiritual fire couldn't burn it, it just smelled a bit stinking. When it was alive, sword slashes were useless; we could cut the skin, but it would recover immediately," Lin Jue said. "I don't know if it has any other use; if not, please have the Second Senior Ma Shidi burn it."

"Who wants this disgusting thing?"

Before the Second Senior Ma Shidi could speak, the Third Senior Ma Shidi had already shown an expression of disgust.

The Second Senior Ma Shidi just silently set the fire—

He pointed his hand, and a thin line of fire shot out, continuous and constant. It took quite a while to burn this pile of broken skin bag clean.

At this time, the temple was full of stench.

"So stinking!"

The few of them waved their sleeves repeatedly, calling for a clear breeze to remove the odor.

After the temple became clearer, the Third Senior Ma Shidi picked up a dead branch, thought for a moment, and wrote on the wall: "The evil god has been removed; the demon slayers are the Daoists of Mount Yishan!"

The handwriting was average, but it had a certain carefree and unrestrained air.

The junior sister took this opportunity to jump onto the altar and slapped down with one palm, turning the remaining half of the statue into powder.

Lin Jue looked at the words on the wall, a look of contemplation flashing in his eyes, and then said:

"Third Senior Ma Shidi..."

"What?"

"Why not change it?"

"Change what?"

"Change the name."

"Why?" The Third Senior Ma Shidi laughed. "You eliminated the demon, yet you don't want to leave your name?"

"It's not that I don't want to leave my name, but if we change the words on the wall to a certain immortal, it might be better for the disaster victims here."

"What do you mean?"

The Third Senior Ma Shidi was puzzled.

The Second Senior Ma Shidi was a bit surprised, looked at him, thought for a moment, and then said: "Junior brother wants to use the name of the deity who eliminated the evil god to warn the local county officials, making them spend more effort on disaster relief, right?"

"Exactly."

"Eh?" The Third Senior Ma Shidi also thought about it and felt it made sense. "Then tell me, who should we change it to? Lord Tianweng won't do!"

"How about the Eastern Qing Hua Di?" Lin Jue asked for his opinion. "This Green Seedling God was quite shameless; fire couldn't burn it to death, and swords couldn't cut it to death. It was thanks to my flower-blooming spell that I drained its vitality. And this spell was a stroke of fortune gifted to me by the Eastern Qing Hua Di when we descended the mountain; it's not impossible to say he helped."

"The Eastern Qing Hua Di..."

The Third Senior Ma Shidi thought about this Emperor.

This is an Emperor, his title is very intimidating, yet he is not one of the Emperors currently fighting for power.

Is there anyone more suitable than this?

The Third Senior Ma Shidi's eyes lit up, and he immediately stepped forward.

He wiped away the words on the wall with his sleeve, thought for a moment, and rewrote:

"Good and evil have their own retribution! The evil god caused chaos and harmed the region! Now it has been removed to warn future generations! In acting and being a person, one must have a scale in one's heart!"

Then he wrote the two characters for Eastern Qing Hua Di.

He put away the branch and looked back at the junior sister.

The junior sister's expression was serious, seemingly dull, but she immediately understood and walked forward.

She just extended a slender white finger and poked it into the stone wall, creating a hole, then slid it along the Third Senior Ma Shidi's handwriting, and as the wall powder fell, she carved the words into the wall.

It was more than three points deep into the wall!

"Done! Let's go!"

The Third Senior Ma Shidi walked out of the temple first: "These past few days, the Second Senior Ma Shidi and I found his Daoist temple, but we haven't tidied it up yet; we've been busy refining famine-relief pills."

Lin Jue followed him out of the temple.

He looked back as he walked.

Actually, setting aside everything else, this cave temple was indeed well-built, with carved beams and painted rafters, and wall niches for Buddha statues; it looked very beautiful.

Lin Jue also had memories of such caves, but in his memories, these caves had no doors or windows, no tiled eaves or beams, only some holes in the walls whose purpose he didn't know. Now that he thought about it, these holes should have been the locations of the beams and pillars that originally supported the eaves, doors, and windows. Later, as time passed, these wood and tiles disappeared, leaving only the cave.

It wasn't that they weren't there originally.

It's a pity that such a temple was used to house an evil god.

The two followed the two senior brothers forward, gradually deviating from the official road.

Along the way, they passed through several villages where many large trees by the road had lost their bark and were waiting to die.

Occasionally, people in the villages saw the Third Senior Ma Shidi and Second Senior Ma Shidi, and no matter how weak their bodies were, they immediately stopped and stood still, bowing one after another, calling them immortals.

He didn't know how many famine-relief pills the Second Senior Ma Shidi and Third Senior Ma Shidi had refined and given to the people during the few days Lin Jue and the junior sister were guarding the Green Seedling God in the temple.

But he soon found out—

"These past few days have exhausted me! It's one thing that your Second Senior Ma Shidi didn't rest all night, but even I couldn't rest. Besides the bit of spiritual aura he collected himself, I had to go find everything else for the pill formula.

"It was hard enough to get a little free time, and I still had to watch the fire for him.

"After watching the fire, I had to go out and distribute the pills!

"I even said I would go dig a hole next to that temple, hide and keep watch, so that when you guys cornered that thing, I could come out and help you."

The Third Senior Ma Shidi began to tell them.

The fox heard about digging a hole and raised its head to look at him.

"It's a good thing you didn't go, Senior Ma Shidi. That Green Seedling God was very vigilant; I estimate that before it made a move on us, it had already searched the surroundings," Lin Jue said, pausing, and then looked at the junior sister. "Besides, the Green Seedling God's abilities were also very insidious and strange. If you were there and were discovered by it, it wouldn't necessarily be a good thing."

"It's not like I didn't go!"

"I just suffered!"

"In my opinion, these are all stupid methods; only a silly Daoist like the Second Senior Ma Shidi would do this. If it were the Seventh, he would definitely find a way to steal silver and grain from the wealthy families or government granaries in the city!"

"Or just do as I said and go rob those rich bastards in the city! I'll take the karma for it!"

"But the Ma Ma Shidi is still the smart one!"

The two walked while listening, and at the same time told them about the Green Seedling God's methods and the danger of last night.

Anyway, traveling was boring.

Slowly, they walked further and further away, seeing no more signs of people. After walking for another stretch, a large mountain appeared in front.

Finally, they saw trees with bark.

At the foot of the mountain was an old and dilapidated Daoist temple.

"This is it."

The Third Senior Ma Shidi stopped here with the horse.

Lin Jue and the junior sister also stopped and looked around.

The Daoist temple was messy, with a dead tree in the courtyard that didn't know how long it had been dead, and no dead branches or rotten leaves inside had been cleared away.

And the distance from here to the official road was indeed comparable to the Fourth Senior Ma Shidi's Mount Shimen. However, unlike the Fourth Senior Ma Shidi's Mount Shimen, there were at least a few villages at the foot of Mount Shimen, but this Daoist temple was backed by deep mountains, and there were no houses to be seen for at least dozens of miles at the foot of the mountain. It looked a bit like a residence for the Danding Sect to live in seclusion and refine pills.

Just looking at this Daoist temple, a thought flashed through Lin Jue's mind—

Other Daoist temples often had some reason; either some Junior Uncle or Master had eliminated a demon here, and the local people were grateful, so they built a Daoist temple for him, or after eliminating a demon, the temple was left behind. But this temple was probably too far from the human world, and the original Daoists had all run away.

However, he was not worried about the Second Senior Ma Shidi.

The Second Senior Ma Shidi liked quiet, liked refining pills, and studying the Dao of pills. Even if he were truly isolated from the world, he could be completely self-sufficient and find joy in it.

Compared to the other senior brothers, whether they helped the people at the foot of the mountain eliminate demons or showed off their supernatural powers, it could make their future lives easier; only the Second Senior Ma Shidi didn't need it.

The reason he rushed to refine and distribute the famine-relief pills this time was entirely because he had a kind heart, holding the mentality of saving one person if he could.

Even if he didn't do this, it wouldn't affect his life here afterward. Even if he did, and his fame spread, if someone were willing to walk dozens of miles to offer incense in the future, it would instead disturb his pill refining.

Lin Jue didn't say anything and put down his luggage.

The junior sister was much faster than him and had already started tidying up the Daoist temple with nimble hands and feet.

Lin Jue didn't compete with her, but walked to the front, looked up at the dead tree in the courtyard, took a deep breath, channeled his spell, and slowly exhaled in different directions.

Half the tree in the courtyard suddenly bloomed with pear blossoms.

"Hiss..."

Another deep breath, and it was as if a spring breeze had arrived overnight.

This dead tree also seemed to have encountered spring.

Even though the courtyard was messy, it suddenly had a lot more vitality.

The cleaning of this Daoist temple started from here.

In the past few days, there were rumors among the people at the foot of the mountain that several immortal experts had recently arrived in the vicinity.

Several experts walked around, and if they encountered families suffering from famine who really couldn't afford to eat, they would give them some immortal pills. Eating one could keep a person from being hungry for a day, and they would even have strength.

It is said that the immortals came from Mount Yishan.

Other people said that the immortals must have thought of the famine here and specially descended from heaven to help.

This matter even reached the county official.

Everyone was interested in such immortal matters, but if there really were immortals, no one wanted to be the villain in an immortal story, so in these few days, the county officials were more active in distributing porridge and grain.

Until this morning.

The people in the city came to the Green Seedling God's temple as usual, pushed the door open, and saw that the Green Seedling God statue in the temple was actually covered with colorful fresh flowers.

There were azaleas, peach blossoms, pear blossoms, apricot blossoms, and many wild flowers common in the mountains, growing from head to toe.

The people in the city and near the other temple didn't know the meaning at first, thinking that the Green Seedling God had manifested again, until someone came to the cave at the foot of Mount Lang and saw the broken statue and the words on the wall, and was shocked.

In their shock, they were also happy and joyful.

These lines of words reached the county government again.

Seeing that an Emperor had really descended to earth, used magic to eliminate the evil god, and left such a line of words, the county officials savored it carefully, and all of them were startled.

Although these lines of words didn't name anyone, everyone felt that it was a reminder to themselves.