Chapter 931: To the Western Paradise Immortal Realm

Suddenly a stir ran through the crowd. Everyone instinctively turned to look in one direction. The sound of rumbling, growling stomachs rose everywhere. They had all caught the scent — the aroma of grain, oil, and salt. Since that night when heaven and earth split apart, they had only smelled it occasionally around the government offices and great households. They had never encountered it again. Wasn't there no rice left? What was this?

"Make way, make way!" someone shouted, and the aroma grew thicker.

Those on the outer edges could already see: pairs of sturdy men were carrying wooden buckets into the grounds. The buckets were covered with lids, steam seeping from the cracks.

Only a very few noticed that the scripture preacher had already taken his place on a high platform. Everyone else was utterly transfixed by those buckets. What rare delicacy could be inside? The aroma sharpened every person's hunger even further.

The lids were opened, answering the people's wishes. Inside were rice balls, wrapped in dried grass leaves. The exposed rice glistened with oil — real oil sheen. How many surged forward, every one of them swallowing uncontrollably. It was simply too maddeningly tempting. Hadn't they said the stores only had extra bran and grass roots left? This was solid grain!

If the sturdy men carrying the buckets had not been armed with blades and axes, people would have charged forward to snatch them right then!

With a thud, someone could not withstand the temptation of the smell. Their hunger erupted, but they lacked the strength to push to the front. They collapsed unconscious to the ground. Yet no one paid them any mind. What was fainting from hunger? People had starved to death. These days, often after a single night passed, several stiff corpses would be carried out of the makeshift shacks.

"Brothers and sisters, fellow villagers! Your brother here ran into trouble last night. The stores were out of rice, and the bran was pitifully scarce — enough to make a dozen flat cakes at best. Your brother couldn't sleep a wink all night!" the scripture preacher said, feigning deep distress.

No one would eat until they had heard him out. No matter how their stomachs gnawed with hunger, they could only force themselves to listen. Someone spoke on that earthen platform, and others below echoed in agreement.

"That's right! Yesterday I followed the incense head to sweep the storehouse. Even the few rats we saw were scrawny. What grain could there be? Even the bran was running low!"

"Only a dozen or so palm-sized flat cakes in all. What use was that? The incense head was beside himself with worry!"

Within the crowd, people chimed in one after another, and everyone listened half-heartedly. Though barely anyone had actually seen that storehouse, they still felt that indeed, there had been no grain left last night. When people are starving, they don't even want to think too hard.

"I was truly at my wit's end. I could only burn incense and pray, beseeching the Perfected Xu of Yuncheng for protection, begging Maitreya Buddha and the Eternal Venerable Mother for help. I chanted scriptures like that until the latter half of the night, when suddenly I smelled that aroma. I won't hide it from you all — I stopped chanting right then. I couldn't help drooling!"

This joke drew a wave of laughter from below. The scripture preacher continued shouting: "I went over to look and was dumbstruck. Among the buckets that had been empty since last night, one was completely filled with these rice balls — white rice mixed with sorghum, brushed with oil, and with pickled vegetables inside. I thought, one bucket isn't enough. We should quickly break them apart, mix them with bran, and cook porridge for everyone. At least it's good grain. So guess what happened? We simply couldn't take them all out. Take one out, and another appeared. We kept going until every wooden bucket and basket in this room was filled full."

"It was miraculous! The incense head called us to get up and help — we all saw it!" someone in the crowd echoed.

"They really didn't diminish! One after another, everything was filled. It didn't stop until daybreak. I even ate several myself!"

The emotions of the commoner believers below had been completely stirred up. Already physically weak, and now hooked by that aroma, every one of them was dizzy and bleary-eyed. Who could still tell truth from falsehood? The earlier words had laid the groundwork, and now many people were chiming in and echoing. It seemed as if many had witnessed it. If so many people had seen it, how could it be false? They instinctively believed, and then fervor erupted. The gods had manifested their power! If there were such good things, wouldn't everyone be able to eat their fill?

At that moment, the incense head on the platform suddenly dropped to his knees. In a hoarse, shrill voice he cried: "Back then in Yuncheng, I learned immortal arts from the Perfected Xu. The living immortal Perfected Xu told me to bring that wooden bucket here. He said this thing would one day be of great use, and that day of great use would be the day the Western Paradise Immortal Realm appeared in this world. The moment it manifested, I knew the Immortal Realm had descended! Sure enough, after we filled several dozen wooden buckets, I received my master's voice transmission from a hundred li away, telling me the Western Paradise Immortal Realm has arrived! There, everyone can eat their fill and wear warm clothes, live in tile-roofed houses. Not just eat their fill — eat well! There's even fish and meat!"

In peaceful times, even before the famine struck, anyone even slightly clear-headed would not have believed this. But now, especially when they were already devoutly and superstitiously faithful to the Smelling Incense Sect, smelling that maddening aroma of rice balls, driven by these days of despair and hunger, they instinctively believed deeply. Besides, people around them kept shouting and agitating: "I was shocked then — suddenly the old immortal's voice rang out from the sky!"

The incense head on the earthen platform was already weeping profusely, kowtowing ceaselessly in the direction of Yuncheng. He seemed utterly frenzied, waving his hands as he kowtowed and cried: "Brothers! I shall depart today for that Western Paradise Immortal Realm, to enjoy peace in that Land of Ultimate Bliss! The Perfected Xu cannot bear to see you all sinking in the sea of suffering..."

"Our houses are ruined, our grain seized by the officials. Staying here is a dead end. It's too late to plant crops now, and the signs say this year will be another great drought. We'll only starve to death. We're willing to go with the incense head, to enjoy blessings in that Ultimate Bliss Immortal Realm!"

"We want to go with the incense head! Whoever refuses, let them die here!"

"Incense head, hand out the rice balls already! Give one to those who go, and none to those who don't!"

"We're willing to go! We're willing to go to that Western Paradise Immortal Realm, to live the good life following the immortals!"

"Whoever doesn't go is a fool! On the road, this Treasure-Gathering Basin will produce endless, inexhaustible grain!"

The clamor of agitation within the crowd grew louder and louder, stripping the hungry, despairing, weakened people of their judgment. They did not know where to go or what to do. But one thing was very clear: without the incense head's relief, most people could find no grain and had no path to survival. If they followed, whether that Immortal Realm was real or not, at least they wouldn't die here.

No one knew who started it, but someone began chanting the scriptures of the Smelling Incense Sect. Everyone joined in, chanting in unison. The Smelling Incense Sect's teachings originated from Buddhism, so naturally they had scriptures about salvation from suffering and deliverance from the sea of bitterness.

In this frenzy and confusion, chanting the scripture brought calm, yet it also made people believe even more in the news of that Western Paradise Divine Realm. After a moment of calm, many grew increasingly agitated. These bitter days were finally at an end. At last, they could escape the sea of suffering. After these two earthquakes, these cruel taxes and levies, this endless torment — what did dying matter?

When people no longer even fear death, there is nothing left to care about. The incense head on the earthen platform realized the congregation's reaction was not quite what he had expected. His heart couldn't help but waver with unease. Yet he never expected that after a bout of scripture chanting, shouts would suddenly erupt. Everyone was yelling and hollering: "To the Western Paradise Immortal Realm! To the Western Paradise Immortal Realm!"

In peaceful times, before the earthquakes had struck, if so many people gathered and roared within the city, runners and bailiffs would have come immediately to disperse them. If they still refused to scatter, the troops would come, and even the local gentry and magnates' militia would come. But now, the officials could barely look after themselves. The gentry and magnates had either collapsed and scattered, or were only protecting themselves within their own fortified compounds. Who would dare meddle in others' affairs?

Each person received only one fist-sized rice ball. Many wolfed it down in huge bites, and as they ate, tears streamed down their faces. No one knew if it was because they would get to eat more in the future, or because some instinct told them they would never eat again...

And so it was that very day, the incense-burning congregants and commoners from all over Juye County set out in droves toward Yuncheng. Everyone said a mortal Immortal Realm had already appeared there.

The tide of people surged into motion. Several of the great households within the county all breathed a sigh of relief. They were the top-tier magnates of this county. Though they had suffered losses in the earthquake, they had still managed to keep their own domains secure. Even so, they had been extremely tense. On this Shandong ground, everyone was well accustomed to refugees. They knew that once these poor households — normally meek as sheep — erupted, they became savage beasts that devoured men without spitting out the bones. If the disaster spread to their own families, it meant annihilation.

Therefore, when the Smelling Incense Sect apportioned grain levies onto them, they dared not offer the slightest resistance. At this juncture, the officials were powerless, and their own magnate militias were utterly incapable of opposing the sect followers. It was better to obediently comply.

Those rice balls had all been apportioned out to various households to prepare. To prevent news from leaking, the great households were strictly ordered not to let their family members go outside. This naturally brought all sorts of inconveniences, but faced with the threat of extermination, anything could be endured.

Yet this was not even the worst of it. The great households in the county that could still sustain themselves were all extorted for a sum of money and grain. Like the earlier apportionments, no one dared refuse. They could only hold their noses and obey.

Amidst the pain and heartache, the county's magnates and great households also felt a sliver of secret delight. The more people who left, the more unclaimed land would remain. Their own estates could expand accordingly. As for people to farm the land — with fields available, was there ever any fear of lacking tenants?

About forty li east of Juye County lay Jiaxiang County. About forty li east of Jiaxiang County lay Jining Department. The distance between them was not far, yet their circumstances were vastly different.

In this earthquake, Juye County's city walls had collapsed into utter ruin, and there had been no relief at all. Jiaxiang County, however, was different. Although the earthquake had also damaged areas inside and outside the county, repairs and relief had come quickly. The reason was simple: this place was close to Jining Department. Many of the county's great households made their living off the canal, so they had money and grain. Most of the commoners also worked for these great households. Their situation was far better than that of Juye and similar places. Jiaxiang County's condition was, in fact, the norm for Shandong — the closer one was to the canal, the more subsidies one could get.

Jiaxiang County's collapsed and ruined city walls had already been filled in with rammed earth. The collapsed civilian houses inside and outside the city had also begun to be rebuilt. The rebuilding process itself was a form of relief. Every kind of work came with wages and rations, which could gather up commoners who had nothing to do and nowhere to go. It was a situation that pleased everyone.

Thanks to old friends "Yuan Heng Li Zhen" and "User Kele" for their tips. Thank you all for your subscriptions and monthly tickets. Thank you, everyone.