I stole divine power in Daxia

Chapter 595 Eating Dirt Is Eating Meat
Zhuge Dan has already persuaded the Phantom Priest to support him in the Luoshui Dragon Court. With the help of Zhou Tieyi, now in the entire ancient god system, only the Dragon Priest and the Thunder Priest are clearly opposed. This can no longer change the overall situation, at least within the Shinto.

Therefore, when Zhou Tieyi and Zhuge Dan entered the Luoshui Dragon Court, the Dragon Priest and the Thunder Priest had already left with all the gods of the Dragon Court, leaving only an empty crystal palace.

Sun Chenglong looked at the Crystal Palace and asked curiously, "Why didn't those two just destroy it?"

Zhuge Dan walked up the steps one by one, his palms touching the azure blue palace pillars that suppressed the water vein nodes, which were exactly the same as those in the Taihang Divine Palace. The next moment, at his call, a square jade seal that was burning in the water flew into his hand.

Zhuge Dan smiled and said, "Although Xuanlong does not have the Great Qi Jade Seal, he built this Dragon Court with the Great Qi Jade Seal after all, and it is connected to the most critical node of Luo River now. If they destroy this Dragon Court directly, the backlash they will suffer will at least be severely damaged."

With the Great Qi Seal in hand, Zhuge Dan still appeared extremely majestic even though his aura had fallen to the level of a mortal.

Zhou Tieyi stretched out his hand and grabbed something in the bamboo basket. The divine seal in the body of the original Da Zheng Dragon God was directly grabbed out by him. However, Zhou Tieyi did not use the magical power of [Usurpation of God] to usurp it. The State of Qi represented by Zhuge Dan would not accept his direct command.

Zhou Tieyi threw the divine seal in his hand directly to Zhuge Dan, who took it. He suppressed the divine seal with the Jade Seal of Da Qi, and then gradually embraced the divine seal within himself and refined it with secret methods.

This process requires the help of the Shenting Water Vein and needs to last at least one or two days to complete, so he invited Zhou Tieyi, the strongest man in the world, to protect him so that he can complete the whole process calmly.

At the same time as Zhuge Dan embraced the divine seal, azure divine light burst out from the crystal palace of the entire Da Zheng Dragon Court. This divine light flickered, indicating that the Divine Court was changing hands.

At the Wenhejin Ferry, Meng Boqian, Songshi Taoist and Miao Shan, three descendants of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, stared at the divine light rising from the bottom of the river. Their expressions were different and their own guesses were in their minds.

The next moment, a figure appeared beside the three people. Gao Wencan smiled and said, "Fortunately, I have fulfilled my mission."

At this time, his eyebrows were slightly raised, no longer in the sleepy look he had before.

Gao Wencan took out three forbidden objects and handed them over. The three people took the forbidden objects one by one, and then they also noticed the changes in Gao Wencan. The direct reason for this change in his facial expression was that Gao Wencan had actually broken through to the third level without anyone noticing.

Gao Wencan had just entered the fourth rank a day ago, but a day later, he was already on par with the three of them. This makes people sigh at the great struggles in the world, and the incredible chance encounters.

Taoist Songshi had a lot of confusion about many things happening now, and Gao Wencan happened to be able to answer these confusions. "Congratulations, Taoist friend, once you enter the third level, the world will be completely different from now on."

Even Meng Boqian of Confucianism and Miao Shan of Buddhism find it difficult to express such flattering words, but Taoist Songshi finds it extremely easy to say them.

Gao Wencan was in a good mood, but his attitude was much more humble than before. "It's just a coincidence, it's not a skill."

He looked towards the direction of the Dragon Court, "Compared to me, a fourth-rank person, becoming a third-rank person, making a seventh-rank person become a first-rank person overnight, and being recognized by the world, this is truly a matter of turning the tide."

Meng Boqian and the other two naturally knew that Sun Chenglong had become the guardian of the three families. The three had different attitudes. Taoist Songshi smiled bitterly, "This is really a saintly move. His disciple becoming the guardian of the three families is tied to the extermination of Jiang Taiyi. We three families have to acknowledge it even if we don't want to."

Meng Boqian looked gloomy and said, "His strength is now unfathomable, and his plans are unknown. Now that Jiang Taiyi's military flag has been obtained, how long will it take to break his false ways?"

Gao Wencan put his hands behind his back, not looking at the three people, but still looking at the divine light on the Luo River, "I have handed the Heluo military flag to Guanjun Hou."

Meng Boqian asked, "When will we start?"

Gao Wencan turned around and chuckled, "Even if you are the champion marquis, it still takes time to master the Heluo formation and combine the two great military formations."

Meng Boqian said anxiously, "If we wait any longer, the situation may change again!"

Gao Wencan laughed, "Brother Meng, you are the one in charge, we are all chess pieces. It is not us who have to wait, but the big guys who are playing chess."

Meng Boqian stared at Gao Wencan's face and said through gritted teeth, "What does the emperor mean?"

Both Gao Wencan and Guanjun Hou represent the Emperor of Daxia.

Gao Wencan turned his head again, "This is what the emperor meant. The unsealing of Jiang Taiyi's orthodoxy this time was not completely successful. Wei's 300,000 troops were taken away, and Qi's 300,000 troops are about to be revived. Shenwu Hou and Emperor Wu of Wei have already laid out a huge situation. The emperor does not want to lose both sides with Zhou Tieyi at this time, he needs to be absolutely sure."

At this point, Gao Wencan paused, then looked in the direction of the Luoshui Divine Court, and suddenly smiled, "This is also the reason why Zhou Tieyi is now helping the Divine Martial Marquis to seize the Dragon Court. The emperor is not afraid of the chaos caused by the divine way, because the divine way cannot inherit the orthodoxy of humanity. Even if the mountains and rivers are corrupted, he is sure to recover them. However, a Divine Martial Marquis with the Five Emperors' orthodoxy is different. If the mountains and rivers are corrupted, it will be another Five Emperors' chaos. This is probably using the enemy to gain power."

Meng Boqian asked, "When did Your Majesty feel completely confident?"

Gao Wencan stretched out his finger, "Three conditions. First, Champion Marquis digests Jiang Taiyi's Taoism and completely integrates the [Tiandu Five Destruction Formation] and the [Heluo Formation]. Second, Zhou Tieyi's Taoist companion Miaoyu Taoist gives birth to a child. Third, the Saint ascends to the first rank, and is only one step away from the Sainthood."

Gao Wencan smiled and said, "So Brother Meng, don't worry. Judging from the current situation in Daxia, these three conditions will be achieved within a year."

Taoist Songshi sighed after hearing this, "It seems that the emperor really wants to bet the whole world on this victory or defeat. If he succeeds, he will become a saint and the world will be peaceful. If he loses, then the three hundred years of Daxia will be destroyed in an instant."

······
By May, the summer drought became more severe.

But a completely different situation appeared in the whole world. Under the rule of Daxia, it spread from Taihang Mountains to Luoshui.

During these two months, Taiyi Temple held a grand Zhoutian Ceremony to pardon and seal all ghost immortals, human immortals, and earth immortals in the world, so Taiyi wanderers, immortals, and celestial monarchs walked the world one by one.

Among them, the gods of the Taihang Divine Court and the Luoshui Divine Court also accepted the canonization, and walked the world openly under the names of Taiyi Sanren, Taiyi Zhenren, and Taiyi Tianjun, but they did not set up temples or accept incense, they only regulated the water veins and drove away the clouds to bring rain.

But even if they do not accept these incense offerings, the people will set up longevity tablets at home to worship them out of gratitude. This is a huge change for Shintoism, which did not dare to be practiced in the world before.

Hundreds and thousands of Taiyi Sanren, Zhenren, and Tianjun saved the world, which confirmed the name of Zhou Tieyi Tianzun. Since the court did not like the title of saint, the people could change their name. So from Yujing Mountain to the south, the name of Zhou Tianzun had penetrated into the countryside. Even if the court banned this name again, it would just be a new name. It is better to guard against the mouths of the people than to guard against the river.

In addition to the impact of the confluence of the gods on the world, the large-scale application of pollution-free inkstone and steam engines also made it easier to plant crops in farmland throughout the world. Combined with the irrigation of the Luo River, although there was a severe drought, the grain in several important grain-producing areas in early spring was basically not greatly affected.

As for those areas that are not covered, Zhou Tieyi did not force every place to become a granary. Industrialization requires population, and this process will inevitably come at a price.

In the past life, there was the famous theory of "sheep eating people", which used enclosure movement to force farmers to give up their land. In this agriculture-based world, it is more difficult to force farmers to give up their land, as this would encounter obstacles from various schools of thought.

Moreover, local people are not like those in big cities like Tianjing. Their thinking is still limited to the fact that they can only have food if they cultivate land. Instead of governing through the grassroots, Zhou Tieyi used this drought to come up with a simpler solution.

That is to send the refugees directly to the construction sites that require a large amount of labor to lay railways, use work as relief, solve the dilemma, and then use the grain from the grain-producing land to ensure basic production.

Therefore, not only have there been no troubles in the past two months, but with the increase in the industrial population, industrial reforms throughout the world are in full swing, which will in turn feed back to agriculture, and the initial grain production efficiency of mechanized planting will naturally increase greatly.

But apart from those places that listened to Zhou Tieyi, life was not so good for other places that did not listen to Zhou Tieyi. For example, those prefectures that refused entry to Taiyi Sanren, Zhenren, and Tianjun became desperate during the drought, and petitions for help were hurriedly sent to the court.

However, everyone in the court, from the emperor to the people, remained silent. They knew that these people were showing their loyalty, but Zhou Tieyi did not destroy the court of Daxia. On the contrary, the two reform strategies implemented by Zhou Tieyi were the best ways to deal with the current drought in Daxia.

Until someone comes up with a better solution, these loyal court officials will be more like flatterers who only want the central court to provide them with money and food to support them.

There was even news in the palace that the Emperor of Daxia sneered at these memorials and called them "worms". Although the court did not punish these pedantic officials, the people would vote with their feet. The prefectures could not afford to support the people, and there were job opportunities in the surrounding prefectures, so naturally everyone would run to the surrounding areas.

The steam airship and shipbuilding industries also expanded rapidly under this stimulus. Just as Zhou Tieyi had previously proposed to build a railway bureau in every place, now those provincial capitals that have reaped the benefits of the first wave of reform, such as Tangzhou Prefecture and Shantong Prefecture, have proposed to build steam airship bureaus and shipbuilding bureaus in every place.

Because building such a facility can solve the problem of supporting tens of thousands of workers.

Throughout the country, even if there were officials in the southern provinces who were dissatisfied with Zhou Tieyi and tried to obstruct his rule, the people under his command could at least move freely, and there was no civil unrest for the time being.

However, in the nine provinces in the northwest under Buddhist rule, there was a situation of starvation everywhere. There was also a severe drought here. What was even more terrifying was that under Zhou Tieyi's control, large and medium-sized grain merchants in the world refused to sell a single grain of rice to the northwestern provinces.

Only on the front line where Buddhism and the Daming Dao Palace were confronted were a few passages built to allow the people to escape the famine.

Huangting Prefecture is close to the front line of the battlefield. There has been a severe drought in the past few months. Buddhism first encouraged the victims to attack the government and open the granaries. In this way, the people got food, and Buddhism gained the right to rule with justification.

But Buddhism did not realize an important problem, that is, the people who obtained food by attacking the government would not think about farming. Under such a severe drought, the farmland might not necessarily produce a harvest, but they would definitely get food by following the Buddhist masters to fight against the officials.

When people think like this, even Buddhism cannot calm them down. As a result, spring ploughing was delayed. Food, which was already in short supply, was wasted in large quantities due to the people's frantic looting and could not be effectively mobilized for reproduction.

At this time, the nine provinces in the west not only faced natural disasters, but also man-made disasters.

However, Buddhism had so many top three-grade masters supporting it behind the scenes, so it came up with a temporary solution.

"Dong dong dong."

The sound of temple bells rang out in various places in Huangtingzhou. The people who were working hard outside the temples looked at the temples with murderous eyes. The monks walked out of the temples, holding pots of screened soil in their hands. The soil was reddish-brown and exuded an enticing aroma.

The people came forward and took the reddish-brown soil one by one. Each of them held a basin of soil and began to eat.

Those who had just arrived to escape famine were the last to receive soil. They had heard that the temple was distributing food, so they came to receive it. However, when they received a basin of soil, they were stunned.

“How can you eat this soil?”

An honest countryman with his son asked in disbelief.

When he asked this question, the people around him glared at him viciously, as if he had done something heinous.

Fortunately, a monk stopped the man in time and said, "Donor, you just came to receive alms, right?"

"Yes, I heard that the temple distributes food and meat."

The monk laughed and said, "The temple prohibits meat and fish, so there is no way they will give out meat. However, it is easy for donors to eat meat if they want."

The man was puzzled.

The monk continued, "I will teach you a spell. It is called the Maitreya Mantra of Salvation. If you recite this mantra, eating dirt will be like eating meat."

Buddhism originally had the [Mantra for Purifying the Mouth], which was specifically for those lay Buddhists who practiced Buddhism at home. Buddhists claim that if one recites this mantra before eating meat, then the meat one eats will be treated as vegetarian and not be affected by any unhealthy food.

But now Buddhism is doing the opposite, chanting the [Maitreya Savior Mantra], and eating dirt is the same as eating meat!

Although the spell was tongue-twisting, it only had three sentences. While the man was still tongue-twisting, the child beside him had already learned it. He recited it once, picked up the soil in the basin and started chewing it. He felt that the soil was oily and rich, just like the best fat. It melted in his mouth with just one sip.

The child grabbed the dirt, looked at his father, and smiled innocently, "Dad, this meat is delicious!"

(End of this chapter)