After the Skyfall

Chapter 543: Cultivating under false pretenses
The city guardian god holding the bronze mace was staring at Li Yi in shock.

I thought that the man who broke into Xinzhou City was a mountain Taoist without a written permit, so I planned to give him a few maces to let him know how powerful I am and drive him out of here. However, I never expected that a blow with a bronze mace would instead force out the opponent's dragon and tiger energy.

As one of the guardian gods of Xinzhou City and a god canonized by the imperial court, he still has some knowledge.

The energy of dragon and tiger is also known as the energy of the emperor.

Only the emperor is qualified to possess it, of course it is not ruled out that some princes also possess such aura.

"You, how come you have the dragon and tiger aura of the emperor? Who are you?"

The city guardian retreated in shock. He no longer dared to swing the bronze mace in his hand. It was not only because of the opponent's identity, but also because the silver tiger was staring at him at this moment.

If he swung the bronze mace again, the silver tiger would definitely pounce out and swallow him in one bite.

"I am just a traveling cultivator, nothing special. You attacked me once just now, but I can let it go since it is your duty. If you come again, I will not be polite. I will kill you without restraint. Don't blame me."

Li Yi didn't want to get too entangled with the city guardian god, so he continued to stride forward.

The city guard's face did not change at this moment. He held the bronze mace in his hand, but did not dare to take any more action. He could only watch him enter the city.

A Taoist possesses the dragon and tiger auras that only an emperor can have. Such an outrageous thing is not something that a mere city guardian god like him can handle. This matter must be reported to the higher-ups and let others deal with it. It is better for him not to get involved.

Thinking of this, the city guardian god immediately left his post and turned into a wisp of green smoke and flew towards the City God Temple in the city.

Li Yi raised his eyes and saw the wisp of green smoke, but he did not stop it. As long as the other party did not provoke him, it would be fine. If they were ungrateful and wanted to cause trouble for him, he would not mind using his wind-calling technique to blow all these monsters into ashes.

After entering the city, he discovered that the power of faith in this world was truly everywhere.

Passing by a tavern, Li Yi saw a statue enshrined in the tavern with three incense sticks inserted next to it. Although the statue was very old, it was glowing and full of spiritual energy in his sight. In addition, it was also blessed by the incense and faith.

It can be seen that there is really a god in that throne, but the god is not there.

He also saw two stone lions placed in front of a mansion. The stone lions were also blessed with the power of faith and had become psychic over time. They watched the people coming and going on the street. Any ghosts or monsters who dared to break into the mansion without permission would be pounced on and bitten by the two lions.

The longer the mansion prospers, the stronger the power of the stone lion will be. On the contrary, if the mansion declines and the population is sparse, the power of the stone lion will weaken and eventually become a mortal object.

"Although the stone lion did not receive incense and offerings, it was blessed by faith. The stone lion was placed there, and the people in this mansion subconsciously believed that the stone lion could scare away ghosts and evil spirits. Over time, faith attached to it, and the stone lion really became spiritual and had the ability to protect the house."

"There were no gods in this world originally. As more people believed in them, gods came into being. So whether the lions can protect the house and whether the statues of gods can protect people all depend on people's beliefs. If they believe, then they exist; if they don't, then they don't exist. So the power of incense and faith is both a power and a constraint. Once others no longer believe, then the faith collapses and everything will cease to exist."

Li Yi walked on the street, with something in his mind.

"And if you want ordinary people to believe, everything must first take its shape. The lion is majestic, so it can protect the house. If it is a cat, the shape will be far worse, and people will not believe that cats can protect the house, and it will be difficult to gather faith, so the shape must fit the image."

"The statue in the land temple was destroyed by my silver lightning. Because the image was gone, the faith was gone too. People would believe in a statue instead of a pile of mud. Although the essence of the two is the same, mud has no shape, so it cannot be made into a statue and cannot gather incense and faith. The statue was processed and shaped by people and has the image of the land god. So people believe that the statue can protect them. Therefore, the clay statue has the power of the land god."

"The same is true for the emperor. All the people believe that the emperor is the son of the true dragon, so the emperor naturally has the aura of dragon and tiger. If the image of the emperor is gone, then the faith will collapse, and his fate will be the same as that of the statue of the land god."

"So, in this world, whether it's humans, gods, or the emperor, they all need to maintain their image. I saved that woman before, and Old Liu and his people believed that I was a Taoist master who could save people, so I gained their faith and strength. I didn't gain their faith in the temple before because they suspected that I was a wild monster transformed."

"No wonder the city god is unwilling to let the Taoist priest enter the city. There are many people in the city. If I cast spells and cure diseases and save lives, I can easily gain the faith of the people. In a short period of time, my strength will improve by leaps and bounds. The local city god will definitely not sit idly by and allow the power of faith and incense to be stolen by a wild Taoist priest. This is no different from rushing into a bank to rob money."

"Wait, I haven't read any books, why do I have such an understanding?"

Li Yi suddenly found that something was wrong with him. He was actually able to understand these principles of cultivation.

But soon.

He realized that something was wrong with himself, and saw an illusory crystal flower bud appearing above his head. It was the flower of the soul planted in his body by Xiang Xiangzi.

Obviously, this kind of understanding is not Li Yi's own, but comes from Xiang Xiangzi.

As Xiang Xiangzi is the top cultivator in the Three Flowers Realm, her comprehension and talent are naturally extraordinary, otherwise she would not have been able to become one of the Seven Fairies of the Tiandao Sect and master the three top Taoist techniques.

"If I build a statue of Xiang Xiangzi in this world and worship her with incense, then Xiang Xiangzi won't even need to wait until I break through the Three Flower Realm before her soul can wake up again. If I continue to calculate, can I leave a trace of soul power in the statue and use the power of incense to breed a second soul?" Many ideas came to Li Yi's mind. He felt that this world where incense can make people become gods had infinite potential. If he could use it for his own benefit, it would be incredible.

"So, you still want to rebel?"

Li Yi scratched his head. If he wanted to monopolize the power of faith and incense in this world, there was no other way except to rebel and become emperor. Because as long as he sat on the dragon throne, the faith of the common people in the world would automatically bless him. As for whether you are Li Yi, Taiyi, or Dayi, it doesn't matter.

The people only recognize the emperor, not your identity.

That’s the power of image.

If Li Yi really became the emperor, he only needed to maintain his image as an emperor and the power of incense would continue. By then, his practice would make rapid progress.

"But the power of incense has a big flaw. Once my faith collapses, my fate will be the same as that of the land god, which is very miserable. So the power of incense is false, not real. What I have to do is to use the false to cultivate the real, and use the power of incense to cultivate my own strength. Even if I leave this world in the future, the lack of incense will not affect me."

Li Yi became more and more enlightened.

Xiang Xiangzi's soul flower is really useful and very suitable for a warrior like him with little education, otherwise he would not have come up with such a great idea.

Therefore, he did not want to use the Heaven and Earth Qi Gathering Method to absorb the spiritual energy of Heaven and Earth. His only goal now was to attract people and gather faith.

Because relying on one's own practice is too slow, using incense to achieve enlightenment is the shortcut.

Xinzhou City was bustling with people and pedestrians coming and going in an endless stream. Although there were ghosts and monsters haunting some remote areas outside the city, in such a big city, everything was still flourishing, just like a raging fire.

Li Yi saw a lot of rare things along the way.

He saw someone selling centipedes on the roadside. It was a black and red centipede, as thick as an adult's arm, nearly two meters long, and looked hideous and terrifying.

However, this centipede was very popular and many people offered to buy it.

Finally, it was bought by a wealthy businessman at a high price. After the purchase, he cut open the centipede's back with a knife in public and took out a thumb-sized bead.

"It's going up, it's going up, I actually won a centipede bead." Some people exclaimed, while others regretted not paying a little more to buy it.

"It really came out. It seems I'm lucky."

The rich businessman was very happy. He bought a brocade box to put the pearl in. He also gave the centipede to the centipede dealer and asked him to sell it to a drugstore in exchange for some money as a prize.

Li Yi stood aside and listened for a moment before he understood what was going on.

It turns out that this centipede has become a spirit. If you catch it and are lucky, you can take out a precious bead from its back. It is called a centipede bead, also known as the Wind-Fixing Pill.

People who catch centipedes don't dare to gamble for fear of losing money, so they sell them to wealthy businessmen for gambling.

"These things are similar to the treasures from the four seas and eight continents." Li Yi thought to himself, "This world has plenty of spiritual energy, so the treasures from the four seas and eight continents must be more than those from the four seas and eight continents. Moreover, many people are very knowledgeable about the treasures from the four seas and eight continents, and they are not unfamiliar with them. Most people know that there is a chance that the centipede can produce the Wind-Fixing Pill."

Then he walked a little further and saw someone selling three toads. The three toads were crawling with mosquitoes and flies and had maggots on them. They looked very disgusting.

But it seems that the seller deliberately sold toads with maggots.

A traveling doctor passed by and became interested when he saw the toad. He asked the toad seller about the price. Finally, with a painful heart, he took out a large sum of money and bought a maggot-infested toad.

"Doctor, what's the use of buying this toad full of maggots?" Li Yi couldn't help but ask curiously.

The traveling doctor saw that Li Yi was dressed as a Taoist priest, and immediately bowed respectfully: "Master, you are polite. Master, you may not know that this maggot-infested toad is a rare and good medicine. Because toads are poisonous, flies and insects usually do not land on them after they die, otherwise they will be poisoned to death. However, after dozens or hundreds of toads die, there are always some exceptions. They are bitten by flies and insects and have maggots, just like this. After I take it back, I will crush it and make a plaster for special treatment."

At the end of the story, the traveling doctor stopped talking, chuckled, and was unwilling to reveal the diseases he treated for fear of leaking the prescriptions.

"So that's how it is. Thank you doctor for clearing up my doubts." Li Yi nodded without asking any more questions.

After a few polite words, the traveling doctor did not stay long and left in a hurry, apparently going to the pharmacy to get ointment.

(End of this chapter)