Walking alone with a sword, slaying ghosts and gods

Chapter 13 Fellow Sect
Time passes by in peace.

In a blink of an eye, another three months passed, and there seemed to be no change in the entire Ishihara County. At most, because of the arrival of the land official, many families in Ishihara County sent their children there, so there were more livelihoods, and the people in the county were slightly better off, but only slightly.

This was the fourth month after Lu Cheng arrived in Ishihara County. He finally met the County Magistrate Han, whom he had been ordered by his master to protect.

He was a thin old man with a goatee. When he saw Lu Cheng, his face was flushed and he looked slightly drunk. Although he tried his best to stand up and maintain etiquette, he couldn't help but hide in another room to retch because of the alcohol.

At that time, Lu Cheng had no choice but to say goodbye.

The next day, when Lu Cheng went to the county government office to pay a visit to County Magistrate Han Zhihan again, he was told by the yamen runners that County Magistrate Han had gone to Chenxi County to attend a banquet.

I don’t know why he came back yesterday, or maybe he just wanted to come back because he was still hungover.

A marquis of a hundred miles can be seen within a hundred miles but not within the marquis.

However, Lu Cheng also understood this.

After four months of observation in the local area, Lu Cheng found that the county government was just a decoration in Shiyuan County. Any disputes among the people were almost always resolved within the four families of Li, Tu, Zou, and You.

As a local county magistrate, the more he does, the more mistakes he makes, and he might even be harmed because of affecting the interests of local families.

"It should be due to the weakening of the country's ruling power. Magistrate Wang Yue was able to build water conservancy projects and promote Mandarin here because there was a powerful country behind him. The Black Armor Army of the Tang Dynasty (fire element, Tang is earth element) was famous all over the world. However, as soon as the country weakened, its control over the border was immediately reduced. Magistrate Wang Yue died of illness in southern Xinjiang. According to the county annals, the court sent people to investigate, but found nothing."

"Thinking about it this way, County Magistrate Han's approach is not a bad idea."

Returning to Chixin Temple, Lu Cheng continued his Taoist practice.

Being poor cares themselves, being wealthy cares the world.

Now I am just a minor repairman in an old temple. Instead of worrying about the fate of the entire Tang Dynasty, I might as well pay more attention to the practice of magic in my hands.

During these three months, Lu Cheng's main task was to continuously purify his own magic power through internal and external skills, and to practice the interaction between the sword and his own magic power when wielding the sword. However, these are all slow and arduous efforts, and one cannot achieve quick results even after a lifetime of hard work.

On the contrary, the progress that was faster was in the improvement of the Heavenly Soldiers and Divine Generals Method.

At midnight.

Lu Cheng swung his hand and shot out a piece of golden beans. Along with the swirling golden and silver light balls, a group of heavenly soldiers and generals led by Li Meng and Tu Nuhu landed in the yard.

They half-knelt and saluted Lu Cheng in unison, saying:
"We are willing to serve the Immortal Master!"

"Well, we will rehearse the military formation as usual."

The young Taoist priest sat on the cushion and bowed his head slightly, giving the order.

"Accept the Immortal Master's order."

The Heavenly Soldiers and Divine Generals Method contains methods for rehearsing mortal military formations. Although it is not the mysterious formation of immortals, scattered soldiers and organized military formations are still not of the same fighting power.

Unfortunately, the farther away from the Chixin Temple the Heavenly Soldiers and Divine Generals are, the weaker their power becomes and the greater their consumption. It is ok to carry a handful of armored generals with you when you go out, but if you summon more, the mana investment and combat performance will be completely uneconomical.

Even summoning two gods and forty-seven heavenly soldiers at a time, even at midnight, their bodies are somewhat illusory, and it is also extremely consuming mana. Fortunately, constant consumption and recovery is also a way of cultivation to purify one's own mana, and it can also train the military formation to enhance the power of the Heavenly Soldiers and Gods. Therefore, Lu Cheng is not very stingy about this.

In addition, Lu Cheng placed the three magical weapons in his hand, the Thunder Hammer, the Dianmu Cone and the Red Pine Sword, in front of the statue in the Chixin Temple for blessing.

Because Lu Cheng can sense and guide the mysterious power of faith and vows to a certain extent, the blessing effect is better than nothing. After a long time, there will always be some blessing power.

"In orthodox Taoist practice, it is actually taboo to rely too much on divine power. However, I am not inviting gods but creating gods, which is different from the ordinary techniques of inviting gods."

After a night of meditation, nothing happened.

The next morning, Xu Erniu, the husband of He Lan, the manager of Chixin Temple, went up the mountain.

This honest man, with red eyes and rubbing his hands, said: "Master, my daughter Lanlan is sick. I'm afraid she won't be able to come to your place to work these days."

A big, strong man called his wife Lanlan...

"It's okay. Let Manager He rest and recover, and tell her that the position of Manager of Chixin Temple will always be hers." Lu Cheng knew clearly what they were worried about, so he comforted them in a gentle voice.

Looking back, He Lan hasn't taken a single day off in the past four months. It's time for her to take a break.

"Oh, oh, thank you, Master, thank you, Master." Xu Erniu almost cried, and Lu Cheng thought that he just cared about his wife's illness, so he gave him two taels of silver and asked him to go down the mountain quickly to take care of Manager He Lan.

Lu Cheng originally thought that it shouldn't be a big deal as it was just one person missing, but it turned out that without He Lan in charge of the entire Chixin Temple, the other servants were in chaos and there was no longer the usual orderliness.

"Forget it, I'll take a day off today."

Seeing that the women were too busy, Lu Cheng stepped forward, took the big spoon, and personally served porridge to the little fat kids.

"Master, Master, please let it go. How can this be possible?"

The maids in the kitchen were all frightened when they saw this.

They had all seen Lu Cheng's magic on a daily basis, and they had also glimpsed the spirit tablets in the inner hall that contained the names and death records of the elders of each family. These people all regarded the young master of Chixin Temple as a god who had descended to the earth.

You have to know that those on the spirit tablets are people who have been dead for as short as a dozen years or as long as several decades.

Seeing him doing these chores himself at this moment, I was immediately scared out of my wits.

"Just do what you are supposed to do. We should recruit more people. Normally, Manager He commands you to work non-stop, but it was my negligence that didn't notice it."

Lu Cheng stopped the women from panicking and personally served porridge to the children in the temple.

"Excuse me, Senior Brother Lu Cheng from Huoyun Mansion, are you practicing in seclusion here?"

Not long after, when Lu Cheng was serving porridge, a clear male voice suddenly came from outside Chixin Temple.

Immediately afterwards, a man and a woman in Taoist attire came in one after the other and happened to meet Lu Cheng's eyes.

"They were able to walk outside the temple without letting me notice anything. These two people's cultivation is at least in the late stage of Qi training. They call me senior brother?"

Lu Cheng's mind quickly began to recall the memories about Huoyun Mansion. Huoyun Mountain was originally an active volcano. Later, Master Chi Shenzi cultivated into a golden elixir and used his great supernatural power to change the world to eliminate the earth fire and suppress the volcano, transforming it into an extremely impressive fifth-level spiritual vein. Master built a cave residence there.

However, although Chi Shen Zi was able to occupy a large fifth-level spiritual vein, he did not have it exclusively his own. He allowed the miscellaneous cultivators who gathered here to build caves at will. Only those who dared to compete for the main spiritual vein would be killed by Chi Shen Zi's flying sword.

As a result, Huoyun Mansion gradually became a gathering place for many human cultivators. The two people in front of him were both disciples of a foundation-building cultivator. When he was in Huoyun Mansion, he had met them several times.

Relevant memories came to mind, and suddenly, an unforgettable scene emerged from the depths of memory:

She was wearing a plain Taoist robe, with the hem swaying gently in the wind, like a fairy walking in the clouds, which made people feel admiration.

To this nun, the descriptions of beautiful facial features and stunning appearance were just general remarks. The woman in her memory, however, had a calm and profound temperament beneath her general beauty.

"...Uncle Fan."

He whispered subconsciously. But Lu Cheng was not his predecessor after all, and he quickly got rid of the shock from the depths of his memory.

Then, he smiled and said to the young men and women in Taoist costumes who were walking towards him:
"Qingfeng, Qingyun, why are you two here?"

The young man and woman in Taoist attire are a pair of siblings named Chen. The man is calm and honest, while the girl is pretty and bright. There are some similarities between their eyebrows and eyes, but they each have a completely different temperament.

"Brother Lu, we are here to help you."

Chen Qingyun said with a smile, took a spoon from the side, and helped Lu Cheng serve porridge to the little fat kids in the temple.

With the help of these two siblings, this task was quickly completed.

Lu Cheng and the Chen siblings walked into the temple together, talking as they walked.

(End of this chapter)