Records of Mysterious Things in the Southern Dynasties

Chapter 27 Tianmu Ointment

As Feng Shusheng's story spread in the countryside, the prestige of the mountain goddess, which had fallen to the bottom, began to recover little by little, and finally there were sporadic pilgrims who came to the temple to burn incense from time to time.

Actually, the temple was not so poor originally. The current situation was largely due to Ren Yuan, who moved out of Xiejia Village and lived in the mountain temple after the seventh day of the Xie family's death.

His reason was very reasonable - he would live in a hut on the mountain during the mourning period and pray for his deceased relatives.

In this era, filial piety is of paramount importance, so no one can stop him.

But once he moved into the temple, who in the south of the village dared to disturb the second young master's meditation? And the people in the north of the village always worshiped the river god, so naturally they would not come.

This is exactly what Ren Yuan wanted, he wasn't interested in being entertained all day. He moved into the temple to concentrate on practicing with his senior sister, and to spend money as inconspicuously as possible.

In fact, it is not difficult to squander money. If you really want to spend, how much money can you spend? The difficult part is to ensure that no one will come after the people to pursue you. This requires that every penny he spends must be legitimate and reasonable, so that at most people will think that he is a spendthrift, rather than deliberately giving money to the people.

For example, he announced that he would give charity in the name of doing good deeds for his elders, and gave each citizen in the southern part of the village one dou of rice and ten coins per day, for 49 days in a row!
For example, he offered three to five times the wages in the name of the mountain temple, hired the people in the south of the village to build bridges and roads, carried out large-scale infrastructure construction, and also built the Charity Bureau, the Orphanage, the Anjifang, the Louze Garden...

This kind of money used to show filial piety and do good deeds can be spent. There is no need to worry about the Xie family's future pursuit. A big family should still be respectable... right?

As for Ren Yuan, he had to isolate himself from all this. So he chose to hide behind the scenes and give orders remotely. This way, if the Xie family investigated in the future, he would not bring trouble to the people when he fled far away.

Yes, Ren Yuan had made plans to flee far away before killing Xie You's entire family. But in this world full of demons, it is still difficult to move forward if you have money but no power.

That's why he practiced day and night, hoping to gain the power to protect himself as soon as possible. Who would have thought that he would get stuck just after starting...

The torment of not being able to make any progress no matter how hard you try makes Ren Yuan feel uncomfortable all over, and his face is almost the same color as Chibao. It makes people very worried. If this continues, will he explode?

Fortunately, a turning point soon appeared...

~~
That day, after disappearing for a few days, the civet cat suddenly returned to the temple, jumped onto Ren Yuan's head, and shouted excitedly:
"Hurry up, hurry up, I found out where to find Tianmu ointment!"

"Really?" Ren Yuan suddenly perked up, but considering that this guy was known to be unreliable, he still calmed down and asked about the whole story first.

"I was worried about you, wasn't I? So I wandered around... No, I was asking around to find out where I could find Tianmu ointment." The civet cat proudly took credit for it and said, "Then Daju from Fangxian Town told me that he had heard these three words at the home of the richest man in town."

"Are you sure?" The senior sister was also attracted and said, "Those of your friends often lie about military intelligence."

"Big Orange won't do that. He's a very honest cat!" The civet cat clapped his paws anxiously and said, "He won't say anything unless he's sure."

"Never mind, let's go check it out first." Ren Yuan refused to give up any hope, and immediately rode on the leopard with his sister. The civet cat also jumped on Ren Yuan's head, and they arrived in town in a short time.

Fangxian Town is located in the north of the township. There is a township office, Hebo Temple and a large market in the town. It is considered the center of the township.

The senior sister turned the red leopard into an armored horse and put it in her pocket, then turned into a little boy and followed Ren Yuan into the town.

Actually, this was Ren Yuan's first time in town. After staying in the countryside for a long time, looking at the shops and vendors on both sides of the road and listening to the various hawking sounds, he felt as if he was in another world.

However, the senior sister's attention was all focused on the popular Hebo Temple.

On both sides of the red lacquer gate with flying eaves and pointed corners, there is a couplet hanging:
'Keep the weather here good and the people healthy.'

The gate was crowded with pilgrims and the smoke formed into clouds of celebration. No matter how grand or popular it was, it was far beyond the reach of the mountain temple.

A Yao pulled Ren Yuan's sleeve hard, and said with envy, "A Yuan, A Yuan, look at how other temple priests run their business."

"He Bo has never flipped over." Ren Yuan pushed his senior sister's shoulder and left the He Bo Temple. He followed the orange cat leading the way on the wall and came to a large courtyard with high walls.

Orange cat: "Meow."

"This is the house of rich man Liu." The civet cat pointed to the imposing black lacquered gate, then jumped onto the wall and went to play with the orange cat.

Ren Yuan nodded, took out a business card, and asked his sister to pass it to the concierge. These days, it is very rude to visit someone without an appointment. But if the guest's surname is Xie, it is a different matter. If the guest's surname is more direct, the host will even write this visit into the family tree to show off.

So Ren Yuan’s strategy was very simple, he got straight to the point, spent a huge sum of money, bought the Tianmu ointment and left!
Upon learning that the second young master of the Xie family was coming to visit, the eldest young master of the Liu family hurriedly opened the door and welcomed him.

In fact, the Liu family is also a descendant of the Pengcheng Liu family, and the eldest son Liu is a local pilgrim, so his status in the village is not low. But only other people have been able to visit Xiejiazhuang, and the son of the Xie family has never condescended to visit the Liu family.

"I came to visit you on a whim. It's really impolite of me." Ren Yuan bowed apologetically.

"No, no, it's an honor to have you visit my humble home, Second Young Master." Young Master Liu was flattered and hurriedly invited him to sit in the hall and personally served him a cup of tea.

He then explained apologetically, "Originally, the master of the family should have personally entertained the second young master, but unfortunately, the old man is ill in bed, so I have to be rude."

"Oh, your father is ill?" Ren Yuan couldn't get straight to the point, so he put down his teacup and said, "Take me to the bedside to greet you."

"This..." Young Master Liu felt embarrassed.

"Why? Is it inconvenient?" Ren Yuan asked.

"Well, to be honest." Young Master Liu had no choice but to tell the truth: "My father is not sick, but after taking a certain elixir, he became possessed..."

"Is that so..." Ren Yuan's heart sank, knowing that what Mr. Liu had eaten must be Tianmu Paste.

Just as he was about to get up and say goodbye, returning disappointed, he heard the voice of his senior sister.

"Don't worry, there is still hope. Just do as I say..."

Ren Yuan sat down again and asked Young Master Liu according to what Senior Sister had asked: "What kind of elixir did your father take?"

"Well..." Young Master Liu hesitated again, thinking that this young master of the Xie family was too casual and unrestrained. Was it appropriate to talk about such deep things with someone he had just met?

"Haha, to be honest." Ren Yuan drew a 'Clothes Changing Talisman' in the air, and instantly changed his clothes and said: "I am still a temple priest of the Mountain God Temple, and I know a little bit about external alchemy."

Young Master Liu didn't even blink when he saw that Ren Yuan's wide-sleeved robe had been replaced with a blue cloth Taoist robe. He couldn't help but say in awe, "It turns out that the second young master has magical powers!"

"That's right. If you tell me the truth, maybe I can save your father's life." Ren Yuan skillfully put on the posture of a master.

"Yes." Young Master Liu answered honestly this time: "My father took Tianmu ointment."

"Yeah." Ren Yuan nodded and motioned for him to continue.

"A few years ago, my father accidentally got a pill to open his mind. Although others said that this thing was extremely dangerous, my father still took it. As a result, his eyesight was no longer blurry, his waist was no longer bent, his hair turned black, and he looked 20 years younger."

Young Master Liu then told the whole story: "Since then, my father has been obsessed with finding better elixirs, hoping to prolong his life. He searched for many years and borrowed a lot of favors. Not long ago, he finally spent a lot of money to buy a small bottle of Tianmu ointment in Wuxi."

"Alas, it turned out to be a problem." He said depressedly: "Not long after taking Tianmu ointment, he began to hear someone talking in his head, and later he saw a big insect with a snake body and a horse head crawling out of his eyes."

"Have you seen that monster?" Ren Yuan asked.

"No, I heard it from my father." Young Master Liu shook his head and said, "No one has ever seen that monster, but he has become abnormal and has even gone insane recently."

"What are the specific manifestations?" Ren Yuan asked.

"Greedy, extremely greedy." Young Master Liu sighed and said, "He eats and lives in the treasury, and never leaves his gold and silver treasures. If anyone dares to touch a penny of his, he will fight to the death."

"Good fellow..." Ren Yuan thought, isn't this Smaug? He stood up and said, "Let's go and take a look at the scene."

ps. According to everyone's opinions, I will release the two chapters together in the future. Although this will sacrifice some exposure, everyone will have a better reading experience.

(End of this chapter)