Simultaneous traversal: All Abyss difficulty.

Chapter 547 Worshiping the River God? I'll bleed like a river!
Fang Yu lived a very regular life at Wuzhuang Temple.

During the day, he diligently studied the bamboo slips given to him by the bright moon, and the obscure ancient seal script gradually took shape in his eyes.

At night, he sat cross-legged under the outer wall where ginseng fruit trees grew, breathing deeply and letting the spiritual energy cleanse his meridians.

Occasionally, Qingfeng would take him to the back mountain to pick some spiritual fruits, or to the mountain stream to catch a few silver-scaled fish for a treat.

Three months later, Fang Yu's skin, nourished by the spiritual energy of the mountains, became smooth and lustrous, and the golden flames in his eyes had also become much more subdued.

His face, emaciated from hunger in the Lion Camel Kingdom, gradually became no different from Fang Yu's in other worlds.

That morning, as he was gazing intently at the bamboo slips, a gentle breeze suddenly lifted the curtain of the side room.

"Let's go down the mountain to buy some supplies." Qingfeng flicked his wide sleeves. "The temple is almost out of incense and candles."

Fang Yu closed the bamboo scroll and joked, "Even immortals have to do business with mortals?"

Qingfeng straightened his crooked Taoist hat, shrugged, and said, "I have cultivated for a thousand years, but I feel that I am just a person who lives a longer life. I am not a god."

As he spoke, he pulled out a few copper coins from his sleeve. "Here, you'll need to bring these too."

Fang Yu was taken aback, then burst into laughter.

As he followed the breeze through the mountain gate, he suddenly turned back and glanced at the misty Longevity Mountain.

The Wuzhuang Temple atop the mountain resembles a jade sculpture in the morning light, seemingly a world apart from the bustling world below.

The stone steps leading down the mountain were slippery. Qingfeng walked ahead, chattering about what he had seen and heard at the market: "Wang Po's tofu pudding on the east street is the most tender, and Zhang the blacksmith's hoe in the west market can last for ten years." He suddenly turned around as he spoke, "By the way, when we pass by the local temple later, don't stare at it."

"Why?"

Qingfeng curled his lip: "That old man is the best at snitching. He mentioned the time I secretly drank fruit wine." He suddenly fell silent because there was indeed a faded earth god temple standing at the corner of the mountain path.

As Fang Yu walked by, he caught a glimpse of the clay statue of the Earth God enshrined in the temple.

With his round face and smiling eyes, he looked exactly like a kind old man.

But he knew that these so-called gods were mostly just pawns on the chessboard of Heaven, like the land of Lion Camel Ridge where people were forced to sign blood pacts.

The town at the foot of the mountain was more lively than I had imagined.

Qingfeng skillfully navigated the streets, passing the hawkers, bought a few feet of blue cloth at the cloth shop, and then weighed out two jin of incense at the general store.

Fang Yu followed behind him, watching the steam rising from the steamers on the street blur the faces of the pedestrians, and for a moment he felt a sense of familiarity.

"Candied hawthorns~!" The vendor's cry pierced the noise.

Qingfeng suddenly grabbed Fang Yu's sleeve: "Look!"

In the middle of the street, a ragged old woman was prostrating herself in worship. In front of her stood a fat man dressed in silk, with a jade pendant from the River God's Palace hanging from his waist.

The old woman kowtowed until her forehead bled, muttering, "Please, River God, have mercy."

The fat man kicked away the broken bowl she was offering, and shards of porcelain splashed onto Fang Yu's boots.

“On the fifth day of each month, they collect young boys and girls, calling it ‘auspicious omen from the river god.’ The boys and girls serve the river god, and after ten years they are released and given fifty years of extra lifespan.” Qingfeng lowered his voice, “Actually, it’s a carp demon causing trouble, eating children.”

Fang Yu stared at the fat man's retreating figure, his eyes narrowing slightly: "You...aren't you going to do anything about it?"

"How do we manage it?" Qingfeng took out his money and bought a string of candied hawthorns. "That carp spirit is a distant relative of the Dragon King of the South Sea. This place is too deep."

He bit through the candy shell and mumbled, "Besides, we're earth immortals, we only care about our own cultivation, not the heavens." He suddenly lowered his voice, "...the ones in heaven don't care, how are we supposed to care!"

"Slurp slurp~" Qingfeng licked the candied hawthorn.

The honey syrup from the candied hawthorn skewers dripped down the bamboo sticks onto the bluestone slab, attracting a few ants.

Fang Yu suddenly remembered the vultures fighting for food by the swill bucket in Lion Camel Kingdom.

As we returned to the mountain, the sun was setting.

Qingfeng, carrying a bundle full of incense and candles, suddenly said, "Actually, every time Master travels, he secretly enlightens a few people who are destined for him." He kicked away a pebble on the road, "For example, that woodcutter from three hundred years ago is now the founder of a certain sword sect."

Fang Yu watched as his shadow stretched long across the mountain path. He thought, in the eyes of mortals, those who can ride the clouds are naturally immortals, those who can turn stones into gold are naturally immortals, and those who can slay demons with a single sword are naturally immortals.
But who says that gods must be compassionate and merciful?

The night wind rustled through the treetops, carrying with it the cries of the distant village.

It must be another family holding a funeral for the "river god's wedding".

Fang Yu touched the candy that Qingfeng had secretly slipped to him from his sleeve, and suddenly felt a bitter taste on his tongue.

All these gods and Buddhas are hiding in their palaces, enjoying their divine breezes. Who has the patience to see the suffering of the human world?
In the dead of night, the oil lamp in the side room had long since gone out.

Fang Yu lay on his back on the hard bed, staring at the spider spinning its web in the cracks of the roof beam.

The images of the market during the day linger in my mind.

The old woman's bruised forehead, the fat man's jade pendant of the river god, and the sound of candied hawthorn sticking to the bluestone slab.
Every frame felt like a red-hot iron skewer, pricking his temples and making them throb.

"Young boys and girls are collected on the fifth day of each month."

Qingfeng's words exploded in his ears, and Fang Yu suddenly gripped the bedding tightly! The pain of the coarse cloth digging into his fingers could not suppress the surging anger in his chest.

He rolled out of bed, his bare feet stepping on the cold floor tiles, the chill shooting straight up from the soles of his feet to the top of his head.

Outside the window, the shadow of the ginseng fruit tree was cast on the window paper, its branches swaying like ghostly claws.

The rule of Wuzhuang Temple is not to interfere in human affairs.
Fang Yu was panting heavily, and the veins on his forehead were bulging.

He recalled the baby's hand soaking in the stale water bucket of the Lion Camel Kingdom, the pregnant woman marked with her due date in the royal physician's office of the Bhikkhu Kingdom, and the glint in Qingfeng's eyes when he said the pool was too deep.
"Screw your rules!"

Fang Yu threw the Taoist robe hard onto the bed!
The moment the door opened, his figure transformed into a bolt of lightning and leaped out of the mountain gate!
The mountain path rushed past beneath our feet.

Fang Yu walked barefoot across the stream; the icy water barely reached his ankles, but it couldn't extinguish the fire in his heart.

"We must make it in time!"

Just as the first gong sounded, Fang Yu saw the flames.

He lay hidden behind a dead tree and saw that the threshing ground was surrounded by villagers holding torches.

In the center of the crowd was a bamboo sedan chair wrapped in red silk, inside which sat a boy and a girl, about five or six years old.

One of the boy's tiger-head shoes fell off, and the silver bell on the girl's braid jingled softly with her sobs.

"The auspicious time has arrived—!"

Amidst hoarse shouts, eight strong men lifted the bamboo sedan chair.

Fang Yu's fingernails dug deep into the tree bark, and he felt a deep sense of powerlessness in the face of these ignorant people!

Can sacrificing children bring good weather and abundant harvests?

Anyone with a brain knows how incredibly weird this is!
The fishy smell wafting from the river was mixed with the stench of rotting flesh, and the dark shadow underwater was longer than ten fishing boats combined!

The old man standing by the river was startled by the enormous creature!
"The River God has appeared!" The hunchbacked old man suddenly screamed and knelt down. The villagers quickly followed suit, as if afraid that if they knelt too slowly, they would be swept away by the River God.

As Fang Yu passed by the group of villagers, they knelt down and closed their eyes. They knew someone was passing by, but they thought it was the river god walking by, and their bodies trembled even more violently.

Legend has it that a daring villager once looked up at the river god.

The villager was pulled into the river by the river god and has not been found since. The older folks say he was sent to serve the river god, but who can say for sure? He may have died long ago.

So no one dared to look up.

Those standing were only young boys and girls, and...
A black-haired boy with golden eyes and clenched back teeth!

The thing in the river poked out its head, which was as big as a truck, and before Fang Yu could make a move, it actually started talking!
"Looking at the River God, do you know your crime?"

Fang Yu looked at the huge fish monster by the river, a smile playing on his lips. He pointed at its two long whiskers and gritted his teeth in response!
"I know, you idiot!"

(End of this chapter)