I was forced to cultivate immortality when I just wanted to lie down

Chapter 175 A Thousand Families Offering Incense, The County Magistrate Paying Homage

Precious artifacts and playthings should not be shown to the powerful and wealthy; ancient swords and famous zithers should always be kept hidden in cabinets and boxes.

Xu Qing knew this principle earlier than the foolish monk, and his purpose in coming to Wanshou County was to reveal the 'jade disc' he had hidden on his person.

The relief grain stored in Jingxia Street is useless. Xu Qing has no shortage of worldly money, and the zombie is not afraid of food shortages, so there is no need to eat grains.

A common man is innocent, but possessing a treasure is a crime. Rather than keeping that grain, it's better to make the most of it and give it its due value.

The influx of disaster victims from Wanshou County proved to be the solution to Xu Qing's problem.

"We need to name this temple. It can't be called Cat Fairy Hall. We're just a shell company; it won't last long before we run off with the money. What should we call it?"

Xuan Yu glanced at the paper temple, then looked at Xu Qing who had spoken.

It didn't understand what Xu Qing meant by "shell company," it only knew that the clever Xu Xian family could handle everything properly.

It's really hard to find a human who makes cats so carefree.

In front of the paper temple, Xu Qing casually wielded his brush. Before long, three large characters, powerful enough to penetrate the paper, appeared on the temple's plaque.

Although Xu Qing's calligraphy may not be considered unparalleled or timeless, it can still be described as vigorous and graceful.

With his mastery of various folk arts, writing a beautiful piece of calligraphy is naturally a piece of his life.

"The Temple of the Mysterious Woman?" Xuan Yu looked at the words on the plaque with some confusion.

Xu Qing explained, “There are countless wishes in the human world. Goddesses and immortals are too busy to have time to fulfill every wish. Even if there are gods, they are mostly minor mountain gods who act in place of gods. Otherwise, some temples would not be efficacious while others are not.”

"In the end, the incense offerings that are obtained will have their own destination. Whoever does the deed will receive the incense offerings of their vows. Otherwise, how could there be so many unorthodox immortals posing as deities in this world?"

"As long as we don't act arrogantly or cause trouble for the people, even if there are gods watching over us, then you and I can be considered messengers of the gods."

Xu Qing had seen many stories about the imperial court bestowing titles upon deities in the memories of Lingyangzi, a child spirit of the Celestial Master's Mansion. Among them were some demons who had a long-standing relationship with the Celestial Master's Mansion and were officially recognized by the Celestial Master and given incense offerings.

The conferment ceremonies were not particularly special. If we had to categorize them, they could be roughly divided into two types: one was conferred by secular decree, called imperial conferment; the other was conferred by celestial decree, called jade conferment or heavenly conferment.

After pondering for a moment, Xu Qing simply took out an incense table and performed a simple Heavenly Sealing Ritual.

The imperial decree from Heaven supersedes secular imperial power; Xu Qing bypassed the middlemen and directly questioned Heaven's will.

Whether Heaven responds or not is not important. Those who set up altars and offered sacrifices to Heaven to ask for its approval never received a response from the Heavenly Emperor. Even the emperors of the past who performed the Fengshan ceremony did not receive a divine reply.

However, going through an extra procedure is never a bad thing.

After setting up the temple according to the proper methods, Xu Qing took out paper and folded out the altar and statues.

Apart from these paper offerings, the other items such as incense, candles, and incense burners are real objects.

The small temple was newly built and had no incense offerings, so Xu Qing was not in a hurry.

The relief grain distributed by Wanshou County is not yet exhausted, but judging from the increasingly thin porridge, Xu Qing knows that running out of food is only a matter of time.

Emperor Jingxing was in charge of killing but not burying. After designating Wanshou Township as the county seat, he only talked about increasing the population and making Wanshou County prosperous, but when it came to allocating funds, he was stingy and could not squeeze out a single penny.

Even the little grain that was requisitioned was mostly lost halfway through the journey due to the problem of grain consumption.

Xu Qing stood on the high ground and looked out. He could see a vast expanse of refugees stretching as far as the eye could see.

The message that Gu Zixu spread along the disaster-stricken prefectures and counties has already begun to show results.

If this news were true, it wouldn't really be considered a rumor. After all, it was true that Wanshou Township had become a county seat, and it was also true that the imperial court encouraged population growth. Absorbing refugees and allocating silver and grain were also openly stated matters. However, whether or not one could actually receive the grain was not the responsibility of the imperial court.

Whether the people have enough to eat is secondary; the officials who govern the people must be fed first. As for how full they are, that depends on how much conscience these officials have.

However, Xu Qing soon received the answer.

That day, as evening approached and no servants appeared to distribute porridge or grain, Xu Qing suddenly realized what was going on.

It turns out these officials have only the size of a sesame seed in their hearts!
It's truly remarkable that they were able to persist in providing relief for half a month under these circumstances.

“Immortal Xuanyu, this mission is very important, we must seize this opportunity.”

Xu Qing was never the type to gamble everything; he liked to leave himself an escape route, the more the better.

Ever since the black crows crossed the ocean to seek offspring from other lands, Xu Qing had already been thinking about other ways to obtain descendants.

You can't put all your eggs in one basket. The black crow that fights with its back to the wall may not come back alive. If it really waits until then, how can it survive the lightning strike?
Hu Baosong's biological mother died in a lightning strike, and Master Yizhen's master, Zichen, also failed to escape the calamity. As a zombie, how could he be sure of escaping the calamity if he didn't make thorough preparations?
If he couldn't escape, Xuan Yu might once again become a cat that wanders the streets all day, yet stubbornly insists it's a wandering cat.
The moon shines over the reeds, and the dragon lies hidden.

One day, an old man suddenly appeared outside Wanshou County, giving away incense. The old man had a kind face and was dressed in white. He would hand out incense sticks to everyone he met, saying that when you have a wish, you should burn incense and pray for it. Within a day, the gods who save you from suffering will respond.

No one took it seriously. On the contrary, many people who were starving treated the spice sticks that Xu Qing distributed as snacks, chewing and swallowing them.

This has left Xu Qing bewildered, but he's not in a hurry. He'll wait until tomorrow to see what happens, and things will become clear.

At night, paper horses and donkeys, their bellies full of food, roamed among the refugees.

Through the incense and the Dharma realm, Xu Qing looked at the refugees and saw that among the vast crowd, there were tiny sparks of light appearing in the night scene.

Those points of light are the people who burn incense and make prayers during the day.

The next day, the refugees outside the city suddenly became restless.

On the newly built city wall, a yamen runner hurriedly ran to the county office to report to the county magistrate.

Upon hearing this, the county magistrate sighed helplessly.

He knew this day would come when the relief food was cut off the day before yesterday, but he didn't expect the displaced people's unrest to come so quickly.

"You must guard the city's defenses and prevent the refugees from breaking in!"

On the city wall, the soldiers guarding the city paid no attention to the noisy refugees.

Hearing the commotion in the distance, one of the soldiers asked curiously, "Why is someone still crying?"

"What's the big deal? If you were starving, you'd cry too."

"No, no, listen carefully, it sounds like someone is crying out, 'I shouldn't be popular, I shouldn't be popular.'"

"Hey! Why do you care about them? Maybe it's just a dialect from Yaozhou. 'Not being popular' might mean they can't get any food."

"Sigh, what a world this is like."

Outside the city, among the refugees.

Just as some were wailing and lamenting, a capable person spoke up, saying, "Incense isn't a precious item; any grass or wood can be used. We can use grass as incense, or at worst, send someone to the city to ask the county magistrate for incense and candles on credit, hoping the God of Grain will appear." "That's excellent!" After that person finished speaking, another unfamiliar person chimed in, "However, that deity is neither the God of Grain, nor the Goddess of the Granary, nor the Mother Goddess of the Five Grains. If you wish to worship, you must distinguish between them."

The leader, looking at the old man who had interrupted him, asked in surprise, "If he's not the god who governs the five grains of the human world, what other god could he be?"

The old man smiled slightly and pointed to a place, saying, "There is a temple on the high hill called the Temple of the Mysterious Woman. Inside is a celestial deity who saves people from suffering. You should worship her!"

The man laughed and said, "I've actually been to the hill you mentioned. There's only rubble there, no temples or shrines. Are you just making this up?"

Faced with the questioning, the old man chuckled and did not answer. He simply took a palm-sized paper crane from his sleeve and tossed it aside.

Before anyone could react, the palm-sized paper crane began to rise in the wind. When the crane was big enough to carry one person, the old man rode it and flew straight to a distant hill!

Those who had previously voiced their doubts were dumbfounded, while the onlookers thought they had encountered a true deity, and they all knelt on the ground, saying that it was a divine manifestation and a true immortal descending to earth.

At noon, the crowd elected a literate scholar to go into the city to fetch incense and offerings.

When the county magistrate heard about this, he thought it was just a desperate attempt by disaster victims to seek help. He believed that burning incense and praying to gods would bring them food.
“If they want incense, give it to them. How much is incense worth? As long as they don’t ask for grain, it’s all negotiable.”

Several days later, after hearing the news again that offering incense would bring grain, the county magistrate finally couldn't resist coming to the outskirts of the city.

"Officer Lin, have you found out who is playing tricks?"

The head constable shook his head and said, "I don't know, but all those who burned incense and made prayers did indeed receive millet and grain."

"Is that so?" The magistrate frowned. "Go and fetch a stick of incense, light it and offer prayers, so I can see if it is truly effective."

The constable's face stiffened, and he said somewhat awkwardly, "I tried it two days ago, and the other brothers also burned incense and offered sacrifices, but they did not give any food or money."

"I believe that there are indeed gods saving the people, and we are not the ones suffering, so we are not blessed by the gods."

Beside the magistrate, the county clerk also spoke up: "It's better to believe it's true than not to believe it's not. Even if someone is causing trouble behind the scenes, it may not be a bad thing for the magistrate."

The magistrate pondered for a moment, then suddenly asked, "What if his grain source is illegitimate?"

Upon hearing this, the county magistrate smiled and said, "Have you heard of any granaries being robbed, Your Excellency?"

"That's not true. Although a lot of grain was lost at the Tianjin grain depot recently, it was due to flooding, not human error."

Shaking his head, the magistrate suddenly said, "You all quickly prepare carriages and sedan chairs, and come with me to worship the venerable god!"

There were no fewer than 100,000 refugees in Wanshou County. After Xu Qing started the burning of incense and petitioning, he stopped worrying about whether the disaster victims had burned incense for the Xuan Nu Temple.

If they were to really count and sort them, he and Xuan Yu probably wouldn't be able to distribute all the food they had even after months of hard work.

A long night can lead to many problems, and delays will inevitably bring trouble.

The foolish monk was tricked simply for demonstrating his skill in making paper lifelike figures. Now that he has made such a big fuss, he will inevitably be watched by many people.

For him, the safest approach right now is to resolve the situation quickly.

Without further hesitation, Xu Qing distributed most of the grain within just a few days.

At night, Xu Qing selected some respected people from among the refugees and used dream-making techniques to create a dream in which a deity descended. He said that the Goddess Xuan Nu only helped those in distress, and now that the calamity had passed, she was about to return. He told them that they should regroup and engage in weaving and farming to become self-sufficient.
In addition to Wanshou County, the displaced people in Linjiang County also received a lot of grain.

Xu Qing was never worried that the grain would be confiscated by the government. There were so many refugees that even if some unscrupulous official realized what was happening and wanted to confiscate the grain, he would probably be powerless to do so.

The time it took for the Goddess of the Mysterious Woman to distribute grain was only ten days. By the time the magistrates of Wanshou County and Linjiang County remembered to slaughter the three sacrificial animals and led their county officials to the Goddess of the Mysterious Woman Temple to worship, Xu Qing and Xuan Yu had already returned to Linjiang County with incense.

After more than a month, a group of uninvited guests suddenly appeared outside the Xuan Nu Temple.

The person in the lead was dressed in the attire of the Celestial Master's Mansion and held a brand-new mirror in his hand. Behind him followed the Lingtai Lang of the Imperial Observatory and the Captain of the Demon-Slaying Division, who was in charge of slaying demons in Tianjin.

"As expected, this is a lewd shrine and shrine. As a demon-hunting captain, you should have come to this lewd shrine and destroyed it as soon as possible. Now that the lewd demon has abandoned the temple and fled, it is your dereliction of duty!"

The demon-hunting captain's eyelids twitched, but he remained silent.

Wanshou and Linjiang had just become county seats, and as a demon-hunting captain, he had naturally traveled to these two places quite a bit. He knew about this wild temple earlier than others, but he had never spoken of it.

There are only two reasons for this. One is that what the other party is doing is a good deed to save the common people, and if he obstructs it, it would be against all reason.

The second point is that someone who can do this, or rather, dares to do this, must not be an ordinary person. If he dared to cut down mountains and destroy temples, he might not be standing here alive today.

It's safer to just turn a blind eye.

Like now, at most we'll suffer some minor scrapes, but otherwise there won't be any damage.

The official in charge of the Imperial Observatory shook his head and said, "Only one temple in Wanshou County was built by imperial decree. There is no record of this small temple. It is undoubtedly a wild temple."

"A temple in the wild? It's probably not even a temple in the wild, but a fake temple made of paper!"

The Taoist priest Tianxing from the Celestial Master's Mansion held a brand-new treasure mirror and looked it at the temple located on the high hill. Sure enough, the image of a small paper temple appeared on the mirror.

Tianxing Daoren sneered, made a hand seal, and the solemn Xuannv Temple suddenly emitted white smoke, followed by a great fire. In no time, the original temple was reduced to a pile of ashes and some incense burners and offerings exposed in the rubble.

Wugongpu Village, Linjiang County.

Xu Qing is counting the incense sticks.

In just over a month after leaving Wanshou County, the shell company produced an astonishing 500,000 incense sticks.

Moreover, this number is increasing by tens of thousands every day. Xu Qing estimated that the incense offerings from thousands of families would be enough for him to withstand the calamity.

However, just to be on the safe side, he decided to wait a little longer.

Zombies are not like other demons. If they encounter yin lightning or yang lightning, it's alright, but if they encounter divine lightning, the consequences are still unpredictable.

But what if one possessed a million wishes?
While Xu Qing was thinking about something, he suddenly realized that there was a problem with the branch office in Wanshou County.

Well! It seems the unlicensed operation has been discovered after all.

Xuan Yu felt the same way.

"Xu Xian's house, that temple."

"Don't worry about it. The statue of the Goddess Xuan has already been placed in people's hearts. Even if the temple is gone, the incense and faith will still exist. They can burn down the temple, but can they burn down people's hearts?"

"What if they find the Cat Fairy Hall?"

"Regardless of whether they can find the branch or not, even if they do," Xu Qing chuckled without saying a word.

With the ability to deceive the heavens, ordinary people cannot predict where these incense offerings will go. Even if something unexpected happens, Mr. Xu would not mind experiencing the taste of lightning disaster in advance.

(End of this chapter)