Chapter 493: Chapter 255:
"Where is Xu Immortal Family going next?"
"To Guanmen Village to see Dazhuang and Erzhuang."
Chaotic Stone Mountain is not far from Guanmen Village. Xu Qing rode his Chasing Mourning horse leisurely, taking in the sights along the way. As he passed by a village, he saw a newly erected shrine at the village entrance.
Inside the shrine, it was none other than the Lady of Bao Sheng Temple being worshipped.
"The Xu Immortal Family is becoming more and more famous."
"..."
When they arrived at the second village, Xu Qing saw a shrine dedicated to the Cat Immortal Hall in the village, and a smile finally appeared on his face.
"It seems that the Profound Jade Immortal Family is not far behind. Look at the clay cat figure, even painted with ink, looking like a little dirty cat."
"..."
Xuan Yu stared at the roughly crafted clay cat figure, several times restraining the impulse to summon the Sword Pill.
This statue is too ugly!
Why does Xu Immortal Family’s statue get to wear colorful clothes, with cute tiger-head shoes and small embroidered shoes placed in the shrine, while theirs is so perfunctory?
The cat’s heart was filled with indignation.
When they arrived at Huangping Village, Xu Qing found in front of the originally collapsed nunnery a newly erected Grand General Hou Temple.
"Grand General Hou Temple? Whose shrine is this?"
Xu Qing was puzzled, and he walked in to take a closer look. Inside the temple, roughly built with straw and wooden sheds, was enshrined a statue of a monkey.
Above it was a plaque, with crooked words resembling earthworms, inscribed: The honorable seat of Grand General Hou of Monkey Mountain.
Xuan Yu followed Xu Qing into the temple, looking around but not seeing a bit of incense candle or any offerings.
This Immortal Family is too destitute, isn’t it?
"What a pitiable Immortal Family, not even a trace of incense."
Xu Qing nodded in agreement: "Since we are fellow immortals, let’s offer a stick of incense for it."
The circle of immortals values connections and relies on unity. Only in this way can the local immortals establish their footing and not be bullied by passing outsiders.
After lighting an incense stick, Xuan Yu also pulled out a handful of hazelnuts, walnuts, and other four kinds of offerings from her small backpack and placed them on the incense table.
When the two of them left, the armored statue on the altar belatedly opened its eyes.
It looked around, saw no one, only two sticks of incense about to burn out on the incense table, and a pile of nuts next to the Incense Burner.
Grand General Hou saw this and visibly showed a joyful expression. Finally! Finally! Finally, someone has offered incense to it!
This was the first wisp of incense it had received in the sole dominance of the Cat Immortal Hall, how could it not be happy?
Unaware of the situation in the impoverished temple, Xu Qing took Xuan Yu and continued riding along the Huangping Village toward Guanmen Village.
Passing by a village school, a stiff man and a cat happened to meet a teacher outside scattering millet.
Xu Qing glanced at it but didn’t give it much thought.
After he and Xuan Yu left, villagers going to work in the fields saw the scene of the village teacher scattering millet.
The villager wondered, "Why is Mr. Meng scattering millet on the ground? If the birds spoil it, what a waste."
The teacher laughed, "The birds know better. These days, a group of crows, from who knows where, loves to perch outside the school. I didn’t mind at first, but these crows have brought me many long-life fruits."
What are long-life fruits? Hidden in shells, neither dried by the wind nor wet by the rain, they stay fresh for long – that’s a long-life fruit.
These fruits are stockpile for mountain dwellers, loved by birds, squirrels, monkeys, and bears!
"That’s incredible! If it’s true, I’ll go back and scatter some millet or sorghum to feed those birds. Not much, but a sack of walnuts and pine nuts would do for me!"
The teacher shook his head and laughed, "All things have spirits. These crows can mimic human speech and have a sense of returning kindness. Perhaps they understood my teachings and brought so many fruits."
"Birds can study and attend lectures?" The farmer was skeptical, "Even I can’t listen to all your lengthy talks, and birds can? Unless they’ve attained spirits!"
"I think you’re deliberately teasing me..."
Before he finished speaking, the farmer felt something hard hit his head. He clutched his head and cried out, and when he came back to his senses, he found more than a dozen crows perching above him, dropping hazelnuts onto his head.
After dropping them, the crows flew back down, picked up the hazelnuts, and brought them back to the teacher.
The farmer was dumbfounded. From this day on, the legend of crows learning literature and returning hazelnuts spread through Xijing Mountain.
...
Guanmen Village, Grandma Temple.
When Xu Qing rode over on horseback, he encountered a thin monkey with a hairy face. It was carrying a stick and pacing back and forth not far from the temple gate, occasionally scratching its ears and cheeks as if faced with an insolvable problem.
When it saw Xu Qing passing by on horseback with a young girl, the monkey rather politely approached to ask:
"May I ask, brother, are you going to Grandma Temple for incense worship?"
Xu Qing sized up the monkey.
He saw it wearing a hat of a bailiff style, though clearly obtained from somewhere unknown, clothing that was obviously one size too large, and despite the hem hiding it, he could still see the monkey’s tail exposed from behind.
"That’s right, might you also be a worshiper heading to Grandma Temple, brother?"
The red-tailed monkey’s eyes darted back and forth; it cheekily smiled and said, "I’m not a worshiper at Grandma Temple, but I am a follower of the Monkey Immortal Hall. Brother, you might not be aware, but I know the immortal family from Grandma Temple. Although they have some quirks, they’re far from being as...far from being as profound as the immortals of Monkey Immortal Hall in Huangping Village."
"Brother, you might consider heading to Huangping Village..."
Xu Qing finally took a serious look at the monkey before him. While he had seen business poachers before, he had never encountered someone poaching business right at someone else’s door, on the very premises of the shopkeeper!
Why are you so shameless?
"How long have you been here?"
"Not long, just a few months."
"And when you attract incense worshipers here, does the temple priest from Grandma Temple just let you be?"
Seeing Xu Qing uncover its ruse, the red-tailed monkey remained unfazed. It smiled cheekily, "I’m not worried; the immortal family in that temple isn’t as powerful as those in Monkey Immortal Hall of Huangping Village. The temple priest doesn’t have much skill either; if he wants to trouble me, he has to be able to beat me first!"
"Oh, really...."
Xu Qing’s smile faded, and he patted Chasing Mourning’s rear. The horse was quite perceptive, noticing its master’s mood was off and immediately darted into the forest.
The Jin Sect area is teeming with misfits, whether they’re intellectual toughs or martial toughs, all fearless like rolling knives, and the immortal families are much the same.
Officials dread coming to Jin Sect because it’s hard to control this place. Without skills, you won’t be able to harvest benefits easily, and you’ll end up embroiled in trouble.
The circle of immortals in Jin Sect is much the same. When Xu Qing and Xuan Yu first arrived and set up Cat Immortal Hall, they faced quite a few hoodlums in the immortal circle, but they managed to smooth things over in the end.
They didn’t even need to resort to force.
This was due to the charisma of Cat Immortal Hall’s members and the fact that most immortals couldn’t match the sect leader’s prowess in Cat Immortal Hall.
But the monkey before them was clearly not so easily handled.
"Who are you?"
The red-tailed monkey finally sensed something amiss.
Why did this person suddenly feel like a towering mountain, so imposing?
Xu Qing grinned, grabbed the monkey’s wrist, pulling it close and looking down at it, he said, "Grandma Temple is an affiliate of my Cat Immortal Hall, and you’re wandering in front of our door, asking me who I am?"
"Grand General Hou, let’s settle this here today. If you can beat me, there’s something to discuss. But if you can’t..."
"What do you intend to do?" The red-tailed monkey brandished a prisoner dragon stick as thick as an arm. Even when its justification faltered, it still stared directly at Xu Qing, showing a fearless demeanor.
"If you’re unable to win, you must respectfully worship at my Cat Immortal Hall, and never again bully anyone dispatched by our immortal hall; otherwise..."
Xu Qing tightened his grip on the monkey’s hand, intensifying the force that made the monkey dread from the bottom of its heart.
This person exerted so much power; he hardly seemed human!
"I won’t fight you. If I want to compare myself with Cat Immortal Hall, I must spar with the Cat Immortal, not bully you as a mortal. What’s the point?"
The red-tailed monkey was slippery; it feared it couldn’t defeat this person, but surely it wouldn’t lose to the little cat, right?
Just as Xu Qing was about to respond, Xuan Yu beside him took the initiative to unleash the Female and Male Sword Pills.
The sword light of over a yard long flashed; the red-tailed monkey felt that sharp sword intent and could only feel its whole body hair standing on end.
It skeptically said, "This little girl, can’t be the little...Cat Immortal, right?"
The red-tailed monkey looked at the increasingly close young girl and youth, and the whole monkey was distressed!
Who exactly said the immortal from Cat Immortal Hall was a little cat? If it weren’t because it had been training and gaining some fortune over the past few years, in the past, this cat could have sent it to meet the Great Grandmother!
"No more fighting, no more fighting! Bullying a little girl is no accomplishment."
Knowing yin and yang, being worldly wise, adept in entrance and retreat, avoiding death and extending life.