113: Chapter 113 Tens of Thousands of Incense Points

That golden light streaked out from the center of the county city, dragging a pale golden afterimage, as fast as a shooting star piercing the long night.

The villagers of Liuhe Village had already climbed onto the rooftops.

All of them stared uniformly toward the west, where that sky-covering Evil Tree was clearly visible.

They had witnessed the scene of the golden figure continuously attacking and heavily injuring the Evil Tree just now.

Even though the Evil Tree drove a terrifying number of roots and canopy, it still failed to catch that golden figure.

Some held their breath, some clenched their fists, and some lifted their children high.

No one spoke, and only the sound of heartbeats was like beating drums.

Suddenly, the golden light turned back from the direction of the county city, swept across more than half the sky, fell straight into the temple of Liuhe Village, and disappeared onto the statue of Lord Qinling.

The golden light between the eyebrows of that elm statue with lowered eyebrows was still shining, brighter than before, like a lamp that had just been filled with oil.

"Lord Qinling has returned!"

A young man shouted loudly.

He climbed down from the roof, crushed the tiles, and knocked his knee against the wall; ignoring the pain, he ran straight toward the temple upon landing.

One after another, the villagers flipped down from the rooftops, jumped down from the walls, rushed out from the courtyards, and surged toward the dilapidated temple.

The temple doors were squeezed to the point of creaking, and because there were too many people, the threshold was stepped on with a thudding sound.

Those who could not squeeze in knelt in the courtyard and beneath the courtyard walls.

Some pressed their foreheads against the stone bricks, some against the mud, some knelt while holding their children, and some raised the joss sticks in their hands high above their heads.

Wisps of blue smoke rose, swirling in the dark red skylight.

The kneeling villagers raised their heads, their eyes filled with reverence as they looked at the statue of Lord Qinling.

They had thought that worshipping Lord Qinling could merely drive away parasitic creatures and bless the village with peace.

But this time, they climbed onto the rooftops and saw with their own eyes Lord Qinling transform into a golden light to slash and injure the Evil Tree.

That sky-covering Evil Tree that shrouded the entire county city was slashed sword after sword by the statue enshrined in their temple.

They knelt there, pressing their foreheads lower and lower, chanting "Lord Qinling, bless us" over and over again.

Qin Yin's forehead was still pressed against the cold stone bricks.

In front of the temple gate, when looking up at that receding golden arc, she wished she could follow Lord Qinling to the county city together.

And when Lord Qinling was fighting the Evil Tree, seeing that the frantic Evil Tree failed to harm Lord Qinling, her piety towards Lord Qinling grew even deeper in her heart.

Qin Mo also knelt nearby, his mind filled with the image of Lord Qinling slashing his sword into the trunk of the Evil Tree just now, blooming a wound on the trunk of the Evil Tree.

That wail of the Evil Tree came from the county city, and even he, located in Liuhe Village, heard it.

Although he had always been immensely pious to Lord Qinling, this battle between Lord Qinling and the Evil Tree still made him emotionally stirred.

Perhaps, with Lord Qinling here, the entire Guanhai County could truly survive this disaster!

Qin Ling's split consciousness fell inside the shrine, directly and impatiently checking his own panel.

[incense points: 10280]

Ten thousand two hundred and eighty.

The corners of his mouth curled up, pressed down again, curled up again, and couldn't be suppressed anymore.

This was ten thousand incense points!

The incense points he had accumulated for so long before had only barely exceeded 5,000 incense points.

But this time, just by relying on destroying the black flowers of the Evil Tree, his incense points exceeded 10,000!

Every single black flower was sending him incense points~

Qin Ling took a deep breath, barely suppressing the corners of his mouth.

Ten thousand incense points were enough for him to do many things.

He could use these ten thousand incense points to buy various things in the mall to improve.

But he didn't choose those; he chose the most direct improvement in cultivation.

He directly poured his incense points continuously into his cultivation.

Soon 2500 incense points were gone, and his cultivation also arrived at——

[Cultivation: Xiansheng Realm 40%]

But Qin Ling suddenly found that he could no longer continue to improve his cultivation.

Having learned from past experience, he immediately realized that there were conditions again.

[Condition for the next stage of cultivation improvement: The jurisdiction must cover the entire Guanhai County.]

[Current jurisdiction: Qin Family Village, Zhou Family Village, Zhuguang Reef of the East Sea.]

[Condition not met; unable to continue improving cultivation.]

Seeing this condition, the corners of Qin Ling's mouth froze.

He stared at that prompt for a long time, reading those words over and over again.

The jurisdiction needs to cover the entire Guanhai County?

With dozens of villages in Guanhai County, how could he possibly meet this condition?

So many villages were occupied by the roots of the Evil Tree and slaughtered by parasitic creatures.

Even if he drove away the Evil Tree roots one by one and made all these villages worship him,

the population of these villages would most likely be less than 100 people, making it impossible to trigger the condition to be included in his jurisdiction.

Wangjia Village and Sun Family Village were due to insufficient population, so even though they worshipped him, they were not included in his jurisdiction.

According to this situation, as long as he was still within the curtain of the Evil Tree, it was impossible for him to break through to the Fifth-Turn realm.

His current [Cultivation: Xiansheng Realm 40%] compared analogously to Qi and Blood Martial Arts was the peak of the Fourth-Turn.

This also meant that he could only fight the Evil Tree with the cultivation of the peak of the Fourth-Turn.

However, the Evil Tree clearly had the strength of the Fifth-Turn; how could he kill this Fifth-Turn evil specter with exaggerated health points relying on the peak of the Fourth-Turn?

Qin Ling's brows furrowed.

...

Beneath the ground of Guanhai County City, there was a cellar, which was originally the county government's granary. It was dug deep and wide, its walls were built with grey bricks, its top was supported by thick wooden beams, and it was covered with a thick layer of yellow soil.

When the Evil Tree burrowed out from underground, its roots bypassed the granary and did not pierce this place through.

After the granary became empty, Clerk Liu led people to clear this place out, spread dry grass, and opened several ventilation holes, allowing it to hide several hundred people.

The cellar was packed with people.

Men leaned against the walls, women sat on the ground holding their children, and old people shrank into the corners.

The air was turbid, making one want to vomit as soon as they entered.

But no one cared; as long as they could survive, that was fine, and living was better than anything else.

Tie Lanshi was in a corner, with his back against the wall, still clutching that half of a flatbread excavated from the ruins in his hand.

The two martial artists squatted beside him: a middle-aged man wearing a grey short-sleeved jacket and a young man wearing black martial attire.

The commoners who arrived at the cellar through underground passages from various parts of the county city kept their eyes fixed on the center of the cellar, staring at Clerk Liu.

Clerk Liu stood in the center of the granary, stepping on half a broken brick under his feet. His official robe had long been dirty beyond recognition, his collar was crooked, and his cuffs were torn.

Two bailiffs squeezed out from the crowd, approached Clerk Liu, and whispered a few words to him.

Seeing that most of the people had arrived, Clerk Liu nodded and cleared his throat.

Just as he wanted to speak, someone spoke ahead of him.

"Clerk Liu!"

A hoarse voice came from the corner, belonging to a stubble-faced stalwart man.

He stared at Clerk Liu, his voice carrying anger.

"You sent someone to call us over, saying there was something to discuss about that golden light. Now that everyone is here, why don't you speak!"