126: Chapter 126 Village Merger

The speed of the donations was so fast that Clerk Liu could hardly believe it.

He originally thought it would take a lot of effort, and that the plump and thin bailiffs would have to say many nice words and endure a lot of cold shoulders.

As a result, the plump and thin bailiffs went out for a stroll and returned in less than a day.

Silver and copper coins were piled up on the desk in the main hall of the county office, all donated by the commoners of the county town.

Originally, having just survived a major disaster, making these commoners of the county town donate money would have been impossible.

But upon hearing that these donations were for carving the statue of Lord Qinling, and that those who donated could also accompany them to Qin Family Village to invite the deity Lord Qinling, the commoners opened their purses and donated one after another.

Not only did they donate, but they also scrambled to do so, fearing they wouldn't be able to contribute their share of the money.

The funds for the rosewood material were sufficient, and the wages for hiring the carpenters were also enough.

Clerk Liu sat in the grand master's chair, staring blankly at that pile of silver for quite a while.

Having gathered enough money, Clerk Liu went to purchase the rosewood and then invited the best carpenters in the entire county.

In the following days, the main hall of the county temple was occupied by the carpenters.

Sawdust flew, wood shavings covered the ground, and the unique fragrance of rosewood drifted out of the hall, floating into the courtyard and into the alleys.

Passersby stopped, stood at the temple entrance, peered inside, and smelled that refreshing fragrance.

Word spread among the commoners of the county town that inside, a statue of Lord Qinling was being carved.

Every other day, Clerk Liu would make a trip to the City God Temple, stand at the entrance of the main hall for a while, and check on how the carving of the statue was progressing.

He watched as that thick piece of whole rosewood slowly took on the humanoid outline of lowered brows and drooping eyes, stroke by stroke, under the hands of those carpenters.

Although Lord Qinling always flickered with golden light whenever he appeared, making his face difficult to see clearly,

yet under the gaze of so many county commoners, the appearance of Lord Qinling still faintly emerged.

Every time Clerk Liu went, he felt that this statue was looking more and more like the Lord Qinling in his memory.

...

A few days later.

Qin Family Village.

Qin Ling sat cross-legged inside the shrine niche, watching the villagers of Qin Family Village offer incense to him.

Then he suddenly received a system prompt.

[The host has been detected to successfully expand a new jurisdiction, Liuhe Village.]

Seeing the prompt, Qin Ling froze for a moment, thinking he had misread it.

Liuhe Village had indeed enshrined him long ago at the time of the Disaster of the Evil Tree.

But due to the Evil Tree, the population of Liuhe Village was nowhere near a hundred people, and it fell short by quite a lot.

He had long figured out the unlocking conditions for jurisdiction; if it didn't reach a hundred people, it wouldn't be incorporated into his jurisdiction.

Yet how did Liuhe Village recover so many people in such a short period of time?

Before Qin Ling could think for a few minutes, a second system prompt popped up.

[The host has been detected to successfully expand a new jurisdiction, Wangjia Village.]

Then came the third system prompt.

[The host has been detected to successfully expand a new jurisdiction, Sun Family Village.]

Seeing these three system prompts, Qin Ling was even more surprised.

The situations of Wangjia Village and Sun Family Village were very similar to Liuhe Village, as they had also enshrined him during the Disaster of the Evil Tree.

They were also not incorporated into his jurisdiction because their population did not meet the standard.

With three consecutive villages increasing in population and being incorporated into his jurisdiction, Qin Ling became even more curious.

So he closed his eyes.

At the same time, an avatar of Qin Ling located in Wangjia Village opened his eyes inside the shrine niche.

Qin Ling's avatar stood up, silently passed through the temple doors, and hovered in mid-air above the village.

Because he had concealed his figure, no one could see him.

There was an extra group of people in Wangjia Village.

This group was not small at all, easily numbering a few dozen people.

They gathered together and stood at the entrance of Wangjia Village.

Some carried bundles on their backs, some shouldered carrying poles, and others drove ox carts piled high with bedding, pots, pans, and grain bags.

Children darted back and forth between the adults' legs, got scolded to a halt, quieted down for a moment, and then started up again.

Village Chief Wang Deshun stood at the village entrance, clutching a roll of paper covered in dense text.

"Clerk Liu said that starting today, you are people of Wangjia Village, and the houses have already been cleared out for you."

"Pick whichever of those three rows on the west side you like. If it's not enough, we can build more; the village has plenty of timber."

The leader of that group was a middle-aged man, dark and thin, with high cheekbones and deep-set eye sockets.

Their clothes were patched, the soles of their shoes were worn through, and the things in their bundles were light.

After the Disaster of the Evil Tree, there was nothing much left to bring.

The middle-aged man cupped his hands in salute toward Village Chief Wang Deshun, his voice full of emotion.

"Village Chief Wang, we are from Zhangjia Village. After the Evil Tree came, people in the village either died or fled, leaving only dozens of us with nowhere to go."

"Clerk Liu said we might as well merge into Wangjia Village, so that we can better recover and recuperate."

Village Chief Wang Deshun clutched that roll of paper, patted the man's shoulder, and said,

"It's good that you've come, just stay here. Our village also lost quite a few people during the Disaster of the Evil Tree."

"However, our village now enshrines Lord Qinling, and that kind of thing will never happen again."

Hearing the name of Lord Qinling, this group of commoners from Zhao Family Village smiled at each other.

They had also learned that Wangjia Village enshrined Lord Qinling, which was why they readily agreed to come to Wangjia Village.

Qin Ling hovered in mid-air, looking down at the commoners who had migrated from Zhangjia Village.

These commoners filed into the village one after another. Their bundles on their backs were heavy, but their steps were much lighter than when they first arrived.

Meanwhile.

Qin Ling's avatar located in Liuhe Village also left the temple and came to mid-air.

This avatar likewise saw that there were many more people in the village.

After listening for a while to the dialogue between the Liuhe Village chief and the other side's leader,

Qin Ling understood the cause of the matter.

On the other side, the avatar located in Sun Family Village was doing the exact same thing.

Listening to the dialogue between Village Chief Sun Mancang and the other side's leader,

it was still the same answer.

These commoners had also been sent by Clerk Liu to merge into Liuhe Village and Sun Family Village.

The purpose was also to better allow the villages that suffered from the Disaster of the Evil Tree to recover and recuperate.

But from the words of these commoners, Qin Ling also realized that the fact that Liuhe Village, Wangjia Village, and Sun Family Village already enshrined Lord Qinling was also a major reason why these villages came to merge.

Qin Ling's avatars hovered in the skies above the three villages.

Watching these newly arrived commoners walk into the houses rebuilt from the ruins.

Although he didn't know why Clerk Liu of the county office did this, for him, this matter truly reduced a lot of trouble.

Prior to this, he had indeed been pondering how to incorporate these three villages into his jurisdiction.

After all, if he wanted his cultivation to continue breaking through, he had to incorporate the entire territory of Guanhai County into his jurisdiction.

If these three villages were left to recover naturally, wanting to reach a population of over a hundred would still be a lengthy process.

But what Clerk Liu did truly rid him of this trouble.

After merging the newly arrived commoners, Liuhe Village, Wangjia Village, and Sun Family Village all met the population standards one by one and were incorporated into his jurisdiction.

Just at this moment, Qin Ling's true body inside the shrine niche of Qin Family Village opened its eyes once again.

Because he heard the commotion outside.