130: Chapter 130 A Place of Immense Incense Offering

The welcoming deity procession of Guanhai County City returned to Guanhai County City.

The city gates were already packed with people, all the way from East Street to West Street, and from South Street to North Street.

Those who survived the Disaster of the Evil Tree were all crowding on both sides of the streets, craning their necks to look outside the city.

"It's coming! It's coming!"

Someone shouted, and the crowd stirred.

The sound of gongs and drums drifted in from outside the city, at first faint, but getting closer and louder, vibrating the tiles on the roadside so they trembled slightly.

Banners and flags surged in from the city gates, red, yellow, and purple, fluttering and snapping loudly in the wind.

Eight people carried that one-zhang-two-chi-tall rosewood divine statue, walking steadily.

The divine statue was entirely golden, shimmering with brilliant colors in the sunlight. The patterns on its robes were meticulous, with its eyelids drooping slightly, its lips at a calm curve, and its chin slightly tucked.

It wore the exact same expression as the crude elm divine statue in Qin Family Village, but it was much taller and far more majestic than that one.

The people on both sides of the street knelt down.

It wasn't because someone shouted to kneel, but rather that the moment they saw that divine statue, they thought of the golden figure that had sliced apart the Evil Tree with a sword that day.

Some held their hands together in prayer, while others pressed their foreheads against the ground.

Firecrackers exploded, smoke filled the air, and scraps of paper flew everywhere.

The gongs and drums were beaten louder, and the suona horns were blown more shrilly.

The divine statue was carried into the divine temple of Guanhai County City.

The offering table in the main hall had already been replaced—a newly crafted one made of nanmu wood, several circles larger than the one in Qin Family Village.

The divine shrine had also been repainted, with a vermilion base outlined in gold patterns. The very center was left empty, waiting for that divine statue to take its seat.

The eight people unloaded the divine statue from the sedan frame, suspended it with thick hemp ropes, and chanted work chants as they slowly positioned it onto the divine shrine.

The moment it took its seat, the main hall suddenly fell silent. Everyone held their breath and looked at that divine statue.

The divine statue sat there quietly, its brows lowered and eyes downcast just like the one in Qin Family Village.

At the same time, Qin Ling, who was located inside the divine temple of Qin Family Village, sensed his newly opened anchor point.

Therefore, he directly used his divine art, Teleportation.

The next second, he appeared directly within the divine shrine of the county city's temple.

He raised his head. This hall was larger than any temple he had ever seen.

The hall was over three zhang high, dozens of paces deep, and dozens of paces wide as well.

The pillars were made of whole pieces of golden nanmu wood, so thick that a single person could not wrap their arms around them.

The caisson ceiling on the roof was painted with colorful artwork of immortals riding cranes amidst lingering auspicious clouds.

The incense burner was made of bronze, taller than a person, with inscriptions cast into its body.

This hall could hold several hundred people, and the courtyard could even hold over a thousand people.

This was not something the divine temples of those villages could compare to.

This was the divine temple of Guanhai County City, which had enshrined who knows how many deities.

And now, this was his divine temple.

Outside the hall, dense crowds of commoners lined up, stretching all the way from the entrance of the main hall.

They hadn't started offering incense yet; the divine statue had just taken its seat, and the incense in the burner hadn't been lit yet, but they were already waiting there.

Looking at these dense crowds of commoners waiting to offer incense, Qin Ling smiled lightly and nodded.

The population of Guanhai County City was far greater than that of the other villages, boasting a full thousand people before the Disaster of the Evil Tree.

Even after the Disaster of the Evil Tree, the current number was still in the hundreds.

In this way, Guanhai County City had directly become his incense stronghold.

Qin Ling returned inside the new divine shrine, looking down just like this at the commoners offering incense.

Then, he happily watched the messages continuously popping up in his mind.

[incense points + 1]

[incense points + 1]

...

Clerk Liu pulled three joss sticks from beside the incense burner, ignited them with the candlelight, and inserted them into the incense burner.

He took a step back, knelt down again, and said,

"Reporting to Lord Qinling, the village chiefs of all the other villages in Guanhai County have come to see this official; they all wish to enshrine Lord Qinling."

"This official has already consented, having the villages merge into five villages. In a few days, the five villages will come together to the county city's divine temple to welcome the deity."

He cleared his throat and added,

"Only the divine temple of the county city can accommodate such a grand scene, which is also the reason why the county city was allowed to welcome Lord Qinling's deity statue first."

Qin Ling raised an eyebrow inside the divine shrine.

Welcoming the deity from five villages!

The merger of five villages!

If that was the case, after completing the deity-welcoming for these five villages, wouldn't all the remaining villages in the entire Guanhai County be incorporated into his jurisdiction?

The scope of his jurisdiction would expand from Qin Family Village, Zhou Family Village, Wangjia Village, Sun Family Village, and Liuhe Village to the entire Guanhai County.

By then, he would also be able to continue improving his cultivation!

He hadn't expected that the matter he had constantly been thinking of pushing forward was about to be completed just like this.

Watching the back of Clerk Liu still kneeling on the futon, Qin Ling felt that what Clerk Liu had done truly suited his desires.

...

Over the next few days, the commoners of the five merged villages meticulously prepared for the upcoming deity-welcoming ceremony.

Meanwhile, a new sight appeared in the courtyard in front of the divine temple of Qin Family Village.

Pei Se stood with her hands on her hips in the center of the courtyard, several empty wine gourds scattered around her feet, and a lingering flush of drunkenness still on her face.

In the open space in front of her, Qin Yin and Qin Mo stood side by side, one holding a saber and the other brandishing a spear, their expressions focused.

"A saber isn't held like that."

Pei Se walked up to Qin Yin, stretched out two fingers, and tapped on the webbing between Qin Yin's thumb and index finger.

"You're gripping the hilt too tightly; loosen up a bit and let the saber come alive in your hand."

Qin Yin relaxed her fingers and adjusted her grip on the saber, the blade shaking slightly in her palm.

Pei Se nodded, then turned to Qin Mo, kicking the shaft of his spear with the tip of her shoe.

"Thrusting a spear isn't done with your arms; it's done with your waist!"

"Is your waist made of an iron plate? You can't twist it at all."

"Fine, rely on the waist! I'll rely on the waist!"

Gritting his teeth, Qin Mo twisted his waist and hips, causing the spear tip to trace an arc in the air—crooked and slanted, it almost poked the nearby courtyard wall.

Pei Se sighed, unhooked the wine gourd from her waist, took a swig, and squinted her eyes from the burning kick.

Now being a Fourth-Turn Martial Artist, she was more than capable of teaching Qin Yin and Qin Mo.

She knew what Qin Yin and Qin Mo were lacking.

Pei Se was well aware that Qin Yin and Qin Mo also had the qi and blood talisman bestowed by Lord Qinling within their bodies, so the two of them lacked no qi and blood.

On the contrary, their progress in qi and blood was very fast, even faster than other Second-turn Martial Artists.

However, the martial skills of Qin Yin and Qin Mo still remained at a rather mediocre level.

Various techniques such as their hacking, slashing, thrusting, and parrying were all very crude.

Pei Se came from the Demon Slayer Association and had received formal martial arts training since childhood. From basic skills to actual combat techniques, she had a complete system.

Having her teach the two of them was much better than them figuring it out on their own.

"Watch closely."

Pei Se hung the wine gourd back on her waist, took the saber from Qin Yin's hands, and casually twirled a saber flower.

The blade flashed in the sunlight, and then she moved.

Without using qi and blood, relying purely on saber techniques, the saber flew out from her hand like a fish swimming in water.

It slid from the left to the right, circled around from the right to the back, and thrust toward Qin Yin's shoulder from behind.

The tip of the blade stopped an inch away from Qin Yin's shoulder, and the wind of the blade carved a thin slit on her collar.

Qin Yin lowered her head to look at that slit and said nothing.

Qin Mo stood dumbfounded on the side, his spear almost dropping to the ground.

Pei Se withdrew her saber, threw it back to Qin Yin, and clapped her hands.

On the temple eaves where no one could see,

Qin Ling sat with his legs dangling under the temple eaves, looking down at Pei Se with her hands on her hips lecturing Qin Yin and Shitou, the corners of his mouth curving up slightly.

This drunkard actually had quite a knack for teaching people.