157: Chapter 157 Guanhai County's Population Rise

Early in the morning, Kong Sanlang and the villagers of Kongjia Village, having heard the noise, arrived here as well. They looked at the people slumped on the ground,

looked at the gray powder still floating in the air, and then looked at that golden light barrier.

Previously, although Kong Sanlang and the villagers of Kongjia Village had heard Wangjia Village's Village Chief Wang Deshun say that the village was intact because of a deity's protection,

they hadn't believed in this talk of deities at the time.

They thought it was probably just good luck, that the locusts had simply bypassed this place.

But now, a miracle had appeared right before their eyes.

They saw with their own eyes the glowing light barrier enveloping the entire area, and saw those locusts crashing into the barrier and turning into powder.

They had thought the talk of deities was completely false, but everything in front of them was proving it to be true.

Kong Sanlang walked up to the refugees slumping on the ground.

He squatted down, looked at a young man whose face was covered in dust, and asked,

"Where are you from?"

The young man panted heavily and said,

"Yongning County. We're all from Yongning County. The locusts ate up all the crops and gnawed off all the tree bark."

"They even started eating people! We really couldn't stay any longer, so we fled."

A woman holding a child nearby chimed in, her voice trembling,

"There are locusts everywhere, covering the sky and the earth. We've been running for days."

"We bumped into another swarm on the road that chased us relentlessly. If not for this light barrier stopping them..."

She couldn't go on, holding her child even tighter.

Kong Sanlang and the villagers of Kongjia Village behind him fell silent.

They had also fled from Yongning County; they knew how fierce those locusts were, and how hard life was for common folk once all the crops were devoured.

Just then, Village Chief Wang Deshun of Wangjia Village and several villagers from Wangjia Village arrived here after hearing the commotion.

"Everyone, this is Wangjia Village of Guanhai County, and I am the chief of this village."

Stepping forward, Village Chief Wang Deshun introduced himself.

Hearing this, the fleeing refugees seemed to catch a lifeline and began asking questions all at once.

"What is that light barrier? How can it block the locusts?"

Village Chief Wang Deshun looked at them and replied,

"That is the protection of Lord Qinling. Our village worships a deity named Lord Qinling."

"This deity is very merciful. Unwilling to see the common people suffer from the locust plague, he covered the entire village with a light barrier so that not a single locust could enter."

Expressions of reverence appeared on the faces of the fleeing refugees.

An old man stepped out from the crowd, stopped before Village Chief Wang Deshun, and pleaded,

"Chief Wang, please have mercy. Could you let us stay here for a few days? Just a piece of land to stay on is fine. Once the locusts leave, we'll go."

Having finished speaking, he looked nervously at Village Chief Wang Deshun, and the refugees behind him all stared at Village Chief Wang Deshun nervously as well.

At a time like this, having a safe place to stay was better than anything else.

They feared Village Chief Wang Deshun would refuse, feared he would say, "Go somewhere else." They had nowhere else to go.

Village Chief Wang Deshun looked at the old man, looked at his tear-filled eyes, and nodded without hesitation.

"Mm, stay then. We have water prepared for you, as well as dry rations. We'll talk again once the locust plague is over."

Tears welled up in the old man's eyes. His knees bent as he fell to his knees, his forehead touching the dirt, and his voice squeezed out from his throat,

"Thank you... thank you..."

The fleeing refugees behind him also fell to their knees.

Seeing this scene, Village Chief Wang Deshun quickly tried to stop them, saying,

"Alright, please don't kneel to me, everyone! You'll shorten my life!"

"If you want to kneel, go to the temple, kneel before Lord Qinling, and offer a stick of incense."

Kong Sanlang and the villagers of Kongjia Village behind him walked up to Village Chief Wang Deshun, bowed, and apologized,

"Chief Wang, we actually didn't believe what you said before. We're sorry. We didn't expect this village to really be protected by a deity."

Village Chief Wang Deshun waved his hand, completely unbothered.

"It's nothing. Before this, how many people in the entire Guanhai County believed in Lord Qinling anyway?"

"But after witnessing the Lord's mercy, the entire Guanhai County now worships only one deity, and that is Lord Qinling."

Kong Sanlang walked toward Wangjia Village's shrine, followed by the villagers of Kongjia Village, and behind them were the newly arrived refugees.

The group passed through the village and arrived at the shrine's entrance.

Incense smoke drifted out from the temple, curling around the courtyard.

Kong Sanlang stepped over the threshold, walked to the altar, pulled out three sticks of incense from beside the censer, lit them over the candle flame, and inserted them into the censer.

He stepped back two paces, knelt down, and kowtowed.

"Thank you for your protection, Lord Qinling."

After Kong Sanlang, the people knelt and offered incense one after another.

They did not know how the divine statue in this temple differed from the clay and wooden idols they had worshipped in the past.

But they knew that the light barrier had blocked the locusts and saved their lives.

Qin Ling's avatar sat cross-legged in the shadows of the shrine, looking down at the people kneeling all over the ground.

His gaze swept past Kong Sanlang, past the villagers of Kongjia Village, and past the newly arrived refugees.

Finally, he looked at the system prompts popping up.

[+1 incense points]

[+1 incense points]

[+1 incense points]

Unlike last time when there were no incense points, this time almost all the villagers offering incense were quite devout, providing him with incense points.

Seeing the continuous pop-up notification messages for incense points, Qin Ling stretched lazily with a relaxed expression on his face.

So without him doing a thing, Wangjia Village gained so many extra villagers to provide incense points.

Really nice~

In fact, Wangjia Village was not the only one taking in refugees.

Over the past few days, due to the locust plague, refugees from Yongning County, Pingchang County, and Pingshun County had been fleeing to various villages in Guanhai County.

Of course, among them, Yongning County's locust plague was the most severe, and Yongning County had the most refugees.

Pingchang County and Pingshun County were roughly equal.

One could say Qin Ling gained several hundred villagers offering incense while doing nothing; this wave also caused the population of Guanhai County, which had suffered from the Disaster of the Evil Tree, to jump significantly.

Talk about winning while lying down!

Inside the shrine, Qin Ling's avatar was looking down at the villagers kneeling and offering incense in the temple, a faint smile hanging at the corner of his lips.

Suddenly, his pupils dilated momentarily.

This was because his attention had been pulled away.

Meanwhile,

East China Sea Seabed, Zhuguang Reef.

The pearls at Zhuguang Temple were still shining with a soft, warm glow.

A figure swept in from the east at extremely high speed—it was a Mantis Shrimp.

The Mantis Shrimp propelled itself through the seawater, its antennae dragging two slender water trails behind it.

It rushed up to the front of Zhuguang Temple, swerved sharply, its eight legs digging a deep arc into the sand, and brought itself to a steady halt sideways.

Bengbu rolled off its back, its shell bouncing twice on the ground before rolling through the temple doorway.

It pried open the slit of its shell, exposing its eyes inside and extending its tongue from the slit, waving it frantically in the seawater with an urgency it couldn't suppress.

"Lord Qinling! This humble demon has returned! I have an important matter to report!"