16: Chapter 16 Incense Burning

Qin Ling immediately began to condense a split spirit.

At the same time, his incense points were constantly being consumed.

The divine power within his body continuously condensed and took shape.

A moment later, a figure stepped out from his body and stood still before him.

Qin Ling's gaze fell upon that figure.

Its body shape was identical to his, and the slightly blurred face was also done intentionally by him.

Not bad.

Qin Ling sensed the split spirit's strength.

He discovered that the current split spirit only had twenty percent of his main body's strength.

Qin Ling's thoughts paused because condensing this split spirit had already consumed 100 incense points!

His heart was bleeding!

Is this thing this expensive?

Qin Ling immediately stopped his hand and no longer continued to condense this split spirit; he had no incense points left in his pocket, with only 50 points remaining!

Seeing the number 50 behind the incense points, he fell silent for a long time.

Judging by this situation, if he wanted to refine a split spirit with eighty percent of his main body's strength, it would consume a total of 400 incense points!

Qin Ling shook his head, looking at the split spirit before him with a movement of his mind.

The split spirit then raised its hand and took a step back.

Qin Ling nodded with satisfaction.

Something like a split spirit would sooner or later come in handy.

The only drawback was that it consumed too many incense points.

But that was his drawback.

Not the split spirit's.

Outside the temple, the sky was gradually brightening.

Qin Ling left the temple and looked towards the fish-belly white horizon in the east.

Once the sky cleared up, villagers should come to offer incense.

Qin Ling, who did not need sleep, returned to the shrine niche and waited quietly.

The Hour of Chen.

Footsteps sounded outside the temple.

Qin Ling's gaze was cast toward the temple gate.

The first to step across the threshold and enter were still the siblings Qin Yin and Qin Mo.

Qin Yin had changed into clean clothes, and the wound on her hand had already been bandaged, but stiffness could still be seen in her movements.

She held a handful of joss sticks in her hands, her gaze calm.

Following behind her was Qin Mo.

Like Qin Yin, Qin Mo had bandages wrapped around his hands; blocking Hu Ba's claw last night had completely split open the webbing between his thumb and index finger.

Qin Yin and Qin Mo stood still in front of the divine statue, lit the joss sticks, and inserted them into the incense burner.

Wisps of bluish smoke rose.

The two took a step back and then knelt to kowtow.

[incense points + 3]

[incense points + 3]

Having received the incense points, Qin Ling gave a faint smile.

Collecting incense every day was the happiest time.

After finishing their incense offering, the siblings Qin Yin and Qin Mo retreated to the side and were not in a hurry to leave.

The ones who entered the temple next were the children who had been abducted yesterday and their parents.

A woman pulled the girl who had been abducted yesterday and walked in front.

The girl held a small handful of wildflowers in her hands, picked from the village road early in the morning, still glistening with dew.

She stood still in front of the statue of Lord Qinling, mimicking the adults' manner, and placed the wildflowers on the offering table.

Then she followed the adults, holding joss sticks, and knelt down to worship.

[incense points + 2]

[incense points + 2]

[incense points + 2]

The children and parents who had been abducted last night all lined up to respectfully offer incense, thanking Lord Qinling for his protection.

As for Qin Ling, he happily harvested these 2 incense points per person.

After last night, the piety of these children and parents toward him had all risen.

However, what slightly surprised him was that even so, 3 incense points still did not appear again.

Those 3 incense points only came from Qin Yin and Qin Mo.

The piety of this pair of siblings really surprised him.

After finishing their incense offering, the children and parents successively got up and left the temple.

Coming in to offer incense after them were the remaining villagers.

One after another, they poured into the temple gate.

Qin Ling silently counted the number of people coming to offer incense in his heart.

When returning from going out to sea last time, about half of the entire village's villagers had come.

At that time, the villagers listened to the crew members' accounts, hearing that Lord Qinling had manifested his divine power, but after all, Lord Qinling's manifestation was at sea, and none of them had seen it.

But this time, Lord Qinling had truly and tangibly protected Qin Family Village and saved the abducted children.

Although the villagers still had not witnessed Lord Qinling with their own eyes, the talisman in Qin Yin's hand and the dead wandering merchant could both prove that Lord Qinling's protection truly existed.

Because of this, almost all the villagers of Qin Family Village came to Lord Qinling's temple to offer incense early this morning.

In this world, if one could have a deity who pitied all living beings to protect them, what did offering a little incense matter?

Qin Ling's gaze swept across the temple gate.

Outside the temple, villagers were still lining up.

By the courtyard wall, it even extended to that dirt road at the village entrance.

[incense points + 1]

[incense points + 1]

[incense points + 1]

...

Looking at the continuously popping up incense points reminders, Qin Ling knew today would be the day he harvested the highest amount of incense points provided by the villagers offering incense.

Outside the temple, the sun was gradually rising.

Incense curled upwards.

The stream of people never ceased.

After the villagers had all finished offering incense, Qin Ling tallied up the incense points harvested today.

There were a full 140 points!

Qin Ling inside the shrine niche happily rubbed his hands together.

Following this situation, accumulating his incense points was still quite fast.

Whether it was the enhancement of cultivation or the refinement of the split spirit, both required incense points!

Over the next few days, the incense in the temple never stopped.

As soon as the Hour of Chen arrived every day, the villagers would appear at the temple entrance on time.

Some carried rice cakes, some held dried fish, and some tucked wild fruits in their arms.

There were even those who brought their family's newly woven cattail grass mats, insisting on spreading them in front of the divine statue.

Qin Ling punctually accepted the villagers' incense points every day, watching the numbers on the incense points steadily climb.

Blissful.

These days were comfortable.

On the fourth day.

The Hour of Chen.

Qin Ling habitually looked toward the direction of the temple gate.

According to the pattern of these past few days, Qin Yin and Qin Mo should have already been standing at the entrance.

But at this moment, there was no sign of the siblings at the temple entrance.

Qin Ling paused slightly and didn't mind it.

He figured that perhaps the siblings had gotten up late today.

Soon, the remaining villagers entered the temple one after another to offer incense.

Today, the girl picked another handful of wildflowers, skipped over to place them on the offering table, and then rambled on in front of the divine statue about the dream she had yesterday.

Batch after batch of villagers entered the temple.

Offering incense, kneeling and bowing, getting up, and leaving.

People came and went inside and outside the temple, and the incense smoke curled endlessly.

But Qin Ling never saw those two familiar figures.

Until all the villagers who came to offer incense had left, the figures of Qin Mo and Qin Yin still had not been seen.

Inside the shrine niche, Qin Ling frowned; by this point, he naturally felt that Qin Mo and Qin Yin had encountered some situation.

Otherwise, given this pair of siblings' piety toward him, it was simply impossible for them not to come and offer incense.

Thinking of this, Qin Ling's mind stirred, and the split spirit entrenched within the temple darted out of it.

Qin Ling stood at the temple entrance for a breath's time.

This was the first time he walked in the daytime in the form of a split spirit.

With his current cultivation, he could already move around freely throughout the entire village.

Qin Ling's split spirit first darted toward Qin Yin's home.

Arriving at Qin Yin's home, he saw that the courtyard gate was ajar, and there were no figures of Qin Yin and Qin Mo inside.