42: Chapter 42 Building a Temple for Duke Ling of Qin

Other villagers also agreed with Village Chief Qin Zongliang's opinion.

A woman found a clean cloth from inside the house and wiped the dragon scales picked up by the children clean piece by piece.

The children each hugged a piece of dragon scale like this and followed the adults toward the direction of the divine temple.

At this time, in the divine temple, incense curled upwards.

On the offering table were the offerings sent by the villagers in the past few days.

Qin Ling sat cross-legged inside the shrine, nodding lightly as he smelled the rich scent of incense in the temple.

Ever since going out to sea to slay the dragon that night, almost every day, the vast majority of the villagers of Qin Family Village would come to offer incense.

He also steadily received incense points because of this.

However, in the past two days, he had still consumed quite a lot of incense points in total.

Qin Ling turned his head to look at an avatar inside the temple.

This avatar was the second avatar he had condensed, and due to the restrictions of the divine art's avatars, this avatar could at most only have seventy percent of his strength.

However, even so, condensing this avatar with seventy percent of his strength still consumed 350 incense points of his.

Not only that, he also completely repaired the wounds of the first avatar, consuming 100 incense points of his for this.

Just as Qin Ling was calculating the consumption of incense points, he suddenly heard footsteps outside the temple.

The first to enter was a boy, holding a silver-white scale in his arms.

The boy who walked in placed the scale on the offering table, lit a stick of incense, and inserted it into the censer.

Then he stepped back, knelt on the futon, and put his small hands together.

"Lord Qinling, this is a dragon scale I picked up by the seaside, and I have specially come to offer it to you."

The children behind also placed the dragon scales in their arms on the offering table one by one, imitating the boy's appearance, kneeling down, putting their hands together, and kowtowing again.

Qin Ling opened his eyes, looked at those few silver-white scales on the offering table, and recognized them at a glance.

Aren't these the dragon scales from the body of the Little Li Dragon?

Thinking about it, they must have fallen off when struck by the Seven-Kill Demon-Slaying Sword, scattered in the sea, and washed ashore by the tide.

As the dragon scales of the Fourth-Turn monster Little Li Dragon, they were naturally a treasure.

But to Qin Ling, a wild god, this treasure had no value.

To him, the entire body of the Little Li Dragon added together was not as valuable as incense points.

He just let these children place the dragon scales on his offering table, like ornaments.

He withdrew his gaze and closed his eyes.

The incense was still burning, and the blue smoke curled upwards, passing through the tile eaves of the divine temple and dispersing into the sunlight outside the house.

On the offering table, those few dragon scales lay quietly, side by side with the dried fish, brown rice, and wildflowers.

...

Early the next morning.

The Clam Spirit bounced into the temple door, its shell gap wide open, its tongue flailing outside, and its voice quite excited.

"Lord Qinling, this minor demon has brought all the little ones here! They are all waiting at the bottom of the offshore sea!"

Qin Ling's second avatar stood up, grabbed the bouncing Clam Spirit, and with a flash of its figure, disappeared into the temple.

Casting Divine Travel Across the World, the avatar arrived at the offshore in just a few steps and plunged right in.

At the bottom of the offshore sea, the depth was not very deep.

The sunlight could still filter down a bit, dyeing the seawater a pale cyan-green.

The seabed was a patch of flat reefs, and the seaweed swayed gently.

At this time, many sea clams lay on this patch of reefs, and from their exceptionally huge sizes, it could be seen that they were not ordinary sea clams, but First-Turn Clam Spirits that had already become demons.

The shell gaps of these First-Turn Clam Spirits were half-open, revealing the soft clam meat inside and the occasionally protruding tongues.

At this moment, they were all facing one direction.

Further ahead in this direction, that silver-white dragon corpse lay quietly across the reefs, its dozens of zhang long dragon body emitting a cold light in the dimness.

The patterns on the scales were clearly visible, and even though it was dead, it was emitting a strong coercion.

These First-Turn Little Clam Spirits lay on the reefs, their protruding eyeballs staring motionlessly at that dragon corpse.

Their tongues were already secreting sticky drool.

The dragon corpse of this Fourth-Turn Little Li Dragon was simply the greatest nourishing treasure in the world for these First-Turn minor demons.

It was their broad highway leading to the Second-Turn.

But at this moment, although they were all drooling, not a single Clam Spirit dared to approach.

After all, they all understood one principle, which was—

A dragon is only killed when it dies!

This Fourth-Turn Little Li Dragon that dominated the seas had died, so just how powerful must the existence that slew it be?

The eyeballs of the First-Turn Little Clam Spirits shifted over the wound on the Little Li Dragon's body, and they couldn't help but retract their tongues back into their shells.

An attack that even the physical body of a Fourth-Turn dragon species could not withstand, what kind of existence was that?

Just at this moment, the Second-Turn Clam Spirit landed on the reef beside the dragon corpse.

It took a deep breath, opened its shell gap to the maximum, raised its tongue high, and shouted in a voice as loud as calling out work chants.

"Little ones!"

On the reefs, the many First-Turn Little Clam Spirits raised their heads in unison, casting their gazes toward the Second-Turn Clam Spirit.

At this time, Qin Ling's avatar was suspended above, but he did not manifest, instead letting the Second-Turn Clam Spirit handle the matter.

He swept his gaze over the First-Turn Little Clam Spirits on the reefs and found that the number was as many as over forty.

If these forty-plus Clam Spirits could provide him with incense, that would also be a considerable income!

The Second-Turn Clam Spirit opened its shell, its raised tongue pointing at the silver-shining Little Li Dragon dragon corpse not far away.

"Do you know what this is?"

"A dragon!"

A First-Turn Little Clam Spirit shouted, its tongue trembling.

"Right, it's a dragon."

The Second-Turn Clam Spirit patted the reef with its tongue.

"A fourth-tier Little Li Dragon, the one that went crazy in the sea a few days ago and chased us all away."

A suppressed gasp sounded across the reefs.

Some timid Little Clam Spirits had already begun burrowing into the sand.

"However!"

The Second-Turn Clam Spirit's voice suddenly rose.

"It is dead!"

It pointed with its tongue at the wound on the dragon corpse that ran from the dragon's head to its tail.

"Do you see these? This is a sword mark. With one sword, just one sword, this Fourth-Turn Little Li Dragon was split in half from head to tail."

The reefs were silent.

More than forty Little Clam Spirits looked at that wound, their tongues trembling.

What kind of existence was that?

They dared not think; they were merely First-Turn Little Clam Spirits!

The Second-Turn Clam Spirit waited for a while, taking in the trembling tongues of the Little Clam Spirits, before continuing to speak.

"Are you wondering, then who killed the Little Li Dragon?"

No Little Clam Spirit dared to respond.

"It is a deity."

The Clam Spirit's voice suddenly became very solemn.

"It is the deity of Qin Family Village, Lord Qinling. That night, Lord Qinling descended from the sky, slaying the dragon with a single sword and saving this East Sea."

Its protruding tongue pointed in the direction of the sea surface.

"Lord Qinling said, this dragon corpse can be shared for you to eat."

Hearing this, the Little Clam Spirits on the reefs danced their tongues wildly, their shell gaps snapping open and shut with loud clacks, and some Little Clam Spirits even prepared to crawl toward the Little Li Dragon's corpse.

"Wait a minute!"

The Second-Turn Clam Spirit shouted to stop them.

All the Little Clam Spirits froze in place.

The Second-Turn Clam Spirit stretched out its tongue, wiped it on its shell, and then said.

"Lord Qinling said, the dragon meat of the Little Li Dragon can be shared for you to eat, but—"

It glanced around, looking at those greedy yet frightened little eyes.

"Lord Qinling wants you to offer incense first, so build a temple for Lord Qinling, offer incense daily, and worship devoutly. Only by doing these things can you receive a share of the dragon meat."

The reefs suddenly quieted down.

The Little Clam Spirits looked at each other in dismay.

Build a temple? Offer incense?

They had never done such a thing.

A slightly bolder Little Clam Spirit raised its tongue and said.

"Then, how should this temple be built?"