Wet viviparity

Chapter 896 Joy, Spring of the Ninth Year
In the eighty-first year of the Great Treasury, the Divine Palace was completed.

After retiring to a blessed land, Lu Zhenjun's primordial spirit traveled with the patriarchs to the upper realm of the spirit sky, wandering through the Thunder Department, the palaces of the Southern Dipper, and even the Tonghua Palace, where he discussed matters of the spirit court with the immortals and gods.

In the same year, the Taipingshan Cabinet was first established. It did not have a regular system and only worked at the "Xunfengtai" in the Shen Gang Palace. Wen Daoyu, Xu Wenlin, and Liu An were jointly elected as three of the seven cabinet members. They officially began to handle all Taoist affairs after the calamity of the various sects in Tiannan and discussed the matter of bestowing titles and rewards on the various altars and Taoists of Taipingshan.

In the winter of the same year, the cabinet dispatched the hermit Wen Daoyu, also known as the Hidden Dragon Immortal, to the Huangting and Zhenling sects.

Wen Daoyu, carrying the imperial insignia, went to report that the "Taiping Treasure Coin" was a temporary measure after the mountain's calamity, a grand strategy to demonstrate Heaven's benevolence, and that the funds were earmarked for specific purposes, with absolutely no intention of usurping the talismanic currency. The two sects were initially suspicious, but seeing that Taiping Mountain was courteous and had no intention of changing the system, they were somewhat reassured.

In November, Huangting Palace sent Abbess Yuanren of Baihu Hall to Shengang Palace to secretly discuss the matter of entering Lingting as "supervisor," and Taiping Mountain tacitly agreed.

At the end of December, the True Spirit Sect secretly issued one million coins in the area west of Baoguang Prefecture, which flowed into the Tiannan region to observe the situation.

In the spring of the following year, Shengang Palace was completed.

Lingxu Xiaosheng ordered Linshui Jun, Jiehuo Jun, and others to travel to Luoyin Lake, Nanhuang, and Nanhai to secretly meet with various sects, bringing with them "Detailed Rules for Estimating Spiritual Resources," a sample of precious coins, and a "Loan Agreement," etc.

Among them, Yunyu Temple and Wuxian Sect were in dire straits. They had already made contact and had a plan. They temporarily dispelled their doubts and took the lead in secretly pledging their Taoist property and signing documents. The Palace Master of Jiaomo Palace was hesitant and undecided. Linshui Jun met with them at night underwater and promised a very small loan with an annual interest rate. He also approved Article 16 of the "Detailed Rules for the Estimate of Spiritual Assets" as a special provision, which the Palace Master then signed.

Over the next three years, the various deities of Taiping Mountain traveled back and forth, sometimes explaining the advantages and disadvantages, sometimes enticing people with great benefits, and sometimes intimidating them with military might. However, Tianteng Mountain's attitude was ambiguous, while Nanmu Divine Mountain, relying on its own strength, firmly refused to accept their offer.

During these three years, the high-ranking Taoist priests of the three peaks, one prefecture, and one palace were dispatched by their respective masters to conduct examinations of Taoist practitioners in various places and altars, in accordance with the new reform rules set forth in the rituals for the deceased and the fasting ceremony, together with the judges of the underworld from the Bureau of Examinations. A total of 462 people were registered as Taoist practitioners, the highest number of Taoist practitioners registered in Taiping Mountain in 1,400 years.

At the end of the third year, the cabinet decided that Lingxuzi and Zhang Xiaoyuan were the top contributors to the calamity, and officially established the honorary titles of Lingxu Xiaosheng and Feizhang Xian, which were proclaimed throughout the rivers and seas, heaven and earth. In that year, Lingxu Xiaosheng of Shengang Palace officially summoned Shangguan Yun to serve as a member of the cabinet council.

Two years later, seven or eight out of ten of the sects in Tiannan secretly signed documents.

Although the Taiping Treasure Coin was not openly circulated, all loans, mortgages, and repayments were negotiated in the form of the Treasure Coin. Taiping Mountain secretly held the power of pricing, and the amount of property owned by each sect and the extent of their profits were all recorded in the cabinet's register. The entire sect celebrated, and grand banquets were held at the three peaks, one prefecture, and one palace.

During the celebration, the Mi family, a former merchant family, attempted to hoard supplies and monopolize aid provisions. The Little Saint of the Divine Palace issued an edict to punish them, and the Tiger-Suppressing Elder accepted the edict, thus quelling the Mi family's actions.

In March of the eighth year, Lu Zhenjun officially promulgated the "New Rules for the Performance Evaluation of Daoist Citizens": all those who are registered and promoted shall be examined by the True Man of the Taiping Mountain Main Altar and the Yin Judge, with the assistance of the various branch altars. This rule will become the standard practice in the future.

In April of the same year, the leaders of the seven branch altars that had been isolated for thousands of years in remote and desolate areas all went to the Taiping Mountain to retrieve the spirit tablets of their ancestors and enshrined them in their own ancestral halls. From then on, they established their respective masters and followers.

In August of the same year, the Imperial Academy began revising the three true scriptures. The true methods and secret texts were placed in the "True Section," while secret techniques, talismans, and spells were included in the "Mysterious Section." The major and minor Five Elements escape methods and other divination techniques such as Qimen Dunjia were collected in the "Divine Section," so that disciples' cultivation would have a clear order and basis.

In November of the same year, the Bo and Yang families attempted to protest, but the Shangguan and Qian families were the first to submit a "Letter of Obedience" and voluntarily dismissed unruly members of their clans to show their submission.

In December of the same year, the old woman of the Tong family died in the apricot grove of Kuangshan. Her son, Baicaozi, told her his last words: "Now that the outer river is open, what good is it to block the inner canal?"

Before the winter solstice of the eighth year, all loan agreements among the various sects in Tiannan were finalized, and the system of precious coins was secretly implemented without hindrance.

Among the clans, the Mi clan was in distress, the Tong clan of Kuangshan Xinglin lineage surrendered, and the Shangguan, Bo, Yang and other clans all abolished their privately maintained Taoist soldiers and the five Yin armies, and donated land and paid taxes. The clans gradually lost their foundation, while the three peaks, one prefecture and one palace stood majestically amidst the sea of ​​clouds, and the signs of all clans coming to pay homage were already in place.

Nine years, the year of Jiazi, spring.

Wen Kong, a monk from Bailian Temple on Bald Peak of Hengshan, received a secret edict to visit Shengang Palace on Taiping Mountain. Upon leaving the temple, Wen Kong did not fly away but walked on land.

Although he spends most of his time meditating and preaching in the temple, as the current head of the Lesser Sage of the Southern Region, even without leaving the temple and without knowledge of divination, he can still know the subtle details of this land.

After traveling only a hundred miles, I saw a newly built ancient path in the mountains and forests, paved with bluestone. A sweet spring was channeled into the roadside, gurgling and making a sound. I sensed something unusual in the air and deliberately avoided the path. But before long, I saw a new path in the deep forest.

Every road leads to the same place, even if you go in the opposite direction.

Wen Kong did not break the minor inversions and sorcery on the road. He followed one of the paths to a wild tea stall, which was already full of people, including woodcutters, ginseng customers, merchants, and scholars, all in a surprisingly harmonious atmosphere.

After Wen Kong sat down and drank a cup of mountain tea to quench his thirst, he left the place without any further entanglement with the sorcery on the mountain path.

On the way, Wen Kong understood the purpose of this road and this wild tea stall. The old couple who ran the wild tea stall were newly recruited servants of the Dao Yi Si (a government agency), and they were probably still in the observation period, needing to perform three hundred good deeds in the human world.

However, this demon couple built these hundred and eighty paths in the mountains and cast demonic spells on them, causing everyone in the mountains, whether lost or not, to go to the wild tea stalls to drink tea and cool off. This was not a proper good deed.

Upon further consideration, Wen Kong realized that this good deed was not bad in the long run.

The existence of the wild tea stalls is a sanctuary in these mountains. Over time, it will surely attract more mountain travelers and medicine merchants, promoting the prosperity of the surrounding villages and towns. Perhaps in a hundred years or so, this place will become a ghost market.

Upon reaching Leiming Square within Lanyin Fang, the crowds here are several times greater than usual.

The shops in the market not only sell mountain products, medicinal herbs, elixirs, and powders, but also have old shellfish from the South China Sea, snakes and insects from Liling, and the finest products refined from the great mines of the Western Wilderness.

A group of Taiping monks from the Fayan Bieyuan Temple in Xiaoxishan set up a table at the market entrance to exchange small amounts of Taiping Baoqian for those unorthodox people who often traveled in the South China Sea and the Lingnan region. Before long, they hung up a sign that read "Baoqian Sold Out".

Many cultivators, feeling helpless, could only sell the rare and precious Daoist products they had brought from the extreme wilderness overseas to the market shops. Those cultivators who obtained the treasure money were pulled aside by those with ulterior motives, and their meager treasure money was exchanged for a large amount of talisman money.

Wen Kong paused for a moment, observing the situation at the market entrance.

He knew that Taipingshan had such markets in various neighborhoods in the south, where goods could be exchanged for money, specifically for Taoist products from the remote and impoverished areas of the world.

Although the exchange of money at the market is held daily, the amount is limited. Generally, cultivators who specialize in trading can receive a token and exchange it for a fixed amount of treasure money, while a certain amount of treasure money is distributed to individual investors.

Furthermore, those who offered high prices to acquire these precious coins were the various sects of Tiannan who had secretly signed documents, or rather, the intermediaries of these sects.

This is because the special provision in Article 16 of Chapter 6 of the Supplementary Provisions of the "Detailed Rules for the Estimation of Spiritual Funds" states that if a sect is located in a strategic location, or if its reconstruction is related to the overall situation in the south, it may petition the Taiping Mountain Patriarch and many gods and immortals of the Heavenly Palace to grant special assistance and exchange spiritual funds that can be purchased at the original price for a more favorable price.

Wen Kong knew that among the various sects in Tiannan, more or less all had passed the special provisions of Article 16 of Chapter Six Supplementary Provisions. Among them, the "Taoxiu Cave" of Sleeping Tiger Land, the Five Immortals Sect, and its Xiaozhu Jinting Sect received obvious advantages.

Therefore, they are doing their best to collect precious coins from various channels so that they can have a competitive price for precious coins to buy more spiritual resources.

Although Wen Kong understood that the precious coins had not been officially issued, their influence had already spread to various places, he still couldn't help but admire the master's skillful means in bringing blessings to all families when he actually saw them. From then on, the southern regions were filled with joy.

(End of this chapter)