Poor Taoist Qiu Chuji

Chapter 118 It’s better to worship me than to worship it!
"Which one should we attack first?" After the discussion, Qiu Chuji asked Lin Jiu.

Lin Jiu arrived here earlier than him, and he must have met fellow Taoists here a long time ago, so he must know more than him.

"It's none other than the 'Three-Faced and Eight-Powerful God Huo Erye' you just met. He seduced the villagers in Quanzhou and offered at least dozens of boys and girls to him. He also often raped women under the pretext of blessing them to give birth to boys, causing many women to commit suicide afterwards. Now that Marshal Zhang has moved to Fuzhou, this 'Second Master Huo' has also come here with him, and has been handed over to Shenghua Hall to handle the affairs of the parade."

"This evil monster has only been here for half a month, and it has committed several crimes in succession. The family of the wealthy Li in the west of the city was originally kind and generous, but because of the beauty of their concubine, this evil monster took possession of her. The wealthy Li asked a Taoist friend of mine to drive it away, but it got angry and killed the entire family of the wealthy Li, including my good Taoist friend. The bodies were torn into pieces and scattered in front of the mansion. It is time to kill this monster."

"I haven't seen its true form yet, but based on its lustful habits, it's either a mandrill or a donkey spirit."

"To deal with mandrills, you can use firecrackers mixed with cinnabar. To deal with donkey spirits, just cover their eyes and their power will be greatly reduced."

"Since fellow Taoist has made a plan, I am willing to be your assistant and just play a supporting role." Qiu Chuji said this after hearing what Lin Jiu said.

It is said that there is no false reputation under a great name. Although Lin Jiu's cultivation is not as good as his, as a professional Taoist priest who exorcises ghosts and catches monsters, some of Lin Jiu's methods and habits may not be unworthy of Qiu Chuji's reference and learning.

To put it bluntly, Qiu Chuji's current method is to crush others by relying on his advantage in cultivation.

But this advantage is not completely reliable.

The demons in this world are better than the righteous ones. Those real demons who deceive the world are probably much stronger than Qiu Chuji. If Qiu Chuji still holds on to his old ways and does not learn and improve, he will suffer a great loss.

As for why I didn’t just follow Chizuru to learn and gain more experience, well... let’s not go into details!

Although it is said that Taoist Qianhe only plays in high-end games, even in the high-end games he was easily defeated by five Royal Zombies, which shows that his strength and means are also very limited.

Lin Jiu was indeed very professional. He brought Qiu Chuji and his apprentice Wencai that day and prepared many talismans, props, battle flags, firecrackers, blindfolded ghosts and other items for hunting monsters and false gods.

They waited for this "Second Master Huo" to return to the temple to rest and stop wandering around, then they sneaked into the temple and captured him in one fell swoop.

Although Qiu Chuji wanted to increase his knowledge, he did not just rush into the street with his mace in hand.

But at the same time, he didn't want to alert the enemy.

In the Fujian God Procession, statues of gods usually start from some temples that specialize in this business, and then gather in crowded places.

Since it is also a business, there is bound to be competition.

Therefore, there is no such thing as one person taking over and another taking over in the parade. Usually, once one family is busy, all families will soon be busy.

It was easy for Qiu Chuji to kill the monster in the street, but it scared other monsters and made them hide temporarily. The city of Fuzhou was a mixed crowd, and there were conflicts in the fate of people. Even with the emperor's qi-gazing technique, it was not easy to find the hidden monsters in the city.

However, both Qiu Chuji and Lin Jiu miscalculated.

The false god monster Huo Erye, who was investigated in advance by Lin Jiu and was guilty of unforgivable crimes, seemed to have mastered some magical powers of foreseeing crises by eroding incense. Every time he carried it back to the temple and threw the holy grail, he refused to go back and continued to wander the street.

The team responsible for the parade had to be divided into three shifts, which wandered day and night without stopping, making everyone exhausted.

It was that street again. Master Huo had been parading for three days and three nights. The people who came to pay their respects had changed one after another, but the parade team had become exhausted. Both the coachman leading the way and the incense burner cleaner had lost their previous enthusiasm.

Qiu Chuji and Lin Jiu mixed in the crowd and crossed paths again with Mr. Huo who was being carried high up. It seemed as if they could clearly see a look of obvious mockery on the wooden face of the statue.

It was laughing at Qiu Chuji and Lin Jiu, and there was nothing they could do about it.

"Too arrogant!"

"Wencai! Contact the opera troupe, let's set up a stage, and perform the Hongmen Banquet for this Mr. Huo alone." Lin Jiu said to his apprentice Wencai with a dark face.

Wencai: "Hmm? Oh! Master! You want to sing again! Didn't you say that you can't let others know that you are a 'little butterfly'?"

Lin Jiu's face turned even darker, and he raised his hand unconsciously.

Wencai finally reacted and quickly ran away.

"Fellow Taoist, how could Mr. Huo, who doesn't even want to go back to the temple, be willing to come and watch a play?" Qiu Chuji was puzzled and asked.

Lin Jiu replied: "There is no hierarchy on the stage, but there are rules off the stage. The emperor, gods, treacherous ministers, and loyal ministers on the stage are all acting. Even if this monster has supernatural powers, it can't tell the truth from the false on the stage. We use the stage as a cover, and it can't tell the difference."

Lin Jiu had a wide network of contacts, and in just one day he had borrowed a troupe of actors. When the show started, he and Wencai performed on the stage while Qiu Chuji supported them secretly. As for the people in the troupe, most of them hid behind the scenes to avoid being affected by the fight.

There was an opera troupe willing to perform for "Master Huo" for free. After carrying the sedan chair for three days and touring the streets for three days, the people in Shenghua Hall, who were already exhausted, immediately agreed to this.

When night fell, "Mr. Huo" was carried into the theater. The crowd retreated, gongs and drums sounded, followed by the jinghu, erhu, flute, and allegro...

Wencai and Lin Jiu, who had dressed up as their roles, appeared from both sides of the stage and began to sing on the stage.

Mr. Huo sat alone in the audience, seemingly absorbed in the performance.

Although Lin Jiu said he was going to sing "The Banquet at Hongmen" before, he actually sang "The Drunken Concubine".

He did have some skills. After putting on the costume, his makeup, body shape, steps and eyes made the already lustful 'Second Master Huo's' eyes move non-stop.

Finally, it could no longer hold back and actually stood up from the shrine, moving its stiff wooden joints and walking towards the stage step by step.

Suddenly, the ground was shining with golden light, and the Bagua formation that had been set up long ago suddenly activated. A large net mixed with red ropes fell from the sky above his head. The Five Emperors' Coins on the net made a clinking sound, disturbing Mr. Huo's mind.

"Ah my! Who is this demon who dares to attack me?" Master Huo roared.

Lin Jiu removed his crown, but he was still in his costume. Although his face was painted with makeup, his temperament had changed drastically: "Monster! You have brought disaster to this place and usurped the throne. Today is the day for you to surrender."

After saying this, he picked up the peach wood sword and stabbed at the statue.

However, the statue under the big net emitted golden light and blocked Lin Jiu's peach wood sword containing magical power.

"Damn Taoist! I have incense to protect me, and I have divine power to bless me. You are just a mortal, what can you do to me?" As Mr. Huo said this, flames spewed out of his mouth, burning the big net that covered him.

"Wencai, firecrackers!" Lin Jiu shouted.

Wencai, who was still performing a monologue on the stage, suddenly woke up, dragged out a rack of firecrackers from the side, and blew the fire starter in his hand for a long time, but no sparks came out.

However, Mr. Huo had already escaped and stretched out his long sharp claws to grab Lin Jiu's neck.

Lin Jiu immediately turned around and retreated, extending his hand.

The curtain that was originally placed on the stage, when turned over, revealed a huge battle formation diagram.

The formation diagram fell down, covering Mr. Huo's whole body and imprisoned him again. A large amount of black dog blood poured down from above.

Mr. Huo has the body of a god statue to protect him, so if he wants to kill it, he must first destroy the statue. Ordinary god statues, infected by incense, have become somewhat magical over time, but they cannot tolerate filthy things or things that can destroy evil and magic, such as black dog blood.

Qiu Chuji could see clearly from the side that Lin Jiudan was not much stronger than Taoist Qianhe in terms of cultivation level, but he was well prepared and flexible, which was what Taoist Qianhe did not have.

As the black dog blood flashed, the statue covered under the formation diagram immediately burst into a large amount of golden flames.

Amidst the crisp explosions, the shattered formation of the statue also disintegrated, and out of it jumped a man-sized mandrill with a black and white face, yet it was ferocious and terrifying. It opened its mouth wide, full of sharp teeth, and let out a sharp roar: "Damn Taoist! You destroyed my divine body, I want you dead!"

After saying that, he rushed towards Lin Jiu like the wind at a speed completely different from before.

Lin Jiu dodged in advance and blocked with the peach wood sword, but was knocked away by the monster's claw.

"Wencai, are you still not feeling well?" Lin Jiu turned over and shouted, covering his chest.

He was cheated by this unreliable apprentice again.

At this moment, he also missed his other unreliable apprentice Qiu Sheng very much.

Compared with Wencai's slowness, even if Qiu Sheng couldn't light the fire at this moment, he should have remembered that there were many candles around.

"Don't panic, fellow Taoist! I'm here to help you!" Qiu Chuji, who had been watching for a while, finally decided to take action.

The long mace flew into the air, and with just a simple heavy blow, it pressed down on the shoulder of the mandrill, smashing half of its body into the ground.

The sheer violence caused the mandrill's internal organs to rupture and its body to crack, which began to bleed continuously.

"You don't want its fur, do you?" Qiu Chuji asked Lin Jiu.

Lin Jiu looked at Qiu Chuji's overbearing demon-killing methods that didn't look like a Taoist priest at all, and swallowed his saliva: "No... No! The fur of the mandrill is worthless, but the bones can be used as medicine."

"Okay! Then I will be careful not to break its bones!" Qiu Chuji nodded.

The mandrill, who was unable to move after being crushed by Qiu Chuji's mace, had a look of extreme fear in his eyes, but he gritted his teeth and said to Qiu Chuji: "Let me go! I will definitely turn over a new leaf in the future!"

"Shouldn't you as cultivators be compassionate?"

Qiu Chuji sneered: "Who told you that Taoists are compassionate? You are talking about monks. For us Taoists, what matters is that our thoughts are clear. If I don't kill you today, my thoughts are not clear."

"Will killing me solve the problem?"

"The people here are ignorant. Everyone believes in God, but they follow him blindly. I just used a little trick and I was worshipped as a god."

"I just did what everyone else did. What's wrong with that? Why do you want to kill me?"

"If you let me go... I will never harm anyone again. I will be a good god and guide everyone to be good." The mandrill knew that he could not defeat Qiu Chuji, but still wanted to show off his eloquence and convince Qiu Chuji.

There was also a hint of hesitation in Lin Jiu's eyes.

What the mandrill said is indeed correct.

Monsters have usurped the throne of God. This is not only a problem of monsters and ghosts, but also the long-standing folk customs and practices of this place, as well as many deep-seated conflicts of interest.

If it were peaceful years, although there were many obscene temples and wild gods in this area, they were supervised by the government and suppressed by the righteous gods. No matter how bold the demons and monsters were, they could only act recklessly in some remote small mountain villages at most. They dared not to steal the throne of gods in densely populated big cities, or even to parade gods in the streets openly.

However, the world is in chaos right now, and the righteous gods are busy taking care of themselves, so how can they have the time to care about them?

It seems better to restrain these monsters who have usurped the throne of God and guide them to do good than to kill one batch and then another batch will appear. In this way, it is always the people who suffer.

Just like killing corrupt officials, if it doesn't have a deterrent effect, killing a corrupt official who is well fed will replace him with another corrupt official who is hungry. In the long run... it seems that it would be better to let it go and restrain it from the beginning.

"Here's nonsense!"

"I have already said it... I want to kill you only because I have a clear mind. What does it have to do with the people?" Qiu Chuji raised his long mace and hit the guy out of the theater. He then rose up like the wind, with wind and thunder all around him, and his six voids were fully opened.

Suddenly, a muffled thunder exploded above the bustling city of Fuzhou.

Under the low and gloomy sky, Qiu Chuji, dressed in Taoist robes and ancient costume, stepped on the body of a mandrill, fell heavily from a great height, and crashed into the bustling street.

The ostentatious and unbridled momentum startled many people, including many demons and monsters hidden in the statues.

"You reminded me, too."

"Since we can't kill them all, let's cut off the source first."

"If these fools must worship a god...then come and worship me!"

"It is better to worship a virtuous person like me than to worship you, who are harmful to people!"

Qiu Chuji stepped on the mandrill's neck and, with a little force, extinguished its last breath.

Then Qiu Chuji turned around suddenly, and the wind, fire, thunder and lightning, the sky, earth, mountains and lakes were all behind him, transforming into strange visions.

Soar into the sky and overlook all living beings.

"I am the Nine Heavens Demon Constraint Ying Yuan Patriarch. I am here to slay the evil demon. You all must obey my orders. Within three months, you must destroy the obscene temple and worship me. If you disobey my orders, you will be punished by heaven and earth!"

The sound fell and thunder rolled.

The long mace was raised high, and lightning snakes rushed down like a waterfall, rushing straight towards the shrines everywhere.

These false gods may have some kindness, so the thunder and lightning from Qiu Chuji's running also gave them time to react.

If you act decisively, you can still escape.

If it is hard to give up the divine position, then all that can be done is to turn them into dust.

Qiu Chuji used all his strength in this move. The golden elixir was spinning wildly in his spiritual platform, and his true energy was pouring out.

Half of Fuzhou city seemed to be trembling under his prestige.

Lin Jiu looked at Qiu Chuji, who was high in the sky and standing under the thunder, and his expression changed several times.

Of course, he didn't believe that Qiu Chuji was some righteous god with unknown origins who had descended to the earth. However, although Qiu Chuji's move was also a mortal usurping the throne of God, it might really be able to change some of the customs in Fujian and temporarily stop the human disasters... Who knows!

(End of this chapter)