If the sect doesn't accept geniuses, they will become giants once they leave?

Chapter 201 Heaven!

Shen Ziqing thought about it and answered seriously.

"I'm afraid the old man has misunderstood."

"Oh?"

"I never expect windfalls."

"Then why are you praying to the God of Wealth, hoping your master will have a lot of money?" The old man's eyes rolled, his hands behind his back, a cold light flashing in his eyes, his face gradually becoming ferocious like a beast. "Do you know what will happen if you lie in this temple of the God of Wealth?"

Shen Ziqing remained calm and asked calmly, "Master has given me a new life. Shouldn't I wish him great wealth?"

The old man was stunned, touched his chin, and raised a finger as if wanting to refute, but he couldn't think of any suitable words. After scratching his head for a while, he put his hands behind his back and said, "That makes sense. Then why did you come to this Wucai Temple to pray?"

"Of course, I was passing by and saw it, so I just came to pay my respects."

The old man's expression froze slightly, but he wasn't angry. He paced back and forth as if he had seen someone special, looking Shen Ziqing up and down. After a while, he nodded thoughtfully, "Then let me ask you, why did you enter this Wucai Temple in such a disheveled state? Do you know that this is blasphemous?"

"Disheveled?" Shen Ziqing glanced down at his clothes and laughed. "I came here in a dignified manner and haven't done anything dirty. Why am I so disheveled? Could it be that I'm helping that old farmer with something dirty?"

The old man was speechless, but unwilling to be refuted. "Then why don't you give money to the old farmer? Can't you see that they are living in poverty?"

As he spoke, the old man also summoned a dirty dung bucket.

“Look, how hard their lives are!”

Shen Ziqing asked in return, "That couple lived a clean life, earning their living through hard work. They were not beggars. I am not superior to them. Why should I humiliate them with money?"

"You... hmph—even if you can say it, I can't. Anyway—since you want your master to have a lot of money, then I will give you that ability. I have a treasure bowl here, blessed by heaven and earth, which can gather any wealth you need."

The old man snorted coldly and took out a shining golden basin from his sleeve.

As if worried that Shen Ziqing couldn't see the power of this treasure bowl, the old man shook it gently, and elixirs, magic weapons, peerless magic spells, and all kinds of treasures poured out of the treasure bowl.

But the old man didn't expect that Shen Ziqing only took a look at those treasures, but did not linger. "Old sir, I hope my master can make a lot of money."

"With this treasure bowl, you will be rich? You won it from me, not from my prayers," the old man tempted. "This is your ability."

Shen Ziqing smiled and shook his head. "Old sir, if it were me a few days ago, I would probably have accepted it. But before I set out, my master taught me a lesson. If you only have your goal in mind, you'll want to take shortcuts. Once you take shortcuts, you'll sooner or later stray from your original intention. If you lose your original intention, how can you ever reach your true goal?"

The old man was startled and threw the treasure bowl in his hand aside. The moment the treasure bowl hit the ground, it turned into a dung bucket full of dirty things.

Instead, the dung bucket on the ground turned into a treasure pot with a fairy-like aura.

The old man's eyes softened, and he smiled helplessly, "Little guy, you win. This real treasure bowl belongs to you."

"Old man, this is really a treasure pot, but it's also a dung bucket."

The old man was silent for a moment, then raised his hand and pointed, and the treasure bowl that seemed to have an ethereal aura turned back into a dung bucket.

The old man asked in a muffled voice, "You are really weird, kid. I see that you are so vulgar, and you don't look like someone who regards money as dirt."

Shen Ziqing was also helpless, "Old sir, I said, I don't want to take shortcuts."

"Alright, alright, what do you want?" The old man waved his hand and said unhappily, "You came in here and fooled me around. If I don't let you take something away, where would I put my face?"

Shen Ziqing hesitated for a moment and asked tentatively, "Well... then, just consider it as making a friend?"

The old man blinked his eyes, with a strange look on his face, "Do you know who I am?" Shen Ziqing glanced at the statue of the God of Wealth with a hesitant expression.

"It's okay, just say whatever you want."

"A monk pretending to be a ghost?"

"...Aren't you afraid of being struck by lightning, kid?" the old man said angrily, "I am the God of Wealth and War! A genuine deity! I have a position in heaven!"

Shen Ziqing was stunned. "I've only heard of immortals. What about these gods... Besides, is this Heavenly Court some hidden super sect?"

The old man patted his forehead and said, "Didn't you worship the God of Wealth when you were a child? Guanyin must know."

"This... naturally, I thought these were just some folklore." Shen Ziqing's heart skipped a beat. "Could it be?"

"Of course it's all true. Tens of thousands of years ago, during the dark period at the end of the Great Wilderness, the Heavenly Court lost to Emperor Yu in the debate over how to govern mortals."

"Dayu and the Heavenly Court reached a consensus that mortals should not be allowed to practice cultivation. The Heavenly Court believed that they should cut the Gordian knot and restrict mortals according to the laws of heaven. Emperor Yu believed that all beings were equal, and they just happened to be in high positions and should not think of themselves as superior."

"After that, we parted ways. Dayu established a new dynasty, ruling people by people. The Heavenly Court cleaned up, ascended to heaven, and ruled people by heaven. The 108 stars of the Heavenly Gang and the Earthly Fiends are all the palaces of the Heavenly Court."

"Of course, he says he'll rule us by the will of Heaven and that we'll have no further dealings, but the Emperor of Heaven is just being tough. Time in Heaven is much faster than on Earth. Tens of thousands of years on Earth could be billions of years in Heaven. With so much time, what's there to worry about? Otherwise, the Emperor of Heaven wouldn't have us regularly clearing out the monsters from those monster stars all day long."

"Oh, right. Recently, a new star appeared in the sky. Emperor Yu specifically visited the Tiandi Temple and asked us to take good care of it. You know what? Generally, the stars Emperor Yu would throw up are demonic stars that will constantly breed troublesome monsters, but this star...tsk tsk—I don't know who did it, but it could actually make a world develop like that."

"The Emperor of Heaven specially sent a large army to guard outside that star."

The old man chattered non-stop as if he had opened a box of chatterboxes, but Shen Ziqing, who was listening to him, was terrified.

Are these really things that a mere Qi-cultivating cultivator like him can know?
But when he thought that his master was Li Yanmo and he was the second disciple of Taixu Sect, Shen Ziqing gained courage, listened calmly, and began to think.

"But thanks to Emperor Yu who built many temples, we didn't suffocate. But we can only move between these temples."

"Old sir, is it true... that as long as we build a temple for you, you will be able to come down through some method?"

"We could have come down directly. Every emperor of Yu would have paid respects to the temple out of courtesy. But the Emperor of Heaven was too stubborn."

Shen Ziqing seemed to be thinking about something. "Old sir, I understand your situation. However, I have official business to attend to this trip and cannot delay for too long. If there is a chance, we can talk again in the future."

"Well - in these tens of thousands of years, only you have come here and passed my test," the old man raised his hand and patted Shen Ziqing's shoulder, then raised his hand and pushed him.

Shen Ziqing only felt a gentle force pushing him, and when he opened his eyes again, he had returned to the place where he heard the old farmer's shouting.

Shen Ziqing was slightly startled, and clenched his fist to feel the spiritual energy of heaven and earth in his body.

His tenth level of perfect spiritual energy of heaven and earth had broken through at some point, and the tenth level spiritual energy vortex disappeared, replaced by a foundation-building platform that looked like a temple. There were many empty spaces in the foundation-building platform, and one of them was where the statue of the God of Wealth and War was placed.

Shen Ziqing was greatly surprised, and after a moment of hesitation, he had an idea.

The old man's illusory figure appeared in front of Shen Ziqing.

"Hey, long time no see—did you encounter any problems?"

"Just now, it's gone."

(End of this chapter)