Da Zaojun

Chapter 162 Gods Eat Incense
As for Xiaoyao Mountain, before even reaching the mountain gate, a group of Taoist priests greeted us at the foot of the mountain.

The leader was a middle-aged Taoist priest with an appearance quite different from ordinary people. He had a high forehead and broad face, long beard and eyebrows, phoenix eyes and tortoise neck, large ears, a broad back and narrow waist. He wore a scarlet Taoist robe, smiled, had a kind face, and was very amiable. He was dusting off his whisk and looked like a true Taoist master.

Two young Taoist boys, about fifteen or sixteen years old, were with him. They were dressed in blue linen clothes, one holding a ruyi scepter and the other holding a gourd.

Both items were auspicious objects, which led Song Wuji to make a preliminary judgment that this Taoist priest was extending goodwill.

But how to put it, it might be a demonic trick, and Song Wuji still harbored great doubts.

The Taoist priest bowed and said, "May you be blessed with boundless good fortune. This morning, the abbot instructed me to wait here for your distinguished guest. Now that I have seen it, it is indeed extraordinary!"

He started flattering her: "Truly a divine and handsome face!"

"From afar, we can see auspicious clouds and light in the sky. He must have entered the celestial register and is no ordinary person. Now that we are closer, we realize that he is the master of Taichang. Our Taoist temples and palaces must bow down and look up to him."

Song Wuji looked up but saw no markings. Hearing the description of Tang Sanzang in Journey to the West, he asked curiously, "How come I am surrounded by auspicious clouds and light?"

The Taoist priest said, "Those who have entered the Heavenly Register of Immortals or attained a proper position in Buddhism will naturally be blessed with auspicious clouds and light. If one has not entered the Heavenly Register of Immortals, even if one uses supernatural powers to make sand fly and stones move, or ride the clouds and mist, it will only be a gust of evil wind and a cloud of black smoke."

Song Wuji understood. This was a matter of official employment status. Being on the official payroll made one superior and granted auspicious clouds and light, signifying one's status.

Without a formal position, no matter how many tricks you pull, you're just a freak who's nobody's eyes. With a formal position, you have a workplace, you have a powerful backer...

Although this Taoist temple has also become quite distorted, it only recognizes those with official positions in the Heavenly Court. For ordinary people, if they don't pass the exam to obtain official positions, they probably won't have much status in this Taoist temple.

Even if one works hard to enter a Taoist temple to learn the arts and become a Taoist novice, if one does not pass the exam to become a tenured Taoist during the training period, one will be nothing more than a slave to the Taoist temple for life.

But... what does this Taoist's attitude towards Song Wuji signify?

This shows that Song Wuji's position was recognized by the people, who also considered it to be of a high status, like an official, which is why the abbot sent his disciple down the mountain to greet guests.

After thinking for a moment, Song Wuji understood that the Iron Pillar Palace was worth befriending and had value in uniting the people. They could work together to deal with the chaos caused by demons, but he couldn't reveal his purpose directly to avoid losing face. He had to be careful and discreet.

At that moment, Song Wuji mustered his imposing aura, walking with a dragon-like and tiger-like gait, but his face showed an expression of being flattered and surprised: "I have heard that Tiezhu Palace is the leader of the Taoist sect, Jingming Mountain Gate, and enshrines the Blessed Lord of Ganpo. I am merely the lord of a county, how dare I allow such a true immortal blessed land as Tiezhu Palace to bow down to me? Taoist priest, you are really flattering me to death. In this world of demons and monsters, I have heard that True Lord Xu has the Taoist methods to slay demons and monsters and protect the common people. The land of Ganpo must rely on the patronage of Tiezhu Palace!"

Everyone carried him in a bridal sedan chair, and when people praised his handsome appearance, Song Wuji naturally returned the compliment.

Sure enough, after Song Wuji finished praising him, the Taoist priest couldn't hide his pride and became even more polite, praising Song Wuji's strengths again.

After a conversation, Song Wuji learned that this Taoist was indeed the guest master of the Iron Pillar Palace, but not the original guest master. He was the guest master in the [inner Iron Pillar Palace] within the blessed land of Xiaoyao Mountain. The Taoist disciple who was originally the guest master in the real world had entered the blessed land to comprehend the ancestral master's great law.

This Taoist priest, named Fa Chan, possessed the strength of an eighth-rank cultivator, but was already very close to the seventh rank. According to him, the temple was originally closed, awaiting its calamity, but several days before the demonic catastrophe, a patriarch suddenly appeared and guided all the Taoist priests in the temple.

When the demonic catastrophe truly began, the blessed land of Xiaoyao Mountain, where Tiezhu Palace was located, emerged. There was also a group of Taoists inside, who claimed to be disciples of Master Xu. They devoted themselves to cultivating talismans and internal alchemy. In fact, it was a secret Taoist palace that overlapped with the real Tiezhu Palace.

"Back then, Master Xu suppressed the evil dragon in the Iron Pillar Palace. I wonder if the evil dragon is still being suppressed in the Iron Pillar Palace now?"

Song Wuji inquired.

When Song Wuji was refining the Xuan Shui inner core, after completing the rain-making test, the spirits in the water palace cried out in alarm, saying that three of the eight chains on the Iron Pillar Dragon Well had broken, and the evil dragon had taken the opportunity to cause trouble and escaped.

“Naturally, it’s still here!” Fa Chan said. Song Wuji was skeptical. The world had changed drastically, demons and monsters were causing chaos everywhere, and the authority of the gods had been shattered and scattered into countless fragments, replaced by demons and monsters. How come your Iron Pillar Palace is still intact?

Once they reached the mountain gate, a Taoist priest greeted them, and the others who had stayed behind to do tasks at the gate all looked at Song Wuji and exclaimed, "The city lord has arrived!"

“Our lord is the local deity; you should enter the temple through the main gate.” The Taoist priest in charge of the guest ceremony decided to open the main gate wide.

Song Wuji stopped him. If he remembered correctly, temples and Taoist monasteries that opened their gates wide had a certain political significance, and they usually entered through the side gate.

Song Wuji didn't want to alarm certain entities, nor did he want to get involved in any political implications.

So he said, "Enter through the side gate. We can open the main gate later when we have the ceremonial procession and hold the official ceremony."

The Taoist priest didn't insist, simply saying, "Please!"

Entering the temple through the side gate, what you see is actually no different from an ordinary Taoist temple, with nothing more than statues of gods, incense burners, and Taoist priests making offerings.

But faintly, there was a divine light emanating from it.

When Song Wuji caused a ruckus at Tongtai Temple, he experienced those divine statues.

"This is Lord Lingguan!"

When Song Wuji offered incense and slew the monster, he obtained quite a lot of incense while refining it with the stove fire. There were various kinds of incense, such as peace incense, earth god incense, wish incense, city god incense, and calming incense...

Song Wuji was using the Peace Incense, hoping to obtain peace.

Lord Lingguan is none other than the Three-Five Fire Chariot King Lingguan, a dual-ranking deity of the Fire and Thunder Departments, the top enforcer of the Heavenly Court, and also a great guardian deity of the Taoist mountain gates.

When the Taoist priest saw the incense offering for peace that Song Wuji had made, he nodded slightly and said, "May Heaven bless you and bring peace to all directions."

Another chime fell.

Song Wuji saw that the spirit official took a deep breath through his nostrils, and then nothing changed.

Song Wuji: "?"

"It seems that Lord Lingguan really likes the incense offerings from the local lord."

Song Wuji asked, "What is this?"

"Demons eat people, people eat grains and cereals, and deities need incense. This is not hard to understand. As the saying goes, those who eat qi become gods and enlightened. However, the incense of ordinary people is useless. They need incense of merit and morality, that is, incense offered by people with merit and morality. Only in this way can they cultivate the nature of the gods and have good thoughts and righteous thoughts."

“Back then, Wang Lingguan was named Wang E, and he was also a local evil god. It was only after receiving the incense from Sa Zu that he was transformed into Wang Shan.”

"The incense itself is not important; what is important is the intention to offer incense."

"The incense that the local lord just offered was for peace, and his heart was set on protecting the territory and its people. This is the incense of merit."

(End of this chapter)