Inheriting a Taoist temple, the story begins with Wu Zetian offering incense.

Chapter 362 The Art of Reviving a Withered Tree? [Seeking Monthly Tickets]

When the thunder sounded, Xi Shi couldn't wait any longer. She got on her electric scooter and carried Wu Meiniang down the mountain road. When they arrived at the Azure Dragon position, they found that the battle was almost over.

Xin Qiji and Zhao Xu were chopping off the heads of those withered old men one by one. After chopping off each one, they raised their tokens to summon divine thunder, which shattered the corpses into charred remains.

Originally, the "splitting" procedure was to be done by Zhou Yi, but Xin Qiji felt that paying two coins for merit at once was too wasteful and too noisy, which did not conform to the Hunyuan Palace's principle of low-key development. So he and Zhao Xu used protective divine lightning to split the corpse.

Upon seeing the beautiful woman and Wu Zetian approach, Zhou Yi said:
"You two should also chop a few, so we can all earn merit together."

Wu Meiniang was relieved to find Zhou Yi unharmed. She then looked at the snuff bottle, jade thumb ring, and other items scattered on the ground and asked:

"What is this?"

"You must never touch the evil things from the Manchu Qing dynasty."

After Zhou Yi finished speaking, he kicked the jade ring at a corpse. Xin Qiji's lightning struck down just then, turning the person and the jade ring into ashes.

Down the mountain, Old Joe sensed this scene and clicked his tongue, saying:

"The magical artifacts on these living dead are already of superior quality. Although they cannot be used directly, they can continue to glow and generate heat once the filth on them is washed away. It's a pity."

The blind man took out his phone and said calmly:
"How could Old Zhou's grandson possibly be interested in the Tartars' magical artifacts?"

After saying that, he called Zhou Yi:

"We're down the mountain. Once we're done, let's pack up and head back. We'll take care of the rest."

Hearing the blind man's voice, Zhou Yi felt inexplicably at ease.

"No, since you're here, why don't you go up the mountain? I could at least offer you a cup of tea."

The blind man laughed:

"I have a lot of questions, but I'm afraid I won't be able to resist asking them if I actually go up the mountain, so I'll pass. For the foreseeable future, the entire Central Plains will be very peaceful, so you can go about your own business."

These words put Zhou Yi at ease; he was genuinely worried that the blind man would ask too many questions.
"If you encounter any wild merit points over there, remember to let me know. I used some up tonight and need to replenish them."

This was both a reminder to the blind man to keep an eye out for wild merits and an implication that the commotion just now was all in exchange for merits, essentially sharing the secret with the blind man... After all, he still needed help, and couldn't always leave people guessing.

The blind man was surprised by Zhou Yi's sincerity and immediately said:

"Before New Year's Day, I will set up a hunt for a shaman in the provincial capital. Once everything is arranged, I will inform you to collect the merits."

Since children need merit, we, as elders, should think of more ways to do so. After all, eliminating demons and protecting the righteous path is also part of cultivation, so it doesn't matter who kills them.

After hanging up the phone, Uncle Ming was still curious:

"How did they manage to create this lightning? There's been thunder on the mountain. Is this still that Xiao Yi who can't even bargain?"

The blind man said:

"Let's drive. First, go to town and find the driver. Ms. Ji will be in charge of cutting out the paper figures, I'll be in charge of using the illusion array to confuse them, and Old Qiao will be in charge of finishing up. Let's get this sorted out first, and then we can chat."

The group got into the car and drove to Yunwu Town, where they found the Mercedes-Benz van driver who was eating a clay pot of knife-cut noodles.

Old Joe went inside, ordered a clay pot noodle dish, and after ordering, he patted the driver on the shoulder:

"Young man, could you please pass me the chili peppers? Thank you."

The driver was enjoying his meal when he was suddenly disturbed. He was initially annoyed, but for some reason, the pat on the head made him feel like he had just woken up from a dream. His head was no longer foggy, and he felt like he had been half-dead and then come back to life.

Uncle Ming drove the blind man and Granny Ji to the highway project site, where he started cutting paper figures in the office to prepare for the fake work the next morning.

Old Huang was curious when he saw the blind man suddenly return:

Why are you here at this hour?

The blind man pointed to the sky and said:
"I was on my way to a business trip, but when I passed by here, I was startled by the thunder, so I quickly came to the project site to rest in order to avoid encountering any bad things."

Old Huang echoed:
"This lightning is really strange. They were just saying that it looks like an alien spaceship came from over the mountain. The searchlights on the ship are like small suns. Did you see them?"

The blind man pointed to his eye socket and didn't say anything more.

Old Huang suddenly realized that his words were somewhat inappropriate, so he used the excuse of getting hot water to go back to his dormitory with his thermos.

On the mountain, after all the corpses were cleaned up, Zhou Yi used the Ninth Grade Wind-Drawing Technique to blow away all the scattered charcoal on the ground.

Although the blind man said he could go back, he was still a little worried. He took a searchlight and patrolled the mountain road, where he saw large areas of dead forest... The deathly aura he had sensed earlier came from here.

Wu Zetian was somewhat angry:
"Killing them outright is too lenient on these old bastards. They should be chopped up and fed to the dogs!"

You're settling into modern society now, how come you still can't forget about chopping people up...? Zhou Yi said:
"We need to find a way to restore this forest, otherwise we'll have to make an unnecessary explanation when the townspeople ask about it tomorrow."

Xi Shi asked, "Do we need an exorcism talisman?"

Xin Qiji felt this was a sign of death and that the trees should be revitalized with life.

Zhao Xu was rather materialistic. He thought he could try using a Confucian scholar's pen to summon rain... These trees were all dead, but they might come back to life once they encountered water.

The discussion about life and death reminded Zhou Yi, who rode his electric scooter back to Hunyuan Palace, took the Modern Chinese Dictionary, went to the side of the withered forest, took out the emerald green leaf given to him by the Emperor of Longevity, pinched the stem, and gently waved it at the withered tree.

A miracle occurred: the withered trees around them began to recover, their curled leaves unfurled, and their branches came back to life. In just a few breaths, the entire tree was restored to its original state.

Holy crap, the leaves of the Longevity Emperor actually have the power to bring withered trees back to life! This cheat is a bit too overpowered.

Zhou Yi immediately thought of the problem of controlling soil erosion in the upper reaches of the Yellow River, as well as the thousand-year-old poplar forests in the Northwest, all of which could be revived using the leaves of the Longevity Emperor.

But this matter needs to be handled carefully. We need to see if it will deduct merit points. What if restoring a forest results in a 9999 reduction in merit points? If so, we should honestly advocate tree planting and not try to take shortcuts.

Once all the dead trees had returned to normal, Zhou Yi was about to return to the mountain to check on the merit deduction when he suddenly felt an even stronger connection to the mountain path.

A wild rabbit darted past just a few hundred meters away; at the foot of the mountain, several hedgehogs were busy moving house; deep in the forest, two squirrels were fighting over a few chestnuts that had fallen to the ground…

What's going on? How come I can suddenly sense subtle changes in the forest?

He walked around and found that he could only sense the changes in the trees that had been revived; he could not sense anything else in the rest of the area.

Zhou Yi recounted his ability to sense forests, and Wu Meiniang's eyes lit up upon hearing this:
"Then in the future, won't you be able to sense the movements of the entire mountain?"

If that's the case, then the entire Hunyuan Palace will be impregnable, and no one will be able to sneak up here.

But to do that, all the flowers, plants and trees on the mountain would have to die and then come back to life... That's quite difficult. You can't expect Brother Wang to control a drone and spray the whole mountain with a powerful herbicide, can you?

The Book of Changes says:

"Being able to sense the intersection is already quite good. As for the whole mountain, let's talk about that later. These things should be left to nature and cannot be forced. If we lose all our merits, it would be a loss."

The Manchu Tartars destroyed trees, but we saved them using secret methods. This is a good thing. If we deliberately destroyed trees, that would be evil. We cannot try this method recklessly.

The group returned to Hunyuan Palace. On the way, Zhou Yi retrieved the talismans he had scattered and entered the Sanqing Hall. He saw Zhao Yan kneeling on a prayer mat, earnestly reciting the "Taishang Ganying Pian" (Treatise on the Response of the Supreme Being), while Zhao Rui was slumped to one side, fast asleep, covered with a blanket, which was clearly draped over her by Zhao Yan.

Wu Meiniang woke Zhao Rui up, and the girl asked as soon as she opened her eyes:

"We've won, haven't we? Shouldn't we have a victory celebration?"

Zhou Yi patted her head and said:

"If you're tired, go back to your room and sleep. We can have the celebration party tomorrow; we won't have it tonight."

After saying that, he returned to his room and immediately began flipping through his black notebook. He was quickly stunned by the densely packed notes:

[Using lightning strikes to kill the evil cultivator from the Bordered Yellow Banner, merit +30]

Xin Qiji slays a heretical cultivator from the Plain Blue Banner, gaining +10 merit points.

Zhao Xu slays a heretical cultivator from the Plain Yellow Banner, gaining +10 merit points.

Xin Qiji killed a heretical cultivator from the Bordered Blue Banner, earning him +10 merit points.

Zhao Xu slays a heretical cultivator from the Plain White Banner, earning +10 merit points.

【…】

The dead transvestite who was killed by Zhou Yi was rewarded with three taels of merit; for the remaining seven, Zhou Yi took one tael of merit from each of them, and these eight guys provided Zhou Yi with a total of ten taels of merit.

The income was good, but a lot of merit was also given away. First, the Lightning Strike Technique and the Protective Divine Lightning Technique consumed one coin of merit, and the Rank 8 Lightning Strike Technique consumed two coins, for a total of nine coins of merit.

Furthermore, using the leaves of the Longevity Emperor to revive the forest on the mountain path consumed one or two taels of merit... One or two taels of merit would be consumed for dozens of acres of forest. If the leaves were used to manage the upper reaches of the Yellow River, it would take several tons of merit to make even the slightest ripple.

Shortcuts are indeed not easy to take... Zhou Yi sighed, then put the leaf from the Longevity Emperor back into the dictionary, intending to explore it further when he was less busy, to see if there were any other uses for this leaf.

After reading the notes, he closed the notebook, walked out of the room, and found Zhao Rui carrying a basket of snacks and putting them on the table... Zhou Yi wasn't going to have a celebration banquet, but the little girl was planning to have one herself. In any case, they couldn't not eat.

Zhao Xu mentioned the difficulties of the journey westward, and Zhou Yi, on a whim, said to him:

"Tomorrow you can bring the shells you want to transport over and put them in the small warehouse behind Haotian Palace. No one goes there and it won't attract attention. Remember to burn incense and pray at Haotian Palace after you've put them there."

The cannonballs made by hand by the Ordnance Bureau are not as safe as one might imagine. Rather than being jostled around on the road, it is better to temporarily store them at Hunyuan Palace, where they are not only safe but also protected from moisture.

As for whether there will be any accidents, there is no need to worry. After all, the Haotian Palace enshrines the Jade Emperor of the Golden Palace of Haotian, as well as Wang Lingguan, the Four Heavenly Masters, Taibai Jinxing and other deities.

Jade Emperor, you don't want your statues to be blown up into the sky, do you?
(End of this chapter)