The more you believe me, the more real it becomes.

Chapter 17 The Qian Family Old House
After Du Yuan walked into the crowd, a man asked:

"Is this young man educated?"

Du Yuan nodded slightly:

"I've read a few books."

"Oh, and that hair of yours, young man? Did you just leave the monastic life?"

Some men looked curiously at Du Yuan's short hair.

Du Yuan couldn't help but feel a surge of joy; this time, she finally had a chance to shed her identity as a monk.

Therefore, Du Yuan immediately shook her head and said:

"No, no, I'm a Taoist priest!"

"Taoist priest?!"

The men exclaimed in surprise.

"That's right, look, I have my travel permit as proof!"

Du Yuan took out the travel permit she had obtained from Master Zhuang. But to Du Yuan's dismay, the men all shook their heads and said:

“Showing us this is useless, we can’t read! But since you’ve brought out the travel permit, it seems you really are a Taoist priest. But, what’s wrong with your hair?”

Your skin and hair is from your parents.

In such times, being bald was indeed a very strange thing, although Du Yuan only had short hair.
However, Du Yuan was prepared for this. He waved to the men and smiled:
"Past events are not worth mentioning."

In this way, he not only answered the men's questions, but also created the illusion that he was quite experienced.

This one point may not seem like much, but these things are all cumulative.

I am a Taoist priest with a travel permit as proof. I sang a clear, straightforward, and flavorful "Song of Enlightenment." I have a seemingly mysterious past.

All of these together.

That's enough to slowly build up a subconscious image in the minds of men that this person is probably quite remarkable.

Once you do this well, everything else will be easy.

The simplest way to be naturally blessed is by the Buddha's light.

However, Du Yuan had three reasons: first, he didn't want to continue being a living Buddha; second, he was still being watched by that unknown being as a monk; and third, he wanted to continue testing his abilities.

For example, will the abilities one has already acquired be affected by the change in identity?

As expected, after these words were spoken, the men looked at Du Yuan with a hint of awe.

They all thought to themselves that this Taoist priest must have seen and experienced a great deal.

Furthermore, because Du Yuan was a Taoist priest, and she sang a song called "The Song of Enlightenment".

The opening line, "Everyone knows immortals are good," sparked a lively discussion among the men.

Needless to say, even in Du Yuan's hometown, gods and ghosts were top topics of conversation.

"Young Taoist priest, you just sang 'Everyone knows that immortals are good,' do you think there really are immortals in the world?"

Upon hearing this, the men around them unconsciously gathered around.

They had thought about these things and discussed them, but they had never heard them from a Taoist priest.

"As the saying goes, 'There are gods three feet above your head,' so gods and immortals certainly exist!"

Du Yuan raised her finger to the sky.

The expressions on everyone's faces grew increasingly heated, and they were about to ask more questions.

But then a man in the crowd interrupted:

"If gods and immortals really exist, then don't demons and monsters also exist?"

The crowd's enthusiasm momentarily faltered.

Some people want to blame me for saying this.

But most people genuinely wanted to hear this. After all, gods and immortals are a bit far away, while ghosts and monsters seem very close.

They all looked at Du Yuan, hoping for an explanation, and Du Yuan, as they wished, said:

"Of course there are, and quite a few! For example..."

Du Yuan, who had been drawing out the last syllable of her sentence, suddenly stopped, glanced around at the crowd, and only continued after she had piqued their interest further:
"For example, Qiaoshui Town within Qing County!"

"I know, my third uncle's daughter married into Qiaoshui Town, and there's a very nice man named Master Zhuang in Qiaoshui Town!"

Du Yuan never expected to encounter this, nor did he expect that Master Zhuang, whom he considered neither good nor bad, was actually quite well-regarded by others.
So is this an era of competing to be the worst?
"I've been to Qiaoshui Town too, young Taoist priest. What's wrong with Qiaoshui Town?" Du Yuan pointed in the direction of Qiaoshui Town and asked.

"Zombies have appeared in Qiaoshui Town!"

"oops!"

The crowd exclaimed again.

"How could that be? I was just in Qiaoshui Town a few days ago, and everything was fine there."

"Yes, we went together. Was the young Taoist priest just teasing us?"

Just as the crowd was clamoring in denial, someone hesitated and said:

"But I did hear yesterday that Qiaoshui Town has brought in quite a few monks."

"Is there still this?"

Everyone looked at the speaker in surprise, but the man quickly shook his head:

"I just heard about it."

Du Yuan interjected at the opportune moment:
"Indeed, Zhou Da of the Zhou family in Qiaoshui Town couldn't let go of his daughter, so his obsession turned into qi stuck in his throat, unable to live or die."

"So much so that he turned into a zombie and could not enter the cycle of reincarnation. For the past three days, Qiaoshui Town has been searching everywhere for monks and Taoist priests, all in an effort to help Zhou Da pass on to the afterlife."

"Unfortunately, most of the so-called cultivators and mages in this world are just swindlers and fraudsters."

"Not only did we fail to help Zhou Da pass on, we were also so scared that we wet ourselves."

Upon hearing this, almost half of the people believed it, while the other half remained skeptical.

Since Bridgewater is not Kyoto, they can go there to visit anytime.

You shouldn't lie about things that are so easily exposed.

"Isn't Qiaoshui Town now a den of dragons and tigers?"

Du Yuan waved her hand again and said:
"No, that's not it. A high-ranking monk recently passed through Qiaoshui Town and performed a ritual to help Zhou Da pass on to the afterlife!"

Du Yuan ultimately didn't have the heart to say that she was a living Buddha.

The man who initially steered the conversation towards ghosts and monsters suddenly asked Du Yuan:

"Young Taoist priest, since you know about this matter, do you know where that eminent monk is? Is he still in Qiaoshui Town?"

They were so concerned about this, and they even took the initiative to steer the conversation towards demons and ghosts beforehand.

Du Yuan, her gaze sweeping over the man, immediately understood and said:

"That eminent monk has already gone on a pilgrimage, and I don't know where he is. But do you have any requests, layman?"

I originally wanted to proceed gradually, but if you really have something to do, then it's a win-win situation!
Everyone looked in the direction of the sound, and saw the man scratching his head, looking somewhat distressed.

Du Yuan comforted him:
"Layman, don't overthink it. Just speak your mind."

The man's companion also said:
"By the way, didn't you say you were going to Ziyun Temple today? Did something happen at home?"

At this point, the man no longer hesitated and cupped his hands to Du Yuan, saying:
"Young Taoist priest, it's not actually me, it's my boss."

"Could you please elaborate, layman?"

The man scratched his head and said:

"Young Taoist priest probably doesn't know, but my employer is the Qian family, a well-known wealthy family in Qing County. Their cloth business is thriving throughout the entire prefecture."

"However, no one from the Qian family is here anymore. I was only hired to clean the house and run errands because this is the Qian family's ancestral home."

Du Yuan just listened without saying a word, looking at the man with a half-smile, as if she could see through everything.

This expression made the man speak even more smoothly.

"Originally, I thought I was just overthinking things, and that I went to Ziyun Temple just to pray to the statues for peace of mind."

"But now that you mention it, I think there might really be a problem."

In the end, even in broad daylight, the man couldn't help but hug his arms and rub them up and down, as if he were not in a crowd but in an ice cellar.

"After all, every night, I could always hear sighs coming from the main hall of the Qian family's old house."

The men were taken aback and were about to press for answers when they heard an angry shout from nearby:

"Shut up! My Qian family is a family of virtue and good fortune. How could we possibly have such a treacherous scheme? I think it's clearly you, a rough man, who's spouting nonsense and trying to ruin my Qian family's reputation!"

Everyone hurriedly looked in the direction of the sound and saw a young master riding a tall horse, leading several other warriors on horseback dressed in short clothes, looking at them menacingly.

(End of this chapter)