Traveling through countless heavens, an immortal being

It had just rained, and in the middle of the night in Fanchuan County, all that could be heard was the "drip-drip" sound of water dripping from the eaves onto the stone slabs under the houses.

The original county government office has been transformed into a brightly lit money exchange that is illuminated even at night.

The figures standing on either side of the gate were not human, but rather large, fat wild boar monsters dressed in clothes, standing upright and watching the various spirits and monsters coming in and out of the gate with predatory eyes.

The vertical plaques on either side of the money shop's entrance were replaced with gilded ebony plaques. The right plaque read "Good business practices bring wealth," while the left plaque read "Conscience transactions always generate wealth." The horizontal plaque above was made of the same material and bore the three large, gilded characters "Bao Chan Tang."

Judging from the couplets, this is a money exchange, but the constant stream of dressed monsters coming and going through the gate makes one wonder what kind of transactions take place here.

……

Lear channeled his magic from the clouds to conceal himself and the Green Ox, coldly observing the scene below while suppressing his anger. He had the Green Ox descend from the clouds at a distance, casting a spell on it to conceal its presence. Lear then removed the Vajra Bracelet, infused it with magic, and held it in his right hand, while carrying the dragon-headed cane in his left. He then disappeared into the shadows and followed the monsters into the money exchange.

……

As the group of spirits and monsters mingled through the gate, the courtyard became bustling with noise and excitement.

Several toads dressed in blue cloth sat in a row behind a wooden table in the courtyard, answering all sorts of questions from the spirits and monsters. They seemed to be providing quite good service.

Lear believed that if one ignored their toad heads, the occasional croaking sounds, and the way they would dart out, catch a flying insect, and then retract their long tongues, their service attitude was more than capable of handling the patient-demanding jobs of hotel receptionists and waiters.

But when he turned around and looked around, he was suddenly stunned.

What drew his gaze was something that no human being could tolerate.

In the courtyard, against the wall, there were countless tall wooden cages stacked one on top of another. Inside the cages were naked men, including teenagers, infants, and young adults. Each of them lay or leaned against the wall with lifeless eyes.

The children held the barely breathing infants, and most of the young and middle-aged men looked resigned to their fate. A few of them, who were still conscious, glared hatefully at the passing monsters through the gaps in their disheveled hair.

Lear stood at the base of the wall, which was not in the way, watching the captured people, and then looking at the monsters filling the courtyard, which were an eyesore no matter how you looked at them.

Suppressing his discomfort, he walked into the west courtyard from behind the toads along with the monsters who had asked him how to buy and sell the goods.

The scene in the west courtyard was like a living hell. Bloodstains mixed with rainwater made the environment gruesome. Looking around, there were more than a dozen large iron pots stewing meat, and a tiger with fur and bared teeth was cutting meat with a knife.

The monsters sat in twos and threes at tables not far from the stove, waiting for their food. Some had finished eating and were paying the bill. They ignored the human flesh being cooked in the pot, the human intestines hanging from the tree, the piles of dead heads with their eyes wide open beside the stove, and the human bones mixed with firewood in the hearth. This place was quite prosperous.

After looking around and confirming that there were only monsters in the courtyard, Lear could no longer contain his surging rage.

He raised his hand, made a hand seal to seal off the courtyard, flew into the sky, raised his right hand and threw the Vajra Bracelet, which he had been infusing with magic power, into the air and shouted "Surge!"

As the Vajra Bracelet fell, it grew larger and larger, crashing straight down into the left courtyard with a whooshing sound. In the nick of time, a golden copper coin as large as a millstone flew out from the main hall, attempting to stop Lear's falling magic weapon. However, it was immediately crushed into the blood and filth by the immense magical power and could not move. The monsters who were tending the fire, cutting meat, eating and drinking, and even the entire left courtyard, were all smashed into dust by the falling Vajra Bracelet with a loud "boom!"

The Vajra Bracelet was incredibly agile. Before flying back into Lear's hand, it transformed into flames that scorched its entire body, then transformed into water to carefully wash itself before finally landing in Lear's hand.

Seeing that the once bustling left courtyard had turned into a huge pit, Lear felt a little better.

In the courtyard below, where cages were piled up, the toads revealed their true forms and quickly hopped back to the front of the main hall, squatting there croaking.

Those spirits who were lucky enough not to enter the west courtyard also revealed their true forms and ran out of the courtyard in all directions.

Lear put the diamond bracelet back on his wrist, stood on the cloud, leaning on his dragon-headed staff, and looked down at the main hall surrounded by several large toads.

Seeing Lear's swift and decisive actions, the monster in the main hall finally couldn't sit still any longer.

"It's fate, it's fate!"

With a hoarse voice, a short, stout old man dressed in golden brocade robes with snow-white hair slowly walked out of the main hall, stood under the eaves, looked at Li Er standing on the cloud, and then bowed.

"Old Man Toad greets the Immortal. The Immortal's presence is truly remarkable, yet I, an old man, failed to recognize you. How utterly disrespectful!"

Lear looked at the old man's demeanor and said coldly, "You're quite the pragmatist; knowing you can't fight back, you come out to take responsibility."

"This humble Taoist sees that you possess the bloodline of the Wealth-Attracting Toad. If you could accumulate good deeds, you might very well ascend to the Heavenly Realm. Why not do good deeds and cultivate diligently instead of participating in such a tyrannical and defying-the-gods act?!"

Upon hearing this, the short, stout old man bent down even lower. "We cannot fight them by force, so we must assess the situation. Immortal, I did not want to do such a despicable thing, but the situation is beyond my control. I have no choice but to do this against my conscience. If I do not do it, my entire clan will be left without any survivors."

As he spoke, he took out an account book and several jade slips from his bosom, presented them respectfully with both hands, and knelt on the ground. "Immortal, these are the accounts of the demon kings and the national advisor who traded and sold people in the human world, as well as the orders issued by the demon kings. I now present them to you, and hope that you will spare my toad clan a chance to survive, considering that I have offered these things. I thank you on my knees."

Li Er used his magic to take the ledger and jade slip held by the old toad and glanced through them. He saw that the ledger contained detailed records of the number of transactions and quantities of medicinal herbs between the Imperial Preceptor and several demon kings of the demon realm over the past two years.

Li Er should have looked away, because what he saw shocked him. The Jin Kingdom possessed nine provinces, but apart from Qingzhou, Yongzhou, and Yuzhou, where mortals still lived, the other provinces had been turned into deserted ruins by the Grand Preceptor and the Demon King, except for a few prefectures and counties designated as trading venues.

After carefully comparing the contents of the catalog, Li Er hurriedly turned to the section on Ji Province. There, he saw in the ledger that it read, "The entire territory of Ji Province has been deliberately abandoned. The remaining humans have all been transported to Fanchuan to be traded at Baochan Hall... The elderly have all been slaughtered, and the women have been escorted back to the border with the army. Only the children and young and strong men have been left to be used as food for the demons accompanying the army..."

……

The people who originally lived in Jizhou now only have this one piece of writing left behind to prove that they once existed in this world.

The once beautiful landscape of green hills and clear waters, with smoke rising from every household, was transformed into a desolate wasteland of countless bones by the Heavenly Palace as a supreme punishment for the old king's trust in a demon. This tragic reality deeply affected Lear's heart.

Only then did he understand what it meant to have a life as worthless as grass, and what it meant to act like the tyrants Jie and Zhou.

He said indifferently to the old toad, "You toad demon, I hereby proclaim a decree on behalf of Heaven. Listen carefully."

The old toad, kneeling before the main hall, listened to the judgment with a respectful and composed attitude, saying, "Old Toad is here to hear the judgment of the immortal."

Lear took the supplementary list of deities hanging on the dragon's whiskers and held it in his hand. "Very well, Old Toad, hear my judgment! You possess the bloodline of the Golden Toad, yet you strayed from the right path and aided the wicked. Your transgression against Heaven is unforgivable. Considering you still retain some conscience, I sentence you to be struck by lightning and your form destroyed! However, Heaven has the virtue of cherishing life, and has granted you a portion of your true spirit to reincarnate and cultivate anew. Do you accept this judgment?!"

The old toad prostrated himself on the ground, weeping bitterly, "Reporting to the Immortal, this lowly demon submits to judgment, waah waah waah, this lowly demon submits to judgment~"

Li Er used a hand seal to summon lightning and kill the old toad demon. The other demons were also killed by lightning one by one. The toads were naturally not spared either, and they were all turned into charred remains by the lightning, following in the footsteps of their ancestors.

True to his word, Lear extracted a faint ray of spiritual light from the old toad and sent it into the Netherworld. Whether the old toad could be reincarnated depended on whether it had accumulated enough merit before doing anything bad.

If it had truly lived up to the couplet at the gate that read, "Good business practices bring wealth, and honest transactions always generate riches," it would surely have had the chance to be reincarnated.

After the monsters were all cleared away, Lear sent the Green Ox to the Fanchuan Pond to tell the Dragon King about the situation in the city. When the Dragon King arrived, he entrusted the people who had survived in the courtyard to him for rescue and management.

He bid farewell to them amidst the old Dragon King's respectful farewell and the grateful cries of the rescued crowd.

Lear intends to ride the blue ox directly to the capital to eliminate the evil spirits, re-establish the divine authority, and support a wise ruler.

………………

From then on, the legend of Lear "slaying demons, saving people, and ascending to heaven on a bull" came to be in Fanchuan County...