Traveling through countless heavens, an immortal being

City God Temple

Lear, leaning on his dragon-headed cane and carrying a red gourd, paused in front of the City God Temple, which occupied a considerable area.

"I wonder what the uses are of the treasures Master gave me..."

Standing in front of the City God Temple gate, Li Er activated the True Technique of Absorbing Qi for Longevity, only to find that the inner technique he had painstakingly cultivated day and night had now transformed into a surge of magical power. He tried to send the magical power into the dragon-headed cane and then slammed it to the ground.

"boron!"

Like a drum being struck by a heavy hammer, after a loud bang, the gate of the City God Temple creaked open to the left and right.

Lear looked at the wide-open black lacquered gate and called out loudly, "I, Lear, have come to pay my respects to the local deities after witnessing the severe drought here!"

After informing the host, Lear then stepped up the stairs and entered the building...

……

A moment later, Lear, who had passed through the front hall of the offering hall, stood in front of the large incense burner at the entrance of the rear hall, where wisps of smoke were rising. He looked at the scene before him, wanting to say something, but in the end, he did not speak. He walked around the incense burner, pushed open the hall door, and went inside.

……

The furnishings in the hall were relatively intact, but the porcelain plates on the offering table were empty, and only a simple stick of grass incense was burning in the incense burner in the center. The paint on the City God statue on the altar was faded, and the ceremonial tablet in his hand was full of cracks, as if a gust of wind could blow it apart at any moment.

Li Er stared at it for a long time, then turned around and closed the palace door slightly. He was afraid that the wind might blow the scepter into pieces, since the City God's last bit of spirituality was inside.

Lear closed the door, gazing at the scepter held by the City God, and said, "This humble Taoist has disturbed you. On the way here, I saw withered bones by the roadside and had a bad feeling. Unexpectedly, throughout this city, I have only seen a trace of human life in this City God's shrine. I am new here, so please, Your Excellency, inform me of the situation here, so that I may perform rituals and send down rain to benefit these people."

As soon as Li Er finished speaking, a faint spiritual aura, invisible to ordinary people, surged around the City God and slowly gathered on the ceremonial tablet in the City God's hand. The ceremonial tablet lit up with a jade-like blue light, like an oil lamp that had just been lit.

As the imperial tablet lit up, a heavy sigh echoed through the hall.

"well"

Then came an aged voice, "Greetings, sir. I am Su Bing, the City God of Heyang County. I presume you have already seen the situation inside and outside the city."

"Alas, how bitter!"

"This is a combination of natural disasters and man-made calamities..."

The old City God revealed the truth: "Three years ago, a national advisor came to the court, and at first, the weather was favorable and the harvests were plentiful. But things changed last year..."

"The emperor is old and wants the elixir of immortality to prolong his life. The princes are young and strong, so they naturally compete openly and secretly. Little did they know that all their fighting would benefit the imperial advisor."

"Who would have thought that the Imperial Preceptor was not a righteous person at all! Under the pretense of refining elixirs for the old emperor, he used his incarnation to forcibly plunder the divine talismans of the small towns in various states. Without the divinely bestowed talismans, even if we local gods wrote petitions, they would not reach the ears of the heavens. We tried our best to hold on while sending messages to the city gods of the states, but we never heard from them..."

"Cough cough cough!"

The old City God coughed for a while and then continued, "A year ago, the river gradually dried up, and it stopped raining. The team that the county magistrate sent out to find water in the mountains never returned. Six months ago, the entire city's people fled one after another. At the same time, the county magistrate's family was murdered by villains, and the government office was burned down. Then, you, the Immortal, came..."

Lear stood silently in the hall, listening to the old City God's account. He frowned and asked, "May I ask, City God, what's the matter with that outside the hall?"

The old city god's reply at this moment was full of exhaustion and helplessness.

"The man outside the temple is the temple keeper of my City God Temple. He's an old man living alone. He's too old to escape, so he stayed in the temple to offer incense for me. He was originally on his deathbed, but I used the last of the incense to lock his soul inside his body and protect him..."

Upon hearing this, Lear asked again, "Is it that you can't open the Netherworld here either?"

"Alas," the old City God sighed deeply, "Since the imperial edict was seized, documents have been unable to be sent out from the Heavenly Palace to the Netherworld, and even to this mortal realm. I am now barely clinging to life, with only this last bit of spiritual light remaining, hoping that some high-ranking cultivators might pass by and ask them to help deliver the message."

The old city god's voice grew weaker as he spoke.

Lear already had a general idea of ​​the situation in this world. Just as he was about to ask the old city god other questions, he heard a crisp "click-click" sound.

He looked up and saw that the ceremonial tablet, imbued with the life force of the old City God, was beginning to crumble.

In his desperation, Lear subconsciously formed hand seals and chanted an incantation: "Left and Right Gods, do not be alarmed! Deities of this place, hurry to the altar! By the decree of the Supreme Lord Laozi!"

As the incantation was chanted, Lear raised the dragon-headed cane he was leaning on with his left hand, extended it, and hooked the dragon head onto the scepter of the City God statue, which was shattering.

Just before the scepter shattered completely, a sliver of spiritual light was gleaned from it. By the time Lear retrieved his dragon-headed staff, the scepter had finally shattered into a pile of jade fragments that fell at the feet of the statue, and the paint on the City God statue was rapidly peeling off.

At this point, the City God statue had completely lost its original spiritual light and had become a clay sculpture.

……

"Squeak~"

As the palace doors opened, Lear stepped out, leaning on his cane and carrying his gourd. He looked at the withered figure huddled under the incense burner, sighed, and sat down on the stone steps in front of the palace, hugging the red gourd and gazing at the sky, muttering to himself.

"Master, Master, what is your purpose in sending me here? Although I now possess magical powers, asking me to deal with this Imperial Preceptor is probably not a good idea..."

Lear looked down at the gourd in his arms and patted it.

"I hope there's more than just wine in your gourd..."

After Lear finished speaking, he opened the stopper of the gourd, tilted his head back, and opened his mouth.

"Gulp gulp gulp gulp"

"It's water!" Lear took a few sips, then excitedly held the gourd up to his eyes. "What a treasure!"

Lear thought for a moment, then stood up and went back into the hall. After a few clattering sounds, Lear dragged the offering table out of the hall and placed it under the eaves. He then turned around and went back into the hall to collect some familiar ritual implements, candlesticks, and incense burners, arranging them one by one.

Having been given a second chance at life, Lear remembers the steps of the rituals performed by his master when he goes down the mountain to perform weddings and funerals. With his master's guidance, Lear becomes very skilled at performing these rituals.

Lear lit two candles of different heights and three sticks of incense he had found in a corner of the storeroom in the backyard of the City God Temple, and began the ritual for the deceased as the sun set.

"Where do wandering souls find refuge? Even ghosts and demons of all living beings are touched by their grace..."

"The river of love has a thousand-foot wave... the sea of ​​suffering is ten thousand feet deep... to escape the suffering of reincarnation, call upon the Savior from Suffering!"

……

As Lear's ritual for the dead gradually came to an end, all the gods and officials of heaven and earth were filled with trepidation. Some of these immortals tried to calculate and others to divine, but at this moment the secrets of heaven were in turmoil, and it was difficult to reach a conclusion, so they had no choice but to give up.

……

world……

Lear followed the river upstream on the mountain until the city below shrank to the size of a chess piece before he stopped.

He rested his dragon-headed staff on his shoulder, and with both hands he held the uncorked wine gourd and slowly poured it into the dried-up riverbed.

"Splash!"

At first, it was just a stream of water the thickness of a finger, but after the water came into contact with the stones in the riverbed, it suddenly expanded into a surging torrent. This water poured out of the gourd continuously, quickly filling the riverbed and rushing downstream.

Lear had tried it before at the City God Temple at the foot of the mountain after completing the ritual for the deceased. The water in this gourd was probably comparable to the water vessel of the Yellow River God in his previous life's Journey to the West. During the day, he filled a dried-up lotus pond outside the City God Temple with water, and as soon as the pond was full, lotus flowers began to grow one after another.

Only then did Lear feel relieved enough to climb the mountain and use his gourd to pour water into the dried-up stream.

Watching the clear water rush down the riverbed, Lear estimated that it would take a while to fill the stream and the riverbed below the mountain. So he simply stuck the dragon-headed staff into the ground, raised his hand and hung the gourd that was pouring water on the staff so that the gourd mouth would continue to pour water into the river.

He was turning around to find a flat rock to sit on when he heard a scream from the sky, as if he had witnessed a cataclysmic disaster.

"My lord! This is unacceptable!! Stop immediately!!!"

Just as Lear found a flat rock to sit down, he heard this shout and was greatly surprised. He turned around and saw a cloud chariot floating in the sky, pulled by a deer that stepped on clouds. On the chariot stood a long-bearded immortal in feathered robes and a star crown, holding a green book.

Lear walked to the dragon-headed staff, grasped it, took off the gourd, and put the lid on. But even though the lid was on, the water in the stream continued to rush down.

The deity on the cloud chariot, witnessing this scene, paled instantly. "Disaster! Disaster! Great Immortal! You've stirred up a hornet's nest! What are we to do now..."

Lear was puzzled, but judging from the immortal's expression and words, he guessed that it was another repeat of the Fengxian County incident.

The immortal on the cloud chariot had already descended onto the mountain. He quickly walked to Lear's side and watched the surging river flow down the riverbed.

After observing for a while, his expression changed, and he turned to Lear, saying, "Great sage, do you know why this place is devoid of life and plagued by drought?"

Upon hearing this, Lear replied, "I am new here and unfamiliar with the situation. I would be grateful if this celestial official could enlighten me."

"Alas, Great Immortal! This king disrespects the Heavenly Way and scorns the Supreme Saints. Ever since he appointed some so-called Imperial Preceptor, he has cut off all the sacrifices to the gods. Therefore, the Heavenly Palace is enraged and has ordered that this country's harvest be cut off to warn the foolish king. This period is to last for ten years. After that, the dried-up ponds will naturally spring up again and the land will produce grains to sustain the people. Today, you have secretly released the water, which is already a transgression against Heaven!"

Lear then understood why the celestial official was in such a hurry. It turned out to be a large-scale version of the Phoenix County. But the damage was done, and as the saying goes, spilled water cannot be gathered up again. Moreover, Lear felt that this punishment was truly unreasonable.

The tyrannical ruler and the imperial advisor abolished the worship of the gods, so why should innocent people be punished? This is utterly unreasonable!

If they had the ability, why not just kill the king and the imperial advisor?

That's what Lear thought.

The celestial official standing to the side seemed to have sensed what he was thinking and hurriedly spoke up: "Great Immortal, this matter is not so easy. The course of fate is ever-changing, and fortune and misfortune are intertwined. The reason why the Heavenly Court has not executed the tyrannical emperor and the Imperial Preceptor is naturally due to the Heavenly Court's own calculations. You are a high-ranking immortal beyond the mortal realm. Please heed my advice and do not get involved in this karma."

After speaking, the celestial official paced back and forth several times, as if making a decision. He picked up the book in his hand, flipped through it, took the brush from his hairpin, and scribbled on the book before saying to Lear, "I haven't seen you recently. I'll record this spring's flow as a gift of Heaven's benevolence. Great Immortal, please heed my good advice and absolutely do not get involved in this matter! I have other matters to attend to, so I'll take my leave now!"

After the celestial official finished speaking, he bowed to Lear, turned around, quickly boarded the cloud chariot, and pulled the reins. The sika deer cried out twice, its four hooves pounding the clouds, and flew up to the east.

Lear watched the cloud chariot fly away quickly in the sky, then looked down at the ever-flowing spring and sighed silently.