Chapter 594: Unparalleled Genius
The Clay Bodhisattva watched Chen Shi and Black Pot walk into the distance, his expression darkening as he gazed up at the sky.
"The Thunder Ministry only seals the borders without sending anyone into Feng'an Commandery. Clearly, they intend to trap both me and whoever caused the Great Dao pollution within Feng'an Commandery. Anyone who tries to leave gets burned to death by the Pure Yang Divine Mirror. It seems the Thunder Ministry doesn't want Feng'an Commandery to become my incense territory either."
He turned and departed, his figure vanishing as he avoided Zhang Xian and the others who were rushing over.
Chen Shi and Black Pot hurried toward the Bodhisattva of Great Strength's temple. As they walked, Chen Shi said, "The Buddhist Sect walks the same path as the Daoist Sect, both following the immortal path and craving longevity and transcendence. However, the Buddhist Sect also walks the divine path, gathering incense and faith. The Bodhisattva of Great Strength building his temple in Thunderclap Mystic Province most likely encroached on the Thunder Ministry's interests. That's why the Thunder Ministry didn't intervene but instead passed the buck to one another, resulting in the Celestial Court sending us new soldiers from the heavenly soldier camps to investigate this matter."
"Woof." said Black Pot.
"You're absolutely right. The gods of the Thunder Ministry want to watch the Bodhisattva of Great Strength's doctrines be destroyed, but they don't want to damage the harmony between everyone, so they didn't make a move."
Chen Shi speculated, "There should be three factions locked in a covert struggle here. One is the Western Paradise, two is the Celestial Court's Thunder Ministry, and three is the immortal who orchestrated this scheme. Two factions are in the open, one in the shadows. But the immortal who laid down the Great Dao pollution still left behind clues."
As the saying goes, clothes make the man, and gold makes the Buddha. The Bodhisattva of Great Strength's temple was extremely luxurious and magnificent. The temple grounds were vast, with three courtyards in the front and four in the back, divided into seven eastern and western compounds, each with its own treasure hall housing gilded Bodhisattva statues.
These treasure halls enshrined various gilded statues of arhats, vajra warriors, and exalted ones. There was also a scripture repository, a martial equipment hall, and disciple quarters outside the temple.
Chen Shi arrived at the accounting office and grabbed a monk accountant. That monk had also been turned into a clay figure but had fortunately survived.
"The Bodhisattva of Great Strength's temple has a total of one hundred and six thousand disciples."
said the clay monk, "There are hundreds of thousands of hectares of fertile farmland, forty-five fairy mountains, seventy-eight rivers. The temple also owns quite a few mines, smelting factories, kiln factories, alchemy rooms, carriage and horse services, weapon workshops, docks, marketplaces, and gold and silver shops."
Chen Shi frowned and asked, "Although your temple has many disciples, can you really farm all that land? Can you manage all those industries?"
"Naturally, we can't manage them all."
said the clay monk with a smile, "So the fertile farmland is handed over to tenant farmers, and the mines employ laborers. We make money off these people. We disciples don't engage in production. We only recite scriptures, chant Buddhist names, and cultivate in quiet seclusion."
Chen Shi frowned deeply. "So you don't do any work at all?"
"We certainly don't do nothing. We inspect the mines, supervise the tenant farmers, and review the accounts so the people below don't swindle us. If we still have leisure time, we compost fertilizer, water the flowers and tend the grass, sip tea and admire the moon. That too is a form of cultivation."
Chen Shi waved his hand, signaling him to leave.
The clay monk hurried outside, but he was moving too fast and tripped over Black Pot's dog leg, crashing to the ground and shattering into pieces.
Black Pot cast an apologetic glance and withdrew his dog leg.
Chen Shi pretended not to see anything and didn't scold him.
The man and the dog continued searching the temple. Many clay monks had gathered here, sneakily watching them.
Most of the Bodhisattvas, vajra warriors, and arhats enshrined in the treasure halls were also still alive, watching them warily. If not for seeing that they had maintained their physical bodies, they would have stepped forward to challenge them.
Although these Bodhisattvas, vajra warriors, and arhats had their Golden Bodies broken, divine power still coiled around them, and their strength remained considerable.
Chen Shi pushed aside a vajra warrior blocking his path and walked forward, shouting, "Heavenly soldier camp on official business! Everyone not involved, disperse! Anyone who dares to block us will be killed without mercy!"
That vajra warrior glared with wide, furious eyes and muttered quietly, "Since when did the heavenly soldier camp get so arrogant?"
Black Pot had already walked up to him, looking down at him from above. When the vajra warrior met the dog's gaze, he lowered his head and refused to make eye contact.
Black Pot withdrew his gaze and followed Chen Shi.
Chen Shi looked around and saw that the most prominent hall with the strongest incense offerings was the Maha Nabo Treasure Hall in the center.
The man and the dog arrived before the incense burner in this treasure hall. The incense burner was over two zhang long and four chi wide, with a dome overhead. It was blackened from years of smoke and fire, filled to the brim with incense ash and unburned remnants of incense.
Black Pot rummaged through the incense ash and finally found, among countless incense remnants, a single stick burned down to just a cun in length.
"Is this the incense that broke the Bodhisattva of Great Strength's Golden Body?"
Chen Shi examined the incense remnant. Within it was contained a strange power, a power from a heretical path. This power was incomparably dark, not belonging to either yin or yang. This was presumably the reason the Yin-Yang Dao Field couldn't counter it.
"But there's another power in here that feels quite familiar..."
Chen Shi was somewhat surprised. He carefully sensed it. The other power within the incense remnant was very faint, nearly imperceptible, but it wasn't easy to hide from him, because he had sensed similar power on many deities.
"It's the incense divine path. No, that's not quite it... What's contained here is still the immortal path, but it should be an immortal path that evolved from the divine path! Strange, very strange..."
He hesitated for a moment, then lit the incense remnant.
A faint crimson flame flickered to life on the incense remnant, burning slowly. But the fragrance didn't drift toward Chen Shi. Instead, it drifted in another direction.
This incense was an offering to the Clay Bodhisattva, so naturally, the fragrance drifted toward the Clay Bodhisattva's location.
Within the fragrance, the dark power suddenly surged, and at the same time, that barely perceptible divine power suddenly amplified several times over!
Chen Shi broke into a smile. It was indeed the immortal path, not the divine path.
"Black Pot, the immortal path and the divine path have long since diverged to the point where they can hardly communicate. But legend has it that during the era of the Three Purities, the Three Pure Patriarchs comprehended the mysteries of the immortal path from Great Shang's shamanic ritual markings. And the further development of shamanic ritual markings became today's divine path."
Chen Shi tossed aside this incense remnant and walked out, smiling. "Therefore, whether the immortal path or the divine path, they both share a common origin: the shamanic ritual markings. If one understands this point, one can bridge the divine path and the immortal path. This is what Grandpa and Fifth Uncle are doing right now."
Black Pot hurried to follow him. Black Pot knew a bit about what Chen Yindu and Creation Little Five were doing. It was using talismans as the foundation to re-evolve the Dao patterns of the immortal path.
And the construction of talismans happened to be the construction of many deities of Great Shang. That was why Chen Shi said they were trying to bridge the divine path and the immortal path.
Chen Shi flew up into the air, continuing as he searched, "But the one who used the incense poison to lay down the Great Dao pollution somehow managed to bridge the divine path and the immortal path. This person is a genius. Although they only bridged their own lineage's divine-immortal path, this feat is still extraordinarily remarkable. Their master must be a deity, and specifically an earth god."
He flew several hundred li, then suddenly seemed to see something. His eyes lit up, and he drifted down to land.
Black Pot hurried to catch up with him. What lay before them was an earth god shrine. Compared to the Bodhisattva of Great Strength's temple, this place was far more humble.
The earth god shrine was a building less than a person's height, with no courtyard. In front was a fire pit for burning paper money. The incense burner was a dirt mound about a chi tall, and one could simply stick incense into the dirt mound.
This shrine appeared to be quite old. There were couplets on either side of the door, but the characters were faded and illegible.
Judging from its incense offerings, this shrine should be the ancestral temple of Feng'an Commandery's earth gods. The incense was ancient, and within the energy of the incense offerings, one could trace back the prayers and wishes of people from three hundred thousand years ago.
An ancestral temple with incense offerings so meager that it had been nearly forgotten. Clearly, the cultivation of this ancestral temple's earth god wasn't very strong either.
Chen Shi looked around but didn't find the earth god in the shrine. The miniature shrine was empty. Noticing a village nearby, he walked over.
The village had only a few households, and they too had been affected by the Great Dao pollution, turned into clay figures.
Chen Shi arrived in the village and found an elderly clay man. He asked, "I am an immortal official of the Celestial Court and have some questions for you, elder. Are there any cultivators in this village?"
The elderly clay man said, "Cultivators? There have never been any."
𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞
Chen Shi smiled and asked, "That earth god shrine outside the village. Does anyone tend to it?"
"Oh, yes. A young man named Xiangxiu, surnamed Chu. He has a very strange temper, muttering to himself and acting odd. He lives in that house over there."
said the elderly clay man, "He's a child adopted by the Earth God. He normally cleans the earth god shrine, and I've heard people say he's taken the Earth God as his master. But he shouldn't be a cultivator, right?"
Chen Shi smiled. "Hard to say. Some people have extremely high natural talent and can cultivate even by following a god."
He brought Black Pot to Chu Xiangxiu's house. The door wasn't locked, and it opened with a single push.
No one was inside. The room was filled with paper everywhere, and the papers were covered with all kinds of talismans.
Chen Shi picked up these papers and examined them one by one. The talismans drawn on them were quite peculiar, depicting various forms of the Earth God, along with earth deity type divine patterns. Clearly, the Earth God of the ancestral temple didn't know how to cultivate, so he could only pass on his knowledge of the divine path.
Chen Shi continued flipping through the papers and noticed that the talismans on them were gradually evolving. The earth deity divine patterns were also continuously evolving, transforming toward Dao patterns.
He raised an eyebrow. This Chu Xiangxiu had actually comprehended the mysteries of transformation between divine and immortal from within the divine path. The divine path that the ancestral temple's Earth God had taught him had been walked by him onto a path toward immortality!
"Remarkable, truly remarkable! The Earth Immortal Realm produces talented people in abundance. This person's wisdom is no less than mine!"
Chen Shi praised endlessly, then said to Black Pot, "Chu Xiangxiu has made astonishing achievements. Compared to Daoist Tianzhen, he's in no way inferior."
Just as he was speaking, a clay figure walked in from outside. He was tall and thin, a bit taller than Chen Shi, wearing plain cloth clothes. His shoulders and neck were hunched, presumably from constantly keeping his head lowered.
He was quite surprised to see Chen Shi and Black Pot.
Chen Shi smiled and said, "Chen Shi of the heavenly soldier camp. This is my junior brother, Black Pot. We've been ordered by the Heavenly King to investigate the Clay Bodhisattva case. Greetings, Fellow Daoist Chu."
The clay figure was indeed Chu Xiangxiu. He looked somewhat shy.
Chen Shi smiled. "Fellow Daoist Chu, please have a seat."
Chu Xiangxiu walked over to the dining table and sat down, lowering his head and pressing his legs together.
Chen Shi stood across from him.
The Chu household was bare as a skeleton. There was no receiving hall for guests, no armchairs or octagonal tables. There were only two stools and one wooden table.
Chen Shi didn't sit on the other stool. He remained standing and smiled. "Fellow Daoist Chu, this stool is your master's stool, isn't it? The two of you, master and disciple, occasionally eat here together, right?"
Chu Xiangxiu's lips twitched. "Yes. My master adopted me. He occasionally comes to my home."
Chen Shi smiled. "Your master is very kind. He treats you well."
Chu Xiangxiu raised his head and met his gaze. Still somewhat shy, he said, "My master's kindness to me is as heavy as a mountain."
Chen Shi inquired, "The Earth God walks the path of the incense divine path, but you are a living human being. Even if you spread your teachings across Feng'an Commandery and gather faith, you'd still be walking the divine path. So how did you become an immortal?"
Chu Xiangxiu stood up. Black Pot tightened his grip on the Heaven-Measuring Iron Ruler, baring his teeth. Chen Shi waved his hand, signaling Black Pot that there was no need for that.
Chu Xiangxiu walked over to the pile of papers and pulled out the talismans and Dao patterns he had drawn. "Like this."
Chen Shi's eyes held a smile as he praised, "Fellow Daoist Chu, you are a rare genius. Your transformation of the divine path into the immortal path is breathtaking."
Chu Xiangxiu raised his head in surprise. "You can understand it?"
He lowered his head again, his voice somewhat dark and dejected. "No one else can understand it. I took it to ask them, and they said it was ghost scribbling."
Chen Shi smiled. "Across the world, even among immortals, most are mediocre talents. There are few who can understand you. I may not be talented, but I happen to be one of them."
Chu Xiangxiu's eyes gradually brightened, a smile appearing on his face. He became more talkative.
"When my master adopted me, there was a famine here. I fled here with my parents. They starved to death, and I fainted from hunger. My master used the offerings from his shrine to save my life. From that moment on, I followed my master."
Even when talking to Chen Shi, he spoke as if talking to himself.
"Many people from nearby villages and towns came to ask my master for help. People who lost things, people who lost children, fields overgrown with weeds, locust plagues. They all came to him. The gifts they brought weren't much, just some melons, fruits, and vegetables. I grew up relying on those fruits and vegetables with my master."
"My master said he didn't know how to cultivate, so he just passed these things on to me. I couldn't cultivate either. I just stared at these things every day, and slowly I came to understand their meaning. I helped my master with his work, and I also helped people get rid of pests, find lost things, and clear weeds..."
Chen Shi thought to himself, "This level of comprehension seems even higher than mine."
"You've been cultivating for so long. You must have achieved Dao Unification by now, right?" Chen Shi asked.
Chu Xiangxiu said, "I don't know what my cultivation level is myself. I just remember one day, thunder struck me out of nowhere. After it was done, immortal qi and immortal light drifted over. My master told me I was about to achieve Dao Unification. Although he was the earth god of Feng'an Commandery, Feng'an Commandery had no place for me to achieve Dao Unification. He was a minor god. For me to achieve Dao Unification, I needed a very large territory, and he couldn't arrange such a place. I didn't want to trouble him. But he said if I didn't achieve Dao Unification, I would only live a few more years before dying."
Chen Shi's heart stirred slightly. "Where did you go to achieve Dao Unification?"
"My master said that everything in the Earth Immortal Realm already had an owner. Without power or influence, one cannot achieve Dao Unification."
Chu Xiangxiu pressed his lips together and said, "To achieve Dao Unification, I had to go to the Dark Sea. So I ran off. The Dark Sea was very far away. I walked for over ten years."
Chen Shi raised an eyebrow. "When you achieved Dao Unification in the Dark Sea, did you encounter anything strange?"
Chu Xiangxiu looked at his own hands. His hands were also made of clay. He said, "Dao Unification is union with the Great Dao of heaven and earth. The Great Dao in the Dark Sea might be a bit strange. It took me considerable effort, spending several decades in total, before I finally succeeded."
Chen Shi stared at his hands. "You brought the Great Dao of the Dark Sea into the Earth Immortal Realm?"
Chu Xiangxiu said, "Didn't you as well?"
Chen Shi raised his gaze and met his eyes. The two exchanged a glance, then each looked away.
Chen Shi asked, "What about after you returned? How did your master disappear?"
Chu Xiangxiu stared at his own hands again. "He's probably dead. I was gone for nearly fifty years. When I came back, there was no one in the shrine. The people nearby rarely believed in the Earth God anymore. They went to believe in the Bodhisattva instead. I asked many people, but no one knew how he died. He was the earth god of Feng'an Commandery. How could he just die..."
He rubbed his fingers, and bits of dirt fell from them.
Chen Shi said, "You have no evidence that the Bodhisattva of Great Strength did it."
"That's right. I have no evidence."
Chu Xiangxiu lowered his head. Water flowed from his clay eye sockets, moistening his clay eyeballs, then dripped down with a patter. He said, "I don't know who did it. But I know who benefited. The one who gained the greatest benefit must be the problem! So I took some soil from my master's shrine and made a stick of incense... Are you here to arrest me and take me back to the Celestial Court for trial? I won't sit around waiting to die."
Chen Shi said in a low voice, "You cast a spell to summon rain and killed many people. I was ordered to investigate this case, so I have no choice but to take you back."
Chu Xiangxiu shook his head. "I didn't cast a spell to summon rain. I was out just now investigating who really did it."