Immortality: Grinding Experience Starting as a Paper Craftsman

Chapter 100 A Buddha's Heart Subdues Demons, Cleansing Incense Burners

The night was as dark as ink. The old locust tree swayed leisurely in the wind, its branches rustling softly against the window.

The candlelight flickered in the room. Gu Yan sat cross-legged on the couch, holding the "Pure Heart and Universal Benevolence Mantra" left behind by the monk Wuchen in his hands.

The scripture was not thick, the paper was yellowed, and the faint sandalwood fragrance it emitted seemed to soothe his restless soul, gradually calming him down.

"The combination of gods and demons may seem impressive, but it's actually like dancing on a tightrope."

Gu Yan closed the scripture and exhaled a long breath.

Ever since he forcibly merged a portion of the resentment of the Candle Dragon and countless souls of the dead in that cave, his Qi Sea has become exceptionally lively.

Although the divine and demonic Tai Chi diagram could barely suppress it, the violent and bloodthirsty impulse would still creep into his heart like a maggot in the dead of night.

It felt like there were two voices arguing in my head.

One of them clamored that those who obeyed him would prosper and those who defied him would perish, and he wanted to destroy everything in the world that he disliked.

The other coldly observes the common people, regarding all things as straw dogs, weighing the pros and cons.

The only thing missing was Gu Yan, who belonged to a person.

"That monk does have some skill. This scripture doesn't talk about any grand principles; it only cultivates stillness."

Gu Yan closed his eyes and sank his mind into his sea of ​​consciousness.

In his field of vision, a translucent light blue panel quietly appeared.

This was his greatest asset since his transmigration: the proficiency panel that was usually invisible but never failed him.

[Practice Method: Pure Heart and Universal Benevolence Mantra (Beginner Level)]

[State: Restless and agitated]

"Add some? No, add liver."

With a thought, Gu Yan began to adjust his breathing and circulate his energy according to the methods in the scriptures.

Once, twice, ten times...

As he chanted, golden Sanskrit characters lit up in his mind. They were non-aggressive, like a spring rain, falling drop by drop onto the towering structure shrouded in malevolent energy.

The狰狞痛痛 faces on the tower gradually became peaceful after being bathed in golden light.

The dragon relief entwined around the tower, which had been baring its fangs and claws as if about to devour someone, calmed down, coiled up, and concealed its sharpness.

[Ding! Proficiency in the Pure Heart and Universal Benevolence Mantra +1]

[Ding! Proficiency in the Pure Heart and Universal Benevolence Mantra +1]

……

After an unknown amount of time, Gu Yan's mind cleared up, as if he had just stepped out of a stuffy bathhouse and was refreshed by a cool evening breeze.

The wording on the panel is quite different.

[Practice Method: Pure Heart and Universal Benevolence Mantra (Minor Success): 1/500]

[Gained Trait: Pure Heart. Significantly suppresses inner demons and purifies impurities in the soul.]

Within the Qi Sea, the rotation of the divine and demonic Tai Chi diagram slowed down, becoming more rounded and natural.

The golden divine power and the black demonic energy no longer clashed, but merged like water, each containing the other.

"call……"

Gu Yan opened his eyes, and a flash of gold and black light appeared deep in his pupils before returning to a calm state like that of an ancient well.

"I owe this monk a huge favor."

Gu Yan stroked his chin, a playful smile playing on his lips. "However, why is the incense and prayer power still so murky?"

He looked inward and discovered that at the bottom of the Tower of Babel, the originally pure golden incense and prayer power was now mixed with a large number of gray-black spots.

Gu Yan probed with his divine sense, listening to the voices of all living beings.

"Bless me to become rich, very rich, even if my whole family dies..."

"May Old Wang next door suffer misfortune, and hopefully get run over by a carriage and die..."

"I don't want to die, I want to eat meat, I want to burn down that landlord's granary..."

Noisy, dark, greedy, and vicious sounds filled Gu Yan's mind.

Gu Yan abruptly withdrew his divine sense, his face turning somewhat pale.

"Incense is poisonous," he muttered to himself.

When he was observing history, he had a premonition that the power of all beings' vows was both the most nourishing medicine and the most poisonous poison in the world.

The people worship you because they have something to ask of you.

They seek wealth, children, peace, and revenge.

If these desires come together without a sufficiently strong mind to filter and guide them, the gods will sooner or later go mad from this massive stream of distracting thoughts and become evil gods who only know how to satisfy their desires.

"It seems that simply connecting the earth's veins is not enough."

Gu Yan stood up, walked to the window, and pushed open the window.

The eastern sky was already tinged with the pale light of dawn, and the morning dew was awakening the sleeping Changning County.

"Since I am the magistrate of Changning County and the city god of this area, I must cleanse this incense offerings."

Gu Yan's eyes were meaningful, and his tone was resolute: "The best way to cleanse the incense offerings is not through magic, but through justice."

……

The next morning.

Gu Yan changed out of his official robes and into a faded blue scholar's robe, slightly altering his appearance.

He casually bought a hot scallion pancake from a roadside vendor and munched on it as he mingled into the crowd at the morning market.

Changning County has changed.

This is Gu Yan's most direct feeling.

The shops on both sides of the street opened early, and the shopkeepers, who used to always have a gloomy face, now all have smiles on their faces.

The pedestrians on the street were no longer in a hurry; their steps were light and quick, and the lifelessness that had been weighing on their brows had completely disappeared.

"Have you heard? Old Li's two acres of dry land to the west sprouted wheat seedlings this tall last night! It's a miracle!"

"Absolutely! The water from my dry well this morning was sweet! Sweeter than sugar water!"

"This is all thanks to Lord Gu! I heard that Lord Gu fought the Dragon King in the mountains that day and managed to reclaim our water veins!"

At a roadside tea stall, several idle men were boasting and talking animatedly.

The version became increasingly outrageous, eventually evolving into the story of Gu Yan having three heads and six arms and swallowing the Dragon King whole.

Gu Yan's face darkened, but he couldn't help but laugh as he swallowed the last of the scallion pancake in a few bites, almost choking on it.

Just as he was about to turn and leave, a shrill noise shattered the harmony.

"Get out of my way, all of you! You want to die?!"

At the end of the street, five or six burly men with their chests open and chest hair showing walked over, pushing and shoving each other.

The leader, a burly man with a face full of scars, carried a metal-covered baton and walked with a swaying gait, looking just like a green-headed fly that had just eaten its fill of excrement.

The once bustling morning market fell silent, eerily quiet.

After regaining their senses, the vendors hurriedly packed up their stalls, and pedestrians walked with their heads down, hugging the walls, afraid of offending these plague-like people.

"Those are members of the Iron Rat Gang."

Beside Gu Yan, an old farmer selling vegetables sighed and muttered, "Changning County used to be dirt poor, and they were just as arrogant. Now that things are finally looking up, these bloodsuckers have already caught a whiff of our scent."

Gu Yan frowned, said nothing, and just watched quietly.

The group of burly men walked straight to a newly opened grain and oil shop.

"Bang!"

The burly man at the head of the group kicked over the rice bucket by the door, scattering white rice all over the ground.

"Oh dear! My rice!"

The shopkeeper, an honest man in his fifties, trembled with heartache upon seeing this and hurriedly ran out to help hold the rice bucket, but the man grabbed him by the collar.

"Old man, if you only ever read one fantasy novel in your life, it would probably be 'Immortality: Grinding Experience Starting as a Paper Craftsman.' Shouldn't you pay your monthly fee?"

The burly man, reeking of alcohol, slurred, "Don't tell me you're broke. Everyone knows that the geomantic energy in Changning County has improved, and you grain shop owners have all made a fortune. What, have you forgotten the well-digger while drinking the water?"

"Earth dragon money?"

The shopkeeper pleaded with a pained expression, "Uncle Niu, this...this is unheard of. Besides, the improvement in Changning County is all thanks to Lord Gu Qingtian, not to you..."

"Snapped!"

A resounding slap silenced the shopkeeper.

The shopkeeper's face was swollen on one side, blood was spilling from the corner of his mouth, and he staggered and fell into the pile of rice.

"Gu Qingtian?"

The man known as "Master Niu" sneered, "The county magistrate only deals with official matters. What about the things on the street? They have to listen to my Iron Rat Gang! I say this is 'earth dragon money,' and this is 'earth dragon money'! This earth energy was brought here by a high-ranking monk performed by our gang leader; what does it have to do with that damn county magistrate!"

"That ungrateful bastard! Brothers, smash him! Smash him until he remembers!"

"yes!"

Several thugs behind him rushed forward, grabbing sticks and ready to attack.

The surrounding people dared not speak out in anger and could only watch helplessly as the old shopkeeper trembled on the ground.

Standing in the crowd, Gu Yan clearly sensed that the incense and prayer power in his dantian began to surge again.

That was anger, fear, and helplessness.

"If gods don't care about human suffering, what's the point of having gods?"

Gu Yan sighed softly, patted the flour crumbs off his sleeves, and took a step forward.

"Wait a minute."

The sound wasn't loud, but it possessed an undeniable penetrating power, reaching the ears of everyone present.

The thugs who were about to make a move froze and instinctively turned their heads away.

A young man dressed in a blue cloth robe, looking like a poor scholar, stood smiling at the entrance of the rice shop, blocking their way.

"Where did this little brat come from, daring to meddle in other people's business?"

Niu Ye squinted and looked Gu Yan up and down. Seeing that there was nothing extraordinary about him, he immediately revealed a cruel smile.

"Mind your own business?"

Gu Yan shook his head and pointed to the rice on the ground. "This rice is the blood and sweat of the people, and this land belongs to the imperial court. You are openly robbing people under the clear sky and even assaulting them. This is not a trivial matter; this is a case."

"case?"

Old Niu burst into laughter, as if he'd heard the funniest joke in the world: "Hahahaha! Kid, have you gone stupid from studying too much? On this street, my word is law! A case, huh? I'll beat you into a case today!"

After saying that, he swung his iron-clad cudgel down with a whooshing sound, aiming it at Gu Yan's forehead.

If that blow landed squarely, an ordinary person's brains would surely splatter out.

The surrounding crowd gasped in surprise, and some women even covered their children's eyes.

However, the expected scene of blood splattering did not appear.

"Smack."

A slender, fair hand rose lightly and caught the heavy baton steadily.

"Um?"

Niu Ye's expression changed. He was about to pull the stick back when he found that it was as if it had taken root and wouldn't budge.

His face flushed red, and he exerted all his strength, even cracking the bluestone slabs beneath his feet, but the scholar still smiled and remained relaxed.

"He's quite strong, but he's using it in the wrong place."

Gu Yan smiled faintly and flicked his wrist slightly.

"Snap!"

The sturdy baton covered in iron cracked in his hands like rotten wood, turning into a pile of wood chips.

"You're a cultivator?!"

Finally realizing he'd kicked a hornet's nest, Master Niu retreated in terror, shouting menacingly, "I'm warning you, our gang leader is a Qi Refining Level 3 cultivator! And he has the Flowing Cloud Sect cultivators as his backers! You dare touch me?!"

"The Flowing Cloud Sect?"

Gu Yan's smile vanished, and he took a step forward.

There was no earth-shattering sound as this step was taken, but in the eyes of Master Niu and those ruffians, the scholar before them had changed.

He was no longer that frail young man, but a deity sitting high in a temple, looking down upon all living beings.

An invisible pressure descended like Mount Tai crashing down.

That was the majesty of gods and men, and also the malevolent aura of demons and gods.

"Splash! Splash! Splash!"

With no chance to resist, the five or six burly men's knees buckled and they all knelt on the ground, the sound of their kneecaps shattering clearly audible.

"ah!!!"

The piercing scream had barely escaped his lips when Gu Yan silenced him with a single glance.

To their horror, they discovered that they could not make a sound; they could only open their mouths wide like dead pigs waiting to be slaughtered, making a "whoosh" sound from their throats.

"I...I hate two kinds of people the most in my life."

With his hands behind his back, Gu Yan looked down at the group of thugs, his tone icy: "One type is the traitor who betrays his own people, and the other type is parasites like you who bully the weak and fear the strong."

"Changning County has just started to recover, and instead of focusing on farming and working, you want to leech off the people?"

"Since you enjoy collecting money from the earth dragons so much, then go and keep the earth dragons company."

Gu Yan turned to the old shopkeeper, who was completely dumbfounded, and placed a silver ingot into his palm, his tone softening: "Old man, do you think this is enough to cover the cost of that bag of rice?"

The old shopkeeper stood up shakily, looked at the usually fierce rogue who was now kneeling on the ground like a dog, and then looked at the refined young man in front of him. Tears welled up in his cloudy eyes.

"Enough! Enough! Thank you, brave warrior! Thank you, brave warrior!"

The surrounding crowd then realized what was happening and erupted in thunderous cheers.

"Well played!"

"These beasts deserved their retribution long ago!"

Gu Yan felt the originally dark incense and prayer power in his dantian becoming pure and bright at a visible speed.

It was a heartfelt gratitude, pure and warm.

"Gu...you're Lord Gu?!"

Finally, someone in the crowd recognized Gu Yan's somewhat familiar face.

"Gu Qingtian! It really is Gu Qingtian!"

The people knelt down one after another, a simple act of respect for justice.

Gu Yan neither admitted nor denied it.

He simply waved his hand, and a gentle breeze lifted everyone up.

"Get up, everyone. We don't kneel in Changning County."

Looking at these simple, honest faces, Gu Yan said loudly, "Everyone, remember, our good days do not depend on charity or begging."

"If anyone bullies you again, whether they are local thugs or sect masters, they can go and beat the drum at the Demon Suppression Division."

"I, Gu Changsheng, will stand up for you."

After saying that, Gu Yan instructed the paper-figure constables who had arrived to imprison the thugs, and then turned and left without lingering.

Only the people standing there, their eyes filled with tears, remained, shouting that Heaven had eyes.

Upon arriving at the county government office, Gu Yan introspectively examined his dantian.

On that towering structure, incense and prayers swirled like golden clouds, with fewer of the poisonous impurities.

"It seems that the path between humans and gods is not without a way out."

A glint flashed in Gu Yan's eyes, and then a cloud of doubt settled over his mind.

Why has such a powerful divine path fallen into such a state of decline in recent years?

It seems I must investigate this matter if I have the chance...

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