txolops Chapter 010 Building a Temple
Chapter 010 Building a Temple
Beep beep~ Beep beep beep~
On the west bank of the Tongtian River, just as dawn was breaking, a group of women carried a large sedan chair carried by eight men, making a great fuss as they walked straight toward the river.
Inside the sedan chair was not the bride, but a clay sculpture adorned with red ribbons and colorful decorations, depicting a young and handsome scholar with peach blossom eyes, a smile on his lips, and a peach blossom in his hand.
"Stop!"
The procession stopped in front of a small temple, about four feet tall, with blue bricks and red tiles, by the river.
Upon closer inspection, the small temple appears to have been recently built, with black paper covering the windows and a brand-new couplet on the door frame:
First line: Half a window of bright moonlight, half a spring night is perfect for dreams.
The second line reads: A dream of wandering immortals, a heart full of sorrow with no way to express it.
Horizontal scroll: Let us be entwined together
"Alight from the sedan chair~"
At the front of the procession, an old woman acted as the master of ceremonies. As soon as the sedan chair was lowered, she hurriedly arranged for people to carry over a table, place offerings of meat and animals on it, and light incense and candles.
"Please, my dream lover~"
Everything was ready, and with head held high and chest out, he let out another loud shout.
A group of pretty young women stepped forward with laughter and hurriedly lifted the statue of the deity from the sedan chair and carefully placed it into the shrine in the temple.
As the deity took his place, a group of people knelt down and kowtowed in worship.
Call ~
A gentle breeze blew by, stirring the curtain. The flower branch in the statue trembled slightly, and peach petals drifted down, clinging to the clothes of the worshippers.
After everyone finished their prayers, Liu Yunniang, dressed in a deep-colored dress, stepped forward, offered incense, and gracefully knelt down, pressing her palms together and murmuring prayers.
"Thanks to the divine intervention, I am deeply grateful and will fulfill my promise to build a temple and create a golden statue. I will worship and make offerings to it from generation to generation, and pray for the divine protection of the immortals."
After saying this, he got up and ordered his servants to steer the boat and throw a large number of sacrificial offerings into the river.
[Build a small temple dedicated to Meng Zhonglang, experience points +100!]
[The Dream Boy has received a large amount of offerings, and his experience points have increased by 50!]
[Dream Boy's level has been upgraded to lv5!]
[Awakening Supernatural Powers for a Nighttime Tour!]
Beneath the water's surface, as numerous offerings were thrown down, a series of notification sounds rang out.
In the dim light, Li Yue's massive body swam slowly in the water, turning to the second page of the Lustful Sacrifice Record.
【Dream Man】
Rank: Ninth Rank (Miscellaneous God)
Level: lv5 (67/500)
Supernatural Power: Night Wanderer
Ritual implement: Dream-Entwining Branch
Rule: A night of passionate lovemaking in a dream will deplete a woman's vital energy by one point.
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To subdue the bull demon, Li Yue made two demands of Liu Yunniang: one was twelve sets of sacrificial offerings, and the other was to build a temple for the Dream Lord.
For deities, temples are not just simple dwellings, but also facades and signs to attract believers.
Without temples, where do believers go to worship and make offerings? Without even temples, it's clearly a wild god outside the orthodox tradition.
Only by building temples can we attract more believers.
For example, among the many women who are kowtowing at this moment, some had already met Meng Zhonglang before, while others only learned about Meng Zhonglang after hearing that a new temple had been built here, and thus followed the crowd to come and worship.
With more believers, one can receive more offerings, perform more religious duties, and thus gain more experience points.
Li Yue hadn't expected that building a temple would also grant a large amount of experience points.
Based on this experience, Meng Zhonglang directly advanced to level five and awakened his first supernatural power.
[Night Wandering: At night, the soul leaves the body, riding the wind and roaming freely.]
Isn't this astral projection?
Actually, they are different.
As a minor demon in the Qi Awakening stage, Li Yue's soul had not yet been refined and could not yet be considered a primordial spirit. His soul was fragile and afraid of sunlight and rain, so he could only roam at night.
Despite its many limitations, it is still a decent supernatural ability.
Whoosh!
After inspecting the offerings, Li Yue swam towards the offerings that had already covered the riverbed.
By consuming and refining these blood delicacies, his cultivation level will increase further.
Without wasting time, start with small pieces of meat, chicken, or fish, and you can easily swallow them with your mouth open.
After refining, a warm current surged out, which not only continued to nourish the body, but also merged into the scales, just like when it consumed the flesh and blood of the water buffalo essence.
For ordinary spirits and monsters, the awakening period is generally divided into two stages: the first is to strengthen the whole body in general, and the second is to focus on honing a specific part.
Two hundred years ago, Li Yue was in the first stage of cultivation. As his cultivation improved, his size grew rapidly until he was six feet tall.
Going forward, while the body will continue to grow stronger, the increase in size will slow down. Instead, the focus will be on honing and strengthening a particular part or organ.
When strengthened to a certain extent, it can even develop supernatural abilities.
Instead of trying to compensate for weaknesses by playing to strengths, it's better to play to your strengths and avoid your weaknesses. To get the maximum return with the least cost, you should focus on strengthening the body's advantageous parts.
For example, bull spirits often strengthen their horns, tigers and leopards strengthen their sharp teeth and claws, and turtles strengthen their shells. As a carp, Li Yue has nothing else worth strengthening besides his scales.
So after two hundred years of cultivation, he naturally began to polish the fish scales.
Sizzle~
Through continuous tempering, the fish scales become increasingly strong and sharp, rising up one by one and making a sound like sharpening a knife.
Feeling the changes in his body and the increase in his strength, Li Yue became excited and swallowed the offerings even more eagerly.
As his cultivation level increased, Li Yue's speed in refining blood food also increased significantly.
After sacrificing meat, chicken, and fish, they began to devour whole pigs and sheep.
In this way, Li Yue consumed and refined all the blood and food that covered the bottom of the river in nearly a day, and his cultivation level increased by thirty years.
"Two hundred and thirty years of cultivation, almost there."
He has been in physical form for three hundred years, but he is only seventy years away from achieving enlightenment.
If one were to follow the proper path of absorbing the essence of the sun and moon, it would require seventy years of arduous cultivation. However, with the offerings from the people on both sides of the strait, Li Yue should be able to achieve this goal soon.
Once transformed, shedding its gills and fish body, it can then go ashore. At that time, it can leave the Tongtian River and hide far away, thus avoiding the great calamity of the Journey to the West three hundred years later.
"Perhaps it will be even faster."
Moreover, once he breaks through the Transformation stage, the Fish Chaser will be at level ten and will fully meet the requirements for promotion to Iron Anchor General.
As a fifth-rank deity, General Iron Anchor's supernatural powers far surpass those of the Fish-Catching Boy and the Dream-Wanderer. Moreover, as a martial god, he can directly and significantly enhance Li Yue's martial prowess.
In this world where gods and Buddhas fill the sky and demons roam the earth, only powerful force can guarantee a safe and secure life!
Lu Yuan originally thought that the transformation would take a long time.
Only then did he activate his divine position as Dream Lord, in order to merge with the Fish Chaser and advance to the seventh rank of True God, the Fifth Rank God.
Unexpectedly, with Liu Yunniang's offerings, his cultivation advanced by leaps and bounds, and his promotion to Iron Anchor General was just around the corner.
The future is expected.
Li Yue was overjoyed. He had already refined all the blood offerings. At noon, he floated to the surface of the water to consume the essence of the sun, further refining the scales all over his body.
After completing their cultivation, they returned to the bottom of the water to rest. There was no need to scatter peach petals by the river anymore; any woman in need would bring offerings to the Dream Lord Temple to pray, and the Dream-Entwining Branch placed there would then scatter peach petals.
Stealing half a day's rest, as night fell, Li Yue hid in a newly discovered secluded stone cave.
"Walk."
Silently reciting the incantation, and with a soft shout, the soul leaves the body.
Night tour!
The next moment, the soul flew out of the water and, riding the gentle breeze on the river, flew straight to the shore.