Above the Great Dao
Chapter 524 - 246 Qingzhou Bandit Leader_2

Chapter 524: Chapter 246 Qingzhou Bandit Leader_2

The young government official spoke solemnly, "It’s still Old Liu who has thought it through. It’s just that he’s recklessly criticized our Qingzhou legal system..."

"Draw up a wanted decree, hang it up, and someone will surely bring him to justice."

After a moment, Chen Shi’s portrait was pasted onto the notice board, accused of recklessly criticizing Qingzhou’s legal system.

As Chen Shi walked along, he saw many such solitary large trees by the roadside, each hanging one or maybe two or three corpses.

Some corpses were already nothing but skeletons, yet they hadn’t been taken down.

The wind blew, causing the skeletons hanging from the trees to collide and rattle, sounding like mature nuts on the tree.

In the wilderness, many Evil Spirits roamed, occasionally letting out spine-chilling roars; the malevolent energy gathered in the mountain ravines or over ponds, visible to the naked eye as either grey or green, and drifting like clouds between the mountains.

Similar malevolent energy was everywhere, floating amongst the mountains and forming clouds.

Chen Shi looked up at the sky, where only the sun was present, as the moon had not yet appeared, but Qingzhou’s Evil Spirits were already active everywhere.

By the roadside, he saw a few Baibing lying lazily, their infant-like heads dozing off while hanging from the trees.

As Chen Shi and the wooden cart passed by, these Baibing just opened their sleepy eyes, hazily watched them go by, and then dozed off again.

Surprisingly, they showed no impulse to hunt, which was quite different from the Evil Spirits from other regions.

Chen Shi thought to himself, "These Evil Spirits have eaten too many criminals and have been fed into laziness."

He walked more than ten miles and found that mountain path, walked another six or seven miles, and indeed saw a field of reeds come into view. The reeds had long stems like tails, resembling white tinged with pale grey fox tails, in dense patches.

And Weidang Village lay opposite this field of reeds.

He took out the map to confirm his direction, and arrived at the outside of Weidang Village, by the foot of the mountain.

Here, human traces were rare, with just an ancient temple standing at the base of the mountain.

In the fields outside the temple, several strange figures with large ears stood or sat, encircling the temple, while listening intently and writing or drawing.

"Heaven Listeners are eavesdropping on this God of Wealth Temple?"

Chen Shi was quite surprised, comparing the location with his map, and it indeed was the correct place.

But why would Heaven Listeners eavesdrop on the God of Wealth Temple?

Previously, some Heaven Listeners had been monitoring Chen Shi, but after he arrived at the Great South Lake, these Heaven Listeners seemed to evaporate from the world, nowhere to be found.

"What has Tianqing done? Why are there so many Heaven Listeners?"

Just as he thought this, he saw Li Tianqing push open the temple door.

Li Tianqing, both shocked and pleased to see him, quickly walked up to greet him with a smile, "Little Ten, I’ve finally waited for you!"

Chen Shi jumped down from the wooden cart, smiling, "I was delayed for several days on Qianyang Mountain, constantly worried about your safety. It’s great that you are unharmed!"

Li Tianqing held up a letter in his hand, smiling, "I was planning to go to Qingzhou Prefecture today to send a letter to tell you that I’m safe now, so you don’t need to come. But to think you’ve already arrived!"

From a distance, those Heaven Listeners stood with their ears straight up, their pens scratching swiftly, quickly recording the conversation between the two men.

Li Tianqing cast a wary glance at them, then ushered Chen Shi into the temple and closed the doors.

Chen Shi looked around the God of Wealth Temple, seeing that Li Tianqing had cleaned it, repaired the doors, windows, and roof, and tidied the courtyard methodically. There were spiritual fields on both sides, with various Spiritual Medicines growing robustly.

In the yard was also a well, which had been cleaned.

There was a fish-releasing pond, which had been cleaned as well, with clear water one could see to the bottom.

But on both sides of the walls were crisscrossing traces of blood, as if someone’s head had been chopped off by an extremely fast blade, splashing blood across the wall!

He felt an inexplicable pressure coming over him and involuntarily looked towards the main hall.

There was where the remarkable force was most concentrated.

As he stepped forward, the feeling of oppression grew stronger, as if a mountain of swords and sea of flames appeared before him, and a colossal divine demon sat amidst them, dozing off, his body immensely towering. Once awakened and eyes opened, the heads of the wicked would fall to the ground!

The closer Chen Shi got to the main hall, the stronger the sense of oppression became, making his heart pound with fear.

On the walls inside the hall, there were numerous sword marks, as well as shocking streaks of blood.

"Tianqing, are you sure this place is the God of Wealth Temple, not the War God Temple?" Chen Shi asked.

Li Tianqing brought over a plaque, smiling, "Take a look."

Chen Shi saw that it indeed was the God of Wealth Temple, and his confusion deepened, "Is the God of Wealth’s oppressive feeling so strong?"

He had encountered many deities from China, with the most oppressive being Emperor Guan, which felt like having a large blade perched on one’s neck, ready to chop at any moment!

However, there was no scent of Evil Spirits here. The main hall must be where Li Tianqing cultivated, with sunlight from another world shining down. Some yellow-garbed children, black-hatted children, basked in the sun within the temple.

Chen Shi carefully sensed around, not detecting the presence of Evil Spirits; on the contrary, the place had a rich Righteous Qi, with the Heaven and Earth Righteous Qi ample, not inferior to his little temple at the back of his mind.

Although the extraordinary force was gathering within the temple’s shrine, it was still far from forming a divine image.

He surveyed the temple, which was different from the other ancient temples he had seen before; those temples were often in places where people seldom ventured, but the God of Wealth Temple was at the foot of the mountain, with its gate directly facing Qingzhou City.

"It could be that this place attracts more Evil Spirits."

Li Tianqing said, "Some time ago, Evil Spirits troubled at night, even running into the temple, but suddenly they were killed, while I was unharmed. I think it must be the God of Wealth blessing me for repairing the temple. These last few days, I’ve been sleeping very soundly, with no Evil Spirits breaking into the temple again."