Chapter 171: Temple

Li Qi was a person who was indecisive during the planning stage, but once he finished planning, he was very decisive in the execution stage.

The lives of tens of thousands of people could not be delayed; it was better to go and return quickly.

So, he simply fed the old horse, bid farewell to Shen Shuibi, and then quickly set off for Guangyang City.

Li Qi had been to Guangyang City before, but he only stayed for a short while, replenished his supplies, and then left.

It was about 1,500 li from Zhenguan.

According to the average physical quality of people in this world, coupled with the fact that large groups would definitely delay travel time, these 1,500 li would take about ten days to travel.

Being able to travel more than a hundred li a day was, to be honest, already very astonishing; this was thanks to everyone having a cultivation method, even farmers, which allowed them to maintain such marching speed.

However, for Li Qi, it was not that troublesome; after the old horse cultivated the Unruly Song, it could travel two thousand li a day, reaching Guangyang City in just five hours, and returning, even traveling day and night, would only take ten hours.

Since he could return tomorrow, there was naturally no need to worry too much.

Li Qi packed his things and spurred his horse to leave.

There was naturally nothing special along the way; after all, his cultivation was no longer shallow, and ordinary monsters or bandits were unlikely to seek trouble with him.

His destination was Guangyang City.

Guangyang City, a prefecture city of Bailin Kingdom, was similar in size to Li Prefecture City; the Guangyang Prefect resided here, commanding the prefecture, and was also responsible for the defense of Zhenguan.

The military pay and provisions for the soldiers of Zhenguan were naturally handled by the Guangyang Prefect as the chief official, with Guangyang Sima responsible for specific execution and arrangements.

He galloped all the way, with lightning shadows accompanying him, the True Dragon Bloodline on the old horse, under the blessing of the Unruly Song, created sparks and lightning all the way, tearing out auspicious clouds and green lightning in the sky.

Although it looked cool, this was actually a manifestation of insufficient cultivation.

A True Dragon travels in the sky, with clouds following, leaving no trace, making its movements completely undetectable.

For the old horse, wanting everyone to know where it was, it was a display of being inferior.

He traveled without stopping, and it was peaceful all the way; five hours later, he quickly arrived at Guangyang City.

After five hours, it was already dark; it was night.

Under normal circumstances, Li Qi would definitely rest for a night before visiting, but since it concerned tens of thousands of people, he could not care about that now.

Large cities like Guangyang City did not allow people to fly in, so Li Qi landed directly, led the old horse, and walked quickly towards the Sima Residence.

The duty of the Military Sima was to command the soldiers of a prefecture, and their various chariots, horses, and weapons, and to distinguish between the six types of horses and weapons.

In reality, he was the commander-in-chief of the military forces of a prefecture, in charge of the actions of the soldiers of a prefecture, responsible for their logistics, and also had personnel power, able to 'distinguish between the six types of horses and weapons,' meaning he could promote talents himself.

It could be said that his power was immense and his prestige extremely high; as the military officer of a prefecture, one of the Three Sima, he was on par with several people, second only to the Prefect.

The so-called Three Sima were Sima, Situ, and Minister of Labor.

Sima, in fact, means 'responsible for'; the character after 'Sima' directly represents the responsibilities of the specific area that the official is in charge of.

The Sima controlled military logistics, supplies, personnel transfers, external campaigns, internal defense, and other duties.

The Situ was responsible for mapping the land of the state and counting its people, and also for compiling scriptures, distributing official positions, taxation, and finance; they were the core of the regular official System, with the function of supervising and recommending officials from various places, and also responsible for the specific policy formulation and implementation of people's livelihood.

The Minister of Labor, on the other hand, was responsible for infrastructure, land surveying for farmers, road construction, water conservancy maintenance, urban planning, and industrial technology reserves; these basic engineering constructions all fell within the Minister of Labor's jurisdiction.

These three were collectively known as the Three Sima, directly responsible to the Prefect; apart from the Prefect, the peak of power in this prefecture belonged to these three.

According to Li Qi, among these three, only the Situ, due to his intelligence and outstanding talent, held his position with an eighth-grade cultivation, while the other two were both seventh-grade.

Visiting a seventh-grade expert and high official late at night, Li Qi naturally would not just show up without manners.

He still had to prepare some gifts.

The selection of gifts was a bit particular.

If they were too expensive, Li Qi could not afford them; he also had no money.

Nor could he just casually make do, or else it would look bad and he might even be kicked out.

On the way, Li Qi thought for a moment, then, outside the city, he personally collected some 'Ancient Ends,' pounded them into curtains, and then, after entering the city, found a tailor and paid dozens of coins to have them woven into curtains.

Wooden cotton cloth soap curtains, named “Ancient Ends.” The wooden cotton cloth is thicker than silk, and warmer than it; the reason why it is used in the palace is to symbolize the idea of promoting frugality.

This item has an allusion, saying: “The Emperor uses Ancient Ends, all to promote frugality. If even the palace promotes frugality like this, then families of scholars and commoners should know how to be frugal!”

In this way, the gift was prepared, and he also flattered them; as the saying goes, one does not hit a smiling face, so in this way, there should be no problem with him coming to ask for a signature.

Everything was considered, so now it was just the visit.

Li Qi led his horse and walked all the way to the Sima Residence.

The nightlife in Guangyang City was also quite rich; as Li Qi walked, although it was already night, the entire city was brightly lit, with taverns on the streets, and pedestrians and travelers constantly entering the city, with the colors of mountains and lakes on their brows, cooking fish and boiling bamboo shoots, drinking and chatting freely.

However, while some enjoyed themselves, others naturally had to work.

Along the way, various peddlers carried goods on their shoulders and by hand, continuously transporting supplies into the city.

Guangyang City had a population of millions, and its daily consumption was immeasurable, so it naturally required countless people to be responsible for the daily transportation and handling of supplies, and peddlers and various shops also had to distribute supplies through retail.

Li Qi also passed by a peculiar sight: he saw a wealthy family who had erected a giant pillar at their entrance, with a canopy on top to provide shade and shelter from rain for pedestrians below, and also a water-gathering talisman that continuously condensed and sprayed out water columns, providing free clean water for pedestrians under the pillar.

The giant pillar was twenty zhang high, inscribed with: “Zhang Family Blessed Land,” and the pillar was carved with tens of thousands of bats, so passersby also called the place “Ten Thousand Blessings Come to Court,” which was a place where this wealthy family accumulated virtue and prayed for blessings for themselves.

However, when Li Qi passed by, there were hundreds of beggars under the pillar, densely packed, emitting a foul odor, scrambling for clean water, and hiding from the wind and rain under the pillar; there was no sign of the character 'blessing,' as it had long since become a beggar's den.

Li Qi was a little surprised as to why there were so many beggars in Guangyang City, so he asked the surrounding peddlers.

The peddler, upon hearing this, while frying snacks in his hand, smiled and said to Li Qi: “Countless refugees have recently withdrawn from Zhenguan; some have found a livelihood, while others cannot work, so they naturally gather here.”

“Countless refugees? What happened at Zhenguan?” Li Qi asked curiously.

The peddler seemed to be a talkative person; he replied: “Sir, you jest; we are just street vendors in the city, how would we know what happened at Zhenguan? We just heard people say that over at Zhenguan, those military sirs have all withdrawn, and they brought back quite a few refugees. It’s better these days; half a month ago, the city and its outskirts were full of people, a dense crowd, and now only some beggars are left begging for food. Oh, and places like Yichun Tower also have many new young ladies; Sir, you seem to be alone, why not give it a try? The prices are quite low.”

“Let’s not talk about those; give me two skewers of tofu, and two skewers of cabbage, oh, and this tiger skin egg, give me one, and some chicken feet too. By the way, according to what you said, for such a big matter, didn’t the Sima Residence issue any announcements?” Li Qi ordered some fried skewers and asked curiously.

“What announcements could the Sima Residence issue? That Sima has been running to Tianning Temple these days, maybe he hasn’t even handled official business!” The peddler said with a chuckle.

“You even know about this?” Li Qi was greatly surprised; he just asked casually to see if there were any official announcements, but this peddler knew so much?

When he was a Lifter, at the bottom of society, he never knew these things; being able to read an announcement or two was already very good.

“Alas, are you new to Guangyang? I don’t need to inquire about this; ask anyone in the city, who doesn’t know that Sima is a devout believer of Buddha-Dharma and basically lives in Tianning Temple?” The peddler said while frying tofu for Li Qi.

And Li Qi suddenly frowned.

Wait, Buddha-Dharma? Tianning Temple?

Buddhism? Oh my, I haven't heard of this.

Having been in this world for so long, he had almost forgotten that there was such a thing as Buddhism.

The books did mention that in the far west of the world, there was a supreme and immeasurable Buddhist kingdom, but because it was too far away, Li Qi basically read it as a story.

And now, within the sphere of influence of Shaman God Mountain, a Sima of a prefecture city actually devoutly believed in Buddha-Dharma and even opened a temple here; this was no ordinary matter.

“Sir, you look like you haven’t heard of it, right? I hadn’t heard of any temples or Buddha-Dharma before either, but they claim that they are no different from our common Shaman and shamans; they can all treat illnesses and pray for blessings, so later no one bothered them. Anyway, they don’t do any evil, and they often come to the city to give alms; even I have eaten their alms dishes!” The peddler chattered on, still smiling, very sunny.

The peddler added: “I guess they are similar to those Daoists; they are all from outside, but they are much stronger than Daoists. Those Daoists just squat in the mountains all day, and when they occasionally show up, they have a deadpan face, which is too inauspicious. They can’t compare to those big bald Monks, who are all kind-faced and smiling, friendly to everyone, and don’t charge for treating illnesses.”

While talking, Li Qi inquired about the news of the so-called Tianning Temple. By the time the fried skewers were ready, Li Qi had asked almost everything he wanted to know. He paid the money, led the old horse, and prepared to leave.

He still planned to go to the Sima Residence to take a look.

According to this peddler, the Tianning Temple arrived about ten years ago.

Initially, a group of tall Monks came, each one emaciated, claiming to be ascetic Monks, whose mission was to travel all over the world and spread the Buddha’s teachings.

This group of emaciated Monks, about four or five hundred of them, only left one here; the rest did not stay long and quickly left.

According to them, traveling all over the world was a arduous task, so they could not delay and would only arrange an ascetic Monk in places they considered to have ‘Destiny’ to spread the Buddha-Dharma.

This ascetic Monk, who called himself Chan Zhi, stayed here to spread the Buddha-Dharma, but he did not start spreading it right away.

This Chan Zhi who stayed behind first went around ‘begging for alms,’ which was actually begging. Some people saw how emaciated he was and gave him some things.

And he would leave something in return, such as some handwritten Buddhist scripture pages, or when there were no pages, he would sit at someone’s doorstep and recite a passage of scripture, saying it was to pray for blessings for the host family.

This kind of conduct was very endearing, after all, although most beggars would also say some auspicious words, none of them had that calm and gentle temperament on them; although emaciated and old, their eyes were still as gentle as water.

Moreover, those auspicious words that people had long grown tired of were not as pleasant to listen to as the profound and mysterious scriptures.

After some time passed like this, one of the families who had given alms suddenly suffered a misfortune: a fierce ghost broke into their home at night, wanting to take lives and suck blood.

But as soon as the fierce ghost entered the doorway, the house of that family glowed with golden light, and Buddhist chants resonated loudly, causing the fierce ghost to immediately wail and lose its resistance.

Later, when the local Demon Exorcism Division arrived, they were extremely surprised, and so the matter spread.

Now, the entire Guangyang City knew that a Monk named Chan Zhi had true abilities; as long as you gave him a meal, he would protect you and pray for your blessings.

For a time, Chan Zhi went around explaining to people that his name was a Dharma name, not a given name, and that he was not worthy of being called a Monk, at most a Monk.

But the general public didn't care about this; they didn't know what a Monk or Dharma name meant, but they knew that Chan Zhi was a person with true abilities, and they all invited Chan Zhi to eat, sending all kinds of delicacies, rare ingredients to his mouth, and wealthy families invited Chan Zhi as a guest, wanting to hold grand banquets for him.

However, after this incident, everyone found that they could not find Chan Zhi.

He disappeared for half a year, and after the Chan Zhi craze subsided, he reappeared, and when he reappeared, it was in front of a poor family, continuing to ‘beg for alms,’ asking the other party for some leftover food from last night.

That family was not wealthy to begin with; what they ate was no different from what Li Qi ate when he was a Lifter, very humble.

Moreover, they did not know that they had encountered the famous Chan Zhi.

But out of simple kindness, they still gave Chan Zhi what they ate.

After Chan Zhi finished eating, he, as always, chanted a mantra, prayed for blessings, and left a page of paper.

Later, when this matter spread, this page of paper was sold for twenty thousand coins, bought by a wealthy family, taken back and enshrined, and that family’s life also improved a lot; only then did they know that they had encountered Chan Zhi.

And Chan Zhi visited again a day later, hoping to take a wooden board from their roof.

That family had just earned twenty thousand coins from this, so naturally they would not refuse and quickly offered it.

Chan Zhi then accepted the wooden board and continued to beg for alms daily, once a day, sometimes going to wealthy families, sometimes to poor families, never picking and choosing, and having no dietary restrictions, eating whatever was given.

According to him, begging for alms arose from Destiny; he was merely going to resolve this past life’s Destiny, and those he visited were all families with whom he had a past life connection.

But after this appearance, each time he would earnestly ask the other party for a wooden board; if someone gave it, he would accept it and sincerely thank them, and if not, he would say nothing and leave after eating.

For several years like this, he actually used the ten thousand wooden boards he collected from various families to build a temple on a barren mountain.

That temple was called Tianning Temple.