Listening to the Langyin Daoist in the mirror read out the proclamation clearly, even Father He could not help putting down his bowl and chopsticks and sighing.
“The new Heavenly Statutes have truly come… yet for ordinary folk like us, who knows whether they are blessing or calamity?”
“They are naturally a good thing!” He Xingchen said in a clear voice. “Ever since the War of the Heavens…”
He then spoke at length, recounting that period of history.
The so-called War of the Heavens was an unprecedented calamity in the history of cultivation. It referred to a brutal war that swept across myriad worlds, instigated by many extraterrestrial sects and powers headed by Daode Heaven in their attempt to unify all the heavens.
……
When He Xingchen finished, he suddenly asked Qin Chuan, “Fellow Daoist Qin, in your view, where lay the most fundamental turning point of that war?”
“According to what is written in the scriptures…” Qin Chuan answered by the book, following the contents of the scriptures.
He Xingchen, however, had a different view. He shook his head and said, “In my opinion, it was that Daode Heaven’s military strength was insufficient to unify all the heavens…”
Qin Chuan listened to this interpretation that ran counter to the scriptures and fell into thought.
After all, he was someone who had studied the scriptures painstakingly for four years, and on many questions he could still keep up the conversation. The two discussed history and the present day, and before they knew it, two quarters of an hour had passed.
Qin Chuan noticed that the program in the Profound Light Mirror was nearing its end.
He Qingxuan obediently followed the household custom and switched the channel from “Dongsheng Station” to “Jiuchuan County Station”—not because she was especially fond of watching the news, but because the program she liked would not begin until the fourth quarter of the Xu hour, while from the beginning of Xu until the fourth quarter had always been the time when her father and elder brother watched the affairs of the world and local news.
Looking at the newly switched county station screen, Qin Chuan asked, “Fellow Daoist Xingchen, at the county Langyin Pavilion, which program are you in charge of hosting?”
“I only became a full member not long ago. I still don’t have the ability to host a program on my own.” He Xingchen gave a soft sigh.
As they spoke, the county station had already begun playing the familiar news opening:
“Good evening, viewers… The following are today’s main headlines.”
[Lushan Blessed Land Announcement: Zhao Zhongji, former Deputy County God of the Jiuchuan City God Temple, gravely violated the Heavenly Statutes, his Dao heart was unsteady… With the approval of the Immortal Promotion Terrace of Lushan Dongsheng Prefecture, he is hereby expelled from the Daoist register, his “Junior Seventh-Rank Mountain and River Assistant Register” is revoked, his cultivation is abolished, and all gains obtained in defiance of Heaven are confiscated… He will subsequently be transferred to the Xiezhi Court for judgment.
The post of Deputy County God of the Jiuchuan County Temple will be assumed by Fellow Daoist Sun Qinghan, who is granted the “Senior Seventh-Rank City God Assistant Register,” and will concurrently hold the divine office of Jiuchuan Land God, with the “Junior Seventh-Rank Land Scripture Altar Register” conferred upon her.]
“Next, we will broadcast Fellow Daoist Sun Qinghan’s résumé.”
“Sun Qinghan, female, twenty-eight years old, native of Qinghe County, Yannan Blessed Land, Xiaoxiang Grotto-Heaven. She entered cultivation in the year 9716 of the Celestial Venerable Calendar, formally entered the Dao in 9718, and entered official service that same year. Bachelor of the Agriculture and Sericulture Department of Zijin Heavenly Academy. Mid-stage Golden Core cultivation. Water-element engineer. Specialist in Heavenly Regulations.
From 9720 to 9721, served as abbey master of Dongsheng Abbey in Pingjia Village;
From 9723 to 9728, pursued further studies in the Heavenly Regulations Department of Zijin Heavenly Academy;
In 9728 (present), appointed Deputy County God of the Jiuchuan County City God Temple, Lushan Blessed Land, and Land God of Jiuchuan County.”
Seeing that the first headline on Jiuchuan County Station was actually this matter, Qin Chuan and He Xingchen exchanged a glance, both seeing shock in each other’s eyes.
“The county… has changed skies.”
Regarding the rank of Deputy County God Sun Qinghan mentioned in the Profound Light Mirror, one had to know that Dongsheng Heaven divided the official ranks of immortal officials and Daoists into the following grades:
village-hamlet deputy post, village-hamlet chief post;
township abbey deputy post, township abbey chief post;
county temple deputy post, county temple chief post;
prefectural office deputy post, prefectural office chief post;
heavenly palace deputy post, heavenly palace chief post;
imperial deputy post, imperial chief post.
According to the order of “hamlet, abbey, temple, prefecture, heaven, imperial,” official offices of various levels were established in Dongsheng Heaven from low to high.
Among them, the “County God” of a county’s City God Temple was the lord of a county and commanded the City God Temple, while the “Land God” was the office responsible for the operation of a county’s government affairs and was subject to the authority of the City God Temple.
For example, the abbot of the Agricultural Spirit Temple to which Qin Chuan was soon to take up his post belonged to the immortal officials of township abbey chief rank, and would be granted the chief-abbey-rank “Bazha Xingrang Register.”
As for Qin Chuan at present, he was no more than a fire-tending Daoist. Only if he was smoothly granted a register and made official could he become a “Heavenly Register Daoist.”
After that, he would still need to accumulate merit, or encounter some special opportunity, before he could be promoted to a “deputy abbey” rank Daoist.
Of course, after becoming official, he could also choose not to seek advancement and instead request a transfer to the countryside to serve as a village official, a “Land God.” Though he could also be granted a junior ninth-rank register, his achievements on the immortal path would most likely end there.
Qin Chuan’s thoughts turned rapidly as these bits of common knowledge about Daoist cultivation in this world flashed through his mind.
He looked at He Xingchen and asked,
“This County Zhao… Zhao Zhongji, what exactly happened to him?”
“How could the affairs of such a figure be something you or I can know?” He Xingchen shook his head. “Appointments and dismissals in the county temple are all decided by the Blessed Land’s Immortal Promotion Terrace. But judging from this announcement, what he committed was probably no small matter. Still… it was not entirely without signs.”
As a Daoist of the Langyin Pavilion, he came into contact with this sort of information every day and was adept at catching the direction of the wind from news at every level of province and county.
Sometimes, the news itself could reveal many problems—who one saw was not important; who one did not see was what mattered.
During these days, the one who had not appeared in the news was far from limited to this person alone.
Only at this moment did He Xingchen belatedly recall that this Deputy County God Zhao had indeed not appeared in the county station news for ten days or so.
No wonder that once something happened, it came with the force of thunder, directly throwing him into the heavenly prison.
Seeing this, Father He lowered his voice, as if wanting to reveal some rumors from the streets. “You youngsters don’t know, but several decades ago, old stories about this Deputy County God were very widely circulated…”
Before he could finish, He Xingchen gave a light cough and interrupted him. “Father, such matters are not something lowly little Daoists like Qin Chuan and me can comment on.”
“Quite right, quite right.” Mister He knew he had misspoken and hurriedly fell silent.
Qin Chuan understood the implication in He Xingchen’s words. He was also reminding him not to rashly discuss superiors in private.
Even if the other party had already fallen from power, who could guarantee that word would not leak out and bring trouble for no reason?
He suppressed the thought and merely ate in silence, though his gaze still drifted from time to time toward the résumé and portrait of the newly appointed Deputy County God and County Land God—Fellow Daoist Sun Qinghan—being displayed on the Profound Light Mirror.
It was the portrait of a female cultivator dressed in a dark black Daoist robe. Her black hair was like ink, her features cool and beautiful, her bearing noble and ethereal, unlike anyone of the mundane world.
“A county temple-level immortal official at only twenty-eight, with Golden Core cultivation… truly a favored daughter of Heaven.”
Toward this woman who was about to take charge of Jiuchuan County and become the direct superior of hundreds of thousands of commoners and Daoists, himself included, Qin Chuan felt both awe and, even more, astonishment.
At the Golden Core realm, one’s lifespan was five hundred years.
And this woman had reached that realm at only twenty-eight, and had even become the ruler of a hundred li of land. It truly made one look up to her.
In the evening, Qin Chuan took his leave from the He family and returned to his own room.
When they parted, He Xingchen also invited him, once he had settled down in the future, to attend the “Scripture Recitation Society” organized by their group of young fellow Daoists, saying that many of his historical insights had come from exchanges with his peers there.
Qin Chuan neither agreed nor refused, only saying they could discuss it after he became familiar with the affairs of the Agricultural Spirit Temple.
……
The next day, the sky gradually brightened.
Qin Chuan woke from meditation and looked inward at the spiritual qi particles circulating like a spiral of stars in his dantian.
“Eleven thousand eight hundred particles!”
He was exhilarated by the results of this one night.
The divine sense power of the first layer of the Thirteen Startling Divinity Transformations, combined with the spirit vein beneath Jiuchuan County City, had actually allowed him to harvest such abundant spiritual opportunity in a single night.
At this speed, he might not even need ten days before he could accumulate enough spiritual qi to condense a “spirit wave” and attempt the first layer of Qi Refining!
Compared with what his Third Uncle had said—that an ordinary person would need half a year in the city to reach the first layer of Qi Refining—he might be able to accomplish it in only half a month.
A genius!
With the aid of this Heaven-Endowed Furnace, he had clearly already stepped into the realm known as “genius.”
In excellent spirits, he even ate two extra sweet potatoes at breakfast.