Hearts grew restless, specters danced (please bookmark, send monthly votes, and keep reading)

Chapter 28: Hearts grew restless, specters danced (please bookmark, send monthly votes, and keep reading)

"Layman Huang, what is there to regret?"

"There will be plenty of chances in the future!"

Turning Tian Ming'an's words over in his mind, Huang Shiren hurried down the mountain and headed back to the county town.

Tian Ming'an's words did not bear thinking about. The more he thought, the more suspicious they seemed!

What did he mean, there would be plenty of chances in the future?

Why was Jiang Sheng quietly cultivating and nurturing his sword right now?

Was he preparing to attack Lord River God during the river god grand sacrifice?

Did that so-called future mean the river god grand sacrifice?!

After turning it over and over, Huang Shiren reached a conclusion: Jiang Sheng was conserving his strength so he could summon a fire dragon at the river god grand sacrifice to fight Lord River God!

Fire and water could never coexist. What a venomous scheme this wretch Jiang Sheng had devised!

At that thought, Huang Shiren wished he could fly straight back to Qingshan County to warn Lord River God. Seeing the sun climbing higher, he grew agitated inside the carriage. "Go faster!"

"Master, if we go any faster, the carriage will jolt terribly. How could you bear it?" the driver pleaded.

Huang Shiren snapped, "What I say goes! Hurry up!"

Helpless, the driver lashed the horse to make it run faster.

The fine horse pulling the carriage whinnied in pain, then dragged it down the road at a jolting gallop. Huang Shiren was bounced around inside until he felt sick enough to vomit.

But remembering Lord River God's grand plan, Huang Shiren forced himself to endure it. "Damn you, driver! I told you to go faster, and this is how you torment your master! I'll deal with you once we reach town!"

Meanwhile, in Qingxuan Temple.

After seeing Huang Shiren off, Tian Ming'an went to the rear hall.

Jiang Sheng stood there in azure robes, his hair casually gathered into a Daoist topknot, his figure straight as bamboo.

With his left hand behind his back, Jiang Sheng dipped the brush in his right hand into ink. As he swept it across the rice paper, ink blossomed beneath the saturated bristles, forming a landscape.

"Master," Tian Ming'an called softly.

Jiang Sheng's brush did not slow. His expression remained serene and untroubled. "Has he left?"

"Yes," Tian Ming'an answered.

A faint smile touched Jiang Sheng's lips. "Coming into the mountains in the depths of winter to offer incense and seek a talisman. Layman Huang is truly devout."

Tian Ming'an recalled Huang Shiren's behavior. "When Master Huang entered the front hall and saw the ancestral master's portrait, he looked visibly frightened and guilty. He hurried out as soon as he finished offering incense."

"I brought that portrait from Penglai. Though it captures less than one ten-thousandth of the ancestral master's presence, it can still see into people's hearts and distinguish black from white," Jiang Sheng explained.

Tian Ming'an nodded thoughtfully. Seeing that Jiang Sheng did not intend to say more, he stood quietly beside him and watched him paint the landscape.

As Jiang Sheng laid down the final stroke, he breathed out a stream of pure qi, and the entire painting immediately gained a measure of spiritual resonance.

Across the painting, rolling peaks wound like a dragon, mountain ranges rose tier upon tier, and green pines stood amid emerald bamboo. Below, the river flowed east, white waves battered the currents, and carp leaped from the water, lending the scene a majestic vigor.

Mountains and waters blended into something all the more extraordinary.

Looking at the ink painting, Tian Ming'an could not shake the feeling that it was no ordinary work.

Jiang Sheng tilted his head at his painting, then suddenly chuckled and rolled it up. "The Daoist Tradition has a saying: harbor wicked thoughts, and all the incense you burn will do you no good; keep an upright heart, and what does it matter if you see me without bowing?"

"That Layman Huang came with a belly full of filth, yet dared to probe me. Did he not realize he was delivering himself right to my door?"

Tian Ming'an said, "Master, that Master Huang must already have been secretly won over by the demon in the river. That is why he came to investigate you."

"But I do not understand. Master Huang is already a renowned member of the Qingshan County gentry. His family owns vast fields and countless servants. They say every successive county magistrate has treated the Huang Family with great respect."

"Why would he still worship a demon?"

Jiang Sheng smiled. "The ravines of the human heart are never easily filled. You have yet to master martial arts, but are you not already thinking about entering the qi refining realm?"

"When penniless, a man longs for food and clothing without worry. Once those are assured, he longs for bridal candles in the wedding chamber. After marriage, he dreams of seeing his name on the imperial examination rolls. And once his name appears on the golden list, he longs for high office and a generous salary."

"Even a household servant hopes his master will attain the Dao, so that his chickens and dogs may ascend to heaven along with him. With his immense fortune, Layman Huang naturally yearns for more."

"Presumably, that demon promised him a family line lasting ten thousand generations, eternal youth, or attainment of the Dao and immortality."

As he spoke, Jiang Sheng could not help shaking his head. "Insatiable greed makes a snake try to swallow an elephant. The more Layman Huang wants, the more firmly that demon will have him in its jaws."

"In the end, he will inevitably be skinned and stripped to the bone, devoured and wiped clean, left with nothing."

With that, Jiang Sheng looked through the doors and windows toward the mountains beyond the temple. "The river god grand sacrifice is not far off."

"For the next few days, I must focus my mind and quiet my qi, drawing upon the great sun's essence to paint a fire talisman. Recite the scriptures and practice your martial arts on your own. Do not let any more outsiders disturb me."

Tian Ming'an promptly agreed, though curiosity lingered. "Master, why are you suddenly devoting so much effort to drawing a single talisman?"

Jiang Sheng smiled. "Everyone in Qingshan County now says I am proficient in fire arts. Perhaps even the demon in the Taiping River believes my mastery of fire borders on the divine. Would it not be embarrassing if I could not produce an impressive fire art?"

Tian Ming'an was bewildered. "Master, are you not proficient in fire arts? But that day, you drew flames from across the sky and turned them into a dragon..."

As he spoke, Tian Ming'an suddenly froze.

He thought of how Jiang Sheng had never forbidden outside discussion, even allowing rumors to run rampant. Recalling today's events, he suddenly understood why Jiang Sheng had allowed him to tell Huang Shiren everything he knew.

Everyone in Qingshan County said Daoist Jiang wielded fire arts of transcendent, godlike power.

But what if Daoist Jiang one day used some other art...

Tian Ming'an looked at Jiang Sheng in astonishment. His master seemed to sit idly in the mountains, yet he had already seen through the whole situation and held his strategies within his heart. He truly inspired awe!

Smiling, Jiang Sheng waved Tian Ming'an away. Alone in the hall, he gazed at the yellow talisman before him, his expression tranquil, his heart still as water.

The sun climbed to its zenith, spilling strands of golden radiance. Though it was the depths of winter, the midday sunlight still brought a comforting warmth.

Jiang Sheng stirred his qi and drew in strands of the midday sun's blazing, supremely yang essence. At the same time, he lightly swept the vermilion brush in his right hand, channeling his magical power into it as he traced a profound mark upon the talisman paper...

As the river god grand sacrifice drew closer, several more groups of visitors came to Qingxuan Temple.

First, members of the Qingshan County gentry appealed to Daoist Jiang Sheng to change his mind and stop the county magistrate from recklessly taking up arms, thereby saving the county's people from fire and water.

Then, large numbers of commoners from Qingshan County came, desperately begging Daoist Jiang Sheng not to leave the mountain. Otherwise, Lord River God's wrath would send floods sweeping through the county, leaving its people suffering and its living creatures mired in devastation.

Naturally, none of them could enter Qingxuan Temple. They could not even reach halfway up the mountain before Tian Guofu and his men stopped them. He would never let these people disturb his grandson's study of the Dao and pursuit of immortality under Daoist Jiang.

Still, their cries and clamor reached the temple, becoming a genuine irritation.

Next, County Magistrate Zhang Qingyun sent a letter inviting Daoist Jiang Sheng down the mountain to discuss slaying the demon. But Jiang Sheng had not emerged from seclusion, and Tian Ming'an could only explain the situation.

Zhang Qingyun even climbed the mountain himself in hopes of meeting Jiang Sheng, only to be stopped outside the temple by Tian Ming'an again.

Even now, Tian Ming'an could not forget the stunned, humiliated anger on Zhang Qingyun's face.

Those visitors might have been manageable, but then Young Master Kongxu and Fairy Xu Xiao also came up the mountain seeking an audience with Jiang Sheng.

After probing the situation, Young Master Kongxu considered forcing his way in, but his fear of Jiang Sheng's abilities ultimately made him leave. His face, however, was filled with venomous resentment as he departed.

He felt increasingly certain that Jiang Sheng held everyone beneath contempt. Now, even when he came in person, he could not secure a meeting, barred outside by a mere twelve-year-old mortal boy without a shred of cultivation. What outrageous disdain!

Had Jiang Sheng not been inside the temple, he would have dearly liked to kill the boy with a single stroke, then extract his soul and refine his spirit, tormenting him for a full hundred years!

Fairy Xu Xiao insisted that she had to meet Jiang Sheng in person to discuss an important matter, but Tian Ming'an still refused her entry.

Fairy Xu Xiao tried several times to persuade Tian Ming'an, but he continued to block the temple entrance, even taking a stance that declared, "You will have to step over my corpse to get inside."

In the end, Xu Xiao left with a cold snort of utter frustration, clearly harboring resentment as well.

With so many people unable to meet Jiang Sheng, rumors gradually began circulating in Qingshan County that Daoist Jiang Sheng thought too highly of himself and disdained ordinary mortals.

Others said Daoist Jiang Sheng was cold-hearted, regarded the county's gentry and commoners as straw dogs, and cared nothing for whether they lived or died.

There were even rumors that Jiang Sheng was deliberately allowing Magistrate Zhang to bring about disaster so he could seize the opportunity to gather incense offerings and merit.

Eventually, the story became that no cultivator was any good, that they did not treat mortals as human beings at all, and that they took and demanded whatever they pleased, acting without restraint...

As the river god grand sacrifice approached, these rumors mingled with earlier claims that the county magistrate intended to use the sacrifice to kill the River God, become a god himself, and turn the county's more than two hundred thousand people into his slaves.

Panic continued to spread. Hearts fell into turmoil, and demons danced.

Jiang Sheng knew all of this, but he did not care in the slightest. He was absorbed in drawing his talisman.

Though he could add only a few strokes each day at noon, as the days passed, the vermilion marks on the yellow talisman grew increasingly distinct and gradually took shape.

Another day came. Jiang Sheng once again drew in the great sun's essence, gathering it together with his own magical power upon the talisman paper. As he completed the last few strokes, the energies upon the paper joined together and stirred its spiritual resonance. Cloud-script characters resembling both fire and a dragon sprang vividly across its surface.

A single glance evoked blazing fire sweeping across the heavens, an unmatched, domineering force of supreme yang and unyielding strength.

Though Jiang Sheng looked somewhat tired, a faint smile shone in his eyes. Gazing at the six-inch yellow talisman before him, he softly recited:

"Beneath Qingping Mountain, the river flows east; mortals trouble themselves over the west and the wind."

"Though cold frost gathers with northern snow, Bright Illumination comes from the south to burn the river dragon!"

The grand drama takes the stage, its ensemble makes their entrance. When evil runs rampant, gallant heroes descend the mountain; when flood dragons wreak havoc, the Daoist Tradition has those who will slay them. Lin Yuan wishes to join all you esteemed readers in slaying the River God and pursuing this grand undertaking! All it takes now is a few monthly votes, recommendation votes, tips, and bookmarks to lend your support!

(End of chapter)

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