Lingxiao Kingdom

In the Baiyue region, spiritual resources are scarce, and the struggle for Dao has led to the incompleteness of many Dao lineages. Many Dao Lineage are even too lazy to come here to spread their teachings.

There are very few practitioners, and they all rely on the support of their respective rulers.

The rulers of Baiyue were all from different places, and what they had in common was that they had all basically reached a dead end.

Breaking through to the fifth rank is hopeless, and roaming beyond the realms is hopeless.

Having no other choice, they opted for a very simple, Human Path approach.

That is to gather the strength of the masses to achieve one's own success, establish a nation, and take this as the foundation, attaching the entire nation's destiny, the country's landscape, the people, and even more mysterious things to oneself.

He was promoted to the fifth rank at the cost of exposing an absolutely undeniable weakness and having many more entanglements and hindrances.

The Baiyue Sovereign was arguably the easiest to target among those ranked in the fifth rank.

Anyone with half a brain knows that their foundation is their kingdom; destroying their kingdom would likely result in a direct demotion.

However, Li Qi sighed.

In Li Qi's eyes, the Baiyue Sovereign was a typical owl, clinging to his dead mouse.

However, even this dead rat is something that many people desperately want but cannot obtain... A method that can reliably advance to the fifth rank is priceless to many people; it's not something that just anyone can get their hands on.

Thinking this, Li Qi fell from the sky and landed on the ground, as always, unseen by anyone.

So he didn't even go through the city gates, but landed directly on a street in the city center.

Upon arriving here, Li Qi looked around.

"This scene... it really feels familiar." Li Qi smiled wryly and shook his head.

Because what lay before him was not the strange and fantastical scenery of Wushen Mountain or the Tang Kingdom, nor the prosperous and flourishing city that, though different in style, was clearly very developed.

It was a typical feudal city, just like the former capital of Li Prefecture.

The streets were narrow and filled with ordinary people, each with their own incomplete Cultivation Method, which were barely useful and could not be classified as high-grade even if they reached the peak.

Li Qi walked down the street, with sewage flowing beneath his feet.

As they walked, someone suddenly shouted from above, "Watch out! Watch out! Watch out!"

Upon hearing this, Li Qi looked up.

They saw someone holding a toilet, about to pour it down, and everyone else nearby quickly dodged.

Seeing this, Li Qi also quickly retreated, leaping swiftly to the street corner.

With a splashing sound, a servant poured a bucket of excrement from the attic on the third floor, splashing it all over the street.

Li Qi, however, felt a pang of nostalgia for that time.

This scene was quite common when I was a boatman in Li Prefecture.

The reason is simple: the city's drainage system is very poor. There are no sewers, and wealthy families have chamber pot carts that rely on servants to collect excrement and then transport it away.

Ordinary people don't even have toilets, so of course they relieve themselves anywhere, usually by finding a river or a secluded corner.

As for those who own a small building but are not considered extremely wealthy, they are usually simply demolished.

Because someone will come and clean it up.

Li Qi remained in a state of Body Merged with Nature, watching as people quickly gathered around him.

He is a manure collector.

These people had also practiced Cultivation Method, making them agile. They carried a bucket, and had shovels and pliers in their hands. They shoveled away the filth on the ground, put it in the bucket, and then went to the next place.

They used a shovel for the runny stuff and pliers for the dry stuff, quickly collecting the filth from the street.

This can be sold for money. Once we've collected enough, we can gather them together and sell them to farmers outside the city to help them fertilize their fields.

Yes, although agricultural Technique Method, weather control, earth energy composting, and mountain god blessings had long been popularized in Wushen Mountain and within the Tang Kingdom, the Baiyue were still using farmyard manure.

Li Qi knew that the fertilizer used by Human Path was made up of tiny pills buried in the soil, which could maintain its fertility for ten years.

This product was originally developed by farmers who Human Path craftsmanship and has been widely used in various places where agriculture is needed.

Wushen Mountain, on the other hand, allows the mountain energy to gather directly, making it even more convenient.

However, the two types of practitioners from Baiyue have not yet become widespread because there are too few practitioners among them.

It requires at least an eighth-grade farmer cultivator, or a pharmacist who has mastered farmer Technique Method and Pill Formula to refine it.

Similarly, one must be able to command the local mountain gods to gather the earth's energy to fertilize the fields.

But in the Baiyue region, there are very few people like that.

An ordinary eighth-rank official is enough to become the leader of a state. If one can reach the seventh rank, one can basically reach the top of power in Baiyue. Above that are the king and his lackeys.

With such a level of cultivation, it's naturally impossible to popularize these things.

Although the scene evoked memories, Li Qi still shook his head.

Baiyue...

Thinking this, Li Qi suddenly became interested. He led the Old Ma, maintaining a state of Body Merged with Nature, and walked towards the river in the city of the Lingxiao Kingdom.

Every city has rivers, after all, rivers are the lifeblood of a city. Without rivers or lakes, even getting water would be difficult.

For the cities of Baiyue, there was no convenient thing like running water; they had to fetch water from the river to drink.

It is precisely because of this habit that water worms have proliferated.

People defecate and urinate in the water, and there are many dead bodies in the water, but others still have to go to the river to fetch water.

If there isn't enough fuel to boil the food, it's easy to get infected with water worms and have intestinal parasites, so you have to seek help from the local witch doctor.

Doctors were scarce in Baiyue, and local Shaman handled most of the medical procedures.

Li Qi used to pull boats in the water every day, and he contracted a water worm. His belly swelled up huge, and it was full of wriggling worms.

Later, his Uncle Liu hired a witch doctor for him. The doctor surrounded him with eggs and flowers, chanted incantations, and danced. Finally, he had diarrhea and expelled all the water worms, and then he recovered.

If you don't even have the money to hire a witch doctor... then you'll probably die.

Li Qi reminisced about his past in Baiyue, leading the Old Ma to the riverbank.

There were other boat trackers on the riverbank.

These boat trackers were mostly naked. Wearing clothes to pull the rope would be very dangerous; if the rope and clothes got tangled together, they could easily be pulled into the water.

Of course, there's also the factor of being reluctant to part with it.

The clothes are too expensive, and the fabric is easy to tear if I wear them. It would be too painful to spend that much.

Looking at the boatmen, Li Qi couldn't help but recall what he looked like when he first came to this world.

I'm pretty much the same as them.

The boatmen were panting heavily, constantly shouting their work chants.

The water flows downstream, but some boats need to turn around to enter the dock or enter certain tributaries, which requires going against the current.

If a boat wants to go against the current, it naturally needs to be pulled by people.

Li Qi shouldn't have interfered. According to the Shaman Path doctrine, all of this is "as it should be," and unless it affects the balance of nature, there's no need for excessive intervention.

However, I can empathize to some extent, since I've experienced it myself.

So, Li Qi reached out and conjured many wisps of energy into Technique Method.

This is a suppression Technique Method.

With his other finger, he hooked a tiny worm in the water, caught it in his hand, and then stuffed it into the suppression Technique Method.

This is a well-known trick in Shaman Path, called "cursing," which is Technique Method that uses incantations to subdue people or things.

He muttered to himself, "Shadows accumulate and take shape, and can interact with people. This is called a water poison, which spreads to villages and towns, killing many people..."

As he chanted the incantation, the Gu worms began to struggle frantically.

But Li Qi is already a seventh-rank official, how could he possibly let these water worms break free?

As he continued chanting the incantation, the suppression Technique Method took shape. He held the water gu in his hand and threw it into the river.

I felt a cool sensation that swept across the entire river in a flash!

If someone were to observe all the water sprites in the entire river, they would discover that all the water sprites in the river have been 'suppressed,' and a Technique Method has sealed them all at the bottom of the river.

At the same time, Li Qi's face also turned bluish-purple.

This is the backlash of the curse.

Curse all the water poisons in the entire river...

This is not one species, but dozens of different parasitic species, which will cause a series of chain reactions and alter the ecological range.

Admittedly, the ecological niche occupied by water goblins can be filled by other life forms, or gradually occupied by other water goblins from outside, but this will inevitably cause a lot of turmoil.

This turmoil is the source of the backlash, the resistance from the heavens and earth in which this great river resides.

Fortunately, Li Qi's cultivation level was already quite high. He only turned purplish-blue for a moment, then quickly swallowed the backlash and returned to normal.

The backlash from the world was indeed something special. It was just a river, and this river was at most an eighth-rank river, yet it still managed to injure him slightly.

If it were outside the realm, Li Qi estimated that the backlash he would suffer from suppressing an eighth-grade world would be no more than this.

Of course, he hadn't tried it; it was just an estimate.

This was the first time Li Qi had ever cursed such a large area and group.

"This thing... if it were used to suppress the Heavenly Dao..." Li Qi pondered for a moment.

Just as he subconsciously began to think based on his discovery, he suddenly looked up and gazed into the distance.

There's a... uh, man in the distance?

He exuded an aura similar to that of an official, but far inferior.

It should be a degraded version of an official position unique to the Baiyue kingdoms.

Li Qi did have some understanding of this.

This degraded version of the official position only provides power enhancement, but does not provide the corresponding rank.

In other words, it can only enhance your existing strength, but it won't directly upgrade your rank, and it will also create a burden for the user.

If your official position is too high and your cultivation level is not high enough, you will not receive the blessing of that position. The fortune of the entire province brought by that position alone can overwhelm people with low cultivation levels.

Essentially similar to Law Treasure, only more mysterious, and incomparable to the official positions in the Tang Kingdom.

Li Qi looked at the man, who was dressed in a black and white robe with a yin-yang symbol on his headdress.

He's a wild Daoist priest...

The reason they are called wild Daoists is because the orthodox Daoist headdress has strict requirements.

There are specific rules about what kind of crown to wear, such as the lotus crown, the five-crane crown, or the coiled dragon crown. Wearing the wrong crown will result in severe punishment from your elders.

Only those unorthodox Daoist priests who lack proper lineage and don't understand the differences would wear headdresses haphazardly.

The Daoist priest in front of me may look like a hermit, but the yin-yang symbol on his headdress, which rotates back and forth, makes it clear at a glance that he is a wild one.

"Greetings, Daoist Master." Li Qi cupped his hands and looked at the Daoist priest not far away.

This Daoist priest is also a seventh-rank official; he must be the prefect of this place, right?

To be honest, Li Qi only knew that this was Lingxiao Kingdom, but he didn't know exactly where in the Lingxiao Kingdom it was, so he could ask around to find out.

After all, besides reminiscing about the past and doing something to make himself feel better, another reason he suppressed the water gu was to attract people to come over.

Suppressing the water gu is no small matter; it will definitely attract important figures.

The Daoist priest smiled at Li Qi, cupped his hands, and said, "May I ask where you are, sir? Your method of cursing is truly astonishing. You are indeed kind-hearted and cannot bear to see these peasants suffer."

"I'm not a good person either, I just empathize with you." Li Qi shook his head.

He is indeed not a good person. At present, he has no intention of changing the Baiyue Kingdoms. After all, it would be very difficult to completely change them, and it would also disrupt many existing balances.

He might only be qualified to do this when he reaches the third rank or even higher.

As Li Qi said, he had no intention of changing many things, nor could he change them; he would just let things take their natural course.

He is a good person in the narrow sense. If he were to encounter something bad like Jin Buhuan in Clear Mist City, he might lend a helping hand. But when it comes to the well-being of the whole world, Li Qi doesn't have the Heart Qi.

Today I empathized with these boat trackers, so I did this so that the boat trackers on this great river can have an easier time in the future. That's all.

But he couldn't make Baiyue as developed as Chang'an in the Tang Kingdom, or make everyone live a good life.

"Being able to empathize is already a good thing. How many people in the world can't even do that?" the Daoist priest sighed and said.

It seems he also had some feelings about it.

"May I ask who you are?" Li Qi asked the Daoist priest, cupping his hands in greeting.

"My Mu Xiulan, the prefect of Ezhou. I came here to express my gratitude to you for suppressing the water monsters in this great river of my prefecture." The Daoist bowed and greeted Li Qi.

"No need for formalities, it was just a small favor," Li Qi said.

He immediately replied, "Sir, it was a small favor for me, but it would take me at least ten years of hard work. So you must accept this gift."

Upon hearing this, Li Qi no longer declined and accepted the greeting.

However, he was somewhat speechless.

Ezhou... calyx?

Does this name mean that the other states are called stems, petals, corollas, and stamens?

This really is a kingdom of Trumpet Flower!

Isn't the name chosen by the Sovereign of Lingxiao Kingdom a bit too casual?

After Mu Xiulan finished bowing, she looked at Li Qi and asked, "May I ask where you come from, sir, and where you are headed? If you are passing through Ezhou, would you be so kind as to extend some hospitality to me?"

Upon seeing this, Li Qi immediately said, "I have come from Liesu to pay my respects to the Sovereign of Lingxiao Kingdom and to take a look at the appearance of Zunfo Mountain. As for the banquet, will it be an inconvenience to the Prefect?"

"How could I possibly be bothering you? It would be an honor for your presence in my humble abode, and I would be more than happy to receive you," Mu Xiulan said. "Moreover, if you wish to visit the King, it would be better for me to act as your intermediary than to wander in aimlessly like a headless fly."

Li Qi was just waiting for the other party to say that.

Upon hearing the other party's words, he replied, "Then I shall respectfully accept your offer."