As he walked down the long street, Huang Huai eyed the shops on either side, wandering aimlessly and hoping to get lucky.
After a while, Huang Huai suddenly felt a stir in his heart. He had arrived in front of a rouge shop, just as two women were coming out. They nearly walked straight into him. Apparently, they hadn't expected a man like Huang Huai to linger by the shop entrance. Before leaving, the two women couldn't help casting him a strange look.
Huang Huai paid no mind to their odd glances and strode into the shop. Fortunately, there were no other customers inside at the moment. Even so, Xie Sanniang, the shop's owner, looked at him with some surprise before greeting him warmly. "Might this young master be picking out rouge and powder for his lovely wife?"
"Not for my wife, but for my mother and younger sister," Huang Huai explained. "Do you have anything you'd recommend, shopkeeper?"
As far as Huang Huai could tell, his mother and younger sister already had plenty of bags and accessories. That left cosmetics as his only option.
Just like with Spilled Jade Spirit Nourishing Tea, perhaps he'd get lucky and find cosmetics with astonishing effects among the rouge and powders of this other world.
It seemed Huang Huai was in luck—or perhaps, since this was a transcendent world, even many things meant for ordinary folk had benefited from that extraordinary nature, with effects quite unlike anything mundane.
Some of their uses might not amount to much to High Gods who commanded transcendent power, but to ordinary people, they were anything but ordinary.
A quarter of an hour later, Huang Huai emerged from the shop looking thoroughly pleased with his haul. He now held two small porcelain bottles, each filled with an ointment called Red Face. According to the shopkeeper, Red Face Cream nourished the skin, slowed its aging, and helped preserve one's beauty.
Huang Huai wouldn't have been surprised if this world had rare treasures that could keep a person young forever. In a world where Gods and Devils appeared in the flesh, wasn't such a thing only to be expected?
As for the Red Face Cream the shopkeeper had praised so highly, Huang Huai didn't need it to be as miraculous as she claimed. Even a tenth—or a hundredth—of the promised effect would be enough to leave modern cosmetics in the dust.
After that, Huang Huai casually bought a few more gifts and headed back to his lodgings.
Carrying the gifts, Huang Huai visited two households in the alley, then called on several more nearby. He explained that he'd be fixing up his place over the next few days and asked them to bear with any disturbance.
From childhood, Huang Huai had been raised on his father's lessons about how to conduct himself: harmony came first. In this unfamiliar world, the most important thing was to avoid leaving himself with unforeseen troubles, as far as he was able.
It only cost a little money to head off potential problems. That was a bargain if ever there was one.
By the time he was done, Huang Huai had not only met the neighbors nearby but also made a very good impression on them, building up some excellent connections.
Back at his lodgings, he shut the courtyard gate and went into the side room to take stock of what he'd brought. He still had some gold and silver left, and the refined salt and rock sugar he'd brought over at first were untouched. He sorted everything and put it away.
Huang Huai put the gold and silver into his bundle, then carefully stowed the Molotov cocktails. Otherwise, he was genuinely afraid that while he was away, Ma Xing and the others might accidentally bump into them while repairing the house and set the whole place ablaze.
Only after the things he planned to take back filled more than half his bulging bundle did Huang Huai offer incense to the statue of Holy Lord Emperor Guan. He reverently lifted the statue down, wrapped it in red cloth, and held it in his arms.
He shut and latched the doors and windows, checked everything around him, then focused his thoughts. The mysterious portal appeared once more.
Huang Huai stepped through, and his figure vanished. When he reappeared, he was back in the bedroom of his modern-world villa.
The first thing Huang Huai did was set his bundle aside and check the statue of Holy Lord Emperor Guan. There had been no thunderbolt in broad daylight; the statue was just as it had been before, without the slightest change.
He let out a small breath of relief. No strange developments might well be the best possible outcome.
He placed the statue of Holy Lord Emperor Guan on the shrine in the living room, offered incense and candles, and bowed reverently to it.
Under Huang Huai's watchful gaze, the incense and candles showed no unusual signs. They were just as they always were. Seeing this, Huang Huai couldn't help frowning. Had he been mistaken? Could it be that the statue of Holy Lord Emperor Guan only revealed its wonders in the other world?
But he had received a High God's blessing, which had greatly replenished his vitality and even bolstered his qi and blood. That surely counted as transcendent power, and it was real enough.
Still puzzled, Huang Huai pulled open the curtains. Bright sunlight streamed in, illuminating the room.
He sorted through his bundle, especially taking out the two jars of Spilled Jade Spirit Nourishing Tea and the two bottles of Beauty Ointment and putting them in the safe. He'd witnessed their remarkable effects with his own eyes. The neighborhood was quite safe, but Huang Huai still worried something might happen if he left them lying around.
Even the Red Face Cream was worth a pretty penny. The two bottles together nearly equaled half a jar of tea. By the price of gold, the tea and ointment were luxury goods worth hundreds of thousands.
After tidying everything up, Huang Huai grabbed some clothes, washed up in the bathroom, then changed into loose pajamas and slumped onto the living-room sofa. He picked up his phone from the coffee table and turned it on. He'd been gone for less than two days, so there were no missed calls.
But as soon as he opened WeChat, a string of unread messages appeared. The group with the most was the small chat for the brothers at Xunzhen Temple.
All nine of Great Daoist Master's disciples were in the group. When they had nothing to do, they often chatted there.
Huang Huai saw a message tagging him and tapped it open. It was from Chen Wei.
"Xiao Jiu, Xiao Jiu, hurry back! How am I supposed to live without you?"
"Haha, Chen Wei's probably about to collapse from exhaustion. The May Day holiday's almost here, and he was supposed to clean the side hall with Xiao Jiu. Now Xiao Jiu's gone down the mountain, so he's stuck with all the work..."
"Third Brother, you see how exhausted I am and you still don't feel sorry for me? You lot are just sitting there laughing at me. Hurry and summon Xiao Jiu! That bastard must've run off down the mountain on purpose because the May Day holiday's almost here. So much for being brothers for life!"
"Right, right. You and Xiao Jiu are so close—you're brothers for life!"
"Brothers for life!"
"Brothers for life!"
Seven identical messages marched across the screen in a neat row. Huang Huai's eye twitched as he read them. Among his senior brothers, even the eldest, who was already in his thirties, was acting like a parrot and teasing Chen Wei along with the rest.
From Chen Wei's complaints alone, Huang Huai could imagine the crowds Xunzhen Temple would face once the May Day holiday arrived.
He wouldn't dare say how much, but a severalfold increase in visitors would be the least of it.
Huang Huai had not only seen reports of famous scenic spots overflowing with visitors during holidays; he'd experienced it firsthand. Never mind the terrifying crowds at Wudang Taoist Palace on the same Taihe Mountain. Even Xunzhen Temple had visitors streaming through its doors on holidays, and it was nothing unusual for them to receive several thousand in a single day.
Xunzhen Temple had become somewhat well-known and was now a minor attraction on Taihe Mountain. It also charged no admission, allowing people to visit for free. The only real expense was incense and candles bought for praying and making offerings, but those purchases were entirely up to each person. The incense and candles weren't expensive, and nothing was forced on anyone.
Huang Huai could imagine what would happen once the May Day holiday crowds truly arrived. With fewer than ten people working at Xunzhen Temple, they'd be rushing around like mad.
Just thinking about it made Huang Huai want to offer his senior brothers, Chen Wei among them, his condolences. After one long holiday, every one of them would probably lose a few pounds.
Huang Huai casually browsed the messages on his phone, replying to the ones that needed answers and skimming the rest. He'd be heading to the other world from time to time in the future, and sometimes he might stay there for days or even longer. He had to keep up with what was happening in the modern world. Browsing the news, his social feed, and group chats would at least keep him from falling too far behind.
As he read, a message suddenly popped up in Xunzhen Temple's main group. Huang Huai saw that it was Great Daoist Master asking whether the temple had stocked enough incense and candles. Great Daoist Master was clearly worried that the crowds might be too large and the temple might run out, leaving visitors unable to offer incense and pray. If someone posted about it on their social feed or uploaded a video, Xunzhen Temple would likely make the news again.
Watching Great Daoist Master repeatedly remind Chen Wei and the others, Huang Huai suddenly felt a stir in his heart. His gaze turned toward the statue of Holy Lord Emperor Guan on the shrine in the living room.
Hadn't he brought the statue of Holy Lord Emperor Guan back precisely to replenish its Incense and Fire Prayer Power?
And the huge crowds expected over the coming May Day holiday—didn't that mean a massive amount of Incense and Fire Prayer Power?
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