Three Flower Lady

"This minor deity is a local rural deity, surnamed Wang in life. Might I ask Your Excellency's name?"

"I am Song You, and my master gave me the style name Menglai."

"Is Your Excellency a member of the Taoist gate?"

"I grew up in a Taoist temple since I was a child."

"I wonder if you have a Taoist name?"

"I do not have a Taoist name for now." Song You calmly locked gazes with this local spirit. "What is Shangong's purpose in looking for me?"

"Then this minor deity shall address the young master as Master Menglai." Wang Shangong remained courteous. "To disturb Master Menglai's sweet dream in the middle of the night is truly presumptuous, but this matter concerns the livelihood of the local common people. This minor deity perceives that Master Menglai possesses profound cultivation, so I have come specially to seek your help."

"Shangong, please speak plainly."

"This matter must be traced back to ten years ago."

Wang Shangong paused in contemplation, his speech bearing the dawdling style of people from the previous dynasty: "Ten years ago, a Great Yao came to this place, bewitching the people's minds and even having the local common people build a temple and shrine for it, located just twenty li away from here."

Upon hearing this, Song You understood roughly.

Man and deity stared at each other in blank dismay. Song You waited for him to continue, while he seemed to be waiting for Song You to take up the conversation.

"Why not report it upward?"

"Master, please listen to me."

"..."

Song You instantly wore a helpless expression.

It was just that these local nether spirits were mostly transformed from individuals of outstanding virtue after death, and possessed such advanced age. As a junior, he ought to respect them more, and as a young successor, it was truly not easy for him to bluntly point out flaws.

"Then I shall make a long story short."

"...Please."

"Although that Great Yao possessed mighty magical power, a few years ago it was already exterminated, jointly suppressed and slain by a high master of Tianhai Temple and Zhou Leigong. It was only because they thought that licentious shrine was not far from the main road and it would be a pity to destroy it—breaking the stone statue could also provide a place for passing travelers to rest and shelter from the rain—that it was left standing. Recently, this minor deity patrolled around, traveling to Majia Bay, and discovered that somehow that temple had incense and fire once again."

"Has Shangong gone to inspect it?"

"Ashamed, so ashamed. This minor deity has meager magical power and cannot fight. Seeing the incense and fire from afar, I dared not approach any closer." Wang Shangong wore a look of shame.

"Shangong's action is wise."

"This time, I truly wish to invite Master to go and investigate. If it is verified, taking advantage of the full moon in a few days' time, this minor deity will report it upward."

"Shangong suspects that the demon has borrowed the incense and fire to be reborn?"

"This minor deity thinks it is likely so."

"I will go take a look tomorrow."

"Master's character is lofty and pure. On behalf of the surrounding common people, this minor deity thanks Master in advance." Wang Shangong bowed deeply again, then continued, "Master's cultivation is extraordinary. Even if that demon has been reborn, it surely lacks its former abilities. If Master goes in broad daylight, I reckon it should not be too troublesome. It is simply that I must trouble Master to make this trip. As for the address, this minor deity has already written it on paper and placed it in front of the altar."

"Shangong, farewell."

"..."

Wang Shangong was stunned for a moment, and only then did he return the bow.

Just as the bow was made and before he could straighten his torso, everything around them turned into smoke and clouds, scattering instantly, and Song You's vision grew dark.

When he opened his eyes again, he was still curled up in the corner of the village temple.

The village temple had a door but no light, and the wooden door was not tight. Moonlight shone in through the gaps, leaving a long, slanted white frost on the brick floor, and a row of divine statues was faintly visible.

The pugilists' snores rose and fell in succession.

Song You got up and searched the altar, failing to find the paper in front of Wang Shangong's statue, but instead finding it in front of the statue of Chijin the Great Emperor, which ought to be Wang Shangong showing his allegiance.

It was yellow hemp paper commonly used for drawing talismans, and the calligraphy was quite good.

He put away the paper and once again sized up the various divine statues.

This sort of village temple never cared about Buddhism or Taoism; ordinary people did not have the money to build a separate temple for both sides, so they had no choice but to cram them together and not mind the grievance.

The one in the center was naturally the current Daoist Heavenly Palace principal deity, Chijin the Great Emperor, as well as the Lord of the Ten Thousand Buddhas of Buddhism. On either side were various deities, basically deities who were relatively famous in the current society for various reasons. For example, previously a vernacular novella had circulated widely, in which the author vividly portrayed the Ministry of Thunder deity Zhou Leigong, and thus Zhou Leigong's fame soared in people's hearts. In many newly built small temples, especially those built spontaneously by the people, his position also became conspicuous.

He simply did not know whether he himself had benefited from this.

The development and evolution of deities were mostly like this.

Following that were the local deities. Strictly speaking of jurisdiction and official duties, there were mountain gods, river gods, road gods, and village gods, mostly transformed from human beings.

After these people died, people remembered them unceasingly, and with the blessing of wish-power, they naturally transformed into deities. The imperial court in all likelihood would also confer upon them the post of an orthodox god.

In fact, in this world, whether it was the Daoist Heavenly Palace or the Buddhist Western Paradise—the so-called full heavens of gods and Buddhas—although they held lofty status in the hearts of the common people, especially believers, their essence was no different from these local minor deities who became gods through wish-power.

Therefore, the situation of a new Son of Heaven bringing a new set of gods frequently occurred.

Take this Chijin the Great Emperor, for instance. Rumor had it that he was born from the opening of heaven and earth, having undergone one thousand three hundred and fifty kalpas of bitter cultivation and practice, each kalpa lasting one hundred and twenty-nine thousand six hundred years, and only thus did he attain the throne of the Heavenly Emperor. Many common people firmly believed this. Even those who did not believe in him mostly assumed people had believed in him since ancient times, but in truth, his title was born less than two hundred years ago. Two hundred years ago, not a single person in this world believed in him, nor did they even have his title.

Maintaining a lofty divine image in the hearts of the people was necessary, but his master had warned Song You since childhood that, as a practitioner, he was different from ordinary people and needed to have a correct and clear understanding of them.

Yet what this cognition should specifically be, his master had never told him, only letting him realize it for himself.

Song You was still constructing his cognition.

Studying the statues for a long time by the moonlight, figuring he could not sleep anyway, he turned around, stepped forward, and pushed the door open to leave.

The midnight air instantly rushed over him, yet it did not feel cold, only fresh. Lifting his gaze, he saw a clear night without dust, moonlight like silver, and a few clouds under the moonlight seemingly plated with a silver edge, as if glowing, while the great mountains were outlined in rolling, undulating contours. What a magnificent scene under the moon.

He sat in withered meditation under the moon until the morning light broke.

Song You left Jinyang Road and walked onto a branch route.

This was also a major road, though its name was unknown. It was one grade lower than grand imperial highways connecting the capital like Jinyang Road, but it was still spacious.

Song You was in no rush at all, walking and stopping along the way, and even stopping to ask directions several times before finally finding this temple.

Though it was said not to be far from the main road, it was actually on the mountainside beside the main road and could be seen from afar, yet walking over likely took about two li—Song You had initially thought Wang Shangong said it was not far from the main road, so he had kept walking along the main road, overshooting it before turning back after asking for directions.

It was already afternoon by the time he arrived.

Song You stopped a hundred meters away, hung his luggage on a tree branch, and walked along the small path toward the dilapidated temple, seemingly devoid of any fear.

As soon as he approached, he smelled the scent of incense candles.

There was indeed incense and fire.

Sniffing carefully, one could still tell it should be local homemade incense, with a scent leaning toward mosquito-repelling herbs, fresh and invigorating.

This dilapidated temple was about the same size as the one from the previous night, its form imitating the halls of a formal temple, only slightly smaller. Furthermore, there was only a single standalone temple. Generally, temples built spontaneously by rural villages mostly followed this regulation, and usually no monks or Taoist priests presided over them.

However, it was much more dilapidated than the one from the previous night.

Song You stopped at the entrance and sized it up closely.

There was still a door but no windows, but this temple did not even have a door anymore; blocking the entrance now was a bamboo-woven fence. The walls had originally been painted with red paint, but now not only were there many places where it had peeled off, there were also numerous cracks and scars, with no lack of traces left by sword slashes, axe chops, lightning strikes, and fire burns, some even piercing straight through the walls.

Song You's gaze moved along these traces, as if outlining the scene of the past battle in his mind.

Withdrawing his gaze, he walked toward the entrance.

The fence was only lightly ajar and was brushed aside with a casual movement.

Song You stepped into the temple and took a deep breath, smelling no unpleasant odors, only the herbal scent of the homemade incense.

He raised his gaze to look at the altar—

The original divine statue was long gone, though traces of where the statue had stood remained, and now placed here was a clay statue of a cat. Compared to the original divine statue, which was at least human-height, it appeared exceptionally small, being just the size of a normal cat.

A square piece of clay in front was riddled with holes from inserted incense candles, most of which had already burned out, with only three sticks of incense still burning, having also reached the latter half.

It truly was homemade earth incense.

It was the kind wrapped in red paper, containing herbal powder inside along with a bamboo stick; it was very durable, and the fragrance was also quite pleasant.

In addition, offerings were actually displayed as well.

There was cooked meat and raw fish over a finger's width.

Song You stood in the middle of the temple, turning his head left and right, sizing up the entire temple, and then went forward to the altar, pinched off a hair, and examined it closely before his eyes for a long time before throwing it away, instead finding a place to sit down.

This person did not seem to be in the temple.

Out on official business?

And he still could not determine what the situation was.

Perhaps it was a local animal that had gained sentience, greedy for mortal incense and fire, and seeing a temple here, presumptuously took possession of it.

Incense and fire possessed a fatal attraction for mountain sprites and ghosts.

Perhaps the locals did it spontaneously, and wild cats from the mountain happened to take this place as a nest.

In this era, there were indeed places that worshiped cats as deities in the hope that they would catch mice clean and leave more grain for the household.

It was also possible that the demon from back then had truly resurrected.

Waiting for about an hour, watching the sun grow increasingly slanted as golden light shone in from the entrance, gradually spreading inward and about to cast light right beneath the cross-legged Song You's feet, movement finally came from outside.

Song You rose without panic and looked over.

A cat walked slowly along the path in the sunlight. The overgrown weeds on the path were no shorter than it, frequently being pushed aside by it. When encountering an earth ditch, its body seemed to have no weight, leaping lightly and gracefully crossing it.

It had long known someone was in the temple, yet it was not vigilant, still swaggering over until it reached the entrance. One paw hooked onto the threshold, and raising its eyes to see that the person inside was wearing Taoist robes, its eyes suddenly narrowed slightly before gradually taking on a sense of vigilance.

Looking left, looking right.

Pondering, thinking.

The paw hooked over the threshold was retracted and then put back down, and it finally decided to walk in.

Seeing it lightly vault over the threshold and raise its head to lock gazes with Song You, those eyes resembled amber, capable of fascinating human minds without even resorting to methods:

"Taoist?"

A sprite's vocal cord structure differed from humans, and without taking human form, even when speaking human words, one could not distinguish gender from them. At most, one could hear the original race from the voice, and at most hear the age.

This cat's speaking voice was clear and thin, not hoarse.

"How is Your Excellency addressed?"

Song You politely bowed to it.

"I am Three Flower Lady."

"My surname is Song. Three Flower Lady, greetings."

"What are you doing in my temple?"

"Lodging in a village temple last night, I was entrusted by the local deity to come and check the incense and fire in this temple." Song You stood straight, yet had to lower his head. "Might I ask if Three Flower Lady gathers and absorbs incense and fire here with an imperial edict from the human court?"

"What is that?"

"That is..."

Song You locked gazes with it, yet paused.

This little cat demon had meager spiritual cultivation, likely having gained sentience not long ago, and judging from the clear foolishness revealed in its eyes, he feared he would need to properly organize his words.

The new book has already been signed. Thanks to the great ones for your monthly votes, recommendation votes, and tips, thanks to all the helmsmen, thanks to Xiaojin, thanks to Beifeng Bugui, and thanks to everyone currently reading. Pushing me onto the new book rankings so quickly makes me quite apprehensive, and here I present the cat to you all.