I'm Just an Employee

It was him.

Lu Bian guessed the other party's identity.

The burly, dark-skinned man who had stirred up a breeze to carry away the statue of Guanyin Bodhisattva was the Black Bear Spirit, the guardian deity of Mount Luojia under the Bodhisattva's seat.

The Black Bear Spirit possessed formidable skills; back during the ordeal at Guanyin Zen Temple, he had fought the Great Sage several times on Black Wind Mountain without falling behind. It was only when Guanyin Bodhisattva arrived in person that she subdued him using the Golden Hoop given by Tathagata Buddha. The Great Sage wore the Tightening Hoop, the Black Bear wore the Golden Hoop, and the final Forbidden Hoop was on Red Boy.

Lu Bian rubbed his eyes, wiping away the dust.

His thoughts had wandered just now, drifting toward the matters of the Golden, Tightening, and Forbidden hoops.

Since the business here was concluded, Lu Bian went to find the old man from three days ago. He had promised to carve a statue for him in Luzhou and had already kept the man waiting for three days. There was no time to lose; he could set off right now.

Lu Bian walked past the devotees, who cleared a path for him to leave.

"..."

"Why not stop him?" The Emperor of the Great Song hid at the edge of the crowd, whispering to the civil official beside him.

"How could we stop him? And why would we?" The official was puzzled.

"True." The Emperor of the Great Song watched as Lu Bian walked into the gates of Dongjing and vanished from sight.

The Emperor had secretly hoped to have Lu Bian carve a few statues for him as well.

He just hadn't decided what kind of statues yet.

Lu Bian possessed the miraculous skills of a stonemason, and the Emperor wanted to watch the process of him carving the stone statues up close.

He could keep Lu Bian in the imperial palace to carve the statues while he watched from the side with his concubines.

However, doing so would cause the civil officials to gossip endlessly about him, the Son of Heaven of the Great Song. He was already criticized for simply enjoying flowers or playing with birds in his spare time; it was truly vexing.

The Emperor of the Great Song thought it over and extinguished the idea. After the excitement faded, he returned with a hint of regret.

Inside Dongjing, Lu Bian followed the address provided by the old man and found the place. The old man had already made arrangements, with a carriage prepared to depart for Luzhou at any moment.

Luzhou was in the southeast of the Shu region, a vital hub for the southwest, and it lay a thousand miles away from Dongjing. The sooner they set off, the sooner they would arrive. The old man had not returned home for many years, keeping in touch only through letters, and the homesickness churning in his heart made him long to fly back to Luzhou immediately.

The old man took his servants on the journey, while his sons and younger relatives remained in Dongjing to continue their business.

On the road, Lu Bian asked the old man, "Old sir, what kind of statue would you like me to carve?"

The old man replied, "It is a statue of a goddess."

Lu Bian asked, "A goddess? Is there a story behind it?"

The old man said, "That goddess is known as the Third Holy Mother. She is the younger sister of Erlang Shen of the Guanjiang Estuary. She once walked among the mortals, dispelling plagues and relieving ice disasters. For many years, the people of my hometown have never ceased to be grateful for her kindness."

"I see."

Lu Bian nodded at the old man.

The old man continued to share the past with Lu Bian: "Many years ago, I heard that the Holy Mother Temple on Jade Maiden Peak of Mount Hua was destroyed by an earthquake and has yet to be rebuilt. The Third Holy Mother has been cut off from the incense and offerings of us mortals, which has weighed heavily on my mind."

"What?"

Lu Bian was just pondering the story of the Third Holy Mother when he heard that the Holy Mother Temple had been destroyed.

Lu Bian felt a sense of foreboding in his heart.

Why would the Holy Mother Temple on Mount Hua be destroyed?

It must mean that that event had occurred!

"...The Third Holy Mother descended from the heavens, gave birth to Chenxiang, and lived with his father~~!"

The theme song of the Lotus Lantern immediately began playing on a loop in Lu Bian's head.

Journey to the West was a memory from Lu Bian's childhood, and now the story of the Lotus Lantern had arrived as well! And it was happening exactly in the era he currently inhabited.

"I think I understand something now..." Lu Bian whispered.

"Master, what do you understand?" The old man looked at Lu Bian with curiosity.

"Old sir, do you find this world prosperous?" Lu Bian asked.

"It is prosperous."

"Are the common people living happily?" Lu Bian continued to ask.

"It has been little more than a hundred years since the chaos following the fall of the Tang. Back then, the people struggled to find a single meal, lacked clothes to cover their bodies, went hungry, and were displaced... Compared to that, it is happiness now."

"And how do you view the scholars and literati?" Lu Bian asked again.

"Scholars?"

"Hard to judge," the old man replied flatly.

Clearly, the old man did not want to share his true opinions of the scholars and literati with Lu Bian.

The old man was a merchant, and in the hierarchy of scholar, farmer, artisan, and merchant, he was at the bottom. The Great Song had an open atmosphere and encouraged commerce, yet the status of merchants remained somewhat delicate. Some things could be said, while others had to be buried in one's heart.

In the Song Dynasty, the Emperor and the scholar-officials governed the world together. The status of the educated was far higher than in previous eras, to the point where they could even stand on equal footing with imperial power.

The freedom of speech enjoyed by the scholars of the Great Song was truly a freedom of speech.

Combining the old man's answers with his own thoughts, Lu Bian pondered at length. His conclusion was simple: only the scholars and literati of the Great Song could have possibly bewitched a celestial goddess like the Third Holy Mother.

The destruction of the Holy Mother Temple indicated that Erlang Shen had already imprisoned the Third Holy Mother beneath Mount Hua.

In Lu Bian's memories, there were several versions of the Lotus Lantern story he had seen. In these different iterations, the mortal scholar Liu Yanchang, whom the Third Holy Mother fell in love with, had vastly different experiences.

In some versions, Liu Yanchang heard of her name but never saw her face before being sent to the underworld by Erlang Shen; in others, Liu Yanchang lived a low-profile life with his son Chenxiang, hoping to scrape by as a commoner; and in even worse versions, Liu Yanchang turned into a pile of useless sludge, falling into a state of permanent despair after losing his beloved, living out his days in a stupor while ignoring the life and death of his son, Chenxiang.

Lu Bian only intended to view the affairs of the Third Holy Mother's family as a bit of entertainment to watch and listen to.

Regardless, Chenxiang would eventually apprentice under the Victorious Fighting Buddha, Son Goku, and go on to split Mount Hua to rescue his mother.

A month later, Lu Bian and the old man arrived at the borders of Luzhou.

"Rebuilding the Holy Mother Temple on Mount Hua is truly difficult. I shall provide the funds to build a new Holy Mother Temple here instead."

"Master, you may begin the sculpting first. By the time you finish the statue, the temple will be built. When that time comes, I will have Qi Lishi move the statue of the Third Holy Mother into the temple to receive incense and offerings."

Lu Bian followed all of the old man's arrangements.

The statue of the Third Holy Mother is something the old man asked me to create; I am merely a hired hand. Erlang Shen, please don't come looking for trouble with me, Lu Bian!

Lu Bian chanted silently in his heart.

As he prepared to carve the statue of the Third Holy Mother, the old man produced a portrait from somewhere and instructed Lu Bian to use it as a reference for the sculpture.

"..."

The moment he glanced at the person in the painting, Lu Bian's heart trembled.

"Who painted this?" Lu Bian asked, startled.

"The author's name is here," the old man said, pointing to a corner of the painting.

"Uh..."

He deciphered the characters; the person who had painted it was none other than Liu Yanchang.

Oh no, this was painted from the Third Holy Mother herself.

Lu Bian still had many questions he wanted to ask.

For instance, where exactly had the old man gotten this painting?