The little village where Zhang Decai lived had fewer than a hundred households in all. As the Bamboo Hat Immortal proved increasingly responsive to prayers, more and more people began worshipping him.
Before long, seventy or eighty percent of the village had begun worshipping the Bamboo Hat Immortal.
Inside Xu Qingtong's middle dantian, the white mist grew ever more abundant and dense, gradually expanding from the size of a fingernail to that of an egg.
Although he did not know what it was, it was filled with a mysterious power. Xu Qingtong therefore concluded that it must be a body of energy; he simply did not yet know how to use that energy.
As more and more people worshipped the Bamboo Hat Immortal, the things they prayed for also increased. Xu Qingtong was busy from morning to night, doing his best to help them.
As he cast more spells, Xu Qingtong discovered that the divine thought body residing within Zhang Xiaobao was diminishing little by little.
To test his idea, Xu Qingtong refrained from intervening for three days in a row. Sure enough, the divine thought body stopped diminishing.
Zhang Xiaobao still went to the sea every day as usual to practice swimming. Yet Xu Qingtong discovered that he could no longer gain even the slightest insight through him.
He did not know whether the divine thought body had weakened or there was nothing left for him to gain insight into, but it was indeed no longer sending back any information.
While he was deep in thought, he suddenly felt the ground tremble slightly. Then he heard shouts coming from the direction of the town.
Xu Qingtong extended his divine sense toward the town to investigate.
He saw many people by the sea running desperately toward the town, their faces