Large snowflakes fell onto the road, the trees, the river, and the fields. When the wind blew, a dense sheet of icy chill rushed at people's faces, leaving travelers unable to see more than a dozen meters ahead through the hazy whiteness.
Fortunately, the New Year Festival was just around the corner. Most people who had toiled all year were huddled in their warm homes, happily preparing all sorts of things needed for the holiday. Thus, few were still traveling at this time. A thick layer of snow had accumulated on the road; if it had been November, when travelers came and went from north to south, the snow would have long been trampled to ruin, leaving behind only muddy roads.
An exquisite carriage stood in the middle of the road. One wheel had sunk into the snow and tilted sideways. The coachman, dressed in respectable cotton clothes, whipped the horses, yet still could not get the carriage moving. He cursed under his breath, "Going out in such heavy snow... who knows what Master was thinking. I reckon this one's probably some wandering Jianghu doctor too."
He tried pushing the carriage again, only to find that he truly could not move it alone. He wanted to call for the passenger inside to get down, but feared offending him. If that man said a word about him before Master, would his backside not bloom with punishment? Just then, a traveler emerged from the wind and snow behind him, of average-to-tall height, snow covering both his clothes and hair.
The coachman immediately went up to him. "Kind-hearted passerby, please give me a hand." He copied the refined manner of Master's servants, though it came out rather neither fish nor fowl.
At his words, the traveler stopped. Only then did the coachman see that he was a young man in a Daoist robe, holding a long black banner. His looks could only be called ordinary, yet he possessed what Master often spoke of—what was it called? Right, bearing!
Shi Xuan had been traveling north from Tongxuan Mountain for several days. The first two days had gone well; he passed through cities and markets without encountering any obstruction. Unexpectedly, after crossing the Cai River, several days of heavy snow began, making the roads extremely difficult to travel. Fortunately, Shi Xuan was in no rush and rather liked snow. Strolling through the snowfall each day had its own unique charm.
In response to the coachman's words, Shi Xuan merely glanced at the carriage and smiled. "Call the person in the carriage down, and you can push it by yourself. Why would you need this humble taoist's help?"
The coachman smiled awkwardly and lowered his voice. "How would I dare? The person in the carriage is Master's honored guest. Please help out, little Daoist master. Once you reach Kaiyang City, I, Li San—Li Ji—have a bit of a name there. If you need anything, just come find me."
"Hehe, all right. If this humble taoist reaches Fengcheng, I'll certainly look you up." Shi Xuan found the coachman's manner rather amusing. Still, it was only a matter of lifting a hand, so he decided to help.
"Oh, little Daoist master, don't disbelieve me." Li Ji glanced toward the carriage behind him, then lowered his voice further. "My master was transferred from his post in Liangzhou to become Governor of Fengzhou. The government office is right in Kaiyang City. I, Li Er, can still put in a few words before Master."
Shi Xuan did not take such matters to heart. He merely smiled without speaking and walked with the coachman to the carriage. Whatever that honored guest inside was doing, there had not been a sound from him.
Shi Xuan reached out to test it, then suddenly exerted force. The wheel rose out of the depression, and the entire carriage slid several feet sideways before coming to a steady stop.
Having done this, Shi Xuan was quite satisfied with his current strength. The effects of Body Tempering combined with Internal Energy were indeed excellent. He gestured to the coachman, then continued onward.
The coachman's mouth hung slightly open, unable to close. Only after Shi Xuan's back vanished into the wind and snow did he feel his mouth full of icy cold. Coming to himself, he spat repeatedly to the side, then rubbed his eyes. "Damn it, that young daoist priest looks like he hasn't got a few ounces of flesh on him, but his strength is boundless! Could he be some kind of monster? Ptoo, ptoo, ptoo! Don't scare yourself!"
He hurriedly returned to the driver's seat, raised his whip, and continued his journey through the wind and snow.
Shi Xuan walked until dusk before he spotted a small town. On the street directly opposite the town entrance, children playing outside ran about in twos and threes.
When the children saw Shi Xuan shaking the snow from his body at the street entrance, perhaps because the heavy snow had blocked the roads and they had not seen an outsider for several days, they immediately gathered around him. They giggled and laughed as they watched him, and some pointed at his Black Banner. Whenever Shi Xuan looked back at them, they instantly hid to either side. The moment he looked away, they surrounded him again.
Seeing these cheerful children, Shi Xuan's mood was infected by their happiness, and he wanted to go tease the little devils. Then firecrackers sounded from the other end of the street. The children immediately grew excited. "Let's go watch the firecrackers!"
"Don't fight me for the firecracker scraps!"
"Big Brother... Big Brother, wait for Little Ya."
Then they swarmed away. Shi Xuan smiled and shook his head, asking several older women chatting by the roadside for directions. "Aunties, where is the inn in town?"
The women had noticed Shi Xuan long ago. After all, he was the first outsider to enter town that day. One of them, a kind-looking woman with a round face and large eyes, pointed toward the end of the street. "There, you'll see it once you reach the end."
Shi Xuan thanked her and was about to leave when the round-faced woman called him back. Her manner was rather mysterious. "Young man, seeing you hurrying along outside in such heavy snow, you must have something urgent to do. Let Auntie tell you: go worship at the Crimson Cloud Divine Lord Temple at the western end of the street. Your wishes will surely come true."
Shi Xuan thought, What does that have to do with anything? He said to her, "Auntie, look at my clothes and this banner. I am an orthodox daoist priest. This Crimson Cloud Divine Lord Temple is not part of our Daoist Sect, is it?"
The women's expressions turned somewhat unpleasant. Another woman, who looked quite shrewd, rushed to speak first. "Oh, young Daoist, you Daoists are completely useless. I worshiped at the Daoist temple for years, but my daughter-in-law never bore a single child. The Crimson Cloud Divine Lord Temple was only completed a few months ago. After I worshiped there for just a few days, my daughter-in-law became pregnant. Young Daoist, stop being a Daoist and believe in Divine Lord Crimson Cloud instead. How wonderful would that be?"
"Exactly, exactly."
"You Daoists who believe in crooked paths and evil ways will go to hell after death! Only by believing in Divine Lord Crimson Cloud can you go to heaven and enjoy yourselves after death!"
The women chattered all at once. Shi Xuan had no interest in matters of faith, so he turned a deaf ear and walked toward the end of the street.
"That damned young daoist priest will definitely go to hell after he dies and be fried in oil by Divine Lord Crimson Cloud!"
"I think he must have done too many bad things!"
Shi Xuan suddenly recalled hearing of Divine Lord Crimson Cloud back in Xia'an City, through neighborhood gossip. He had not expected this Divine Lord to have so many believers already. Even a small town like this had a temple. This Divine Lord was said to be especially effective for those seeking children—could he be this world's Child-Giving Guanyin?
At the end of the street, the children had gathered before the gates of a wealthy household, watching its servants set off firecrackers. As soon as the firecrackers stopped, the children rushed forward, wanting to pick up the spent firecracker scraps to play with. Yet the fierce-looking servants blocked them. A man dressed in strange red garments, seeming at once like a robe and a skirt, like both Daoist and Buddhist attire, emerged from the gate and gave a long shout, "Invite the divine tablet~!"
Then ten men standing at the entrance, dressed like him but in pale red clothing, followed the red-clothed man at their head, who held a wooden tablet, into the mansion.
Shi Xuan could not make heads or tails of it. He circled around the crowd and headed for the inn at the corner on the other side. As he passed the crowd, he heard the children complaining. "Seriously, we can't even pick up firecracker scraps."
"Those people in red are so fierce. They even came to our house to collect money. Dad said we won't eat meat tomorrow for the New Year Festival—we have to donate the money to some Divine Lord Temple!" As he spoke, the child actually began to cry. "I want to eat meat."
"My family donated lots of things too!"
"Mine too, mine too!"
"Hey, little devils, don't talk nonsense." A middle-aged man watching nearby heard them and began lecturing them. "This is to show sincerity to the Divine Lord. Only then will the Divine Lord bless your family with a bountiful harvest next year, and let you ascend to heaven after death! If you still dare to speak carelessly, you'll go to hell in the future and have evil ghosts eat your hands, eat your feet..."
The children grew somewhat frightened. They all pulled faces, then scattered home.
"These troublesome little devils, don't they see? This wealthy Zhang family did not believe in the Divine Lord before, but look at them now. Several people in their household fell ill one after another. Hehe, who knows how much silver they spent to invite the Divine Lord's divine tablet into their home." The middle-aged man showed off before the people around him.
"Exactly, exactly." Everyone nodded in agreement.
Shi Xuan's curiosity was piqued. He used the Qi Gazing Technique to inspect Zhang Mansion and saw a white column of qi mixed with traces of black. Then a crimson column of qi rose from within the mansion. Its surface appeared solemn and sacred, but it held black specks within. At the same time, the entire qi column gave Shi Xuan a feeling of extremity and obstinacy, though its essence was not particularly strong—at least, not as strong as Shi Xuan himself. When struck by the crimson qi column, the black within the white qi column vanished completely.
Judging by the results of his qi gazing, Divine Lord Crimson Cloud did possess some cultivation. He simply did not know what the black specks within represented. After all, for a "god" to display such a condition, Shi Xuan lacked the experience and knowledge to judge it.
Seeing that it was not some evil god, Shi Xuan turned and entered the inn.
With the New Year Festival upon them, aside from the innkeeper's family, even the waiters had gone home for the holiday. But that was good too: it was quiet and peaceful, convenient for Shi Xuan's cultivation.
Nothing happened that night. Shi Xuan rose early the next morning. The snow that had drifted down for days on end had finally stopped, and gentle sunlight shone upon him in waves of warmth.
Shi Xuan had no intention of staying in this small town for long. After breakfast, he prepared to settle his bill and leave. At that moment, waves of crying came from outside the inn. Following the sound, he saw a middle-aged man in washed-out cotton clothing. He held a large bundle in his arms and struggled desperately forward, while a plainly dressed woman in her thirties clung to his left leg and was dragged forward by him.
"Father of my child, we can't offer it all to the Divine Lord! Our family still has to live, sob, sob, sob." The woman clung to him desperately as she wailed. A little girl stood beside her, crying uncontrollably as well.
"You damned woman, this is the time to show our sincerity! Praying at home every day cannot show it!" The middle-aged man fiercely shook his leg.
"If we offer it all, we'll starve our entire family to death!" "Dad, Erniu is hungry, sob, sob."
"Then starving to death would be good! How sincere that would be! The Divine Lord will surely let us ascend to heaven! Then everything will be fine!" The middle-aged man's face was filled with fervor.
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