Gaining His First Ability

"Huh?"

In the small town, An Weiyan had just received an ability from the Earth God and wanted to try it out.

When An Weiyan looked at the people in town, he discovered that almost all of them had a wisp of vapor floating above their heads.

Most of this vapor, however, was black.

"What you see is these people's essence, Qi, and spirit. If you wish to glimpse their fortune and misfortune, you need only focus your mind on it."

Seeing An Weiyan's expression, the Earth God knew what he was doing and immediately offered an explanation.

An Weiyan froze for a moment at those words. Looking at the sight before him, he immediately thought of Incense Offering Qi.

According to what the Earth God had said earlier, the grade of Incense Offering Qi was related to a nation's prosperity, whether the country was peaceful and its people lived in security, and so on.

He had also said that the incense offerings these commoners made were only black-grade.

This immediately gave An Weiyan an inkling of the mysteries involved.

If his guess was right, the essence, Qi, and spirit of these people actually reflected the state of their nation.

If a nation stood at the height of its strength, with peace in the land and security for its people, then the essence, Qi, and spirit of its commoners would naturally be different.

They would not be like the people of Linbei County now, who went hungry every day, could not be sure of surviving from morning to night, and worried about falling prey to demons. Naturally, their essence, Qi, and spirit were flagging.

If they did not have to worry about such things and could live and work in peace, their essence, Qi, and spirit would naturally be different.

And if An Weiyan's guess was right, when people offered incense, the incense offerings should carry some of the worshippers' essence, Qi, and spirit within them.

Otherwise, how could a mere stick of incense possess such formidable divine power?

An Weiyan had formed a rough conjecture, but whether it was actually correct would still require verification later.

Based on the Earth God's explanation, An Weiyan more or less understood how to use this ability.

He then bid the Earth God farewell.

After returning to the government office, An Weiyan went straight back to the main world, wanting to see whether the essence, Qi, and spirit of its people were any different.

Just as An Weiyan returned, he saw that his parents were home.

"What were you doing just now? I called you for ages, but you never answered."

An Weiyan's mother looked up at him and asked in puzzlement.

An Weiyan was briefly taken aback. He had been in another world just now. How could he have heard his mother calling?

Fortunately, his mother had not come upstairs, or he would have been in trouble.

But now that An Weiyan's parents were back, staying at home really was no longer convenient. Otherwise, he could easily be found out.

With the abilities he now possessed, he still felt it would be better to keep them hidden for the time being.

"I didn't hear you just now."

An Weiyan offered a casual explanation. He was still very happy to see his parents home early.

"Mom, Dad, since you're back, I'd like to leave for work tomorrow."

According to Su Qingyun, everything at the temple had already been arranged. An Weiyan only needed to head over.

At that moment, An Weiyan studied his parents closely. The wisps of mist floating above their heads were a medium shade of cyan.

Cyan.

The incense offerings I gave the Earth God back then were deep cyan.

After people with medium-cyan essence, Qi, and spirit had offered incense for so long, it had only reached deep cyan, the upper third grade?

An Weiyan thought of the incense offering grades the Earth God had mentioned.

His parents' essence, Qi, and spirit were medium cyan, so the other villagers should not be far off.

But on second thought, An Weiyan realized that was not right either.

Although the village had always worshipped the Earth God, who knew when everyone's essence, Qi, and spirit had transformed to medium cyan?

Come to think of it, his parents had lived rather hard lives in the past. Things had only gradually improved in recent years.

And the nation's strength had also begun to grow gradually.

So judging the difficulty of condensing upper-third-grade Power of Incense Offerings on that basis seemed a little off as well.

"You're in such a hurry to leave?"

An Weiyan's father said nothing, but his mother responded.

An Weiyan nodded firmly.

Seeing this, the two of them said no more and nodded their agreement.

"Huh? Didn't we still have half a sack of rice? Where did it go?"

An Weiyan's mother was about to soak some rice in water for dinner, only to discover that it was gone.

"There wasn't half a sack left, just a little. I finished it over the past few days."

An Weiyan said this without blushing or skipping a heartbeat. He had already taken things from his own home, and it was no big deal.

Hearing her son say so, his mother merely assumed she had remembered incorrectly and thought no more of it. After muttering that she ought to buy rice, she said nothing else.

Now that his parents were back, An Weiyan hurried to his room, packed his luggage, and booked a ticket.

He intended to get to the temple as quickly as possible.

Along the way, he would see whether he could publicize Cloud-Stilling Temple. As long as the temple became popular, more people would naturally come to offer incense.

After packing his luggage and seeing that his parents had no need of him, An Weiyan secretly returned to Linbei County.

After making a round of the county town, An Weiyan strolled outside it. He saw that tiny green shoots had already emerged from the once-bare land.

The seeds had sprouted.

Farther away, Lady Liu and some others were still hard at work reclaiming land.

Seeing the seeds they had sown sprout was an enormous encouragement to commoners like them.

Naturally, they now worked even harder.

There were quite a few families like Lady Liu's in the county. The mothers all wanted to plant more land so their children would not have to go hungry.

They were all people who had suffered hunger before, and naturally did not want to keep experiencing that feeling.

"My lord, seeing how quickly these seeds have sprouted, I imagine we'll have a good harvest."

Seeing An Weiyan come to inspect the fields, a man nearby hurriedly put down his hoe and spoke respectfully to him.

An Weiyan nodded, looking fondly at the tender shoots before him.

Cabbages like these could be harvested in a little over a month. Their growing cycle was quite short.

Corn, however, had a longer growing cycle.

It would take more than a hundred days. That meant An Weiyan still had to bring rice over from the main world, and quite a lot of it at that.

The problem was that the money An Weiyan had would not last that long.

At that thought, some of the delight An Weiyan had felt while looking at the tender shoots before him dissipated.

"I still need to find a way to earn some money so I can buy more rice to bring over. First, I need to keep the people of this little town alive. Everything else can wait."

An Weiyan rubbed his forehead, feeling a little forlorn.

"Forget it. I'd better sort out the temple's affairs first and take precautions against that female ghost from before."