The Wishing Pool

Silver Qilin swam back and forth, feeling the searing heat from above, as though her entire bloodline had been elevated.

But after only a moment, she felt she could no longer bear it and hurriedly swam toward the bottom of the pool. The divine power radiating from this Golden Crow was too fierce for her to keep enjoying it.

An Weiyan watched Silver Scale dive straight into the pool and simply took it as a fish's natural instinct, giving it no further thought.

After thinking it over, however, An Weiyan looked around, found a coin, and tossed it into the pool.

"Plop."

There was a splash, and then he saw the coin he had tossed in sink to the bottom of the pool.

Silver Scale had already been making her way into the hole, but when she spotted the coin, she came back. After circling over it for a moment, she opened her mouth, took the coin between her jaws, and swam back into the hole.

"That's all it takes?"

Watching the koi's behavior, An Weiyan raised his eyebrows slightly.

After some thought, An Weiyan put up a sign reading "Wishing Pool" beside the fishpond, then left.

Everyone knew that a wishing pool was somewhere you tossed coins. There was no need for An Weiyan to remind them of that.

Outside Linbei County.

A river flowed slowly past the outskirts of Linbei County.

At that moment, an enormous koi in the river flicked her tail restlessly.

"Mother, why has Second Sister's presence disappeared...?"

The fiery-red koi beside her was frantic. Her curling tail churned up the mud on the riverbed until the water was thoroughly murky.

The Koi King was terribly anxious too. She could no longer sense her daughter at all, yet it did not quite seem as though her daughter had simply died.

Had she truly died, she would have sensed something. If her own offspring had been slaughtered so close by, how could she have felt nothing with her cultivation?

Yet her daughter really had vanished completely.

"Perhaps this heavenly tribulation is different..."

The Koi King also felt something was wrong. It should have been impossible for her to be unable to sense her daughter at all.

However she worked it out, the heavenly tribulation was the only possible cause.

She reckoned that this Human Tribulation was no ordinary one, and that it had directly obscured their senses to prevent anyone from interfering.

"Honestly, why did Second Sister have to sneak off on her own?"

Thinking of how her second sister had vanished without a trace, the fiery-red koi could not help growing restless.

"Alas, this is simply what facing a Human Tribulation is like. We can hardly blame her. Once the Human Tribulation arrived, she had no way to resist it."

The Koi King did not blame her for this. When the time truly came to face a Human Tribulation, it was not something they could resist.

Presumably, Silver Scale had fallen prey to it without even realizing.

"Then what do we do now? Should we go up and save Second Sister?"

"Let's wait for now. We mustn't let you get caught in it too by accident. The local Earth God does have some Law Power."

Hearing her daughter's words, the Koi King flicked her tail and began swimming along the riverbank.

Though she did not dare go straight up, she did not want to leave just like that.

Outside Linbei County, the fields were now planted full of vegetables. At a glance, lush green vegetables covered the ground everywhere.

The corn in some of the cornfields had now grown more than ten centimeters tall.

The common folk in the fields were still hard at work fertilizing and watering.

An Weiyan made a round of inspections outside, then returned to the government office.

It had been nearly half a month since he had arrived here.

The streets of Linbei County were also being renovated now.

The place looked extremely lively.

"My lord, the incense offerings..."

Just as An Weiyan was about to return to the government office, the Earth God stopped him and asked about the incense offerings.

Hearing this, An Weiyan recalled that the number of people coming to the Taoist temple to offer incense had indeed increased greatly lately.

At that thought, An Weiyan's expression shifted slightly. "I'll collect them tonight."

Thinking of how many people had come to offer incense these past few days, An Weiyan also wanted to see how much incense offering his efforts over this time had yielded.

After agreeing on a time with the Earth God, An Weiyan checked the time. It was almost sunset.

Seeing this, An Weiyan returned to the Taoist temple.

Wisps of incense smoke rose through the temple now. When he had first arrived, this place could certainly have been described as having no incense offerings at all.

Now, the number of people coming here to offer incense had grown considerably.

Even now, no coins could be seen at the bottom of the fishpond outside. Perhaps people no longer believed in such things very much.

Standing at a distance, An Weiyan could see people still offering incense inside the temple, and could see a little of their essence, Qi, and spirit flowing into the incense.

The last time he had witnessed this, when Lin Feng and the others had offered incense, what flowed into the incense offerings had only been about as thick as a strand of hair.

Now, the essence, Qi, and spirit flowing from their bodies into the incense offerings formed streams about half as thick as a chopstick.

An Weiyan guessed that this was probably affected by how sincere they were.

Overall, though, watching the unending stream of people coming to offer incense, An Weiyan looked extremely pleased.

"Oh, Taoist priest?"

Just as An Weiyan stood at a distance silently watching this scene, someone spotted him, called out, and walked toward him.

An Weiyan glanced at the newcomer. It was a young man.

"Is there something you need?"

An Weiyan looked at the young man, who seemed to be about his own age.

"Taoist priest, are you really a Taoist? Somehow, you don't quite look like one..."

He had heard some rumors earlier, which was why he had come to this Taoist temple. He simply had not expected the Taoist priest before him to look about the same age as himself.

"No, I'm only a lay practitioner, responsible for looking after this Taoist temple. It's just easier for everyone to address me that way, so that's what they call me."

An Weiyan shook his head and gave a casual reply.

"So that's how it is."

Understanding dawned on the young man when he heard this. Then he asked somewhat sheepishly.

"Well, I heard you're incredibly good at fortune-telling, so I wanted to see when I might strike it rich sometime soon..."

At his age, his purse was painfully empty, and he wanted to know when he might have some money.

After hearing about what had happened to Lin Feng, he felt that, having seen An Weiyan today, he simply had to ask.

Hearing this, An Weiyan glanced at him, then frowned.

From what he could see, there was nothing in the young man's near future that could change his financial fortunes. As for anything further off, An Weiyan could not see it.

In truth, An Weiyan's ability only let him see the near future.

"There's a wishing pool over there. Go toss in a coin and give it a try."

After some thought, An Weiyan pointed to the wishing pool nearby and said this.