Pointing out a path

Cloud-Stilling Temple.

There were considerably more worshippers coming and going than before.

Some had come to offer incense in hopes of meeting Fang Weiyan because of Lin Feng, whose fortune had truly been foretold accurately and who had now become a regional manager.

Others had come for the wishing pool.

They had heard that the wishing pool here was particularly effective.

Such rumors had prompted some people to bring along three or five friends and make a special trip to have a look.

Zhou Wenfei had only just entered the main gate when he saw countless people ahead holding incense, about to make their offerings.

There was also a sign hanging to one side that read, "Free incense offerings."

At a glance, the place looked like a thousand-year-old monastery, with so many people offering incense.

Zhou Wenfei was somewhat dazed. He looked around but did not see the Daoist priest.

Seeing this, he hurriedly stopped a passerby and asked, "Hello, could you tell me where the Daoist priest of Cloud-Stilling Temple is?"

"The priest? He's cultivating right now. You're here to have your fortune told, aren't you? Then you probably won't catch him today. The priest here spends a particularly long time cultivating every day. Often, he's nowhere to be seen."

The passerby he had stopped glanced at him and said this upon hearing his question.

Often nowhere to be seen?

Zhou Wenfei froze, and then his expression grew somewhat troubled.

Time ticked by. Zhou Wenfei stood to one side, waiting and waiting, but not a single Daoist priest appeared.

After some thought, Zhou Wenfei gritted his teeth and dropped straight to his knees at the main hall.

"What's this man doing?"

The worshippers around him were all stunned. Seeing Zhou Wenfei kneel right down beneath the blazing sun genuinely startled them.

This was the July sun, after all. They knew firsthand how mercilessly it blazed.

Yet he had knelt outside the main hall just like that, without so much as a meditation cushion beneath his knees.

"What's wrong? You could easily get heatstroke kneeling here."

A young man nearby could not bear to watch and stepped forward to gently persuade him.

At this, Zhou Wenfei told him about his search for his son, tears falling as he spoke. "I've searched for ten years. In those ten years, I don't know how many places I've searched. Sometimes I feel as though he's right beside me."

"But I just can't find him. I heard that the priest here tells fortunes particularly accurately. I want to ask him to do a reading for me."

As Zhou Wenfei spoke, he had also watched too much television and felt that kneeling here like this would presumably get the priest to do a reading for him.

Besides, he had heard the people around him say that the priest of Cloud-Stilling Temple truly was like a divine dragon whose head appeared but whose tail was never seen; he was rarely sighted throughout the day.

That was part of the reason, too.

Everyone around him froze for a moment at his words, then exchanged looks.

After hearing what he said, they could hardly persuade him to stop.

He was doing this to find his son, after all. He had shown such determination and had already searched for ten years.

Now that he had heard how accurate the priest's divinations were, he had knelt down, hoping that once the priest learned about it, he would help him with a reading.

Some of those around him filmed the scene, their eyes stinging slightly as they watched.

"I wonder when the priest will come out. If he does, we can put in a word for him too and see if the priest could do a reading."

"I'm just worried the reading might not be accurate. His child has been missing for ten years. Ten years! Could finding him really be that easy?"

The people around him began whispering among themselves, thinking about how he had searched for his child for ten years.

At that thought, they felt that his perseverance was truly extraordinary.

A person's lifetime did not hold many decades.

Zhou Wenfei knelt on the ground as more and more people gathered around him.

Even those who had been about to head down the mountain decided to wait a little longer.

They wanted to see whether the priest would do a reading for him once he came out.

As they waited, time ticked by, and the sun gradually shifted away from overhead.

Zhou Wenfei's clothes had long since been soaked through with sweat.

The onlookers could hardly bear to watch. The ground was so hard that even kneeling on a meditation cushion for a long time would be too much for one's knees, let alone without one.

"Lately, there seem to have been a lot more incense offerings. I wonder whether it's the koi's effect or whether the reputation I built up earlier is starting to pay off?"

Returning from Linbei County, Fang Weiyan muttered about the recent increase in incense offerings.

Over the past few days, whenever he returned, there had been considerably more incense stubs in the burner, and the consumption of incense and candles had increased somewhat as well.

This was good news for Fang Weiyan.

With more people offering incense, the incense offerings he collected would allow the Earth God to absorb more, making Linbei County a little safer in turn.

That way, Fang Weiyan could proceed with his later plans.

Once the road connecting to Pingshui City was open, he could trade some glass beads for gold.

That way, he could earn money to support the yamen runners under him.

At present, he only had thirty men under him. In the future, their numbers would only grow.

Naturally, the expenses would grow as well.

If possible, he would also have to bring more commoners into Linbei County. Once there were more of them, he could improve their quality of life, and their incense offerings would be useful too.

Pondering this, Fang Weiyan walked out of his room.

But just as he was about to visit the main hall and check on the wishing pool along the way, the dense crowd ahead made him pause in surprise.

"What's going on? Why are there so many people? Did something happen?"

Looking at the dense crowd ahead, Fang Weiyan immediately had an uneasy feeling.

Judging by the situation, something must have happened up ahead to draw so many onlookers.

Feeling uneasy, Fang Weiyan hurriedly squeezed his way forward.

When the people around him saw Fang Weiyan, however, they made way for him of their own accord.

"The priest is here!"

One of them called out, and the next moment, countless gazes turned toward him in unison.

They had heard before that the priest here was exceptionally skilled at divination, but had never seen him. Now they finally had.

He was dressed in Daoist robes that made his figure look particularly tall and slender.

His eyes were exceptionally bright, looking almost like a deep starry sky, and he carried an indescribable air that made him exceedingly pleasant to look at.

Some people were briefly stunned at the sight, then felt that perhaps this was exactly how a Daoist priest ought to look.

Following the path everyone had cleared, Fang Weiyan immediately spotted a middle-aged man kneeling in front of the main hall.

At the sight, Fang Weiyan frowned. Why was he kneeling on the ground for no apparent reason? Was something wrong?

The ground was extremely hard. Kneeling on it was bound to hurt.

With that in mind, Fang Weiyan stepped forward, intending to help the man up first.