The maiden did not notice anything unusual about the True Martial statue. At this moment, she walked up to her own statue, leaped forward, and her entire form vanished from Ji Xiang’s sight. But Ji Xiang knew that she had returned to her divine seat.
Clay and wood sculptures, drawing upon the incense and fire of the populace, nurtured the essence of people’s gods, thereby giving birth to spirits through their wishes. Many of the common gods in the human world originated in this way.
“Some are mountain spirits enlightened, some are born from incense and wishes, some are ghosts who replace them, and some are cultivators or mortals who attain divine positions and transform into gods.”
“This maiden looks quite different from the statue, and she is quite young.”
Ji Xiang cultivated silently. Since the temple mistress had not discovered him, he would reveal himself to express his gratitude after he had finished cultivating with the incense.
Affairs in the human world could not be planned with absolute foresight, nor could everything be guaranteed. Therefore, one must always be cautious. Although Ji Xiang was still confident in his ability to kill this maiden, he still chose to be cautious in matters where caution was warranted.
It was like killing the Ying Sun Heavenly Lord of Biyou Palace and the Glorious Manifestation Dharma Lord.
Ji Xiang pondered that he had watched the tigers fight from a mountain for a long time, and then eliminated one of them at the fastest speed. Yet, in the end, due to a minor mistake, he had fallen prey to a powerful spiritual technique, forcing him to damage his own form and spirit and seek refuge here for a few nights.
Therefore, even the smallest matter had the possibility of going awry.
This time, his chances of success were truly ninety-eight percent, no different from courting death.
The moon was bright and the stars were sparse; the night was deep and quiet.
The lake breeze blew, and the sound of surging waves lapping against the shore could be heard. Ji Xiang judged that there was a large lake nearby.
The temple doors were still open, and the several attendants who had left in the evening indeed returned.
Seeing the temple doors wide open, they were overjoyed and whispered amongst themselves:
“The temple keeper said that the deity in this temple often appears. No one dares to steal money from the merit box at night. I think that’s just to scare people. These temple doors are wide open, and no one has come in. Even if someone did, it would only be the night watchman.”
“That’s right. I believe in gods and spirits, but I’ve never seen the deity in this temple manifest. Her incense is not as much as that of the True Martial Lord next door.”
Several attendants gathered at the front and reached for the merit box. The box was heavy with copper coins and even some silver fragments, indicating that wealthy households in the area were not short of money. This made the attendants extremely happy. They exclaimed in the temple, saying, “We’ve struck a small fortune.”
“The incense for this True Martial Lord is truly abundant. Look, there’s even silver in here!”
The attendant holding the box was overjoyed. Another attendant nearby looked up and saw the eyes of the True Martial statue staring down at them. He shivered and suddenly felt a pang of guilt, saying, “We can’t take it all. We have to leave some for the True Martial Grandfather.”
The attendant holding the box was displeased and chuckled, “Grandfather True Martial won’t blame us! In this Great Ming Dynasty, True Martial’s incense is everywhere. Even the Emperor worships him, so True Martial Lord is the true wealthy one. How could he possibly care about a little money in this temple?”
“Now that the merit box is in my hands, if True Martial Lord really cares about this money, come on, I’ll take out the money from the box and see if True Martial Lord will snatch it back?”
“If this statue moves and snatches it back, then I’ll hand over all this incense money, and I’ll even add two more copper coins.”
Ji Xiang, listening clearly from within the statue, was instantly displeased.
Although it was not uncommon for temple keepers and attendants to embezzle incense money, and even abbots in Buddhist temples would use incense money as private funds, which was not surprising in any era, Ji Xiang almost shook his head repeatedly when the True Martial Great Emperor was referred to as a local rich man by these young men.
What, are you going to attack the landlords and rich peasants, and then attack the immortals?
The salary is not high, so go find your boss. Using the incense money from the True Martial Great Emperor’s shrine, and calling the True Martial Great Emperor an old rich man, made Ji Xiang very unhappy.
*Dong!*
The eyes of the True Martial statue suddenly shot out a radiant light, which startled the attendants greatly!
“My heavens!”
The attendant holding the merit box was so scared that he fell to the ground, and the merit box rolled to the side. The other attendants, seeing their ringleader suddenly fall to the ground as if driven mad, rushed to help him. The ringleader’s attendant pointed at the True Martial statue and trembled as he shouted,
“It’s glowing, it’s glowing! The statue of Grandfather True Martial is glowing!”
The attendant was now stunned with fear. He had just been boasting that if the statue cared about the money, it would snatch it back, and immediately the statue’s eyes flickered!
The attendant who had previously suggested putting back the silver said, “Look! There are gods three feet above your head! Let’s put some of the silver back, lest Grandfather True Martial punish us!”
With that, several of them frantically put the silver fragments from the merit box back onto the altar, bowed to the True Martial statue, and repeatedly chanted,
“We will only take the copper coins. This silver is all yours, old sir. We are truly short of funds. Once this difficult time passes, we will bring you the best roasted chicken and wine to show our respect.”
As they kowtowed, other attendants muttered that they were short of funds for taking money.
Money, in any time, is always a source of tension.
However, just as they finished tidying things up and felt that the temple was somewhat eerie and decided to leave quickly, they stopped as soon as they stepped out of the temple doors.
The maiden’s voice called out to them:
“This is my temple. Do you think you can come and go as you please?”
This time, she appeared dressed in a crimson robe, in men’s attire. When she entered the temple earlier, she wore Ming Dynasty clothing.
But no matter when she appeared, her attire was completely different from the statue she embodied.
The attendants turned their heads and saw the maiden drawing a bow and arrow. Several arrows flew out, felling the attendants to the ground in an instant, causing them to wail. However, after a while, they discovered that the merit box in their hands had disappeared.
The maiden was still standing in the temple, and the arrows on the attendants also vanished, but the pain was extremely clear.
They now knew that the temple mistress had manifested, and they scrambled to leave.
Ji Xiang’s inner divine tablet observed that the maiden’s arrows were entwined with the power of incense. This was a type of incense poison. Mortals with inferior destinies could not withstand large amounts of incense. Once hit by an arrow, they would develop an illness.
The merit box appeared in her hand, and she threw it before the True Martial statue. Then, she carefully gazed at the True Martial statue again:
“It seems that the spirit borrowing my incense has not left, but rather the True Martial statue has gained a trace of divine power by borrowing the incense of the populace.”
“Very well, please accept more incense. In a few days, I will fulfill a pilgrim’s wish, manifest, and eliminate demons. I will need to borrow a bit of your power.”
“True Martial repels demons. After the sun and moon reopen the Great Song Dynasty, we absolutely cannot let these demons occupy our beautiful land.”