parentshiftbook Chapter 40 The Jiao God chooses a place
Chapter 40 The Jiao God chooses a place
The crowd dispersed, leaving only Lü Liang and Lü Houde.
"Lü Liang!"
"Are you stupid!"
How could you possibly agree to this?
Lu Houde stared wide-eyed.
"What can we do?"
"If we hadn't agreed to this, these angry people would probably have beaten us up!"
"Besides, if we don't agree to this, wouldn't it make us look guilty?"
Lu Liang sighed deeply, feeling utterly helpless. If he had a choice, he certainly wouldn't have been willing to agree to this, but he had no choice but to agree.
Lu Houde's lips trembled slightly, as if he wanted to say something, but he didn't know what to say.
"rest assured!"
"Even if there really is some kind of divine decree, so what? I have plenty of ways to deal with it!"
Lu Liang looked around and, seeing no one, whispered his idea.
Lu Houde's eyes lit up and he nodded repeatedly.
"Is Old Liu possessed by an evil spirit?"
Something's not right!
"Why do you keep talking like that?"
As Liu Laosi walked away and only his back was visible, Lü Liang's unease grew stronger. A gourd-shaped person could suddenly become eloquent and logical; it was all very strange.
Could it be that it's the skill of that thing on the other side of the river?
A thought flashed through Lü Liang's mind, startling him. He shook his head vigorously, forcing himself not to think about it too deeply.
Night falls.
The moon is hidden and the stars are few. The sky is as dark as ink.
As the summer heat subsided, the night breeze carried the faint fishy smell of the river and the scent of the fields.
Several "candidate sites" in the village were being watched over by people who had taken the initiative to wait.
Under the old locust tree, beside the mill, and along the Xiansheng Creek, there were mostly curious young people or skeptics gathered together. At first, they talked in hushed tones, but as the night deepened, they gradually began to yawn incessantly. Apart from the chirping of insects and the sound of the wind, there was nothing unusual.
Only the barren beach along the Qinghe River to the north of the village had a completely different atmosphere.
The terrain here is slightly higher, facing the wide and gentle Qinghe River, with the hazy mountain shadows of Shixi Village in the distance on the opposite bank.
The beach is mostly covered with pebbles and coarse sand, with some clumps of drought-resistant reeds growing in some places. It is usually deserted.
Liu Laosi, Yang Qianchui, Lu Cheng, Xu Laoxiucai, Zhao Quezi, Zhang Hong, and more than ten others sat in a circle, leaving an open space in the middle. No one spoke; only the gurgling of the flowing river and the rustling of the reeds in the night wind could be heard.
Liu Laosi sat cross-legged with his eyes closed. The pebble in his arms radiated a steady warmth through his clothes, and his mind was subtly connected to the pulse of the deep pool in the distance by this warmth.
Midnight is approaching.
This is the juncture of the day when yin energy is at its peak and yang energy is just beginning to emerge.
Those who were waiting in other locations were already exhausted and began to doubt that this was just a wasted wait.
There was only barren land, and Liu Laosi suddenly opened his eyes.
"Calm your mind! Feel it!"
Liu Laosi said in a low voice.
Yang Qianchui, Lu Cheng, Xu Zhong, Zhao Quezi, Zhang Hong, and the others tensed up, held their breath, and focused their attention on the open space in the center where they were sitting.
At first, there was nothing.
Only the moonlight occasionally peeks through the clouds, casting dappled, cold white light on the pebbles.
At some unknown time, a faint light, as if by illusion, appeared on the edge of a dark pebble in the center.
Extremely faint, pale blue, like the most inconspicuous firefly among the decaying grass in summer, seemingly about to go out in the blink of an eye.
But then, more and more pale blue specks of light began to seep out from between the pebbles and from beneath the dry sandy surface.
They are not suspended, but rather cling to the ground, as if breathing from the depths of the earth, or as if resonating with the unseen, gurgling underground river beneath their feet.
The light spots gradually became denser and merged into one.
It wasn't dazzling, but pure, illuminating the ground within a few feet, clearly showing the rough texture of the sand and gravel.
The faint light rippled gently, its edges vaguely forming an arc that could roughly accommodate the foundation of a small hut. Within the halo, extremely thin moisture seemed to rise and swirl, bringing a refreshing and invigorating scent, completely different from the fishy smell of the river, and faintly, the indescribable lingering fragrance of sandalwood from the day the dragon roared.
Yang Qianchui's eyes widened, and his fists clenched.
Lu Cheng's throat moved, but no sound came out.
Xu Zhong leaned forward, his cloudy eyes reflecting the deep blue.
Zhang Hong covered her mouth, her eyes instantly welling up with tears.
Zhao the Cripple reached out his hand tremblingly, wanting to touch the light, but stopped in mid-air, as if afraid of disturbing this sacred manifestation.
News of the strange phenomenon on the riverbank spread like wildfire, drawing crowds from all over the village. They gathered in layers, everyone staring wide-eyed, no one speaking, just watching silently, as more and more people knelt down.
The strange phenomenon lasted for about half the night, until dawn, when it became as quiet as when it appeared, and the points of light began to dim and go out one by one silently.
When the last bit of blue light disappeared, the wasteland returned to darkness and silence, as if everything that had just happened was just an illusion.
But the lingering crispness in the air, the unusual cool and moist feeling of the ground beneath their feet, as if it had been soaked in dew, and the undeniable shock on their faces all proved that what had just happened was real.
"This is it."
Yang Qianchui, his voice hoarse, was the first to break the silence.
"Divine decree! Lord Jiao Shen has chosen this place."
Lu Cheng exhaled a heavy breath, as if a tremendous burden had been lifted from his shoulders.
"A wondrous phenomenon arises from the earth, in harmony with the water veins, pure and immaculate! This is a blessed land! A truly blessed land!"
Xu Zhong murmured.
Liu Laosi slowly stood up and bowed deeply to the land that had returned to darkness but was now marked.
The next day, the miraculous sight of a faint light appearing on the desolate beach at night spread throughout the entire village at an astonishing speed.
When Liu Laosi, Yang Qianchui, Lu Cheng, and others gathered the villagers again and announced that the Dragon God had given a clear divine decree, choosing the wasteland on the north bank of the Qinghe River as the site for the shrine, almost the entire village flocked to that wasteland.
The gathered crowd erupted in thunderous cheers. Just then, the crowd parted, and Lü Liang and Lü Houde walked over with heavy steps.
"Wait a minute!"
Lu Liang's face was ashen, his eyes sunken, clearly from a sleepless night, yet a last, stubborn flame burned in them. He walked straight to the front of the crowd, facing the bewildered Yang Qianchui, Lu Da, and the hundreds of eyes staring at him.
"Old Liu said that a divine revelation appeared last night, choosing this place."
Lü Liang's voice was dry, and each word seemed to be squeezed out from his throat.
"Alright, even if there were indeed strange phenomena last night, don't forget that this is Shanghe Village! Since the beginning of the village, the guardian of this land and the one worshipped by our Lü clan is the Earth God! The Earth God Temple is still there!"
Lu Liang suddenly raised his hand and pointed to the outline of the crooked and dilapidated temple at the east end of the village, as if he had grasped the last straw.
"It's not impossible for the Dragon God to establish a shrine in my village. However, it must be done in accordance with propriety and with the approval of the righteous deity of this region! Otherwise, it would be usurpation, a cuckoo occupying another's nest, which would surely incur the wrath of the gods and bring disaster once more!"
"You can build a shrine here, but only if you can prove that the local earth god agrees to the dragon god building a shrine here!"
Lu Liang took a breath and glanced at the crowd, trying to rekindle their reverence for the local temple and for orthodoxy on their still excited faces.
These words caused an uproar in the room!