Chapter 546 - Holy Temple
Naturally, the family of Wuzhong would not dare to go after Shen Lian directly, so they had to go for Ah Lian instead.
Their request was simple, to be a.s.sociated with Shen Lian the great State Preceptor of Xia empire through Ah Lian, even if it meant becoming Shen Lian"s slaves.
Ah Lian could fend them off for a day or two, but she could not endure their pester day and night, so she finally entered the Qing Xuan Cave to see Shen Lian.
Qing Xuan Cave had almost a hundred stone rooms, large or small. Shen Lian"s was the largest and brightly lit even without any fire torch or night glowing pearl.
Ah Lian was already familiar with this sight, having seen this a few times.
In the middle of the stone room, Shen Lian sat on a stone couch in lotus position, his mind in a fugue of the universe, and his body surrounded by lotus shaped Qi of Dao, full of celestial charisma as if there was a galaxy around him.
Below the stone couch lied the black tiger, dozing lazily, only when Ah Lian entered it finally opened its eyes to examine her.
Ah Lian cautiously walked towards the stone couch and stopped five steps away from it, she was still slightly afraid of the black tiger. Shen Lian opened his eyes too, and the magical sight subsequently vanished. He fixed his eyes towards her.
Ah Lian went straight to the point on why she went to see him, and nervously expecting his reply.
Shen Lian asked, "You couldn"t say no to them?"
Ah Lian looked at Shen Lian"s calm look and felt slightly uneasy. This celestial teacher was usually very mild-mannered, but she felt like she had done something wrong this time, so she feared Shen Lian would scold her.
Ah Lian nodded slightly, "They would not stop pestering me."
Shen Lian sighed, "Since I have taken over this mountain, it would be considered that I had some connection with you lot from the Wuzhong"s. Alright, you shall descend the mountain and ask them to erect a statue of me, and then build a holy temple around it. If they are sincere towards me, they will be rewarded. If they are not, you shall leave them be."
Ah Lian let out a sigh of relief. Fortunately, celestial teacher did not blame her, he even provided a solution.
She nodded, "I shall respond to them right away."
Shen Lian added, "Also, once you have descended, you do not have to stay in Qing Xuan Cave anymore. Just go together with your daughter."
Ah Lian was shocked. She replied bitterly, "Are you blaming me for causing you trouble, celestial teacher?"
"You are no longer the woman whom everyone could bully. So, you shall return to where you came from," Shen Lian answered. Actually, if she could purify her heart and stay out of the mortal world, Shen Lian would not let her descend. However she could not achieve that, and it would be better to send her back.
Not everyone was made to be a cultivator, as there were too many temptations in the world, even celestials and G.o.ds had hard times getting rid of them.
Ah Lian did not argue. She kneeled and kowtowed towards Shen Lian and said, "Your servant know very well I cannot repay all the good deeds celestial teacher have done for me and my daughter. As soon as the holy temple is built, I will wors.h.i.+p celestial teacher every day and night."
Shen Lian smiled lightly and waved for her leave. He actually did not expect any repayment from Ah Lian, but mortals were heavy hearted. If he did not agree to any repayment, they could not have peace.
Ah Lian went back to her own stone room and left with her daughter.
Shen Lian had not start forging his sword yet. He was waiting for an opportunity, which was when the blood of the people flow as they were being killed by the King. He had to wait for the Xia"s Emperor to take over Mount Meng, which he would collect the burning killing vibes to forge the sword tip, and then only he could create this killing sword at once.
After all, he was still the State Preceptor of Xia. He could use this killing fortune occurred from the battle between Xia Kingdom and the Eastern Barbarians. However, this would mean further deepening his karma with Xia.
But since karma was everywhere, one could not see it nor touch it, therefore it was futile to run from it.
The thought for Ah Lian to build the holy temple was not born at a brink of the moment. His true intention was that he wanted to explore the path of Shen.
There were five immortals in the world, namely heaven, land, human, G.o.ds, and demons, all with the path to immortality. Shen Lian had achieved the paths of heavenly immortal and land immortal, the most superior among the five. However, the human, G.o.ds, and demons were also pa.s.sed down from ancient times with very contrasting paths, but with the same destination, as these three would be followed up by the heaven immortals.
After all, Shen Lian was determined to escape the barriers of his predecessors and explore the paths of Dao himself. He would have to make multiple trials to seek for the best path.
All these were slow efforts which could not be succeeded with haste; hence Shen Lian was patient about it.
He planned to refine his own True Samadhi Fire and wait patiently.
Ah Lian"s breathing method was an authentic Xuanmen technique, enabling her to be more calm and collected. She was never the weak girl from the past when she faced her tribesmen. She transpired the orders from Shen Lian, and even made many detailed arrangements for this.
The holy temple was erected in only five days, but without a name. Everyone only knew that the statue was of Celestial Teacher Qing Xuan.
Celestial Teacher Qing Xuan was not a G.o.d who answered every prayer. All from the Wuzhong"s were well aware of that.
However, after praying for a few days, none had their prayers answered, so they were quite disappointed. Some even took this up on Ah Lian.
But there was one thing that everyone did not expect. Since the temple was built, Ah Lian prayed there day and night. Soon, an ineffable halo appeared around her body. When those complainers went near her, the halo would shock them and sent them flying, and the others who went near Ah Lian were unharmed. Soon people gradually understood. This was not because of Ah Lian"s high mana level. One must not visit the temple with ill intentions, whether it was towards Ah Lian or Celestial Teacher Qing Xuan.
Slowly, everyone started to respect and wors.h.i.+pped Celestial Teacher Qing Xuan like a real G.o.d. And people started to dream of a celestial, and his face was exactly the face of the celestial teacher.
Those who dreamt of the celestial teacher would find it easier to cultivate magic spells and Dao techniques.
From then onwards, everyone had no doubt in Ah Lian, and she naturally became the temple attendant of the temple.
As people started to wors.h.i.+p religiously, Ah Lian could see some gaseous aura which looked like floccule gathering towards Qing Xuan Cave. Even she was able to take in some of those. Whenever the floccule shaped gas entered her body, she felt so comfortable as if she was soaked in a warm water bath. At the same time, she could clearly feel the changes in her flesh and blood, good changes.
She even knew that this floccule form gas was emitted from the tribesmen and only those who wors.h.i.+pped religiously would emit these.
Ah Lian felt the benefits of these floccule form gas, and eventually started to think of ways to make more people come to wors.h.i.+p the celestial teacher since she had no other ways to repay his deeds, and this floccule gas was obviously a good thing and all gathering towards the celestial teacher.
The more she could think of, the better she could repay the celestial teacher.
Ah Lian"s thoughts were clearly reflected Shen Lian"s heart. He was not peaking at Ah Lian"s spirit intentionally. It was just a unique relations.h.i.+p between the two, built on belief and spirituality.