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River Deity Temple

This temple was built atop a ravine, near a dam. The water that flowed beneath went on for hundreds of kilometers ahead. It was a night in early spring and the rain had turned to a light drizzle. The wind which blew across the land was cold and caused some of them to shiver.

A single oxcart cruised down the streets in the middle of the night. The bell which used to hang from the neck of the ox had long been removed. Someone held onto a lantern, the light from it shined brightly.

In the depths of the night, everywhere was dark and gloomy.

The oxcart pulled to a halt of a sudden, where the sound of rushing water could be heard. A temple could be seen in the distance and a pair of lanterns hung from the main red gate of the temple.

When they reached the entrance, the female sect leader and Pei Zi Yun alighted before they walked into the temple.

This temple wasn’t considered rundown, but it also wasn’t very magnificent as well. There was a stone tablet which looked rather weathered and old. The words on the tablet had started to fade, but it read: River Deity’s Tablet.

When Pei Zi Yun looked up, he realized that he had walked into the main hall. There were several candles placed within the halls and the statue of the deity dressed in official robes sat in the middle. Its face was stern and intimidating.

Next to the main hall were the statues of a magistrate and another official. Likewise, the pair of statues looked fearsome and intimidating. When Pei Zi Yun looked up at these statues, he then understood the reason these statues looked so ferocious. Since the River Deity dwelt within the river, he was often exposed to the harsh elements and fearsome weather. Hence, having to deal with the violent currents meant that he should also be forceful and strong. That was the reason he was sculpted in such a manner.

Besides, the civilians in this era were often fearful and obedient when there was a strong and stern deity, rather than one who led with justice and righteousness.

In order to use this River Deity’s compound, as well as to use the presence of the River Deity to mediate between crimes, permission had to be asked sincerely and genuinely.

The female sect leader looked up at the River Deity and took out six sticks of incense. She then handed three of them to Pei Zi Yun, "Dao Master Pei, only with this special incense will you be able to communicate with the River Deity."

Hearing these words, Pei Zi Yun wasn’t surprised. Such incense was the method of the relevant sects.

Pei Zi Yun received the incense and allowed the Sect Leader to light them. Streams of green smoke wafted into the air as the both of them stepped forward and placed them within the incense burner.

They then retrieved an amulet and wrote down several words. The Sect Leader then used some Dao arts and allowed the amulets to burn.

Pei Zi Yun then bowed deeply, "Free Cloud Sect, Sect Leader Pei Zi Yun pays his respects to River Deity. We wish to borrow this sacred ground."

He then retrieved the Crown Prince’s Tile and pressed it once.

Spiritual Realm, River Deity’s Hall

Everything that the eye could take in was pitch black. A long river flowed in the middle, and the current was extremely violent. The currents could be heard as the water crashed against the rocks.

In the middle of the river was a hall, it was held up by numerous large crystals of water. The River Deity’s Hall was different from the other halls, for it had no roof over it. The windows were all open. From within the hall, all one had to do was to stretch his head out and he could see the river. Water surrounded the entire hall, and yet it didn’t get into the hall.

There were also many different species of aquatic animals within, including fish, prawns, and turtles.

Within the hall, there were three large words which read, "River Deity’s Hall" were in red. The hall was split into two rows. The first row included the magistrate as well as the spirit official. The next row was filled with crab and prawn soldiers.

The hall was gloomy and dark. All of a sudden, the sound of a dragon roaring could be heard. River Deity which sat on his throne as he awoke, "Is there a noble here in my hall?"

He stretched out his hands and a pair of Daoists which were illuminated like incense sticks appeared. In that second, the hall was lit up magnificently in bright white light. The River Deity inhaled deeply and sucked in the light from the incense.

All of a sudden, a letter descended from above, bearing with it faint white light as well. As soon as this luminescent letter came down, the spirit minister retrieved it and took a look as he trembled. He then passed the letter up, and whispered, "Master, there’s a letter here, it seems like they need your help."

Hearing the words of the spirit minister, the River Deity picked up the letter and read it, and seemed somewhat frustrated by it. He leaned against the seat, as he tapped the armrest and frowned.

The scent from the incense brought a certain atmosphere into the halls, which made the River Deity feel extremely comfortable. The smell from the incense didn’t dissipate for a long time. He then sighed, "This noble person brought me some special incense, which means he’s anything but an ordinary man. It’s just that his request is hard to agree to."

The River Deity pondered for some time, his eyes seemed to contain some ripples. At this point, the spirit official retrieved a notebook and bowed before waiting for his reply.

The smoke from the incense surrounded the area as Pei Zi Yun took several steps forward. He then looked at the Sect Leader and asked, "The River Deity hasn’t replied yet?"

The Sect Leader paused before she replied, "The River Deity is probably still considering."

The River Deity cast a glance at his own great hall and thought about how broken down and dilapidated it once was. Soon after, he cast his support for a scholar, who made it big and started spreading the word of the River Deity. That was how he had become prosperous.

At this point, he then mumbled to himself, "The affairs of this world should always be dealt with by moving forward and never looking back. Although there are disasters and calamities in the world, there are also good fortunes. Maybe I should support this noble person too."

Thinking this way, the River Deity had a plan. He looked at the spirit minister and instructed, "I shall grant their request since they have the Crown Prince’s Tile on them. I’m not overstepping and still operating within my domain. This also will help me with the Imperial Qi and might help me garner a better reputation. This is to my advantage, although it has arisen from a misfortune. Tell them this."

As the River Deity spoke, the spirit minister wrote everything that he said in preparation for a reply.

The River Deity then thought to himself before he said, "One more thing, I don’t allow executions to be carried out in my hall. I won’t allow anyone to die here. Using my sacred ground is one thing. But to carry out executions or to kill someone here would be extremely bad for me."

"Yes, master." The spirit minister finished writing and handed it over to him to check. When the River Deity saw it, he spoke, "Send it."

Great Hall

Pei Zi Yun and the Sect Leader stood before the statue as the incense wafted decadently. Smoke rose up to the ceiling. From time to time, the candles would sway under the wind, and looked rather mysterious.

The pair seemed to sense something happening as they looked up towards the statue of the deity. They could see tiny rays of light on the statue, and yet it looked rather awe-inspiring. Soon after, a red word formed over the incense burner which read: "Proceed"

Soon after, a message was sent in the form of wisps of energy. Pei Zi Yun closed his eyes and felt the message course through his mind, "The River Deity has permitted it, but we’re not to use any punishments or kill anyone within the temple. We can agree to these conditions."

"We can use this ground now."

When the female sect leader heard this, she nodded her head, "Alright, let’s set up the spell perimeter."

As he spoke, she then called for several of the Daoists to enter the hall and start their preparations. Before long, an earthen altar had been set up. There were many complex inscriptions within the altar and several drawings within. The drawings resembled that of the sun and moon along with the drawings of men.

Gradually, the earthen altar and the light from the deity’s statue started to fuse together.

After they were done with these preparations, they waited for some time before they heared some movement outside, where oxcarts had arrived. A group of people were dragged out of the oxcart. When Pei ZI Yun glanced at them, they saw that their captives were unconscious.

"Sect Leader, Dao Master Qi Ning, our mission was successful. We rushed to the magistrate’s office and noticed that some of the guards were suspicious. We thus used several enchantments which rendered us invisible to them."

"Once we entered, we didn’t go for the magistrate as instructed. Instead, we found several old servants and used the incense on them, which cause them to fall unconscious. We dragged them out before coming here. Nobody saw us."

"You’ve done well." Pei Zi Yun praised them as he turned to look at the Sect Leader. The Sect Leader then tapped the spell surrounding the earthen altar, and caused it to emit faint buzzing light and instructed them, "Bring them up here."

As she finished speaking, the Sect Leader took out three sticks of incense and placed them within the burner, "This is our secret incense, and is extremely effective."

As soon as the incense was lit, the entire hall seemed to glow in a strange way and caused Pei Zi Yun to feel dizzy, as though he was about to faint.

After sniffing at the incense, the Sect Leader then spoke, "Dao Master Pei, this incense only has strong effects on normal people. All you have to do is to circulate you Dao arts within your body, and you will be fine."

Pei Zi Yun nodded his head and even intentionally inhaled deeply to experience how these normal mortals would feel.

Free Cloud Sect’s expertise was in fighting and Dao arts. True Element Sect took a different approach and often used incense to induce sleepiness and unconsciousness. Just by sniffing this incense would cause someone to feel slightly inebriated.

It seemed like there were many different ingredients within this particular incense which would intentionally cause the subject to feel dizzy. Pei Zi Yun thus conjured his Dao arts around his body and felt the dizziness disappear. He realized that this could be very useful. As long as a person wasn’t careful, he might fall prey to this incense, which would make him easy to kill.

Just as he was deep in thought, several Daoists dragged the servants in and placed them within the spell perimeter, near the earthen altar. The female sect leader then instructed, "Let’s begin then!"

The incense started to waft towards the earthen altar as it congealed around it. Some of these servants now breathed in the incense. Their eyes rolled beneath their closed eyelids, as they continued to dream.

Some of these Daoists started to chant, as the light from the altar glowed before it fused with these servants.

The sky was dark at this point, and it had started to rain once again.

Pei Zi Yun looked up and paid attention to what was happening. When everything first started, he thought that this was a rather fresh experience. However, after being subjected to the teachings of the Plum Blossom, he realized that most of these methods had the same underlying intent but with different approaches.

After looking at the group of servants lying unconscious, he cast his glance outside and noticed that the rain still fell, and the sky were overcast with dark clouds. Raindrops poured into the ravine.

"Since the Daoist man had been struck by the lightning tribulation, all his memories regarding the Dragon Veins had disappeared."

"Unless I spend as much as time as him, painstakingly locating the Dragon Veins, the other alternative according to my memories would be to find the imperial tutor. That was because the Daoist handed the map to his tutor before he died."

"The imperial tutor was murdered by bandits. Hence, there are only two possible outcomes for the map. One is that the bandits took it, or that the last remaining offspring to the imperial tutor possesses it."

"It seems like the chances are higher that his son took it."

"Especially since the Daoist knew that he would come under the wrath of the heavens, thus would’ve left the maps at the refuge point."

"I don’t remember where the refuge point is, but am sure is somewhere in a village atop the Dragon Veins."

"Killing the latent dragon was a sin to the heavens, and thus all his offspring were subjected to the backlash. However, they weren’t in direct contact with the Daoists, thus the backlash was significantly reduced."

"Of course when it came to this Daoist or his imperial tutor, they wouldn’t have been able to escape from it. Even if they escaped to the refuge point, it wouldn’t have made any difference to their outcome. There was only impending doom as their destiny. However, the sins residing within their offspring wouldn’t be much now, the sin would probably vanish over time as long as they wouldn’t do anything to incur the wrath of the heavens once again."

"I need to find the maps of the Dragon Veins and thus be able to play a part in this." Pei Zi Yun thought to himself when someone interrupted him, "Dao Master Pei, have you experienced this before?"

Pei Zi Yun heard this and laughed before he asked, "Could there be more than meets the eye?"

"There are many ways which we can interfere with these dreams. This is one of the skills our sect is known for." The Sect Leader replied.

Pei Zi Yun then understood. This was one of the skills some of these Daoists possess, to discern the truth from dreams. The Sect Leader then whipped out a Dao infused mirror and laughed, "We’re starting to see a clearer picture now. We can see from this mirror how they’ve been treated?"

Within seconds, the mirror lit up as the Sect Leader imbued more energy within. Everyone’s eyes turned towards the mirror and looked in. It was dark at first, but light started to show up on the mirror, and some shadows began to emerge.