On the Avenue.

Chapter 596: Unrivaled Talent
The Clay Buddha watched Chen Shi and Hei Guo walk away, his face slightly gloomy, looking up at the sky.

"The Thunder Department only blocked it and didn't send anyone into Feng'an County. It's obvious that they want to trap me and the person who caused the pollution in Feng'an County. Anyone who wants to leave will be burned to death with the Pure Yang Divine Mirror. It seems that the Thunder Department doesn't want Feng'an County to become my incense territory."

He turned and left, his figure disappeared, avoiding Zhang Xian and others who came.

Chen Shi and Hei Guo walked quickly towards the temple of Mahasthamaprapta Bodhisattva. As they walked, Chen Shi said, "Buddhism is the same as Taoism. Both follow the path of immortality and desire longevity and transcendence. However, Buddhism also follows the path of the gods, gathering incense and faith. Mahasthamaprapta Bodhisattva built his temple in Thunder Province, probably because it affected the interests of the Thunder Department. So the people in the Thunder Department did not intervene, but instead blamed each other, which led to the Heavenly Court sending us, the new recruits of the Heavenly Army Camp, to investigate the matter."

"Woof!" said Black Pot.

"You are right. The gods of thunder wanted to see the lineage of Bodhisattva Mahasthamaprapta destroyed, but they did not want to hurt the harmony among everyone, so they did not take action."

Chen Shi guessed, "There should be three forces fighting openly and secretly here. One is the Western Heaven, the second is the Thunder Department of Heaven, and the third is the immortal who arranged this move. Two are in the open, and one is in the dark. But the immortal who set up the pollution of the avenue still left a clue."

As the saying goes, clothes make the man, and Buddhas depend on gold. The temple of Mahasthamaprapta Bodhisattva is extremely luxurious and magnificent. This temple covers a large area, with three front yards and four back yards, and is divided into seven courtyards in the east and west. Each courtyard has a treasure hall, where a golden Bodhisattva is enshrined.

These palaces house various golden statues of Arhats, Vajras and other venerables. There are also Sutra Repository, Wubei Temple and disciples’ residence outside the temples.

Chen Shi came to the accounting office and captured a monk who was there. The monk was also turned into a clay figure, but luckily he survived.

"In the temple of Mahasthamaprapta Bodhisattva, there are a total of 106,000 disciples."

The mud monk said, "There are hundreds of thousands of hectares of fertile farmland, as well as forty-five immortal mountains, seventy-eight rivers, and many mines, smelters, kilns, alchemy rooms, carriage and horse shops, weapon workshops, docks, markets, and gold and silver shops under the name of the temple."

Chen Shi frowned and asked, "Although there are many disciples in your temple, can they cultivate so much land? Can they manage so many businesses?"

"Naturally, it can't be managed."

The mud monk smiled and said, "So the good farmland is left to the tenant farmers to take care of, and the mines hire laborers to make money from these people. We disciples do not engage in production, we just recite scriptures and chant Buddha's name, and practice in seclusion."

Chen Shi frowned: "You don't do any work?"

"It's definitely not doing nothing. I have to inspect the mines, supervise the tenants, and review the accounts to prevent the people below from fooling us. If I have some free time, I can ferment some fertilizer, water the flowers and grass, drink tea and enjoy the moon, which is also a kind of practice."

Chen Shi waved his hand, motioning him to go down.

The clay monk hurried out, but he walked too fast and was tripped by Black Pot's dog legs and fell to pieces.

Hei Guo gave him an apologetic look and retracted his service.

Chen Shi pretended not to see it and did not blame him.

The man and the dog continued to search the temple. In the temple, many monks gathered here and looked at them secretly.

Most of the Bodhisattvas, Vajras, and Arhats enshrined in the palace were still alive and looked at them vigilantly. If they had not seen that they were still in physical form, they would have stepped forward and questioned them.

Although the golden bodies of these Bodhisattvas, Vajras and Arhats were broken, they were still surrounded by divine power and were still quite powerful.

Chen Shi pushed aside a King Kong statue that was blocking his way, walked forward, and shouted, "The Heavenly Army is doing business, all irrelevant people should disperse! Anyone who dares to block my way will be killed without mercy."

The King Kong glared angrily and muttered, "When did the Heavenly Army become so arrogant?"

The black pot had already walked up to him, looking down at him. From his dog's eyes, he saw that the King Kong lowered his head and did not look at him.

Hei Guo withdrew his gaze and followed Chen Shi.

Chen Shi looked around and saw that the most important and most popular place was the Mahanaba Hall in the middle.

A man and a dog came to the incense burner in the palace. The incense burner was more than twenty feet long and four feet wide, with a dome on top. It was black from smoke and fire, and was filled with incense ashes and unburned incense residue.

Hei Guo searched among the incense ashes and finally found a stick of incense that was only an inch long.

"Is this the incense stick that destroyed the golden statue of Mahasthamaprapta Bodhisattva?"

Chen Shi looked at the remaining incense. There was a strange power hidden in the remaining incense, which was the power of another way. This power was extremely dark and was not in the Yin and Yang ways. I think this was the reason why the Yin and Yang Taoist temple could not deal with it.

"However, there is another power here that is very familiar..."

Chen Shi was a little surprised, and sensed it carefully. The other power in the lingering fragrance was very faint and barely detectable, but it was not easy to hide it from him because he had sensed similar power in many gods.

"Is it Shinto? No, it doesn't look like it... It still contains the Way of Immortality, but it should be the Way of Immortality that evolved from Shinto! Strange, strange..."

He hesitated for a moment, then lit the remaining incense.

The remaining fragrance lit up a scarlet flame and burned slowly, but the aroma did not drift towards Chen Shi, but drifted in another direction.

This stick of incense is offered to the clay Buddha, so the fragrance will naturally drift towards the direction of the clay Buddha.

In the fragrance, the power of darkness suddenly surged, at the same time, the elusive divine power suddenly amplified several times!
Chen Shi smiled. It was indeed the way of immortals, not the way of gods.

"Black Pot, the development of the immortal way and the divine way has been difficult to communicate with each other until now, but legend has it that during the Three Pure Ones period, the Three Pure Ones master understood the mysteries of the immortal way from the witch ritual patterns of the Shang Dynasty. The further development of the witch ritual patterns is the current divine way."

Chen Shi threw away the remaining incense, walked out, and said with a smile, "Therefore, whether it is the immortal way or the divine way, they all have a common source, which is the witch sacrifice Dao pattern. If you understand this, you can open up the divine way and the immortal way. This is what grandpa and Uncle Xiaowu are doing now."

Hei Guo hurried to catch up with him. Hei Guo also knew something about what Chen Yindu and Creator Xiao Wu were doing, which was to use talismans as the basis to re-evolve the Dao patterns of the immortal way.

The structure of the talisman is exactly the same as that of many gods of the Shang Dynasty. That is why Chen Shi said that they were trying to connect the way of gods and the way of immortals.

Chen Shi flew into the air, searching as he continued, "But the man who used the incense poison to spread the pollution of the avenue, somehow, actually opened up the divine way and the immortal way. This man is a genius. Although he only opened up the divine and immortal way of his lineage, this move is still extremely remarkable. His master must be a god, and a land god at that."

He flew several hundred miles and suddenly seemed to see something. His eyes lit up and he landed gracefully.

Hei Guo quickly followed him and saw that this was a land temple. Compared with the temple of Mahasthamaprapta Bodhisattva, this one looked much more shabby.

The land temple is a house that is not as tall as a person. It has no yard and a fire pit in front where you can burn paper money. The incense burner is an earthen slope about a foot high, and you can just stick incense sticks on the slope.

This temple must be very old. There are couplets on both sides of the gate, but the words are blurred and can no longer be seen clearly.

Judging from the incense, the temple should be the ancestral temple of the land temple in Feng'an County. The incense is very ancient, and the fragrance of the incense can be traced back to the prayers of people three hundred thousand years ago.

An ancestral temple with so few offerings and almost forgotten, it shows that the land god of this ancestral temple is not very powerful.

Chen Shi looked around and did not find the land god in the temple. The shrine was empty. He saw a village nearby and walked over.

There were only a few families in the village, and they were also affected by the pollution of the road and turned into mud figures.

Chen Shi came to the village and found an old clay figure. He asked, "I am a fairy official from the heavenly court. I have something to ask you. Are there any cultivators in your village?"

The old clay man said, "Monk? Never."

Chen Shi smiled and asked, "Is there anyone taking care of the land temple outside the village?" "Oh, there is a young man named Xiangxiu, whose surname is Chu. He has a very strange temper and is always talking to himself. He lives in the house over there."

The old clay man said, "He is a child adopted by the God of Land. He usually cleans the God of Land Temple. I heard that he worshipped the God of Land as his master. But he should not be a monk, right?"

Chen Shi smiled and said, "It's hard to say. Maybe some people are extremely talented and can practice with the gods."

He brought the black pot to Chu Xiangxiu's house. The door was not locked and opened with a push.

There was no one in the room, and there were papers everywhere, often with various talismans on them.

Chen Shi picked up the papers and looked at them one by one. The talismans drawn on the papers were very strange. They were various forms of the Earth God, and there were also divine patterns of earth gods. Obviously, the Earth God of the ancestral temple did not know how to practice, and could only teach him the knowledge of the way of gods.

Chen Shi kept flipping through the pages and saw that the talismans on the paper were gradually evolving. The patterns of the earth gods were also evolving and turning into patterns of Taoism.

He raised his eyebrows. This Chu Xiangxiu actually comprehended the wonders of the transformation of gods and immortals from the Shintoism. The Shintoism taught to him by the land god in the ancestral temple was used by him to walk a path to becoming an immortal!

"Amazing, really amazing! There are so many talented people in the Earthly Immortal Realm, and this person's wisdom is not inferior to mine!"

Chen Shi was full of praise and said to Hei Guo, "Chu Xiangxiu has done something amazing, and is no less impressive than Tian Zhen Taoist."

As he was speaking, a clay figure walked in from outside. He was thin and tall, one or two centimeters taller than Chen Shi, and was wearing cloth clothes. His shoulders and neck were hunched, probably because he often kept his head down.

He was quite surprised to see Chen Shi and Hei Guo.

Chen Shi smiled and said, "Chen Shi from the Heavenly Army Camp, this is my junior fellow apprentice Hei Guo, who has been ordered by the Heavenly King to investigate the case of the Clay Buddha. Greetings, Fellow Daoist Chu."

The clay figure was Chu Xiangxiu, who looked a little shy.

Chen Shi smiled and said, "Fellow Daoist Chu, please take a seat."

Chu Xiangxiu came to the dining table and sat down, lowered her head and closed her legs.

Chen Shi stood opposite him.

The Chu family had nothing but bare walls. There was no main room for receiving guests, nor any armchairs or round tables. There were only two stools and a wooden table.

Chen Shi did not sit on the other stool, but remained standing. He smiled and said, "Fellow Daoist Chu, this stool is your master's stool, right? You two, master and disciple, eat here occasionally, right?"

Chu Xiangxiu's mouth twitched: "Yes. I was adopted by the master, and he would come to my house occasionally."

Chen Shi smiled and said, "Your master is very kind and treats you very well."

Chu Xiangxiu raised her head and met his gaze, still a little shy, and said, "Master has been very kind to me."

Chen Shi asked, "The God of Land follows the path of incense and gods, but you are a living person. Even if you preach in Feng'an County and gather faith, you are still following the path of gods. How did you become an immortal?"

Chu Xiangxiu stood up, and Hei Guo held the iron ruler tightly, baring his teeth. Chen Shi waved his hand, indicating that Hei Guo didn't need to do this.

Chu Xiangxiu came to the pile of papers, took out the talismans and Taoist patterns he had drawn, and said, "That's it."

Chen Shi smiled and praised, "Fellow Daoist Chu, you are a genius. You have transformed the way of gods into the way of immortals, which is amazing."

Chu Xiangxiu raised her head in surprise: "Do you understand?"

He lowered his head again, his voice a little dark and sad: "No one else can understand it. I asked them about it, and they said it was a ghost painting."

Chen Shi smiled and said, "In the whole world, even the immortals are mostly mediocre. There are not many people who can understand you. I am one of them."

Chu Xiangxiu's eyes gradually brightened, a smile appeared on her face, and she talked more.

"When Master adopted me, there was a famine here. I followed my parents to escape and came here. My parents starved to death and I fainted from hunger. Master used the offerings from his temple to save me. From then on, I followed Master."

When he spoke to Chen Shi, it was as if he was talking to himself.

"Many people from nearby villages and towns came to ask the master for advice. Some had lost something, some had lost a child, or their fields were overgrown with weeds or locusts. They all came to him to ask for help. The gifts they brought were not many, just some fruits and vegetables. I followed the master and grew up on these fruits and vegetables."

"Master said he didn't know how to practice, so he passed these things to me. I couldn't practice either, but I looked at these things every day and gradually understood their meaning. I helped Master do things and helped people drive away insects, find things, and remove weeds..."

Chen Shi thought to himself: "This level of understanding seems to be higher than mine."

"You have been practicing for so long, you must have achieved the Tao, right?" Chen Shi asked.

Chu Xiangxiu said, "I don't know what my cultivation level is. I just felt that one day, lightning struck me for no reason, and after it struck, there was fairy air and light floating over me. My master told me that I would merge with the Tao. Although he is the land god of Feng'an County, there is no place for me to merge with the Tao in Feng'an County. He is a small god, and I need a large place to merge with the Tao, and he can't get such a place. I didn't want to trouble him, but he said that if I didn't merge with the Tao, I would die in a few years."

Chen Shi's heart moved slightly, and he said, "Where are you going to Hedao?"

"Master said that the world of earthly immortals all has an owner. Without power and influence, it is impossible to be in harmony with the Tao."

Chu Xiangxiu pursed her lips and said, "If you want to merge with the Dao, you have to go to the Dark Sea. So I ran away. The Dark Sea is very far away. I have been walking for more than ten years."

Chen Shi raised his eyebrows and asked, "What strange things did you encounter when you merged with the Dao in the dark sea?"

Chu Xiangxiu looked at his hands, which were also made of clay, and said, "To be in harmony with the Dao means to be in harmony with the Dao of heaven and earth. The Dao in the dark sea may be a little strange. It took me a lot of effort and several decades to succeed in being in harmony with the Dao."

Chen Shi stared at his hands and said, "Have you brought the avenue of the dark sea into the earthly immortal world?"

Chu Xiangxiu said: "Aren't you the same?"

Chen Shi raised his eyes and met his gaze. They looked at each other and then looked away.

Chen Shi said, "What happened after you came back? Why did your master disappear?"

Chu Xiangxiu stared at her hands again and said, "He must be dead. I left for almost fifty years, and when I came back, there was no one in the temple. Few people around here believe in the God of Land anymore, and they believe in Bodhisattva instead. I asked many people, but no one knew how he died. He was the God of Land in Feng'an County, so how could he die..."

He rubbed his fingers together, causing the dirt to fall off.

Chen Shi said: "You have no evidence that it was done by Mahasthamaprapta Bodhisattva."

"Yes. I have no evidence."

Chu Xiangxiu lowered her head, water flowed out of her clay eye sockets, moistened her clay eyeballs, and then fell down with a patter, saying, "I don't know who did it. But I know who benefited. The person who got the biggest benefit must have a problem! So, I used the soil from my master's temple to make an incense stick...Are you here to arrest me and take me back to heaven for trial? I will not sit still and wait for death."

Chen Shi said in a deep voice: "You cast a spell to bring rain and killed many people. I was ordered to come here to investigate the case and I had to take you back."

Chu Xiangxiu shook her head and said, "I didn't cast a spell to make it rain. I just went out to find out who did it."

(End of this chapter)