Volume 2: The Demonic World Chapter 104 Luotian Grand Ceremony
It has been two months since Lin Qianxing returned to Sanbao Temple.
Lin Qianxing has not been idle in the past two months. He has been moving around to help people solve problems related to ghosts and monsters, while also investigating the affairs of the Ghost Kingdom.
Then he discovered that the Ghost Kingdom seemed independent of reality. Like the underworld, it was a ghost domain opened up by the Ghost Emperor.
If there were no corresponding means, it would not be easy for Lin Qianxing to go there.
It was early May.
Gongsun Zhan suddenly found Lin Qianxing and told him something.
"On the fifteenth of next month is the Luotian Grand Ceremony, which is held once every thirty years in the cultivation world. You should prepare something and I will take you to participate." Gongsun Zhan said.
The spiritual world has always had the custom of holding fasting and prayer ceremonies. Many sects hold a small prayer ceremony every three years and a large prayer ceremony every five years.
Every thirty years, a large-scale ceremony is held to worship the many gods and elders in the underworld and pray for their blessings. Many practitioners will also take this opportunity to exchange ideas on spiritual practice.
The only memories that Lin Qianxing inherited were scenes of attending small religious ceremonies. He had never participated in such a grand event for the entire cultivation world.
"Master, which sect is hosting this event?" Lin Qianxing asked.
"This Luotian Grand Ceremony is hosted by the Xishan Sect where your uncle Lu Yao is from." Gongsun Zhan replied.
"I understand." Lin Qianxing nodded and replied.
He didn't need to prepare much, mainly just Lei Sheng's matters needed to be arranged in advance.
After all, it is impossible for Lin Qianxing to bring such a purple zombie to participate in the Luotian Grand Ceremony, right?
So Lin Qianxing could only let Lei Sheng stay at Sanbaoguan home.
Of course, Lei Sheng is a zombie after all, so Lin Qianxing is not completely confident in him.
So they dug an ice cellar for him in advance, stored blood and other food, and repeatedly reminded him not to run around to feel at ease.
As for Lei Sheng, his brain is actually very simple, and normally it doesn't even work very well. He just has to do whatever Lin Qianxing says. He has enough food and drink anyway, so why would he have nothing better to do than to cause trouble?
As a Dharma protector, he was obviously very qualified in this regard.
Soon, it was June 15th.
After Lin Qianxing and Gongsun Zhan put on their Taoist robes , they left Sanbao Temple together and headed for Xishan.
Both of them cast spells and flew on the wind, looking quite ethereal.
As they walked forward, Gongsun Zhan also added and reminded Lin Qianxing of some details, and occasionally told some related stories.
Lin Qianxing listened with great interest and gained an even deeper understanding of this world.
About an hour later, Lin Qianxing and Gongsun Zhan arrived at Xishan.
Compared with Yushan Mountain, Xishan Mountain is taller, and the buildings there are more magnificent and splendid. Statues of gods and the smell of incense can be seen everywhere.
All this is because the Xishan Sect itself is the inheritor of the lineage of summoning gods spells.
They specialize in incantations to summon gods. After becoming a disciple, they must choose a god of a certain path to worship, burning at least one stick of incense every day without interruption.
Because of this, they have a very good relationship with the gods in the underworld, and the success rate of their spells to summon gods has reached over 80 percent.
Even for some daily trivial matters, they can ask the Yin God for help, and the Yin God is happy to cooperate.
When they arrived at the mountain gate, Gongsun Zhan showed the invitation, and then Lin Qianxing and Gongsun Zhan were respectfully invited into Xishan Sect by the disciple in charge of reception, and came directly to the current leader of Xishan Sect, Lu Yao.
Lu Yao looked to be about forty years old. He was wearing a purple Bagua Taoist robe and a golden crown on his head. Compared to ordinary Taoists, he looked a lot richer and had some similarities with Gongsun Youcai, the founder of incantations.
He bowed to Gongsun Zhan and said, "Junior Brother Gongsun, it has been seven years since we last met. Now that we meet again, you are still as charming as ever!"
"Brother Lu Yao, you are too kind. Compared with you, I am still far behind!" Gongsun Zhan said modestly.
Lu Yao smiled, looked at Lin Qianxing and said, "This is Qianxing, right? You have grown up and become more stable. With you in Sanbao Temple in the future, we don't have to worry about ruining the reputation of the main lineage."
"Uncle Master, you are too kind." Lin Qianxing also replied modestly.
After some greetings, Lu Yao personally took Gongsun Zhan and Lin Qianxing to the resting place. As they walked, Lu Yao asked Gongsun Zhan, "Junior brother, I heard that you injured your soul when you asked the gods to deal with a thousand-year-old ghost king. I wonder if you have recovered completely? If not, I have some calming incense here..."
"Thank you for your concern, senior brother. However, after I eliminated the Ghost King and returned to Sanbao Temple, I swallowed a soul-nourishing pill. After recuperating for two years, my injuries have now healed." Gongsun Zhan replied.
"I've thought too much. How can the foundation of my Xishan Sect compare to that of Sanbao Temple!" Lu Yao sighed repeatedly.
During the conversation, Gongsun Zhan was also brought to the rest room, and then Lu Yao turned and left.
As the organizer, Lu Yao can be said to be very busy now. After all, the Luotian Grand Ceremony is not an ordinary ceremony. There are too many things to pay attention to. If Gongsun Zhan had not come, he would not have taken the time to accompany him.
After a while, some more people from the sect arrived and were sent to a nearby rest room.
Lin Qianxing even met Feng Yiyin, his uncle who had engraved a body curse on him.
However, the two sides just greeted each other, and then Feng Yiyin left with his disciples. When leaving, Lin Qianxing saw one of the female disciples, who was about 1.7 meters tall, blinked at him and stretched out her hand to greet him.
Lin Qianxing felt that the face looked familiar. After a moment's thought, he realized that it was Zhong Ying whom he had met three years ago. He did not expect that in just three years, the other party had grown so taller and his face had become much more mature.
If you calculate carefully, Zhong Ying is only fifteen years old this year, right?
I remember that when Lin Qianxing saw her three years ago, she was only a little over 1.4 meters tall. What did she eat in these three years to grow so fast?
Isn’t this bone too outrageous?
No wonder he was accepted as a disciple by Feng Yiyin. I'm afraid that in less than two years, Zhong Ying will grow taller than him.
"Why, are you staring at the girl all the time? If you think it's appropriate, I can tell your uncle-master Feng. I'm sure she would be happy to let Zhong Ying marry into Sanbao Temple." Gongsun Zhan couldn't help but ask when he noticed that Lin Qianxing was staring at Zhong Ying with a distracted look.
"Master, please don't tease me. I am wholeheartedly seeking the truth and don't care about matters between men and women." Lin Qianxing quickly shook his head.
"We ascetics are also human beings. If we restrict our sexual desires too much, it may sometimes backfire," said Gongsun Zhan.
Ever since he asked Lin Qianxing to go down the mountain to perform rituals more than three years ago, Lin Qianxing has changed a lot. He began to have his own opinions, his personality became much more stable, and his talent suddenly became outrageous.
If Gongsun Zhan had not been observing Lin Qianxing, he would have really doubted whether Lin Qianxing had been replaced.
However, sometimes it is not a good thing for this disciple to be too mature.
At such a young age, he already acted like an old man who had seen through the world, which made Gongsun Zhan a little worried.
Lin Qianxing is now almost twenty years old. Even considering the long lifespan of cultivators, it is time for him to get married.
"Master, don't just blame me. When will you find me a mistress?" Lin Qianxing rolled his eyes.
Gongsun Zhan smiled and said, "Your master's wife is just an ordinary person. She died of old age when I was 85. Thanks to the good deeds she did back then, she is now serving as a sweeper in the Samsara Hall of the underworld. Every year on her death anniversary, I make a puppet and use a spell to summon the gods to let her come up and reunite with me."
Lin Qianxing blinked his eyes. He really had no memory of this. He asked in confusion, "Master, why have you never told me this? And why is there no tablet of Master's wife in the Taoist temple?"
"I didn't tell you because there was no need. The dead are gone, separated by the Yin and Yang worlds. What's the point of you knowing? It's enough for me to remember your master's wife!" Gongsun Zhan paused for a moment after explaining this, and then continued: "As for the spirit tablet, I can see her spirit every year, and I don't need to rely on a tablet to express my longing for her."
Lin Qianxing's mouth twitched, and suddenly he seemed to have thought of something. He said, "Master, Master's wife is working as a sweeper in the underworld. She has also been removed from the register of the dead, right?"
"That's right." Gongsun Zhan nodded.
"Then what is the difference between the Yin God of the Underworld and the Ghost Kingdom of Jiaoshan?" Lin Qianxing asked puzzledly.
“None of the ghosts in the Jiaoshan Ghost Kingdom will help maintain reincarnation and the order of heaven and earth. Moreover, even the Yin gods in the underworld have a lifespan. They need to accumulate Yin virtues to increase their Yin lifespan. If their Yin lifespan is used up, they will need to reincarnate.” Gongsun Zhan said.
Lin Qianxing widened his eyes, because he suddenly discovered that the treatment in Jiaoshan Ghost Kingdom seemed to be better than that in the underworld.
After death in the underworld, the ghosts need to continue working to help maintain the order of the cycle of heaven and earth in order to earn their own lifespan and maintain their own lifespan as ghosts, but the residents of the Jiaoshan Ghost Kingdom simply erase their names from the register of the dead and do not enter the cycle of reincarnation.
Thinking about it this way, Lin Qianxing felt that being a Yin God was a completely hopeless path. In comparison, it would be better to join the Jiaoshan Ghost Kingdom!
"Do you think Jiaoshan is better than the underworld?" Gongsun Zhan asked, as if he could see what Lin Qianxing was thinking.
"Disciple asks Master to solve my doubts." Lin Qianxing said politely.
"Anything that violates the rules of heaven and earth has its price." Gongsun Zhan said, "Do you know how many Yin gods there are in the underworld?"
"Disciple, I don't know." Lin Qianxing shook his head.
"Since the establishment of the underworld, thousands of years have passed, and now there are less than a million Yin Gods." Gongsun Zhan said: "Even so, the millions of Yin Gods in the underworld have already had a very obvious impact on the cycle of heaven and earth. If the underworld really abused the [Book of Life and Death] like Jiaoshan and deleted the ghosts and dead at will, the world would have fallen into death and could no longer continue the cycle of reincarnation. The three Yama Kings of the underworld set such strict rules only for the good of this world."
After hearing this, many of Lin Qianxing’s doubts were explained.
No wonder he often saw wandering ghosts in the wild, but there were no evil spirits to deal with them.
It turns out that there are not enough Yin gods in the underworld.
As long as wandering ghosts don't cause any major harm, they probably won't be dealt with intentionally.
However, having millions of Yin Gods to maintain the cycle of life and death for the entire world is really difficult for these Yin Gods of the underworld.
"No, is that the question I asked you?" Gongsun Zhan suddenly came to his senses and looked at Lin Qianxing with a bad look.
"Ahem." Lin Qianxing didn't expect that Gongsun Zhan would notice his change of subject so quickly. He replied, "Master, there's no need to rush into marriage. I'm still young!"
