Translator: Dj22031
Editor: Dj22031
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Xie Lingya turned around but didn’t stand firm. Fortunately, Shi Changxuan helped him and didn’t put him down. Instead he helped him walk towards the backyard.
Xie Lingya joked: “Although I have always been the top leader of our Taoist temple, it was only when I was recuperating that the believers understood my status – I am now supported wherever I go. It is so impressive.”
Shi Changxuan felt helpless. He then shook his head slightly, with a smile in his eyes.
Because they were injured again, Shi Changxuan and Xie Lingya slept together again. Shi Changxuan hadn’t moved back yet, and Xie Lingya also felt a little used to it.
It was said that it took just 28 days to form a habit. He was injured twice, and he and Shi Changxuan had lived together for two months. Let alone forming, the habit had been consolidated.
Coupled with the tacit understanding developed by the two of them fighting side by side several times, let alone trivial matters such as carrying water, Xie Lingya was not surprised when he woke up in the middle of the night to find the two of them sleeping together. The awkwardness at the beginning was long gone.
As for the other people, they had learned to turn a blind eye since last time, and they only discussed it behind their backs. Daozhang Shi really repaid every drop of kindness. If people who didn’t know the situation saw it, would they think he had been bewitched…
Not only did Xie Lingya and Shi Changxuan live in the same room in Baoyang Temple, but also Hai Guanchao, Fang Zhe, Zhang Daoting, and Xiao Dian. Xie Lingya didn’t say anything, and Shi Changxuan didn’t mention it, but they just lived like this.
Shi Changxuan helped Xie Lingya back to the room. After the two of them washed up, Xie Lingya lay on the bed and took pictures of Liu Lingtong.
In the past month, the green shoots on Liu Lingtong’s head had not changed at all, they had neither grown nor withered. They were always fresh and tender, and they were quite flexible and would not break at a touch. This saved Xie Lingya from being too careful.
The weather was still a bit cold at this time. When Shi Changxuan saw Xie Lingya lying on his quilt, he took it out and covered his legs without socks.
At this time, a cry suddenly broke out next to his ears. The Phytolacca God began to howl again inexplicably, and it was not the usual excited howl before going to bed, but a cry, “I don’t, I don’t, I don’t—”
Expressively, Shi Changxuan pulled it away a little and looked down.
He saw Xie Lingya concentrate on finding an angle to take a photo of Liu Lingtong, and then set it as his WeChat avatar.
Shi Changxuan: “…”
Phytolacca God: “&%￥%*#@￥#%*￥#@￥%!”
It was confusing again. Shi Changxuan couldn’t even hear what it was saying, only bursts of him shouting, and it seemed he couldn’t stop.
After Xie Lingya finished setting up, he showed it to Shi Changxuan, “How does it look?”
The Phytophthora God faced the impact directly, paused for a moment and then howled even more vigorously. Shi Changxuan thought that if it could move, it would be rolling and kicking on the ground by now.
Shi Changxuan frowned slightly, and then said: “Let’s change one thing.”
Xie Lingya didn’t understand: “Huh?”
He didn’t know whether it was the subtle influence of the Phytophthora God or the change in his own mood. Shi Changxuan now had fewer doubts about the behavior of the Phytophthora God. He had about 0.1% understanding, so he said something for it, “Add it.”
Xie Lingya saw Shi Changxuan handing over the Phytolacca God and suddenly said: “Hahaha, okay.”
Phytolacca God shouted: “I can do it alone! Just me! No! No!”
But Shi Changxuan could no longer hear it, and it was handed over to Xie Lingya’s hands.
Xie Lingya placed Phytolacca God and Liu Lingtong together, took another photo, and then reset them as his avatars.
“I heard that you want to expand the temple?” Shi Changxuan asked.
“Hey, did the people from the Taoist Association tell you?” Xie Lingya said, “Actually, we can’t talk about expansion. I don’t have much money left, so I just want to build a multi-storey comprehensive building for accommodation, lectures, and entertainment. A place to lay orders. You know that building a house in this city and the procedures involved are quite troublesome. If you have money, it’s easy. But since I don’t have much money, I can only ask the seniors of the Taoist Association for help.”
Xie Lingya’s current relationship with the Taoist Association was not very good. The right phrase to describe it was honey mixed with oil, so he said happily, “Taoist Master Zhao agreed, and also told me that he has allocated a subsidy of two million to our Taoist temple. So I plan to add a small side hall to worship Sazu.”
How could Shi Changxuan not know when the two million was actually donated by him? The last time he found Pei Xiaoshan, he returned his share of the reward to the Taoist Association, and this time, he let the Taoist Association use it in their name to donate to Baoyang Temple.
So, he just nodded silently.
“Well… Shi Changxuan,” Xie Lingya felt that it was the right time as the development of Baoyang Temple was very good, “You also know, before my uncle passed away, he had no successor, but he had always hoped that Baoyang Temple’s magic could be carried forward. You have a family lineage, but would you like to have another teacher?
Shi Changxuan was stunned, “You want me to be your student?”
In this way, wouldn’t the two people’s seniority be confused, and there was also an ethical question about relationships between teachers and students.
“How could it be me? The old man will personally teach you Dharma.”
His uncle was already a city god, so he could pass on the Dharma himself.
Shi Changxuan said almost without thinking: “Okay.”
He had long admired Wang Yuji, and because he was a wandering Taoist priest, and his family taught Taoism, it didn’t matter if he worshipped others as his teacher, he could make his own decisions about that. Furthermore, based on his relationship with Xie Lingya, becoming a student to Wang Yuji was not a bad idea.
When Xie Lingya saw that it was a success, he was so happy that he almost jumped out of bed, “That’s great. I will pay homage to my uncle tomorrow and ask him to recognize you as his student.”
He wrapped himself up in the quilt, turned his head to Shi Changxuan and couldn’t help being happy, his eyes smiling like crescent moons.
Shi Changxuan lay down, and when he saw Xie Lingya’s smile, he also showed a faint smile without realizing it.
….
The next day, Shi Changxuan called his family and told them about it. They didn’t have any objections. Shi Changxuan’s elders now had a very favorable impression of Xie Lingya, and they knew that Xie Lingya’s uncle had done many good deeds, so there was nothing to say.
——When they get to know Wang Yuji’s current identity, they still won’t know how to celebrate.
Shi Changxuan saluted in front of Wang Yuji’s memorial tablet and recognized him as his teacher. Because it was not a master-disciple inheritance, there was no need to be so serious. Only then did Shi Changxuan got to know that Wang Yuji was the newly appointed Provincial City God.
“My uncle didn’t let me say it before… for fear of bad repercussions, but now I can tell you.” Xie Lingya smiled at Shi Changxuan, “Are you surprised? You have worshiped the city god as your teacher.”
Shi Changxuan was dumbfounded, then he actually laughed, and finally said: “…It’s quite like an ancient custom.”
It was not uncommon to worship the deceased as a teacher. Usually it was someone from the teacher’s sect who would really teach them, and the same was true for Xie Lingya, the nephew and de facto successor. But if you worship the City God as your teacher, it will have the flavor of ancient legends, which was unheard of today.
“Changxuan, you are smiling more and more.” Xie Lingya couldn’t help but say something. When his cell phone rang, he went to answer the call.
Only then did Shi Changxuan seem to notice something, which was a little unnatural. Xie Lingya had already walked away, so he just glanced at him without saying a word.
After Xie Lingya finished with the call, he came back and said: “Another good news. The golden body of the Patriarch has been made. Mr. Gao has arranged the logistics and it can be delivered tomorrow.”
If you want to change the golden body, you have to check the date in advance. There had to be divination about how to deal with the old statue, and then consecrating the new statue so that the new statue could gain induction.
Grandmaster has been looking forward to it for so long, and he is finally going to change into gold gear!
….
Xie Lingya went through the building construction procedures while preparing for the consecration ceremony. He planned to buy several shops nearby and expand the space laterally to build a complex.
This time the consecration ceremony would be open to believers and would be hosted by Zhang Daoting.
But it was Xie Lingya who did the divination before the Dharma conference.
The purpose of this divination was to seek advice from the Patriarch and ask him what to do with the old statue.
If ordinary people didn’t know what to do with the statues they kept in their homes, they usually sent them back to Taoist temples. There was space in Taoist temples to place statues of gods, which could then be reunited with other believers or otherwise disposed of.
As for the large statues of gods enshrined in Taoist temples, once they were replaced, they were unlikely to be associated with believers anymore. No one could place a statue a few meters high in their house. To deal with this, you must first pray and ask God for his opinion.
A statue of a god was like the god’s clothes. Of course, you had to ask the owner for his opinion on how to deal with the old clothes.
If the spirit didn’t want to throw it away and still had feelings for the clothes, they would have to find a special room to store them. If it felt that it was unwilling to keep them any longer, they could choose a method to deal with them, such as sinking them to the bottom of the river or melting them.
——The point is, no matter how you deal with it, report it first and get the approval of the gods. In this way, even if you smash it to pieces, you are not disrespecting the gods.
Last time, the old statue of the Patriarch returned to heaven and earth.
This time, Xie Lingya consulted Wang Lingguan’s opinion as usual, but what the Patriarch meant was that it should not be thrown away or melted but should be kept in a room.
In order to be sure, Xie Lingya performed divination three times with the same result.
“What can we do? We don’t have any room to keep it in.” Zhang Daoting said. He thought that given the Patriarch’s character, he would probably just give up on the old clothes. If it were another Taoist temple, it would have its own room, but their Taoist temple was too crowded, and the project to add a new building had just begun and was still going through the formalities.
“Why don’t we have a room? Let’s put it in Shi Changxuan’s room.” Xie Lingya said naturally, “He won’t sleep there now anyway, so move the bed to my place. Speaking of which, I have long felt that my bed is not big enough.”
Everyone: “…”
They always felt that something was wrong, but they couldn’t explain it…
Xie Lingya touched his cheek, “But what does the ancestor mean? Why do we still have to keep it?”
Hai Guanchao said coldly: “Maybe they can still get married.”
“Who do you want to marry?”
Xie Lingya was speechless. It was a Taoist statue of himself. Ordinary people went to their homes to invite the God of Wealth to Guan Gong, but he had never heard of people going to their homes to invite Wang Lingguan. Just asking for such a big deal?
In any case, the statue was moved to Shi Changxuan’s original room, and he took everything to Xie Lingya’s room as a matter of course, and the two became serious roommates.
….
On the day of the consecration ceremony, even though it was a working day, a group of believers came to participate.
Among them were Xie Lingya’s seniors Cheng Jie and his wife. Ever since the one-legged Wutong incident, they would go to Baoyang to watch and worship during the holidays. They happened to be on annual leave when they received the group text message notification, so they came to watch.
Because there were so many people, Cheng Jie didn’t see where Xie Lingya was for a long time. It wasn’t until he came back from going to the toilet that he bumped into Xie Lingya and Shi Changxuan standing together and squeezed in to say hello.
The three of them all knew each other. Cheng Jie and Xie Lingya chatted for a while, and also mentioned that Xie Lingya was going to graduate school. “Hey, I heard that one of your candidates in this class vomited blood?”
Xie Lingya was unable to defend himself: “…Has it spread among the alumni?”
Cheng Jie said happily: “Not only that, my wife also knows even though she graduated from Jinyang University.”
Shi Changxuan said at this time: “I just met He Zun, he seems to know it too.”
Xie Lingya: “…”
Cheng Jie didn’t know that the legendary candidate who vomited blood was Xie Lingya. When he saw Zhang Daoting starting to chant, he ran back.
Cheng Jie’s wife Fan Fang also saw them from a distance and extended her hand to wave to Xie Lingya to say hello. After Cheng Jie came back, she asked: “You say… what is the relationship between Xie Lingya and Daozhang Shi?”
“What else would it be, maybe fellow Taoist?” Cheng Jie was puzzled.
Fan Fang took a deep look at him, “Do you remember Xie Lingya’s new WeChat avatar?”
Cheng Jie: “Remember, you told me it was cute.”
“Yes, I didn’t know that at that time. I thought the puppets belongs to him, but now it should be said they belong to him and Shi Changxuan.” Fan Fang looked in Xie Lingya’s direction again, feeling helpless at her husband’s carelessness.
Cheng Jie also looked over. Yes, Xie Lingya and Shi Changxuan each had a small wooden figure hanging on their shoulders. They were almost identical. However, Xie Lingya’s wooden figure had a green sprout on its head. It was particularly cute and tender. He didn’t know what it was.
But after a moment, all kinds of details came to mind.
Fan Fang said faintly: “On the other hand, it’s just the same style. Why would he want to use it as a profile picture?”
Cheng Jie was shocked: “…………What the hell? Couple pendant??”
The author has something to say.
Phytolacca God: …I have to say it hundreds of times, we are not the same style!!!
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