Chapter 9: The Golden Divine Lord Appears.

The sudden sound startled Hua Xun, making her jump.

The tempting peach slipped from his hand with a "plop" and rolled several times on the ground before disappearing into the golden curtain beneath the shrine.

Hua Xun looked up at the sound and saw thick smoke billowing above the statue. In the mist, a white figure appeared, one hand pointing to the ground in front of him, the other hand resting lightly on his lower abdomen.

The smoke obscured the man's appearance, but one could vaguely see that spiritual energy was constantly circulating around him.

Hua Xun frowned. She could no longer remember what the God Lord's avatar looked like that day, but she remembered that the God Lord's aura was clear and peaceful, unlike his current agitated state.

Furthermore, the deity does not seem to refer to himself as "this deity".

Perhaps because she had been staring at him for too long, the "deity" suddenly glared at him angrily: "Little demon, do you know your crime?"

His voice was deep and resonant, tinged with anger at his authority being violated, and the surrounding smoke churned violently.

Hua Xun could finally be certain that this person was definitely not a god.

After all, the Divine Lord showed no anger whatsoever when he ingested the Gu worm.

Although his purpose is unknown, if he really wanted to kill her, he wouldn't have gone to such lengths to pretend to be a god.

Right now, he seems more like... intimidation?

Thinking of this, Hua Xun gradually grew bolder: "Who are you?" She looked up at him, "You impersonated the God in the Temple of the God, aren't you afraid of the God's punishment?"

The man paused, and the surrounding mist seemed to condense for a few breaths, before saying, "I am the Divine Lord Jiuqing of the Yisheng Zhaohui Changsang Clan. Do you dare to question me?"

Hua Xun was about to speak when her gaze paused due to the fog and caught sight of the token that flashed past his waist.

It was remarkably similar to the silver token she had seen on the waist of Baili Sheng's subordinate.

Hua Xun blurted out, "Are you a demon?"

The figure on the statue was taken aback: "How did you know..." He realized he had blurted out something unintentionally, cleared his throat, and said, "You've mistaken me for someone else."

Hua Xun silently watched him, pondered for a moment, and suddenly extended her fingers to cast a spell to immobilize him.

The smoke stopped abruptly, and the figures froze. Then, Hua Xun heard a "ouch" above her head, and a white figure fell stiffly from the white mist, crashing onto the platform in front of the shrine, rolling to the ground, and remaining motionless.

Hua Xun looked at her fingers in surprise. This immobilization technique was taught to her by Baili Sheng. Now that she thought about it, she hadn't gained nothing in those ten years.

She never expected that this person's cultivation was clearly superior to hers, and that she could actually freeze him in place.

Hua Xun looked down at the ground and saw that the person was wearing a loose white robe, with a tender face, round eyes, red lips, and honey-colored skin. He looked like a handsome young man and was glaring at her with annoyance: "You little demon, you don't seem to have much cultivation, yet you were able to freeze me."

Hua Xun scrutinized his attire: "Who are you? Why are you impersonating a deity?"

"I..." The man was about to answer, but then he remembered something and asked her, "You still haven't told me how you could tell I was a demon?"

Hua Xun pointed to the token at his waist: "Don't you know this token belongs to the demon guards?"

"Demon guards?" the man muttered to himself, "No wonder..."

"No wonder what?" Hua Xun asked.

The man replied unconsciously, "No wonder a bunch of demon guards tried to arrest me after I stole this token..."

Hua Xun: "..."

The man suddenly realized what she meant and looked up at her cautiously: "You're not planning to send me to the Demon Realm, are you?"

Hua Xun shook her head: "I'm not going to the Demon Realm."

"You stole something too?" the man asked happily.

"Of course not," Hua Xun hurriedly denied, "I... offended a very powerful demon, and I don't want to go back."

The man had a look of sympathy on his face and nodded repeatedly: "Me too, me too."

"Since our fates have both been so fraught with hardship, and we've met by chance, why don't you untangle this for me..."

Hua Xun thought for a moment, then helped him up from the ground and changed him from lying down to sitting up: "Then tell me first, why did you come here to impersonate the God?"

The man's hand was still frozen in mid-air, and his immobile posture looked somewhat comical. After a long silence, he began to recount his origins in a rather irritable manner.

His original name was Jin Huan. He was originally a rogue cultivator, but due to the limitations of his spiritual root, he could hardly make any further progress after reaching the Golden Core stage. He then turned to cultivating with turbid Qi and fell into demonic possession.

He loved money when he was a cultivator. After becoming a demon, he no longer needed to restrain himself. His desires were manifested, and he became even more fond of accumulating wealth. He would occasionally do petty theft. Later, he happened to see that the demon tokens on the waists of several demon soldiers were extremely valuable. He couldn't resist stealing them, which led to him being chased by the demon guards. That's how he escaped to the cultivator's territory.

Seeing that the villagers all worshipped the deity, he used the deity's name to amass wealth.

Jin Huan said, "Although I was impersonating a deity, I did help those villagers capture demons and suppress evil spirits."

"You? Capture demons and suppress evil spirits?" Hua Xun questioned.

“Of course,” Jin Huan said proudly, “Not long ago, a wolf demon came down from the mountain and killed more than a hundred sheep and two villagers from several families. I caught it for them.”

“Several children in the south of the village were suffering from hysteria, so I performed an exorcism for them.”

"Those villagers still think it's a divine intervention, and look, they've offered so many more things..."

Hua Xun followed the direction of his gaze, lifted the curtain under the shrine, and saw that in addition to the offerings on the bottom layer, there were two bowls on the second layer: one bowl of gleaming silver coins and the other bowl of heavy copper coins.

She picked up the peach that had fallen in: "So, you only showed yourself because you saw me stealing the offerings?"

Jin Huan said irritably, "Who knows if you'll have any bad thoughts when you see the silver?"

"Aren't you afraid of divine punishment for impersonating a deity?" Hua Xun asked again.

“Every day, countless mortals pray to the God. How could the God possibly see this little village? Besides, if the God were to punish me for taking a few of his offerings, that would be far too petty.”

Upon hearing this, Hua Xun couldn't help but say, "The Divine Lord is ageless."

Jin Huan exclaimed, "Ah! You've seen him before?"

Hua Xun was about to answer, but then she remembered that only a phantom image of the divine figure remained in her sea of ​​consciousness, so she didn't reply. Instead, she asked the question that concerned her the most: "Just now I saw that you were surrounded by spiritual energy and had no demonic energy. Why is that?"

Upon hearing this, Jin Huan's eyes darted around, and he looked her up and down before suddenly saying, "You want to go to the wilderness of Duguang to see the true face of the Divine Lord, right?"

Hua Xun, having her thoughts exposed, did not deny it.

Jin Huan immediately became smug: "I was filled with spiritual energy just now, so I must have taken the Gui Cang Pill."

"The Rejuvenating Pill?"

Jin Huan said, "It is a miraculous elixir that can conceal the aura of demons and transform it into spiritual energy, thus hiding one's aura."

Hua Xun's heart stirred.

On the day of the celebration, the fields of Duguang will surely be teeming with cultivators and immortals. Once she goes there, she will have nowhere to hide. If she can take the Rejuvenating Pill...

Thinking of this, Hua Xun couldn't help but scan Jin Huan, her gaze finally settling on his waist.

"No need to look. Without my decree, no one can open the mustard seed bag. If you want it, you'll have to untie me first." With the offensive and defensive positions reversed, Jin Huan raised his eyebrows in triumph.

Hua Xun looked at the white and gold silk mustard seed bag at his waist. She tried several times but couldn't open it. After hesitating for a moment, she finally released him from the immobilization spell.

Now that he was free, Jin Huan's expression changed instantly. He leaped up, ready to leave: "You little demon, dressed in such a shabby way, how could I give you such a miraculous medicine as the Gui Cang Dan for nothing..."

However, before he could finish speaking, a beam of golden light appeared out of thin air behind him and slashed down directly at his back.

Jin Huan, who had just taken flight, was slammed to the ground again, letting out a silent wail.

Hua Xun looked up in surprise, but saw nothing unusual outside the temple except the sound of rain hitting the leaves, as if the golden light was just an illusion.

She cautiously approached Jin Huan: "Are you alright?"

Jin Huan, who was lying on the ground, felt that he had run into bad luck today. He looked up at her with annoyance and said, "I said your true form is actually a crow, right?"

Hua Xun's eyes lit up, and she nodded seriously: "Yes, how did you know?"

Jin Huan, who had guessed correctly by mistake, fell silent when he saw the little demon's expectant eyes. This time, he was completely speechless. He got up from the ground and barely straightened his disheveled robes: "You want the Gui Cang Pill?"

Hua Xun nodded.

How much money do you have on you?

Hua Xun touched the purse beside him and honestly replied, "Nine spirit stones, plus three taels and two cents of silver."

“Perfect,” Jin Huan clapped his hands, “one Gui Cang Pill costs nine spirit stones and three taels of silver.”

Hua Xun paused, her hand gripping the purse.

These nine spirit stones were what she had saved up little by little over the past ten years, apart from buying medicine for Baili Sheng.

If we see the God, that's fine; if we don't...

"Alright, alright," perhaps seeing her hesitation, Jin Huan waved his hand, "I'll round it down to nine spirit stones for you."

Hua Xun looked up at him and said, "Okay."

Jin Huan was taken aback, seemingly not expecting her to be so easily fooled: "Aren't you going to try and bargain?"

Hua Xun shook her head: "No need."

Jin Huan glanced at her: "You little demon, you squandered all your spirit stones just to see the God Lord, you young demons..."

Hua Xun: "You don't understand."

She just thought that if she couldn't see the Divine Lord, the fifteen-day deadline would be approaching, and there would be no use for her keeping the spirit stones.

Jin Huan muttered something under his breath, recited a string of incantations, and a small, dark brown porcelain bottle flew out of his mustard seed bag.

Jin Huan handed the porcelain bottle to Hua Xun, and Hua Xun also gave him the spirit stone.

The rain outside was gradually subsiding, and Hua Xun was about to continue on her way when she remembered something and turned to look at Jin Huan: "I don't think you're a bad person."

Jin Huan was taken aback, then said fiercely, "I am a demon."

Hua Xun wasn't scared by him; instead, she laughed and waved, "I'm leaving, Jin Huan."

*

Hua Xun arrived in Canglian City on the day of the celebration.

As the most prosperous city of the human race, Canglian City stretches for thousands of miles, with pure spiritual energy, making it feel like a fairyland.

The moment Hua Xun took the Gui Cang Pill and stepped into the city, he saw the Jianmu Divine Tree stretching between heaven and earth. It was vast and majestic, like a huge pillar that separated heaven and earth, which made people's hearts and souls tremble.

It is said that tens of thousands of years ago, when the gods who still existed at that time wanted to draw spiritual energy to benefit the human race, they dropped the divine tree Jianmu from the sky. The earth shook and the Duguang Plain collapsed three thousand feet.

The city was bustling and vibrant beyond compare.

Peerless cultivators flying on swords overhead, magnificent flying boats, and spirit beasts and birds with long cries all appeared in the world.

On the ground, mortals carried the statues of the gods they worshipped, surrounded by the clamor of gongs and drums, forming a grand procession that complemented the celestial monks.

As Hua Xun walked towards the divine tree Jianmu, he sensed the abundance of spiritual energy more and more. He could even faintly see the top of Jianmu piercing the sky, the heavenly gate wide open, and the immortal light spilling out. Two or three fairies were slowly flying around Jianmu, waving their hands and scattering specks of rosy clouds.

A gasp suddenly rang out from the crowd, followed by a melodious long chant from Hua Xun.

Hua Xun looked in the direction of the sound and saw a fiery bird with a long and gorgeous tail flying out from the Heavenly Gate.

"Golden Crow, it's Golden Crow!" someone shouted excitedly.

Hua Xun stared blankly at the golden crow, his heart subtly trembling.

So this is the legendary Golden Crow!

A sudden pain in her sea of ​​consciousness jolted Hua Xun back to reality. She then realized that the demonic energy enveloping the love potion in her sea of ​​consciousness was becoming increasingly weak, now reduced to a mere thin layer.

She could no longer care about the magnificent scene around her, and flew towards the direction of the Jianmu tree.

Although it is a celebration for both humans and immortals, not everyone can enter the Duguang Plain where the celebration is held.

Only cultivators and members of the royal family of the human race are allowed to enter and see the face of the immortals up close.

At the entrance to the celebration, there is a spirit verification platform. Cultivators must inject a little magic power to verify their identity before entering, in order to prevent demons from infiltrating.

Hua Xun was filled with trepidation as she poured her magic power into the platform. Only when the magic power entered the platform and manifested its spiritual energy did she breathe a sigh of relief and successfully enter it.

Inside the celebration, things were much more orderly than outside.

The fairy and the golden crow overhead became increasingly clear.

Even the long cries of cranes flying in flocks can be heard.

Most of the cultivators who enter are disciples of sects. Those who are independent cultivators like Hua Xun have a separate area—a pavilion in the westernmost corner.

Although the independent cultivators were dissatisfied, they dared not confront the sects and had to endure it in order to see the immortals.

Hua Xun was unharmed. He found an open space, sat down, and took out the peaches he had brought from the temple. He ate them in small bites.

After an unknown period of time, as dusk approached and the colorful sunset painted the sky, a sudden uproar erupted around them.

Hua Xun looked up and saw several immortals riding the wind above the clouds, standing quietly on the clouds.

"The Immortal of Baiyujing..." a cultivator murmured longingly.

"The Jade Palace in the heavens, with its twelve towers and five cities, a celestial being touched my head, granting me eternal life..."

As the recitation progressed, his voice began to choke with emotion.

Hua Xun looked at the immortals, then suddenly realized something and looked behind them.

A white figure slowly approached, half-hidden in the celestial mist, its body radiating a clear and pure celestial light, like a jade mountain that had been sleeping for thousands of years. In the hazy light and mist, its holy figure, untouched by dust, reappeared.

The immortal who had arrived first turned around and bowed to the newcomer, saying, "Divine Lord."

In an instant, the sky and earth fell silent.

Hua Xun stared blankly at the figure of the Divine Lord, a strange premonition rising within him: this was still the Divine Lord's clone.

"Divine Lord—" Immortals and mortals alike bowed their heads in unison, their voices resounding throughout the heavens and earth.

"Good." The divine voice was gentle as a flowing spring, all-encompassing, without sorrow or joy.

Only Changhao Immortal Lord, who was beside the Divine Lord, saw the Divine Lord glance in the direction of the rogue cultivator.

"My Lord, is there anything unusual at the place where the rogue cultivators are staying?" Chang Hao asked, puzzled.

“No,” the deity said slowly.

A note from the author:

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Ah Xun: I've met with the God, that's all.