Treasure and antiques should not be shown to powerful men; ancient swords and famous zithers should always be hidden away in cabinets.
Xu Qing understood this principle earlier than the foolish monk, and his purpose in coming to Wanshou Village was to discard the 'jade disc' hidden on himself.
The relief grain stored in the Underground Street was useless; Xu Qing did not lack mundane money, and zombies also weren't afraid of grain shortages as they do not need to eat grains.
An innocent man possessing a treasure invites trouble; instead of keeping this grain, it's better to use it in the right place to realize its true value.
And the refugees flooding into Wanshou Village were precisely the cure for Xu Qing's dilemma.
"This temple needs a name; we can't call it Cat Immortal Hall. This is like a shell company; it won't last long before we have to run away with the money. What should we call it then?"
Xuan Yu glanced at the papier-mâché small temple and then at Xu Qing, who spoke.
It didn't understand what Xu Qing meant by a shell company, only knowing that the clever Xu Immortal Family could handle anything properly.
It's truly rare to encounter such a considerate human being like this.
In front of the papier-mâché temple, Xu Qing casually wrote with a brush, and soon three large characters that could pierce through the paper appeared on the plaque of the paper temple.
Although Xu Qing's handwriting couldn't be called eternal or unmatched, it was worthy of being described as strong and elegant.
With his proficiency in various folk arts, writing a good piece of calligraphy was no difficult task for him.
"Profound Lady Temple?" Xuan Yu was surprised.
Xu Qing explained, "In the human world, there are so many desires. How can divine spirits be busy attending to everything? Even if true deities exist, many are little wild gods acting on behalf of deities, or else some temples wouldn't be effective while others aren't."
"Eventually, there is always a destination for the incense offerings. Whoever does the work gets the wishing power incense. Otherwise, why would there be so many wild immortals impersonating deities?"
"As long as they don't abuse power and bring misfortune to the human world, even if there are true deities, they are merely messengers of the divine."
Xu Qing had seen many things about the Imperial Court's conferring of gods and spirits in the memory of the spiritual child Ling Yangzi from the Celestial Master's Mansion. Among them were demons and monsters with old ties to the Celestial Master's Mansion, sealed and made righteous by the Celestial Master, receiving incense offerings.
These sealing rituals were not special, divided into two categories if one must be precise: one conferred by the secular world, called imperial sealing, and the other by the heavenly courts, called jade sealing or celestial sealing.
Xu Qing pondered for a moment and took out an incense table to perform a simple celestial sealing ceremony.
The celestial court's sealing surpasses secular imperial power. Xu Qing essentially bypassed the middleman, asking directly for the divine mandate.
Whether the heavens would respond didn't matter; those who set up altars and offered sacrifices to seek divine hearing didn't receive a response from the Celestial Emperor, even when emperors performed zenith rituals without receiving a divine reply.
However, going through the process wasn't a bad thing.
Having established the temple according to rules, Xu Qing then took out paper to fold divine altar statues.
Besides these papier-mâché items, other items like incense candles and incense burners were real tools.
The small temple was just newly built without incense offerings, but Xu Qing was not in a rush.
At present, the relief grain distributed by Wanshou County was not exhausted yet, but looking at the increasingly watery gruel, Xu Qing knew that running out of food was just a matter of time.
Emperor Jingxing ordered killings without ensuring proper burials. After sealing Wanshou Village as a county seat, merely verbally encouraged population increase and county prosperity. But when it came to allocating funds, he was stingy, unable to squeeze out even a little.
The little grain procured was also reduced by more than half due to the 'grain wastage' issue halfway through.
Xu Qing stood on a high hill, gazing out far as a vast stretch of refugees stretched beyond sight.
The news that Gu Zixu spread around disaster-stricken places was starting to show results.
Speaking honestly, this news isn't really a fabrication, since Wanshou Village becoming a county is true, and the court encouraging resettlement is also true. Assimilating refugees and allocating grain and silver is openly stated. But whether people can eat or not isn't the court's business.
Whether the people are full or not is secondary; the officials must first be fed, and to what extent they are considered full depends on the size of their conscience.
But soon, Xu Qing received the answer.
One day, seeing that dusk had arrived, with no constable distributing congee or grain, Xu Qing suddenly understood.
It turns out these officials had a conscience as tiny as a sesame seed!
In such a situation, persisting with relief for half a month truly must have been difficult for them.
"Xuan Yu, this time the task is significant; we must do our best."
Xu Qing never bet everything on one chance; he liked leaving himself as many ways out as possible when doing things.
Ever since the old black crow crossed the ocean to seek seeds from distant lands, Xu Qing was considering other ways to obtain incense offerings.
Eggs mustn't be placed in one basket; the old black crow, battling against the current, might not return alive. If he waited until then, how would he survive under a thunderstorm?
Hu Baosong's biological mother died from a thunderstorm, and Yizhen Taoist's biological mother Zichen also couldn't escape disaster. As a zombie, if he didn't make the most thorough plans, how could he be confident in avoiding catastrophe?
If he couldn't avoid it, Xuan Yu might once again become a wandering cat, stubbornly claiming it's on a journey...
One day, outside Wanshou County, an old man giving out incense appeared. The old man had a kind face, dressed in white, distributing incense sticks to everyone, claiming that when one has desires in their heart, they should light the incense and pray. Within a day, a divine spirit rescuing from suffering will respond.
People didn't take it seriously, and quite a few even treated the incense sticks Xu Qing distributed as snacks, chewing them up and swallowing them.
This stumped Xu Qing, but he wasn't in a rush and decided to wait until tomorrow to see, everything would become clear then.