"Who are you?" Wu Qi snapped as he held Bajie in his arms and walked out of the building, staring coldly at a young man who stood before the crowd.
The young man had a tall and sturdy stature, and from the look between his brows and his eyes, he was a man who had been through battles. Looking at Wu Qi, the young man spoke through his tightly clenched teeth, "I'm Zhu Linggong, the current Stay-behind Officer for An He City of An Le County!"
Stay-behind Officer? What was this position? There was no such position in the information relating to the human race which Wu Qi learned from Yu Hehuan through interrogation.
You Jin came quickly to him and said, "He is Zhu Linggong, General Zhu. His clan was once the County Governor of An Le County. For generations they have been stationed in An Le County, and the position has passed down for nearly one thousand generations. However, when Euphoria Heavenly Palace and Jade Pagoda Temple established their bases near An He City, and was followed by the influx of numerous immortal sects, Zhu clan failed to prevent all these immortal sects from setting their foothold in An He City. As a result, the Human Emperor had announced an imperial decree, punishing the entire Zhu clan and sending them into exile!"
Pointing at Zhu Linggong, You Jin continued in a low voice, "Currently, Zhu Linggong and his family are the last descendants of Zhu clan still stationing in An He City. It is just a meaningless indication that An He City is still the Human Emperor's territory. In reality, they don't have any actual power in their hands. None of the previous City Lords took Zhu clan seriously. This Zhu Linggong... hehe!"
You Jin finished off with a few laughs. Wu Qi spread his divine will to give the area a scan. He noticed that there were only about one hundred soldiers in this mansion, including the group of fifty soldiers before him, while the mansion was just an ordinary civilian building in the city. He did find a beast soul coexisting in Zhu Linggong's body. However, it was a pity that the quality of the beast soul was not even at par with the Green Windbreaking Wolf used by Great Yan's Scouting Officers. Also, Zhu Linggong's overall strength was about mid-stage Xiantian realm, and those soldiers were so weak that Wu Qi just did not want to comment on them.
With a casual pointing of his finger, the bows held in all fifty soldiers' hands turned to powder instantly. As the pulling forces from the bowstrings vanished abruptly, the strength these soldiers exerted to keep the bowstrings pulled to the maximum flung their hands backward, making them spin uncontrollably and fall to the ground in a sorry state.
Wu Qi fished out a storage bag from under his sleeve and threw it over to Zhu Linggong, who was obviously stunned by what happened. "Let's make a good affinity. He is not a monster, but your own son. Just that right after he was born, he was possessed by the incarnation of my disciple, Bajie. He is your own flesh and blood, and also my disciple. This is the fate between us. If you need any help, you can come to me at any time!" Wu Qi said coolly.
Pointing at his own nose, Wu Qi continued, "Currently, I alone have the final say in Euphoria Heavenly Palace. And in the future, I'll have the final say in the regions one million miles around An He City! Therefore... haha, do you have anything that I can take fancy of?"
Wu Qi threw his head back and roared with laughter. After that, he left the courtyard with the babbling Bajie in his arms.
Talking to a smart person would never require too much of effort. After just a brief pause, Zhu Linggong spun to chase up Wu Qi. He grabbed Wu Qi's sleeve and whispered, "It is my good fortune that Senior Immortal has a fate with my son. I'll give a banquet now, I hope... I hope..."
Wu Qi laughed, them lightly patted Zhu Linggong's shoulder and said, "Come find me when you have made up your mind! The storage bag has some gold, silver, jewelry, and various spirit medicines. Your wife is frightened after giving birth. Use those spirit medicines to help her recuperate. Remember, come find me only when your mind is cleared, and only when you've made up your mind!"
Flicking his sleeve to push Zhu Linggong back, Wu Qi laughed and returned to City Lord Mansion with You Jin. Upon entering the Mansion, he gave Bajie to You Jin and said, "You Jin, since there is a fate between you and this little fellow, take him with you before he can walk and talk. Mm, if you know any Buddhist Scriptures, teach him a few of them on a daily basis!"
After pondering for a brief moment, Wu Qi exhorted with a strange tone, "As a monk, you have to look like a monk, and the awareness of being a monk. From today onwards, don't feed him any milk. Just giving him some fruit juices will do. Also, he is a monk, so get a few more male servants to help him bathe and change clothes. Don't let him get in touch with any females! Since he chose to be a monk, he has to be a pure monk!"
You Jin had just carried over Bajie when he heard Wu Qi's exhortation, and that made his hands tremble as he nearly threw Bajie to the ground. 'Tsk, how can a newborn baby not be given any milk? Isn't this a torture?' He bowed to give Bajie a look, noticing that the little fellow's face was twisting as he stared at Wu Qi angrily.
Wu Qi gave them a crooked smile. Then, he removed the bracelet from his wrist, which contained eighteen Fleshly Body Relics he merged together with magical power not long ago. Carefully, he placed it around Bajie's neck. "Little monk, you are lucky to be reincarnated. Hehe, from what I can tell, your Master's soul has vanished for the sake of protecting you. This is the essence condensed from your Master and your Fleshly Body Relics. Absorb them when you are still little. They could save you at least several hundreds of years of hard labor." Wu Qi said with a deep voice.
Bajie clutched his hands tightly on the bracelet. Tears were trickling down his face.
After a moment of pause, Wu Qi said as he stared at Bajie, "Work harder and grow faster. If you can attain a cultivation base similar to your Master when he was alive, I'll give you an opportunity to personally kill that Daoist Yun Zang. Fancy that! I've actually taken a monk as my disciple!"
Feeling a little bit uncomfortable in his heart, Wu Qi twitched his lips and gave Bajie's little face a pinch, before walking leisurely into the backyard.
Madman Xue walked slowly out of a gatehouse off to a side, munching on a big piece of stewed meat as he approached. He came next to You Jin and gave Bajie a few looks. His lips curved into a smile as he said, "Tsk, this little fellow is at least a few times uglier than me! Aye, do you want some meat? Do you want it? If you don't talk, I'll take it as you want some!" Not waiting for You Jin to stop him, Madman Xue ripped off the fattest part of the stewed meat and shoved it into Bajie's mouth.
How could the poor little Bajie have the strength to resist Madman Xue, whose cultivation base had skyrocketed recently? With his eyes rolling and tilting his head back to straighten his throat, he managed to swallow the fat meat.
Even as Madman Xue was torturing Bajie, Lao Ai strode out from a room escorted by a few beautiful female cultivators. He saw how Madman Xue forced some stewed meat into Bajie's mouth, then curiously came next to them, reaching out his hand to give Bajie's little bird a few light taps. "Tsk, what an interesting fellow. Why is he having the foundation of Buddhist Diamond Body, although he is just a newborn baby? With a body condition such as this, I suppose there will be a miraculous effect if he cultivates the Great Sun Technique since little. You Jin, where did you find this baby? Why is he so ugly?"
You Jin's wrinkled face frowned, and he was on the verge of tears. Madman Xue was still forcing stewed meat into Bajie's mouth, while a few beautiful female cultivators had come clustering around him, running their hands up and down on Bajie's body, especially the little bird between his legs.
"A pure monk?" You Jin felt like weeping but had no tears. He looked at Bajie, whose eyes were rolling as he was nearly choked by the meat, and murmured, "Maybe next life? Ah?! Or should I just strangle you to death, so that you can be reincarnated again? What do you think, Grandmaster Guarding Heart?"
So, Lao Ai and Madman Xue, who were both stationed in An He City, had found themselves a newfangled toy. They snatched the custody of Bajie from You Jin's hand, then according to their ideas, began a development program which they called 'The Raising of A Delightful Monk'. It was needless to mention how many hardships did Bajie have to go through under Lao Ai and Madman Xue, the two evil men. He was surrounded by all sorts of strange and eccentric things, which had totally overturned his view of the world and the life that he had accumulated in the previous life. He felt as if he were in hell at every moment.
But, Wu Qi did not have the time to rescue him. At the moment when Bajie was in an extremely lustful situation, Wu Qi had already returned to Greenwood Mountain with thirty thousand laborers.
At present, the entrance to Greenwood Mountain which was destroyed by Wu Qi previously had been flattened into a one-hundred-acre square. A total of nine jade arch doors were erected on the square in a straight line, from outside to inside, and each looked taller and grander than the previous one. Numerous people were seen working on these arch doors. They were the most famous experts of stone carving Wu Qi could find around An He City. Wu Qi invited them here, asking them to design the most magnificent patterns, and carve their designs on the 'Illuminating Jade' of the finest quality that could illuminate during night time. He had only one request for them: the nine arch doors had to be gorgeously and splendidly built, without the tiniest bit of flaw.
To the left and right of the arch doors were two rows of green pines and verdant cypresses transplanted from deep in the mountains. Each one of them was huge and tall, requiring at least a dozen of men to encompass with outreached arms. Their flourishing crowns intertwined into a stretch of green cloud that ran one hundred miles straight into the valley within the mountain from the entrance of Greenwood Mountain.
In between the towering trees and underneath the arch doors was a path paved with golden bricks. The path measured sixty feet in width, and was entirely paved with golden bricks. It was wide and flat, and the surface was as smooth as a mirror, while the gap between the bricks was so tight that not even a hair could fit. Every single brick was finely carved with patterns. When all the patterns connected together, they formed a huge image of a dragon soaring amidst clouds on the path. The dragon head was under the first arch door, and the tail extended into the valley one hundred miles away.
Under Wu Qi's ingenious design, the valley within Greenwood Mountain had taken a completely new look.
Within the valley that stretched as long as one hundred miles, and with the widest area measuring twenty-off miles, a total of eighteen separated clusters of palaces were built from its entrance until the furthest end. The further into the valley, the larger and loftier were the palaces. Their roofs were golden and green, their walls were silver, and floors were jade. No soil could be seen on the grassy fields between the palaces, as underneath the soft grasses was Jade Sand meticulously crushed by expert craftsmen with stone grinders. The entire valley was filled with a refreshing green tone that made one's mind relax upon arriving.
The areas between palaces were decorated with numerous exotic rock formations and trees, flowers, and plants. Cloud bridges hovering one thousand feet above the ground connected all the palaces, and there were some pavilions and towers exquisitely built with jade stones hovering above these cloud bridges. Wherever one could visit was filled with extraordinary designs and wonderful sceneries.
Wu Qi had emptied the storage rooms in Euphoria Heavenly Palace, Jade Pagoda Temple, Golden Pavilion Temple, as well as all those immortal sects. Only then was he able to gather all the precious materials and constructed this exceptionally luxury Daoist rite temple.
Also, it was fortunate that Daoist Yun Zang's eight disciples were all having the overall strength of Heaven Immortals. With their help, as well as the hard effort of thirty thousand laborers who had some cultivation base, the splendid Daoist rite temple was able to be fully constructed in just three months.
As the main buildings were fully constructed, what was left was to fill all the palaces and pavilions with cutlery, cloud beds and chairs, candle holders and incense burners, wall paintings, and other minor furniture. All of these items could be found in Euphoria Heavenly Palace, Jade Pagoda Temple, and Golden Pavilion Temple. Once again, Wu Qi removed all of them from their original locations, then selected the most luxurious furniture and decorations from them, and filled the Daoist rite temple. Finally, it was magnificently furnished and decorated. Nobody could pick any flaw out from it.
Then, as suggested by Wu Qi, Daoist Yun Zang happily prepared a calligraphy himself - 'Green City Manor'. Wu Qi had some expert craftsmen engrave the calligraphy on plaques and hung them on top of all the nine arch doors. With that being done, the construction of the Daoist rite temple was officially completed.
During the three months period, Wu Qi had spent days and nights supervising the construction of the Daoist rite temple. Daoist Yun Zang witnessed that with his own eyes, and it gave him a good impression of Wu Qi that could not be described with words. He was here with only eight disciples and four junior Daoists, and as he was extremely poor, he was originally prepared to seize a cave abode so he could stay temporarily. If not for Wu Qi's help, he could never imagine that he would have a gorgeous Daoist rite temple in just three months of time!
Hovering midair, Daoist Yun Zang looked pleasingly at the glinting Daoist rite temple underneath him. With his heart filled with satisfaction, he breathed out a long sigh.
Wu Qi, who had been very busy working in the past three months, came next to Daoist Yun Zang, bowed slightly and said, "Senior Immortal, do you think we should send out invitations and invite fellow Daoists for the launching ceremony?"
Daoist Yun Zang raised his brows, stuck out his chest, and said with a loud laugh, "Of course!"
Wu Qi smiled and shut his mouth, withdrawing himself off to a side.