Just A Daoist Who Occasionally Kicks Ass-Chapter 52: Lady Qingyi Temple

Bai Hongtu continued, “Your good friend comes all the way to Wei City and hasn’t even seen the Qingyi Temple. As my friend, shouldn’t you fulfill your duty as the host and take me to offer incense? That’s what true friendship is about!”

Li Yanchu couldn’t help but laugh.

Before long, he was being dragged off by Bai Hongtu, once again walking through the bustling streets.

“Oh right,” Li Yanchu said, pulling a copper coin from his robe and handing it to Bai Hongtu. “Take a look at this.”

Bai Hongtu gave it a glance and raised his brows. “A coin of grievance... where’d you get this thing?”

As a properly trained disciple of Daoism, he could see at once what the ordinary eye could not.

Li Yanchu said, “Near the Qingyi Temple. It came from a vendor selling candied hawthorns.”

Bai Hongtu huffed, “Unbelievable, you went to eat candied hawthorns and didn’t even bring one back for me!”

Li Yanchu rubbed his forehead and sighed helplessly, “Is that the important part? The point is this coin of grievance.”

Bai Hongtu chuckled lightly. “I think you’re overthinking it. As the saying goes, ‘When soldiers come, send generals; when water floods, build a dam.’ No matter how many eccentric figures have come to Wei City, we’ll deal with them as they come. And worst case, you’ve got me, don’t you?”

Li Yanchu paused, then nodded thoughtfully. “I discovered one of your strengths today.”

Hearing this, Bai Hongtu brightened. “Calm under pressure? Steady in a crisis?”

Li Yanchu shook his head. “Your use of idioms is really excellent.”

Bai Hongtu just fell silent at his words.

The two continued joking as they walked toward the Lady Qingyi Temple. Thanks to Bai Hongtu’s antics, much of the gloom clouding Li Yanchu’s heart had been lifted.

In fact, Li Yanchu had never properly visited the Qingyi Temple. His master, Daoist Master Xuancheng, though a bit poor and not particularly accomplished, was, after all, the legitimate abbot of Qingyun Temple. He was a properly ordained Daoist priest with an orthodox lineage.

As for the flourishing incense and offerings at Lady Qingyi Temple in Wei City, Daoist Master Xuancheng had always scoffed at it. To him, Qingyi Temple was just a folk shrine practising wild fox Zen[1], and it simply wasn’t respectable. Orthodox Daoist disciples had that kind of pride.

Because of this attitude, Li Yanchu had never been particularly interested in Qingyi Temple either, aside from the one time he entered to deal with the paper effigy that had possessed Head Constable Zhao. He had never truly been inside the temple.

Strangely enough, despite both Qingyun Temple and Qingyi Temple sharing the word “Qing” in their names, and despite Daoist Master Xuancheng being a capable Daoist practitioner in his own right, Qingyun Temple’s incense offerings remained sparse. This situation hadn’t improved even after Li Yanchu became famous in Wei City for slaying evil spirits and capturing fugitives.

Whether there was some special reason behind this remained unknown. But Daoist Master Xuancheng had always had a casual attitude toward incense offerings anyway, and he’d never had any final wish or ambition to glorify the temple.

He often taught Li Yanchu that a cultivator should cultivate their heart and not be burdened by worldly fame, nor should they be bound by material wealth. Even more so, they should not be restrained by a temple itself, and a true Daoist should follow their heart and seek their true self.

If not for the fact that Daoist Master Xuancheng had always had a fondness for beautiful young women, and often boasted about how dashing and flirtatious he was in his youth, Li Yanchu might really have believed his master was a reclusive sage, hidden in the mundane world. freewebnøvel_com

When Li Yanchu and Bai Hongtu finally pushed their way through the dense crowd and entered the Lady Qingyi Temple, they exchanged a glance, both stunned by the sight before them.

The crowd was packed shoulder to shoulder. The incense offerings at Lady Qingyi Temple were so abundant that the atmosphere carried a faint sense of fervent worship, as if tens of thousands were bowing in unison.

In the unique environment of Qingyi Temple, the expressions on the faces of the common people were all filled with fanatic devotion. From the top of each person’s head rose thin, invisible threads, converging toward the Lady Qingyi Temple. This was the power of incense offerings.

Bai Hongtu frowned. “I’d always heard that the Qingyi Temple had flourishing incense offerings, but seeing it in person... the rumors didn’t even do it justice.”

Li Yanchu nodded. “The look in their eyes is a bit too feverish... it gives me a strange sense of unease.”

Bai Hongtu didn’t seize the chance to joke about whether Li Yanchu was ogling Lady Qingyi. Instead, he nodded in silent agreement. “Same here.”

Compared to this atmosphere, Bai Hongtu much preferred Qingyun Temple. There were just a few simple rooms and a stubborn little donkey. It was peaceful, serene, and modest; staying there was comfortable, without any of the disquiet he felt here.

The two exchanged a glance and, in tacit agreement, quietly exited the temple grounds.

“You know,” Bai Hongtu said, gnawing on a skewer of candied hawthorns as he lounged by the roadside with one leg crossed over the other, “who exactly is this Lady Qingyi that they’re worshipping here?”

Meanwhile, Li Yanchu wasn’t eating hawthorns; he was munching on a juicy pear instead. The two of them looked every bit like a pair of laid-back street punks.

Li Yanchu said, “So far, she doesn’t seem like some evil spirit. As long as she brings peace to the local people, she’s earned the incense she receives. What does it matter where she came from?”

“Just looking at the statue of Lady Qingyi, she must’ve been a real beauty when she was alive.” Bai Hongtu nodded.

Li Yanchu choked a bit and gave him a disbelieving look. “You serious? You can tell that from a clay statue?”

Bai Hongtu paused, scratched his head, and said, “I don’t know, I just suddenly had the feeling she looked kind of pretty.”

Hearing this, Li Yanchu cupped his hands and bowed mockingly. “Truly admirable.”

Bai Hongtu’s face flushed red. In truth, Bai Hongtu had very high standards when it came to women’s looks, and he also had his own well-defined views on beauty. Except for this time, Li Yanchu couldn’t quite agree with him regarding the appearance of Lady Qingyi.

As Bai Hongtu put it, if the most beautiful woman in the world scored a perfect hundred, then the innkeeper would be a ninety-two or ninety-three. She was brimming with charm, breathtakingly beautiful, and she had the kind of beauty that only grew the more you looked at her.

As for Fang Qinglan, her looks would rank around eighty-six or eighty-seven. That cold, aloof temperament of hers easily stirred a man’s desire to conquer. Especially since she wasn’t just any woman, she was a wandering heroine from the jianghu, now a government constable, which gave her an inherent status bonus. In Li Yanchu’s view, it was the irresistible appeal of... uniforms.

Of course, neither of these beauties had anything to do with Bai Hongtu. The famed courtesan he fancied at the entertainment district was around seventy in terms of beauty. Still, that made her a truly attractive woman in her own right.

As the two strolled and bantered along the streets, there was a rare, carefree aura about them, so much so that they caught the attention of quite a few beautiful women passing by. Bai Hongtu was clearly enjoying it.

“Oho, now that one’s not bad,” he murmured, eyeing a woman walking toward them. “Look at those soft eyes, that graceful figure, and she’s walking right toward me!”

His voice was low, but brimming with pride. And he wasn’t boasting; beyond just his looks, Bai Hongtu did carry the air of a refined nobleman. But what the woman did next made his heart sink.

“Greetings, Daoist Master Yanchu. It’s been a while, and your elegance is as radiant as ever.” The young noble lady blushed slightly as she spoke.

Bai Hongtu frowned. He thought, You’re just coming over to say hi, what are you blushing for?

Li Yanchu gave a small nod and chuckled lightly. “Miss Chen, we meet again.”

This was the third daughter of the Chen family, the same noble heiress who had once been haunted by a lecherous ghost and was rescued by none other than Li Yanchu himself.

1. "野狐禅" (wild fox Zen) is a derogatory term in Chinese, originally from Zen Buddhism, used to describe fake or heretical spiritual practices that lead people astray. In a Daoist context, it implies that the temple is unorthodox and superstitious, not part of the proper religious tradition. ☜