"Senior Sister, how have you been?"
Xu Qing chuckled and cupped his hands in greeting.
The female Taoist priest teased, "You've returned without a word, are you not considering me as your Senior Sister anymore?"
"Of course not, it's just the long journey that made me think of resting for a night to recover before visiting you."
Xu Qing laughed it off and walked into the coffin shop.
Smelling the familiar scent of the coffin wood, Xu Qing couldn't help but squint his eyes slightly.
This is the smell of home.
If Yizhen Daoist wasn't behind him, Xu Qing might have been tempted to open a coffin on the spot, lie in it, and take a nap to rid himself of the fatigue accumulated over the past ten years.
"I see you're weary, Junior Brother, are you perhaps still worrying about the matters of White Cloud Cave?"
Xu Qing asked in surprise, "How does Senior Sister know about the matters of White Cloud Cave?"
Yizhen Daoist's tone was gentle as she replied, "You've been traveling all these years, Xuan Yu has been handling the tasks of the hall alone, with no one to confide in. So, it occasionally comes to me, this Senior Sister, to share its burdens."
Remembering something, Yizhen Daoist suddenly smiled and said, "Junior Brother, you've indeed made things difficult for Xuan Yu."
"Why do you say that?"
The female Taoist paused, standing in the quiet passage leading to the backyard, and said, "Xuan Yu is a cat demon, born with its natural instincts, carefree, unaware of the passage of time, with a year feeling like a single day."
"However, worldly affairs are particularly complicated, and the hall's tasks are intricately connected with worldly matters, placing Xuan Yu in it would naturally feel like time is slowing down."
"Five years ago, Xuan Yu said those five years felt like fifty years..."
Xu Qing was a bit taken aback, always managing the hall based on human habits, not realizing such habits could be entirely contradictory to the nature of demons.
"But Junior Brother need not worry; Xuan Yu has now gotten used to worldly cultivation..."
Collecting his thoughts, Xu Qing suddenly looked at the female Taoist before him and asked, "How has Senior Sister Yizhen's cultivation been these years? Have you found a method to form a connection with cultivation?"
"...."
Yizhen Daoist lowered her eyes in silence for a moment before shaking her head, "The inheritance of the Hu Yang family relies on the Tushan collection. My father's teachings lack evidence, and one can only comprehend the path of connection through worldly cultivation."
"However, in today's Five Filthy Evil Worlds, the mundane world has become a vat of muddy dye, with scenes of rampant demons everywhere. Only here in the Jin Sect is there a trace of upright spirit remaining."
"For years, my master has been searching for the reason behind this trace of upright spirit, but unfortunately, no clues have been found."
Xu Qing raised an eyebrow, about to speak, but was suddenly interrupted by the sound of a rooster crowing.
"Cluck? Cluck! Cluck, cluck, cluck!"
In the backyard, Golden Simurgh, strolling around, noticed Yizhen Daoist chatting idly in the quiet passage. Initially, upon seeing the middle-aged person's appearance, Golden Simurgh was uncertain, but when it sensed the subtle connection between the Immortal Hall's immortal family and the Sect Leader of the temple list, it confirmed the identity of the middle-aged person before it.
Undoubtedly, it was the provider of its meals!
Seeing the oddly robust Golden Simurgh, Xu Qing also sensed something unusual.
"Why is this chicken still in the Cat Immortal Hall?"
"...."
Yizhen Daoist cleared her throat and said, "My teacher has always been reluctant to owe favors. Junior Brother assisted Golden Simurgh in its tribulation with incense offerings. The Five Elders Temple is temporarily unable to repay and had no choice but to let this Golden Chicken stay in your hall to repay its debt."
Repaying a debt? This chicken is a glutton, earning incense offerings that probably wouldn't even cover the cost for other temple immortals to catch bugs for it!
"I remember Golden Simurgh joined the hall three or four years ago, has it still not accumulated enough incense offerings to repay?"
Golden Simurgh flapped its wings, puffed out its chest, looking rather proud and arrogant.
Xu Qing heard the chicken say that, besides its food and drink, it had earned an enormous amount of 20,000.
Twenty thousand, still not enough to match the pocket change earned by other temple immortals.
After further questioning, Xu Qing learned that the foolish chicken, with the help of the Galloping Immortal Disciple from Sweeping Hall, had overseen the establishment of a Phoenix Fairy Hall, the Great Chicken Immortal in the people's eyes.
In the first month of managing the hall, Golden Simurgh, without regard to the amount of incense offerings, had villagers and common folk catch insects for it as offerings, cleansing bad luck for them, and occasionally helping fearful children regain their scared souls.
It wasn't until a month later, when Liu Su'e tallied the performance of each hall, did she discover that the Phoenix Fairy Hall ranked at the bottom for incense offerings.
Even then, it's because those who benefited from the Immortal Hall volunteered to catch bugs for Golden Simurgh, set up a shrine, burned incense, otherwise, it wouldn't even have a thousand wisps of incense offerings.
After discovering the problem, Liu Su'e specifically sought out Xuan Yu for specialized training of the Phoenix Fairy Hall.
These days, who provides offerings to immortals by catching bugs?
Not to mention the poisonous mist common in mountains, wolves, and tigers; even if bugs are placed in front of some people, they have a natural fear, refusing to catch them, let alone offer them as tribute.
The key is that this foolish chicken is very principled; it only helps those who caught bugs for it, and are within the vicinity of the Golden Chicken Mountain Hall.
If they're further away, it's unwilling to go.
You say it's lazy, but it's actually quite diligent; as long as bugs are caught for it, it's willing to work. But to say it's diligent…
No other temple immortal is as picky as it is!
Eventually, Yizhen Daoist, upon hearing the news, suggested to Xuan Yu that the tribute bugs should be replaced with grains of rice. If the household is too poor for rice, then small pebbles would do.
After all, in poultry circles, everyone knows chickens need to eat small stones to aid digestion.
Golden Simurgh has become so plump, it's about to develop high blood pressure! It might as well digest a bit.
Logically, with both Yizhen Daoist and Sweeping Hall's supervision, the incense debt owed by Golden Simurgh should have been paid off.
But coincidentally, the foolish chicken's Golden Chicken Mountain is quite close to Monkey Mountain, they're adjacent!