Chapter 2: Mangcang Sword Sect
"My lord? Hey, my lord, everything is fine now, Silver Face, you lied to me again!"

A heavy sound of footsteps was heard, and a carp spirit with a red body came running from outside. This carp spirit was almost identical to the previous silver-faced carp spirit, as if they were carved from the same mold, except that one had silver scales and the other had red scales.

Looking at the two carp spirits in front of him, each about ten feet tall, Zhang Qian smiled bitterly. These two carp spirits were his subordinates, the Lishui River God, and they were the only two subordinates. Their names were also simple. The one with silver scales was called Silver Face, and the one with red scales was called Red Face, which made Zhang Qian unable to complain.

"Okay, you two go down!"

Seeing the two carp spirits arguing, Zhang Qian waved his hand impatiently, stood up and walked to the back of the water god's residence.

"Sir, have you forgotten that in three days the Mangcang Sword Sect will collect the beads? Last time, you failed to pay a certain amount and were punished with several whips and suffered serious injuries. If you fail to pay enough this time, when the immortals from the Mangcang Sword Sect arrive, we will be guilty of a great sin."

Seeing that Zhang Qian was about to leave, Yinlian said hurriedly.

"Yes, sir. The river god of Longyuan River next to our Lishui River did not pay enough beads. He defaulted twice in a row and was killed by the masters of Mangcang Sword Sect. You must be careful, sir."

Red Face echoed from the side.

Zhang Qian's mind turned and he immediately remembered the whole story.

The reason why his original body was able to become the Lishui River God was not because he was canonized by the Heavenly Court. There is no Heavenly Court at all in the Xihuang World. There are only countless immortal sects, demon sects, and monster sects.

The Lishui River is a small branch of the Lijiang River in Xingyun Prefecture, one of the thirty-six prefectures in the world. The Lijiang River runs through the entire vast Xingyun Prefecture, flowing east into the sea. It has countless branches, and there is no telling how many small branch rivers there are like the Lishui River.

Among the countless branching rivers, almost every one of them has a river god. These river gods are all appointed by the immortal sects. The reason for appointing so many river gods is just for one thing - the incense beads!
The Incense God Pearl is condensed from the power of incense, and the source of the power of incense is the faith and offerings of mortals. The Lishui River is 800 miles long and seems very grand, but it is only a small river in the vast Xingyun State.

As the god of the Lishui River appointed by the Mangcang Sword Sect, Zhang Qian's duty is to collect incense from the people on both sides of the Lishui River, and then condense the power of the incense into incense beads and hand them over to the Mangcang Sword Sect.

Zhang Qian's original incarnation was a disciple of the Mangcang Sword Sect. Unfortunately, after joining the sect for more than ten years, his cultivation had only reached the Lingji realm, and the Lingji he manifested was still a loach, with dismal qualifications.

Because of his low qualifications, Zhang Qian's original body had enough of the humiliation in the Mangcang Sword Sect. Later, he accidentally offended someone and was secretly manipulated by someone, who forced him to take the sect's talisman and come to Lishui River to become the river god.

Once the body is in possession of the River God Talisman, the talisman will become one with the soul, and the spiritual power will be locked, so there will be no chance of cultivating and achieving enlightenment in the rest of the life. However, Zhang Qian's original body had long despaired of the path of cultivation, and he was quite free and easy being the River God in the Lishui River.

But this freedom is not without price. Every three months, the Mangcang Sword Sect would send disciples to collect the incense beads. If the number is not right, there would be cruel punishment. In serious cases, the life of the offender would be taken directly.

"River God Talisman? This is troublesome. This body's cultivation aptitude is low, and the River God Talisman has been fused into its soul. I will never be able to cultivate for the rest of my life. What should I do?"

Zhang Qian frowned. Seeing Silver-face and Red-face looking at him eagerly, Zhang Qian asked, "How many incense beads are missing? How do you usually collect the incense power?"

Silver Face touched his head and said, "It's still more than halfway. Our Lishui River is only 800 miles long, and there are not many people on both sides of the river. The most important thing is that there are no cities on both sides of the Lishui River, only some fishing villages and small towns. There are too few mortals. Unless you cause a flood, the mortals can worship you devoutly. Now, the people will not go to the river temple to worship unless it is the New Year or other festivals, and the power of incense is pitifully small."

"To cause a flood? That's not right."

If there is a flood, many people will definitely die. Zhang Qian cannot do such a thing.

Seeing that Zhang Qian disagreed, Silver Face said in a muffled voice, "Then we can only follow the old method."

"What's the old way?"

Zhang Qian was surprised.

"My lord, have you forgotten? In the past, it was me and Red Face who ran to those small towns to scare people, and then you showed up and chased us away. This revealed your name and made those mortals worship you more devoutly."

Zhang Qian's face darkened, and he mumbled, "Is this how you collected incense before?"

"Yeah, alas, it's a pity that this method is no longer effective. At the beginning, when Red Face and I jumped into those small towns, we scared people to death, but after so many times, even children are not afraid of us. Some children even said that we are cute. It's all Red Face's fault. He can't even scare people."

"Why do you blame me? You ate those kids' candies last time. Don't think I didn't see it."

Zhang Qian almost fainted. He didn't see anything cute about Silver Face and Red Face.

"Have you never eaten humans?"

Silver Face was stunned for a moment, then replied: "How dare we eat people? We are not those big monsters from the Monster Sect. Besides, there are countless immortal sects in Xingyun Province. If we eat people, we might be killed by the masters of those sects. Besides, didn't the masters forbid us from harming those mortals?"

Zhang Qian nodded: "Don't worry, let me think of a solution first."

After sending the two monsters away, Zhang Qian walked to the back of the water palace.

This water palace is not big, only about an acre in radius. There is a magic circle set up by the Mangcang Sword Sect in the palace, which isolates the river water. Behind the water palace is where Zhang Qian lives.

Sitting cross-legged on the cloud bed, Zhang Qian closed his eyes. After half an hour, he opened his eyes again, and his expression became extremely complicated and ugly. "Luo Hou! I have suffered too much injustice for this unforeseen disaster. Not only have I lost my body of the ancient dragon loach, but my soul, which was like a physical being, is now only a remnant. Even the mental power that I absorbed and integrated with the original power of the Hundong Patriarch and grew to be comparable to the early stage of the Golden Immortal has disappeared by more than 90%! Now this body is extremely weak, and the aptitude is even inferior. It is not comparable to my previous life at all."

Zhang Qian was extremely unwilling in his heart, and he was even more resentful of Luohou. Unfortunately, his hatred was doomed to be unrevenged, as Luohou had already self-exploded and turned into ashes.

"This world is completely different from the prehistoric world, and the path of cultivation is also somewhat different. The starting point of all cultivation is actually inspiration."

After a while, Zhang Qian finally calmed down, suppressed his resentment and hatred, and started to think.

After integrating the memories of his original body, Zhang Qian sorted out his thoughts. Although the Xihuang world was a place of great spiritual prosperity, the world structure was far different from that of the prehistoric world.

In his memory, the practice in this world is divided into: blood refining, induction, inspiration, qi refining, magic power, true essence, nine transformations of golden elixir, yin spirit, dharma appearance, tribulation, and primordial spirit.

There is no memory of the realms after that, and they are generally no different from the cultivation in the primitive world, but the roots of the cultivation are very different.

Because according to legend, the human race in the Xihuang world was created by Xihuang. After Xihuang created the world, he created countless innate spiritual roots, acquired spiritual roots, and countless divine beasts and demonic beasts, which made the empty world come alive and become lively, but Xihuang was still not satisfied.

Later, Emperor Xi took the vitality of the innate and acquired spiritual roots, the bloodline of divine beasts and demons, and the mysteries of the sun, moon and stars, mixed them into the source of spiritual inspiration, and created the human race with the supreme method.

Therefore, the deep blood of the human race in this world contains countless mysteries and various inspirations. The first step in cultivation is to refine the qi and blood, to refine the qi and blood around the body until it is clear, and then to draw the spiritual energy of heaven and earth into the body, to find the inspiration deep in one's own blood, and let the inspiration manifest. This is the real beginning of cultivation.

However, cultivation depends on aptitude and the level of spiritual inspiration. The higher the level of spiritual inspiration, the better the aptitude for cultivation.

Everyone's inspiration is different. Some people's inspiration is the ancient mythical beast, with innate spiritual roots, which are extremely magical. They can be cultivated at an incredibly fast speed, and the quality of their inspiration is innate.

Some people manifest spiritual inspirations through acquired spiritual roots, various monsters and demons, and these spiritual inspirations are all acquired grades.

There are also people whose spiritual power manifests as flowers, plants, pigs, cows, sheep, horses and other mundane things. They are not up to standard and have no meaning. The spiritual power of loach manifested by Zhang Qian's original body is of this level.

There is another level of spiritual inspiration, which is the primordial spiritual inspiration. That kind of spiritual inspiration can manifest the sun, moon and stars. The primordial spiritual inspiration is even rarer than the innate spiritual inspiration. It is the most superior qualification for cultivation, and each one of them is a peerless genius!
After Zhang Qian's original body embarked on the path of cultivation and manifested his spiritual inspiration, the spiritual inspiration was a loach and became the laughing stock of the Mangcang Sword Sect. The quality of the spiritual inspiration was just mediocre, and it could be said that he had no qualifications for cultivation at all.

"What a fate! I was the first loach in the prehistoric world - the ancient dragon loach. After I came to the Xihuang world, the spirit of this body turned out to be a loach as well. Moreover, both he and I are called Zhang Qian."

With a sigh, Zhang Qian didn't care at all that the inspiration of this body was just a ridiculous loach. He had gained the insights of the ancestor of Hundong, so his knowledge was naturally extraordinary.

Now he has lost almost everything and has come to this Xihuang world. If he wants to return to the magnificent prehistoric world and pursue the eternal life in his heart, he can only find a way to start practicing again.

"I'm in trouble. I have the River God Talisman on me. It's still deep in my soul. With it here, I can't practice at all."

The River God Talisman is of great use. Zhang Qian can use various spells with it. Moreover, only with the help of the River God Talisman can he draw on the power of incense collected in the River God temples on both sides of the Lishui River. Condensing the Incense God Pearl also requires this talisman.

However, the talisman is also a restriction. If Zhang Qian fails to complete the task, the people of the Mangcang Sword Sect can cause Zhang Qian's soul to shatter and die with just a thought!

"We have to find a way to get rid of this talisman."

As soon as this thought came to his mind, Zhang Qian's brain vibrated violently. Then, his mind was pulled to the depths of his mind by an inexplicable force, and he saw a strange scene.

A piece of pure white jade was floating up and down, it was the nameless treasure that had carried him through two journeys.

Below the broken jade was a golden talisman, which tightly wrapped a tiny loach, and the talisman was firmly suppressed by the broken jade.

What's even more strange is that, perhaps sensing Zhang Qian's thoughts, the broken jade shook slightly and actually shattered the talisman directly. The River God Talisman turned into scattered fragments, and then the broken jade turned and actually swallowed up all the fragments!

Zhang Qian only felt his soul lighten, as if some shackles had been opened, and he felt relaxed.

The loach spirit wrapped in the talisman also gained freedom, and Zhang Qian could sense the spiritual energy from the outside world again.

"This... it was exorcised just like that? This piece of broken jade actually responded to my wish!"

Zhang Qian was a little surprised. He didn't expect that he just wanted to exorcise the talisman, but Canyu actually did it.

In the ancient times, this piece of broken jade never responded to him at all. It just stayed in the depths of his soul, doing its own thing. But now, it followed Zhang Qian's idea and directly broke the River God's talisman.

According to his memory, the River God's talismans are not easy to dispel. These talismans are all refined by the Jindan elders of the Mangcang Sword Sect. Once fused, they will take root in the soul and will wrap up and seal the spiritual inspiration, making it impossible for people to practice. Any means to dispel the talismans will cause damage to the soul.

Under the power of the broken jade, Zhang Qian didn't feel anything at all, and the talisman was shattered and expelled!

(End of this chapter)