I Materialized the Cultivation Game

Chapter 97: Chapter 81: The Little Rabbit’s Ulterior Motives! Could It Get Any More Abstract?_2

For a Daoist family like theirs, many Daoist rules, rituals, morning classes... they don’t really pay much attention to anymore.

Take, for instance, the Demon-Vanquishing Celestial Venerable Hall; usually, aside from Aunt maintaining the incense and candles, no one comes for morning classes or anything like that.

The Chen family is actually considered quite good; at least they have retained the sacrificial hall.

Some Daoist heritage families don’t even have a sacrificial hall anymore and don’t care about which deity they worship, only about what luxury car price they can pay or which extravagant villa they can live in.

There’s even a family that, if they didn’t need the Daoist heritage label to enhance the value of their medicinal and tonic wine products, they probably wouldn’t even mention their Daoist heritage status.

After all, times have changed.

However, when it comes to festivals, the Celestial Venerable’s birthday, special days, important events, and such, they still follow the rules; each family in the clan at least sends a representative to attend.

Of course, many people probably don’t do it out of reverence for the gods but more for the sense of ceremony and the excitement.

For instance, erecting a new Celestial Venerable statue is a very important event.

Many people say they believe in Dao, believe in gods, and then go outside to buy any random deity to worship at home, but that’s not right.

There are many procedures in this regard.

For the Chen family, erecting a statue requires first offering a prayer book to the Demon-Vanquishing Celestial Venerable, then casting the Holy Trigram, known in the Minjiang area as the Holy Grail, with one flat side facing upward for yang and the convex side facing upward for yin.

Yin and yang combinings form the Holy Trigram, indicating the deity’s consent and that the prayer request is feasible.

If the result is not the Holy Trigram, it means the deity does not agree, suggesting your prayer book is inadequate; you need to rewrite it and submit it again.

Only after the deity consents to the prayers can they proceed with erecting the new statue.

This is just the first step. The second step, enlightening the statue, is crucial because only an enlightened statue can be endowed with spirituality by the Demon-Vanquishing Celestial Venerable, turning it into a spiritual extension of the Celestial Venerable. Only then can the Celestial Venerable know when someone offers incense and bows to the statue.

This is called connecting humans with the gods.

In many TV plots, deities in the sky can see many believers worshiping in front of their statues and even hear their prayers, all because the statues have been enlightened.

If not enlightened, sorry, the deities won’t know you’re offering and bowing to him, and long-term offerings may even attract evil entities, bringing disaster to the family.

So, think about those tourist sites selling deity statues and such souvenirs. Those tourists, whether for fun or whatever reason, who buy these statues aren’t actually promoting the deities consciously, and there’s a possibility of attracting evil spirits.

Fortunately, those tourists are not real devotees; none offer sincere daily worship.

Moreover, in the new era, there are no such evil entities, otherwise...

Next, as the Patriarch, Chen Han must first write the prayer book to the Demon-Vanquishing Celestial Venerable, submit it to the Celestial Venerable, and then throw the Holy Trigram.

Thinking about it, he rode Youfu to Little Uncle’s courtyard, entered the kitchen, and took out a stewing pot to prepare a medicinal meal.

As usual, when handling the Dog Demon Meat, he put some Dog Demon Grease into the Cloud Barrier Cauldron as a note. After setting the medicinal meal to simmer on the fire, he routinely went to the Spirit Beast Hall to bring out the Profound Frost Lion-headed Goose to confront those stray dogs.

There was still only one piece of Dog Demon Meat; still no sight of the Dog Demon Spine Bone.

A crowd of tourists watched around as usual. When he rode the ox and led the Lion-headed Goose out, those tourists were already filming with their phones.

This was a good thing.

His newly released video already garnered over 300,000 likes in the morning. The videos these tourists post would certainly gain some traction, bringing him more exposure.

Nonchalantly storing the Dog Demon Meat in the warehouse, he returned the Lion-headed Goose to the Spirit Beast Hall and went back to Little Uncle’s kitchen.

His eyes still felt the cool and comfortable sensation from eating the Moon Gazing Sand, and its effect seemed to last long.

He quickly found a drilling tool and drilled a hole in the old elm branch he brought back, then crafted a wooden stopper.

Soon, a slightly rough wooden tube was completed.

He tried storing the wooden tube in the warehouse and checked the note information:

[Storage Wood Tube: This is a storage wood tube made from an old elm branch. Because the elm is aged and has absorbed some Spiritual Qi, it’s a very good Spirit Wood, effective in warding off evil and excellently preserving certain medicinal substances!]

Seeing this note, Chen Han didn’t hesitate to put the storage wood tube and two grains of Moon Gazing Sand into it, then sealed it with the wooden stopper.

Then, he saw his junior sister enter with a smiling face, ”Senior brother, the ancient costumes we ordered have been expedited and will arrive this afternoon. You promised to make time for me and Sister Xiaomi for the video shoot.”

Of course, Chen Han remembered this, knowing he would have to transform into Li Xiaoyao, Jingtian, and Yun Tianhe by then.

So, he said, ”Junior sister, can you first keep an eye on the medicinal meal and remember to add water? I need to handle today’s tasks first.”

Since Aunt reminded him, he must first write the prayer for the Demon-Vanquishing Celestial Venerable and then cast the Holy Trigram to consult the Celestial Venerable.

Before leaving, he glanced at his junior sister’s beautiful, lively eyes, thinking that after eating the Moon Gazing Sand, they’d surely look even prettier?

Most importantly, his junior sister wore contact lenses often for filming, which, if worn too long, would burden her eyes considerably.

”Senior brother, why are you looking at me like that?” Xiaoyu felt embarrassed under his gaze and asked coyly.

”Your eyes are truly beautiful, junior sister,” Chen Han complimented without holding back. Seeing her indeed pout, he continued, ”Extend your hand. I’ll give you something good to eat.”