As soon as the man finished speaking, the believers in the temple kowtowed and chanted the spell in unison:
The light is universal and pure, and there is eternal bliss and tranquility without any moving curse;
He experiences happiness and has no worries. To say that there is suffering is not true.
If one can live in that country, he will ultimately be free from all worries.
Always feel happy and bright, if you say you are sick, that is not true.
The place is pure and dignified, and all evil impurities are not there;
Happiness fills the whole body and one is always at peace. There is no point in using words to bully others.
After everyone read it several times, Yu Mei raised his right hand and waved it in the air, signaling everyone to be silent.
As expected, the believers obeyed the order and kept silent. In the huge main hall, the only sounds could be heard: the crackling sound of the raging fire inside and the crashing sound of the surging waves outside.
After a short silence, Yu Mei called on several key members of the Tianzun Sect to lead the believers in chanting scriptures. He himself stood beside the fire with his hands behind his back, sometimes closing his eyes to rest, and sometimes squinting to observe the movements below.
Qiu Yizhi had previously been in Guangyang City, accompanying Bohai Princess Yiran to sneak into the Tianzun Sect's Dharma Assembly. At that time, the Dharma Assembly was presided over by the Saint Wen Lingjiao who was now standing behind him. At the beginning, she also recited a passage of scriptures like this, and then punished several believers who did not abide by the rules of the sect to establish her authority.
Therefore, Qiu Yizhi had some understanding of the procedures of the Tianzun Sect's Dharma Assembly. He knew that the chanting of sutras at the beginning was not interesting, and the punishment of believers later was the focus of the Dharma Assembly. Therefore, he did not carefully inquire about what sutras these believers were chanting. Instead, he walked to Wen Lingjiao nonchalantly and asked, "Miss Wen, how do you think their Dharma Assembly is going?"
Wen Lingjiao looked worried and said, "The Dharma Assembly was well organized and the sutras were well recited, but..."
"What is it?" Qiu Yizi asked.
Wen Lingjiao sighed softly, "Even those standing under the altar I saw were old believers who seemed to have met me before. For someone like Yu Mei to preach and hold a ceremony next to a busy market, he must have a warrant or token from the leader or me, otherwise it would be considered disobedience. Have these old people forgotten all the rules?"
Qiu Yizi thought: Perhaps after Yu Mei amassed a huge fortune, he also distributed a lot of his wealth to these backbone members. They are all well fed with gold and silver, so how can they have the time to care about your rules and regulations
However, he did not dare to speak and just waited for Yu Mei to finish reciting the scriptures and then say something.
As expected by Qiu Yi, after about a cup of tea, the chanting in Baoqing Temple gradually subsided. Yu Mei walked forward a few steps with a smile and said, "Brothers and fellow disciples, it's rare for us to gather together. This is a grand event of our Holy Religion in Jiangnan. I wonder if any of you have experience in studying the Holy Religion, please come up and spread it!"
The leader of the temple, Yu Mei, hasn't spoken yet, so who else dares to say anything
All I could hear was the followers saying in unison: "Master, please teach me! Master, please teach me!"
Yu Mei heard this and smiled proudly: "Since everyone wants me to say something, then I will say a few words. In the past two months, the Holy Church has been preaching widely in Jiangnan, and many counties and cities have firm believers of my Holy Church."
As he spoke, he pulled out a piece of paper from his sleeve and began to recite: "Junior Brother Feng has gained 623 new believers in Hangzhou, who have pledged 120,000 taels of silver; Junior Brother Chen has gained 775 new believers in Quzhou, who have pledged 135,000 taels of silver; Junior Brother Chu has gained 685 new believers, who have pledged 110,000 taels of silver; Junior Brother Wei has gained only 318 new believers in Suzhou, but has pledged the most, reaching 250,000 taels of silver..."
While Qiu Yizhi was listening, he whispered in Wen Lingjiao's ear: "Although Yu Mei Tianzun is not well versed in the teachings of the sect, he is good at managing finances. He doesn't seem to be preaching today, but rather like the Ministry of Revenue counting taxes paid by various places."
Wen Lingjiao glared at Qiu Yizhi with an angry look on her face, but did not speak to him.
Qiu Yizhi was bored and swallowed his saliva. He then listened to Yu Mei say, "In all the states along the Jiangnan Road, the Holy Religion has developed very rapidly, except for Yuezhou, which has not made any progress but has regressed. Junior Brother Fei Lianfei, you are in charge of preaching in Yuezhou. What is going on?"
Fei Lian was shocked when he heard this. He quickly got up from the ground and said, "It's all because of a magistrate named Qiu Yizhi who came to Shanyin County in Yuezhou and confiscated all the temples and Taoist temples that I had contacted... I hope the master will give me another chance. Within a month, I will restore Yuezhou's religious affairs to normal. Oh no, I will make Yuezhou's religious affairs even better!"
"Humph!" Yu Mei sneered in dissatisfaction, "I have told you before that leaving all missionary affairs to those monks and nuns is not very reliable. I asked you to make some changes at that time, but why didn't you listen? Especially that Miao Zhen, who actually offended the government and almost implicated the Holy Church and ruined the whole thing. Do you know your crime?"
Fei Lian was stunned for a moment, and subconsciously said, "Didn't the altar master personally accept Miao Zhen into the sect? I remember that the altar master personally went to preach several times..."
Before he could finish, Yu Mei immediately became furious and shouted, "What did you say? Are you blaming me?"
Fei Lian was shocked, and he knelt down on the ground with his knees bent. “No, no, that’s not what I meant… What I meant was…”
He suddenly changed the subject and said, "What I meant is that the altar master has a far-sighted vision. I cannot understand the altar master's deep meaning because of my limited qualifications. However, I dare not ignore the altar master's words. Isn't it that we have just introduced a new brother Xu to the sect..."
The so-called "Brother Xu" is Qiu Yizi disguised as "Xu Jia".
But Yu Mei sneered again: "Humph! You are the one who recommended Junior Brother Xu to join the Church? Humph! I might as well tell you that Junior Brother Xu is an old believer in my Holy Church and we have a life-and-death friendship. It was only because the Holy Church failed to start an uprising in Henan last year that Junior Brother Xu severed his ties with the Holy Church..."
At this point, Yu Mei's anger seemed to have subsided a little, and he said to Fei Lian who was lying on the ground: "You were able to guide him back to the religion, which is a great merit of yours. Now, get up, and be smarter in the future."
Fei Lian was already sweating all over. After hearing what Yu Mei said, he realized that he had barely passed the test. He quickly got up from the ground, but did not dare to reach out to wipe away the sweat oozing from his forehead. He lowered his head and let the sweat drop onto the ground.
But Yu Mei changed her tone to one of joy, half turning around and saying, "Junior Brother Xu, come on, come and meet the fellow apprentices from Jiangnan."
Qiu Yizi was startled when he heard this - how could he, a fake believer of Tianzun Sect, actually make a show in front of so many believers - he couldn't help feeling a little nervous, but then he thought: he came from the north and didn't have any acquaintances in Jiangnan, especially in Mingzhou, so showing up in this dim temple was not a big deal.
So Qiu Yizi took half a step forward, bowed to everyone, and said, "I am Xu Jia..." and he couldn't say anything else.
Yu Mei was very enthusiastic. He patted the shoulder of "Xu Jia" pretending to be Qiu Yizhi and said, "This Junior Brother Xu has a modest temperament and is reluctant to show off his achievements. However, he is a great contributor to the Holy Church and my great benefactor. Last year, when the Holy Church started an uprising in Henan, he saved my life. Later, when he became successful, he did not forget the kindness of the Holy Church and rejoined the church. He is a role model for everyone."
Qiu Yizhi felt a little embarrassed after hearing Yu Mei's flattery. Just as he was about to say something humble, he heard Yu Mei say, "Such a loyal believer is rare even in my holy religion. Therefore, I plan to appoint my junior brother Xu as the deputy altar master. From now on, seeing him will be like seeing me. Do you have any opinions?"
"What?" Qiu Yizi was shocked. "I just came here to find out the truth. It would be very rare if I could catch Yu Mei, who pretended to be the leader. If I really take over the position of the so-called 'deputy leader', things will get out of control."
After thinking this through, Qiu Yizi quickly declined, saying, "I am not very knowledgeable and have not worked in the church for a long time. How dare I take up such a high position? Please, Master Yu, choose another virtuous person."
Yu Mei said, "Brother, you are too modest. If I don't want to be the deputy leader, who among those kneeling down below would dare to do so?" As he spoke, he suddenly raised his head and glanced at everyone, saying viciously, "Who among you dares?"
When he asked this, no one dared to make a sound. They all lowered their heads and refused to speak.
Seeing this, Yu Mei was very proud, and said to Qiu Yizi with a smile: "Since no one has one, Junior Brother, don't be so modest, otherwise it will inevitably disappoint me and the other senior brothers and sisters!"
Upon hearing this, Qiu Yizi couldn't help but swallow his saliva. It seemed that the arrow was on the string and had to be shot today - could it be that he had secured the position of deputy leader today
While he was hesitating, he suddenly heard the tightly closed door of Baoqing Temple being pushed open with a "whoosh". A group of people walked out, and the first one was wearing a black robe and shouted loudly: "No, this person must not be the deputy altar master!"
Yu Mei's face darkened immediately after hearing this, but then he smiled and said gently, "So it's Junior Brother Yin who's here. I haven't introduced you yet. This is Junior Brother Xu Jia, my savior. I seem to have told you about his deeds before. This man is both virtuous and talented. I was just about to appoint him as the deputy leader. Junior Brother Yin just came in, so I don't know the details, so don't say anything nonsense!"
Yu Mei was originally a weak scholar. Qiu Yizhi had met him years ago and he was quite elegant. Now he pretended to be the leader of Tianzun Sect and became very domineering among the Tianzun Sect members in Jiangnan. Qiu Yizhi had other feelings about this, but he didn't expect that he would be so polite to the so-called "Junior Brother Yin" who suddenly appeared out of nowhere, which made Qiu Yizhi unable to guess his true identity.
However, Qiu Yizi was a smart person after all. He felt that this person's surname "Yin" was not a common surname and he had quite a few enemies, so he quickly wiped his eyes and looked towards the "Junior Brother Yin".
Upon seeing this, Qiu Yizi couldn't help but secretly groan - it turned out that the man with the surname Yin was none other than Yin Chengliang's son Yin Tai, who had a blood feud with him, but for some reason he had connected with the Tianzun Sect and appeared here.
However, he changed his mind and realized that last month Yin Tai had hired the "Flower Scattering Goddess" Gu Er Niang to deal with him. Gu Er Niang was also a figure in the Tianzun Sect, so it was not completely unexpected that he had some connection with the Tianzun Sect.
After thinking this through, Qiu Yizhi calmed down a lot and listened to Yin Tai quietly: "This person is not Xu Jia, he is the magistrate of Shanyin County - Lord Qiu Yizhi. Just now, Lord Yu said that he is both virtuous and talented, which is true. He has only been in Shanyin County for a few months, but he has turned Jiangnan upside down. If Lord Yu makes him the deputy lord, then the Jiangnan Saint Church will never have peace!"
Yu Mei's eyes widened, and she looked Qiu Yizhi up and down countless times as if she didn't know him, and then she asked: "Xu...Junior Brother Xu, is what Junior Brother Yin said just now true or false?" (To be continued)