Chapter 195: New Highlight For The Chen Clan! Next Year The Qionghua Tree Will Be Beautiful!
（Some things should not be treated so rigidly. Knowing a little and taking it as everything is wrong. For things like stone tablets and stone carvings, as long as you can prove they are ancestral items of your own family, you do not need to hand them over. It was precisely because he knew some people would say otherwise that he deliberately added the words “Hundred Flowers Palace presented to the Chen Clan” on the stone tablet.）
……
Chen Han was truly surprised.
After thinking it over, he even felt that the dust removal formation recorded on this stone tablet was more impressive than any stone formation of Zhuge Liang in movies.
After all, this fresh air +1 attribute felt somewhat like modifying the local climate.
Moreover, for a place focused on tourism, the fresh air +1 attribute was practically a super buff.
People who travel do it to rest and recuperate, so having a good environment is one thing, and having good air is another.
The environment needed no explanation. The Feng Shui room and ancient building surroundings were absolutely not something other places could compare with.
Now there was also the Ancient Quiet Heart Art《》. As time passed, many people in creative professions who wanted to travel would likely think of the Chen Clan first.
This fresh air +1 attribute practically made up for another weakness.
Then there was the matter of range.
Previously, the props Chen Han had obtained basically only worked within the sect residence. This time, however, was different. Although the effect mainly still applied within the sect residence, it also added an attribute for the stele location, where an area of 30 square kilometers would be affected.
This seemed like a kind of extension or opening up of the attribute.
On closer thought, this was quite reasonable. After all, air was in a flowing state; even in middle school there was some knowledge about airflow and fluid movement. So if the air at the Chen Clan sect residence was modified, it was not strange for it to diffuse outward.
Naturally, such influence would grow weaker the farther it spread.
So, aside from the somewhat fantastical air-modifying ability of the dust removal formation on the stone tablet, everything else seemed quite scientific.
He already knew the location where the stele needed to be erected. After the prompt appeared, a map image appeared in his mind again, with a stele location marked.
That place happened to be exactly the area outside the Chen Clan where Qionghua trees had been planted.
Chen Han immediately checked the trigger condition again. Using true qi to activate the dust removal formation patterns on the stone tablet was simple. When the time came, he only needed to infuse true qi into the formation patterns on the stele.
The game system had already marked the special location.
But when it came to this Daoist sect’s special stele-erection ritual, he really had no experience. He had never read up on this aspect before.
So when he and County Magistrate Chu and the others randomly claimed they needed to investigate the stele-erection ritual, he actually did need to look it up.
The Chen Clan had many Daoist classics, including quite a lot about various rituals. After searching in the Library for some time, he found a ritual specifically for erecting a single stele.
Moreover, the stele could not be erected casually; there were rigorous steps: choosing an auspicious day, selecting and orienting the site, offerings, worship and offerings to deities, the stele-erection ceremony itself, and hanging red for blessings.
Choosing the day meant selecting a time to erect the stele, avoiding inauspicious days like the three sha and heavy mourning days. In this, Chen Han did have some knowledge. After becoming the Chen Family Head, he had crammed some Daoist classics, and he was skilled at choosing auspicious days.
The day after tomorrow was an auspicious day for erecting the stele.
Selecting and orienting the site was unnecessary this time, since the game system had already marked the location. They just needed to erect it there.
Offerings meant preparing incense, candles, spirit paper, fruit, flowers, cakes, and other Five Offerings to present to the deities.
For the stele-erection ceremony, one had to perform Stepping on the Big Dipper before raising the stele, while others coordinated to guide and set the stele upright. Under the base, they also had to place True Warrior Evil-Dispelling Flower Money, cinnabar, five grains, and other items as auspicious symbols.
Hanging red meant that after the stele was erected, a red cloth was hung horizontally across the top of the stele with both ends tied tightly, symbolizing joy, good fortune, and the warding off of evil and disaster.
The procedure did not seem difficult, so he sent his junior sister a message and entrusted her with preparing the items.
When Xiao Yu received her senior brother’s message, she was editing a video with Xiao Mi. She immediately complained, “I understand incense, candles, spirit paper, fruit, flowers, and cakes, but what is this True Warrior Evil-Dispelling Flower Money?”
This really hit her blind spot. It was not as if her senior brother did not know she disliked reading.
Beside her, Xiao Mi, dressed in Daoist plain clothes, smiled and said, “The True Warrior Evil-Dispelling Flower Money has ‘True Warrior Evil-Dispelling’ in four large characters on the front, and on the back there is suddenly the Big Dipper above, and the Black Tortoise and Red Serpent below. Go to the Great Hall and find Aunt-Grandmother; she definitely has some.”
Once Xiao Yu knew, she hurried into action.
After instructing his junior sister, Chen Han also put away his mobile phone. Now he just had to wait for his uncle to lead the Work Hall people to finish planting the flowers. By the day after tomorrow, that would be more than enough time for the clan members to plant flowers in the courtyards and on the walls.
By then they would activate the Dust Removal Formation Stone Tablet and use the Hundred Flowers Sweet Dew Talisman, and once again give everyone a huge surprise.
Thinking this, he planned to go out and inspect the situation within the clan. Shortly after stepping out of the courtyard, he saw a couple quarreling, surrounded by many tourists filming with their mobile phones.
After all, in a scenic spot like this, when a couple argues, there are bound to be onlookers.
There had been no shortage of cases where quarrels in scenic spots made the news before.
“Zhao Yan, tell me, are you cheating on me?” The girl kept pounding the man, her face full of anger. “Otherwise why have you been so unlucky in the Chen Clan, falling three times?”
Her words stirred up an uproar among the tourists around them. They suddenly sensed a key point, and many began whispering:
“Damn, the Chen Clan has this effect too?”
“If it is true that doing something wrong makes you unlucky in the Chen Clan, then cheating is definitely doing something wrong, right?”
“Does that mean the Chen Clan is even more authoritative than the civil affairs bureau?”
“……”
Chen Han was not surprised when he heard this. Previously, there had already been many couples frightened into canceling their reservations and not daring to come. Now, this minor punishment as a warning attribute could indeed help people verify their other half.
Once this key point spread, many would probably want to use it to test their boyfriends or girlfriends.
At that moment, the man suddenly got angry too. “Yeah, I cheated. Every month I give you ten thousand as pocket money, give you a car to drive, we only meet a few times a month, and you seriously have no idea in your own heart?”
The girl froze on hearing this.
All around, the tourists exclaimed.
This was explosive.
Even Chen Han’s jaw dropped. This was a thing?
Outside the Chen Clan, his uncle was already leading the Work Hall members to plant Qionghua trees with full effort.
In the clan members’ courtyards, he could also see clan members transporting potted plants and climbing flowers to plant on the walls.
The Chen Clan had already ordered from the Linhe County flower planting base more than once, so this time the delivery speed was very fast.
At this pace, they could definitely finish everything by the day after tomorrow.
Time passed.
One night went by.
When Chen Han opened his eyes the next day, the primary spirit stone in his hand had already been drained of spiritual energy and turned into an ordinary piece of jade, without a trace of spiritual energy.
Now there was only one primary spirit stone left in his warehouse. Once that was used up, he could only rely on the special spiritual aperture.
The key problem was that this one spirit stone was not enough to support him in opening another of the eight extraordinary meridians.
He felt the game system should be sensible enough to reward him with a few more spirit stones.
After washing up, Chen Han went down into the courtyard and saw points of starlight floating in the Moon Gazing Rabbit’s cage; there was more Moon Gazing Sand.
He immediately collected the Moon Gazing Sand, then went to the special spiritual aperture.
The second outer ring of the flower planting wall around the pavilion had basically grown up, shielding the inside, so the pavilion was barely visible from the outside.
Chen Han went in. His junior sister and his uncle and the others had, as usual, arrived before him. After greeting them, he sat cross-legged to await the spiritual energy rinse.
When he finished cultivating and stood up, as usual only he remained in the pavilion, and in his mind came a string of prompts for increases in wish power.
It meant the people of the clan had already completed the morning class.
When he went back to Uncle’s Kitchen to prepare medicinal cuisine, he also sent his junior sister a message, asking her to bring some aloe vera and olive oil later.
Yesterday, he had promised those lobster girls he would make them some scar removal cream, so he needed to get it done.
On the way to Uncle’s Kitchen, he saw how excited the passing clan members were.
“Did you see the salary sheet sent in the family group? How much did you get?”
“I’m in charge of picking bamboo leaves: 7,500 base salary + 500 full attendance + 1,500 bonus, total 9,500!”
“You got more than me. We in the Work Hall only got a 6,000 base salary + 500 full attendance + 1,500 bonus, only 8,”
“It’s fine. You Work Hall folks were busy last month, but it was still easier than our work.”
“……”
The June salaries had already been calculated. Most clan members had worked a full month last month, so with full attendance and bonuses added, the amounts were quite substantial.
Of course, not every department’s bonus was that high; it depended on the situation, calculated by Chen Xiaoyan.
Now Chen Xiaoyan had compiled the salary details and posted them in the family group.
This was actually normal. Many companies issued salaries on different dates, but usually at the beginning of the month people could see their calculated salary details and then wait for payday.
So today, everyone in the Chen Clan was all smiles. They had truly not expected such generous full attendance and bonuses.
There had never been such good things when they worked outside.
Now they were increasingly glad they had come back, and more and more grateful to that patriarch.
A few excited clan members, upon seeing Chen Han, immediately stopped and greeted him very respectfully.
Chen Han nodded in response. When he arrived at Uncle’s Kitchen, he began preparing the medicinal cuisine. Just as he finished, Xiao Yu came over with the aloe vera and olive oil, and he picked up the prepared spirit flower pollen to start making the scar removal cream.
…
In the county.
As soon as they started work, Chu Ping and Chen Kai met up.
“Director Chen, how is the information search going?” Chu Ping asked as soon as they met.
Right now, this was the matter he cared about most.
Chen Kai shook his head and said, “We did not find any useful information. We went back through the County Annals and still found no record of the Hundred Flowers Palace. However, we did find some resources, and I am not sure if they are related to the Hundred Flowers Palace.”
As he spoke, he handed over a stack of information.
“Let’s go to the Chen Clan and see how the Chen Family Head’s preparations are going.” Taking the documents, Chu Ping headed out, planning to read them on the way to the Chen Clan.
What he most wanted to know now was the matter of that stone tablet. He had a hunch that the tablet was definitely not simple.
As the car set off toward the Chen Clan, Chen Kai noticed his leader reading those materials and silently took out his mobile phone, set it to silent, and started scrolling through Douyin videos to see if there was any news about the Chen Clan today.
At present, the tourism popularity related to Linhe County online was basically all focused on the Chen Clan.
One video today surprised him: 《“Take your boyfriend/girlfriend to the Chen Clan and you will know if they are suitable for marriage.”》
This stunned him for a moment. The Chen Clan worshiped the Heavenly Lord of Demon Subjugation, not the Matchmaker God.
But after watching the video, he was genuinely stunned. So it could be used like this?
A girl saw her boyfriend fall three times in a row at the Chen Clan and concluded his bad luck there was because he had cheated.
The key point was that the man really had cheated, and it seemed that girl herself was the third party.
Chen Kai was dumbfounded. Were people nowadays all this creative?
When he looked at the comments in the video’s comment section, he was even more astonished:
“The Chen Clan tourism couple tour group is now recruiting. Join Gentle Breeze Travel now for 20% off!”
“Shenzhou Travel: Chen Clan couple tour group recruitment begins…”
“……”
He felt the Chen Clan would soon welcome another small peak of tourists.
Others put in painstaking effort to promote tourism, yet the Chen Clan could attract attention and tourists in such a bizarre way.
Before long, the two of them arrived at the Chen Clan and saw Chen Han again.
“Welcome, leaders.” Chen Han greeted them with a broad smile.
Once seated, Chu Ping could not help but ask, “Chen Family Head, after a night’s investigation, have you clarified the situation of this stone tablet and the dust removal formation? Could it really have some special mysterious ability like in the movies?”
With a smile, Chen Han gave his usual answer. “County Magistrate Chu, that is all nonsense. We still have to believe in science. However, I have already found the location for erecting the stele, and I have chosen the day as well. It will be tomorrow afternoon.”
Chu Ping felt helpless when this man opened his mouth with “believe in science,” but when he heard that the stele location had been found and the date chosen, he smiled.
He did not believe the Chen Family Head truly believed in science as much as he claimed.
However, since the Chen Family Head had already invoked “belief in science,” he did not press the topic. Instead, he asked, “Chen Family Head, did you really make up the Hundred Flowers Palace mentioned in the video?”
“Yes,” Chen Han replied with a smile.
He definitely could not say that it was made up by the game system and that he had just copied it.
Chu Ping said, “Director Chen here checked some historical County Annals. Back in the Qing dynasty, there was a Baihua Sect that came to Linhe County and even visited the Chen Clan. Do you think that might be the Hundred Flowers Palace? After all, back then, differences in accent, dialect, writing, and so on could have caused communication issues, and perhaps the Hundred Flowers Palace was recorded as the Baihua Sect?”
“Uh! I do not think so.” Chen Han really had not expected these two leaders to be so invested in the stone tablet that they tried to find traces of the Hundred Flowers Palace in Linhe County’s history.
Moreover, he was sure that the Baihua Sect was definitely not the Hundred Flowers Palace. It was probably some cult; a branch of something like the White Lotus Sect would be more likely.
Since they did not get a definite answer from Chen Han, Chu Ping and Chen Kai asked about the stele-erection arrangements. Chen Han then took them out of the Chen Clan to the site where the stele would be placed.
Once there, Chu Ping and Chen Kai were very surprised to see the mass of Qionghua trees. This could already be called a forest.
“These Qionghua trees were donated by tourists? There are so many.” Chu Ping was full of surprise. He also noticed that there were still Chen Clan members planting more Qionghua trees, and even other types of flowers were being planted around the Qionghua tree forest.
With this interwoven scenery, once all the flowers bloomed, it would definitely be very appealing. The Qionghua tree’s blossoms had high ornamental value.
With these other flowers as interwoven embellishments, the beauty would be multiplied. It would certainly become an attractive project.
It was just a pity the Qionghua trees had already passed their blooming period; they would not bloom again until next year.
