Chapter 244: Completing Tasks In A Row! Four Rewards!
As the sound of gongs and drums rang out, Chen Han stared in surprise at the game prompt that appeared in his mind:
【Congratulations, you have completed the task of Guiding people towards goodness and received the reward: Primary Spirit Stone x5!】
【Congratulations, you have completed the task of Guiding people towards goodness and received a special reward, the 《Insect Control Technique》 offered by the treacherous guest!】
So, is the drumming outside related to that treacherous guest from before?
That man had been subjected to his Refine Yin Transform Yang technique for a period of time, so he must have suffered greatly.
Chen Han was truly a little surprised; the task had been completed too suddenly.
Previously, that treacherous guest had exploited a bug in the mini program to join the Chen Clan’s lucky draw, even using a drone.
Naturally, in the game plot, the treacherous guest was using this 《Insect Control Technique》 to cause trouble for the Chen Clan.
Taking a look at the game warehouse, the 《Insect Control Technique》 appeared in the form of a jade slip.
【Insect Control Technique: this is a secret technique cultivated by a Left-Path cultivator to control insects. It possesses special functions. Once used, you can obtain the detailed contents!】
Chen Han had not expected that completing the task would actually make that treacherous guest offer up this secret technique. In contrast, those five pieces of Primary Spirit Stone felt like an extra reward.
However, he did not mind having more spirit stones. There was no spiritual energy in reality, and he could only rely on the brief washing from special spiritual apertures, so these spirit stones were cultivation resources.
At this moment, he was more curious about the commotion outside. With doubt, he walked out to see what was going on.
After exiting the Chen Clan Entrance, he saw a long procession of people beating gongs and drums.
Behind the two elderly men serving as the gong-and-drum players at the front, he saw people carrying two sizable braised pigs.
And behind these two braised pigs, there were others carrying whole chickens, whole ducks, whole fish… all sorts of things.
Daoist Priest Chen and those Daoist Sect Daoist Priests followed out from inside, and when they saw this scene, they all revealed looks of surprise.
“This is the Five Animals rite!” Daoist Priest Chen said in astonishment.
Daoist Priest Xuan Shi also nodded. “This should be a believer who received the Chen Clan’s favor, or whose wish was fulfilled and has now come to fulfill a vow.”
Five Animals offering, Five Animals vow-fulfillment, Five Animals thanksgiving… this was the highest rite for fulfilling a vow in the Daoist sect.
Of course, even the highest rite had distinctions.
In ancient times, ordinary commoners might only be able to gather one of each of the five animals, and for the pig they might only afford a pig head and pig tail to represent a whole pig; a genuine whole pig was beyond their means. That was all money.
To have an ordinary commoner produce a truly whole pig was impossible. Once the sincerity was there, it was actually enough.
However, if it was a wealthy family, offering several pigs as part of the five animals was no problem.
At an even higher level, for people like the royal family or nobility, to be a bit vulgar about it, they could have the five animals forged from gold, silver, or jade, and that was acceptable.
This long procession of gongs and drums naturally attracted the attention of tourists. Many people curiously took out their mobile phones to record.
For many of them, they had never experienced such a vow-fulfillment procession and were extremely curious.
And just as Chen Han came out from the Chen Clan, he saw a middle-aged man in his fifties suddenly wave his hand. Then two men stepped out and raised a banner:
Written on it were the words: 《Thank you, Chen Family Head, for your guidance, which led my unfilial son, a prodigal, to mend his ways》.
Behind the middle-aged man, Wu Yan and his girlfriend （Chapter 201）, seeing this Chen Family Head again, wore looks full of awkwardness.
Many unbearable memories surged into their minds.
The girlfriend was also wearing a mask and a hat, mainly because that thick facial hair was really unfit to be seen.
Chen Han was not surprised to see Wu Yan and the two of them. After all, that treacherous guest had originally been punished personally by him.
Receiving the prompt that the task was completed, he knew it had something to do with them.
Primarily, the completion of the task also meant that the game system recognized that the two had already reformed and turned toward goodness.
The man no longer wore that flashy getup. He was now neatly groomed and no longer looked like a delinquent at all.
Wu Yan stepped forward awkwardly and greeted Chen Han. “Greetings, Chen Family Head.”
To be honest, if his old man had not already prepared these offerings and insisted forcefully, he would not have dared to come. He was a bit afraid of this Chen Family Head.
After that, the middle-aged man in his fifties also came forward.
Wu Yan quickly introduced, “Chen Family Head, this is my father, Wu San. Dad, this is the Chen Family Head I told you about.”
Wu San immediately knelt down before Chen Han. “Thank you, Chen Family Head, for turning this useless son of mine back to the right path. You saved our family.”
As he expressed his gratitude, his voice carried a tremble.
This period had been truly miraculous for him in terms of his son’s change.
As a father, after his son entered high school and hit adolescence, his temperament had changed drastically. He messed around all day and ended up mixing with people from the underworld. There was nothing he could do.
At first, he could still beat the boy up a bit, but gradually he realized he really could not. A high school kid resisting had more strength than him.
Later he could no longer control his son at all, and he genuinely feared the boy would be taken away by the police at any time.
After that, every time he saw this unfilial son come home bruised and swollen, sometimes even wrapped in bandages, his heart would clench, yet he was helpless.
But fighting, brawling, even hacking at each other with knives, what future could that have?
As he had expected, it was not long before his son was taken away by the police, but even after a stint in prison, the son did not reform and instead became worse.
Later he imitated others and tried to be a boss, even bringing underlings and letting them call him Brother Yan, which infuriated him.
That way he could only become more and more hopeless, a complete mess, and might very well end up dead.
Many times, when he heard of triad leaders being blinded, or people overdosing and drowning in a river, he would subconsciously think of his own son, his heart pounding with fear, and he would have nightmares at night.
If he had the ability, he truly wanted to open a new account and raise another child.
That way he would not have to worry every day that when he grew old there might not even be anyone to see him off.
But in that regard he was truly powerless, not only financially but physically as well.
Yet during this recent period, his son had suddenly stopped messing around. He would even help elderly grandmothers across the street, greet the elders in the village, and follow him in hard labor without complaint, starting to think seriously about righteous business ventures.
At that time he had literally looked out the window at the sun to confirm it was not rising from the west.
He had even given himself a hard slap to make sure he was not dreaming.
For an unfilial son to turn back from being a prodigal, as an old father, the comfort and gratitude he felt at that moment was something no one else could truly understand.
So, after learning the reason from his son, he asked the villagers to help him prepare, explained everything clearly, and today brought people specifically to thank this Chen Family Head.
Moreover, from his son’s words he had also learned how formidable this Chen Family Head was, and with the recent rumors about the Chen Clan, he knew this was a true expert.
He felt that his son being able to encounter this Chen Family Head and be taught a lesson by him was the greatest good fortune of his life.
Of course, he also hoped his son could receive forgiveness.
Seeing Wu San suddenly kneel, Chen Han hurriedly helped him up.
He could somewhat understand the man’s mindset, but he was not accustomed to receiving kneeling worship.
However, this scene greatly surprised the surrounding tourists, each of them raising their phones to record. This was the sort of scene that usually only appeared in film and television.
Some tourists could not help asking people in the procession, “Brother, what exactly is going on?”
The people in the procession were villagers Wu San had brought along. Now that so many people were paying attention, they naturally did not mind sharing.
“It is because Uncle Wu’s son has turned from evil to good thanks to this Chen Family Head.”
Once that was said, others began chiming in.
“Yeah, Wu Yan used to be really bad, always fighting!”
“More than just fighting, he was taken in twice!”
“After being taught by this Chen Family Head, he actually started doing good deeds.”
“……”
With that, the tourists watching nearby roughly understood what had happened.
They found it somewhat unbelievable.
This man’s son had taken the wrong path and been arrested twice, clearly having committed some serious mistakes, showing he had truly been a hopeless case.
Now such a scoundrel had met the Chen Family Head, been educated by him in some way they did not know, and in the end had suddenly come to his senses and turned back from being a prodigal.
So now this man had come to thank the Chen Family Head.
Really, if it were anyone else, with a son that rotten, and someone managed to make him turn back, who would not kowtow to the Chen Family Head?
At this point, the tourists filmed even more enthusiastically.
They felt that what they were witnessing today was exactly the kind of classic story of leading people to goodness spoken of in Daoist legends.
Was this not far more worthy of respect than those people who flaunted themselves in front of the camera online?
It was even more vivid than the moral stories taught in school textbooks.
Daoist Priest Chen and the others watched this scene, silently nodding, a deep and indescribable conviction appearing on their faces.
As cultivators, they actually envied the deeds of their predecessors, who would descend the mountain with swords, eliminate harm for the people, and lead people toward goodness.
As cultivators, they should be promoting the teachings of the Daoist sect, but due to modern societal constraints, there were many things they could not do and did not dare to do.
Thus, when they saw the situation of the Chen Family Head guiding a prodigal back to the right path, they were deeply moved and filled with respect.
Chen Han helped Wu San up, then suddenly looked in surprise at the game system prompt in his mind:
【Congratulations, you have completed the Grand Dao Discussion Event task and gained the sincere respect of the experts who came to the Chen Clan. You have received special rewards: Spring Point Stone x1, Feng Shui Spirit Record Stone x1】
This…
He had racked his brains scheming yet failed to complete this task, and suddenly it was done just like that. It was truly unexpected.
He looked in surprise at Daoist Priest Chen and the others.
He roughly understood that it was because of Wu San, Wu Yan, and the others.
This made him respect Daoist Priest Chen and the others a bit more. At the very least, they were genuine cultivators.
At least when he had used mysterious methods, they had not let him complete this task that way. Instead, it was through completing a task of Guiding people towards goodness that this task was chained into completion.
That meant that Daoist Priest Chen and the others had been moved and filled with respect because of this. The fact that they would respond in this way showed that they too were such people.
So, why say that the Daoist sect was a state religion?
If it were people from some other side, they would absolutely not respect you for such a thing. Instead, they would treat the rich and the poor differently.
The simplest example was that gang leader who had been arrested. When Boss Ma came, they greeted him with warmth and hot tea. When others went, they did not even get a cup of tea.
The key point was that the completion of this task had also granted two rewards.
And both seemed to be good items.
However, now was not the time to focus on this, as there were still matters before him that needed handling.
Since the Wu father and son had come with such a grand display and brought so many people, he could only lead their procession into the Chen Clan.
If he refused their goodwill in fulfilling the vow at this moment, he would leave them utterly without face.
They had come with great fanfare, beating gongs and drums and giving ample face to the Chen Clan. Whether out of courtesy, gratitude, or to ease their hearts, he needed to cooperate with them in carrying the ritual through.
Fortunately, the Heavenly Lord of Demon Subjugation and his attendants had not forbidden the use of the Five Animals, so he directly led the group toward the Great Hall.
Seeing Daoist Priest Chen and the group following, he extended an invitation. “Daoist Priests, since you happened to come across this, why not help these devotees perform a vow-fulfillment blessing together?”
Daoist Priest Chen and the others did not refuse. According to the rules of the Daoist sect, when one visits a Daoist temple and comes upon a ritual, one should show respect and take the initiative to help.
So the group headed lively toward the Chen Clan’s Heavenly Lord of Demon Subjugation Hall, with a crowd of tourists following to watch and film.
They all believed this would surely become a fine story.
At this time, on a hillside at the back mountain, Ming Di had already set up filming equipment, recording the vow-fulfillment procession. He had known from the moment they arrived and had especially come up here to shoot.
Xu Bin was very curious. “Cousin, the Chen Clan’s popularity online has been so high these two days, and you haven’t been filming any videos. I thought you weren’t going to ride the Chen Clan’s hype, but today you rushed up here.”
Ming Di replied awkwardly, “You think I wasn’t trying to ride it? Those commentator bloggers were just too fast. The key thing is that they overlapped with my ideas, and I don’t want people saying I’m copying others.”
“The key is that yesterday I just finished a video and submitted it, and it failed review. Then I saw that commentator blogger’s account get banned, and I ended up getting caught in the crossfire.”
“So how could I possibly let this opportunity slip today?”
Zhu Xueqin said with a smile, “It’s really lively today, with such a big procession coming to the Chen Clan to fulfill a vow.”
But Ming Di was already speaking into his mobile phone recording. “No, no, no. After lurking around the Chen Clan for so long and secretly observing for so long, I feel this matter is not so simple.”
Xu Bin and Zhu Xueqin saw he had started recording and cooperated.
Xu Bin asked, “How is it not simple?”
Ming Di frowned slightly. “Whether it is the Demon Sealing event, or the cloud mist stirred up by those experts’ Dao discussion, or this vow-fulfillment procession now, they may all be meant to attract outside attention.”
“The true goal of the Chen Family Head and those experts may be hidden. However, given that the Chen Family Head suddenly appeared in the back mountain to seal demons, I feel there must be something there, and those things are what the Chen Family Head truly needs.”
“So the Chen Family Head gathered so many experts. Believe me, the Chen Clan will soon gain huge benefits from the back mountain.”
“I just do not know whether those things are meant to be used against people from our Holy Cult. We must be more careful.”
After recording, Ming Di put away his phone and called the two of them to head back. “Let’s go, time to go back and edit the video.”
Following behind, Zhu Xueqin asked, “Ming Di, what if you are just making wild guesses, and the Chen Family Head didn’t get anything from the back mountain?”
Ming Di smiled. “Who knows? Anyway, if the Chen Family Head brings out something new, we can say it came from the back mountain. If he doesn’t bring anything out, once some time passes and the hype dies down, no one will care. It’s a guaranteed win with no loss.”
Xu Bin smiled. He now understood his cousin’s strategy: advance when possible, retreat when necessary.
After all, there were only two outcomes, and if they guessed right, they would hit the jackpot.
Besides, he felt his cousin seemed to have real luck on the path of being a demonic cult rogue, always running into good fortune.
