Mazu Temple
After arranging work for the territory, Ouyang Shuo suddenly had nothing to do. Thinking of the Mazu statue he had gotten in the market, he suddenly had an idea.
The village temple was built at the southeast corner of the village. As a required building for a grade 3 village, it covered a very wide area, comparable to the Lord’s Manor. As a village grade temple, it currently only had a main hall.
The front of the main hall was a square, surrounded by stone walls, with a very good atmosphere. Beyond the square was the main hall. The main hall held the altar, dedicated to the Sea Goddess Mazu and two other gods. With the carvings before the altar and incense sticks burning there, it looked very solemn.
When the players built a temple, they could choose which god or gods to offer worship to. Ouyang Shuo naturally chose Mazu and her subordinate gods, thousand mile eyes and ten thousand mile ear.
Ouyang Shuo came out of the main hall and to the middle of the square, taking out the Mazu idol (damaged).
“System Notification: Detecting player Qiyue Wuyi with a special item: Mazu Idol (broken). The item and current village temple are a good fit, do you wish to use?”
“Use!”
There was a flash of white light, and the idol flew from his hands, hovering in the air. The statue gradually became larger and larger, nearly ten meters tall and displaying nearly a full figure of Mazu in white marble before dropping to the very center of the square once more. Mazu was holding her hands, her feet amidst the rocks and waves, lending a graceful atmosphere to the place.
“System Notification: Shanhai Village Temple is now blessed by its Mazu Idol, automatically renamed to the Mazu Temple! Its properties have increased substantially, player please view!”
“System Notification: Congratulations to player Qiyue Wuyi for the establishment of Mazu Temple in the wilderness. For spreading the faith of Mazu, you receive a special rewardof 200 merit points, and 400 reputation points!”
“System Notification: Congratulations to player Qiyue Wuyi for reputation points exceeding 1000 , your fame is enhanced. You earn the silver title Celebrity (enhancing favour of historical people by 10%).
Ouyang Shuo quickly opened the bar of the Mazu Temple to explore its properties, to see what surprises it had for him.
Name: Mazu Temple (sealed)
Type: Hidden Class Building
Function: Spread Mazu’s faith, enhance the residents satisfaction +20%, enhances the territory’s reputation by 5%.
Features: Sea God’s blessing (Ability of your fleet to withstand storms at sea +40%)
Evaluation: There is a seal in the Mazu Temple, with a trace of weak Mazu gods. Dedicated incense and prayers will help break the seal.
Wow, a hidden class building. This was really a grand prize, as hidden class was a rare degree of architecture, like finding an artifact. In the past five years, he had heard of no more than five hidden class buildings. If you included lords who concealed such things in their territories, he estimated there were not more than ten of them in the game.
Belief in Mazu was one of the most widespread folk religions in China. Mazu was also one of the gods in the state memorial, the other two being the Yellow Emperor and Confucius. So her status was one of the respected gods, naturally being defined as a hidden building class.
The change to the temple attracted the attention of the villagers. With the near ten-meter statue of Mazu there, it definitely stood out. The villagers immediately dropped what they were doing to flock to the temple. Seeing the statue of white marble standing there in the square of her temple, they all devoutly bowed down in worship of such a miracle.
At this point, the Mazu faith would slowly take root in Shanhai Village, and would slowly spread to the entire Lianzhou Basin, and eventually the entire southern coast. Shuo was looking forwards to the day when the offerings and prayers lifted the seal on the Temple, and restored the glory of Mazu.
From the Mazu Temple, Ouyang Shuo went straight to the barracks. In the camp, the militia team was under the auspices of General Shi, and had divided into two squads under Zhang Daniu and San Gouzi.
The two new group leaders looked very excited, faintly glowing of pride. Even the gloomy San Gouzi had a smiling face today.
Shuo was not here to stand around and do nothing, directly handing the <Salt Water Technology Manual> to General Shi.
After a brief accounting, he took the first squad out into the west woods to once again look for wild boars.
The logging team was as usual out in their fields. Leading his horse, Ouyang Shuo called over two lumberjacks. Onto a wooden plate they nailed a large cage, which they padded with hay. He had two militiamen carry the empty cage, and went straight to the wild boar area.
The way there was uneventful: any encounters with wild dogs or wolves were rapidly resolved. After all, everyone was at least level 5 now, and they were not a challenge.
However, either they were unlucky, or beast cubs were really scarce. During the morning, they met several wild boars, but none with piglets. Cursing his luck, Ouyang Shuo’s team started getting impatient. They didn’t fall back to the logging camp to rest, simply eating rations in the field, ordering everyone to rest in the woods on the spot. An hour later, they were ready to fight again.
Taking advantage of the time, he thought carefully, seeing if he had overlooked something, some detail he had missed. Suddenly, the technical manual from the boar king falling down on the other side flashed through his mind.
Yes, the manual fell from the boar king, did that not also imply there were other boars in the vicinity? In any case, Ouyang Shuo decided to turn them around and find a better area than this, where they were coming up empty.
An hour later, they were not far from where the boar king died. “Daniu, come here.”
Zhang Daniu hurried over. “Sire, you need me?”
“Ah, we are changing the strategy for the afternoon. I decided that we are going to where the wild boar king died to search the area. Make sure your men are alert. Do not drop the ball, understand?”
“I understand!”
“Go, call everyone up and we’ll start!”
The place where the fight had been yesterday between the boar king and General Shi was still messy. With Ouyang Shuo leading, Daniu behind him, and with the six militiamen following, they slowly followed the tracks of the wild boar.
After walking for half an hour, just as Ouyang Shuo wondered if his speculation was wrong, a squeal came from the distance, and his spirits rose. The call was too familiar, very similar to that of the wild boar king. Was there another one?
Carefully moving forward, they found a clearing about ten meters across, and a cave on the other side of it. Through the hole, he could vaguely see a wild boar laying there.
The wild boar was much bigger than an ordinary pig, but not as big as the boar king. Even more gratifying was that at the side of the pig were a dozen small piglets all lying in a row. Ouyang Shuo used his Basic Assessment to look at the properties of the wild boar.
Name: Mutated Wild Boar (Elite)
Level: 8
Skills: Brutal Charge
Evaluation: This is a variation of a wild boar sow, with offspring from the wild boar king.
It was the wild boar king’s mate and children. A level 8 elite, stronger then Ouyang Shuo’s own strength. To face it head on would be pushing it a little.
The easiest way to kill it would be to surround it with the militia, using their spears to keep it in the cave. The problem was, they’d probably kill more than a few piglets doing this, and the piglets were what they were here for. It would do more harm then good.
The other method was to send someone fast into the cave, then ambush it from either side when it came out. Once it burst out into the ambush, attacking together would rapidly kill it with teamwork. There’d be a little risk, because if anyone was careless, they could get hit by the sow’s struggles.
At this critical moment, Ouyang Shuo was resolute and decided to take the second method. The first method risked the piglets too much, and he didn’t trust the militia’s spear skills that much. For recovering the piglets, the risk was worth it, wealth and danger came hand in hand! Besides, as long as no one was seriously injured or died on the spot, Dr. Song’s golden medicine would be able to treat them.
The plan was arranged for a militiaman to attract the sow. The rest of the team was in the grass to the sides of the cave, ready to ambush her. The man picked up a stone from the ground, ran into the hole and threw the rock at the sow. The pig was startled to be attacked in its home. It struggled up, ready to rush out of the hole and turn the intruder into kibbles. When the militiaman saw her get up, he hightailed it out of the cave.
The sow ran right out into the ambush. Five people sprang out of the grass and mercilessly plunged their spears into her. Not being greedy for the credit, they pulled their spears out after inflicting fatal injury and quickly jumped back.
At the crucial moment, an accident still happened. One of the spears was stuck in the sow’s ribs, and could not be pulled out. The sow whirled on him as he tugged on it, forgetting to retreat. Angry and wounded, the pig started to launch a brutal charge at him.
This time, Ouyang Shuo reacted from the other side of the pig. He plunged his spear into her again, breaking her attempt to charge from behind as she whirled around to face him.
Seeing Ouyang Shuo over there facing the pig alone, Zhang Daniu rushed back along with the rest of the militia, and they also stabbed with their spears. With one last stab, the sow was finally unable to stand, and fell seriously injured to the ground.
Ouyang Shuo ordered the militia to not act rashly, and everyone stepped back, waiting for the sow to die of blood loss. He knew that a seriously wounded beast was very dangerous, and dying from a final lunge was not a joke. Good hunters had patience: impulsive fools had long since fed themselves to the beasts.
“System Notification: Congratulations to player Qiyue Wuyi for killing a mutant wild boar (Elite), reward 1000 experience.”
“System Notification: Player Qiyue Wuyi is now level 8!”
A white light flashed, and Ouyang Shuo smoothly rose to level 8, and the militia rose to level 7 at the same time. He stepped forward to harvest the sow’s body, and received two wild boar skins.
Perfect wild boar skin: Quality 6, can be used to make high-level leather and leather armor.
After killing the sow, everyone felt safe to get the rewards. They entered the hole, where the dozen piglets were gathered in a ball. Ouyang Shuo was momentarily at a loss; a dozen piglets was a big harvest. The six of them surrounded the piglets, who offered little resistance as they were dumped into the cage.
About to leave the cave, Ouyang Shuo saw a flash of light from the corner of it. Searching carefully, he discovered a black ring.
Name: Ring of Courage (black iron level)
Properties: Enhances the morale of troops by 5%
Evaluation: The ring has only one power: with a rousing speech, you can have a greater effect on your soldiers.
For black iron equipment, the effect was pretty good, and jewelry was more rare than most other types. Shuo directly put it on his right ring finger.
There was a burst of system announcements; Shuo paused to read them all.
_"System Notice: Congratulations to player Di Chen for becoming China's first Lord to upgrade to the second grade village, special reward of 1100 merit points!”_
_"System Notice: Congratulations to player Di Chen for becoming China's first Lord to upgrade to the second grade village, special reward of 1100 merit points!”_
_"System Notice: Congratulations to player Di Chen for becoming China's first Lord to upgrade to the second grade village, special reward of 1100 merit points!”_
Ah, the leader of the Six Tyrants of Handan, Di Chen. It was the reality of having a strong political group among the new players. They had built China’s first villages, and now one of them had the first upgrade.
At this stage of the game, the only real restriction on the big forces was their lack of architectural blueprints. Ouyang Shuo’s constraints on population did not affect them: they could appeal directly to adventurers to pad their numbers.
The inertia of history was still strong; Ouyang Shuo was still a butterfly. To flap his wings and start a hurricane was still a ways away. Over the next few days, the other five Tyrants of Handan should also upgrade to level two villages.
*[advantage]: by having their erection in contact with her
*[ cent bills]: China has cents in bills called jiao
*[Guoshu]: Guo here means country and shu means technique
*[ 190 centimeters]: Over 6ft tall
*[Lake Cui]: Cui Hu, also means Green Lake
*[hundred dyuan bills]: 100yuan is their biggest bill
*[Daoist Fierce Tiger]: The author of this novel
*[Noodles]: made of wheat
*[Rice Noodles]: made of rice
*[Zhang Tian Tian]: Tian means sweet
*[Bajiquan]: Also known as Eight Extremities Fist, but Bajiquan sounds nicer to me
*[Long Taos]: side characters in Chinese operas who perform acrobatics and fight scenes
*[12.47 to 13.07]: don't ask me about the tree sap