At the foot of Qingping Mountain, the immortal with a full basket returned with an empty basket. His face was dejected, and as soon as he got home he lay on the bamboo couch and sighed.

“I can’t catch sea fish, I can’t catch river fish, why can’t I even catch pond fish?” Manlou Xianweng couldn’t understand why he, a dignified earthly immortal, couldn’t even catch the fish in a pond?

The more Manlou Immortal Weng thought about it, the angrier he became. He tossed and turned on the bamboo couch. After an unknown amount of time, he finally calmed down. At this time, the breeze was blowing outside the window, and the overlapping of light and shadow made him feel very comfortable.

Manlou Immortal was tired, so he lay down on the bamboo couch, closed his eyes, and slowly fell asleep.

While he was dreaming, a ray of divine light suddenly fell in front of the Immortal Manlou. He was stunned for a moment and then looked in front of him.

I saw a tall figure appear before me. Although I couldn’t see his face clearly, I could feel the majestic power of the person in front of me.

“Mr. Manlou, do you want to see me?” Just as Mr. Manlou was stunned, the figure suddenly spoke.

Manlou Immortal Weng was startled and bowed his head quickly, saying, “I am here to see the Lord God. May I ask your name?”

Zhuang Yan said, “I am Lingtai Xianmiaoyu Jizhenjun.”

“Master Lingtai?!” Immortal Manlou was shocked, and then he quickly bowed his head and said, “Little Immortal Manlou, I pay my respects to Master Lingtai.”

Zhuang Yan extended his hand and said, “No need to be polite. Why do you want to see me?”

Manlou Immortal Weng quickly said, “Nothing, I just admire the power of Lingtai Zhenjun and want to pay my respects to him.”

Zhuang Yan smiled calmly and said, “I’m afraid it’s more than that, right?”

Hearing Zhuang Yan’s words, Manlou Immortal hesitated for a moment, then bowed to Zhuang Yan and said, “Master, I have a favor to ask of you.”

Zhuang Yan said, “Tell me about it.”

Manlou Xianweng said, “True Lord, I love fishing and regard it as my life. However, every time I go fishing for the past few hundred years, I have never caught a single fish. I wonder why? Please show your divine power and help me take a look.”

Upon hearing this, Zhuang Yan immediately raised his hand and gently patted Manlou Xianweng on the head. Then Zhuang Yan withdrew his hand and said to Manlou Xianweng, “You have been cursed by someone.”

Manlou Xianweng was shocked when he heard this and said, “Curse? So that’s it!”

At this point, Manlou Immortal Weng asked again: “May I ask, True Lord, who cursed me? Please tell me, I will be grateful.”

Zhuang Yan smiled and said, “You don’t need to ask more questions. The person who cursed you has already turned into dust and disappeared.”

“Ah?” Manlou Immortal Weng was startled and asked, “He’s dead?”

Zhuang Yan nodded and said, “Yes, he was originally a mortal who chanted Buddha’s name and ate vegetarian food. Hundreds of years ago, he saw you catch a spiritual big fish, and he felt pity for you. Before he died, he made a great wish to be reincarnated as an animal for ten lifetimes, and cursed you not to catch any fish for a thousand years.”

“The bald thief is so cruel!” When Manlou Immortal heard Zhuang Yan’s words, he immediately cursed in shock.

Zhuang Yan frowned and said, “Don’t be rude. He has good intentions. When you fish, don’t you ever appreciate the spirituality of all things?”

Manlou Xianweng was stunned for a moment, then said: “As long as we can catch a big fish, why bother whether it has spirituality or not?”

Zhuang Yan asked again: “How are the fish you caught?”

“Kill them all and eat them.” said the Immortal Manlou.

Zhuang Yan shook his head and said, “What a sin! They have spirits, they are living beings, how dare you kill and eat them at will? This is your retribution. The curse on you will not be lifted for another 600 years.”

“Ah?!” Manlou Immortal Weng said, “Doesn’t that mean I can’t fish for the next six hundred years?”

After saying that, Manlou Immortal immediately knelt on the ground and begged Zhuang Yan, “Master, please be merciful and use your magical powers to help me dispel the curse. I will do anything for you to repay you!”

Not being able to catch any fish for six hundred years was simply torture for him, a torment worse than death.

Zhuang Yan said: “I don’t want you to work like a slave, I just want you to do one thing.”

Manlou Immortal Weng hurriedly bowed and said, “Please give me some advice, Master.”

Zhuang Yan said, “As long as you can convert ten fishermen within ten years, so that they will stop fishing, change their minds, take good care of their wives and children, respect their parents, and live a peaceful life, I will remove the curse for you.”

“Convert ten fishermen?” Manlou Immortal said in surprise.

Zhuang Yan nodded and said, “But you are not allowed to use your magic power to force them, and you must not coerce or bribe them. You must truly convert their hearts.”

“This…” Immortal Manlou was silent for a moment after hearing this, then nodded and said, “Yes, I understand.”

Zhuang Yan nodded and said, “Go ahead. Just keep going east and you will meet these ten people along the way. When these ten people are successfully converted, it will be the time to remove the curse on you.”

Immortal Manlou immediately bowed and said, “Thank you, Master Lingtai, for your guidance. I am very grateful.”

When he raised his head again, Zhuang Yan’s figure had disappeared. A moment later, Manlou Immortal Weng suddenly woke up. When he opened his eyes, he found himself still lying on the bamboo couch in the thatched cottage. The breeze outside the window blew a peach blossom into the house and it fell on his face.

Manlou Immortal was stunned for a moment, then suddenly stood up and jumped off the bamboo couch, walked out of the thatched cottage, and bowed three times towards the place where auspicious clouds gathered on the top of Qingping Mountain.

Afterwards, Manlou Xianweng returned to the house, put away his magic weapons for fishing one by one, then went down the mountain and headed east.

In the Lingtai treasure realm, Zhuang Yan withdrew his divine consciousness, and soon received another “incense wish”.

The so-called incense wish is the ‘power of incense’. After mortals burn incense to worship gods and make wishes, the gods they worship will receive these incense powers.

Now that Zhuang Yan is the Great God of Fortune and Blessings in the human world, he naturally takes charge of all the incense and wishes in the human world.

Of course, some incense and vows are clearly praying to a certain deity, so Zhuang Yan will not care about them; or if the mountain gods, water gods, and land gods below can handle it, Zhuang Yan will not care about it either.

The incense wishes that caught Zhuang Yan’s attention were either those that did not involve praying to specific gods when making the wishes, or those that were beyond the reach of the gods below.

The incense wish in front of him was something that the gods below could not handle. Zhuang Yan took it in his hand and looked at it carefully. He was stunned for a moment, “What kind of strange wish is this?”

It turns out that this incense wish was made by an old scholar in the City God Temple. He wanted to witness the fight between immortals with his own eyes.

Perhaps this wish was too absurd, so neither the city god nor the gods in the human world paid any attention to it. Zhuang Yan thought about it, then stood up, restrained his divine power, put on a green Taoist robe, stepped out of the Lingtai treasure realm, and landed directly at the home of the old scholar in the human world.

This is the city of Xiangling Prefecture. The old scholar’s home is in the west city. It is a simple and warm small courtyard.

Although the courtyard is simple and plain, it is full of various flowers. Now is the season for flowers to bloom, and the flowers in the courtyard are in full bloom and the fragrance is everywhere.

In the center of the courtyard, an old scholar in a white Confucian robe, with white hair and a long beard, and an old woman with gray hair were sitting there.

The old woman was half lying on a rattan chair with a blanket covering her lower body. She turned to the old scholar and said with a smile, “You have been writing books all your life. I believe you can write a masterpiece.”

The old scholar smiled, reached out and stroked the old woman’s forehead, saying, “Okay, I’ll let you read this book first when the time comes.”

The old woman smiled and nodded, and then the couple held each other’s hands and lay in the rattan chairs to bask in the sun.

Seeing this scene, Zhuang Yan raised his hand and pointed, and the old scholar immediately fell asleep.

The next moment, the old scholar saw in his dream a auspicious cloud floating over, and on the auspicious cloud stood a divine man with divine light covering his body and fairy mist under his feet.

“Shang Sheng, I am the god of heaven and the great god of destiny in the world. I have seen what you prayed for. Why do you have this wish?” Zhuang Yan asked.

Shang Sheng heard this and immediately knelt on the ground and kowtowed, saying, “Go back to the human world, God of Fortune and Destiny. My wife was paralyzed at an early age and cannot walk. I want to write a wonderful book for her. The book will tell all the wonders of the world and the mysteries of the immortals. Unfortunately, I have never seen it with my own eyes, so I can’t write it even if I rack my brains. The day before yesterday, when I was burning incense in the City God Temple, I suddenly had this idea and made this wish.”

At this point, Shang Sheng bowed to Zhuang Yan and said, “If I can get what I want, I am willing to donate all my family’s wealth to build a temple for the God and make a golden statue for him.”

Zhuang Yan nodded and said, “Your love for your wife is commendable. I will grant your wish. A Taoist priest will come to help you make your wish come true. Just follow him.”

Shang Sheng’s face lit up when he heard this, and he immediately kowtowed and said, “I commend the great god of destiny for his kindness and generosity. I am deeply grateful.”

Afterwards, Zhuang Yan disappeared on a auspicious cloud, and Shang Sheng woke up from his dream after expressing his gratitude.

The wife beside him quickly turned around and asked with concern: “Husband, what’s wrong with you?”

Shang Sheng was a little dazed, and it took him a long time to come back to his senses. He smiled and said, “Oh, Madam, I’m fine. I just had a dream.”

“Dreaming?” The wife was a little surprised. “You fell asleep in such a short time? And you had a dream?”

“Yes.” Shang Sheng said blankly, “But this dream is so real that I can’t tell the difference between truth and falsehood.”

The wife smiled and said, “I envy you for your good sleep. You fall asleep as soon as you say you will. What was your dream about? Tell me about it.”

Shangsheng was just about to tell his wife about his dream when he suddenly heard footsteps outside the yard. Shangsheng and his wife looked towards the gate at the same time.

After a while, a young Taoist in a green Taoist robe walked into the courtyard. He stretched out his hand and knocked three times on the half-open courtyard door. Then he asked with a smile, “Is this Shang Sheng’s home?”

His wife looked a little confused, but when Shangsheng looked at the Taoist priest, his whole body suddenly froze and his face became dull.

After a moment, Shang Sheng stood up and walked quickly forward. With a face full of hope and a trembling voice, he bowed to the Taoist priest and said, “I am Shang Sheng, Taoist priest. Where are you from?”

Zhuang Yan smiled and said, “I have come to help you fulfill your wish. If you have nothing to do at home, please follow me.”

When Shang Sheng heard this, he immediately said to himself: “I didn’t expect that dream to be true.”

At this time, he hurriedly invited Zhuang Yan to come in and sit for a while, but Zhuang Yan said, “Time waits for no one. If you go too late, you won’t be able to see it.”

Shang Sheng became anxious when he heard this, so he asked, “Excuse me, Master, how long will we be gone? If it takes a long time, I still need to make arrangements for my wife. She has difficulty moving and needs someone to take care of her.”

Upon hearing this, Zhuang Yan smiled and said, “This is not difficult.”

As he spoke, Zhuang Yan took out a talisman from his sleeve and threw it on the ground. In an instant, a ray of light flashed, and the talisman turned into a young maid.

Zhuang Yan said to the maid, “You must take good care of the old lady’s daily life and diet. Don’t make any mistakes.”

The maid was transformed from a talisman and seemed a little dull. After all, she was not a real person and did not have the spiritual energy of a real person, but she had no problem taking care of people.

The maid just responded and then walked behind Shang Sheng’s wife.

Shang Sheng and his wife were stunned by this scene. After they realized what was happening, Shang Sheng said excitedly, “Master, this is a wonderful method that I have witnessed today.”

Zhuang Yan waved his hand and said with a smile: “It’s all right now, come with me.”

Shang Sheng nodded, and then said, “Please wait a moment, Immortal. Let me bring the pen, ink, paper and inkstone.”

“No need.” Zhuang Yan said, “How can earthly writing and ink record the affairs of the immortals? Come with me, and I will have a magical pen and book for you to use.”

Shang Cheng was overjoyed when he heard this, and hurriedly bowed and said, “Thank you, Immortal. Please wait for a moment, so that I can say goodbye to my wife.”

“Okay.” Zhuang Yan nodded slightly.

Then Shangsheng turned around and walked to his wife, briefly told her about his wish and the dream he had just had about the gods, and finally said: “Madam, eat and drink well at home, and relax, don’t worry, with the help of the immortals, there will be no difficulties, and your husband will be home soon.”

When his wife heard this, she also gave Shangsheng a few instructions. Then Shangsheng said goodbye to his wife and came to Zhuang Yan and said, “Master, that’s enough.”

Zhuang Yan smiled slightly, stretched out his hand and grabbed Shang Sheng and said, “First, let me show you how to escape underground.”

After saying that, Zhuang Yan raised his hand and pointed at the ground. Before Shang Sheng could react, his whole body sank rapidly into the ground. After a moment, he was underground. It was pitch black all around him, but he could clearly hear the sound of soil flowing around him, and could feel that he was moving rapidly underground.

“Is this the legendary art of escaping underground?” Shang Sheng asked.

Immediately, Zhuang Yan’s voice came to my ears: “Yes.”

Just as Shang Sheng was about to feel it carefully, he suddenly felt his body stop and then suddenly fly upwards.

After a moment, Shang Sheng felt a bright light before his eyes, and then he was brought out of the ground by Zhuang Yan and appeared in a lush forest. (End of this chapter)