“Thank you for your guidance, Brother Changshou!”

At the forest’s edge, Ao Yi, with horns on his head and in his youthful form, made a deep Daoist bow to Li Changshou.

Just now, he had violated his principles as a dragon by making such an excessive request to Brother Changshou…

Though this was a ‘mutually beneficial’ matter, it was indeed his improper desire, putting Brother Changshou in a difficult position.

Brother Changshou suffered from having too few Way of Humanity School dharma inheritors and pursued a reputation of peaceful non-action. The South Sea Religion matter could only be conducted in secret, with strict confidentiality.

—Though Brother Changshou hadn’t said it directly, but such an obvious matter, he Ao Yi wasn’t a foolish dragon, how could he not guess?

Now the South Sea Religion had begun to gain momentum, with shaman-humans as divine envoys, meaningful teachings that spread enlightenment, and Way of Humanity School masters as backing!

That abundant incense merit was something Ao Yi had seen with his own eyes – absolutely no fakery.

What did the Dragon Clan need most right now?

Merit!

In that distant ancient era, the Dragon and Phoenix clans had incurred boundless karmic obstacles by shattering the primordial world;

The Phoenix Clan directly declined, suppressing the Undying Volcano;

The Dragon Clan had stronger reproductive abilities and used countless treasures to suppress their clan’s fate, used countless clansmen’s bodies to fill the Nine Polluted Springs that were raging in Heaven and Earth at the time, barely managing to survive…

In ancient times, the Dragon Clan secretly formed good karma with the not-yet-prosperous human race, becoming totems for some tribes, thereby accumulating some merit, which finally eased the Dragon Clan’s situation considerably.

Thus, how important merit was and how terrifying karmic obstacles were – the Dragon Clan’s understanding was incomparably profound.

Just earlier, though it was very difficult to say, Ao Yi still said:

[Brother Changshou, may I come help at the South Sea Religion, become a Dharma Protector, and earn some protective merit?]

In reality, Ao Yi just wanted to earn some merit for the Dragon Clan by himself.

What surprised Ao Yi was…

Li Changshou quickly agreed.

But one could see that Li Changshou’s agreement was somewhat reluctant;

Ao Yi understood in his heart – after all, Li Changshou wasn’t the true person in charge, just a pushed-out proxy;

Li Changshou must have valued their friendship to reluctantly agree to let him come to An Water City in half a month… to hear the teachings.

Just right, in this half month, he would return to the East Sea Dragon Palace to find his Royal Father and have a good discussion.

Dragons plan but Heaven decides!

Ao Yi’s heart was now full of motivation. After saying words of thanks, he made several more Daoist bows to Li Changshou.

Li Changshou repeatedly returned the courtesy, then pondered a few times, tactfully expressing some of his concerns…

Soon, Ao Yi made a Great Dao oath before him, reciting the感念 spell, swearing to never tell a third spirit about Li Changshou’s connection to the South Sea Religion.

With this, Li Changshou’s heart finally relaxed somewhat.

While Ao Yi felt emotional in his heart…

This friend, Ao Yi would keep!

…

Watching the little dragon quickly fly away on clouds, Li Changshou shook his head gently.

In the future, be better to this Second Patriarch.

Since you’ve joined our South Sea Religion, how could we let you just be a mere Dharma Protector?

Li Changshou had already arranged most things, directly establishing Ao Yi as the South Sea Religion’s Second Patriarch and Azure Dragon Great Dharma Protector!

After organizing the religious affairs and dealing with those divine envoys, he would add a statue of the Second Patriarch beside each of his divine statues, directly giving two-tenths of the South Sea Religion’s incense merit to the Dragon Clan!

If the Heavenly Dao hadn’t already recognized him as this South Sea God, unless the religion was destroyed, the patriarch’s position couldn’t be changed.

Li Changshou wanted to emulate the ancient human ancestors and give the South Sea Religion’s patriarch position to some master from his Way of Humanity School.

—This incense merit still couldn’t benefit the Dragon Clan for nothing.

Using the earth escape technique, Li Changshou began busying himself again.

The most crucial step had been taken, now to see the Dragon Clan’s reaction.

What was this incident?

Originally coming to destroy the Sea God Religion, the Sea God himself had his plans repeatedly interrupted, and due to various powers’ involvement, fell into a crisis of exposure…

Li Changshou had considered what reactions the Degree Immortal Gate and Way of Humanity School would have if his South Sea God identity was exposed, and whether he could firmly hold onto Way of Humanity School masters’ support to resist Western Paradise masters’ schemes.

But no matter how he calculated, the final result was always a dead end.

Not to mention Sage power, like that ‘Seven Nail-Head Arrow Book’ – just setting up an altar could curse a Golden Immortal of the Great Luo Heaven to death from afar!

At the crucial moment, Li Changshou directly reversed his thinking, seeking life in death, transforming factors that were originally harmful to him into conditions beneficial to him!

Actively accepting being the South Sea God, using his identity as a Way of Humanity School disciple and his understanding of Ao Yi to drag the Dragon Clan in;

Then using the Dragon Clan as a shield to bear future pressure from the Western Paradise, attracting attention from all sides;

Moreover, Li Changshou would next organize internal religious affairs, patch up doctrinal details, perfect the divine envoy management structure, strengthen internal self-supervision…

Meanwhile, let the Dragon Clan become the best tool for manifesting divinity, and also let them protect followers, avoiding bloodshed between followers.

This solved the fundamental purpose of his South Sea journey—avoiding incurring karmic obstacles.

His payment to the Dragon Clan was the two-tenths of incense merit that Ao Yi took.

However Li Changshou calculated, that it wasn’t a loss.

What the Dragon Clan needed most now was merit and fate;

Li Changshou was certain that although there would be some twists after Ao Yi returned to the East Sea Dragon Palace this time, he would still return on schedule.

And there was a high probability that Ao Yi would bring Dragon Clan masters to the station at the South Sea’s edge.

He only needed to do three more things, then he could withdraw and let the South Sea Religion operate on its own—

Use sedatives to make the Bear Village divine envoys obedient;

Find a way to conceal the faces on his many statues;

Restrict the South Sea Religion’s development, letting them only spread teachings within a certain range along the coast, not touching the Way School’s interests.

This counted as the first major matter Li Changshou actively planned…

Though it wasn’t active – he was truly forced to the edge of a cliff, and could only risk counterattacking in desperation.

Plan for the worst, and refine the most details!

Li Changshou’s paper puppet went directly to Bear Village, using the only thing he could do through statues right now—dream invasion.

Combined with sedatives, continuously manifesting divinity in Bear Village, thoroughly turning these iron-headed fools, mostly products of close-relative marriages, into Sea God believers.

Would Shaman Race masters investigate?

How could they investigate?

The Sea God Religion’s divine envoys improved these shaman-humans’ lives, letting them benefit too.

Moreover, this Sea God Religion was originally established by these shaman-humans – Li Changshou was the ‘victim.’

Half a month passed quickly.

Li Changshou went all out at the South Sea’s frontier, even secretly sending another batch of paper puppets because the immortal power consumption was too high.

He exhausted himself planning the whole situation, striving to eliminate any oversights.

Hard work pays off;

In half a month, of one thousand seven hundred statues, most had already had their faces concealed, and new statues would intentionally blur the faces somewhat.

—The religion initially needed clear faces to establish where the incense merit would go.

But with the South Sea Religion developed to this point, there was no need to show true faces anymore.

Ao Yi didn’t disappoint Li Changshou either.

Initially, Ao Yi brought back three hundred immortal dragon soldiers and several Heaven Immortal Realm masters.

But when Li Changshou secretly ordered Bear Village divine envoys to gather followers and manifest divinity again, announcing Ao Yi as Second Patriarch and Azure Dragon Great Dharma Protector, Ao Yi was somewhat dazed.

Afterward, Li Changshou explained to Ao Yi the reason he had prepared early:

The South Sea was remote, Li Changshou couldn’t attend to it daily, and the Dragon Clan might need to spend more effort, so giving Ao Yi more merit was reasonable.

Ao Yi couldn’t refuse, using communication talismans to call more people.

The Dragon Clan had suspicions about this matter, but their internal masters took turns calculating the background of the South Sea Religion’s patriarch, all getting…

No such person was found.

Yet precisely, Ao Yi had sworn an oath saying he directly communicated with the South Sea Religion’s patriarch.

This must be some master, incidentally confirming the Way of Humanity School ‘background’ of the South Sea Religion…

Thus, the East Sea Dragon Palace sent six masters and one thousand immortal dragon soldiers to permanently station at the South Sea’s edge, with South Sea Dragon Palace forces available anytime.

Because Ao Yi had to return to Golden Tortoise Island to cultivate and couldn’t stay in the mortal world too long;

With Li Changshou’s permission, Ao Yi arranged several Dragon Clan masters as the South Sea Religion’s True Dragon Dharma Protectors, who could earn small amounts of incense merit on the side.

These few protectors would patrol various places daily, protecting Sea God Religion followers in coastal territories.

Ao Yi was full of motivation, continuously planning the religion’s next teaching steps, striving to develop and expand in thirty years, and spread throughout the South Sea’s edge in three hundred years!

Regarding Bear Village, Li Changshou and Ao Yi had also discussed it in detail, with Li Changshou reminding Ao Yi not to get too deeply involved with Bear Village.

At this point, while Ao Yi couldn’t be said to follow Li Changshou’s every word, he was very grateful and trusting.

He no longer called him ‘Brother Changshou,’ but changed to ‘Patriarch Elder Brother’…

Nothing else, just to show closeness!

Li Changshou reserved the right to complain about this anytime, and was grateful he was just ‘Patriarch Elder Brother’ rather than ‘Imperial Brother.’

Although he could withdraw from here, how could Li Changshou truly be at ease?

Li Changshou secretly continued working hard. Three months later, most paper puppets exhausted their immortal power and were destroyed by Li Changshou on the spot.

He left two paper puppets at the South Sea’s edge for contingencies.

At this point, Li Changshou’s basic plan could be considered perfectly achieved.

He takes the merit, dragons bear the burden;

Moreover, it was the Dragon Clan who actively proposed joining the religion, owing him the karma that the Dragon Clan would have to repay in the future.

—Of course, Li Changshou wouldn’t do such things, it was just win-win cooperation.

The South Sea Religion also got on track, with internal money-grabbing trends stopped and Bear Village divine envoys receiving the Sea God’s legitimacy.

Because true dragons continuously manifested to protect followers, the number of followers increased rapidly each day.

But Li Changshou still couldn’t be completely at ease, still carefully planning for several months, continuing to calculate possible problems and preparing contingencies…

Half a year later.

Li Changshou finally emerged from the underground secret chamber, deciding to tell Master and Junior Sister that the problem was temporarily resolved, no need to worry too much.

However, as soon as he saw Ling’e, he frightened her.

“Senior Brother, what happened to you?

How did you become so haggard!”

In the thatched cottage, Ling’e hurriedly put down her needlework and rose to welcome him, worriedly looking at Li Changshou’s somewhat wan face.

What happened?

Busy with major matters for half a year, calculating Heaven and Earth’s great situation for so long, just mentally exhausted.

After all, these all involved existences like Sages and Golden Immortals of the Great Luo Heaven…

Li Changshou yawned, holding two paper figures in his hand, floating to Junior Sister’s bedside and lying down.

“Senior Brother will sleep here a while to recover spirit, trouble Junior Sister to protect me, later tell Master one thing – say there’s temporarily no problem, let him not worry…”

After speaking, he closed his eyes to rest, still keeping part of his spirit active, subconsciously remaining vigilant.

Ling’e blinked gently, Senior Brother he…

Actively got into her bed…

“It’s good that things are resolved, Senior Brother, lie down properly.”

Ling’e said softly, slowly walking forward, raising her hands to move her Senior Brother’s legs hanging off the bed onto it.

Looking down at Li Changshou’s tired face, Ling’e pursed her lips, her eyes showing some pity…

But, pity aside, how could she let such a rare opportunity pass?

Ling’e’s little tongue licked her lips, a plan rising in her heart and mischief growing in her courage. She tiptoed behind the screen, finding and changing into that set of thin gauze skirts from before, snow-white skin faintly visible.

She certainly didn’t dare do anything directly to Senior Brother;

But taking advantage of Senior Brother’s sleep, hiding beside him, then secretly reminding Master to come to discover this scene…

As long as she begged Master to make the decision, her marriage with Senior Brother wouldn’t that just…

She had long planned this scheme, but Senior Brother never showed any weakness.

Today…

Heaven-sent opportunity, Heaven-made match, Heaven-fated marriage!

Must seize the moment in one go…

“Are there any Little Qiong Peak disciples not in closed cultivation?

I’m today’s mountain gate guard disciple, someone outside the mountain gate wants to find someone from Little Qiong Peak.”

Just then a shout came from outside, as a figure had already broken into the outer isolation formation.

Meanwhile, Li Changshou had already opened his eyes on the bed, slowly sitting up.

Rip!

The screen was punctured by a small fist.

“What’s wrong?” Li Changshou asked with a yawn.

“No-nothing, just hitting a mosquito!”

Mosquito?

Li Changshou was startled, completely awake.