Chapter 379: (5): Omen
Not far from where Noble Scholar Hou Zheng and Virtuous Scholar Zhou Juran were eating spicy noodles in the capital, there was a small and relatively unknown Daoist temple. The temple master was a middle-aged priest who was completely unknown in the Azure Phoenix Nation, and if he were to be viewed as a cultivator like any other, then he was even less remarkable, since he hadn't even reached the Middle Five Tiers.
Moreover, this White Cloud Temple had only been there for a hundred years or so, making it far younger than the established Daoist temples in the Azure Phoenix Nation that could easily have histories of thousands of years. Because of this, all of the locations with good feng shui in the capital had already been taken by the so-called senior Daoist temples a long time ago.
Compared to the size of the city, the White Cloud Temple looked much like a small piece of tofu. It was also forced to neighbor a bustling market. However, there were indeed a few ancient trees planted inside the temple, and this was something that the temple could be slightly proud of. However, these ancient trees also caused huge problems for the temple.
The children living in the surroundings liked to fly paper kites, but their kites would very often get stuck in the large trees of the temple. Thus, parents would often bring their sobbing children over and curse outside the temple. After venting their anger, they would barge into the temple to scold and lecture those timid little Daoist priests, instructing them to bring ladders over to climb the trees and retrieve the paper kites.
Upon getting their kites back, the tears of sadness on the children's faces would quickly transform into smiles of delight. However, having delayed their proper matters because of these trivial things, the parents would often continue to curse. Many of them would inevitably mumble that these troublesome and useless old trees should be chopped down and used for firewood.
When these troubles presented themselves, the haggard middle-aged temple master would walk out from the scripture library every single time. However, he would only dare to secretly stand in the distance with an anxious expression, relying on his junior brothers or disciples to face the wrath of the parents.
One time, a little Daoist priest secretly snuck out of the Daoist temple to fly paper kites with the other children. However, he accidentally flew his kite into one of the trees, and he had a huge mental battle with himself before deciding that he cherished the paper kite far too much. Thus, he mustered his courage to tell the Daoist temple about this.
In the end, however, he became an outlet for his master, the temple master, to vent his anger. He was almost spanked silly. However, the little Daoist priest also beamed in joy on the same day. As it turned out, a porcelain doll that he had wanted for a long time had mysteriously appeared on his bed. This allowed him to show off to the other little Daoist priests for a very long time.
It was late in the evening now, and the middle-aged Daoist priest raised his head while sitting inside the small scripture library. His eyes were feeling slightly sore after reading for too long.