14 Mazu Temple (1/2)
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