CHAPTER 409: CHAPTER 405: QINGPING TEMPLE RELIES ON HER ALONE TO GET THINGS DONE

Qingping Temple holds several major events every year. The first is to hold large Daoist ceremonies on New Year’s Day and the Ghost Festival, and another event is to give alms during winter.

The almsgiving event, since it is larger in scale and involves numerous tasks, and with few Taoists in the temple, requires the voluntary help of believers and devout followers. After all, the process of almsgiving involves not only distributing porridge and buns but also brewing Warming Ginger Soup and crafting Body Strengthening Elixirs to give to the impoverished folk, which keeps everyone very busy. With only a few Taoists in the Daoist temple, it might be difficult to manage the chaos.

The elixirs are personally produced by Qin Liuxi. Even the recipe for the Warming Ginger Soup is written by her, and the required medicinal ingredients are sent to Qingping Temple by Changsheng Hall well in advance.

It’s the end of October, and this year’s winter is colder than usual. Before dawn, Qin Liuxi, accompanied by her two disciples, arrived early at Qingping Temple, discussed matters with Master Chi Yuan, met with the other Taoists, attended morning lessons, and then Qin Liuxi went into the temple’s medical room to begin crafting the Body Strengthening Elixirs.

The almsgiving will be held over three days. On the first day, porridge and buns will be distributed, and the Warming Ginger Soup will be continuously available, placed in the small square in front of the main hall and at the Charitable House at the foot of the mountain for people to drink.

On the second day, there will be free medical consultations and distribution of medicines, with doctors from Changsheng Hall also coming to help.

The third day involves distributing warm clothes, which requires going out to the refugee camp to provide the genuinely needy refugees with warm clothing and bedding.

These are all public activities. In addition, if there are surplus resources, more Silver Coins or goods will be allocated to the Charitable House, as it shelters orphaned children.

Qin Liuxi usually crafts elixirs by herself, traditionally only assisted by Chen Pi and Qi Huang, as there are few people in the temple, and many places need hands. Elixirs, which tolerate no errors, cannot be trusted to others.

This year, Qingping Temple has added Wuwei, and later, two Loose Dao also came to register, but still, there are shortages of staff. After all, the incense and devotee attendance have increased significantly, and naturally, they are too busy to manage everything.

Qin Liuxi does not mind; she has refined the Body Strengthening Elixirs for many years, with the necessary ingredients and steps already memorized. She asked Qingming to help with the physical labor and immediately got busy.

As for the two younger disciples, they followed closely by her side, watching and learning to identify medicinal materials.

"Some medicinal materials do not necessarily need to be fresh for effective medicine refining, but need to be processed to maximize their medical efficacy. In a prescription, to achieve the best medicinal effect, some ingredients need to be processed according to the patient’s condition. For instance, coix seed, whether roasted or unroasted, offers different properties. Coix seed is naturally cool and can guide moisture downward through bowel movements. If the condition involves dampness stored internally, raw coix seed works better, while roasted coix seed is milder and to strengthen the spleen aside from removing moisture, it needs to be roasted. However, whether roasted or not, coix seed should not be included in a fetus-preserving medicine for pregnant women, as its cool nature can easily induce miscarriage."

While processing the herbs, Qin Liuxi taught her two disciples: "Some ingredients must not be heated, such as Xanthium, love beans, and castor seeds, as heating would alter their properties, turning them into poisons. Studying medicine involves remembering innumerable details; just the processing of a single ingredient has many things to consider. One oversight can turn a lifesaving remedy into a lethal poison, so you must remember to be cautious and meticulous."

Teng Zhaohe and Wang Chuan nodded solemnly.

Qingming looked at the two young ones sympathetically. Being so young, they had to remember such intricate and burdensome information; it was indeed hard work.

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However tough it is, they couldn’t complain, because failing to save lives and instead harming them would result in severe karma.

Therefore, Qingming could only offer encouragement by saying: "I heard the Junior Temple Master also entered the Dao at the age of five and began practicing the Xuanmen Five Skills without ever complaining of hardships, you all should aspire to meet your master’s standards."

Wang Chuan brightened up, wasn’t that the same age as him?

Yet, thinking of his master’s formidable abilities while he himself was still desperately learning characters and couldn’t completely memorize the Tangtou Song, he felt rather dejected, thinking he was too foolish.

Qin Liuxi said: "Learning skills, three parts talent, seven parts effort. Diligence compensates for clumsiness. I will teach you everything I know, how much you learn and whether you surpass the master, it’s all up to you."

Teng Zhao quietly sorted the herbs, neatly arranging them in a basket.

While instructing his disciples, Qin Liuxi’s movements in refining medicine were nevertheless swift, adding the herbs to the Medicine Tripod in sequence, and as time passed, the fragrance of the medicine wafted around, invigorating the spirit.

As Qin Liuxi refined medicine, the large kitchen at Qingping Daoist Temple was also bustling. The cooks and believers were busy boiling porridge and steaming coarse flour buns; why coarse flour instead of fine flour, as coarse was cheaper and more filling, the saved silver could be used to make more buns.

Qing Yuan was preparing Warming Ginger Soup with Wuwei, brewing the strong and spicy ginger soup which besides ginger slices also contained other herbs like Atractylodes and Magnolia Bark to warm the body and expel cold.

Wuwei first drank a bowl of ginger soup, feeling warmth in his stomach, and his whole body felt warm and cozy, he couldn’t help saying: "The ginger soup I used to drink was just boiled with ginger, if I had some silver, adding brown sugar was considered a luxury. DateTimeOffset by leaps and bounds from this sip."

Qing Yuan sighed: "It’s also because Qingping Temple’s incense is thriving that we can add these good herbs. I heard from the temple master that when the temple was reopened years ago, everything was in disrepair. Not just doing three day almsgivings, even serving simple ginger soup was merely ginger-flavored water, and weak at that."

During these few months, Wuwei has been a Taoist at Qingping Temple, although also in hermitage, any way could hardly be compared to the past meager meals and wandering. Having a place to belong, his heart was settled, and his body healthy, from initially just trying out the temple to now sincerely staying and becoming a disciple in the temple, he naturally learned about the origins of Qingping Temple and its development over recent years.

Even though Qin Liuxi’s skills were taught by Master Chi Yuan, upon subtle inquiries, Master Chi Yuan was completely hands-off, allowing her to learn freely. But Qin Liuxi was a natural born genius of the Mystic Sect, learning significant skills at a young age, then using them for the benefit of the world. Though she was lazy, she was also kicked into earnestly earning money to revitalize the Daoist temple.

Lazy she truly was, but she also really had a hard plight, yet to speak the truth, Qingping Temple really depended on her to survive, only then could it have today’s scene.

"Don’t just look at our Daoist temple’s ability to use genuine materials to prepare ginger soup now, but actually, we haven’t yet reached Qingping Temple’s true golden age. I heard that a thousand years ago, Qingping Temple was known as Qingping Sect, which even had internal and external disciples, with more than a thousand disciples. However, it has declined generation after generation until now, it is only called Qingping Temple. Thirty years ago, the temple was even closed."

Patted Wuwei on the back, Qing Yuan spoke with deep emotion: "So, Brother Wuwei, even if we cannot return Qingping Temple to its glory days a thousand years ago, we must at least strive to be among the best. For this, our responsibility is great and the road long. We must focus on developing believers and strengthening the temple by burning the coarsest incense, and continuously encourage the Junior Temple Master to strive forward, enhancing the fame of our temple!"

Qin Liuxi rubbed her ears, feeling some unease as if someone was approaching.

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