Chapter 1374: Chapter 620: Grassroots Work, the Mahayana Path
The four characters "Great Leiyin Temple" might not hurt the disciples of Liuli Buddha and Thunder Sound much, but they are extremely insulting.
But Cheng Yun didn’t care about them. The situation in Pharmacist City was very bad; he had no time.
"Today’s top priority is distributing grain."
He stood in the newly built courtyard and said to the modern cultivators beside him.
"The grain must be delivered by hand to every household, we can’t miss a single one."
"The medical team will arrive tomorrow. We can take advantage of this round of house visits to register everyone who needs medical assistance."
The several modern cultivators around him listened and had no objections.
Let alone spreading faith—making sure people don’t starve to death comes first.
"Pharmacist City covers a large area. We’ll have to work hard; everyone has their own task." Cheng Yun recalled the full view of Pharmacist City he had seen from high above, made an estimate, and said, "There are eight of us, so we’ll split it into eight sectors, each person in charge of one sector."
"According to the Great Leiyin Temple Grassroots Work Manual, pay attention to methods and approach. First, be patient; don’t be afraid of going door to door."
"Second, be amiable. These people of Pharmacist City have suffered too much; it’s normal for them to be guarded, even traumatized. Building trust is not something to be rushed."
"Third, you must hold to principle. For those who commit crimes, or who used to be heinous villains, or who try to play the rascal, we don’t need to tolerate them. Punishing a batch severely will win more support from the people."
"Remember, we walk the Divine Dao Skill, and Divine Dao Skill must put the masses first!"
The seven modern cultivators beside him all nodded one after another.
The Great Leiyin Temple Grassroots Work Manual had originally been a summary of modern experience, later optimized for the situation of West Continent; quite a few former grassroots workers had even joined this operation.
Cheng Yun was not afraid that Pharmacist Bodhisattva and the others would hear, and instead clapped his hands and said:
"The Daoist Ancestor instructed us: as disciples of the Great Leiyin Temple, we must not be superstitious, but we must also not lose our faith."
"The Divine Dao Skill is bottom-up, not top-down. The power of a Divine Dao Cultivator all comes from the mortal world. As long as the mortals of West Continent trust my Great Leiyin Temple, Liuli Buddha will collapse without a fight."
"Don’t fear exhaustion, don’t fear trouble. What Great Leiyin Temple wants to build is a service-oriented Divine Dao system—Power of Incense is the wages these mortals pay us, understand?"
The others responded in unison.
Hearing this, Pharmacist Bodhisattva sneered inwardly. This disciple of the Great Leiyin Temple was even fooling himself; this was hypocrisy taken too far.
Cheng Yun, however, did not feel this was outrageous at all.
Just as Pharmacist Bodhisattva couldn’t understand what Great Leiyin Temple was doing, Cheng Yun, as a modern person, instead found this Divine Dao model very natural.
After assigning tasks he didn’t idle either; his figure flashed as he flew toward the northern part of the city—he was in charge of the northern sector.
He started knocking from the very first house at the street entrance.
"Anyone home?"
There was no movement inside; it seemed no one was home.
But Cheng Yun didn’t move away. As a Divinity Transformation Stage cultivator, he could sense two mortals inside the house.
After a while, he knocked on the wooden door twice more.
At last there were footsteps inside, dragging along the floor, taking two steps then stopping, light and feeble.
Finally the footsteps came to a stop behind the wooden door, then fell silent again.
Cheng Yun didn’t knock anymore, but spoke softly: "We’ve come to bring you food."
With a creak, the wooden door finally opened.
Cheng Yun lowered his head and saw a little girl whose height only reached his thigh timidly stick her head out.
From his angle, the girl’s body was extremely thin, making her head look disproportionately large; he could barely see any shoulders at all, only a crown of hair that was disheveled, sparse, and dry yellow.
"Food?"
The girl looked up and asked.
The storage pouch in Cheng Yun’s hand flashed; he took out a cloth sack of rice and a jug of oil, put them in front of the girl, and nodded to her.
The girl’s eyes saw nothing else anymore. She tugged open the thin cord tying the sack. The rice inside was white and plump, leaving her momentarily dazed.
Then she did something even Cheng Yun hadn’t expected:
The girl reached out, grabbed a handful of raw rice, and stuffed it into her mouth.
The movement was a bit too quick; Cheng Yun was startled and hurriedly grabbed her wrist.
Before he could speak, the girl’s expression turned panicked. She clenched the rice tightly in her hand. "Th-then I won’t eat it. I’ll let my mom have a bite."
Cheng Yun’s heart softened at once. He sighed and said softly, "It’s not that I won’t let you eat; it’s that eating it raw is bad for you."
The girl looked quite young and didn’t really understand, but she didn’t dare say anything more, only continued to clutch those few grains of rice in her small hand.
Seeing her like this, Cheng Yun could only ask, "Will you take me to see your mother?"
The girl nodded and led him into the house.
The main room was completely empty. There were no tables or chairs. A woman lay on a straw mat, struggling to prop herself half up to look toward the two of them.
Although this woman’s face was sallow and gaunt, she still carried a trace of scholarly air, so she likely had not come from a humble background.
"Madam, what’s wrong with you?"
"Mom... She hasn’t eaten in many days. She gave all the food to me." The girl replied, then walked up to the woman, held out her palm, and said, "Mom, food!"
The woman glanced at it, nodded, then lifted her chin slightly, indicating the girl should eat it herself. She then looked toward Cheng Yun, her eyes full of doubt.
Cheng Yun didn’t say anything. Instead, he formed a spell seal, and a ball of water appeared in the air, wrapping a clump of rice and starting to boil.
In just a few breaths, the fragrance of cooked rice filled the whole room.
The little girl’s stomach rumbled loudly.
Cheng Yun divided the cooked rice into six rice balls and set them before the two of them. "Eat."
The girl dropped her guard. She took one rice ball in each hand, left hand a bite, right hand a bite, eating to her heart’s content.
