Chapter 119 - 117: Catching a Bad Guy While Paying Respects

Chapter 119: Chapter 117: Catching a Bad Guy While Paying Respects

Some believed, others didn’t. But regardless of their convictions, most of the tourists in Lin Xian Village rushed over to the plaza.

Yu Hua said, "Boss Lin, there are too many people. The Land God Temple is too small. At this rate, they won’t all get a chance to worship even by tomorrow."

In truth, he wanted to go in and worship too. That unique fragrance was simply impossible to fake.

At first, everyone assumed it was the incense. But after they bought and tried different kinds, they realized it had nothing to do with the brand of incense—the scent came from the Land God Temple itself.

"Then use the loudspeaker to let everyone know the situation."

Given the situation, Lin Feng didn’t dare try to stop them. These people were too fanatical.

He’d never seen them believe in this sort of thing before, but now they were acting like zealots.

"The line for the Land God Temple is currently very long. We ask any tourists who wish to worship to please check your schedules so you don’t delay your personal affairs."

"..."

The announcement blared continuously, but the crowd didn’t shrink in the slightest. In fact, when villagers from the foot of the mountain heard what was happening, they rushed up to join.

Hearing the news, the professors hurried over. Professor Zhang Ying asked, "Boss Lin, what on earth is going on?"

"I’m not sure. This just started happening after the Land God Temple was built and we came to offer incense and worship.

I don’t know much about this sort of thing. You could ask Daoist Qi; he understands it much better than I do."

The other professors were left speechless. That Daoist Qi had told them to ask Lin Feng, and now Lin Feng was telling them to go back to Daoist Qi.

’It looks like this is going to become another unsolved mystery.’

Besides, it had nothing to do with them. They didn’t research this kind of supernatural stuff; they had only come over out of curiosity.

They had wanted to offer a prayer themselves, but seeing the long line, they decided against it. They’d have plenty of opportunities in the future, anyway.

Feng Ziling stared at his master sitting nearby, his face a mask of grievance. His master had just told him they weren’t going back to the Daoist Temple.

He was muttering, "Mine, mine, mine..." when his master rapped him on the head.

"Be serious. Focus on your cultivation."

"Oh."

Qi Yangming knew his actions were a bit unscrupulous, but compared to a miracle from the Earth God, such things were trivial.

That miraculous fragrance calmed his mind and sharpened his focus, allowing him to enter a state that was previously very difficult to attain.

"Earth God, bless me with great wealth and good fortune."

After this man finished worshipping, he realized he couldn’t smell the so-called fragrance, and his face instantly darkened.

"Are you people running a scam? There’s no fragrance at all!"

Feng Ziling looked the man over. With his fleshy, brutish face, large head, big ears, and gloomy, vicious expression, he was clearly not a good person.

"Get out of there! Who told you you could yell and scream in here? You’ve offended the Earth God!"

"You idiots! There’s no fragrance! This is obviously just some kind of scam to make money!"

The other tourists were not having it, especially those who had already worshipped and smelled the fragrance themselves.

Moreover, they had also felt mentally refreshed after praying.

"Who the hell are you calling a scammer? Somebody get him out of there! Don’t let him cause a scene inside the Land God Temple."

"So many of us smelled the fragrance. If you’re the only one who can’t, maybe you should wonder what’s wrong with you instead of calling us scammers."

"Just look at his face. He doesn’t look like a good person. You think maybe he’s a criminal or something, and that’s why he can’t smell it?"

"That’s totally possible! We all smelled it, but he can’t. There must be something wrong with him. Quick, call the police! Have them come check this guy out."

Some people moved to grab him while others took out their phones to call the police.

The tourists who hadn’t yet entered to worship watched this unfold, their expressions a mixture of shock and uncertainty.

However, when the tourist who had been in line behind the man went inside and confirmed they could smell the fragrance, the way everyone looked at him changed.

The fierce-looking man finally got scared and tried to struggle free from the people holding him.

The police had been watching from a short distance away. When they saw the commotion, they rushed over.

"What’s going on? Why are you holding him?"

"Officer, something’s wrong with this guy! He went inside to worship but couldn’t smell the fragrance."

The officer froze for a second when he heard this. ’What’s so strange about not being able to smell a scent?’ he thought.

"Even so, you can’t just grab him. Let him go. Maybe his nose is just stuffy."

"Right, right! My nose is just stuffy! It’s not that I can’t smell it."

The officer noted his reaction, stepped forward, and blocked his path. "Let me see your ID. We’re going to run a check."

"I don’t have it on me! What right do you have to check my ID? You have no authority!"

Seeing him back away as if preparing to flee, the officer knew his reaction wasn’t normal. ’This guy really is trouble,’ he realized in an instant.

The two officers exchanged a glance, then rushed forward, grabbing his arms from either side and pinning him to the ground.

"Requesting backup, requesting backup! We may have a fugitive here.

Everyone, please step back! This man is dangerous! Do not form a crowd! Do not crowd around!"

This got the tourists excited. They couldn’t believe the man was actually a criminal. It seemed the Earth God was truly divine.

"I knew it! I said he didn’t look like a good person with that vicious face of his. Of course the Earth God wouldn’t bless him or accept his offerings."

"The Earth God can distinguish between good and evil. This guy must have a screw loose, daring to come worship when he knew the Earth God was performing miracles."

Someone in the crowd shouted, "Everyone, look around! See if anyone is trying to run away! Anyone who runs right now is definitely guilty of something!"

This instantly caught the attention of both the police and the tourists. That’s right—anyone who tried to run now must have something to hide.

A few people in the crowd who had been about to leave immediately froze in place when they heard that.

However, they quickly came up with a plan: when it was their turn to worship, they would just claim they smelled it. It wasn’t like anyone else would be able to tell.

The police initially thought they had stumbled upon a great new way to catch criminals, but they soon realized the method was flawed. As long as someone went inside and kept their mouth shut, no one would know whether they had smelled the fragrance or not.

They couldn’t possibly clear out all the incense for every single person who went in. If they actually tried that, they would probably be beaten to death by the crowd of worshippers.

After the capture of a criminal, the Land God Temple became even more famous. Many people filmed the incident and uploaded videos to the internet.

At first, nobody believed it, assuming it was just another fabricated story for clickbait.

But by that evening, a flood of videos had appeared online, with some people even sharing their personal accounts.

And because it all happened in Lin Xian Village, the incident gradually started gaining traction in online discussions, causing the videos to spread even further.

Lin Dongyue stood beside Lin Feng and asked in a low voice, "Did the Earth God really perform a miracle?"

"Dad, it’s just a strange phenomenon. As for whether it’s a miracle... I don’t know either."

"Then I’ll go offer a prayer in a little while."

"Dad, with the number of people in line right now, they won’t even be finished by tomorrow."

He was right. Many of the tourists who had come today refused to leave after hearing the news. They were all still lined up in the plaza.

He had already sent people to try and persuade them, but it was no use. They weren’t going to leave until they had worshipped the Earth God.

To keep them from freezing, Lin Feng had no choice but to have a batch of bedding brought up from down the mountain, handing out a quilt to each person.

Furthermore, to get the tourists through the line faster, he even set a time limit: no more than one minute of worship per person inside.

They were letting people in five at a time. Even if everyone stuck to the rules, that was still only three hundred people an hour.

Right now, thanks to the recent incident with the Medicinal Tea, Lin Xian Village was already getting five to six thousand visitors a day, and that was with crowd control measures in place.

Once word of the Earth God’s miracle spread tomorrow, forget tourists—the farmers from the surrounding countryside alone would be enough to overrun Lin Xian Village.

Therefore, he had just called Uncle Ma and the county authorities, warning them to keep an eye on the number of people heading up the mountain tomorrow.