Chapter 447: Paying Respect to the Deity

The two were just at this point when they heard a cheer coming from the artisans’ well: “We’ve finally finished, hahaha.”

Song Yingxing and Young Master Bai looked toward the sound together and saw two sculptors rush out of the room, the two of them carrying a life-sized Deity Statue.

This Deity Statue was carved according to the Deity’s requirement in a “standing posture.”

It was about 1.8 meters tall, with a body neither fat nor thin, quite standard, dressed in a Daoist robe. It held a sword in the right hand and a dust whisk in the left hand. The face was carved very finely; anyone from Gaojia Village would recognize it as the Deity at first glance.

After all, who in Gaojia Village hadn’t seen “Dao Xuan Deity’s Demon Elimination Tale”? That handsome and authoritative face of the Deity, they had been looking at it year after year.

Song Yingxing asked curiously: “Two masters, you carved another Deity Statue? Where will it be placed? Did you build a new Deity Cave somewhere?”

The two sculptors smiled and shook their heads: “This was heavenly material personally bestowed by the Deity, and we were commanded by the Decree of the Deity to carve it. We don’t know where this will be placed either, but following the decree is sure to be correct.”

“Heavenly material?” This piqued Song Yingxing’s interest. He was an extremely curious person who always wanted to touch any strange material. The material “plastic” given by the Deity had always fascinated Song Yingxing, but unfortunately, he couldn’t figure it out.

Hearing about heavenly material again this time, he couldn’t resist coming to join the excitement.

Not knowing if he hadn’t touched it, but with a touch, it was truly marvelous.

Song Yingxing: “Ah? Indeed heavenly material, this is so strange; it feels very close to real skin.”

The two sculptors laughed: “Isn’t it? When we touched this thing at first, we were startled too. We had never encountered anything like it before, and for a moment, we didn’t even know how to carve it. After much study, we figured out we had to use a small knife to shave it bit by bit, barely managing to shape it into the Deity’s likeness.”

Song Yingxing couldn’t help but exclaim: “Things from the heavenly realm are truly astonishing.”

As soon as he finished saying this, he suddenly saw the statue’s eyeballs roll around twice.

Song Yingxing was startled, cried out “Aiyo,” and fell backward.

But they saw the statue extend its hand to support him and hold Song Yingxing steady.

All: “!!!”

Luckily, this was happening in Gaojia Village; if it were anywhere else, the bystanders might have been scared to death on the spot.

But in Gaojia Village, the outcome was completely different.

After a brief moment of shock, everyone came to their senses together and bowed down in unison: “Pay respects to the Deity.”

Li Daoxuan had just used the “sense sharing” function to enter the statue’s body and was still adjusting to it. When he supported Song Yingxing just now, he felt that his hands were a bit soft…

Well!

This silicone figure was made by the people, carved from a piece of Silicone material about one centimeter thick. Since it had no skeleton inside, its structure wasn’t strong, and the whole figure was actually soft.

But it wasn’t a big problem; at least it was much more flexible than a clay statue.

Li Daoxuan grinned and smiled: “No need for formalities.”

The voice coming from the silicone figure’s mouth wasn’t Li Daoxuan’s own; it carried a majestic, resonant quality, as if it were an echo resonating from heaven and earth.

Li Daoxuan turned to the two sculptors: “Well carved!”

The two sculptors were overjoyed at the praise and too excited to speak.

But Young Master Bai could still speak calmly and cupped his fists: “The Deity has descended to inhabit the statue, coming down to the mortal realm to play?”

Li Daoxuan smiled: “Yes, I came down to have some fun. You don’t need to mind me; just do your own things. I’ll look around and play a bit, and then go back up.”

With the Decree of the Deity given, of course everyone dared not object, but making them “ignore him” was completely impossible.

The crowd’s gaze still lingered involuntarily on Li Daoxuan.

They thought to themselves: First time seeing the Deity shrunk down and standing beside us; the pressure is huge.

Li Daoxuan was still examining his own body at this time.

He shook his right wrist and found that a sword was stuck to the palm and wouldn’t come off. It turned out this sword and hand were “one piece,” and it was a Silicone-carved sword, utterly soft and useless.

He beckoned to the sculptor: “Take this sword off; it’s not at all convenient.”

The sculptor broke out in sweat: “If we remove it, the fingers need to be recarved.”

Li Daoxuan found a bamboo chair nearby and sat down, extending his right hand flat: “Hmm, recarve it then.”

The sculptor was sweating buckets, inwardly thinking: This… means doing it right now? Oh dear!

He came over carefully, taking a knife to shave away bit by bit, cutting the sword apart from Li Daoxuan’s fingers. While cutting, he wiped his sweat and asked: “Deity, is it painful when I move the knife on your fingers?”

Li Daoxuan: “It doesn’t hurt; carve safely.”

He extended his other hand too: “Take the dust whisk off as well; it’s not at all convenient.”

So another sculptor also came over and gently shaved at the connection between the dust whisk and palm on Li Daoxuan’s left hand.

Both sculptors were drenched in sweat, working carefully, slowly shaving stroke by stroke. They finally managed to remove the sword and dust whisk. The cut surfaces where the sword hilt and dust whisk handle had met the palms needed to be reshaped, polished, and turned into hand-like forms. Their movements grew increasingly delicate.

Li Daoxuan sat between the two, with someone “adjusting” each of his hands. He couldn’t help thinking to himself: Huh? Is this feeling anything like girls experience in a nail salon when having their nails done?

Him sitting there imposingly like a big shot getting his “nails done” right in the middle of the artisans’ well had a tremendous impact.

Soon, all the people in the artisans’ well rushed out to pay respects to him. Some hurried off to notify Gao Yiye. So after a while, Gao Yiye came running when she heard the news, her footsteps pattering rapidly from far to near, with Qiu Ju and Dong Xue, two girls, struggling desperately to keep up but unable to catch her.

“Deity!” Gao Yiye cheered out, though tears filled her eyes, and she rushed over and bowed down.

Li Daoxuan quickly said: “Don’t all come bowing first; it’s troublesome. Speak normally like usual.”

Gao Yiye got up and subtly glanced at him with her eyes.

This was her first time seeing the Deity life-sized. It felt much more intimate and real than seeing a giant face in the sky. The Silicone material was incredibly lifelike, making her feel as if the Deity were standing alive right before her.

This feeling was really too…

Her little heart thumped loudly.

However, when she saw the Deity’s two hands being slowly shaped under the sculptors’ knives, she remembered that the Deity before her was not an actual person but just the divine will attached to a statue. That wild, foolish thought that had just arisen in her heart had to be suppressed once more.