Cui Dongshan had spoken candidly in the letter, stating that he was going to take advantage of this opportunity to secure soil from the other four of the new Five Mountains. Even if Chen Ping'an ultimately chose not to choose the soil of the new Five Mountains to serve as his next bonded item, he was going to fill a pocket treasure with the precious soil, and that could be sold for a large sum of lesser heat coins. 0

The regulations weren't very strict at the moment, so this was the perfect time to strike. As for soil from the Northern Mountain, Chen Ping'an could easily secure that himself, given his ties with Wei Bo.0

Before he knew it, Chen Ping'an had already arrived at the Iron Talisman River God Temple.0

The temple didn't receive as many worshippers as the Burial River God Temple, which was so popular that there were always still hundreds, perhaps even thousands of worshippers standing outside even in the dead of night, waiting for an opportunity to enter the temple and offer up incense. 0

This was no surprise, given the relatively small population of the Dragon Spring Prefecture. Once the Dragon Spring Prefecture was elevated to a province, it would attract many more residents from all over the Great Li Empire.0

After a brief hesitation, Chen Ping'an entered the temple.0

He strode over the doorstep to enter the main hall, then raised his head to look up at the painted clay deity statue, which was around forty feet tall and extremely lifelike, looking as if it could spring to life and ascend at any moment.0

The height of a deity's statue was a very good indication of the deity's status in a nation's mountain and water genealogical records.0

The statue in the temple that Chen Ping'an had passed by on the way here was only just over ten feet tall.0

Chen Ping'an was aware of the background of this river goddess.0

She was a woman by the name of Yang Hua, and she had once been a maidservant...0