Chapter 106: The Flaw of the Incense Divine Dao |
The Civil Judge, Martial Judge, and the Black and White Impermanence that the County City God didn't have, all appeared following him.
They simultaneously looked up at the large seal beside the City God.
They saw that one corner of the seal had turned from black to gray, looking very strange.
"What happened?" the Civil Judge asked.
The Prefecture City God's voice was like muffled thunder, his anger reaching the heavens, "An evil cult wild god has stolen the authority of the Zhangnan County City God!"
The several Underworld incense gods were all astonished.
Evil cult wild gods had existed since ancient times, but those who could steal the authority of an orthodox god were extremely few, mostly being annihilated before they could achieve anything.
The Prefecture City God urged the seal, and the black-red light reflected the appearance of the Songliu Water God Temple.
Besides that, there was nothing else.
The Prefecture City God withdrew the seal and stepped back into the golden body, only a gloomy voice coming out, "I have already informed the neighboring County City Gods to take extra precautions."
It wasn't that he didn't want to intervene, but after the authority was stolen, he couldn't intervene even if he wanted to.
He could only wait for the authority-stealing evil cult wild god to show up again to find a chance to annihilate him.
It was just that Mingxiu Prefecture was too far from Zhangnan County. When incense gods fought across boundaries, their strength would be greatly restricted.
Otherwise, the Prefecture City God would definitely go personally and tear that audacious wild god into ten thousand pieces.
At this time, Chu Xun had already left the Songliu Water God Temple.
After the City God's large seal was repaired, it autonomously flew towards the City God Temple, bringing along the many Underworld magical artifacts.
Chu Xun followed behind, wanting to see what the City God Temple was like now.
At the same time, he glanced at his own information.
Fire Control Spell 25829/30000, Can emit a considerable flame, has a certain degree of control over the flame's temperature.
As expected, the City God was worth five thousand points.
Plus the Civil and Martial Judges, the Night Wandering God, the many Underworld Emissaries, etc.
This battle made the Fire Control Spell jump directly from a few thousand points to the verge of advancement.
It was only because the Day Wandering God didn't come, otherwise he could have added a bit more.
A moment later, Chu Xun followed the large seal to the City God Temple.
Looking into the temple, he saw that except for the Day Wandering God, all the other divine statues had cracked into several pieces, a mess all over the floor.
The temple keeper was alarmed, ran over to take a look, and immediately looked as if he had lost his parents.
Last year, the divine statues of the Martial Judge and the Night Wandering God were destroyed, and new ones were just made and put up.
How come they were all destroyed this year?
"Heavens above, what exactly happened!"
The City God received a lot of incense, so even though the divine statue was destroyed, he quickly revealed a blurry figure at the original position of the golden body.
Chu Xun could clearly feel that he was like a fish in water here, taking in everything in the City God Temple at a glance.
The newly reborn City God opened his eyes, stood up, and bowed to Chu Xun.
"Zhangnan County City God, pays respects to the High Immortal."
Chu Xun's expression was strange. He knew very well that he was no High Immortal.
It was only because he had mastered the authority that the City God was so polite.
He immediately returned the bow and asked at the same time, "Does the City God know what the two characters Xuan Yu mean?"
The City God's body trembled slightly, as if something was wrong.
Then he immediately steadied his figure and said, "Xuan Yu is an ancient god of swamps and wetlands. Now no one worships him, and he is rarely known."
If one searched through ancient texts, they could naturally still find him.
But who would go looking for an ancient incense god that no one worshipped anymore.
Chu Xun was stunned upon hearing this. He thought these two characters were Liang Simiao's alias, or the name of a divine office or something.
He didn't expect it to be an ancient incense god.
"What does it mean that your name covers Xuan Yu?" Chu Xun asked again.
If Xuan Yu was also a City God, it would be easy to understand.
But looking at it now, the two were not the same kind of divine office, which made it incomprehensible.
The City God's body trembled slightly again, and then answered, "I don't know, perhaps the High Immortal saw it wrong."
Saw it wrong?
Chu Xun didn't accept this answer.
He immediately summoned that large seal and investigated again.
To his astonishment, there was indeed only Liang Simiao's name in the large seal, and no other handwriting could be seen underneath anymore.
Chu Xun frowned tightly. He was very sure that he couldn't have seen it wrong.
Otherwise, how could he speak of words he had never heard of for no reason.
Why couldn't he see it now?
"Could it be because the large seal was completely repaired?"
It seemed this was the only possibility.
So strange.
"Does the High Immortal have any other matters to ask?" the City God asked.
Chu Xun shook his head, let him continue to absorb incense to recover, and then left the City God Temple.
On the way back to Pinecone Village, Chu Xun was still troubled by the previous question.
What could it mean for the names of two different divine offices to overlap?
"Names overlapping... hiding..."
He muttered, suddenly thought of something, abruptly stopped his steps, and turned his head to look towards the City God Temple.
If there was something that required using one name to cover another, what could it be?
Four words popped into Chu Xun's mind.
Imposter taking someone's place!
That's right, if a mortal wanted to be an imposter, they only needed to replace the person.
But incense gods were different. They were not mundane, and even if they wanted to replace someone, they would leave traces.
Just like Shitou said, as long as one had received incense, they would definitely leave a trace.
This trace was his title!
Even an ancient incense god that no one worshipped anymore was the same!
"The City God says he is Liang Simiao, but in reality, he was replaced by the ancient incense god Xuan Yu?"
"That's why the two characters Xuan Yu were under his name. But after the large seal was repaired, the Xuan Yu handwriting faded, leaving only Liang Simiao's name."
"Everyone will think that Liang Simiao is the City God!"
The more Chu Xun thought about it, the clearer it became, but his face grew increasingly gloomy.
If he guessed right, this was not a good thing.
It meant that an ancient incense god that no one worshipped had stolen human merit and occupied a divine position that didn't belong to him!
Chu Xun subconsciously thought of Tang Shijun. Previously in the Capital City, because Tang Shijun possessed great merit, he was personally guided by the Capital City's Civil Judge.
At that time, he had also asked the Civil Judge how a person with great merit would be handled.
The Civil Judge said they could choose to reincarnate well, or they could stay and serve in the Underworld.
At that time, Chu Xun only thought that if Tang Shijun stayed in the Underworld, they might have to face each other in the future, which was really not good.
Looking at it now, it was more than just not good!
Could he have already been like Liang Simiao, having his merit stolen and his divine position taken by an imposter?
If this was really the case, where were the true bodies of people with merit like Liang Simiao and Tang Shijun?
Did they still exist?
Or... were they silenced by the imposters.
"No wonder they hate loose gods stealing authority so much. It's not just about the ownership of incense, but also the shameful secrets hidden within!"
Chu Xun's gaze was gloomy. He had to go to the Capital City.
To see exactly what happened to Tang Shijun!
"Can't rush. If ancient incense gods can really steal human merit and be imposters, it's definitely not something they do alone."
Chu Xun still didn't understand the Incense Divine Dao very well.
But he could be sure that for such a major matter, there was definitely an extremely terrifying background supporting it.
He had merely saved Liao Shouyi, and because he violated heavenly rules, he attracted karmic fire.
For someone who stole merit to still live well, to say there was no one backing them was absolutely impossible.
"What a heavenly rule!"
"What a merit!"
"The older generation doesn't want to die, so they play this game, right?"
Chu Xun took a deep breath, forcefully suppressing the urge to immediately go to the Capital City to investigate Tang Shijun's situation.
Having just seized the authority of the Zhangnan County City God, going to the Capital City now would easily alert the enemy and arouse suspicion.
Without looking at the City God Temple again, Chu Xun turned around, took a step, and quickly returned to Pinecone Village.
Still as before, gathering Qi of Metal Essence and condensing Essence of Ren Water.
Forging iron when he should, eating when he should.
A year later, the divine office manifested once again.
The City Gods of the two neighboring counties brought the Underworld to attack.
But fighting across boundaries, their strength was weakened.
Plus the Zhangnan County City God intervened to block them, Chu Xun almost didn't need to get involved.
Thus, he passed this year with a false alarm.
For the next three consecutive years, it was all like this.
By the sixteenth year of Chongming, the refugee army that had been bitterly resisting in the Capital City finally had their city breached.
Huang Qi and Qi Songren each led thousands of remnant troops to retreat. Liao Shouyi didn't pursue, but led his troops back to the Southwest.
In the Southwest, Ma Huaian had established himself as king, colluding with the Wu Kingdom and frequently invading.
If he didn't go back soon, they would fight their way over.
Zhang Jingheng personally led troops to welcome back the fleeing Emperor Chongming.
Returning to the Capital City, Emperor Chongming already showed signs of vicissitudes.
Although the refugee army was defeated, everyone in the Jing Kingdom understood the principle that water can carry a boat, but it can also overturn it.
The implementation of the national policy faced no more obstacles.
Emperor Chongming ordered Zhang Jingheng to be conferred the title of Duke of Huguo, bestowed the Nine Bestowments, and allowed direct entry into the Imperial Study.
By the summer of the seventeenth year of Chongming.
Safely passing another manifestation of the divine office, Chu Xun was already accustomed to this.
After suffering losses multiple times, the City Gods of the two neighboring counties didn't come to harass him this year.
In several years, the Prefecture City God and the Capital City God surprisingly didn't come either.
Chu Xun was even more certain that the "cross-boundary protection mechanism" between incense gods was quite formidable.
The Capital City God, who reigned supreme in the Capital City, might not be that formidable if he traveled a thousand miles to Zhangnan County.
After all, the commoners here worshipped the Zhangnan County City God. As for the Capital City God...
Heard of him, not familiar.
Scorching summer heat.
Chu Xun was forging the extraterrestrial meteorite iron in the courtyard.
Although the quality of this meteorite iron was high, it had still reached its limit.
As early as a few years ago, it could no longer incorporate any Qi of Metal Essence.
It was just that Chu Xun didn't stop gathering Qi of Metal Essence, but spent a lot of time continuously forging new long swords to store the Qi of Metal Essence inside.
One sword a day, now he had also stored hundreds of them.
At this moment, the extraterrestrial meteorite iron had undergone more than twenty repeated forgings, its volume shrinking by ten percent.
Both its toughness and strength were much higher than before.
"Chu Chen."
The white-haired Qi Ermao came in from outside holding his little grandson Qi Yulin.
The five-year-old Qi Yulin struggled to jump down from him, first calling out to Chu Xun, "Hello, Uncle Chen."
Then he ran to wave at the crows on the eaves, "Crow, crow, come quickly!"
He opened the pocket in his embrace, revealing a handful of roasted soybeans.
The crows squatted on the eaves, lazily looking down, not having much interest.
On the contrary, the field mice in the vegetable patch, the weasels in the house, and a few rabbits hopped over.
Although Qi Yulin was somewhat disappointed that the crows wouldn't play with him, being surrounded by the weasels and rabbits, he quickly became happy again.
Qi Ermao chuckled, reached out to grab a stool, and sat down.
Glancing at Chu Xun, who put the extraterrestrial meteorite iron back into the furnace to heat up, he asked curiously, "You've been hammering this piece of iron for seven or eight years, right? What exactly are you planning to forge out of it?"
"Didn't I say, forging a sword," Chu Xun said.
Qi Ermao couldn't understand what kind of sword needed to be forged for so long.
Looking at this posture, he was afraid that without ten or eight years, even the sword blank might not be forged.
"Your Aunt Qiaohua's old cold legs acted up again, hurting so much she kept hammering the wall. Her life has been really bitter."
"That dog Zhang Erzhu, don't know when he secretly bought new cloth and made a new set of clothes, coming to show off to me."
"The harvest of our village's fields should be pretty good this year too. Several consecutive years of bumper harvests have made other villages extremely envious."
Perhaps because he was getting older, Qi Ermao had become increasingly fond of nagging in recent years.
He especially liked coming to Chu Xun's place to talk about things inside and outside the village.
Chu Xun would occasionally reply a few sentences. When he was too busy, he would just listen to him talk.
Qi Ermao didn't care whether he heard or not, just talking to himself.
Chu Xun walked over, and the weasels surrounding Qi Yulin hurriedly helped him move a stool.
They also pulled a radish from the vegetable patch, washed it clean, and brought it over.
Qi Ermao glared at the weasels with wide eyes, "Where's mine?"
The weasels blinked, ignored him, and ran back to Qi Yulin to ask for roasted soybeans.
Chu Xun smiled, broke half of it, and handed it over. Qi Ermao took it in his hand and took a hard bite.
"The radishes you grow are just delicious, juicy and sweet. Why can't I grow them," Qi Ermao said.
Chu Xun naturally wouldn't tell him that he frequently irrigated them with spells, so the radishes grown were naturally different from the ordinary.
At this time, the sound of horse hooves approached.
Soon, a courier came in from outside, "Which one is Mister Chu Chen?"
Chu Chen stood up and said, "I am."
The courier took a letter from his embrace and offered it with both hands, "This is an urgent dispatch from the Capital City."
"Thanks for your hard work."
A few weasels hurriedly went to pull radishes again, didn't even wash them, ran over, and tugged at the courier's trouser legs.
The courier had been here more than once, hurriedly bent down, and hugged the radishes, "Many thanks."
He didn't dare to accept silver, and Chu Xun couldn't let him make a trip for nothing, so every time he came, he would give him a few radishes to eat.
Glancing at the flock of crows on the eaves, even though he had been here several times, the courier still couldn't help but marvel in his heart.
"Whose letter?" Qi Ermao asked curiously.
"Minister Zhang's," Chu Xun said.
"Him..." Qi Ermao oh-ed and said, "You should call him Uncle. Minister Zhang sounds too distant."
Chu Xun just pretended not to hear. Asking him to call Huan'er Uncle was really making things difficult for him.
Opening the letter, there was a piece of paper inside with just six short words written on it, "My mother is critically ill, come quickly."
Qi Ermao gnawed on the radish and asked curiously again, "What does it say?"
Chu Xun didn't hide it and showed him the letter.
Qi Ermao was stunned and hurriedly stood up, "Auntie's health is failing?"
When Lin Qiaoxi married Zhang Sanchun, although she was still very young, she was now approaching seventy years of age.
When she was taken from Pingshui Town to the Capital City in her early years, her health was already not very good.
Being able to endure for so many more years was already commendable.
Chu Xun put away the letter and said, "I have to make a trip to the Capital City."
"Go, go," Qi Ermao said.
If possible, he also wanted to go.
When Lin Qiaoxi lived in the village, their relationship had always been very good.
It was just that the Capital City was too far, not only did he have to take care of his grandson, but the fields were also about to face harvest.
Watching Chu Xun go back into the house to pack his things, Qi Ermao couldn't help but sigh.
Touching his head full of white hair, he muttered, "Don't know how many more years I can live either."
[End of Chapter]