Chapter 1 The City God

The City God, also known as the City God Lord, holds an incredibly revered position in the religious culture of Chinese history. Even now, there are many City God temples everywhere, and the incense is definitely thriving.

He's somewhat similar to a deity guarding a city. If classified according to the scope of their duties, a ghost messenger like Zhou Ze is a bit like the chief of a local police station in the underworld, the head constable is the director, and the City God is at the level of a county magistrate, or even a mayor.

Because ancient cities also varied in size, the City God's sphere of influence naturally changed and differed accordingly. Smaller ones, like a mayor in the grasslands, couldn't actually manage many people.

Larger ones, however, were in charge of key areas near the capital, approaching the status of a regional governor.

The old Taoist happily led Gou Xin and the others to visit the City God Temple of Tongcheng. At first, he was worried that the three would find it boring,

But Gou Xin and the others appeared serious and solemn, even being particularly earnest and meticulous when kowtowing.

The three kowtowed meticulously, which made many other worshippers around them marvel. For a long time, Chinese people would worship at any temple they saw anyway. They seemed to worship a lot, but it was hard to say how sincere they were, and as a result, the postures for worshipping gods and Buddhas were all strange and varied, generally doing whatever was most comfortable or habitual.

The three's movements were consistent and orderly, with a sense of solemnity and reverence, which indeed caught the eye of the surrounding worshippers.

The old Taoist thought that these three had finally tucked their tails between their legs after coming to the City God Temple, and he felt a little proud of his choice.

Little did he know,

Although Gou Xin and the others were kowtowing, it wasn't to curry favor with anyone, but truly to pay their respects and remember.

That's right,

Remember.

Because the old Taoist didn't know that there were no City Gods in the underworld hierarchy anymore.

After the last Lord of Mount Tai disappeared a thousand years ago, the Ten Yama Kings rose and peacefully evolved to establish the current underworld.

Although there were people in hell who resisted and opposed them, they were quickly suppressed. However, most of the City Gods in the mortal realm were loyal to the Lord of Mount Tai and did not submit to the jurisdiction of the underworld.

After that came the underworld's countermeasures. The City God lineage was either suppressed or exiled, and the subsequent underworld system directly abolished the position.

Although the incense in the mortal realm was still flourishing,

In the underworld,

It was a different picture and structure.

The reason why this situation arose was also because the City Gods in various places were all appointed from local loyalists or brave generals who had died in battle, and their blood was inherently upright and unyielding.

After the worship,

Gou Xin bought incense and prepared to offer it.

But at this moment, a squeaking sound came from the ceiling.

Gou Xin looked up,

And saw three fat, big-eared rats above, faintly glowing red, scurrying across the beams, while the worshippers below were completely unaware.

Seeing this,

Gou Xin smiled.

These were Fortune Rats,

Good fortune to those who see them.

Temples flourish, and incense is abundant. The rats here are naturally fat and big-eared and have been tainted with the scent of incense. Only those with good fortune can see them.

Gou Xin took out a handful of candy from his pocket and quietly placed it in a corner behind the statue that few people noticed.

The old Taoist was happy to relax while Gou Xin and the others were worshipping, so he ran over to a middle-aged Taoist who had a stall in the temple to chat and shoot the breeze.

The middle-aged Taoist had a fortune-telling stall in front of him, as well as a basket of fruit with a sign that said "Sakyamuni Fruit."

Simply because the fruit looked very much like the patterns on the top of a Buddha statue's head.

The old Taoist knew that this thing was actually called a custard apple, a tropical fruit, but it could also be picked in the mountains and fields, and was considered a wild fruit by the locals.

Genuine custard apples are actually quite delicious, with sweet and delicious, milky white flesh, but the old Taoist knew that the custard apples here were definitely picked from the wild, and the climate and soil meant that the fruit in this basket definitely wouldn't be very tasty.

"Want to eat one?"

The middle-aged Taoist asked the old Taoist.

"Pretty expensive, right?"

The old Taoist asked.

"Not bad."

The price was actually marked, and it wasn't cheap.

"Sweet?" the old Taoist asked.

"No money if it's not sweet."

The middle-aged Taoist replied with a smile.

"Okay, give me two *jin* (a Chinese unit of weight, approximately 1.1 pounds) of the unsweet ones and I'll take them away."

"..." The middle-aged Taoist.

Fortunately, at this time, a worshipper came with a divination stick to have their fortune interpreted.

There was a divination stick holder in front of the temple, which read "Divination stick reading, 1 *kuai* (Chinese dollar)."

As a result, there were indeed many people who came to shake the divination stick holder, feeling that it was cheap, so why not shake it.

The middle-aged Taoist said a lot of rambling words, which definitely contained both blessings and warnings, in short, making people feel like it was something.

After the divination stick reading was over,

The middle-aged Taoist took out a red notebook,

Said "Measureless Celestial Worth,"

"A token of appreciation is welcome, the amount doesn't matter."

This was naturally asking for some incense money, which could be considered his due.

The worshipper smiled and took the notebook, and then froze.

There were rows of names on it, followed by the amount of the donation. Looking at it at a glance, there wasn't a single one below a hundred!

There were even many thousands or even tens of thousands!

The worshipper hesitated a little, but felt embarrassed to give too little, so he could only take out another hundred as a minimum spend and signed his name.

The middle-aged Taoist took the money and put the notebook away.

The old Taoist witnessed the whole process from the side. This routine was really good, but unfortunately, he had already played it out himself, so he just watched it as entertainment and didn't say anything. Seeing that Gou Xin and the others had gone out, he also walked out to prepare to find them.

When Gou Xin and the others left the main hall to look at the stone tablet,

The original three rats on the beam scurried down and began to gnaw on the candies.

They ate very quickly, and their teeth were much sharper than those of ordinary rats.

After eating, they ran back up "swoosh, swoosh, swoosh."

Gou Xin and the others were outside looking at the stone tablet. Xiao Bai stood behind Gou Xin, while Xiao Hei looked out at the old Taoist still in the main hall.

"No need to worry, he's a living person."

Gou Xin reached out to stop Xiao Hei, who was about to speak, appearing very confident.

He had indeed become accustomed to smooth sailing in the past few years,

No matter what he encountered,

No matter who he met,

He was always successful!

Xiao Hei nodded and didn't prepare to say anything.

After the three finished visiting the City God Temple, they prepared to leave. Gou Xin signaled Xiao Bai to call the guide sent by the bookstore.

When the old Taoist came out earlier, he saw them admiring the inscriptions, so he simply took the opportunity to go to the toilet to relieve himself. When relieving himself, he accidentally dropped the talisman paper hidden in his crotch.

It didn't fall into the urinal, but it fell on the ground, but the toilet tiles were covered in water, and most of the talisman paper was wet.

It was impossible to put it back in his crotch. Although the old Taoist wasn't as fastidious as his boss, he wasn't so fond of heavy flavors.

He could only shake his head and sigh, pick up the talisman paper, and throw it on the ground after walking out of the bathroom, as he couldn't let the talisman paper be thrown in the toilet.

The wind was quite strong today, and the talisman paper was blown away directly.

Gou Xin and the others waited at the entrance of the main hall. Since Zhou Ze had arranged it this way, Gou Xin seemed happy to let the old Taoist take him around. After the old Taoist came over, the two began to discuss where to go for the next attraction.

At this time,

What no one present noticed was that,

Above the City God sculpture,

A woman's face slowly emerged,

Below the woman's face, there seemed to be an even dimmer face, constantly resisting, but unable to break free from the woman's restraints.

"Lost your own temple, and came to steal mine!"

A man's voice came from the statue, but the surrounding worshippers were completely unaware.

At this moment, Xiao Hei and Xiao Bai, who were standing outside the main hall, both looked up and looked inside.

"What's wrong?"

Gou Xin asked.

"There seems to be some fluctuation."

Xiao Bai replied.

"It's okay, that's normal. Although the underworld's purge back then suppressed most of the City Gods, there are always some who slipped through the net. It's not easy for anyone."

After saying that,

Gou Xin bowed again towards the entrance of the main hall.

Xiao Hei and Xiao Bai behind him also bowed down together,

It was a bit like Emperor Qianlong also erected a monument to vindicate the anti-Qing heroes of the past,

Even if everyone is now holding the underworld's rice bowl and eating,

In their hearts, they would still respect the heroes who dared to resist against the overwhelming trend of the past.

At this moment, inside the statue in the temple,

The woman's voice came:

"Your temple? Open your eyes wide and take a closer look. In the underworld, do you still have your identity tablet?

You're nothing more than a rat under the countercurrent of the past,

The more heroic others are, the more your cowardice is highlighted.

What's the use of keeping these incense offerings?

Better to give them to me!"

The woman was actually in an absolutely dominant position in the stalemate, but it was by no means easy to refine a City God Lord.

At this moment,

The three rats seemed to be full and began to move around. Two of them bit the beam and actually bit off the threads above, and many of the banners originally hung above fell directly onto the City God sculpture.

For a time,

The two faces on the Buddha statue seemed to be suppressed together, and no longer appeared.

A disaster seemed to be eliminated at this time.

"Let's go, to the next place."

After the worship was over, Gou Xin said to the old Taoist.

"Okay, the car is outside, let's go."

The old Taoist also nodded. The City God Temple was so big, and the fact that these three had been playing for so long was already beyond the old Taoist's expectations.

At this time,

The middle-aged Taoist walked out yawning, stretched, and twisted his body. He saw that the banners had fallen down and planned to ask someone to hang them back up tomorrow morning;

However, when he bent down, he saw a talisman paper on the ground.

"Hehe."

The middle-aged Taoist picked up the talisman paper,

And in the spirit of not wasting anything,

He threw it directly into the incense burner in front of the City God sculpture, preparing to let it burn itself.

The talisman paper quickly burned,

When the middle-aged Taoist was about to sit back,

He was immediately stunned,

Because the banners that had originally fallen down and covered the sculpture above,

Suddenly also inexplicably burned together.

"Oh my god, fire, fire, quick, get the fire extinguisher, get the fire extinguisher!"

The middle-aged Taoist shouted.

And the City God sculpture, which had been sitting there motionless for who knows how many years,

Suddenly opened its eyes!