Chapter 167: Chapter 127: Seizing the Gold in Public_2
"A blank piece of paper?"
Chen Ku looked at Wu Gui, who held a piece of white paper with a pained and regretful expression. It was three inches wide and seven inches long, bearing no markings—just a clean, white sheet.
However, as soon as he touched it, he immediately received a notification from the Transformation Diagram:
[A City God has used this moldy paper to affect the Diagram Master’s Qi Fortune, bringing six days of bad luck, detrimental to the master... Suppressing and killing the moldy paper will yield one stream of First Realm Evil Qi; suppressing and killing the City God will yield one stream of Five Realms Evil Qi.]
Five Realms? Is the City God a True God of the Five Realms?
Chen Ku looked at the notification on the Transformation Diagram and couldn’t help but frown.
Five Realms! That’s quite powerful! After all, if one only counts the actual human experts in Baojiao County, there are just two in the public eye: one is the County Magistrate, and the other is his own master. However, this also confirmed something else. The City God of the Five Realms, as strong as he was, surely couldn’t possess the ability to "see through people’s hearts." After all, he was only of the Five Realms, not like the Ancestral Master of the Fire Virtue Sect who could refine a Fourteenth Realm Magical Treasure, the Fire Beak Pot. He couldn’t help but feel slightly relieved.
He looked at the white paper again.
He realized that it resembled a "fine slip" from his past life. Suppress and kill? Why keep something that brought him bad luck? But it’s best to do it privately. Otherwise, it’s too likely to attract more targeted trouble.
At that moment, Wu Gui spoke, his voice filled with guilt, "Shopkeeper, I was in charge of the shop; I should have remembered this. It’s all my fault. I’ll pay out of my own pocket and donate twenty taels to the City God Temple to atone for our Iron Bank."
"No, it’s not really your fault."
Chen Ku took a deep breath and said, "I’ll go to the City God Temple myself."
"Then, did you bring money?" Wu Gui was about to pull money from his pocket, "I have twenty taels here, you can take them..."
Chen Ku shook his head, rejecting the offer. Wu Gui was his shopkeeper, and his annual salary wasn’t much; how could he let Wu Gui pay?
As he subconsciously reached towards his sleeve, his expression suddenly grew uglier.
"Damn, the more than one hundred taels in silver notes in my sleeve are gone."
During the New Year, he didn’t carry much money when he went out, but he had still brought a hundred or so taels of silver. He hadn’t expected...
They were gone. One Hundred Taels of silver—that was the price of a Jewel grass.
"Shopkeeper, what happened?" Wu Gui asked, seeing Chen Ku’s sudden dark expression.
"It’s nothing. Just watch the shop; I’ll be out for a bit."
Chen Ku left the Iron Bank’s shop and retraced his steps. Losing things wasn’t the same for him as for others. While lost items were usually hard to recover, with his Fine Dog Sense, he refused to believe he couldn’t find it.
Yet, as Chen Ku followed the same path back, activating his Fine Dog Sense the entire way and searching carefully, he couldn’t find his silver notes no matter how hard he looked.
Is the bad luck from this City God Lord really so absurd? It’s only been an hour since I passed through here. Even if someone picked it up, could they have run Ten Li away? Surely a bird didn’t carry it off, did it?
It was the New Year, yet first he’d stepped in cow dung, and now he’d lost his silver notes.
Chen Ku now had an even deeper appreciation for the three days of bad luck the City God Lord had inflicted upon him.
What a City God Lord, quite skillful he is. Although he certainly doesn’t target just me—after all, not every shop makes incense offerings, otherwise there wouldn’t be ’white paper plastering’ and ’bad luck warnings’—being messed with for no good reason like this feels extremely infuriating.
If it were his past self, facing arbitrary levies and harassment, he might have just gritted his teeth and endured it. But now that his Cultivation had improved and he possessed various transformation methods, he was ready to investigate the City God Temple and get to the bottom of things.
He wanted to see if the City God Lord truly possessed such vast Divine Skills. If he didn’t clarify this, he was hit with bad luck today; who knows when he might offend the City God Temple again? Would they curse him then?
Chen Ku had always been a cautious and careful person, preferring to prepare in advance for unknown threats.
So, he arrived at a secluded forest outside the city.
First, using the power of the Volcanic Crow, he spat a gout of flame from his mouth, incinerating the bad luck-infused white paper.
[Diagram Master suppressed and killed the moldy paper, obtaining one stream of First Realm Evil Qi... It is still necessary to suppress and kill the City God, the source of the bad luck, to completely eliminate this misfortune.]
City God... Hmph.
In the dense forest, Chen Ku mentally shouted, "Transform!"
Immediately, he transformed into a Flower Fox Mink in the form of a three-inch-tall white mouse, its ribs sprouting wings. With a swift flutter, he flew towards the City God Temple in the city.
I’ll go check out the situation. If I sense any threat, I’ll flee at once...
With his Second Realm Flower Fox Mink’s strength, coupled with his ability to change size and fly at great speed, if things went awry, he could easily escape by burrowing somewhere or taking to the skies; his self-preservation abilities were extremely strong.
The City God Temple was located about ninety zhang outside Willow Alley on West Street in Baojiao County. Constructed eighty years ago, it faced south from the north, covering an area of one hundred acres, its grounds even larger than those of the county government office’s official buildings.
Within the temple were several halls, including the Xian Hall, the Main Hall, the Xiang Hall, and the Parade Hall.
Chen Ku, transformed into the three-inch white-furred mouse, arrived at the entrance of the City God Temple, which was the south-facing Xiang Hall. This hall was where the City God received the incense offerings from the worshipping masses.
It was the fifth day of the Lunar New Year. The hall was bustling with people, a dense crowd with everyone holding incense sticks, some as thick as pillars. Rich and poor alike came to burn incense.
Chen Ku tucked his wings against his body, still in his white mouse form, and followed a group of worshippers into the Xiang Hall. Seizing a moment when no one was looking, he scurried up a corner pillar and moved along the wooden structures of the hall’s coffered ceiling.
He carefully observed the zhang-tall Golden Body of the City God enshrined in the Xiang Hall. It was depicted as a military general, holding a large saber, looking imposing and majestic.
His two small, bead-like eyes stared at the City God’s Golden Body, ready to flap his wings and fly away at any moment.
But after staring for a long time, he found that he seemed unaffected. It seems I was overthinking things, he couldn’t help but muse. I initially thought, based on the novels and films from my previous life, that entering a City God Temple would be like stepping into the City God’s ’domain.’ But I’ve been looking at his Golden Body for so long now without any reaction. I guess... I overestimated the abilities of a Five Realms City God. After all, if this entire hundred-acre City God Temple was his Divine Country, and his power could cover such an area, he wouldn’t be confined to a mere Baojiao County.
Since he was certain that the City God hadn’t detected his entry, this meant that even if the City God was conscious, its awareness wasn’t focused on this Golden Body in the Xiang Hall. Otherwise, there should have been some indication by now.
Could it be that he’s out with a Parade Team? I remember hearing in my previous life about gods parading through the streets. It involves casting divination blocks, and once the god consents, they are invited out of the temple. Some gods are such homebodies they refuse to go out to ’play,’ no matter how much they’re invited...
With this thought, he cautiously but boldly tested further. He darted down from a pillar at the back of the hall, landing behind the Golden Body.
Indeed, there was no reaction.
So the City God’s true presence must be somewhere else, he thought.
But just as Chen Ku planned to check the other halls and the backyard,
[Diagram Master satisfies the second condition for cultivating the Fifth Transformation Chart.]
[Fifth Transformation Chart]
[Awakening Conditions: Ten Thousand Taels of Gold, Ten Thousand Taels of Silver Essence, One Jin of Incense Qi, Great achievement in one Absolute Skill Level martial art, one stream of Four Realm Evil Energy.]
[Currently, within three meters of the Diagram Master, two cultivation conditions are met: Ten Thousand Taels of Gold, One Jin of Incense Qi.]
(Note: The One Jin of Incense Qi near the Diagram Master has not been refined. It needs to be stamped with the Diagram Master’s spiritual imprint before it can be sacrificed.)
[Do you choose to directly sacrifice the Ten Thousand Taels of Gold?]
Chen Ku was stunned.
Gold? Incense Qi?
He hadn’t expected to accidentally trigger the cultivation conditions for the Fifth Transformation Chart.
Incense Qi is understandable. This is the Xiang Hall of the City God Temple, the place with the most abundant incense offerings, so triggering that condition is normal. But, gold? Where...
Chen Ku paused, then looked down at the Golden Body beneath his feet. A thought vibrated through his mind.
Is it this Golden Body? Holy hell! It’s not gold-plated? It’s pure gold?
He was completely shocked. Then, the crazy thought in his mind simply wouldn’t stop.
He looked out at the Xiang Hall and beyond the Main Hall. Today, the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, at least a thousand people were present, kowtowing and burning incense before the City God’s Golden Body in the hall.
To do this... in front of so many people... Should I sacrifice this Golden Body?
GULP.
Chen Ku thought he could hear himself swallowing. An internal battle raged within him.
Ten Thousand Taels of Gold... If I don’t take this opportunity to get it here for free, according to the gold-to-silver ratio in the Daji era, one tael of gold exchanges for twenty taels of silver. That means I’d need two hundred thousand taels of silver to buy that much gold. My entire current net worth, even if I sold my house and shop, would barely cover that... I might as well rob this City God Temple!
He gritted his teeth, his resolve hardening.
You hit me with bad luck, so I’ll seize your Golden Body! Sacrifice!
Suddenly, throughout the entire City God Temple, a brilliant golden light erupted.