Master of Kaidan-Chapter 490 City God

Feng Xue led her family to a health check in a daze, and afterwards, the middle-aged man asked his son, "There’s no way around it—to connect to that ’infinite signal,’ our family’s devices have been taking turns with navigation this whole way. Now only your device, which was the first to receive the coordinates, still has some battery, so if we want to watch a live stream, it has to be on yours."

"Seems there aren’t any major issues," the young man said, glancing at the community’s pinned "Newcomers Must-Read" post with the corners of his mouth twitching slightly. His younger brother, however, took a look around at the "thatched cottages" and said,

"What kind of house can they allocate in this shabby place with only a three-story hospital as the largest building? Don’t tell me we’ll have to live with a dozen other families together?"

"It shouldn’t be...I guess?" the middle-aged woman said uncertainly, but considering the scale of the village and the low design of the mud-brick and thatched cottages, it really didn’t seem like they could fit many people.

"Don’t listen to my brother’s nonsense. These buildings up here are just disguises; the main structures are underground!" the young man glared at his younger brother and immediately reassured his mother. Hearing this, the old man nodded earnestly in agreement,

"Exactly, exactly, otherwise such a tiny village couldn’t possibly fit everyone!"

But at that moment, it seemed the middle-aged man suddenly remembered something and said hurriedly, freёwebnoѵel.com

"City God Temple? I’ve only heard of Dragon King Temples... What kind of place is this? Look carefully, and especially check for any taboos. We don’t want to accidentally offend any local customs!"

Hearing his father’s words, the young man’s expression turned serious. He quickly started searching on his device and soon found his answer,

"According to this, the City God is similar to the Dragon King, a kind of Immortal Official. But while the Dragon King is responsible for rain, the City God is like a county official among immortals. This village can exist because it has a City God."

"Built by immortals? No wonder!" In this era, the presence of immortals was common knowledge, and knowing that an immortal protected the place put the family at ease.

However, having seen a bit of the world, the middle-aged man pondered for a moment then asked,

"So what kind of offerings does this City God need? The Dragon King Temple at Chentang Pass requires a three-sacrifice ceremony every year!"

"The post says just sincere incense offerings will do. It seems like the City God is an Immortal Official who got the position by accumulating merit as a mortal and is not like the Dragon King, who is of an alien race. This City God is supposed to take care of the local folks..." the young man read out the contents of the post, finding it hard to go on for a simple reason—

"Local folks? Who doesn’t know that immortals who cultivate live for hundreds and hundreds of years? Could there still be any ’local folks’ relatives from eight hundred years ago?"

Listening to his younger son talk, the middle-aged man frowned slightly and after some thought, said,

"You just mentioned accumulating merit. What does that mean? Isn’t cultivation about meditating and practicing Qi Cultivation?"

"Let me check." The young man exited the thread and started searching the forum again. It took a while before he found an informative post and said,

"Uh, it seems that this kind of immortal is different from the ones we talk about, it’s not achieved through cultivation."

"Not through cultivation? Then how does one become an immortal? By eating Immortal Pills?"

The curious younger brother asked, but before the young man could answer, a passerby, eager to show off his knowledge, said,

"This you don’t understand? Just as the mortal world has kings and ministers, heaven has the Emperor of Heaven and Immortal Officials. Those in cultivation seek a carefree life and naturally don’t want to hold official positions, but someone has to manage the world, don’t they? So the Emperor of Heaven has set up examinations for Immortal Officials. As long as you do good deeds while living, after death, you can become an immortal based on your accumulated merit. Although it’s not as free and easy as those other immortals, you can still gain immortality and longevity."

"Fake, right? Doing good deeds makes you an immortal? And you can become an official too? Things aren’t that easy," the young man’s first reaction was disbelief; after all, in this era, to become an official, you first need to have the background, the bloodline. If doing good deeds doesn’t even make you a mortal official, how could you possibly become an official in heaven? Not to mention achieving immortality! So many have practiced immortal cultivation, and yet so few have achieved eternal life!

"Hush!" As soon as the young man spoke, the passerby immediately put his index finger to his lips and made a quiet gesture before whispering:

"You can’t just blurt that out. The City God of this county is the great-great-grandfather of Doctor Zhang from the hospital! In his lifetime, he saved many people, and after he died, he became the City God, protecting this village for over a hundred years, granting us good weather for crops."

"Really? Just by doing good deeds, one can truly become immortal?"

On hearing this testimony, several people immediately perked up. Eternal life, for those who’ve never enjoyed worldly pleasures, might not be so tempting, but for those who’ve had a decent life, that’s an aspiration that’s hard to ignore!

"Why would I lie to you? You can check for good and bad deeds at the City God’s place even now. Go take a look; if you haven’t done anything shameful in this life, maybe you could even become an Immortal Official?"

...

In front of the City God Temple, it was crowded with people. From time to time, someone came to offer incense and then asked a question. The phantom inside the temple, upon hearing the inquiries, didn’t turn anyone away. As many people as asked, the City God could produce that many clones to answer them – it was a truly wondrous sight.

"Grandfather City God, I wish to see my accumulated good deeds," a person who resembled a village squire came forward to offer incense. Seeing this, the City God flicked through the book in his hand and said:

"Though you’ve intentionally done good, your good deeds are indeed substantial and can eliminate three parts of evil causes. However, good and evil cannot offset each other. Are you clear on that?"

The man, originally pleased at the thought of canceling out his evil deeds, suddenly turned grim at the latter part of the statement, "What’s this about them not being able to offset?"

"Good is good, and evil is evil. Once the evil consequence exists, it won’t disappear just because you did good, so you can only reduce the evil cause, but not the evil consequence. It’s like someone who steals another’s bow and arrows to go hunting tigers on the mountain. Killing the man-eating tiger is good and should be rewarded, but stealing is an evil act. If you compensate the owner, that’s considered rectification, which means you’ve eliminated an evil cause. But if because of your theft, the rightful owner goes to the mountain with just a wood-cutting knife and ends up dead, that is the evil consequence. No matter how much you compensate, you can’t replace a human life. Do you understand?"

Hearing the reply from the phantom of the City God, the village squire turned pale and seemed to want to ask something more, but the City God simply waved his hand and said:

"Good will be rewarded, and evil will be punished; they cannot cancel each other out nor hinder one another. If your good deeds are overflowing, once the evil consequences are fully compensated for, you will receive rewards for your good acts."

"Thank you, Grandfather City God, for clarifying." The village squire, after hearing this, immediately bowed twice and left. Some onlookers recorded the conversation and posted it online as sayings of the City God.

...

Meanwhile, the mastermind behind all this, Feng Xue, was currently piloting a drone, distributing City God Temples to various remote areas, spreading stories about the City God, Emperor of Heaven, Immortal Officials, and so forth.

Although the style of this world is somewhat strange, at its core, it is still a feudal system, and the feudal system implies that this era doesn’t have a clear concept of "family, nation, and world". Moreover, with the internet allowing people from all corners of the globe to communicate with each other, a self-awareness of race, nation, and culture fails to take root.

As for ideology, once there’s a void, it’s all too easy for something else to fill it, and that’s precisely what Feng Xue was manufacturing at the moment.

However, residents of other regions aren’t as easy to fool (or rather, willing to be fooled) as those in war-torn areas.

But Feng Xue had a way—

After all, these City God Temples were just a budget youth version of the Sealing God Platform!

"Let’s see, who’s a good person that’s about to die? I’ll send him to the local City God Temple to become the City God!"

This chapter is updated by freew(e)bnovel.(c)om