Wet viviparity

Chapter 960 Gambling Game, Soul Summoning Ritual
Inside the hall, a cacophony of noise and an eerie atmosphere filled the air.

Pearls were used as lamps, coral as frames, silk gauze as flooring, and fire-resistant cloth as mats.

A bizarre gambling game is taking place in the main hall of the Panjiang River Sect. The gambling tools are not ordinary dice and dominoes, but bone tokens engraved with runes and a treasure toad bowl that spews bubbles of various colors of spiritual light.

Around this ritual vessel, which resembles a squatting toad, are engraved five directions: Kan (water), Li (fire), Zhen (wood), Dui (metal), and Kun (earth).

Those who participate in the gambling here include the aquatic spirits of the Great Lake and gambling experts from all over the world, with the core being Man Shenying, who sits in the main seat and is no more than two feet tall.

His eyes, as cold as a deep pool, were staring blankly at the noisy gambling game. The yang line on his forehead was dim and lifeless. He mechanically pushed out the pearls and corals piled up in front of him, and numbly put back the treasures he had won. He seemed to care nothing about winning or losing.

Everyone understands that this hedonistic clamor is just noise he uses to fill the emptiness in his heart.

Green Pot God pushed aside the crowd of spirits and came to the side of the gambling game. Ignoring the priceless stakes, he bowed to Man Shenying again and said, "Your Majesty! The God of Dangerous Path has been sent back by Taiping Mountain. His body and spirit are on the verge of extinction, and his spiritual light is about to be extinguished. Only by asking the Mud Root of Forbidden Mountain can there be a glimmer of hope for his survival."

This matter concerns the survival and dignity of our temple; only Your Majesty's intervention can resolve it."

Man Shenying seemed not to hear anything. Holding a bone token, he reached into the pile of treasures in front of him, picked up a large piece of the century-old Cold Soul that exuded frost, and casually placed it on the Kan water level.

"Buy and leave!"

On one side of the gambling table, a clay statue painted with bright oil paints opened its mouth wide and spoke.

Fish, shrimp, turtles, and alligators, along with the gambling-loving and skilled cultivators, all placed their bets, along with the treasures they had brought and won, on the five directions, with the Kan position receiving the most bets.

With a "snap," the Green Pot God placed the "Impure Earth Spirit Temple" on his deathbed. This was a magical artifact personally bestowed upon him by the Divine Infant King after he assumed the position of the temple's deity, and it was also one of the remnants of the previous generation's Jianglin tribe deity, the Mourning God.

Man Shenying's hand holding the bone tablet paused almost imperceptibly, and a very subtle fluctuation seemed to appear in his eyes, but he quickly returned to calm.

He threw the bone tokens into the treasure toad bowl. The moment the tokens were thrown in, the symbols on them changed and settled on the symbol of "change".

In an instant, the bowl flashed with spiritual light, and finally spat out a Wind-Repelling Pill, which landed on the Kan position. Before the demon who had bet on this position could rejoice, the clay statue pulled out the bone token, showed the changing runes on it, and said, "It's not over yet."

Sure enough, the next second, the Wind-Repelling Pill disappeared from the Kan position and reappeared in the Li position.

"Your Majesty, shall we meet again?"

The Green Pot God, who had bet on the departure of his throne, did not rejoice. Instead, he looked as if he was about to bet everything he had. Seeing this, the surrounding demons all tacitly left.

Only the clay statue clumsily picked up the treasure toad bowl he had brought from the ground. Just as he was about to lead his little horse away, Man Shenying called out to him, "Clay ghost, come here."

The clay statue sighed inwardly, then laughed and said, "Your Majesty, my name is Bo Ni Gui. Does Your Majesty wish to make another bet with the Green Pot God?"

“Not bad.” Man Shenying nodded, placed the spiritual treasure, Gui Lei Yin Fu Sword, on his back onto the Kan position, and then said to Bo Ni Gui, “Give him a bone token.”

"One game to decide the outcome. If you win, everything is up to you."

But if you lose, get back to Nuer Peak in Minshan.

"it is good!"

Green Pot God readily agreed, placing the Impure Earth Temple on the Li position once more, saying, "I'll add another bet. If I lose, not only will I return to my Nuer Peak, but I will also return the position of God to you. Your Majesty can also reclaim all your cultivation and magic."

These words struck Man Shenying's heart like a heavy hammer.

The dark, frozen aura around him suddenly froze, and his eyes finally focused, sharply looking at the Green Pot God, while Bo Ni Gui looked like he had been plagued by a plague, wishing he could leave this place as soon as possible.

After a long while, Man Shenying was finally subdued by the Green Pot God's resolute attitude. He looked towards the direction outside the hall, and his primordial spirit penetrated the palace walls and the pool water, seeing the six-armed body of the Dangerous Path God. He slowly said, "Go and prepare for the Taishan Soul Summoning Ritual."

Before Green Pot God could breathe a sigh of relief, Full Divine Infant said again: "Usually, when the Forbidden Mountain Mud Root is activated, it is always performed by the God Lord himself, and there is no need for such a ritual."

Now that the temple's ancestral tablets are absent, no one can perform the ritual independently, so this kind of ceremony is necessary. However, the intricacies of such grand rituals are quite complex, even I cannot fully grasp them. Therefore, whether this ceremony succeeds or fails depends entirely on fate.

Green Pot God nodded emphatically, already regarding this matter as a turning point in the revival of Cloud and Rain Temple.

After traversing three thousand five hundred feet of dark underground, we arrived at the Nandu Ancient Forbidden Mountain, located beneath the Earth's core.

It wasn't pitch black here, but rather filled with a dim, heavy glow originating from deep within the earth.

Huge, broken stone slabs, scattered like toys of a giant god, form the indistinct outline of the Forbidden Mountain. Upon closer inspection, one can see colossal pillars, each requiring dozens of people to encircle, rising abruptly from the ground and piercing the dome hundreds of feet high.

This is the Nandu Ancient Burial Mound, an ancient city ruin buried beneath the earth's core, built with the help of the Longbo giants to suppress floods. Delving into the ancient burial mound will lead you to taboos.

There were no buildings there, only a dark root system that wriggled and tangled like a living thing, like exposed large root stumps, which was the very essence of the mud roots.

They are as thick as dragons and snakes, their surfaces a blend of black soil and yellow fat, covered with rough, raised nodules and pores that pulsate slightly as if breathing. These vast root systems extend deep into the earth, nourishing the land with unimaginable nutrients.

Above this wriggling network of muddy roots, the most striking beings are two entities nourished by it.

One was a massive, hill-like creature, its wings tattered, yet still exuding the terrifying power that once stirred up the land. Now it seemed to be asleep, its breathing synchronized with the throbbing of the earth's roots.

The other one is the God of Danger, who has just been placed here.

His six-armed body was carefully placed in the area where the soil roots were most dense. The roots, like conscious tentacles, slowly climbed up and partially wrapped him. The dark luster of the earthen soil flowed on his body, nourishing the spiritual light that was on the verge of being extinguished.

Around the muddy root area of ​​the Dangerous Path God, a grand and solemn Taishan Soul Summoning Ritual has been set up.

The inner altar is divided into four directions by four gates and by red and blue ropes, as if an independent spiritual realm has been constructed here.

At the highest point of the altar, the spirit tablet of the Goddess of Mount Tai is placed, with a pair of arm-thick red candles burning quietly, illuminating the sandalwood incense burner, water bowl, ritual tablet, and token below.

"Thump! Thump! Thump!."

An old wooden fish, untouched by any striking, occasionally emits a deep, resonant hum, its sound waves rippling outwards from the inner altar, visible to the naked eye.

The infant spirit stood there, facing the spirit tablet and the altar, grabbing handfuls of sacred rice from the five-liter rice container at the center of the altar and scattering it outwards, causing a gust of cold wind and bitter rain. The wind and rain swarmed with ghosts, vying for the scattered sacred rice.

These spirit rice grains are plump and full, like broken gold. This is the finest gold-refined rice from the "Heavenly Fox Academy". It is said that only three shi of such gold-refined rice can be produced from six or seven acres of top-quality rice paddies.

This golden rice is more effective than pearls in cultivation, and can also be used directly as a culinary food to refine and guide ghosts.

If Yunyu Temple hadn't participated in the Taipingshan support program and received a great recovery, even purchasing five liters of fine rice would have required careful budgeting, not to mention the numerous arrangements made for this Taipingshan Soul Summoning Ritual.

The Gui Lei Yin Fu sword, inserted into the rice, gleamed coldly; the command flag moved without wind; the iron fork hummed faintly; and various magical treasures and artifacts surrounded the altar. The altar was also adorned with a canopy and a throne, shimmering with light and exuding an awe-inspiring and inviolable aura of law and authority.

The Green Pot God commands from the center of the much larger outer altar, where fish spirits, shrimp monsters, fox demons, rat spirits, scattered demons, and the True God of the Underworld set up eight gates to correspond to the Eight Trigrams.

On the altar, banners, lanterns, and other decorative items stood in abundance, with long prayer flags hanging down, their runes seemingly moving on their own in the dim light.

On the two high-hanging "Welcoming the True Ones" lists, the characters are like dragons and snakes coiling. Many disciples of the Yunyu Temple gathered below the lists, staring at the names of the deities on them. Each of them exuded an eager expectation, hoping that the Yuzhi deity, who was reflecting on his mistakes on Taiyi Qingmu Mountain, could send down his divine power to help him.

The gambling demons, who were originally participating in the gambling inside the temple, were also squeezed in here.

He was merely a mountain spirit in Lanyin Fangheng Mountain in Guhe Prefecture, in charge of the plants and animals on that mountain. Because Taiping Mountain was well-governed in the south and the Taoist traditions were flourishing in all directions, he was moved by worldly desires and went out to travel.

Because he was an avid gambler and considered a renowned expert in the game, he came to Danmeng Lingchi after hearing that gambling had started at Yunyu Temple. He wanted to participate in the gambling games regularly held by the Divine Infant King and also to receive some rewards such as wine and pills.

During this time, his special gambling tool, the "Hundred Treasures Toad Bowl," was valued by the Divine Infant King and kept to this day. He also overheard some things he shouldn't have heard in the palace, thus being forced to participate in such matters.

"I knew it, I shouldn't have listened to what I shouldn't have listened to."

Bo Ni Gui sighed and quietly retreated to the side.

Around the altar, there are three curtains: the Three Officials Curtain, the Taishan Curtain, the God's Lord Curtain, and the Divine Infant Curtain. These black curtains are very thick and heavy. Their function is similar to that of prayer flags: to invite the power of the gods and to show the solemnity of this sacred place.

The four acts enclose the inner and outer altars, and from the side, it looks like a large black box.

“The universe was divided, and the nine dams were filled to suppress the flood.”

The dragon carries mud, its virtue profound and its spirit boundless.

Today, the remnants of the cloud and rain, with reverence offering incense and lamps, report to the Compassionate One of Mount Tai above and to the Netherworld Gods below—

Man Shenying stood before the main altar, his dejected expression fading, his indigo face tense, and he began to chant incantations.

The Green Pot God and the core members of the Cloud and Rain Temple stood in various directions, their expressions solemn, leading the followers to chant a sacrificial song. The sound waves, the pulsation of the mud roots, the hum of the wooden fish, and the flickering of the lamps intertwined, forming a supreme magical power that surged toward the six-armed body wrapped in mud roots.

On the spiritual platform within the perilous path of the divine body, a wisp of hazy, pure energy descended, flowing among the black and yellow roots, dissolving into the ground, and quietly turning to the other side, separated from the altar.

(End of this chapter)