Daily Intelligence: From Water Snake to Jinghe Dragon King

Chapter 192 The City God Inspects the Underworld, Why Don't All the Wronged Souls Die Sooner?

Yuan Datou was granted the title of Seventh-Rank General of the Jinghe River, originally a grass tortoise, but now a deity of an unusual kind. Today, as he approaches Chang'an, he is being warned by the torrent of humanity.

The torrent of humanity accumulated in that ancient city over a thousand years transformed into an extremely terrifying pressure, which crashed down on Yuan Datou in an instant.

With a series of crackling sounds like beans popping, Yuan Datou's incense-like body was crushed, revealing his tortoise-like spirit, which lay motionless on the ground.

Liu Qing quickly bowed respectfully towards Chang'an City, then pulled Yuan Datou away from the city walls.

After walking several hundred meters outside the walls of Chang'an, the torrent of humanity finally ceased its repulsive force. Yuan Datou had narrowly escaped death and, using the divine power of incense, managed to regenerate a body.
"That human torrent was terrifying!"

"Alas, I was already poor, and now my body has been crushed by the pressure, and I need incense to rebuild it. Now I'm even poorer."

Yuan Datou felt very wronged, but dared not complain about the overwhelming tide of humanity. He could only blame himself for his lack of knowledge and for being too close to Chang'an.
Fortunately, the City God Temple in Chang'an was located in the southwest outside the city, outside the reach of the human torrent, so we could go around it later.

"Hey, Brother Liu, I just realized why you were alright just now?"

Liu Qing came up with an excuse: "I have done good deeds all my life and have never done anything bad. I also helped bring rain last time, so perhaps that's why."

It's not really an excuse, it's just that it doesn't explicitly mention humanitarian merit.

The two no longer planned to cross Chang'an City to reach the City God Temple from within the city. Instead, they took a longer route and finally saw the City God Temple in Chang'an City in the afternoon.

The City God Temple in Chang'an City looks extremely grand from the outside, with blue bricks and white walls, glazed tiles, and red painted pillars, covering an area of ​​dozens of acres, like a royal mansion.

As a city god temple in an ancient city with a history of thousands of years, it is to be expected to have such an atmosphere. However, given the current continuous natural disasters and man-made calamities, the fact that the city god temple is so extravagant is quite jarring.

Most of those who came to the City God Temple to burn incense were wealthy and powerful people from Chang'an, begging the City God to promote them to higher positions and make them richer, or to ensure that their eighteenth concubine would give birth to a son.
Of course, those mentioned above are just ordinary people. Those who are truly ambitious are all asking the City God to show them the way, so that among all the rebel armies in the world, which one will eventually ascend to the throne, and they can invest in advance.

Unfortunately, for some reason, whenever such a prayer was offered, the incense would break in half, and no matter how hard you tried to light it, it wouldn't light.

It was not yet dark, and seeing that there were many worshippers in the City God Temple, Liu Qing and Yuan Datou decided to rest for a while and go there after dark.

Outside the City God Temple, there were naturally many restaurants and teahouses. The two chose a relatively clean teahouse, ordered a pot of tea and some snacks, and ate while listening to other tea drinkers chat. Being in the midst of the hustle and bustle of the world, they had a unique experience.

Liu Qing took a bite of the water chestnut cake, savoring the flavor, then sipped some tea before swallowing the cake, thoroughly enjoying herself.

Seeing Liu Qing enjoying himself, Yuan Datou felt utterly wronged. With Liu Qing himself present, he could naturally eat and drink to his heart's content, reveling in the finest delicacies.

But it was merely a vessel for incense offerings, unable to eat or drink. Yet, Yuan Datou, with his greedy mouth, still wanted to taste something, even though he couldn't eat or drink.
He picked up the tea snack, held it to his nose, and took a deep breath. Instantly, the oily and sweet water chestnut cake turned pale and tasteless, and crumbled into dust at the slightest touch, like rotten wood.

Liu Qing glanced at him sideways; this Yuan Datou was really a killjoy.

They leisurely spent two or three hours eating and drinking, changing the tea and snacks several times, all of them top-quality. This made the teahouse waiter so nervous that he would always stay close to the two of them, seemingly afraid that they wouldn't have enough money to pay the bill.
Liu Qing and Yuan Datou came here disguised as ordinary people, so it's no wonder the teahouse waiter was worried that they wouldn't have money to pay the bill.

Liu Qing and Yuan Datou really didn't have any human gold, silver, or copper coins.

Fortunately, there is incense silver, which looks no different from ordinary silver. Unless its divine essence is absorbed, or the deity that produced this incense silver is immortal,

This incense money can be used as currency indefinitely.

To the surprise of the tea shop waiter, Liu Qing took out one tael of silver to pay the bill. Just now, the waiter had told the manager to prepare sticks in advance, so that if they encountered someone who was eating snacks, they would definitely get a good beating.

It's a pity that they actually had the money to pay the bill. Nowadays, people may not dress very well, but they certainly don't lack money. Are rich people this low-key now?

It was already past 7 PM, and all the worshippers had left the City God Temple.

Just as the temple keeper was about to close the gate, Liu Qing and Yuan Datou slipped past him and entered the City God Temple. The keeper felt a blur before his eyes, as if a figure had floated by, but after rubbing his eyes and looking carefully, he found that there was no one inside or outside the temple.

If there were even half a person there, he would be scared to death.

Liu Qing and Yuan Datou entered the City God Temple and looked up to see the main hall. Inside the hall were two pillars with a couplet on them: "A guilty conscience in a dark room, one's intentions are known even before entering; one's own sins, one does not need to burn incense to absolve oneself of guilt."

The couplets are well written, but what Liu Qing sees today are that many of the powerful and wealthy people who come to burn incense are full of sins. Doesn't your City God receive their offerings?

With a slight smirk, Liu Qing and Yuan Datou knew that the statues in the main hall of the City God Temple were the entrance to the City God's realm.

The City God's Realm is also a type of incense-based realm, only it has been given different names, such as the Earth God Realm, the Mountain God Realm, and the River God Realm.

This time, accompanying Yuan Datou to the City God Temple to recruit ghost soldiers, we naturally need to enter the City God's realm, as there are no ghost soldiers outside.

The City God is a local deity. Only in human cities can there be City God temples and City Gods. Therefore, to become the City God of a human city, one must be at least a seventh-rank deity.
Even in the smallest human city, the City God in its City God Temple is at least a seventh-rank official. In larger cities, the City God might be a sixth-rank official.

Ancient cities like Chang'an, with a history spanning thousands of years, held a high status, with the city god being a fifth-rank official.

The City God is responsible for guiding and settling the souls of the dead in a given area, or for capturing and detaining wandering spirits and evil spirits. This function is very similar to the ancestral temples of the previous life.

In terms of these powers and responsibilities, the City God has subordinate units such as the Earth God and the Mountain God. However, the Earth God and the Mountain God are not directly under the jurisdiction of the City God. They only have a certain degree of subordination to the City God in the handling of ghosts.

The local earth gods and mountain gods are like the village chiefs of various villages in the previous life. The seventh-rank city god is the one who assigns the office, the sixth-rank city god is the one who manages the public security bureau, and the fifth-rank city god in Chang'an City is similar to the public security department.

Generally, the procedure for handling the ghosts of the deceased involves first having the local earth god guide them, then sending them to the City God Temple for temporary care. If the ghost is found to be a vicious or malevolent spirit, it will be captured and temporarily detained.

In general, the City God Temple served to house and detain ghosts, and finally, once a certain number of ghosts had been gathered, they were escorted to the underworld.

Therefore, there are many ghosts in the City God Temple. The incense gods who need to recruit ghost soldiers, such as Yuan Datou, are attracted by this feature of the City God Temple.

Upon entering the City God Temple.

All around was shrouded in darkness, a blood moon hung in the sky, emitting an eerie red glow, and below, on the ground, there were mountains, water, flowers, and grass.

However, the mountains, rivers, flowers, and plants here are different from those in the mortal world. They lack the vibrant colors and are instead monotonous gray or eerie red.

Aside from its somber and monotonous color scheme, the world inside the City God's realm is quite similar to the outside world, with mountains in the distance, fields nearby, and a moat surrounding the City God's city.
There was an official road, and from the void at the boundary of the Dharma realm, groups of ghosts would occasionally enter and converge here along the road.
Then, the underworld officials are responsible for settling the ghosts who died naturally and were gentle in nature, and they are assigned to villages within the realm of Dharma.

If they are cruel or have died tragically and harbor resentment, they will be shackled and taken to prison by underworld officials for temporary detention.

Within the City God's realm lies a great city called "Xuanjian City." "Xuan" signifies darkness, and "Jian" signifies observation; Xuanjian City is the overseer of the underworld.
By observing the yin and standing between yin and yang, monitoring yin and yang, the power and influence of the City God cannot be underestimated.

On the way to Xuanjian City, Liu Qing saw ghosts who looked exactly as they did in life. Farmers were tilling the fields outside the city, fishermen were fishing in the river, and woodcutters were chopping wood on the mountain, each going about their livelihoods as they had in life.
With a satisfied look on their faces, they seemed to be enjoying themselves, unaware of whether they were going to die. Meanwhile, the wicked ghosts, bound and dragged along, were whipped by their demon soldiers. Some screamed in pain, others cursed viciously.
They may know they are dead, and for various reasons, they are unwilling to report to the City God Temple, wandering in the mortal world, which is why they are captured by the ghost soldiers.

Liu Qing and Yuan Datou had ceased their disguises as commoners and revealed their true forms. Yuan Datou, a seventh-rank general and a deity of incense offerings, was inherently yin in nature, hence his inconspicuousness.
However, Liu Qing's true form was made of flesh and blood, and his vital energy in this City God's realm was vast and dazzling, like a cloud of smoke. All the ghosts he encountered on the road turned their heads away.

Not wanting to be watched, Liu Qing had the Face-Changing Insect change his appearance and conceal his aura. Soon, Liu Qing's aura changed, and even the pillar of vital energy above his head was hidden.

The Face-Changing Insect is a wondrous creature of heaven and earth; it is indeed extraordinary.

At the invitation of Yuan Datou, Liu Qing accompanied him to the City God's Palace. Before the trip, Liu Qing had already taken something from Hong Gu's jade tablet...
Having brought the wronged souls who had previously hindered Yuan Datou's ascension to godhood, Liu Qing now arrived at the City God's realm. He found a secluded spot in the mountains and released these souls, thus completing his meritorious deed.
After being released by Liu Qing, the wronged souls looked around and were quite satisfied. The place was peaceful and quiet; there was no hunger, no bandits, and no robbers.
After being settled by the underworld officials, they were able to farm and fish, living a very comfortable life. They looked at each other and could see the joy in each other's eyes.

"So this is what it's like to die. I wish I had died sooner."

"Yes, it's much better here than outside. There are no bandits or robbers, and everyone lives in peace and contentment."

"Alas, it's too late to regret it. If I had known I could live such a good life after death, why would I have to suffer outside? I would have slit my own throat long ago."

The group of wronged souls who had blocked Yuan Datou's path, seeing the fields outside the city where ghosts lived in peace and contentment, all regretted that they had arrived too late.
But it wasn't too late after all. Being brought here by Liu Qing was a stroke of luck, and they were all extremely grateful, bowing and thanking Liu Qing.

(End of this chapter)