Dao Cheng Gui Xian

Chapter 352 Incense Ashes, Capital of Canglan Kingdom

He took a pinch of incense ash from his golden core and handed it to Chi Xiu.

Chi Xiu reached out and took it, immediately feeling a sinking feeling in his spirit, and gradually even his mind began to quiet down.

Startled, Chi Xiu was unable to move until Li Wushou's mind entered Chi Xiu's Yin spirit and, carrying it through the incense ash, Chi Xiu felt as if he had been granted a pardon, and his Yin spirit came back to life.

This stick of incense was taken secretly from the incense burner by Li Wushou when the old beggar left the Three Immortals Pavilion last time.

Originally, after Li Wushou noticed the change in the incense burner, he only wanted to use this method to see if the old beggar had been secretly collecting incense ash.

However, not long after he took away the incense ash, Li Wushou noticed something was wrong.

After I lit incense two or three times, the ash pile was filled up again.

This left Li Wushou stunned for a long time before he finally came to his senses.

As he gained control of the incense offerings in Huazhou and his own strength increased, the amount of incense ash produced with each offering also increased.

This pinch of incense ash, if placed in the original Sanxian Hall, would have taken him a year to accumulate even with daily incense offerings.

But now, after only the time it takes to burn three incense sticks, this pinch of incense ash has been replenished!
The reason why the incense ash in the incense burner has been half-dead for the past few months is self-evident.

The old beggar not only saved up, but he saved up far more than Li Wushou had imagined!

Sure enough, the old beggar never noticed that a pinch of incense ash was missing. He thought Li Wushou hadn't lit enough incense. Later, due to the cold war at the Three Immortals Pavilion, the matter was completely forgotten.

Li Wushou kept this in mind without making a fuss, as it would be his bargaining chip in his future confrontation with the old beggar.

Having clarified this premise, Li Wushou became more generous with the use of incense ash. After explaining the method of use to Chi Xiu in detail, he used his divine soul to bid farewell to Chi Xiu.

With the suppression of incense ash, Li Wushou can always maintain the initiative, regardless of the final outcome of the contest between Wu Zhuangyuan and Canglan.

Once outside the underground, Li Wushou returned directly to the Dishui Road outpost.

Five days later, the Dragon King Temple suddenly trembled.

Li Wushou suddenly opened his eyes. He knew that Chi Xiu had completely taken control of the Yin spirit of the Jinjing River Dragon King.

Upon closer inspection, the connection between himself and Chi Xiu's avatar reappeared, indicating that Chi Xiu had completely opened his mind. However, Li Wushou and Chi Xiu did not communicate again.

In the past few days, the other deities of the seventy-two paths, along with their respective recommenders, gathered at the Dragon King Temple. However, there were still five days before they were to travel to the capital of Canglan Kingdom, which was five or six days earlier than Li Wushou had expected. Nevertheless, Li Wushou was still somewhat annoyed by the wait.

When people have free time, they want to find something to do to pass the time.

So for the past few days, Li Wushou has been going into the square behind the Dragon King Temple, where many Yin Gods were refining incense, and constantly urging his abdominal spirit to parasitize the bodies of these Yin Gods.

At night, he would repeatedly visit the residences of the seventy-two deities, using the old beggar's divine methods combined with the parasitic power of the belly god to manipulate them.

After working for three or four days, all the Yin spirits in the Dragon King Temple were now under Li Wushou's control.

He planned to forcibly extract the incense from these Yin spirits after he left this world.

In the long run, it's definitely better to take a slow and steady approach.

But according to Wu Zhuangyuan, this broken world should be completely destroyed in no more than fifty days. If you calculate carefully, there is only about a month left.

Killing the goose that lays the golden eggs—at least there's still an egg, that's not bad!

Ten days after Li Wushou entered the Dragon King Temple.

Suddenly, a dragon's roar resounded from within the Dragon King Temple, and a magnificent dragon shadow emerged from the ground beneath the temple. Immediately, the deities of the various tributaries of the Jinjing River activated the power of incense offerings to send their respective representatives to the white pearl above their respective residences.

Incense smoke rises, like smoke and clouds, supporting the crowd.

The dragon shadow hovering above the Dragon King Temple opened its mouth and swallowed Li Wushou and the others whole, then plunged into the black waters of the Jinjing River, flowing upstream from south to north.

The remaining seventy-two deities bowed silently, and after the Jinjing River Dragon King had completely departed, they tacitly returned to their respective waterways and began to intensify the condensation of incense.

The same was true for the spirits in the back hall of the Dragon King Temple; they were even busier than when the Dragon King was alive.

Moreover, upon closer inspection this time, it became clear that with each bow, these spirits lost a fraction of their hidden essence, indicating that they were sacrificing their own foundation while worshipping the gods.

Nobody cares!
Li Wushou and his group of supporters sat cross-legged inside the Dragon King's body. These people were obviously excited about entering the capital, but since they were inside the Dragon King's belly, none of them dared to show their emotions too much.

Looking around, Li Wushou quietly observed the Dragon King's Yin spirit.

This was clearly not the Dragon King's complete Yin spirit. The other party's Yin spirit had already merged with the Jinjing River. It wasn't even controlled by Chi Xiu; it was more like the other party's instinct, because Li Wushou couldn't detect any emotions in this Yin spirit, as if it were an empty shell.

An hour later, Li Wushou sensed an excited emotion in the other person. Then, he felt his body move and he was vomited out along with everyone around him.

Li Wushou did not forcibly manipulate Shui Sheng's body, and he fell heavily onto a cloud bed with the current.

Immediately afterward, a dragon's roar rang in his ears, and Li Wushou turned his gaze to look around.

Beneath the cloud bed, black water formed a curtain. The group rapidly ascended with the cloud bed, and behind them, a gigantic dragon head, resembling a city, opened its massive mouth, its whiskers flowing and connecting with the black water beneath the cloud bed, emitting bursts of dragon roars.

This scene was exactly the same as what Li Wushou saw when he used the white jade slab—the dragon's head looking up at the Great Abyss, only the dragon's head was slightly different. So, was the direction the cloud bed was heading towards the capital of Canglan Kingdom within the Great Abyss?

Li Wushou gazed straight ahead, where the water grew increasingly black. Concentrating, he sensed an extremely condensed incense aura within the black water.

These incense sticks, like chains and ropes, are hidden deep in the black water, binding the enormous dragon head.

The Dragon King of the Twelve Water Veins was indeed imprisoned on the Great Abyss!

The cloud bed soared straight up to the top of the abyss before plunging down, and Li Wushou immediately raised his perspective to look down from the sky.

A vast and magnificent kingdom sits in the center of the abyss, its overall layout somewhat similar to the Dragon King Temple of Jinjing River, only larger and deeper.

Moreover, this city is actually multi-layered, roughly six layers at first glance, and it gets more pointed as you go up, like a pagoda.

Li Wushou originally wanted to observe the situation of each level from top to bottom, but after seeing the incense chains binding the twelve water veins gathered on the top level, he felt a sudden chill in his heart.

Quickly regaining his composure, Li Wushou stopped looking.

But in that fleeting glimpse, he saw a familiar figure crawling on the plaza of the uppermost palace—the very same statue of the ferocious giant tortoise he had seen in the Xuandu Divine Palace.

The overall design is basically the same, only much larger and more magnificent.

To Li Wushou's surprise, the incense chains binding the twelve water veins were converging on the opponent's back, transforming into the patterns of a tortoise shell and adhering to it.

Li Wushou recalled this scene, his mind wandering. He seemed to understand the structure of this world!

The cloud bed descended swiftly, and before Li Wushou could even finish his thought, the group had already landed in front of the capital city gate.

Just then, a buzzing sound suddenly rang in my ears:

"Halt, you freak!"

The cloud bed carrying everyone suddenly stopped. Li Wushou looked up and saw a golden-armored giant rising from the ground at the city gate, scrutinizing everyone!

Slightly flustered, everyone was at a loss. Just then, a dragon shadow suddenly flew out of the cloud bed and transformed into a golden scroll the instant it flew toward the golden-armored giant.

The golden-armored giant reached out and took the list. The origins, names, and deeds of all seventy-two recommenders were recorded. After verifying them one by one, the golden-armored giant slammed the tortoise shell in his hand, making a "bang bang" sound.

Upon hearing this sound, Li Wushou glanced at the tortoise shell in the other person's hand. This should be the third time he had heard this "bang bang" sound. The volume of the sound varied, but the tone was the same!

"Click. Click."

The long-closed city gates slowly opened, and several Yin spirits waited behind the city.

After three "bang" sounds, the cloud bed beneath Li Wushou and the others dissipated, and the Yin God from within the city stepped out and stood before them.

Without any pleasantries or introductions, he simply stated with an indifferent expression:
"Come with me to the capital!"

No one dared to be negligent, and they quickly got up from the ground and followed behind Yin Shen. Li Wushou mingled in the crowd and walked slowly.

After the group passed through the city gate, the city was silent, like a dead city.

The city was dimly lit, with a hazy atmosphere. The guiding spirit was carrying a white bone lamp that emitted a faint green light, making the whole atmosphere even more eerie.

On the wide and clean street, there was not a single person in sight, only the sound of hurried footsteps echoing.

Suddenly, Li Wushou's mind stirred, and he looked at the shops on both sides of the street.

It turns out that there was indeed people here, but rather that everyone was inside the shops, or rather, inside the rooms!
In every room along the street, there were lifelike corpses lying, sitting, or standing, as if they had just been moving.

As they walked, corpses began to appear along the roadside. Like the corpses in the room, these corpses remained motionless, frozen in place.

It was as if someone in the city had called a halt!
Panic spread through the crowd, and heavy breathing echoed through the throng.

They walked straight to the center of the city, in front of a complex of buildings resembling a Dragon King temple. The guiding spirit stopped in place, slowly turned around, and said:

"The capital is the kingdom of the gods, which is divided into six layers. The first layer is the kingdom of the flesh, which is divided into two areas."

Part of it is the temple area of ​​the Twelve Dragon Kings, which is used as a temporary residence for you, the elected officials.

Furthermore, the streets and residential areas you just passed through contain many physical bodies that are residing within the spirits of the underworld. These bodies have undergone special treatment and will not decay, serving as places where the spirits of the underworld reside.

During the conversation, the spirit entered the body of an old man in front of the temple gate and then spoke:
"After your divine burial, as long as you successfully transform into a Yin spirit, you can choose to refine a physical body. After nightfall, the Yin spirit can enter the physical body and live in the physical body kingdom."

Upon hearing this, everyone was astonished.

The old man in front of the temple gate, his expression stiff, continued:
"The second level of the capital is the Yin God Kingdom, the third level is the God Kingdom, the fourth level is the Twelve Dragon Kingdom, the fifth level is the Three Heavenly God Kingdom, and the sixth level is the residence of the Canglan Kingdom Lord!"

If you are newly formed as Yin spirits after your divine burial, you can enter the Kingdom of Yin Spirits. Once you have made meritorious contributions, you can establish a divine position and enter the Kingdom of Gods.

However, these things are still too far away for you. For now, please follow me into the temple to await the purification. On the day of the grand ceremony in half a month, if you can successfully complete the divine burial, you will have ample time to learn more about it later.

If we fail, then it's all over!

Those who had been yearning for it suddenly felt a chill in their hearts!
(End of this chapter)