Immortal Dao Fruits, Cards to Help Me

Chapter 131 [A Feast for All Ghosts (Blue)]

Although this City God Temple is still in its initial stages, having only been officially consecrated for a little over a month, it is already taking shape.

The City God, Li Chengliang, was, after all, the Earl of Ningyuan of the Great Shun Dynasty. He had been rooted in Liaodong for many years, fought countless battles, and commanded countless soldiers.

Many of those soldiers who died were unable to be reincarnated immediately and instead lingered in the intermediate state between death and rebirth.

When the City God plotted against Li Longhua, the third young master of the Maitreya Cult, he dispatched a thousand-strong Ghost Iron Cavalry, which were the transformed elite iron cavalry under his command during his lifetime.

Many people who died on the battlefield were so filled with resentment that they could not be reincarnated.

Some will transform into vengeful ghosts who know neither good nor evil, some will be worn down by time, some can endure for a longer period of time, and some will seek opportunities to be reincarnated.

These thousand ghostly iron cavalry are the souls of soldiers who are still lingering in the intermediate realm, unable to reincarnate, but who have managed to hold on, neither dissipating nor transforming into vengeful ghosts.

After undergoing some rituals and refinements, he became a fierce ghost cavalryman in the City God Temple. He no longer thought about reincarnation and planned to continue following the former general.

The City God is a local deity who can also interfere with the underworld, giving him a unique advantage in this regard.

Over this period of time, their strength has grown even greater.

The civil and military judges standing on either side of the City God, the ghost officials of the six departments, the black and white soul-reaping messengers, the underworld ghost soldiers... they were all geniuses.

After meeting the City God, Judge Li Rusong invited Chen Xiuxian to a side hall and began to talk about the matter.

The main duty of the City God Temple is to "guard the land," but it's not just about the mortal world—the affairs of the underworld are far from the emperor's reach in this remote Liaodong region. It also has to manage the influence of some illegal practitioners on ordinary people.

They also bear the responsibility of rewarding good and punishing evil, and educating people.

In short, it's very complicated.

Things in the mortal realm are relatively easy to do, but things in the underworld are much more difficult.

After a person dies, their soul goes to the underworld, but they are not usually reincarnated immediately.

Most people's souls linger in the intermediate state (bardo) for a period of time until they meet the criteria for reincarnation before they can be reborn in the underworld.

However, many people, such as those with too much resentment, too much hostility, or who have experienced other unusual events, will remain in the intermediate state (bardo).

Even in the intermediate state, there are many unruly ghost kings who intercept the souls of the dead and establish their own territories in the intermediate state, acting arrogantly and domineeringly.

In places like Liaodong, although there aren't any particularly powerful ghost kings causing trouble, the area has lacked underworld order for too long and is a battleground, resulting in countless deaths every year.

Many of them are the blood-soaked spirits of soldiers, or the fierce ghosts of those who died tragically or violently, or the vengeful spirits of those who died unjustly...

In short, there are now too many wronged and vengeful spirits in the underworld of Liaodong who cannot be reincarnated.

This thing is a major hidden danger.

Although the intermediate state (bardo) and the human realm are separated, it is not so secure. There is a possibility that evil spirits might run into the human realm and cause harm.

This is the problem that the City God needs to solve.

There are just too many problems!

Chen Xiuxian thought he had misheard at first, and asked with wide eyes, "How much?"

Li Rusong whispered, "It's probably more than 400,000 but less than 500,000."

Chen Xiuxian calmly put down his teacup. "Excuse me, I still have soup simmering at home. Goodbye."

Damn it, even though I promised to help, I can't do this favor.

Just pretend I never agreed! Bye~
Li Rusong quickly stood up and grabbed Chen Xiuxian's arm, "Hey! Brother Chen, Brother Chen! Why did it have to come to this! Don't worry, I didn't expect you to deal with those four or five hundred thousand wronged souls and vengeful ghosts..."

He talked to Chen Xiuxian for a while, basically saying that he asked a lot of people for help to divide up the four or five hundred thousand wronged souls and vengeful ghosts.

Chen Xiuxian probably only needs to deal with fifty or sixty thousand.

Chen Xiuxian: Fifty or sixty thousand is not a small number! You want me to kill them all? I can't possibly kill them all!

It wasn't that Chen Xiuxian didn't want to fight monsters and level up; it was mainly because destroying souls would diminish his merit.

He wiped out dozens of them, so his merits are probably all negative!

Unless it's a vengeful spirit or evil ghost that's done something wrong, and you manage to get rid of it, then it's fine.

They're just staying in the intermediate state between death and rebirth, and you think they're a threat so you eliminate them? What the hell? Is there no justice in this world? That's soul extermination!
Their souls were completely annihilated!
From that moment on, this creature ceased to exist in the world. It was a very taboo thing to do!

The City God Temple is a professional institution, and it has taken this into consideration.

It's not that we need to kill so many wronged souls, because no one could bear that.

They planned to hold a grand Buddhist and Taoist ceremony to help these wronged and vengeful spirits find a way to be reincarnated.

That's more like it. Performing a ritual to help the departed souls find peace is indeed a meritorious act.

After all, being a ghost isn't a comfortable thing!
Unable to be reborn and wandering in the intermediate state (bardo), that is very painful.

Sunlight, strong winds, thunder, rain, thirst... many natural elements are like torture to ghosts.

Generally, to remain in the underworld for a long time, one needs human sacrifices. Otherwise, it would be considered punishment.

That's why ancestor worship is so important. If ancestors are still in the underworld but no one worships them, they're even worse off than homeless people in the mortal world!
Chen Xiuxian asked, "Then what do you need me to do?"

Li Rusong said, "We need a capable cultivator like Brother Chen to keep things in order so we can finish the feast..."

The task of performing rituals to deliver the souls of the deceased is originally the responsibility of the City God Temple, but now a large number of these souls have accumulated, posing a significant threat. Naturally, the City God is anxious to resolve this issue.

Moreover, they can gain a lot of benefits from this.

Leaving aside the incense offerings in the human realm, if only a small portion of the elite among these four or five hundred thousand wronged souls and vengeful ghosts could be selected for sacrificial refinement and transformation, the strength of the City God Temple would increase significantly.

With tens of thousands of elite ghost soldiers under his command, the City God will naturally be able to handle the affairs of the Liaodong underworld with ease.

……

The City God Temple invited seven or eight virtuous people to help resolve the matter of delivering the souls of the 500,000 deceased.

Two of them were acquaintances of Chen Xiuxian.

One was the old lady Chunhua, a shaman I had met before, and the other was Master Shouyang from Jiuding Tiesha Mountain.

Chen Xiuxian was in charge of setting up a magic array eighty miles southwest of Shencheng. He planned to attract some of the wronged souls and vengeful ghosts into the array during the Qingming Festival a few days later, when people would be worshipping and the underworld would be unstable, causing a mass exodus of spirits.

Whether it's a grand Buddhist ceremony or a ritual involving food and drink for the deceased, that's no longer Chen Xiuxian's concern. Chen Xiuxian won't do that.
The main problem is that during the process of attracting tens of thousands of wronged souls and vengeful ghosts, there will definitely be unexpected events, and Chen Xiuxian will need to step in to protect him.

"Ding~ You have been invited by the Liaodong City God Temple to hold a grand ceremony to deliver the souls of the dead. You have accepted the mission [Feast for Ten Thousand Ghosts (Blue)]."

……

Eighty miles southwest of Shenyang, on a high slope, Chen Xiuxian was surrounded by countless green maple leaves that formed a three-meter-long boat shape, carrying him as he floated in mid-air.

Chen Xiuxian finally managed to forge that Azure Leaf Wind Boat.

This thing is known for its simple technique.

Chen Xiuxian also gained 15 points of weapon crafting proficiency as a result.

You know what, this thing is really useful! And it consumes very little power!
Being able to fly is so awesome!

Meanwhile, below, forty or fifty ghost soldiers, under the command of a ghost official in a robe, were setting up a formation with a radius of two hundred and thirty meters using various strange materials.

This ghost official had a scholar's turban wrapped around his head, so he must have been a scholar in life, but we don't know how many years he has been dead.

There was even a five-inch halo above his head—that was an air of refinement! It showed he wasn't just wasting his time.

No wonder he landed a stable job at the City God Temple!

This place, which looks like a vast wasteland, can be dug up with just a few shovelfuls of broken and rusted swords and armor, as well as many weathered bones.

This place was a battlefield a hundred years ago, where more than 30,000 people from both sides fought each other. The result was that both sides were badly injured and no one had time to deal with the corpses, so they all hurriedly withdrew.

Even now, one can still hear ghostly cries on rainy days and see emerald green will-o'-the-wisps at night.

No one in Liaodong dares to come here to farm and reclaim wasteland.

Let alone farming, you could easily be possessed and lose your soul just by passing by.

(End of this chapter)