With that, the “two” of them set aside their sentiments.
Lord Cai Shen carefully examined the blueprints. After a moment, he said with great satisfaction, “Not bad! Truly not bad! You’ve put a lot of thought into this, my dear brother.”
“As long as you’re satisfied, big brother, then I’ll have skilled craftsmen carve it according to this version. Oh, and besides the main statue, do we need to arrange for two subordinate deities as well?”
Subordinate deities were essentially guardian deities, always accompanying the main god.
“No need for now. I won’t hide it from you, brother—my incense offerings have been in decline for a few hundred years. The subordinate deities I used to have have all left one by one.”
“Even the gods in Heaven are this realistic?”
“Though immortals and mortals are different, they share some similarities. The gods with thriving incense offerings have bustling doors, while those like us, with dwindling worship, naturally get the cold shoulder. But thanks to you, brother, since your trip to Longhu County, you’ve brought me quite a bit of incense. I plan to recruit a few more subordinate deities to serve me in the future.”
At this, Lu Chen’s mind stirred. Could there be another divine office up for grabs?
But Lord Cai Shen seemed to have read his thoughts and laughed heartily, “Rest assured, brother. Once my incense offerings recover a bit more, I’ll have a fine position saved just for you. A mere subordinate deity would hardly be worthy of you.”
Whoa…
Is that… a critical bonus!?
Lu Chen scratched his head and chuckled, “Big brother, that would be… a bit embarrassing for me.”
“You kid, why be so polite with me?” Lord Cai Shen chided with a smile.
Lu Chen didn’t press further. “In that case, here’s what I’ll do, big brother. Besides the main statue, I’ll have craftsmen carve a few heavenly soldiers and generals as decorations. Otherwise, your temple might look a bit too empty. We can swap them out later when you get new subordinate deities. Also, how about I include the Well Dragon King as well? Since he’s your guardian golden dragon, having him there will make your main statue look even more majestic and imposing.”
“Arrange it however you see fit, brother. I’m already content just to have a temple of my own.”
“Ah, big brother, that’s not quite right. As the saying goes, clothes make the man, and a golden outfit makes the god. The grandeur and dignity of the temple are like the ‘first incense stick’ for believers—they’re the first impression. We can’t afford to be careless.”
“You’re absolutely right, brother. We’ll do as you say!” Lord Cai Shen said with a hearty laugh.
“Great! Then just wait for my good news, big brother!”
“Deal!”
With that, Lu Chen ended his conversation with his brother.
He put the blueprints away.
“Strange… I feel like my brother wasn’t as enthusiastic this time.”
Thinking back on their conversation, Lu Chen had a vague sense that Lord Cai Shen seemed a bit distracted compared to before.
“Maybe I’m overthinking it.”
Shaking his head, Lu Chen lit another stick of incense and inserted it into King Yan’s burner…
“Kid, why did it take you so long to contact me? You really don’t take me seriously, do you?”
King Yan’s cold voice rang out.
Lu Chen replied deliberately, “Godfather, I was just contacting Lord Cai Shen and the Plague Emperor, so…”
King Yan paused. “Oh. Never mind, then.”
His voice suddenly became much clearer.
“So, are you finally ready to keep your promise?”
“Oh, come on. You think I’d stiff you over fifty million underworld currency?”
Back when they were on Chenghuang Street, Ox-Head had gone to the underworld to fetch King Yan. Lu Chen had sent the message that his price was fifty million in benefits.
And now this old debt-collector was acting like he was afraid Lu Chen wouldn’t pay up?
Lu Chen was speechless.
“Relax. In a couple of days, once my machine is up and running, you’ll get every penny of that fifty million.” Lu Chen then steered the conversation to the main point: “Actually, the real reason I called you up today, Lord Yan, is that I have some good news for you.”
“Oh? What good news?”
Lu Chen repeated the whole story about opening a temple and receiving the divine office of [Plague-Bearing Young Lord].
“Hiss! You kid sure are lucky! What a deep blessing!”
“Just luck, sheer luck,” Lu Chen said modestly.
“This Plague-Bearing Young Lord position is equivalent to the Five Directional Plague Envoys—a guardian deity of the [Plague Ministry]!”
King Yan was shocked and puzzled. He thought to himself, Doesn’t the Plague Ministry already have a Plague-Bearing Young Lord? Why did this kid get that office? Could it be that the original Plague-Bearing Young Lord was deposed?
But then Lu Chen urged him, “Lord Yan, get to the point. How are we going to plan out the Hall of Judgment?”
A temple must have the “Heaven, Earth, and Man” triad—none can be missing. But in other temples, the netherworld courts were all just decorations.
This time, however, Lu Chen was serious about properly fixing up the netherworld court.
After all, his most reliable supernatural power at the moment was the netherworld magic. Especially the divine office of [Mighty and Virtuous General]—it gave him command over netherworld troops.
Never mind anything else; just the ability to explore bizarre instances alone made the netherworld magic incredibly versatile!
Absolutely useful!
King Yan asked, “How big of a hall are you planning to build?”
Lu Chen replied, “Let me share my thoughts first. At my current level, I can’t exactly enshrine high-ranking netherworld figures like the Five Ghost Emperors or the Emperor of Fengdu. So I was thinking of just following the standard of the Ten Kings of Hell for my netherworld court. What do you think?”
To his surprise, King Yan shot him down immediately: “You brat, did you take the wrong medicine? If I remember correctly, a new temple like yours has at most sixty deity slots. You’re taking ten just for the netherworld court, and Lord Cai Shen will need at least a few. Then there’s the Plague Ministry—the Plague Emperor and the Five Directional Plague Envoys make six already. That leaves you with at most forty slots. Are you really not going to enshrine any popular gods and just rely on us with our thin incense to prop up your temple?”
“Well… that’s not impossible,” Lu Chen scratched his head. “As long as you all work hard and show some wit, a cold stove can eventually become a hot one, right? You can’t stay a cold stove forever, can you?”
Lu Chen only said half of what he was thinking. He held back the other half: If you stay cold stoves forever, then wouldn’t all my efforts be wasted? The whole point of tending a cold stove is to turn it into a hot one!
That was the ultimate meaning behind tending a cold stove!
“Anyway, from my perspective, your current plan isn’t very wise. For the netherworld court, just enshrine me for now. Why go for all Ten Kings? Once your fortunes grow, you can enshrine the other nine later.”
“Oh~”
Lu Chen smiled meaningfully. “So you’re afraid the other kings will split the incense offerings, Lord Yan?”
“Brat, what nonsense! Do you think I’m that petty?!”
“See? You’re getting upset. Again.”
Remembering how Old King Yan had bragged in front of King Qinguang and almost gotten pummeled with the Underworld Bell, Lu Chen had to laugh.
But on second thought, what Old King Yan said made sense. Ten slots at once was indeed too many. If he needed room for other arrangements later, a shortage of slots would be a real problem. After all, it’s easy to invite gods in, but hard to send them out. Once they’re enshrined, you can’t exactly ask them to leave—unless you were doing a separate invitation, which was a completely different matter.
“Besides, you should at least save two divine slots for yourself, right?”
“Huh?”
That sudden remark from Old King Yan nearly made Lu Chen’s hair stand on end.
“Lord Yan, what are you saying? Save two slots for myself?”
“Exactly. You now have two major divine offices—the netherworld’s Mighty and Virtuous General and the Plague Ministry’s Plague-Bearing Young Lord. Aren’t you going to enshrine those two as well?”
“Lord Yan, are you joking? How can a living person receive offerings? Are you trying to shorten my lifespan or jinx my good fortune?”
Lu Chen was thoroughly baffled.
In history, there was a famous case of a living person receiving offerings: Qin Shubao. He once saved Emperor Gaozu of Tang, Li Yuan, and was later depicted in paintings that were worshipped daily. And what happened to him? That great hero ended up pawning his weapons and selling his horse, nearly starving to death.
Of course, there were other cases of living shrines being built. But most of those were erected by commoners spontaneously, and the recipients had deep enough blessings to withstand it. Yet those shrines were often products of their era, quickly forgotten by history. Take the powerful Ming dynasty eunuch Wei Zhongxian, who liked to build living shrines all over the country—he eventually met a fittingly bad end.
In short, this sort of thing was quite ominous. Lu Chen knew the ins and outs of it and had no interest in touching it. Even if it worked out, it didn’t seem to lead to anyone becoming an immortal. And if it went wrong, he might lose his life.
“Kid, why are you so scared? I said to enshrine [Mighty and Virtuous General] and [Plague-Bearing Young Lord], not to put you in there yourself!” King Yan scolded impatiently.
“What do you mean?” Lu Chen still didn’t quite understand.
“Still don’t get it? I mean, enshrine those two divine offices first. Once they gain recognition, and when you eventually attain a full measure of merit and ascend to immortality—or gain a true spiritual rank—then those divine offices will serve as your source of incense. Got it now?”
Lu Chen frowned, pondered for a moment, and then replied half-questioningly, “You mean, when people worship the Mighty and Virtuous General and the Plague-Bearing Young Lord, they’re not worshipping me, Lu Chen. But if I do achieve a true spiritual rank later, those divine offices will effectively become my incarnations?”
“Bingo! You’ve got some brains after all. Let me tell you something, kid—don’t think all the gods in Heaven are separate individuals. There’s a deep game here. Some of the major gods you’ve heard of are actually just incarnations of a few supreme beings. So while it may seem like those gods don’t need incense themselves, the deities that emanate from them already receive abundant worship. Their true forms don’t even need to show up. Get it now?”
Lu Chen understood this theory instantly. He had already said before that the 365 principal gods of Heaven—despite their numbers—were mostly just different aspects of a single entity. There was a serious case of “in-house reproduction,” so to speak.
Take the Primordial Lord of Heaven, for example: His nine yang breaths transformed into one of the Six Imperial Lords—the Eastern Azure Great Emperor of Sublime Salvation—also known as the Great Heavenly Lord of Universal Salvation. His yin energy, on the other hand, transformed into the Mother of the Stars—Doumu Yuanjun. And Doumu Yuanjun gave birth to nine sons. Her eldest and second sons were two more of the Six Imperial Lords: the Gouchen Emperor and the Ziwei Emperor. The other seven became the famous Seven Stars of the Northern Dipper: Greedy Wolf, Giant Gate, Elusive Fortune, Literary Star, Chaste Star, Martial Star, and Broken Army.
In other words, all these celestial heavyweights trace their origin back to the Primordial Lord of Heaven, one of the Three Pure Ones. Some even say that even the [Great Heavenly Lord of Thunderous Resonance] is another incarnation of the Primordial Lord.
And the incense received by these incarnations could also nourish their original source. As long as the incarnations were indestructible, the original body was too…
Wait! Incarnations indestructible, original body indestructible?!
Lu Chen’s thoughts suddenly raced.
—Mighty and Virtuous General.
—Plague-Bearing Young Lord.
According to King Yan, once he achieved a true spiritual rank, these two divine offices would become his incarnations. Collecting incense was just the simplest benefit. But thinking deeper, there were many more advantages. Not only could he place his own agents in Heaven and the underworld, but it would also effectively give him extra lives…
Holy smokes! It seems I’ve just discovered a unique way to use [Divine Offices]!
“Oh, by the look on your face, it seems you’ve had some realization,” King Yan’s voice came through.
Lu Chen quickly asked, “Godfather, may I ask one more thing? I don’t have a spiritual rank yet, so these are just clay statues. If someone worships me, how do I respond? If I don’t react, isn’t it still useless?”
“Dummy! If you can’t do it yourself, you can have a guardian deity listen on your behalf. What else are guardian deities for?” King Yan scoffed.
“Xie Qingyi and Fan Rusong?!”
Lu Chen suddenly understood.
“But I don’t have a guardian deity for the Plague-Bearing Young Lord?”
“As for celestial matters, I can’t help you there—unless you can find a god willing to be your guardian.”
“I’m a mortal, and you want a god to be my guardian?!” Lu Chen’s head was spinning. But oh well, at least he now knew one possible path.
After a moment of thought, Lu Chen suddenly asked again, “Godfather, from the way you talk, there must be hidden talents in the mortal world who’ve used similar methods. I can’t be the first, right?”
“Of course not. There’s always a sky beyond the sky, and people beyond people. Think you’re the only one with connections? With all those powerful gods out there, who do you think backs them?”
Hss—
King Yan’s words were incredibly profound…
