Eerie Gods Card Master: Starting with Myriad Ghosts Night Parade

The wrinkles on its face were dripping with wax, clearly a mark of being stained by incense and candles!

The wax oil also slid down its shriveled, pointed cheeks, pooling and solidifying on the ground in several spots—indicating this strange hag had been stealing for a long time!

"Truly audacious! Daring to steal from right under my nose!"

One must understand that ordinary low-level anomalous creatures instinctively fear the divine might of the Door God Temple and dare not approach;

Only creatures of Aberrant Level or higher, with their higher intelligence, would observe and spy first;

It must have confirmed that the Door God Temple had been unattended for many days before finding ways to infiltrate it!

After all, incense offerings and divine power are the greatest nemeses of anomalous creatures; they would certainly want to extinguish the temple's incense.

And this rat-faced hag was indeed peculiar, managing to deceive the Door God Temple's defense mechanisms, sneak in, and freely feast.

Fortunately, the Door Gods were connected to the shrine and discovered the anomaly, proactively reporting it to Lin Chen.

Lin Chen began to panic. No wonder Yuchi Gong was anxious; he saw something even more alarming than Yuchi Gong!

Incense offerings were Lin Chen's lifeblood. He sincerely offered sacrifices and diligently promoted it every day to accumulate incense and faith power;

Who would have thought it would be stolen by this rat-faced hag!

There's a thief! An incense thief!

Furthermore, the Door God Temple is the birthplace of the Door Gods, possessing a fated connection;

The incense offerings within the temple must prosper and suffer together with the Door Gods.

He absolutely could not stand idly by!

Yuchi Gong sent a request to actively capture the anomaly, which Lin Chen readily agreed to, even wanting to urge him to hurry!

But this was within an instance, how could he catch this thief remotely?

Yet, Yuchi Gong's divinity connected with the temple's statue, his form dissipating in the real world;

The next second, he manifested directly from the temple's statue!

The dark-faced vengeful god, reappearing within the temple!

Yuchi Gong had actually used the form of divine statue descent to re-enter the Myriad Ghosts Night Parade Capital instance!

Wouldn't that mean Qin Qiong/Yuchi Gong could repeatedly log into this instance through the Door God Temple!

There was no time to ponder these things; Lin Chen needed to watch Yuchi Gong catch this fire-stealing rat hag!

This rat hag was also very agile. Seeing her master descend, she knew disaster was imminent and quickly turned to flee;

But the Guardian Home Blessing trait activated: within a building that offers sacrifices to the Door Gods, Yuchi Gong would gain bonuses to speed and strength!

The dark, vengeful god instantly caught up to the rat hag, about to grab the thief rat by the tail.

Who would have thought, the rat hag's tail was covered in sesame oil, making it incredibly slippery, and Yuchi Gong missed!

The rat hag also reacted extremely quickly, spitting out a large amount of wax oil from its mouth, flinging it at Yuchi Gong, attempting to slow him down.

Yuchi Gong immediately let out a furious roar, activating Tang Palace Martial Arts - Thunderous Roar. The sound waves imbued with divine power directly scattered the wax oil!

It also stunned the rat-faced hag for a moment.

Then Tang Law - Trespassing Forbidden Ground activated:

"When an enemy enters a protected building, they will be marked by the Door Gods, who will inflict them with divine explosive damage and fear effects."

The steel whip struck down, doubling the explosive damage!

The rat anomaly was hit so hard its brains splattered, spewing wax oil;

No matter how slippery it was, it ultimately met its end!

On its home turf within the temple, the Door God was invincible!

After the rat anomaly died, wisps of incense offerings emanated from its nostrils and returned to the shrine;

Lin Chen also had Yuchi Gong take a blank card and seal the rat anomaly's corpse.

After dealing with the rat anomaly, Yuchi Gong glared angrily outside the temple, scaring away other lurking anomalous creatures with a single glance.

Killing the chicken to scare the monkeys! Don't court disaster!

For the time being, the Door God Temple should be peaceful.

After Yuchi Gong returned to the real world, he presented the deep green grade material card of the rat-faced hag;

He gave Lin Chen a proud, "I have not failed my mission" expression, with "Praise me quickly" written all over his face;

Lin Chen, of course, did not skimp on the praise, adhering to a "service-oriented card-raising strategy," he lavished Yuchi Gong with compliments, providing ample emotional value.

After smoothing the fur of this 'big black panther' Yuchi Gong, Lin Chen then looked at the material card that dropped from the rat-faced hag after its death;

It even had an extraordinary name—

Aberrant Temple Rat - Oil-Stealing Immortal Aunt!

Lin Chen, with Yuchi Gong, comes to ask for follow-up reads and votes!

Yuchi Gong presents today's update, giving readers a proud, "I have not failed my mission" expression, with "Vote quickly" written all over his face.

This book is currently undergoing a round of recommendations. If the data isn't good, there won't be any future traffic! Please follow along to the latest chapter and support with votes if you can!

Thanks to: Yue Xia De Qi Hei for 2 monthly votes, and Book Friend 20231123093007466 for 3 monthly votes!

Chapter 29: Transforming the Anomalous into the Benevolent:

So this rat-like anomalous creature was actually a hundred-year-old temple rat that had gained sentience, taking the form of a devout old woman who was a regular temple visitor.

It had stolen lamp oil and incense offerings from the temple since it was young. The anomalous energy within it had long been worn away by the righteous energy of the incense, and instead, it had absorbed some divine aura. It was like a wild god wearing a rat's skin!

This was why, in the materials, it could have the elegant title "Immortal Aunt" and even fool the defense mechanisms of the Door God Temple, allowing it entry.

This temple rat was useless in combat, only good at being sneaky and sly!

Keeping it around wasn't very useful and would also take up mental power capacity.

Therefore, Lin Chen didn't really want to turn it into one of his cards. He'd either sell it for cash or burn it directly to offer to the Door God Temple.

As if sensing Lin Chen's thoughts, the Aberrant Temple Rat - Oil-Stealing Immortal Aunt in his hand began to tremble faintly, as if afraid and begging for mercy.

Hmm? This material is still alive?

The temple rat immediately closed its eyes again, pretending to be ignorant.

This rat-like anomaly was actually faking its death!

Seeing that it could no longer hide, the temple rat inside the card immediately clawed at the border, putting on a pitiful act as if begging for mercy:

"I didn't have a choice before, but now I want to be a good Card Spirit!"

Lin Chen was amused. This temple rat was surprisingly full of spirit! It was worthy of being a Spirit Beast that had absorbed incense offerings for so many years.

It was rare to encounter such a 'harmless' anomalous creature, and Lin Chen felt a bit reluctant to deal with it:

"Alright, I'll keep you, my little rat, but how should I arrange things for you?"

He had an idea! He could let it become the Temple Steward of the Door God Temple!

Since the Door Gods needed to personally guard Lin Chen, they wouldn't always be free to look after the Door God Temple. The temple was in urgent need of a steward to manage it.

This temple rat, having grown and gained sentience within the temple, must have been exposed to and familiar with all the temple's affairs.

Its anomalous energy had been thinned out, and instead, it resonated with the temple's incense and divine aura. There wouldn't be any rejection if it took on the role of temple steward.

It stole incense offerings in its past life, and now it would manage them in this life – a perfect cycle of retribution!

Furthermore, for a mere anomalous creature to become a Spirit Beast under the Door Gods wasn't exactly mistreating or disgracing it.

That's settled!

Card making was also very simple, not requiring many materials.

It only needed a bit of Shrine Incense (White) from the Door God Temple. The divinity attribute within the incense offerings would be used to counteract the temple rat's faint anomalous nature.

Card making attribute formula: [Divinity] + [Anomaly] = [Spirit] (pure spirituality)

Additionally, the Sacrifice attribute carried by the Shrine Incense, combined with the temple rat's Temple attribute, would grant it the symbolic identity of a Temple Steward.

Card making attribute formula: [Sacrifice] + [Temple] + [Living Being] = [Temple Steward]

This way, the anomalous could be transformed into the benevolent!

He would also make it a whisk using a Red Sandalwood Peach Wood Branch (White) for sweeping the temple.

Card making combination formula: [Shrine Incense] + [Aberrant Temple Rat - Oil-Stealing Immortal Aunt] + [Peach Wood Whisk] = [Spirit Rat Temple Steward]

This card-making process involved only three materials, and the anomalous nature was weak, making it extremely simple.

In an instant, Lin Chen completed the final stroke.

A card with a deep green border spun in the air, full of spiritual energy:

Card Name: Door God Retainer - Spirit Rat Temple Steward

Type: Spirit Beast / Retainer

Quality: Excellent Grade · Deep Green Border · Four-Star

Traits:

[Door God Retainer] The Spirit Rat is a Spirit Beast under the Door Gods, sharing a spiritual connection with them. It can borrow the might of the Door Gods, and its own cultivation will improve as the Door Gods' path progresses.

[Weigh Incense, Judge Wishes] As the Temple Steward, the Spirit Rat can perceive the temple's incense offerings and, based on the worshippers' thoughts and the movement of the smoke, judge the weight of their wishes and the depth of their karma.

[Continue Fire, Burn Incense] As the Temple Steward, the Spirit Rat is adept at managing the temple's incense offerings and sweeping the courtyards, ensuring the incense burns continuously, increasing its burning time, and reducing the consumption of faith power.

[Gather Spirits, Consume Incense] As a Temple Steward Spirit Beast, the Spirit Rat can absorb spiritual energy from heaven and earth, as well as a small portion of the temple's incense offerings, to maintain its spiritual power consumption.

Skills:

[Under the Door God - Borrow Aspect, Generate Might] The Spirit Rat borrows the might of the Door Gods, summoning a phantom image of the Door Gods to intimidate enemies. The phantom image possesses thirty percent of the Door Gods' power.

[Sesame Oil Rat Play] The Spirit Rat is cunning and can use sesame oil to set slippery traps, and use its rat-like antics to confuse and toy with enemies, causing them to become slippery, slowed, and disoriented.

[Oiled Claws, Pouch Probing] The Spirit Rat is slippery, naturally adept at stealing, and elusive. It can dip its limbs and tail in oil to stealthily approach enemies and steal their belongings.

Lin Chen summoned it, and a Spirit Rat with shiny fur stepped out, treading on incense smoke.