Heaven's Will

At that moment, far from the Land God Temple, a gray figure wrapped in a cloak stared intently in its direction, murmuring to himself:

"The crimson aura is flourishing, and the white is gone. This deity must have risen an entire rank. His current realm is roughly equal to mine, yet his power is hundreds, even thousands of times greater. Truly terrifying!"

This man was Yuheng. Though he was lying low at White Cloud Temple, biding his time while he waited for reinforcements, he was still keeping an eye on this matter. He had disguised himself and come to observe.

Yuheng had opened his spiritual eye and learned the art of reading qi, so naturally he could see things that ordinary people could not.

Above the temple, crimson qi gathered and crisscrossed like a net, spreading over the entire temple and reaching outward until it nearly covered the whole county. Though the crimson qi grew fainter as it spread, some four or five tenths of it remained. This was a sign that his foundations were gradually stabilizing.

A great alarm rose in his heart.

A moment later, the inside of the temple seemed to plunge into a fireball, blazing with scorching heat. Crimson qi swirled around it, and a figure could just be made out within, its entire body like glazed crystal, clear and radiant inside and out. Yuheng was even more shocked. "The spirit has turned yang... No, how can it be so enormous...?"

The Daoist Sect cultivated the soul, too. But Yuheng was a core disciple, and after thousands upon thousands of days and nights, countless rounds of breathing and tempering, and constant instruction from his elders, he had consumed no small amount of merit and Fortune before achieving yang-transformation. Yet his spirit was dozens of times smaller than Fang Ming's, at the very least. Deep in his heart, an uncontrollable envy took root. The jealous fire blazed higher and higher, until he nearly wanted to charge in right then and there, kill Fang Ming, and seize everything he had.

"Not good! This is an external demon. It actually took advantage of my unsettled Dao heart to lie in wait and stir up trouble!"

Yuheng was, after all, a core Daoist disciple. He immediately realized something was wrong, silently recited the "Heart-Calming Mantra" several times, then pulled a small pouch from his robes. Inside was a wooden box. When he opened that, he found a lone yellow talisman lying inside.

The talisman looked old, even somewhat tattered. Yuheng gazed at it with deep reluctance, but finally gritted his teeth and stuck it to his forehead. A flash of yellow light appeared, and black qi drifted away from his body.

His heart settled, and he came fully back to his senses.

Yuheng gave a bitter smile. He had dispelled the external demon, but at the cost of a precious treasure. What was more, his cultivation had regressed. He had taken a real loss without even knowing how to complain.

He was about to keep watching when a long cry suddenly rang out from the temple. A wave of crimson qi followed, transforming into ripples that swept toward him. Pain lanced through Yuheng's eyes. His face turned pale, and terror seized his heart. He immediately slipped into the shadows and vanished.

After Fang Ming's long cry, a thought stirred in his mind. So I scared off a little bug!

But he set that aside for the moment.

"Though everything depends on me now, I still have to make good use of the legacy my predecessor left behind!" Though he would have to advance on his own from here and had received no divine ability, Mu Qing had been a bona fide City God of Principal Seventh Rank. The great divine ability granted with this promotion, along with the abilities that came with the City God's office, still remained. They were the last of the inheritance.

Fang Ming first examined the great divine ability. The ability granted for his promotion to Principal Seventh Rank was "Opening the Wheel of Reincarnation." It startled him. The City God oversaw the underworld and its registers, but he had not expected this particular ability to be bestowed.

A thought occurred to him. This great divine ability goes perfectly with the one I received when I advanced last time. I'll try using them together next time!

There were also several divine abilities that came with the City God's office. Since the City God oversaw the deities within his territory, he also possessed the abilities that belonged to the subordinate deities. There were quite a few of them, so Fang Ming picked out several of the most important ones to examine.

Driving Out Plague: Could dispel illness and pain from the human body, consuming Divine Power according to the severity of the sickness. This was an ability belonging to the City God's office.

Rain Prayer: Could gather rain clouds and bring down a generous shower. This was an ability belonging to the river and water gods under the City God, but it had its limits. Rain clouds had to be naturally present in the sky; otherwise, the ability could not be used. The more rain it brought, the greater the cost.

Moving Mountains: Could alter the terrain within a small area. This was an ability belonging to the mountain gods under the City God. The greater the change in terrain, the more Divine Power it consumed.

These three abilities mattered most to Fang Ming. The rest were rather scattered, and he could not sort them all out just yet.

"This Driving Out Plague ability is different from the land god's former official ability. The latter can only heal livestock, while the former can heal people. They're worlds apart. It seems I don't need to use it to grant wishes. I can bestow it on the temple attendants, then give it the names 'Little Spring-Returning Talisman' and 'Great Spring-Returning Talisman.' That way, believers will learn of the City God's power, incense offerings will increase, and the temples in the world of the living will have the means to keep running."

Fang Ming believed that good deeds ought to be known. After all, the story of Zigong and his reward for saving people had been told for all these years.

If believers fell ill, prayed to the gods and took medicine, then recovered, they might not know which had worked. Their faith would be less pure. But if they drank the temple attendant's talisman water and recovered, they would naturally know the City God had saved them, and their faith would deepen greatly.

It could also bring in some income. After all, there were more and more temple attendants, and Fang Ming had to support them all.

"Hm!" Fang Ming suddenly jolted. He remembered how, in ancient times in his previous life, many Daoists who rebelled had started by "healing people with talisman water and becoming buddhas to ten thousand households."

Zhang Jue, at the end of the Eastern Han, had called himself the "Great Virtuous Teacher." He healed people with talisman water and won popular support. When the time came, he appointed commanders and proclaimed, "The Azure Heaven is dead; the Yellow Heaven shall rise. In the year of Jiazi, all under heaven shall prosper!" Then he began his rebellion. Though it was eventually suppressed, it severely weakened the Eastern Han, and the turmoil of the Three Kingdoms began from there.

"Though the Five Phases doctrine fits this world perfectly, the rest of these methods all look like they're helping me start a rebellion! Could this be Heaven's will? Ha ha..."

Fang Ming had been laughing at the thought, but then he suddenly recalled what Su Xia had said about a dragon rising in the south of Wu. The more he thought it over, the more cold sweat ran down his back.

"That's right! I've spread temple attendants throughout the county. They have the power to call upon the gods and can heal people with talisman water. They could easily win popular support. When chaos comes and the people are left with nothing, all it would take is someone stepping forward and rallying them to make it happen. These temple attendants are ready-made leaders at every level. The organization is already in place, and with a unified faith, they could gather the people and attack the city. The whole county would fall in an instant, and Wenchang would be laid waste!"

"But in the agrarian society of ancient China, what regime that united religion and government could ever take all under heaven? This isn't the Western world. So even taking Wenchang Prefecture would be an achievement. In the end, they'd surely be crushed. Then, with all of Wenchang smashed to pieces, the hidden dragon could gather the refugees, reclaim the wasteland, and use it as a foundation to raise an army and carve out a realm of his own!"

The more Fang Ming thought, the clearer it became. Cold sweat poured from him. This was not up to him. It was as though a great hand were manipulating everything behind the scenes. This was the way Fortune tangled itself together and clouded people's minds.

If even one temple attendant rebelled, the rest would surely be implicated. To escape punishment, they would have no choice but to join the rebellion. Then all of Fang Ming's believers would be swept along, and in the end, Fang Ming himself would be tied to the same chariot. Under the influence of Fortune, this outcome was the most likely.

"No wonder things have gone smoothly for me most of the time since I came to this world, and why I've developed so quickly. In a sense, I'm carrying Heaven's mandate! Though it's the mandate to clear the way for the true sovereign."

A bitter smile played at the corner of Fang Ming's mouth, but gradually it turned into a cold laugh.

"Still, if you want me to clear the way for the hidden dragon, I wonder what you plan to pay me?"

The hidden dragon had a single-minded, unstoppable nature, with life and death in his hands. How could he suddenly allow a god to lord it over him? Even if he offered up all of Wenchang Prefecture, it would not do! What was more, White Cloud Temple was helping him. Where would that leave Fang Ming?

Even if they worked together for a time, there would inevitably come a day when they shared wine in golden cups, then met with unsparing blades.

"Heh... I can't do anything about the great tide sweeping across all under heaven. But when it comes to the tide within Wu Prefecture, that must be weighed against the greater tide. There's a great deal I can do there."

The saying "Heaven's will cannot be defied" was mostly right. In Fang Ming's view, people who lacked power yet shouted about defying Heaven were all fools and idiots. If you didn't even know what Heaven was, how could you defy it?

By Fang Ming's worldview, the only path to the Dao of Heaven was to understand the rules, obey the rules, use the rules, break the rules, and create new rules. He could not yet imagine what lay beyond that, given the limits of his cultivation.

Fang Ming could make use of the rules right now.

The upheaval under heaven and the struggle among dragons for supremacy were the great tide sweeping across the world. Fang Ming had no power to change it, but he knew the rules of Wu Prefecture's dragon qi had to follow that tide.

If someone from Wu Prefecture showed more strength than the hidden dragon, proved better at rallying the people, and seemed more likely to become a true dragon—and then defeated the hidden dragon—Wu Prefecture's dragon qi would surely grit its teeth, abandon the hidden dragon, and turn to the new ruler.

Then the hidden dragon's momentum would collapse without a fight.

But knowing was easier than doing. Fang Ming had only a rough plan so far. He still needed to think carefully about how to carry it out.

After all, this meant changing the course of an entire prefecture. Even White Cloud Temple only dared to seek out the hidden dragon and support him. The difficulties involved were beyond counting.

He temporarily set these worries aside. Fang Ming realized that the day's ceremony was nearly over.

"I didn't expect to have to change my appearance again. This time, even my title has to change!"

Fang Ming smiled as Divine Power surged.

In an instant, crimson light blazed throughout the Land God Temple.

The people below, in the middle of their ceremony, were startled.

Amid the swirling crimson qi, the young god statue on the altar seemed to come alive.

The youth's body was like glazed crystal, surrounded by red clouds in the shape of a full moon. Crimson flames blazed outward, bathing the entire great hall in brilliant red. At a glance, he was clearly a being of immense power.

The youth's clear, jade-like voice rang out: "Today, I have attained the office of City God of Anchang County, overseeing drought and flood, plague, and the underworld's registers. I shall protect the city and bless the people beneath me!"

This was the first time Fang Ming had appeared in the world of the living in his true form. It was utterly different from possessing someone or appearing in a dream.

The worshippers below all bowed, crying out:

"The Land God has shown his power!"

"He's no longer the Land God, he's the City God! City God, protect us!"

"It's real! This isn't a dream, is it?"

In the eyes of those who knew what was going on, the sight was even more astonishing.

Zhou Biqing rubbed her eyes hard, almost too stunned to speak. "Appearing in broad daylight..."

She knew that for ghosts, ghost cultivators, spirits, and monsters alike, appearing in broad daylight was a major threshold in cultivation. Those who crossed it became beings of immense power! For a Ferocious Ghost, it meant reaching the Evil Ghost rank, strong enough to shatter an entire county and lay waste to a prefecture—a being on the level of Li Black Leopard of Linjiang Prefecture.

What was more, even an Evil Ghost appearing in broad daylight could not make such a grand spectacle that stirred the soul.

Fang Ming smiled and waved his hand. Red light covered the statue and the plaque outside.

A moment later, the red light faded. The statue looked the same, but now wore the robes of an official of Principal Seventh Rank, its majesty even greater. The plaque outside the temple had also changed. Three grand, sweeping characters now read "City God Temple."

The believers bowed once more. Soon, a dense mass of people knelt beneath the altar.

Fang Ming gazed at the sight and smiled faintly. A flash of red light appeared, and he vanished.

Over the following days, incense offerings at the City God Temple flourished. The miracle of Fang Ming appearing in broad daylight was also gradually spread by those with an interest in it.