City God

After a bewildered family medical check-up, the middle-aged man pulled his son aside and asked, "There's no other way. To get that wireless signal connected, the whole family has been taking turns using their devices for navigation. Now, only the son's device, which was the one that connected to the coordinates at the beginning, still has power. We can only watch the live stream on the son's device."

"It seems there aren't any major problems. They said we should register at the City God Temple North of the Village first, and then they'll assign us houses." The young man's lips twitched slightly as he looked at the pinned "Newcomer Must Read" post in the community. His younger brother, however, glanced at the surrounding Thatched Hut and said:

"The biggest building in the whole village is a dilapidated three-story hospital. What kind of houses can you possibly get in such a run-down place? Are there going to be a dozen or so families living together?"

"I don't think... it's possible?" the middle-aged woman said somewhat uncertainly. However, looking at the size of the village and the low design of the mud-brick Thatched Hut, it certainly didn't seem like it could accommodate many people.

"Don't listen to my brother's nonsense, those buildings up there are fakes, the main buildings are down below!" The young man glared at his younger brother and immediately reassured his mother. His father, hearing this, nodded seriously and said:

"Exactly, otherwise such a small village simply couldn't fit everyone in!"

However, at this point, the middle-aged man seemed to suddenly remember something and quickly said:

"City God Temple? I've only heard of Dragon King Temple... What kind of place is this? Take a close look, especially at any taboos, so you don't break any rules!"

Hearing his father's words, the young man's expression turned serious. He quickly started searching on his terminal and soon found the answer.

"According to what's written here, the City God is similar to the Dragon King, a kind of celestial official. However, the Dragon King is responsible for rain, while the City God is like a county magistrate. This village exists because of the City God."

"Built by immortals? No wonder!" In this era, the existence of immortals was common knowledge. Hearing that there were immortals protecting this place, the family felt relieved.

However, the middle-aged man had seen a bit of the world, and after thinking for a moment, he said:

"What offerings does the City God need? The Dragon King Temple in Chentang Pass requires Sacrifice of Three Animals every year!"

"It says that sincere incense offerings are enough, and it seems to say that the City God is a celestial official who became a mortal through accumulating merit, unlike the Dragon King or other alien beings, and that he should take care of the villagers..." The young man read the post, finding it hard to continue. It was simply too unbelievable; after all—

"Fellow villagers? Who doesn't know that immortals cultivate for thousands of years? Would immortals from thousands of years ago still have fellow villagers around?"

Hearing his youngest son say this, the middle-aged man frowned slightly, pondered for a moment, and then said:

"You just mentioned accumulating merit, what do you mean by that? Doesn't cultivating immortality involve Meditate and Practice Qi?"

"I Think." The young man exited the thread and searched the forum again. After a long while, he finally found a popular science post:

"Um, this deity seems different from the immortals we're talking about; he didn't cultivate himself to become one."

"No cultivation? How can you become an immortal then? By consuming elixirs?"

The young man asked curiously, but before he could speak, a passerby eager to offer his advice:

"You don't understand, do you? Just like there are kings and ministers on earth, there are also Heavenly Emperor and celestial officials in heaven. Those who cultivate seek a carefree life and naturally don't want to be officials. But the world always needs someone to govern it, so the Heavenly Emperor arranged for the Immortal Official Examination. As long as you do good deeds while you're alive, you can become an immortal after you die according to your merits. Although you can't be as carefree as those immortals, you can still live a long life."

"Is this for real? Doing good deeds can make you an immortal? And an official? It can't be that easy!" The young man's first reaction was disbelief. After all, in this era, to become an official, you first needed a background and bloodline. Doing good deeds couldn't even get you an official position as a mortal, let alone an official position in heaven! Not to mention, you could even achieve immortality! So many people who cultivate immortality haven't achieved it!

"Shh!" As soon as the young man said this, the passerby immediately raised his index finger to signal for quiet, and then whispered:

"You can't say things like that lightly. The City God in this County Town is Dr. Doctor Zhang's great-grandfather! He saved many people when he was alive, and after he died, he became the City God, protecting this village and ensuring good weather for over a hundred years."

"Really? You can become an immortal just by doing good deeds?"

Hearing this firsthand account, the group immediately perked up. Longevity! If someone had never enjoyed a good life, they might not be so motivated, but for someone who's living a comfortable life, it's impossible not to have aspirations!

"Are you kidding me? The City God can still investigate Good Causes and Bad Effects. Go check it out. If you haven't done anything wrong in this life, you might become a celestial official."

The area in front of the City God Temple was now packed with people. Every now and then, someone would come to offer incense and ask a question. The illusory figure in the City God Temple would not refuse to answer. No matter how many people asked, the City God could create as many clones as possible to answer, which was incredibly mysterious.

"Grandpa City God, I would like to see the Good Karma." As he spoke, another man resembling a local gentry came to offer incense. Seeing this, the City God reached out and flipped through the book in his hand, then said:

"Although you deliberately do good, the Good Karma are indeed there, which can offset three Bad Cause. However, good and evil do not cancel each other out. Do you understand?"

The man was initially pleased to hear that it could eliminate Bad Cause, but upon hearing the second half of the sentence, his face immediately darkened. "How can it not offset each other?"

"Good is good, and evil is evil. Once the evil result has been achieved, it will not disappear because you do good. Therefore, you can only reduce the Bad Cause, but you cannot eliminate the result. It is like someone stealing someone else's bow and arrows to hunt a tiger in the mountains. The tiger eats people, and hunting it is a good deed that deserves a reward. But stealing the bow and arrows is an evil act. You can compensate the owner with some of your harvest as compensation, which is to eliminate the Bad Cause. But if the theft of the bow causes the owner to go up the mountain with only a Wood Axe and eventually lose his life, that is the result of evil. No matter how much you compensate, you cannot make up for that life. Do you understand?"

Hearing the response from the City God's illusory figure, the gentry's face turned pale. He wanted to ask something more, but the City God waved his hand and said:

"Good deeds must be rewarded, and evil deeds must be punished. They cannot offset each other, nor can they hinder each other. If you have accumulated a wealth of Good Karma, when the evil deeds are fully repaid, you will naturally be rewarded for your good deeds."

"Thank you, Grandpa City God, for clearing up my doubts." Upon hearing this, the local gentry immediately bowed twice, turned around, and left. Some busybodies even recorded this conversation and posted it online as City God Sayings.

As the mastermind behind all of this, Feng Xue is currently piloting a drone to deploy City God Temple to various remote areas, spreading stories about the City God, the Heavenly Emperor, and celestial officials.

Although the art style of this world is somewhat strange, it is essentially still a feudal system. The feudal system means that there is no clear concept of "Home, Country, and World" in this era. In addition, the Internet allows people from all over the world to chat together, so no self-awareness of ethnicity, country, and culture has emerged.

Ideology, once it has any deficiencies, is easily filled by other things, and Feng Xue is producing such things at this moment.

However, residents in other regions are not as easily fooled (or willing to be fooled) as those in war-torn areas.

But Feng Xue had a way—

After all, this City God Temple is just a low-budget, youthful version of the Investiture of the Gods Platform!

"Let I Think which good person is about to die recently? Send him to the local City God Temple to become the City God!"