Innate Filth Saint Body

Wu Xian froze for a moment.

"It's not over yet?"

Shi Ji nodded, his expression grim. "That's right. If I go to the bathroom, more evil spirits will come after me."

Wu Xian narrowed his eyes. He'd spotted a blind spot in the story.

When he'd been cursed earlier, he'd only encountered one evil spirit: Mr. Wang.

Shi Ji had received Bestowal of Evil, but the negative effect was on the same level as Wu Xian's. It should have been limited to one evil spirit. So why were more still coming after him?

"Shi Ji, Shi Ji... You've been keeping something from me, haven't you?"

Some people drew the attention of immortals and gods before ever entering a blessed land, like Wu Xian. Others earned the favor of the gods through their performance inside one, like Shi Ji.

At this point, Wu Xian couldn't just leave Shi Ji behind.

Although the favored could retain their memories, they couldn't reveal anything about the blessed lands to anyone who didn't know about them—not by any means.

"Tell me everything you know."

There had always been plenty of suspicious things about Shi Ji, but his honest-looking face and sincere manner had made everyone, Wu Xian included, overlook them.

"My first trip to a blessed land... You might laugh, but I just coasted through it. If I hadn't been lucky enough to blow up a cesspit, I wouldn't have made it out alive."

After Shi Ji paid respects to the Heavenly Official, the god bestowed evil upon him. He was burdened with filthy Evil Qi, which made filthy evil spirits more likely to attack him.

They rushed back as fast as they could, but by the time they arrived, everyone had already returned to their rooms. No one was waiting in the First Floor Hall.

Every favored person received a travel writ.

Taking advantage of this anomaly...

The combination of Bestowal of Evil and a blessing triggered a chain reaction. Shi Ji ended up attracting several extra filthy evil spirits, and his travel writ warned that six of them would attack him!

Wu Xian was startled. This guy had gotten up to some seriously shady stuff on his very first trip to a blessed land.

"After that, I earned the favor of Empress Zigu, the Toilet God, and obtained this damned Innate Filth Saint Body..."

Shi Ji panicked and reluctantly pulled something out from inside his clothes. "All right, I'll come clean. I'm not a newcomer to blessed lands. I'm one of the favored."

Talismans, divine abilities, Magic Treasures, even the evil spirits they encountered... Everything was more likely to have something to do with filth.

Outside the window, darkness fell. The sunlight withdrew from the city, and the evil spirits in the shadows became its masters once more. The living could only hide behind closed doors, hoping danger wouldn't come for them.

It recorded the favored person's basic information, including their talismans, divine abilities, and Magic Treasures...

After leaving a blessed land, the travel writ also notified the favored of nearby blessed lands, including when and where they would appear. This let them choose to participate or avoid dangerous ones.

But that didn't mean the favored could use their travel writs to escape the dangers inside blessed lands forever.

If they avoided too many, the travel writ's notifications might turn into commands. Disobeying those commands would bring something more terrifying than death.

Only the favored person could see the information on their travel writ.

"Fine. I'll save you, on the condition that you follow my orders completely on this trip to the blessed land. Even the distribution of the Spoils of War will be up to me!"

Wen Chao and Fang Zhi earned good money, so it made sense for them to stay at an inn rather than delay their trip. But Shi Ji was just a toilet cleaner. Why would he pay for a room by the hour while waiting for a ride?

How had an ordinary person escaped from a hungry ghost that could distort perception? Had the ghost really had such bad teeth?

He'd been attacked on the first day. Why had he hidden that from everyone?

And the Child Wraith last night should have attacked every room. Why didn't Shi Ji have even a single handprint on his face?

"Ah... I've brought this on myself. Why did I agree to this?"

Fighting to grow stronger didn't just avoid losses; it could even earn greater rewards from worshipping the gods.

Those who received the favor of immortals and gods were known as the favored.

But this time, the blessing was the problem.

Counting on Wu Xian to save his life, Shi Ji didn't dare hide anything. He began recounting his experience in the blessed land.

From Shi Ji's account, Wu Xian finally understood what it meant to be one of the favored.

Wu Xian had thought saving Shi Ji would be simple: all he had to do was send him to the bathroom to wait. Kill one evil spirit if one came, kill two if two came.

"Brother Wu, I've told you everything I know. Please, save me!"

Shi Ji was simply unlucky.

His blessing was called the Innate Filth Saint Body. It made him more likely to encounter events involving filth in blessed lands.

Wu Xian sneered.

"Right, you said I was pretending to be weak while hiding my strength. Turns out you're the one who's been hiding the most. If you don't want to tell me, that's fine—we'll part ways here. I'll find my own place to stay tonight!"

The blessing sounded disgusting, but it was actually very powerful.

But, to everyone's surprise, an entire day passed without a single attack!

If Shi Ji's travel writ hadn't been wrong, then Bestowal of Evil wasn't going to send its minions to die one at a time like the Calabash Brothers going to save their grandpa. Instead, it was waiting until enough Evil Qi had gathered to hit Wu Xian and Shi Ji with everything it had!

Worse, they'd wasted so much time waiting for the evil spirits that they hadn't had time to search for a divine statue. They could only let Shi Ji quickly use the chance to worship the gods that he'd gained by killing the Yisu, then hurry back to the inn.

Wu Xian soon finished extracting most of the information Shi Ji knew. Only then did he turn his attention to the danger Shi Ji was facing.

If he hadn't met Wu Xian, Shi Ji would have ended up drowning in some Feces Pit. So he knelt on the ground without a shred of dignity, sobbing and wiping his snot and tears on Wu Xian's pants.

That bulky Toilet Wraith had only been the vanguard of the attack.

Wu Xian suddenly recalled that Shi Ji had shown plenty of suspicious signs from the start.

Shi Ji had abandoned his Mop Handle and now clutched a Tachi with a red scabbard. He gave Wu Xian an awkward, ingratiating smile.

In Room 402 of Ping'an Hostel, Wu Xian looked at Shi Ji helplessly.

Wu Xian closed his eyes and weighed the risks and benefits. After a moment, he opened them again.

"I agree!"

Only the favored truly counted as participants in a blessed land. Even if an ordinary person survived to the end, they'd have their memories of the blessed land erased unless they earned the favor of an immortal or god.

When he entered the blessed land, his travel writ had also identified him as one of the favored. It seemed Shi Ji might have important information.

The favored!

Shi Ji looked troubled, as if he didn't want to answer Wu Xian's question.

The power the favored gained from worshipping the gods was somewhat random. Shi Ji's blessing made it easier for him to obtain abilities that worked well together, increasing the chance of triggering combo effects and reducing the odds of getting useless items.

A glint appeared in Wu Xian's eyes.

Notes from the Thatched Hut Volume Twenty-One

In the old custom, people welcomed the Toilet God on the night of the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, calling her Zigu. But the ritual didn't have to be performed in the first month; she could be summoned at any time. When I was young, I saw children summon her for fun. There were two occasions when relatives summoned her and she refused to leave, and after that, I never dared summon her again. During the Jingyou era, Wang Lun, a Court Gentleman of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices, welcomed Zigu into his home. A spirit descended upon his daughter, claiming to be one of the Ladies of the Heavenly Emperor's Harem. She was a gifted writer, and her work was rather elegant. It is now called the Collection of Female Immortals and circulates among the people. The book contains several styles of writing, all vigorous in their strokes, yet none resembles the seal or clerical scripts of the mortal world. Among them are more than ten styles, including Algae Paper Script and Sprout Gold Script. Wang Lun and my late father were old friends. I spent time with his sons and nephews, and saw her handwriting myself. His family also occasionally saw her form. Only the upper half of her body was visible, and she was a beautiful woman; below the waist, she was always shrouded in clouds. She played the zither beautifully, her music mournful and haunting, and listeners never tired of hearing it. She once asked the girl, "Can you ride the clouds and travel with me?" The girl agreed. White clouds rose from the courtyard like steam, and the girl stepped onto them, but they couldn't bear her weight. The spirit said, "There's filth on the soles of your shoes. Take them off before you climb aboard." The girl removed her shoes and climbed onto the clouds in her socks, as if walking on silk floss. Slowly, she rose to the roof, then came back down. The spirit said, "You cannot come with me yet. We'll try again another day." Later, the girl married, and the spirit stopped coming. Nothing fortunate or unfortunate ever happened to the family.