Orthodox God and Descent

Chapter 41: Orthodox Gods... and Descent

"To be precise, this should be a mythological folklore horror film."

Si Ming flipped through the memories in his mind and redeemed detailed information from the Main God.

"Hmm, a 2022 movie. The content is..."

The plot summary was projected onto a temporarily set-up public screen. Following that, a giant display screen began playing details, easter eggs, and behind-the-scenes footage simultaneously. The five reincarnators sat in a row, watching the movie—naturally, accompanied by popcorn and orange soda.

It did not take long.

Watching the entire film and repeatedly examining its details only consumed about two hours of time.

The story was actually not complex—several hundred years ago, in the Yunnan region, the physical vessel of an evil entity known as the 'Great Black Buddha Mother' was discovered by local monks, who worshipped it cautiously as an evil god. This entity possessed a specific trait: it could unconditionally curse anyone to death once they voluntarily offered their true name. Furthermore, it lacked the ability to protect anyone; it was the type of evil spirit that "won't cause trouble if given offerings."

Of course, evil spirits are called evil spirits precisely because they do not stop or feel satisfied even when given offerings. Thus, amidst a series of events not recorded in the film, a family surnamed Chen took the entity from Yunnan, hid it in a deep mountain on an overseas island, and used complex formations to trap the evil object deep within a cave. From then on, the Chen family used themselves as sacrifices year after year to restrict the entity's sacrificial rules, preventing it from leaving the small mountain village for hundreds of years.

Until six years before the main plot began—

Two young people, unaware—or rather, kept in the dark by their elders about the secret of the evil spirit—brought a woman back to the big city. She was a woman named Li Ruonan, a social media professional who was pregnant with one of their children. And so, everything began to collapse.

They pried into the secret the Chen family had guarded for hundreds of years, prying into that tunnel which was "absolutely forbidden to enter." The Great Black Buddha Mother, trapped for centuries, found its chance; it used the sound of a disguised baby crying to lure the young man surnamed Chen, who was about to become a father, thereby breaking the seal the Chen family had maintained for hundreds of years.

The evil spirit broke free, claiming the lives of all members of the Chen family. Only Li Ruonan escaped, and she was later sent to a mental hospital due to symptoms of insanity.

Six years later, she was discharged and managed to regain custody of her daughter, Chen Duoduo. However, the evil spirit still existed and had set its sights on her and her daughter. Soon, her daughter began showing clear signs of demonic possession. With medical treatment proving fruitless, she took her daughter to seek help from local temple keepers and shamans...

Yet, in the end, she failed them. When the temple keeper explicitly stated that a seven-day ritual was required and that Chen Duoduo must not eat, she fed her daughter canned pineapple. Consequently, the temple keeper's family failed the ritual and died, and even the statues in the temple abandoned her, leaving her to fend for herself.

But the evil spirit kept closing in. Duoduo's foster father managed to go to Yunnan and, through footage from six years ago, had a high-ranking local monk translate the details of this evil entity—for which he was cursed to death by the spirit from thousands of miles away. Li Ruonan, however, had a flash of inspiration: she edited the hand seals and incantations for sharing the curse into a mockumentary disguised as a prayer ritual for her possessed daughter, broadcasting it online. In the end, she covered her entire body in the incantations representing the sacrifice and vanished into the pit that had sealed the evil spirit.

"Hmm..." Valentina studied the giant screen, which was now displaying the credits, and fell into thought.

"It feels like a very simple movie... Orthodox Gods exist, and social order is very stable under normal circumstances. The most powerful villain is just a statue sealed deep in a cave. Moreover, the prerequisite for the curse is watching the video, performing the ritual to share the curse, or offering one's true name... Even if the Main God starts us off with a cursed status, we could just go to a local temple and seek the help of that... what was it? Zhou Cang?"

"It's Guan Yu," Song Tian replied in a low voice. "Zhou Cang is a subordinate of Guan Yu, but he is also a powerful folklore god. Invoking him to borrow the power of Saint Emperor Guan to descend is a very common practice in the region."

"Saint Emperor Guan?" Valentina tilted her head, wearing a blank expression.

"The Eastern god of loyalty and justice," Jacob explained to her immediately. "Many people in the East believe in him; it is a very widespread faith."

"Loyalty and justice, huh..." Valentina glanced at the information she had just looked up, her expression turning to one of sudden realization. "But if that's the case, why doesn't this powerful Orthodox God just execute the Great Black Buddha Mother? Hmm... the part where the temple keeper and the shaman die is equivalent to the evil spirit killing the god's priests right in front of the god, inside the god's own temple. If he just turns his back and ignores her, his temper is too good... Could it be that he can't beat it?"

"That is a possibility, but I think the reason is more that they are Orthodox Gods. In this world, the difference between an Orthodox God and an evil god is that an Orthodox God acts according to rules rather than likes or dislikes, while an evil god acts as it pleases."

Si Ming raised his hand and pulled up an easter egg from the temple fair that wasn't included in the main film. Here, Duoduo, clearly showing signs of possession, was unable to move when the White Crane Boy and General Zeng and General Sun at the temple fair noticed her, until Chen Ruonan screamed and fled the fair while holding her.

"Orthodox Gods have duties, and they only fulfill those duties. People must first pray and offer sincere devotion, and only then will the deity respond to matters within their jurisdiction. Beyond that, even if the entire land were scorched to ash or turned into a buffet for evil spirits, the Orthodox Gods would not take any action."

"Heaven is heartless, and so it ages." Yu Zhiwei showed an approving look. "A program that cannot yield effective results unless the correct sequence is followed. Like the laws of nature, there is no room for confusion or negotiation. Such a god is undoubtedly an Orthodox God. It couldn't be more orthodox."

"If a god only interferes with the world, then it doesn't matter if they are good or evil." Jacob also nodded slightly. "True, Lathander, Lord of Morning, caused the Dawn Catastrophe, which had worse consequences than most evil gods, all out of good intentions. For mortals, a clay statue that strictly follows the rules is indeed a 'proper' enough deity."

Orthodox, but unrelated to good or evil. It is a mechanism, a celestial phenomenon, a force that can be borrowed.

"Then I will take the time to study the rules of the Eastern pantheon and the corresponding folklore," Jacob said, then glanced at Si Ming and Yu Zhiwei, who had particularly pure Eastern ancestry. "However, as far as I know, Eastern gods generally value skin color and bloodlines. If it really comes to a point where we need to borrow their power, you might need to be the ones to execute it."

"I don't mind," Yu Zhiwei waved her hand casually.

Si Ming looked at his own palm, watching the Night Battle Qi, which carried a trace of Divinity Particle, emerge from his hand.

Gods do not see gods.

But the gods of the Cursed world were likely not the same type of god as the Death Divinity he possessed.

"If necessary, I will act. But I don't think things will reach that point," Si Ming closed his fingers and scanned the others. "Because we are the Celestial Team, and the Celestial Team currently only has five people. This means the difficulty of the next world will only stay at a five-person level. Basically, there shouldn't be too many intrusion elements or god-descent-style difficulty spikes."

"Can we just kill our way through?" Yu Zhiwei became interested.

"Perhaps 'killing' isn't necessary," Valentina carefully examined many of the details. "At the very beginning of the movie, Li Ruonan hasn't met her daughter yet. Duoduo hasn't been cursed either. If we make contact with her at this time, we should be able to persuade her to take a different path. As for that Great Black Buddha Mother, we could go directly to the surviving temple keeper, or we could take action ourselves to fill in that mountain or move it to solve the problem."

"That sounds simple, Vana, but how are you going to persuade a cultist?" Yu Zhiwei rested her chin on her hand and pulled up a hidden easter egg. "Look, this proves that Li Ruonan knew about this curse ritual six years ago. Judging by her performance in the film, she wanted to sacrifice her daughter Duoduo from the very beginning. And the temple keeper's family was actually the sacrifice she offered to the evil spirit. She might have developed a bit of maternal instinct in the end, which is why she spread the curse ritual to save her daughter. But who knows how much of that maternal love was genuine?"

"You think too poorly of people, Ms. Yu," Valentina frowned. "Also, please don't use such strange forms of address."

"Thinking the worst won't cost you a piece of flesh. But if you think too well of them... you might lose more than just a piece of flesh."

Si Ming tapped the table, interrupting the possibility of the conversation going any deeper. He carefully scrutinized the content on the projection screen. Some key details were calculated and discerned by him.

"We might not descend when Li Ruonan meets Chen Duoduo. Haven't you noticed? This is a mockumentary with artistic editing. It records events that have already happened in the 'movie world.' If we descend at the start of the plot as usual, we might find that all the screens are already playing that prayer-disguised curse hand seal."

A unique conclusion.

And this conclusion brought several seconds of silence to the members of the Celestial Team. They immediately began to re-examine the details in the corners, and the more they looked, the tighter their brows furrowed.

"If that's the case, it's unlikely that what we're facing will still be a 5-person difficulty world," Jacob raised an objection.

But this objection was easily refuted.

"What determines the number-based difficulty is the main mission, not the danger level of the world itself," Si Ming spread his hands. "Perhaps our main mission is just to survive for a few hours or days in such a world. Then we only need to find a deep, uninhabited forest, or take a boat out to sea."

"A survival-style victory? Not bad," but Yu Zhiwei just rested her chin on her hand casually, looking at Si Ming and the others present.

"However, would you choose to do that? As one of the members of the Celestial Team, which only the captain can join?"

The few looked at each other.

And the next moment, even Valentina, who looked the most serious—and perhaps actually was the most serious—had a faint smile appear on her face.

"Of course not."

This was the second motion passed unanimously by the Celestial Team since the afternoon meeting.

The meeting concluded, leaving three days remaining. This remaining time was sufficient for everyone to make all necessary preparations. Whether it was folklore, geographical structures, or items for exorcism and consecration, everyone had procured plenty of supplies according to their own plans.

Until—

The beam of light touched the pure white ground.

--[World Incantation, beginning transfer.]

--[Executing...]