The City God

For the next two days, things went just as Bandit Brother had expected.

Chen Guan stayed at his house at night and went with him to the tavern during the day.

Everything was completely "in the palm of his hand."

Bandit Brother was even more pleased with himself, certain he had already captured Chen Guan's heart.

"After a while, I'll tell him about a few things and see if he'll help me..."

Bandit Brother plotted it out, preparing to talk to Chen Guan about a few things when the time came.

For example, finding out where that Flying Thief was and seeing if he could kill him.

Three more days passed.

Chen Guan continued to wait for the rabbit by the tree stump.

At dusk.

Four hundred li away.

After making inquiries for many days, Chen Changhong went to a City God temple outside Ling City and donated some money to the temple keeper.

After donating,

Chen Changhong took a jug of two-year-old clear liquor from the City God's offering table and set it on the altar.

Once he had finished,

Chen Changhong left the city at night and made his way to a small City God shrine in the wilderness.

Under the moonlight, Chen Changhong looked at it.

It was only half as tall as an ordinary person, with a statue inside.

This was the "Ling City God" of this place.

More than two thousand years ago, he had been the local prefect. His lifetime of saving people and doing good deeds was so extensive that even a hundred-page book could not record it all in detail.

For this, after his death, Heaven and Earth had canonized him as the Orthodox City God of the Ling City region.

Chen Changhong had heard these things from his master's master, his grandmaster.

The Ling City God and his grandmaster had been on fairly good terms.

Because of this,

Chen Changhong knew some things that ordinary people did not.

That was, this was the statue the Ling City God had once possessed.

If someone prayed here, the City God would sense it.

But if they prayed to another statue, the City God would generally know nothing about it.

Most such matters were handled by others in the Underworld Bureau.

The City God was very busy, after all, and had no time to listen to every single prayer.

Besides, the living and the dead were separated.

At that moment,

Chen Changhong first set out the "City God's liquor," then looked at the statue.

"This junior, Chen Changhong, is a disciple of the Guanglin Sect.

Today, I beseech the City God!"

As he spoke, Chen Changhong bowed.

He channeled his magical power, took the City God's liquor back down, and brought out five cups. Amid the thick scent of incense, he drank them one by one.

Drinking all the incense liquor was, in truth, a crafty way of "snatching the gods' offerings."

The local City God could sense it.

He would also know that someone was trying to communicate with the Underworld Bureau.

If the City God wished, he could guide that person into the Underworld Bureau.

But once they truly entered, the City God would take some of the "visitor's" yin lifespan.

After all, making the Underworld Bureau manifest in the mortal realm and bringing a "living person" into it both exacted a great toll.

Depending on the circumstances, the City God might take three months, five months, or even one or five years of the living person's lifespan.

Of course, this was because Chen Changhong's cultivation was too low to communicate directly between yin and yang. That was why he had to go through all this trouble and pay with his yin lifespan.

"This junior, Chen Changhong... today, I beseech the City God!"

Seeing no change on the mountaintop around him, Chen Changhong again bowed and prayed for the god's presence.

After his second bow, Chen Changhong suddenly felt an intense, dizzying drunkenness. It came from drinking the incense liquor, and from his soul having lost years of its lifespan.

The mountaintop also suddenly turned bitterly cold.

Even the moon overhead seemed to be obscured by layers of dark clouds.

Chen Changhong could not tell whether it was the drunkenness or whether something had truly changed in this place.

Then,

Chen Changhong fought through the dizziness and bowed again.

"This junior... beseeches the City God..."

Tap—

As the words fell,

Chen Changhong's bow did not come down. A cool breeze held him upright.

He was no longer on a mountaintop beneath a starry sky, but in a mist-shrouded hall.

There was only one person inside the hall.

He sat in the place of honor, looking like a kindly old man.

His hair was white, and so were his eyebrows. They were long, very long, with the ends drooping down to his chest on either side.

"Young friend of the Guanglin Sect, how has the Sect Master of Guanglin been lately?"

The Ling City God's voice was kind, and his gaze brimmed with compassion for all people.

Realizing he had arrived in the Underworld Bureau, Chen Changhong froze for a few breaths, then did his best to steady his drunkenness. He kept his head bowed, not daring to look around, and answered with utmost respect:

"Replying to the City God! Grandmaster is well!"

"Mm." The City God smiled. "Young friend, what brings you here? Or did Daoist Guanglin send you to find me?"

"This junior..." Facing an Orthodox God of Heaven and Earth, Chen Changhong felt immense pressure. But for his grandfather's sake, he explained everything in detail.

"City God, this junior did not intend to enter the Underworld Bureau... it's just that my grandfather... my grandfather..."

Chen Changhong's voice caught in his throat, but he quickly explained the whole story.

He also gave Chen Guan's birth date and hour.

After he finished, Chen Changhong added, "This junior is willing to offer ten years of yin lifespan to the Ling City Bureau. Sorry for the trouble, City God. Please investigate the whereabouts of my grandfather's soul...

This junior does not ask you to bring my grandfather out of the Underworld Bureau. I would not dare ask so much...

I only ask... to see my grandfather once..."

"Mm, that is permissible. It does not violate the laws of the Underworld Bureau." The City God nodded slightly and closed his eyes for a few breaths.

"Chen Guan, a native of Beihe Village. Allow me to search the various offices of the Underworld Bureau for you."

As he spoke, the City God used his immense magical power to search.

A moment later, as Chen Changhong waited anxiously,

the City God opened his eyes with a trace of puzzlement and said to Chen Changhong:

"There is no such soul in the Bureau, nor has his soul ever been brought here.

"But three bandits from outside Little Liuzi Town are currently being punished here. They saw your grandfather.

"Your grandfather has indeed died.

"These men were also unable to harm his soul.

"But the Soul-Detaining Official and the Day-Roaming God on duty that day did not see your grandfather's soul."

"My grandfather's soul isn't here?" Chen Changhong asked in confusion, then carefully asked, "May I ask, City God... did my grandfather... not enter the Underworld Bureau? Was he reborn into Heaven and Earth?"

"Ten to one." The City God replied calmly. "When some living people's lifespans run out, their souls do not return to the Underworld Bureau. Instead, they scatter into Heaven and Earth, then come to life among all things.

"This is the wondrous mystery of creation within Heaven and Earth.

"I didn't expect you to know of this, young friend."

At this point,

the City God asked, "Since you know of this, you should also have heard your grandmaster and master speak of 'awakening past-life wisdom.'

"Those who awaken past-life wisdom are people reborn after never entering the Underworld Bureau."

"This junior knows..." Chen Changhong fought through his drunken dizziness.

"My master once said that apart from those who awaken past-life wisdom, there are also powerful cultivators whose Divine Souls are reincarnated, borrowing a life to be born anew.

"When people die, they do not necessarily enter the main hall of the Underworld Bureau.

"Nor do ghost cultivators have to enter the Underworld Bureau."

"Precisely." The City God nodded. "But all these varied circumstances of reincarnation fall outside the Underworld Bureau's jurisdiction.

"Since your grandfather never entered the Underworld Bureau, he must have been favored by Heaven and Earth's fortune and reborn among all things.

"This is the way of Heaven, not the law of Earth, of which this old man understands only the barest scraps.

"I cannot help you with this."

The City God had lived for several thousand years and witnessed far too many wondrous things in Heaven and Earth.

He had seen plenty of people who failed to enter the Underworld Bureau after death, were reborn as humans, and awakened past-life wisdom.

None of that was particularly surprising, nor was it worth paying attention to.

And yet it was truly mysterious—so mysterious that even a City God of immense magical power, who had lived for more than two thousand years, could not explain it.

But,

the City God knew that if one truly tried to find these reincarnated people and keep watch on them,

there was no way to locate them once they had been reborn, unless they spoke of their past lives.

After all, once they were reborn, their aura appeared to everyone to belong to someone else.

To find them, one had to seek the "causal bond between their past and present lives."

But causality belonged to the Great Way of Heaven and Earth, and no one could see through it.

"Finding your grandfather will be difficult..."

The City God looked at Chen Changhong's disappointed face.

"Cultivation is hard, seeking the Way is hard, and finding the past and present lives is harder still.

"If anyone could see the causal bond between past and present lives, they would have to be someone who had leapt beyond the Three Realms and Five Elements.

"The hardest thing of all is causality.

"All manner of gods, ghosts, and living beings wish to avoid it, yet no one can escape it, and no one can see through it."

At this point, the City God let out a rare, deep sigh.

"Little Chen, you came all this way, and this old man failed to find the person you sought. But your filial devotion is admirable.

"Considering how hard you've worked at cultivation, this office will not take your yin lifespan.

"But you must do one thing in return for the magical power I used. Go back to the mortal realm."

As the City God finished speaking, everything around them blurred, gradually revealing the night on the ground.

Then, in the blink of an eye,

whoosh—

The night wind swept over the wilderness, and the five cups on the ground crumbled into black dust.

Chen Changhong knelt alone beneath the starry sky, his sleeves, the wild grass, and the dust on the ground swaying in the wind. It was a quiet night once more, as if his journey to the Underworld Bureau had been nothing but an accidental drunken dream.

But as the wind spiraled around,

the dust gradually formed several lines of writing.

(Liu Town, the proprietor of Yanhe Pavilion, was the principal culprit behind your grandfather's murder. His crimes were too numerous to record. Send him into the Underworld Bureau to suffer Avici punishment.

Once this matter is settled, you will bear the karma of killing in the mortal realm.

The Underworld Bureau and you will have settled your debts and favors.)