Mountain God

"May I ask where you, fellow Daoist, hail from?"

A bush beside the ancient tree stirred, and an old fox as large as a fierce hound, its body covered in white fur, crawled out of a hole. It propped itself up on its hind legs and clasped its forepaws together in a gesture resembling a human salute, looking rather humanlike.

Yet what caught Yu Chen's attention even more was that the old fox was using divine arts. From the moment it appeared, a faint wisp of Incense and Fire Prayer Power had curled around its body. When it cast its arts, that prayer power merged into them. Thus, even ordinary cultivators who saw it would be affected by the prayer power, their spiritual awareness clouded, and under the old fox's illusion, they would see it as a white-haired old man.

"So this is the method of a household guardian immortal?" Yu Chen asked curiously. Hearing this, the old fox clasped its paws and introduced itself. "This old one is Hu Seventy-Six. I burn furnace ash bestowed by Mount Tai Hu the Great Immortal Aunt, and I worship Bixia Yuanjun, Mount Tai Grandma."

Yu Chen was slightly stunned upon hearing this. He had not expected this fellow to actually belong to a legitimate shrine lineage.

Yu Chen had also known something of Hu the Great Immortal Aunt's origins in his previous life. She was a household guardian immortal who helped Bixia Yuanjun guard her sacred ground, and counted as one of the most highly cultivated household guardian immortals in the Central Plains.

These household guardian immortals were classified as unorthodox side paths, and in terms of mythology belonged to folk beliefs. Thus, when establishing shrine lineages and incense altars, they always liked to draw in the names of famous deities. One would claim to have once listened to the Dao beneath Guanyin Bodhisattva's seat; another would say their family had once studied Dharma before the Queen Mother of the West; the more impressive ones even claimed to have received guidance from the Dao Ancestor. It was a complete jumble.

Within the game world, however, the systems of household guardian immortals and spirit-medium immortals had been somewhat consolidated and categorized. From Shanhai Pass southward, household guardian immortals were predominant. They worshipped Mount Tai Grandma and honored the decrees of Bixia Yuanjun.

Therefore, in many game-world instances, Mount Tai Hu the Great Immortal Aunt became someone the household guardian immortal system could not bypass. Even though there were more formidable figures among household guardian immortals and spirit-medium immortals, such as Old Master Hu and Grandmother Hu, whether in the number of worlds she touched or the extent of her influence, none could compare to Hu the Great Immortal Aunt.

For a time, Mount Tai Hu the Great Immortal Aunt had even been regarded as the orthodox direct lineage of the household guardian immortals.

That was why Yu Chen had said this old fox belonged to a proper shrine lineage.

As Yu Chen pondered, his gaze rested on the ancient tree. Beneath it lingered several muddled traces of demonic aura. Though there was no blood aura or resentful aura, they were still tainted by the gloomy, murky air of a burial mountain.

The old fox grew somewhat fearful beneath Yu Chen's gaze and asked again, "May I ask where you, fellow Daoist, hail from?"

Yu Chen came back to himself and smiled. "It is nothing, really. I merely wished to ask for directions. But now I am rather curious. You seem to have a shrine lineage yourself, so how did you end up living on a burial mountain? As a household guardian immortal, should you not be worshipped in someone's home?"

The old fox gave a bitter smile. "You do not know, fellow Daoist. Some years ago, a formidable figure came here and built a temple, forbidding independent households like mine from accepting offerings. Quite a few companions who had been neighbors with this old one for over a hundred years were beaten to death by him alive. This old one could only hide here. Even this little incense is offered by the boy who worships my family, using ancestral rites as a pretext."

"Do you not possess furnace ash bestowed by Mount Tai Hu the Great Immortal Aunt? Does he dare show Hu the Great Immortal Aunt such disrespect?"

The instant he spoke, Yu Chen sensed that something was wrong. Seeing the old fox's awkward expression, he immediately understood the reason. Either the other party's backing was stronger, or this fellow's furnace ash was not obtained firsthand.

After all, according to the rules of household guardian immortals and spirit-medium immortals, if one wished to receive worship, one had to establish an incense burner and a shrine lineage.

At such times, to ensure the purity of their divine power and demonstrate their backing, most would seek furnace ash from the incense burners of deities worshipped at powerful shrine lineages or temples.

There was plenty of room for trickery here. For example, one might have mortals obtain furnace ash from a temple, or acquire secondhand furnace ash from another shrine lineage, then skip over the intermediary and simply claim that their own furnace ash came from some great deity.

As long as such practices did not become too blatant, the owners of the furnace ash would generally turn a blind eye.

But correspondingly, one was merely borrowing their name and was not truly listed in the records of the relevant deity. If trouble really arose, they would not send anyone to stand up for you.

This old fox was clearly a typical example.

I thought he belonged to a proper shrine lineage. Who would have thought he was a counterfeit? Yu Chen chuckled inwardly and changed the subject. "Speaking of which, when I came here, I vaguely saw a mountain god temple halfway up the mountain. Its aura felt rather strange. Do you know its origins?"

"You mean the General's Temple?" The old fox froze for a moment, then said casually, "Speaking of that general, he was quite an unfortunate fellow..."

From the old fox's account, Yu Chen gradually learned the mountain god's origins. Five hundred years ago, at the end of a dynasty, he had been a general who resisted foreign enemies. He had earned countless military merits, yet fell under his ruler's suspicion and was tricked into death alongside three thousand subordinates.

The general had devoted himself wholeheartedly to his country, only to be abandoned by it. After death, his resentment soared into the heavens, but he clung to a single obsession: protecting the souls of his fallen subordinates. By the time the previous dynasty was established, he had transformed into three thousand military souls wandering the surrounding lands.

After the previous dynasty was founded, to soothe his resentment and proclaim its own legitimacy, its ruler widely promoted the general's story. He granted him godhood, assigned more than a dozen nearby mountains to his domain, and ordered local officials to offer sacrifices there once every year.

Incense and Fire Prayer Power, along with the ruler's investiture, gradually allowed the general to pass from the ghost path into the divine path.

Yet dynasties inevitably declined. When the previous dynasty fell, the general, who had received its grace, intervened to offer a little aid. This affected the founding ruler of the current dynasty to some degree, causing the current court to view him with displeasure.

Though the founding ruler had not abolished his worship at the time, he had deliberately and subtly invested new gods around him, constantly squeezing the general's living space.

As time passed, fewer and fewer people believed in the general.

More than twenty years ago, a band of bandits roamed into the area and wiped out the last village that worshipped the general.

At the time, the general had already become extremely weak due to meddling in dynastic affairs and being targeted by the founding ruler. He had no power to protect the villagers and could only watch helplessly as the village that worshipped him was destroyed.

Because of this, obsession entered the general's body, and he once again fell from the divine path into the ghost path.

The three thousand military souls reappeared and annihilated the bandits, but this also drew the attention of Xuan Xinzi, who had only recently become the Imperial Preceptor. He personally came here, set down an array, and sealed the three thousand military souls together with the general within the General's Temple.

"So that was it." Yu Chen nodded. He then asked the old fox several more questions. The fox answered everything it knew without holding anything back, telling Yu Chen almost all that it knew.

After Yu Chen gained a rough understanding of the cultivation forces nearby, he left behind several medicinal pills he had prepared from polygonatum, poria, and other ingredients as payment, then set out again toward the town.

P.S. Yiqi does not really know the immortal lineage system. Everything in this text has been heavily altered, so please do not take it seriously!

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