When people worshipped deities, they generally worshipped those in heaven. Few worshipped the official deities of the Underworld.
The exceptions were cultural attractions such as Fengdu Ghost City, which had large numbers of statues of Underworld deities.
To us, the official deities of the Underworld were no different from those in heaven. The only difference lay in their duties.
But ordinary people knew little about the deities of Daoism and instinctively considered everything associated with the Underworld inauspicious.
That was because everything in the Underworld, including the Ten Yama Kings, Black and White Impermanence, and Ox-Head and Horse-Face, was closely connected to "death."
So ordinary people were even less likely to worship Judge Cui specifically.
Yet the judge's statue before us really did stand in a mountain village deep in the wilderness.
And it was at least two or three stories tall. Building it had clearly been a major undertaking.
Who had spearheaded its construction?
"I remember there being only one Judge Temple in the entire country."
Zhuge Ming said, "That Judge Temple has a history of over thirteen hundred years. Legend has it that Emperor Taizong of Tang, Li Shimin, built it for Judge Cui, hence the name Judge Temple. Apart from that, some cultural attractions have statues of Judge Cui, but no dedicated temples."
"Why would anyone build such a huge statue of the judge... in a place like this? And the building sheltering it from the elements isn't even a temple. It's just an ordinary house."
It was truly baffling.
Even more baffling was why, if this place was dedicated to Judge Cui, there was a Fox Immortal statue beside him.
One was an official deity of the Underworld, while the other was a wild immortal-or, more precisely, a spirit creature. They had absolutely nothing to do