Outer islands also have Underworld, just like the surrounding counties. Even though this is a marginalized island, it is still a large island with several million people. Although the quality of the population is not very good, it is not something that the Divine Path Style who pursue faith will completely give up.
However, with limited personnel, we can only stabilize other areas of the West Sea for now. Of course, the most basic things must be in place. The Underworld controls the great affairs of life, death, Samsara, which is the most important thing for establishing faith. How could we possibly overlook this place?
Chen Qing remembered that when they were recruiting people to serve as the City God Underworld here, they offered considerable benefits, including longer terms of office, more Power of Faith to allocate, and double the lifespan reward compared to other places.
Of course, the drawbacks are also obvious. In such a dreadful place, it's impossible to get involved with high-quality people. The potential is not very high, and it's only suitable for mediocre people who want to just coast along.
Such people were quite hard to find back then in the vibrant Jiangnan. Chen Qing remembers that it took a full month of screening to finally find a middle-aged scholar named Gu Qing, who was not weak in ability but not very ambitious.
Because of the great distance, long-distance communication within the Divine Path Style consumes a lot of Power of Faith. Generally speaking, they can only return once every three years to report for duty, just like mortal officials. Chen Qing would know if any deity appointed by the Divine Path Style died, so he never thought that something would happen here.
It turns out that something did indeed happen here.
Wei Gongcheng also sensed that something was wrong with the Underworld here, and a look of vigilance immediately appeared on his face.
"My lord."
"Hmm," Chen Qing nodded, signaling Wei Gongcheng not to make a fuss. At this moment, the ship they were on was a merchant ship, not a warship. The main reason was that the elite of the West Sea Army were all in Cloud Capital, and the soldiers left behind could not even defend the mainland. Chen Qing had time, so he only brought a merchant ship. At this time, if any force on the island were to besiege them, it would be very troublesome.
Although this place is within my sphere of influence, the actual distance is probably farther than from Jiangnan to Cloud Capital, and there is no support. Going back would be quite troublesome.
According to the tropes of horror movies, those who are still curious and want to go inside at this point usually meet a tragic end. The opposite of the tropes would be to turn around and leave now, but Chen Qing hesitated for a moment and still headed forward.
There's a reason he dared to do this; he believed in his own setup.
He designed this world himself, and in this current timeline, the power he wields, if not invincible, is certainly among the top tier. He doesn't believe that a group of Westerners could take action against him after only six months here.
With Wei Gongcheng, the two followed a group of soldiers disguised as a merchant caravan slowly into the island.
The island is very primitive, with very simple docks. The ecology here is so good that ordinary fishermen don't need to go out to sea to fish at all. They can catch a lot of fish in the shallow waters around the island. In addition, the fertile land on the mainland means that it has no chance to develop into a maritime power like other island nations.
Along the way, there were only a few local people who made their living by fishing or collecting shells and pearls.
Most of them are women who are unable to do heavy work. On such a resource-rich island, successful men would not make a living by fishing.
Faced with this group of strangers, the women on the island kept their distance. Even though troops were stationed there, the islanders still felt alienated from the people from the Central Plains.
"My lord, the people here seem quite normal." After traveling dozens of miles, even though the land was vast and sparsely populated, they had seen quite a few locals. Those islanders who appeared to be Westerners were clearly living very well on this fertile land. Apart from being somewhat curious and afraid of them, they seemed to be doing nothing abnormal, just like when they first arrived.
"Where are the troops stationed here?" Chen Qing asked, frowning.
It seems that the Underworld was sealed away without causing any major disturbance. Asking these ordinary islanders would definitely yield no answers, so we can only hope that some of the garrison soldiers are still alive.
"It's over there." Wei Gongcheng pointed to the newly built watchtower in the distance.
The pure stone and steel structure was clearly beyond the capabilities of the island's native inhabitants.
Suppressing his anxiety, Chen Qing slowly walked towards the location at a normal pace. When he was still a kilometer away, someone shouted from a distance, "Who goes there?"
The pure Central Plains dialect, with Qi Region accent, eased the minds of Chen Qing and Wei Gongcheng slightly. Both of them could sense the familiar fluctuations of Power of Faith, clearly belonging to the West Sea Army under Tian Heng.
Chen Qing didn't explain, but simply demonstrated the Power of Faith. The people above immediately recognized Chen Qing and hurriedly rushed down from the watchtower, bowing deeply when they were ten meters away from Chen Qing: "My lord!"
"No need for formalities, let's go inside and talk." Chen Qing gently lifted the person up with an invisible force.
The watchtower has a very good structure and even has cooling ice jade. To be honest, this place seems cheap, but it's actually a very easy place to relax and do nothing.
With decent subsidies, little to do, and a pleasant environment, Chen Qing even spotted several stunningly beautiful white women inside the watchtower. The soldiers, unable to hide in time, quickly knelt and begged for forgiveness, making the women feel uneasy as well.
Chen Qing waved his hand. "Let them go out first, I have something to ask you."
The soldiers breathed a sigh of relief and hurriedly and awkwardly escorted the women out.
Wei Gongcheng frowned. " Tian Heng is known for its strict discipline. The garrisons I've visited in several island nations are all very well-behaved. It seems that this place is too far away and too lax."
"It's alright." Chen Qing didn't seem to care. This place wasn't important to begin with; the garrison was just a formality. Besides, the soldiers hadn't done anything inappropriate. What was the big deal about them finding a few local women?
In his time, even those who went to work in North Africa would find a few local women. Compared to the locals, the soldiers stationed there were more powerful and had more money, making them the object of many women's pursuit. It would be a miracle if they could control their hormones.
"Those women have nothing to do with us, sir," the returning soldier quickly explained. "They come to harass us Heavenly Capital, and we can't just roughly drive away these weak women."
"Alright, the lord has no interest in your trivial matters." Wei Gongcheng interrupted them, getting straight to the point. "I'm here to ask you serious questions. Has anything unusual happened on this island in the past six months?"
"Something's not right?" The soldiers looked at each other, puzzled.
What abnormal things could happen on such a deserted island?
Aside from the occasional siren that visits the island, they are bored to death on weekdays, and often feel so leisurely that they feel like idle, rich old men.
Seeing the confused expressions on their faces, Chen Qing and Wei Gongcheng frowned. It seemed that these soldiers had no idea that something had happened here.
"Is the Underworld functioning properly here?" Wei Gongcheng asked calmly.
"It's normal," one of the soldiers said. "Two months ago, the shaman of the Yiluo Horde passed away and invited us to a feast. We even chatted with the Night Wandering God who came to collect the soul. There was nothing wrong with it. Why is the lord suddenly asking this?"
"Two months?" Wei Gongcheng was taken aback. "Only one person died in those two whole months?"
I'm in Liuzhou, and new souls enter the Underworld every day. Isn't the workload here a bit too easy?
The soldiers were taken aback. What did this official mean? Did he think too few people had died?
"Sir, this place is vast and sparsely populated. Our troops are stationed only around a few large Horde, and the distance between each Horde is farther than the distance between our Jiangnan county town. Normally, unless someone dies in the same Horde, we wouldn't go that far to the neighboring tribe. As for whether anyone has died in other Horde, you can only ask the troops stationed there. We usually don't even see them once a month."
"I see." Chen Qing scratched his head upon hearing this, feeling somewhat troubled.
The population in this area is too sparse, and coupled with abundant resources, there is probably little interaction between Horde. It's as if the heavens have blessed them with good fortune, which also leads to very little interaction between Horde, and intelligence is probably very scattered.
"With such a loose distance, it must be very troublesome for those wandering spirits to work, right?" Chen Qing asked.
"Indeed! Cough cough. Your Majesty has keen insight." The soldier hurriedly said, "The Horde are too far apart, and the Underworld here is severely understaffed, with only one Day Wandering God and one Night Wandering God. People die frequently, and it takes them several days to find them. There's only one City God on this island, unlike big cities like Liuzhou, which have several Underworld exits, causing those two god brothers to be on the move almost Heavenly Capital."
"However, there does seem to be one strange thing."
"Oh?" Chen Qing looked at the hesitant soldier and smiled reassuringly, "It's alright, just say what's on your mind, it doesn't matter even if you say something wrong."
"Thank you, sir," the soldier said with a sigh of relief, but still added, "Several patients have been behaving strangely lately."
"Patient?"
"Well, those dying patients were originally said by many local witch doctors to be beyond saving, and that we should prepare for their funerals. But for some reason, those patients just wouldn't breathe their last. It's been a month and they still haven't died. Now, even the witch doctors find it strange, because some patients, who are terminally ill, haven't had water for half a month, yet they're still alive. It's really quite odd. We don't know what's going on, so we can only wait for the spirit medium to come and ask them. But we don't know how to contact the spirit medium, so we can only wait patiently."
"He can survive half a month without water?" Chen Qing's pupils contracted as he realized a possibility. "Take me to see him!"