Chapter 166 - 151 Divination

Chapter 166: Chapter 151 Divination"Why do evil gods need to control their followers? In this regard, evil gods are just like heavenly gods." Li Chengfeng, as a teacher, was used to lecturing in class. When someone asked a question, especially someone he sincerely admired, he responded very thoroughly. "There are various theories about the birth of heavenly gods. The currently most accepted theory is the incense fire wish power theory. For example, when the beings of the human world suffer from disasters, pain, and illness, they imagine the existence of heavenly gods out of a reverence for nature, thus building temples and offering incense to them. The temples and incense gather the wish power of beings, and finally, this wish power gains a spirit, becoming a heavenly god, From a certain perspective, the more followers a heavenly god has, the stronger the power they possess." Zhou Xuan picked a fault, asking, "Since this is the case, why haven’t new heavenly gods been created after the fall of the old ones?" "Firstly, the faith in Jing Country today has too many facets. Countless numbers of tangkou, the newly emerging alien ghosts every year, the gods of each state—all these divide the faith, dividing the wish power into many, many shares, but none is sufficient to create a heavenly god." Zhou Xuan felt Li Chengfeng’s words made some sense. He discovered that the faith in Jing Country was indeed diverse. The number of Bodhisattvas and Arhats wasn’t small, and each had followers, with tangkou lighting incense, all dividing the relatively fixed amount of wish power. "Secondly, it is rumored that all nine major heavenly gods have fallen. However, through generations of research, it was gradually discovered that not all heavenly gods have perished. At least a large portion has not—they’re merely sleeping." "What makes you so sure?" Zhou Xuan asked. "In the past two thousand years, traces of fire have appeared across regions. Although these appearances are few and only traces, no one has actually witnessed the fire, it still strongly proves that the vast majority of heavenly gods are alive." Li Chengfeng smiled, saying, "I am a believer myself. I worship the heavenly god of pain and disaster. 160 years ago, at the site of a village ruin on the Tiantong Coast, a sacrificial site was discovered. Within a broken flying lantern, the breath of a heavenly god was found, which was a trace of fire!" "If heaven and earth were considered a container with a huge capacity, it would eventually have a limit, not infinitely expanding. Within this container, only nine heavenly gods can be accommodated. Even if one or two heavenly gods truly perished, the space they left would quickly be devoured and filled by the other gods. Unless enough heavenly gods fall, there won’t be sufficient space for new ones to grow." Li Chengfeng pulled the topic back here, saying, "Heavenly gods rely on the gathering of wish power from the human world, and so do evil gods. However, heavenly gods have many incense-burning followers. They don’t require too much control, as there are always streams of followers to light incense for them! But it’s different for evil gods. They are viewed as evil, feared, dreaded, and loathed, so they can never acquire a large amount of incense fire wish power. Only in some remote villages or hidden places in cities can believers erect temples and offer incense to them. Unlike heavenly gods, who have vast incense burning, evil gods must tightly control their followers, extracting the maximum incense from each one and squeezing it as much as possible." "Is there so much involved in this!?" "A lot. Because of the need for strong control, evil gods will adopt practices like name offerings, hair swallowing, bone offering, etc." Li Chengfeng explained, Name offering is when, before a human sacrifice, believers write their names on a piece of paper, burn it to ash, mix it with water into a paste, and smear it on the evil god. Hair swallowing is where the believer and the evil god cut a lock of their hair, mix it together, and the believer swallows it. Bone offering is the believer taking a piece of their bone and offering it as a sacrifice to the evil god. The Blood Eye: when a believer locks eyes with an evil god, over time, the evil god implants a thought into the believer’s eyes, like a blood-colored worm hiding in the whites. Once the evil god needs to control the believer, the blood-colored worm will quickly burrow into the believer’s brain. These are four common methods for evil god control in Jing Country. Therefore, some experienced yin practitioners would know not to write their name, cut their hair, or look into the eyes of certain strange people or idols, should they ever enter a temple that seems eerie! But in the last ten years, evil gods seldom descended, and gradually, people forgot these three taboos! "Human sacrifice is a communication with the evil gods, but I noticed your ceremony lacked control methods, so I remind you of this." "Isn’t it better not to have any?" Zhou Xuan felt strange, wondering why you saw me as an evil god, yet I didn’t control you. If I gave you blessings for free, wouldn’t that make you happy? "The evil god is not you, but the tattoo on your body... You don’t control me; I’m afraid the blessing won’t be effective." "No problem, write it." Zhou Xuan straightened his left hand, waiting for Li Chengfeng to write on his arm. "Are you sure you don’t need it?" Li Chengfeng asked again. "Rest assured." Zhou Xuan carefully probed the "Heavenly Official Blessing" tattoo with his perception. It truly had no requirements for "hair swallowing, name offering, or bone offering." Adding unnecessary requirements could make Zhou Xuan truly become an evil god! "Since the young master insists, I will write." Li Chengfeng dipped his fingers in blood again and wrote the three words "Little Guardian" on Zhou Xuan’s left forearm. As soon as the words landed, the nail of Zhou Xuan’s middle finger visibly grew, extending half an inch before stopping. The newly grown nail bore faint tree branch patterns. Zhou Xuan clipped the nail with scissors, then inserted it into the blood mark left by Li Chengfeng. A strange sensation immediately filled Zhou Xuan and Li Chengfeng. Li Chengfeng sensed a feeling of growth; the flesh torn open earlier automatically healed, and his somewhat plump body inexplicably felt lighter. Zhou Xuan’s feeling was even stranger; he suddenly found his face stiffening, wanting to smile but unable to control his facial muscles. In a corner of the Old Painting Pavilion stood a mirror. Zhou Xuan glanced at the mirror, finding his expression overly solemn and stern, his posture standing upright. Not only had his expression and stance changed, but even the bone structure of his face was altering—his face thinned, and his cheekbones became prominent, making Zhou Xuan’s face appear sharp. Curious about the changes, Zhou Xuan wanted to look closely in the mirror, but even lifting his hand and stepping altered his walking posture. He first turned sideways, then lifted one leg extremely high, raised his right hand, took a large stride forward... "Is this... a Heavenly Gang step?" Li Chengfeng was shocked, exclaiming. "Mr. Li, what did you see?" Zhou Xuan asked. Li Chengfeng didn’t respond. Immersed in his world, he muttered, "No wonder there’s no control method... No wonder... Though it’s a human sacrifice, it’s not a communication between a believer and an evil god, but a communication between a believer and a god!" ... Over in the Yunluo Mountain Range, the Copper Coin Priest wasn’t pleased for long before his face drooped. His expression was extremely unpleasant, his face ashen. To say, he had also read it wrong. When he found out that Zhou Xuan was going to perform a human sacrifice, he thought the tattoo Zhou Xuan comprehended was that of an Ancient Clan. But now he realized that human sacrifice was not only a communication with an evil god but could also be used by gods. Or rather, it wasn’t a human sacrifice but another ancient Wu Family ritual. His fluke, in the end, was shattered by Zhou Xuan’s "Heavenly Gang Step" and fiercely stern expression. "It turns out it’s a Divination Ceremony!" The Copper Coin Priest squeezed out a phrase bitterly! Divination Ceremony, put simply, means inviting a god to possess. In the Wu Family, there are significant events, such as sacrificial beheadings, where the executioner needs to undergo divination, beheading the sacrificial offering as a god. The Copper Coin Priest also knew that the tattoo lineage had two branches: Tree Clan and Ancient Clan. While the tattoos were generally similar, they differed in temperament. The Tree Clan’s tattoos exhibit a touch of divinity in the eerie, but the Ancient Clan’s tattoos... are essentially evil ghosts! Besides the differences in temperament, The Tree Clan’s tattoos include the "twenty-four divine pictures," each painting requiring a Tattoo Master to undergo divination to "transform" this tattoo. Since Zhou Xuan has already undergone divination, it indicates "Heavenly Official Blessing" is one of the twenty-four divine pictures. "Tree Clan, Tree Clan... I sustain your granny’s tree!" The Copper Coin Priest pounded his fists fiercely on the Human Skin Temple’s altar. "Ah!" A terrified shout came from under the altar. These past two days, the Copper Coin Priest had ordered his tribe not to approach the sacrificial site, so why was there a noise from under the altar? He stooped down sharply, looking under the altar... ... "It’s not a human sacrifice. This seems to be the Wu Family’s divination! The god has possessed." Li Chengfeng, with his profound knowledge of mysticism, quickly realized this upon seeing the Heavenly Gang step. "Having seen the Star Lord, kneel quickly." Zhou Xuan’s consciousness had been occupied by the divine nature after divination. His sharp gaze swept toward Li Chengfeng, making a sword gesture with his left hand, pointing at him. During this divination, Zhou Xuan was possessed by the Star Lord of Jing Country’s "Stargazing" tangkou god! Li Chengfeng, for a moment, didn’t know whether to kneel or stand. Although the other party was possessed by the Star Lord, Li Chengfeng, firstly, was from the Bone Elder Association and didn’t believe in the Star Lord. Secondly, being of considerable age and holding his status, kneeling to Zhou Xuan, this young man, seemed improper. But standing, the other party is, after all, a god, albeit merely a possessed god, just a god’s thought! As he grappled with this inner conflict, Zhou Xuan’s right hand began to glow light blue. The glow grew more intense, becoming a mist that enveloped Zhou Xuan’s face, followed by sounds of swallowing and chewing. Suddenly, Zhou Xuan couldn’t help but let out a low growl; his sharp face turned wild, and his steps were no longer the Heavenly Gang step, but the mysterious and eerie steps of the Zhou Family’s Nuo dance. A fierce, savage aura wantonly pervaded the entire Old Painting Pavilion. The thought of the Star Lord invoked during the divination was completely consumed by the Nuo God! Zhou Xuan, possessed by the Nuo God, glared at Li Chengfeng. With just one look, Li Chengfeng was no longer conflicted and knelt straight! He felt that offending the Star Lord earlier would only result in misfortune, a paper tiger scaring people. But facing the Nuo God in front of him, if offended, the other party could truly devour him...