Chapter 384: Incense Offering and Ordination

Although it was unbelievable, Lu Yang tested a few more times until the old man was almost scattered in soul and spirit, before finally confirming that the other party had really been ambushed by him.

Then there was nothing more to say.

Action, soul search!

Fortunately, after the other party left the Earth Temple, his stature dropped significantly, falling directly from falsely holding Foundation Establishment to Qi Refining Perfection cultivating a Great Divine Ability.

And dealing with Qi Refining, there was no need for torture.

Soon, as Lu Yang’s Divine Sense surged in, the old man’s memory fragments emerged all at once, impressively revealing his accumulated experience from half a lifetime of cultivation.

“The origin of this Land Deity was actually just the first village chief of Baixiang Village. Back then, he led dozens of households to reclaim barren land in this Taiyue Mountain and established Baixiang Village. After death, he was spontaneously worshipped by villagers and underwent Incense Offering and Ordination, thus becoming the current Taiyue Mountain Land Deity…”

“Incense Offering and Ordination.”

Lu Yang lowered his eyelids and quickly dug out the most critical part from the Land Deity’s memory, which was the current cultivation system of Seven Luminaries Heaven.

The cultivation of Seven Luminaries Heaven could be summarized in eight words.

Incense Offering and Ordination, Ascending to Heaven in Five Steps.

First Ordination: gaining the worship of people from one township or one village, one can become a Land Deity. In the wretched place, this would be at the level of falsely holding Foundation Establishment.

That said, this type of Incense Offering Deity had great restrictions. The biggest restriction was the jurisdiction. For example, the Land Deity before him had the strength of falsely holding Foundation Establishment inside his own Earth Temple, but once he left the Earth Temple, his stature was only equivalent to a Qi Refining Perfection cultivator possessing a Great Divine Ability.

“But even so, it’s still very exaggerated.”

Falsely holding Foundation Establishment is still Foundation Establishment. Having stature is stronger than having no stature.

More importantly, this cultivation method was incredibly fast. As long as you could gain the worship of mortals, under the enhancement of incense offerings, you could ascend to the sky in one step immediately!

For example, wasn’t this Baixiang Village Land Deity just like that?

An ordinary mortal in life, he became a Great Cultivator falsely holding Foundation Establishment after death. In the wretched place, who knows how many Qi Refining cultivators would be envious and jealous.

“As for above the Land Deity, it’s the City God.”

There were four ranks of City Gods.

County City God, Prefecture City God, Provincial City God, and the highest-ranking Capital City God, corresponding to Foundation Establishment Early Stage, Middle Stage, Late Stage, and the final Great Perfection respectively.

As the name suggested, a County City God was a City God who could receive incense offerings from a county. However, although it was said to be a county, a considerable portion was actually intercepted and sent to higher places. The Prefecture City God was born from this. Similarly, there were Provincial City Gods, and finally the Capital City God who governed all City Gods in the world.

Progressing layer by layer, like paying taxes.

Thus, a City God system covering the whole world and as solid as an iron bucket was established. The entire Seven Luminaries Heaven and the vast divine land of the Central Continent were under the rule of the City God system.

“Very similar to the Dao Court, but much worse than the Dao Court.”

Lu Yang pondered in his heart. This people-based system was similar to the Jiangdong Dao Court, but the City God system upheld incense offerings and relied heavily on the populace.

However, the [Official Position] of the Dao Court didn’t have so many restrictions. It was completely bestowed by the Dao Court Son of Heaven. The populace only needed to maintain a number.

And the Dao Court was much stricter than the City God system.

Under the Dao Court’s rule, there were never any loose cultivators. Any force must have a record in the Dao Court departments; otherwise, they couldn’t even cultivate.

Compared to that, the City God system had too many loopholes.

The biggest loophole was that human hearts change easily, and the so-called incense fire was too easily stripped away. Not everyone would believe in and worship the City God.

So there were [Evil Cults].

“The so-called Evil Cults are actually establishing faiths distinct from the City God system, undergoing Ordination to become deities, and even wanting to overthrow the existence of the City God system in turn…”

“However, the strength of most Evil Cults isn’t strong. Most are entrenched outside the vast divine land of the central continent, in inaccessible places, making it hard to cultivate powerful incense offering deities. There are only two exceptions: one is named [White Lotus Sect], worshipping the [Unborn Venerable Mother], and the other is the ancestral temple of the imperial court…”

Seeing this, Lu Yang’s gaze became brighter and brighter.

“This Incense Offering Divine Dao… Good stuff!”

Just needing the simplest faith to convert mortal thoughts into power of incense fire, then raise cultivation and stature —this was simply too suitable for him!

Because he had the [Myriad Spirits Banner]!

In Lu Yang’s view, the City Gods of Seven Luminaries Heaven were even too innocent, actually obtaining incense offering faith by protecting mortals from start to finish.

Where was the need for such trouble?

A little mind-confusing technique could solve it casually.

In this aspect, the [White Lotus Sect] touched upon it a bit, having many mind-confusing methods to gather incense offerings, but compared to the [Myriad Spirits Banner], it was still too naive.

Because the congregants of the [White Lotus Sect] might betray.

But the banner spirits of the [Myriad Spirits Banner] were absolutely loyal!

Thinking of this, Lu Yang had already started calculating: “According to the memory of the Baixiang Village Land Deity, the world’s incense offerings currently support at most three Capital City Gods.”

Currently divided equally among the City God system, the [White Lotus Sect], and the Imperial Ancestral Temple.

Although the three parties fought for power and profit, they also formed a delicate balance. No one wanted a fourth existence on equal footing with themselves to appear.

And the method adopted by the three parties was also simple.

Control the population.

After all, the foundation of the Incense Offering Divine Dao lay in people. More population meant more faith, more incense offerings, and naturally more Incense Offering Deities could be supported.

So as long as the population was controlled, the possibility of a fourth Capital City God was cut off.

“But conversely… as long as the people of Seven Luminaries Heaven have babies desperately and the population skyrockets, let alone three, even nine Capital City Gods could be supported!”

Nine Capital City Gods? Nine Foundation Establishment Perfection cultivators!

“This is my opportunity!”

With this thought, a cold light suddenly lit up in Lu Yang’s eyes. If he could really achieve this step, he would have hope to kill his way back to that wretched place!

But soon he returned to calm.

Everything is hard at the beginning. Although his ideal was lofty, reality was harsh.. To specialize in the Incense Offering Divine Way, he had a fundamental problem to solve.

He was not a local!

Although under Hong Yun’s development, Seven Luminaries Heaven didn’t reject outsiders, it was also unlikely to provide outsiders with treatment equal to locals.

Including these Banner Spirits on me, they are ultimately not locals of Seven Luminaries Heaven. Without the influence of [Dao Fruit], no matter how loyal, they can’t generate faith incense offerings out of thin air. If I want to walk the Incense Offering Divine Dao, the only way is to make Seven Luminaries Heaven accept me and treat me as one of its own…

But how to do this?

Lu Yang stroked his chin. Unless he could bribe the world realm like last time in the [Myriad Martial World Realm], he would always be an outsider in Seven Luminaries Heaven.

How to bribe?

Earth Vein Qi… No, use a whole Earth Vein!

Eight Hundred Li Skull Mountain!

Thinking back now, I should have taken the Earth Vein of the Eight Hundred Li Skull Mountain when I was in Jiangbei. But I actually turned a blind eye to it…

Lu Yang slapped his head. He should have noticed something wrong back then. After all, the Skull Mountain Earth Vein was good stuff, yet he seemed to have completely forgotten it at that time. Looking back now, Heaven and Earth probably had already been secretly interfering with his thoughts through the Immortal Spirit body back then!

Lu Yang truly got angrier the more he thought about it.

“Heaven and earth are ruthless… then don’t blame me for being ruthless either.”

Thinking of this, Lu Yang decided immediately. to undermine the heavens and earth, he would start with the Eight Hundred li Skull Mountain. Otherwise, how could he continue to progress in Seven Luminaries Heaven?

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