Chapter 61: Divine Punishment for Disrespecting the Gods?

An evil god?

Everyone shuddered all over.

They looked at the Red Lotus statue once again. Whether it was because the temple was growing increasingly dim, the originally gentle-looking Red Lotus statue seemed to be veiled in a layer of black mist, appearing somewhat ominous and evil, and its facial features even began to twist and distort.

Elder Ke’s expression turned cold. “Audacious! How dare you utter such wild nonsense before the Mountain God?”

“Truth being spoken makes you feel exposed, so now you are flying into a rage out of shame?” Lang Jiuchuan sneered. “Hiding bones within a clay statue, accepting worship, offerings, and prayers from people day after day, year after year. With incense burning endlessly night and day, and faith accumulating over time, it prevents the dead from passing on to reincarnation. Then, using living humans as sacrifices, indulging in bloodlust and severing souls, it ultimately morphs into an evil entity.”

“Shut your mouth! She is the revered Red Lotus Mountain God of our Daughter Village, not some evil apparition!” Elder Ke was extremely agitated, bringing a bone flute to his lips. Before he could even blow it, Jiang Che batted it out of the air with a single swipe of his paw.

Elder Ke’s expression changed drastically as he looked at his empty hands.

“A mountain god is the spiritual essence of a mountain, tempered through countless gales, rains, and thunderclaps. It nourishes all things with the mountain’s spiritual essence, and in return, receives feedback to give birth to spiritual awareness. Only when it has the devotion of worldly mortals and the supply of wish-power can it truly be considered a mountain god. What is she, then?” Lang Jiuchuan pointed at the Red Lotus statue and sneered. “You sealed her corpse inside a clay statue, which is equivalent to burying bones. When a person dies, the lamp goes out; the physical body returns to the dust, and to be buried in peace and have the soul attain reincarnation is the proper way of the cycle. But you? You sealed her corpse in clay, made people worship her day and night, tricked ignorant commoners into making offerings, and nurtured her into an endless, ravenous greed. She brings profound harm to people.”

Shen Qinghe looked at the Red Lotus statue. This lifelike clay statue actually still sealed human bones inside, and every single day, people came here to burn incense and make offerings. People came to kowtow and beg for the Mountain God Lady’s protection. Every year, under the pretty-sounding name of the Mountain God’s wedding, it was actually living human sacrifice offered to her. With wish-power combined with human sacrifices, her power grew stronger day by day, naturally instilling greater fear and making people trust even more that the Mountain God was divine, thus continuing the sacrifices.

How terrifying!

So this was also what Lang Jiuchuan meant by human-made. There was originally no evil in this place; there was only the malice of living mortals. But once evil thoughts arose, evil itself was born.

If this had merely been to take revenge on those villagers who had desecrated the red lotuses, an eye for an eye would mean they deserved to die. But what about the innocent people afterwards? Who would cry out grievances for them?

Shen Qinghe’s expression was cold and stern.

“No, it is not like that…”

“The offering of incense does not add Buddhist compassion to her; it only makes her increasingly malevolent, because it defies the principles of nature and violates the rules of the heavenly dao. If everyone were like you, sealing the dead in earth and concealing them with statues of bodhisattvas and goddesses to be worshipped day and night, what kind of things would be brought forth? If not demons and ghosts, then evil gods, or perhaps ghost kings? Once all sorts of evils emerge, wouldn’t the world be thrown into utter chaos?” Lang Jiuchuan said coldly, “Isn’t the reason Daughter Village became Daughter Village entirely due to your vengeful mindset, which conjured up such an evil god and let her spiral out of control? Don’t tell me her appetite was this huge right from the beginning.”

Veins bulging on his forehead and his eyes splitting with rage, Elder Ke suddenly burst into wild laughter. “What do you know? Daughter Village having this day is entirely bringing it upon themselves! They were the ones who committed evil first and thus encountered all of this. They were the ones who pioneered the practice of sacrifice, which led to the subsequent bridegroom sacrifices. If you want to blame someone, blame only them for making their own karma, which invited divine punishment—it has nothing to do with anyone else! What did the Mountain God do wrong? She was merely giving an eye for an eye.”

Shen Qinghe said coldly, “What about the remaining innocent people? Those who were not involved in the Red Lotus incident, including future generations of descendants, especially travelers from outside—what did they do wrong?”

Elder Ke’s gaze was gloomy and cold as he stared at him. “Wrong? Of course they did nothing wrong. They were chosen to serve the Mountain God; they ought to feel honored. It is a blessing to be treated thus.”

“Why hasn’t this blessing ever fallen upon you, then?” Lang Jiuchuan chuckled, feigning a sudden realization with an “ah.” “I almost forgot, you consider yourself her son, so naturally you wouldn’t do such ethically corrupt things. But actually, you could.”

“Little bitch, you’re courting death!” Elder Ke flung out a handful of poisonous powder.

Jiang Che let out a roar, the howling pressure of the tiger’s roar instantly turning into a gale that blew the poisonous powder right back at him. He didn’t forget to spit disdainfully, “Insidious villain, I was already guarding against your sneaky tricks.”

He turned his head to cast a sidelong glance at Lang Jiuchuan. “Am I mighty or what? Quickly, praise me.”

Lang Jiuchuan: “Would you like to take a look at how everyone around you has blood spraying from their mouths, noses, and ears due to that roar of yours? The space here is small; were you trying to make everyone deaf in both ears?”

Jiang Che looked over at the crowd and saw them clutching their ears, groaning in agony, with bloody streaks seeping from the corners of their mouths, their noses, and even between the fingers pressing against their ears.

Oh no, what to do when feeling a guilty conscience?

He didn’t dare to provoke the unhinged one, but taking it out on the mastermind to vent his anger should be fine.

Jiang Che rushed over to Elder Ke, whose face was melting and rotting from the backlash of the poisonous powder, and swiped at him with a paw. “It’s all your fault.”

Elder Ke let out a miserable scream.

The onlookers watched as that person’s face was clawed by something, flesh and skin rolling back in a horrifying manner.

These were the claw marks of a great beast, so the tiger roar they had heard was not an auditory hallucination.

However, where was the tiger?

“Could it be a tiger ghost?” Luo Tian muttered. Indeed, if a person lives long enough, they truly get to see everything.

Jiang Che: “…”

Shut up! What tiger ghost? Laozi is the descendant of a divine beast, a spiritual tiger with divine awareness! You have no eyes for quality!

Elder Ke’s face was covered in blood as he glared at Lang Jiuchuan. “You all will meet your retribution! Those who disrespect the gods will face divine punishment. You will have your retribution, and the Red Lotus Mountain God will punish you.”

Lang Jiuchuan looked at Elder Ke, holding the Judge’s Brush, and said, “You are wrong. She is not Red Lotus; she is merely an evil god conjured by your own selfishness. Red Lotus shouldn’t have been like this!”

Elder Ke’s blood-red eyes seemed about to pop out of their sockets as he glared at her. “Shut your mouth! You are not allowed to defile the Mountain God! She is not an evil entity; she is a righteous god.”

She was his mother, existence akin to a righteous god! Otherwise, how could she have rescued him from the cliffside when he was supposed to perish completely, continuously extending his life for him? If she were not his birth mother, how could she treat him like this?

She was his god!

He was the son of a god!

Elder Ke was already somewhat deranged. He lunged fiercely toward the Red Lotus statue, dropped to his knees with a heavy thud, and cried, “Mountain God Lady, open your eyes and look at these sinners!”

The moment his words fell, a violent gale suddenly swept through the temple, rolling in massive waves of malevolent and baleful Qi, bone-chillingly cold. Before anyone could react, a strange sound was heard.

Everyone looked up, their eyes filled with shock.

The Red Lotus statue had come to life. She opened her eyes completely, and deep within those eyes were two blood-red lotuses. She blinked and stepped down from the lotus pedestal.

Elder Ke cried out in ecstatic surprise, “The Mountain God Lady has manifested her spirit!”

Lang Jiuchuan stood unmoving, yanking down a certain cat that had lost its majesty. She stroked the back of its neck absentmindedly, gazing coldly at the Red Lotus statue, and said, “You chattered for so long—you finally poked your head out after turtling up for this long!”

(Thanks for catching typos, daily requests for recommendation votes~)