Chapter 228 - 224: Mythical Realm, Death Is Not the End

Song Ciwan waited in line for about ten minutes, and in doing so, got another glimpse into the lives of Pinglan City’s common folk.

She heard people chattering about who had died or been injured the previous night, who had gotten lucky and obtained three Spirit Talismans from the City God Temple first thing in the morning, and which unlucky soul had all their mountain goods, brought to the city with such difficulty, utterly ruined, making it hard to face their family back home...

Then someone spoke up, "What’s so hard to face? Would it have been better if the person had been lost along with their goods? Making it out with your life is a huge blessing. What’s there to be unhappy about?"

This drew a chorus of agreement. "Exactly! As long as you’re alive, isn’t that better than anything?"

But then another person said, "It was so chaotic in the city last night. Do you think our village was any better? I’m just... worried about my family."

At these words, a silence fell over the people nearby.

After a moment, someone said, "The villages have Earth Gods, too. What’s there to be afraid of?"

But another person retorted, "Your village might have an Earth God, but ours doesn’t! All we have is an Ancestral Hall!"

Someone else chimed in, "You must be from Chen Family Village, right? The power of the Chen Family Ancestral Hall is famous throughout the region."

The person from Chen Family Village chuckled modestly. "You’re too kind. It’s all thanks to the clan elders who maintain it so well!"

And just like that, the conversation veered off in an unexpected direction.

People went from discussing the city to talking about their own families and villages.

Song Ciwan listened in for a while, gaining a bit more insight into the rural customs of Cangling County.

Since arriving in this world, she had spent almost all her time in cities. After leaving Su Yang City, she had come to Pinglan City.

Although she had journeyed through mountains and rivers, passed through many towns, and skirted numerous villages in between, she had been traveling with the Situong Escort Agency. The agency always stuck to the main roads, so Song Ciwan had never really gotten a close look at what the countryside in this world was like.

Standing in line and listening to the people talk, she found it all quite interesting.

As she listened, she learned that there were many particular customs surrounding the worship of Ancestral Halls and Earth Gods. The most interesting part was that the Earth God of certain villages could actually be chosen from among the local villagers after they died!

Some villagers commanded great respect and were highly capable in life, earning the trust of people from all the surrounding areas.

If such a person died an unnatural death and the villagers felt a profound sense of loss, and if more than ninety percent of them were willing to worship that person collectively, the village chief could then petition the Court for investiture. The worshipped individual could then give birth to a Divine Spirit after death and become the local Earth God.

Song Ciwan was secretly astonished. ’Isn’t this just a form of deification?’

’So the Great Zhou Court even has the power to create gods!’

After her initial surprise, Song Ciwan thought of the Su Yang City God, Liu.

Liu City God himself had said that he had been stationed at Demon Suppression Pass for many years. Only after dying in battle was he invested as the Su Yang City God and subsequently came to Su Yang.

His case was also a classic example of this deification.

Song Ciwan hadn’t thought about it this way before because Liu City God had been a Cultivator in life. The fact that he became a City God after death made it easy to subconsciously overlook the role the Court played in the process.

But as it turned out, the Great Zhou Court could even deify mortals into Earth Gods!

Lost in thought, Song Ciwan couldn’t help but let her mind wander, secretly speculating. ’I wonder what the story is behind Pinglan City’s City God?’

’To be invested as the City God of a county capital like Pinglan, with such unfathomable strength... he must have been an extraordinary figure in his mortal life.’

This brought another piece of information to Song Ciwan’s attention: in this world, death was not the true end.

Not everyone could become a wraith or be deified by the Court after death, but the very existence of these two paths was something Song Ciwan had to be mindful of.

Speaking of which, ever since she began her Cultivation, while she considered herself a good person, she had in fact killed her fair share of people.

This made Song Ciwan stop and think. ’Among the people I’ve killed, could any of them have become wraiths? Or perhaps, were any of them candidates for deification?’

’If death isn’t the end, how can I ensure my enemies stay dead, instead of rising again to cause trouble?’

Song Ciwan mulled over these questions, but for the moment, she could find no answers.

Ultimately, her knowledge was simply too limited.

The knowledge she had gained by selling items to the Heaven and Earth Scale was not enough to give her a comprehensive understanding of this world. The process was too random and lacked system. Though Song Ciwan was not weak, she was, in essence, a self-taught Cultivator following an unorthodox path.

’This is a major problem, and one I must solve.’

There was another issue: the Human Race was, without a doubt, a short-lived species.

A Martial Artist at the Innate First Transformation could live up to 150 years at most. Cultivators lived a bit longer; the Qi Refining Stage typically granted a lifespan of two to three hundred years, the Divinity Transformation Stage five to seven hundred, and as for Earth Immortals—

—even those at the Divine Refining Stage, respectfully called Earth Immortals, could generally live for a thousand to fifteen hundred years at most.

Take the Xie Family Ancestor, for example. Legend had it that he was already a thousand years old, and so rumors quietly circulated that his lifespan was drawing to a close and he could pass away at any moment.

Why was the Xie Family so obsessed with the Primordial Longevity Pearl? It was undoubtedly because their ancestor’s long life was nearing its end!

Although humans were the most spiritual of all beings, born with innate intelligence, it was exceedingly difficult for them to escape their fated lifespan.

Song Ciwan had the Heaven and Earth Scale and could sell off Malice to extend her own life with relative ease, so the issue didn’t resonate with her too deeply.

But now, she felt she truly had to take this problem seriously.

This led to another question: ’Humans are short-lived. So, if a person becomes a wraith or is deified after death, how much does their lifespan change?’

’Do wraiths have a limited lifespan?’

’Do Divine Spirits have a limited lifespan?’

Song Ciwan realized with a start that she had no idea about either of these things.

And there were almost no folk tales about such matters.

...

A hundred thoughts spun through Song Ciwan’s mind. Just as she was deep in contemplation, the line ahead of her cleared, and it was her turn to leave the city.

Leaving the city was easier than entering. Song Ciwan had a very low-key presence, and the soldiers guarding the gate just urged people along casually. "Move it, move it! Next!"

Song Ciwan followed a few commoners ahead of her, keeping her head down as she passed through the long tunnel of the city gate.

High up in the archway of the gate hung a Treasure Mirror.

The mirror showed no particular reaction, but the moment she stepped out of the city, the Celestial Net Shield she carried close to her body suddenly stirred!

The Celestial Net Shield, a Three-star Level Marvel, possessed the passive ability to block divinatory scrying.

It could only be used three times in total. Song Ciwan had already expended two of its uses. This was the third!

’Who is trying to scry me?’

Song Ciwan quickened her pace, leaving the city gate behind and immediately melting into the crowd moving away from the city.

The nascent divinity in her Sea of Consciousness throbbed, as if faintly wanting to respond to the distant scrying from an unknown source.

In the end, however, Song Ciwan was not yet a true Divinity Transformation Stage Cultivator and lacked the specific Cultivation Techniques for this purpose. She could only forcefully suppress the throbbing of her nascent divinity.