I become a god in another world

Chapter 646 Merits of Sacrifice
Chapter 646

Upon hearing Wu Ciping's words, everyone looked at each other in bewilderment, but none of them spoke at that moment.

As Zhao Fusheng asked the question, his mind raced: When You Hong first entered the village, he brought back news that Wu Jiabing (original name Wu Ciping) was the village chief, and there were a total of 126 households in the village.

This answer differs from Wu Ciping's current answer, suggesting that the number is suspicious and may not be a coincidence, but rather related to Gou Tou Village.

How did the villagers of Baili Temple know some information about Gou Tou Village? Could it be related to the laws governing the evil spirits in this place?
She kept this in mind, but did not rush to point it out at this moment. Instead, she said:

"Is this place still under the jurisdiction of Wuqing Prefecture?"

Wu Ciping did not hesitate this time:
"Naturally, it falls under the jurisdiction of Wuqing County."

Zhao Fusheng pressed further:
"Is it under the jurisdiction of Wuqing County, or is it under the control of the Chang family?"

Wu Ciping immediately felt the pressure.

Whether he was too perceptive or not, he sensed that Zhao Fusheng's question was getting to the heart of the matter, as if it had an underlying meaning.

These seemingly simple questions seem to contain a wealth of additional information, and cannot be treated as ordinary questions that can only be answered with a nod or a shake of the head.

If he answers incorrectly, he may face punishment.

"Is this question difficult to answer?" Zhao Fusheng smiled and tilted his head to look at him.

Wu Ciping then realized that even though he remained silent and did not answer, he had given her some clues, and she seemed to have guessed many things.

“Naturally, it falls under the jurisdiction of Wuqing County. How could it be related to the Chang family?” Sweat beaded on Wu Ciping's forehead. He shook his head, his lips dry.
"You're joking, sir."

"Who governs Wuqing County? The Chang family?" Zhao Fusheng asked again after his first question failed.

Wu Ciping's lips moved, but he didn't make a sound.

Zhao Fusheng then asked:
"Whom are we offering sacrifices to tonight? Are they gods?"

Her questions came one after another, and Wu Ciping was in a state of utter confusion. After a long while, he finally said:

"The offerings are for the gods—"

As soon as he finished speaking, as if anticipating Zhao Fusheng's next question, he was about to speak:

"Sir, I'm warning you, don't let your words cause trouble—"

Before he could finish speaking, Zhao Fusheng pressed him again:
"Does this deity belong to the Chang family?"

"..."

At that moment, the firelight and the night wind all ceased.

The crimson-black mist of blood flowing from that unsettlingly red bench seemed to freeze.

Wu Ciping's smile vanished completely, while Zhao Fusheng grinned from ear to ear.

“I understand,” she said.

Wu Ciping's face was cold:
"What do you unserstand?"

“There are some things that we both know, so why bother saying them out loud?” Zhao Fusheng said gently.

Wu Ciping shook his head:
"Logically, that's how it should be, but you're new here and don't know many things yet."

Zhao Fusheng opened his mouth as a matter of course:
"If I don't understand, then you can just tell me."

Her words silenced Wu Ciping's remaining words of advice. After a long pause, he sighed.

"It's true what they say, you can't reason with a damned devil."

"It's too early to say who deserves to die," Zhao Fusheng replied dismissively.

Wu Ciping sneered again:
"Sir, may I ask how I should address you?"

Zhao Fusheng then said:
"My surname is Zhao, Zhao Fusheng. We are here on the orders of Feng Du to investigate the mystery of the disappearance of Cheng Mengyin, Wu Ciping, and a group of ghost tamers and messengers more than thirty years ago." She smiled at Wu Ciping:

"I was worried that this trip would be fruitless, but who would have thought that we would run into them by such a coincidence as soon as we entered Lizhou."

Wu Ciping stared at her, his eyes wide with disbelief.

You think this is a good thing?

After entering Lizhou, Ding Datong, who had always been taciturn, could no longer hold back:

"Isn't this a good thing?" He was restless the whole way and barely spoke.

The eeriness of Bailici Village initially made Ding Datong uneasy, but upon seeing Wu Ciping, hope gradually began to sprout again:
“Lord Wu, I have read your records. More than 30 years ago, you were already a Silver General in Lizhou. Many years have passed. The life of a Ghost Tamer is not up to the level of a King General. It is already very lucky to have lived for so long.”

Ding Datong said hurriedly:

"You seem to be doing well now—"

Wu Ciping looked at him in surprise, then chuckled:
"It's amazing that there's such a wonderful person in Lord Zhao's group; what he says is truly pleasing to the ear."

His words carried a hint of sarcasm, which Ding Datong understood.

Zhao Fusheng frowned:
"Don't engage in verbal battles; winning is useless," she warned Wu Ciping.
Tell me about tonight's ritual.

Wu Ciping took a deep breath:

"You're already caught in this mess, so don't even think about escaping. You're unlucky to have entered Wuqing County; you'll be stuck here for the rest of your lives."

As he said this, he gave Ding Datong a disdainful look:
"Why would a perfectly good person like you want to come here and live to be a long-lived dog?"

“You—” Ding Datong roared in anger.

He should have been used to bowing and scraping to higher-ranking ghost tamers to save his life, but after leaving Changping County, the people of Wan'an County did not bully the weak. Zhao Fusheng was more than stern with him, but did not deliberately torment him. Hearing Wu Ciping's words, he couldn't suppress his anger for a moment.

After a long while, he forced himself to swallow his anger.

"Damn it, I've said what I should and shouldn't have said. It looks like my life is going to rot in this corner of the village and I won't be able to get out."

Wu Ciyuan, in a moment of euphoria, said things he shouldn't have and immediately regretted it; he acted as if he had nothing to lose.

"I may not be able to return to Wuqing County. I left a mansion there with three jars of gold hidden inside. Since you were sent by Fengdu to find me, I'll just give you two jars. If you have any conscience, you can return the remaining jar to me later so I can collect some merit—"

He looked at Zhao Fusheng and said:

"Can you say yes?"

His words revealed many complexities, which Zhao Fusheng remembered, and said:

"If you want me to enter Wuqing County, I will try my best to agree, but I cannot guarantee that I can do it."

"That's true." Wu Ciping laughed instead of getting angry upon hearing this.
"If you really take on what I'm saying, I'll think you're just talking big."

After he finished speaking, he said seriously:
"What do you want to know?"

"Let's start with merits and virtues?" Zhao Fusheng said.

Wu Ciping gave her a deep look:
"Lord Zhao is greedy. How can you explain merit points in a short time?" He looked at the fire and then at the black smoke on the ground.

While the group was speaking, the black mist had already spread out and rapidly expanded in all directions, enveloping the village.

The shadows beneath each villager's feet seemed to swirl and connect with the black mist. When the shadows moved, they pulled the villagers along with them, giving Zhao Fusheng an extremely strange feeling, as if the blood-red bench in front of him was the source of all the eerie things.

The bench placed in the middle of the ground is like a strange, eerie tree, and each villager of Baili Temple is like a 'fruit' on the tree—or perhaps a deadly rope hangs from the tip of each branch, ensnaring the heads of these villagers.

When the 'tree' moves, the villagers who are being pulled to their vital points also sway, and if they are not careful, they will be strangely pulled into an abyss of no return.

Zhao Fusheng looked down at the ground.

The feeling of being bound by the chains around her legs intensified.

But her ankles were clean, and no one had grabbed them with their hands.

However, something restless was wriggling in the shadows.

Zhao Fusheng smiled slightly, ignoring the strange change. Wu Ciping, seeing her actions, guessed that she also knew what was going on, and simply said, "When I'm doing you a favor, you'll eventually find out about the merit points once you enter this place. It's not a secret in Wuqing County."

He pondered for a moment:
"To make a long story short, merit points are something that everyone in Wuqing County must cultivate, so that the suffering in this life will bring blessings in the next."

Upon hearing his words, the villagers' numb faces revealed a look of longing.

"How do you earn merit points?" Zhao Fusheng asked.

Wu Ciping mumbled:

"Naturally, it is to make offerings to the gods in exchange for merit."

Where does God come from?

Zhao Fusheng did not ask the question again.

She had previously inquired whether the objects of worship in the village were deities, and whether the deities were under the control of the Chang family.

Wu Ciping did not reply at the time, but judging from his various expressions, the answer was self-evident.

……

At this time, Wuqing County in this special world was like a country within a country, and the Chang family was the actual ruler here.

They used some unknown method to control the lives and deaths of the people, forcing them to make offerings to the Chang family in exchange for a chance to survive.

Zhao Fusheng is still unclear about what this way of making a living is, but judging from Wu Ciping's reaction, this method of control must have grasped the lifeline of everyone and made them obey.

Zhao Fusheng currently speculates that he should use sacrificial rituals to curry favor with the Chang family in exchange for merit. Once he has accumulated enough merit, he can exchange it for blessings in his next life.

Based on his own miraculous rebirth, Zhao Fusheng guessed that this so-called 'afterlife' must be similar to the concept of reincarnation.

Thinking about this, a new guess came to her mind.

Did these people from Wuqing County truly return to life in other people's bodies? Did their physical bodies actually die? Was their consciousness truly 'reborn,' or was it just a cognitive confusion?

For example, Wu Ciping may have been trapped in Wuqing County. Perhaps he encountered some danger and his physical body could not escape, but his consciousness felt that he had already escaped and had "reincarnated" several times to move around.

Various guesses flashed through Zhao Fusheng's mind.

These are just her guesses; the truth remains to be explored by her.

"What's the use of accumulating more merit points?" Zhao Fusheng asked again.

The conversation between the two left the people of Wan'an County with their own thoughts, but some villagers from Baili Temple nearby couldn't help but speak out:

"Merit points are really useful."

"If I accumulate more good deeds, I will be reborn into a wealthy and noble family in my next life, where I will live a life of luxury," he said.

The others nodded in agreement:

"I only wish to be able to enter the household of some lord in the city and become a household slave."

"The Chang family's servants have lived good lives for generations." Everyone chimed in with their opinions.

When the topic of the afterlife came up, a flicker of life returned to their numb eyes.

"I heard there's food to eat."

"No white mud added." The villagers discussed enthusiastically: "We can add as much salt as we want. The salt is controlled by Master Chang, and even his servants can eat well."

……

The villagers have rigid thinking, confused logic, and their speech is incoherent.

But Zhao Fusheng understood the gist of it: the Chang family was living a good life, and everyone associated with the Chang family was doing well. These people didn't want to be ordinary people in their next life; they wanted to become servants in the Chang family, so they were desperately trying to accumulate merit points.

She understood what the villagers meant, but she still didn't understand the reason for the merit points, or how to successfully 'redeem' them.

Therefore, Zhao Fusheng looked at Wu Ciping:

"Lord Wu, what brings you to Baili Temple?"

Her question hit the nail on the head again.

Wu Ciping said:

"I made a mistake that displeased Steward Chang, but because I had accumulated enough merit in the past, I wasn't sentenced to the path of a slave, to do the most menial and filthy work. I was simply punished by being sent to this village. Once I have accumulated enough merit, I can find a way to return to Wuqing County, and then I can be reincarnated in my next life—"

As he said this, a look of melancholy appeared on his face:
"I dare not even think about returning to the Demon Suppression Division. Perhaps being a servant in the Chang family wouldn't be so bad."

Wu Ciping's words greatly overturned Ding Datong's understanding.

He was horrified:
"Lord Wu, are you sure you're not mistaken? You are a Ghost Tamer!"

"A ghost tamer? A bastard!" Wu Ciping couldn't hold back any longer and swore.

"..."

Zhao Fusheng's lips twitched.

“Here, you are useless, utterly useless.”

He shook his head.

"Sigh, you're still young. You'll understand later." He finished speaking, a look of weariness appearing on his face.
"Instead of wasting time on this, you should try to please Master Chang."

Zhao Fusheng watched him without showing any emotion:
"You want to go back to Wuqing County?"

"I want to go back." Wu Ciping nodded.

“I can’t endure a single day of life here—” he said, then paused, before giving a bitter smile:

"Actually, people can't survive in the city either."

"Lord Wu, when you entered Wuqing County, you didn't come alone, did you?" Zhao Fusheng asked, pulling him out of his reverie by his distraught appearance.

Wu Ciping chuckled:
"Husbands and wives are like birds in the same forest; when disaster strikes, they fly away separately. If even husbands and wives cannot be relied upon, let alone subordinates."

After he finished speaking, he sighed deeply:
"I just can't bear to part with my few jars of gold. I've only been here a few years, and it took me so much effort to save them up. If I can't go back, I wonder who will end up with them—"

Zhao Fusheng recalled that the records of the Demon Suppression Division mentioned that Wu Ciping was 'greedy for money'. Hearing him say this now, he gained a deeper understanding of his character.

Although the mention of 'gold' briefly lifted his spirits, Wu Ciping quickly became dejected:

"If I don't accumulate merit, if I die, I might be reborn as a farmer, living the same life as him and him—"

He pointed to a few villagers at random:
"Without merit or money for bribes, they may be even worse off than them a few generations later."

Finally, he waved his hand:

"Forget it, let's not talk about it anymore. In short, before you die here, you should prepare an escape route in advance, otherwise you won't have a good place to go after you die."

Wu Ciping's words were completely unexpected by everyone.

Wang Zhiyi was still processing the information in his words, and even found it hard to believe that she had never heard of these things when she came to Wuqing County many years ago.

"What's the deal with this sacrificial ceremony?" Zhao Fusheng stopped asking about the 'merit points' and steered the conversation back to the ceremony itself.

When the topic of sacrificial rites was mentioned, Wu Ciyou hesitated:
“There are large and small sacrifices every year, every quarter, and even every month.”

"What is the purpose of the sacrifice?" Zhao Fusheng asked calmly.

Wu Ciyou said:

"This is a set rule, designed to please the master."

He mentioned this with a slight degree of caution.

Clearly, this issue has touched upon some unsafe aspects.

(End of this chapter)