Conferred God: Got cramped at the beginning

Chapter 670: Humane Duty, Ferrying the Ghosts
The Xiang River is as deep as an abyss.

Those are the countless lives that have been swallowed up by the Xiang River over the years.

Those countless creatures who died unexpectedly had not yet reached the end of their lifespans, and the place where they fell was the divine domain of the God of Xiang River, so they could not be led to the underworld.

After a long time, ordinary souls, under the influence of the water flow, turned into countless ghosts, twisting and wailing in it.

As a result, more and more ghosts turned into resentful spirits and lingered here, almost turning the Xiang River into a small hell on earth - therefore, those souls whose lifespans had come to the end were also bound here and unable to reincarnate.

Not only the Xiang River, but every dark corner in the territory of Chu State is home to the gathering of souls that have never returned to the underworld.

The same is true even inside the mountain gates of those immortal sects.

The moment he noticed this scene, Yun Zhongjun immediately understood one of his responsibilities.

There is a difference between humans and ghosts, and between yin and yang - if yin ghosts stay in the human world for a long time, it will definitely be a hindrance to humanity.

After the ancient ghosts and gods of the underworld gave up their authority over the underworld, the power of the world fell into the underworld. However, the power of the world was not unified in the underworld.

The souls between heaven and earth cannot be introduced into the underworld in time, and the resentful souls between heaven and earth have greatly increased their resistance to the underworld.

After all, the newly arrived gods of the underworld are not like those ancient ghosts and gods of the netherworld. They have experienced countless long years, and any traveler who comes here will have Taiyi's merits and deeds as the first.

As for the ghosts and gods in the underworld today, let alone Taiyi, there are even many who have not yet perfected the power of immortals.

——Therefore, as the ghosts and gods in the underworld compromised with each other, some places appeared in the world that were beyond the reach of the underworld's authority.

One of his duties as the God of Humanity is to fill the gaps in the underworld and gather the ghosts scattered in the human world, and either shelter them or send them to the netherworld.

As for the proportion of the underworld authority supplemented by the God of Humanity, it naturally depends on the comparison of power - if the God of Humanity is powerful, then when sending these souls back to the underworld, the God of Humanity will naturally have the final say.

If the God of Humanity is weak, then when sending souls to the underworld, he must naturally follow the rules of the underworld.

"It's filled with smoke and foul air." Yun Zhongjun said this instinctively, not knowing whether he was referring to the place where ghosts were disturbing or the underworld that was in the process of being adjusted.

Then, Yun Zhongjun stretched out his hand, and the hidden cave kingdom of God seemed to have crossed a boundary and appeared in the perception of all the immortals and gods in the territory of Chu like a gloomy sun.

The inferior incense sticks filled with distracting thoughts turned into invisible clouds in Yun Zhongjun's mind, flowing along the Xiang River, and slowly spread in all directions from every temple and shrine of Yun Zhongjun.

Those ordinary practitioners could not perceive the emergence of the cave kingdom, but they could sense the invisible fog slowly spreading around them.

Without any hesitation, these practitioners sealed the cave, calmed their minds and concentrated their minds in order to draw upon the vital energy of heaven and earth and push away the invisible fog.

Compared with the caution of these practitioners, the ghosts scattered everywhere have a different feeling about the existence of this invisible mist.

Ghosts are scattered souls that cannot withstand wind and rain, nor can they withstand sunlight. Therefore, these ghosts are eternally surrounded by extreme cold. Their past memories and their rationality are gradually being eroded by this ever-present cold.

But when the invisible mist slowly spread out, the ghosts entangled in the severe cold felt the extremely gentle warmth in the invisible mist.

This warmth did not come from Haoyang, the scorching heat that brought with it the power of the sun to burn all evil spirits, but a kind of warmth that made those ghosts instinctively want to embrace and get close.

Then, in an instant, the ghosts that had lost their minds and could not even maintain their physical forms, instinctively threw themselves into the invisible fog and rose up with the rhythm of the invisible fog.

The invisible mist transformed by the incense comes from the distracting thoughts of the relatives of these ghosts. In the process, it is like a little flame that "burns" and "carves" on these chaotic ghosts. With these distracting thoughts and the incense as the catalyst, the lost memories and consciousness are revived in the bodies of these ghosts, allowing them to re-manifest their pre-birth forms.

Some ghosts even took advantage of the existence of this invisible fog to connect to the incense that their relatives and descendants burned for them on a daily basis, and manifested other things on their bodies.

Seeing this scene, those ghosts who still had intelligence also hurriedly threw themselves into the invisible fog. Under the guidance of the invisible fog, they connected with the "gifts" of the living and slowly went to the temples and shrines of Yun Zhongjun in various places.

In the temples and shrines of Yun Zhongjun, the priests were now immersed in an extremely wonderful feeling.

When the first ghost, the first 'ghost', led by the invisible fog, broke into the temple, the priests and their apprentices were extremely terrified, fearing that their souls would be sucked away by these ghosts.

But when more and more souls were guided by the invisible mist and landed in this temple and shrine, and sat still in this temple and shrine, and many of the dead people they were familiar with appeared among these souls, the fear turned into expectation.

Soon after, countless peach trees took root and sprouted in every corner of the temple and shrine, covering the entire temple and shrine under the branches and leaves of these peach trees. Those countless ghosts also entered the peach trees and disappeared. The expectation finally turned into complete peace.

The priests who were familiar with Yun Zhongjun's texts already knew what was happening.

Yun Zhongjun has the authority to communicate with the underworld - and now, it is Yun Zhongjun who is mobilizing his authority to extradite the countless souls lost in the human world.

After these ordinary souls, there are the ghosts that have touched upon the practice and have embarked on the path of practice.

These ghosts can no longer be called ghosts, but should be called Yin cultivators, or ghost cultivators.

As practitioners, what binds them is no longer the lifespan of mortals - but the lifespan of the practitioners.

From this aspect, these ghost cultivators have not yet "died", so their souls and their spirits are not in Yunzhongjun's guidance. However, the invisible mist comes from the incense of countless mortals in the territory of Chu, and comes from those distracting thoughts - among these distracting thoughts, there are also relatives and friends of these ghost cultivators in their "living time".

Therefore, when these Yin cultivators came into contact with the invisible mist, they naturally also received the "incense" from their relatives and friends, and their souls became more solid.

At the same time, they also felt the will of Yun Zhongjun coming from the invisible mist.

With the help of this invisible mist, they can receive the "incense" of the human world, which is Yun Zhongjun's mercy to these "ghosts and gods".

However, since these ghosts and gods have embarked on the path of spiritual practice and as gods of the dead, they are bound by the laws of both the world of the living and the underworld.

They are not allowed to interfere with the operation of the Yang world, nor are they allowed to force the ghosts who want to reincarnate to stay - ghosts belong to Yin, and the human world belongs to Yang. In order to better preserve their souls and vitality in this human world, those Yin cultivators who have embarked on the path of cultivation will often stick together to survive. At the same time, they will also capture many souls that wander in the human world, in order to create an environment in the human world that is more inclined towards the underworld.

Of course, these Yin cultivators also have another choice, which is to follow the invisible mist to Yun Zhongjun's Cave Heaven Kingdom, live in the Cave Heaven Kingdom, and be driven by Yun Zhongjun.

Therefore, after sensing the will coming from Yun Zhongjun in the invisible fog, those Yin cultivators who had embarked on the path of cultivation immediately split into two groups.

The first group gave up the restraint on those ghosts, and then followed the invisible fog with those ghosts.

The other group mobilized their magic power to cut off the cover of the invisible fog, and wanted to continue to "roam freely" in the human world and continue to bind those ghosts.

However, compared to them, Yun Zhongjun's attention was more focused on the Xiang River.

In the world of the living, water is a very unique environment, close to the underworld. The water itself has a considerable binding force on the soul.

Not to mention ordinary ghosts, even those water ghosts who have embarked on the path of cultivation find it difficult to break free from the constraints of water flow before they reach a certain level of cultivation.

At the same time, the water area is the domain of the water god. Once these ghosts fall into the water area, they are naturally under the control of the water god. In addition, the ghosts in the water are infected by the water flow, and it is difficult to determine whether they are cultivators or ordinary souls. Therefore, if the water god is unwilling, even the messenger of the underworld will find it difficult to take the ghosts away from the water area - unless the origin of the ghost is completely dried up, and eventually returns to reincarnation in the form of a true spirit.

However, ordinary water gods would not risk offending the underworld for these souls that could not help them. So generally speaking, if the water ghosts in the water got the opportunity to return to the underworld, or when the underworld's messengers came to extradite them, the water gods would naturally not stop them. Some water gods would even take the initiative to pack up all the ghosts in the water and send them to the underworld.

But the Xiang River is different after all - the conflict between it and the State of Chu is deeply rooted. After the ancestors of the State of Chu fell into the water, their souls were naturally trapped in the Xiang River, suffering day and night.

The people of Chu were also quite "stubborn". Even though they knew that their ancestors suffered in the Xiang River, they had no intention of bowing to the god of the Xiang River.

Therefore, when Yun Zhongjun used incense to transform into invisible mist to cover the Xiang River, the god of the Xiang River also used his own power without hesitation, transforming into bright divine light that flowed above the water surface, preventing the invisible mist from falling into the water at all. The ghosts in the water, seeing that this opportunity for 'liberation' was unattainable, began to wail.

When the God of the Xiang River was wielding power, all the immortal sects in the Chu State also turned their attention to the Xiang River.

Each of these immortal sects also has the souls of their predecessors residing in the world. At the same time, there are also some souls that have been detained and brought back to do hard labor - everyone wants to see how this Lord Yunzhong intends to deal with these resident souls.

If Yun Zhongjun is unable to bring back Xiang Shui's soul, they will naturally follow suit in the future.

If the soul in the Xiang River was forcibly taken back by Yun Zhongjun, then these immortal sects would also need to consider how to deal with the souls left in their own sects.

"When ghosts engage in cultivation, they are governed by other laws. Even the underworld doesn't care about the affairs of the ghost cultivators. I don't believe that Yun Zhongjun really bypasses the underworld and forcibly takes those ghost cultivators under his command!"

"If that's the case, I will definitely write a yellow paper and burn it to the emperors in the netherworld, to complain to Yun Zhongjun." A Taiyi Taoist sat in the water palace of Xiangshui, holding the nectar in his hand, and gestured to the god of Xiangshui. "The god of Xiangshui himself can also write to the heaven and complain to the great emperor, saying that there are evil gods in the world who rely on magic power to invade the water area - the thunder and fighting departments of the heaven are naturally not for show."

"Thank you very much for your help, Brother Dao." The God of Xiang River also drank the wine in the glass.

Looking at the divine light flickering on the surface of the Xiang River, Yun Zhongjun also sighed.

Even if he knew the plan of the God of Xiang River, it would not be easy for him to spread his power to the Xiang River - after all, he was the God of humanity, not the God of immortality.

If he could forcefully spread the power of the God of Humanity into the Xiang River now, the God of Humanity in the future would naturally follow suit.

This means endless troubles, and it also means Ao Bing's betrayal of the path of immortality.

It is naturally impossible for Yun Zhongjun to do such a thing.

However, the restrained soul must also be brought back - otherwise, those immortal sects and those great cultivators of the netherworld would also be able to imitate the God of Xiang River and forcibly restrain the soul.

What's more, this was the first time that Lord Yunzhong had exercised his power in the State of Chu after he returned to the State of Chu and consolidated power.

If even the first time he exerted his authority was rejected by the God of Xiang River with a tough attitude, then Yun Zhongjun would definitely lose his dignity.

And for the God of Humanity, the loss of his dignity means that his very foundation will be shaken.

“Although I cannot forcibly break the Water God’s domain, it does not mean that I cannot retrieve these souls in other ways.”

"If my fellow Taoists want to use this to laugh at me, I'm afraid you will be disappointed." Yun Zhongjun's voice, like a reminder, fell into the water palace of Xiangshui and into every immortal sect.

Then, Yun Zhongjun blew a breath towards the Xiang River.

(End of this chapter)