I stole divine power in Daxia

Chapter 486 The Instigator

The appearance of the twin snakes not only fixed the rules of life and death from the past to the future on the Yanhuang Tongbao, but also gave birth to the magical power of [Shang Xiang Youming] when the two were integrated.

The coppery smell on money is actually the result of human greed, anger, ignorance and the energy of Gengjin. Since it is greed, anger, ignorance, it is also a kind of human will.

Huangquan can even purify the soul, and can also purify the three thoughts of greed, anger, and ignorance. However, there was no way to solidify the power after purification in the past. Now with the emergence of the ability of Yanhuang Tongbao to reach the underworld, the purified greed, anger, and ignorance will appear in the form of currency.

So from now on, the ghosts in the underworld can not only enjoy the power of the underworld moon released by the Queen of Heaven and Zhou Tieyi, but also enjoy the power of grief in the human world. The appearance of both has greatly strengthened the rules of the underworld.

As the avenue vibrated, the strengthening of the Netherworld made the phantoms of the black and white snakes behind Zhou Tiege solid, as if they were about to return from the past to the present in the next moment.

Relying on the established connection, the greedy and cunning black snake head pounced on the Yanhuang Tongbao hidden in the destiny of all living beings.

As long as he could immediately obtain this new peerless artifact related to the fate of the Netherworld, the Emperor of Life and Death would be able to return immediately even if there was no future anchored in the beginning.

However, at the moment when the black snake head pounced on the Yanhuang Tongbao, a big sun also spanned history, and the blazing fire of humanity fell. In the battlefield invisible to all living beings, the yang energy symbolizing humanity continued to burn the yin energy representing death.

Although Zhou Tieyi, who holds the Taiyi Jade Disc, is not a saint, the fallen Emperor of Life and Death has also fallen from the saintly position.

With these two factors at stake, the help from the other two parties instantly determined this sudden conflict.

Zhou Tiege was trying his best to control his boiling divine blood, and with the help of the Shinto talisman bestowed by Zhou Tieyi, he directly introduced the humane flame that was like the light of the sun into his body. Suddenly, the black snake head, which had a slight advantage, was defenseless against the light of the sun. The humane flame burned directly in his body, causing his body, which had been solidified with great difficulty by the power of the underworld, to quickly become illusory.

The spiritual Yanhuang Tongbao also automatically began to choose its master. Although Emperor of Life and Death, as one of the Nine Ancient Gods, was an excellent destination, its owner was also one of the Nine Ancient Gods.
Without any hesitation, the Yanhuang Tongbao, which was governed by the rules of the underworld, fell into Zhou Tieyi's hands with a stream of red-gold light, and turned into an ancient coin with a round sky and a square earth shape.

After the dust settled, the black snake head roared unwillingly. Unfortunately, even as a god, he did not see the existence of Yanhuang Tongbao in the future he foresaw. Without being able to see it, he naturally could not make corresponding arrangements. Therefore, there was no destiny this time.

The snake head turned to look at Zhou Tiege who was still pulling it, revealing human cunningness. The next moment, the black snake head scattered into netherworld rules and returned to Zhou Tiege's body through the blood.

Zhou Tiege, who originally wanted to fight to the death because of the power involved with the Emperor of Life and Death, suddenly found that not only did his own strength not weaken, but it was quickly replenished. In particular, his [Huangquan] talent gave him several new magical powers. Each of these new magical powers was earth-shattering and related to the operation of the core rules of the underworld.

While Zhou Tiege was in a daze, the historical vision disappeared, and the two brothers had reappeared in the Taihang Divine Court. However, with the changes in the underworld, the Taihang Divine Court also underwent corresponding changes.

The Yellow Spring tributary that was guided in became wider, comparable to the long historical river of the Taihang Divine Court hidden in the periphery. Beside the Yellow Spring tributary, golden, silver and iron trees sprouted out of the ground, with three-colored ingots representing greed, anger and ignorance on the trees.

The souls and evil spirits wandering in the underworld were also attracted here. After seeing this forest of golden, silver and iron trees, they all scrambled to climb up the trees and pick the fruits on them.

Unfortunately, even the soul body was hurt by the pricking of this strange tree that was born according to the rules of the underworld. Every forked branch was like a caltrop that penetrated three inches into the soul.

And for every soul that was pierced, the three thoughts of greed, anger and ignorance gradually disappeared. Some of them suddenly woke up and no longer lingered in the underworld, but threw themselves into the nearby tributaries of the Yellow Spring to look for the afterlife.

The rules of the underworld began to change. Although Zhou Tieyi's vision of 'souls returning to Taihang' had not yet been achieved, due to the emergence of Yanhuang Tongbao, the souls in the underworld had already shown a tendency to gather towards the Taihang Mountain Divine Court.

This is a good change.

Zhou Tieyi stroked the Yanhuang Tongbao in his hand. The artifact was the embodiment of divine power. Although the rules of [Shangxiang Youhen] had been determined, the custom of burning paper money had not yet appeared in Daxia.

Because of the existence of practitioners, the people of Daxia have a clear understanding of the world after death.

If the soul has not undergone spiritual practice, it is extremely fragile. A few souls remain in the world of the living, avoiding the scorching sun and strong winds, absorbing the blood of living people and the existence of mountains, rivers and veins. Most souls are sucked into the underworld according to the rules of yin and yang.

However, even the souls that enter the Netherworld are not necessarily able to enter the Yellow Springs to seek afterlife. Many souls will "starve to death" due to the bitter cold of the Netherworld itself, and will completely disappear in the world and return to all things.

Only a few souls that have practiced spiritual cultivation or are lucky enough can find the tributaries of the Yellow Spring. However, most of these souls are obsessed and will not be willing to enter the Yellow Spring and gamble on the illusory afterlife. Therefore, they continue to struggle in the bitter and cold place of the Netherworld, using the very few resources that can be eaten by souls to fill their stomachs. In the end, most of them become hungry ghosts or evil ghosts. Once they smell the breath of a living person, they will pounce on him without hesitation.

Even the souls of the soldiers in the former Tianjing Soldiers' Tomb were forced to flee for food, which shows how miserable the other souls wandering in the netherworld were. So at that time in the Taihang and Yinshan Mountains, as long as the Emperor of Life and Death gave a little command, countless miners' souls would be willing to be driven by him.

"Burning paper money is a ritual in itself, similar to praying for help from the gods, except this time it is to appease the underworld, so it can be promoted."

After Zhou Tieyi thought it through, he came to his brother and first checked Zhou Tiege's condition. The situation was much more complicated than he had imagined.

Originally, in Zhou Tiege's body that had already condensed golden muscles and jade bones, the ball of Netherworld essence and blood that he had been born with rapidly expanded, forming an existence similar to a tributary of the Yellow Spring, establishing a new circulatory system outside of Zhou Tiege's original blood system.

Since it is a tributary of Huangquan, it has incomplete spatial properties just like the Netherworld, making Zhou Tiege's body similar to Zhou Tieyi's, except that Zhou Tieyi evolved the original heaven and earth, while Zhou Tiege evolved a small Netherworld.

Endless Netherworld luck gathered together and formed white lotus flowers, taking root in Zhou Tiege's body.

Yin De Lotus.

This is naturally a good thing, even a very good thing. The power gathered by the Emperor of Life and Death through the rules of the Netherworld this time not only did not stay with him, but he took the initiative to give it to Zhou Tiege. It seems that he also saw clearly that Zhou Tiege was the key link in Zhou Tieyi's resistance to the Emperor of Great Xia—a first-class military strategist who "shakes the country", so he did not mind helping. It also shows that he is extremely confident that he can take back Zhou Tiege's "divine fetus".

"My body doesn't seem to be transforming into a living dead?"

Zhou Tiege also comprehended the changes in his own body. In the past, every time he used his talent [Yellow Spring], he would feel cold and eventually lose all consciousness, becoming a complete living dead. But this time was different. After using his talent [Yellow Spring], he actually felt "warmth", as if the Zhou family's curse of hundreds of years was broken at this moment.

"It's the effect of Yin De. Emperor Shengsi has opened up the power of Yin De to you." Zhou Tieyi just explained to his elder brother, and then changed the subject, "Get ready. When I return to Tianjing to explain things, I will prepare to explore the Yin Court."

That night.

Nearly 20 million people live in Yujing Mountain, so birth, aging, sickness and death are inevitable.

An old man from a wealthy family in Xuanwu City passed away. In the mourning hall, the wealthy businessman who had been busy for several days took a short rest. In a daze, he entered a vast white place.

Before he could figure out what was happening, his dead father suddenly appeared before him.

"father?!"

The rich businessman was shocked and frightened, but suddenly he came to his senses. He practiced business, and although his magical powers were not as omnipotent as those of Buddhism and Taoism, as a sixth-grade "mover", his own soul was also extremely stable.

But the situation before him was clearly that his soul had been taken away by someone without his knowledge and fell into the underworld.

After thinking it through, the rich businessman quickly found the connection. It turned out that it was his old father who took away his soul. Through the blood of father and son, he cast a spell to move his soul here.

"Dad, my son has never done anything to offend you, so why are you harming him?"

When the old man saw his son wake up immediately, he complained and scolded, "Do you think I want to drag you here? It's because you are missing one of the sacrifices you prepared!"

Read the error-free version at 69shuba! 6=9+shu_ba is the first to publish this novel.

"What's missing?"

The rich businessman asked curiously.

The old man pointed to the road ahead, and suddenly the thick white fog dissipated, revealing a forest made of gold, silver and iron. On the top of the forest were huge gold ingots. Countless evil spirits rushed to climb up and pick the gold ingots, but unfortunately they were pricked and screamed.

"This is the path to the afterlife. Those lonely ghosts don't have the money to buy their lives, so they have to climb the gold and silver trees to eliminate their greed, anger, and ignorance. If I had the money to buy my life, I wouldn't have to climb the tree."

The rich businessman was just wondering why he had never heard of this before, but he still asked, "Father, what is the toll?"

The old man smiled and said, "The silver notes set by Lord Zhou are not only circulated in the world of the living, but also changed the rules of the netherworld. All you have to do is go back, buy paper money in the shape of silver notes, and burn it for me as a bribe."

Paper money in the form of silver notes?
The rich businessman thought, this privately printed silver note would lead to the confiscation of property and extermination of the clan. Where could he buy such paper money?
Before he could ask more questions, he felt dizzy and found himself back in the mourning hall in Tianjing.

The meeting with his old father just now was still vivid in his mind. The rich businessman knew that it was definitely not just an illusion caused by his longing for his old father, but that this really happened.

So early the next morning, they sent people to inquire around, and got the news in the afternoon. It turned out that the Central Bank had urgently printed a batch of "Youming Tongbao" yesterday, and it was already on sale. However, the price was not expensive, the same as ordinary newspapers, and everyone could afford it.

Moreover, after asking around, I found out that it was not just my family that asked about paper money. Many families who were holding funerals in Tianjing yesterday had dreams about paper money. Seeing that the Youming Tongbao was not expensive, everyone thought it was better to believe it than not, and each family bought a few hundred coins to burn for their relatives.

The wealthy businessman naturally understood what he meant. He bought several thousand taels of silver and burned it for three days and three nights. At the same time, he sighed in his heart, "You are indeed worthy of being the Marquis of Zhou. You can make money from the living and the dead. I should learn more from him!"

As this custom spread, the cautious people who were still hesitant about silver notes also realized that "silver notes" could be circulated not only in the world of the living, but also in the underworld. This was much more useful than the original silver, so more and more people went to the money houses to deposit money and exchange them for silver notes.

"It's about changing customs and habits."

When Dong Xingshu from the Siminfu heard the news, he stopped what he was doing and sighed.

Tang Anshi, the Minister of Education next to him, was indignant. "The one who started it all, don't compare to him! I think he has ulterior motives and still can't let go of his theory of human desires! We Confucians cannot let this go. I'll ask Mr. Dong to make a strong argument at the next court meeting!"

No wonder Tang Anshi was even more angry than Dong Xingshu. The Ministry of Education was in charge of the classics of various schools of thought and was much more sensitive to academic changes than Dong Xingshu.

In Tang Anshi's opinion, Zhou Tieyi even controlled the money in the underworld. He was even more hateful than the people who made exquisite pottery figurines for burial purposes and were scolded by Confucius. In particular, his pseudo-learning of buying lives had spread like wildfire among the people in just two or three days, and even went beyond the benevolence, righteousness, and morality that the Confucians had worked so hard to teach all their lives.

If in the future everyone in the world believes that having money can not only allow them to do whatever they want in the world of the living, but can also buy their way to the afterlife in the underworld, how can Confucianism and the various schools of thought teach people!

Dong Xingshu naturally understood what he meant, but he had to admit that Zhou Tieyi was doing this at the right time. "I will naturally report him, but at this time I'm afraid that the emperor, the various philosophers, and even our Confucian school will not touch him on this matter."

"Within Confucianism?"

Tang Anshi's blood, which had been pounding just now, calmed down a little, and then he said solemnly, "Are you talking about Shi Changsheng and the others?"

"Yes, the Ministry of Revenue's money and grain issues are gradually moving in a positive direction. Although the method of burning paper money to the netherworld was the initiator, it has affected the people of the world. Many great principles do not make sense, but this kind of perverse theory can prevail. As a result, it helps to promote silver bills and solve the current difficulties of the court. Do you think that the emperor and the hundreds of schools of thought will think that we Confucians are making a fuss or that Zhou Tieyi has ulterior motives?"

Dong Xingshu hadn't said anything else. As a more pragmatic citizen, he had actually just been thinking that if burning some paper money could solve the court's food shortage, it would be better than the tax increase they had proposed before.

At this point, you can only choose one between the dead and the living.

Tang Anshi was stunned for a while, then he lamented, "How can I teach people about benevolence, righteousness and morality from now on?"

(End of this chapter)