I have to get lucky right away.

Chapter 456 The Prisoner's Dilemma is very useful.

"Is that all? You two aren't up to any ulterior motives, are you?"

Feng Xue watched as the two monks deftly set up the altar, his eyebrows slightly raised. Although he also knew how to set up an altar to connect with the gods and ghosts of the underworld, it was precisely because he knew how that he understood how easy it was to tamper with this thing.

Upon hearing Feng Xue's somewhat murderous tone, Gui Zhen immediately shook his head vigorously, like a rattle drum.
"How dare we? Although we can send messages through the altar, at our level, we can only contact the Soul Guide. Even if we did report you, it would take several days for them to relay the message up the chain of command. Not to mention that the judges, the Impermanent Ones, and the Day and Night Patrol Gods of the Underworld have been disloyal and disloyal over the years. I'm afraid that before the army even sets out, some little devils will come to inform you! My life is in your hands; this is no way to court death!"

“Goodness…” Feng Xue grinned, but then felt that there seemed to be nothing wrong with it. Although most folk legends would confuse the two, the underworld actually had two sets of staff.

One system is more bureaucratic, consisting of judges, underworld officials (Wuchang), city gods, and day and night patrol gods. It's essentially a branch of the Taoist Heavenly Court system, functioning similarly to the Dali Temple or a modern court. The city god is like a local government office; after death, the soul undergoes a preliminary trial locally. Only those with serious offenses (greatly virtuous or great evil) are sent to Fengdu Underworld for the final judgment by the four judges. The highest leader of this system is the Lord of Mount Tai, the Great Emperor of the Eastern Peak; it's a centralized system.

The other system leans towards a religious system, consisting of the Lord of the Underworld (Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva), the Ten Kings of Hell, and the Ox-Head and Horse-Face guardians. Although the Ten Kings of Hell have the title of king, the fact that they are ten powerful rulers reveals that they are not products of the unified Central Plains system. This system can be considered a result of the forced integration of imported Buddhist culture into the Taoist underworld system during the Song Dynasty.

Not to mention that the division of functions among the Ten Kings of Hell would result in serious redundancy and waste of resources, the very existence of this system would encroach on the job space of the original system.

The powers of Ox-Head and Horse-Face overlap considerably with those of the underworld officials. The Ten Kings of Hell further fragmented the soul trial process and incorporated a great deal of religious content, which undoubtedly impacted the power of the judge system and the judicial process.

In addition to the previously mentioned donations for bandit suppression, it's only natural that a rift would develop between the original and current leaders of the underworld over time.

Of course, since it was all the monk's words, Feng Xue couldn't believe them entirely, so she casually replied:
"I've always been indifferent. Do whatever you want. If I find any problems, I'll kill you. Your name is Guizhen, right? You said you were familiar with him before? Well, you go first. Hey you, you keep an eye on things from the side. If something goes wrong and you don't notice, you're dead too. Anyway, there's no shortage of monks in this area."

Upon hearing this, Guizhen and Guishan's expressions immediately changed. The power of the prisoner's dilemma always works well on such wavering individuals. Guizhen's movements became much more nimble, while Guishan's eyes widened, as if he wanted to find a flaw in Guizhen's ritual.

Under the threat of his life, Guizhen adopted a far more serious attitude than when he had handled the formalities for Dayuan Temple for his own sake, and completed the preliminary ceremony. However, halfway through, he suddenly paused, then turned his head and said:
"Your Majesty, could you please provide a name for the temple so I can register it? There's also a processing fee required..."

"I asked you to do something and you expect me to pay me?" Feng Xue glanced sideways, and the two monks immediately shuddered. However, Gui Zhen, thinking of his own life, still said:
"Your Majesty, this matter really cannot be accomplished without money! The meager sums we have are all from the old city that has been exploited multiple times. The city is full of poor people; we can't squeeze any money out of them!"

“Great, I like places where you can’t squeeze any oil out of them!” Feng Xue’s eyes lit up and she immediately said, “Find me an old city, not much oil, well, but still a little, otherwise it’ll be too obvious. The name… is ‘Dali Temple’! By the way, what’s the highest position you can get?”

“If you don’t contribute, with our savings, even the worst batch of taxes in Fengdu City, we could probably only afford to become tax officials, the kind of job we did before, where 80% of the collected taxes would go to the temples that manage the city,” Guizhen replied with a mournful face. Feng Xue turned to look at Guishan, who, seeing his expression, hesitated for a moment and said:

"I can only negotiate down to 70-80% at most." "Then I'll be begging for food!" Feng Xue snapped, startling the two monks. They quickly calmed down and asked, "How much does this temple that manages the city cost?"

"Well, if we follow what you said, those old cities that have been plundered several times would probably require 20,000 wish power, and then you would have to pay 3,000 every year. If you could raise a Ghost King, you could get 20% after it is wiped out. However, these cities basically have no resources left, so it is very difficult for them to produce a Ghost King."

Gui Zhen roughly calculated and gave a number. Feng Xue thought for a moment, then drew out a small wisp of wish power from her true self:
"Approximately how much is this?"

Upon seeing this ball of wish power, the two monks nearly popped their eyes out. Gui Shan immediately said, "This is probably worth around eight hundred, but Your Majesty, your goods are very pure and can be used as twelve thousand!"

"Is it even possible for the goods to be so pure?" Feng Xue was speechless. After thinking for a moment, she took out a ball of vital energy and said:

Is this thing even useful?

"Yes! Of course! This stuff is easy to spot on the official front, but it's a hot commodity on the black market! It's pure primordial energy with no blood or vital energy at all. If you find a buyer, you can get five for one, no, even seven for one! It's just that there aren't any big customers on the black market around here. It's safer for us to sell it in Fengdu, which has a number under two thousand."

As Gui Shan spoke, his tone became slurred. Seeing this, Feng Xue nodded in satisfaction and took out a ball of wish power, about twenty times stronger than before, saying:

"Here, I want the administrative rights to a city, the kind with full control, without even tax officials. Can you handle that?"

"Yes, definitely! With your skills, you could probably negotiate a deal even with places that have only been exploited two or three times, let alone places where there's hardly any profit to be made!"

Gui Zhen nodded repeatedly, like a chick pecking at rice. Feng Xue gained a deeper understanding of the underworld in this world, but after thinking for a moment, he shook his head and said:
"No need for that. Like I said, just find a poor place, but it must be completely under control, and there can't be too few ghosts inside. It's best if there aren't any ghost kings around! Those are the three requirements. Can you do it? You can't change it to Guishan!"

"Yes, yes, yes!" Upon hearing that someone had to be changed, Guizhen immediately shook his head frantically, but he didn't dare to snatch the wish power. He simply stretched out his hand, and only after Feng Xue handed him the wish power did he turn his head and begin to contact the so-called soul-guiding child through the altar.

The entire process took just over three minutes. As the ball of wish power on the altar completely disappeared, a document formed from a power shimmering with a faint golden light floated down to the center of the altar...

(End of this chapter)