Gentlemen, it's time to enter the Banner of Ten Thousand Souls.

Chapter 225 The City God's Rebellion
"From this day forward, all City Gods under the jurisdiction of my Yellow Springs Sect shall not respond to wishes that are made without labor or that harm others for personal gain. Anyone who violates this rule shall be stripped of their incense offerings for three years, or, in severe cases, be cast into a wandering ghost!"

Inside the City God Pavilion of the Yellow Springs Taoist Temple, Chen Ye was solemnly issuing orders to all the City Gods.

The White Bone Ancestral Spirit materialized and knelt before Chen Ye.

Perhaps he should no longer be called a skeleton, because he has completely transformed into the appearance of a gaunt Taoist priest.

The two had previously sat at the same table for a meal, appearing to be friends.

But today, the white-haired Taoist priest could only kneel before Chen Ye and beg for his forgiveness.

However, the one who made the mistake was not him, but a city god who had just gained sentience.

Many ancestral spirits in the northern frontier are like ignorant wild beasts, possessing only instincts and lacking wisdom, due to improper sacrificial methods.

It was Chen Ye who integrated the way of incense offerings, promoted all ancestral spirits to the status of City Gods, and then taught the priests of various tribes to cultivate the wisdom of the ancestral spirits using new sacrificial methods.

The results are indeed impressive; many ancestral spirits have begun to evolve from the appearance of wild beasts into humans, which proves that their intelligence is constantly improving.

However, a few days ago, an ancestral spirit that had developed sentience made a mistake when responding to a wish.

What angered Chen Ye even more was that this incident actually happened in Fengdu City.

Recently, many tribes have migrated and settled near Fengdu City.

The combined population inside and outside the city is already two to three thousand, and Batu, this herdsman, has only recently arrived in Fengdu City and settled with his people on the pasture outside the city.

Fengdu City has a formation that harmonizes the feng shui, and the nearby grasslands are almost evergreen all year round. The grass grows extremely fast, enough to support a large number of livestock, so the people of the northern frontier also like to live outside the city according to their old customs.

Chen Ye had no objection to this; how people live their lives is their own choice, and he wouldn't interfere arbitrarily.

Batu's tribe worships the ancestral bull god Qiqigesang, whose power allows them to transform into bull warriors with immense strength.

Batu was also a devout person and held this ancestral spirit in the highest esteem.

Unfortunately, he was unlucky; not long after arriving in Fengdu City, his sheep fell ill.

The people of northern Xinjiang had few means of treating livestock, so they resorted to the primitive method of killing, burning, and burying them. Overnight, Batu became penniless.

But he was not afraid, because he was protected by the great ancestral spirits.

On his first day of poverty and hardship, he told the priest that he wanted to pray for the protection of his ancestors and hoped that they would grant him a new flock of sheep.

The priest didn't think there was anything wrong with it. Who doesn't pray to their ancestors when they suffer?
The priest also felt that since the tribe had experienced livestock illness after migrating to this place, a grand sacrificial ceremony should be held.

According to the new rules of Fengdu City, the blood sacrifice will no longer be a direct and bloody ritual. Instead, a statue of the City God will be invited from within Fengdu City.

This kind of thing didn't exist before, but now there are many more craftsmen in Fengdu City who have started carving and selling various City God statues.

This item isn't cheap either, because it has to be blessed at the City God Temple to be considered "genuine".

After finally managing to invite one, we still have to build an altar, prepare offerings, and so on.

After a series of very solemn sacrificial rites, the Ox-Headed City God really did appear.

As Batu requested, the City God sent his ghost messengers to the grasslands to bring back some sheep for Batu.

Although the wild sheep were thin, old, and few in number, Batu's family was deeply grateful for this divine blessing.

The tribe was overjoyed, as this was the first time they had received such an easy response from the gods.

Previously, the best they could get were some unclear echoes, and the priests had to figure out how to interpret them, and nine times out of ten they would interpret them incorrectly.

For the first time, the people of this tribe discovered that the gods they could communicate with directly were so great and so approachable.

The tribe cheered, celebrated, and slaughtered a large number of livestock for a feast.

The Ox-Headed City God was also happy, as the incense and prayers made him eat his fill, and the various sacrificial offerings also allowed him to taste "meat".

This unprecedented enjoyment captivated him for a time.

Therefore, not two days later, the Ox-Headed City God sent out ghost messengers to capture some wild cattle and sheep and send them to this tribe.

Then came another joyous grand sacrificial ceremony, and Batu's family was even elected as the new tribal leaders because they were the first herders to receive the blessing.

Batu thought to himself, "What a great thing!" and agreed without hesitation.

Then he began to think about how to get the gods to send more cattle and sheep and bestow more gifts.

The tribal priest quickly dissuaded them, saying that constantly demanding things from the gods was a grave taboo and would be punished.

Batu, however, thought differently. Why should they be punished? Didn't they see how happy their City God was? And the tribe even had a few more warriors who could transform into bulls.

The priest was unhappy and refused to hold such a ceremony for personal gain anymore. As a result, Batu got angry. He said that when he was an ordinary herdsman, he had to ask you for favors, but now that he was the tribal chief, why should he still have to ask you for favors?
If you don't want to do it, then get out. Anyway, now that the gods can speak, they don't necessarily need priests to convey their messages.

Batu then did something that no other tribe dared to do: he completely expelled his own priests and declared that he no longer needed priests, as he had already learned the sacrificial rituals and could do them himself.

Then, another celebration of slaughtering sheep and cattle began. The Ox-Headed City God appeared once again, happily devouring all the offerings and incense. Hearing that Batu wanted to pray for more cattle and sheep, he ordered his ghost messengers to capture them.

But where would so many wild livestock come from on this vast grassland? They had all been captured by the various tribes long ago.

The ghost messengers had already run a hundred miles away the last two times. Now that they've come again, how many wild cattle and sheep can they catch?
So this time, after the feast, Batu didn't get as many cattle and sheep.

This caused resentment among the tribe members, who felt that they had consumed more than they had harvested, so the deal was a loss.

Batu immediately expressed his dissatisfaction with the Ox-Headed City God.

Although the Ox-Headed City God had only recently developed sentience, he knew that the numbers couldn't be calculated like that. If someone killed two oxen, you had to return two, otherwise you would be short one ox for the next sacrifice.
But where do the cows come from?
The City God of Ox-Head didn't have the ability to conjure oxen out of thin air, so he did something outrageous. He ordered his ghost messengers to steal cattle and sheep from other tribes.

This has caused quite a stir.

It should be noted that the ghost messengers under the City God are all sent out by Fengdu City, and they are on a rotating basis, with the personnel being replaced every once in a while.

At first, because the ghost messengers were all from the northern frontier, they were very respectful to these city gods who had been transformed from ancestral spirits. After all, these were the gods they had worshipped for many years, so they were very obedient to the city gods. When asked to catch cattle and sheep, they would actually run around on the grassland in the middle of the night and catch them.

But this time it won't work.

How could you, Ox-Head City God, order your ghost messengers to steal other people's cattle and sheep?

The ghost messengers are all from various tribes; which one do you expect them to steal from? They might accidentally steal from their own relatives.

The various tribes on the grasslands not only have overlapping beliefs, but their bloodlines are also mixed. If you do a quick calculation, they might all have the same great-grandfather or great-grandmother.

Besides, they were very clear about the rules of Fengdu City. The instruments of torture in their hands were used to punish criminals, and they had to go through torture themselves before they could become ghost messengers.

I finally got promoted to a ghost officer, and now I have to resort to petty theft? How terrible will it be when the torture instruments are on my hands?

Therefore, the ghost messengers refused to comply.

When the Ox-Headed City God discovered that the ghost messengers were disobeying him, he immediately became furious.

The City God, after all, was an ancestral spirit who had been worshipped for many years, and his magical power was far greater than that of the ghost messengers. In a fit of anger, he actually killed several ghost messengers, which immediately caused a great deal of trouble.

When Chen Ye heard about this, the Ox-Headed City God had already been captured and taken to the City God Pavilion.

Only after Chen Ye listened to the whole story with a gloomy expression, and then looked at the unruly Ox-Headed City God, did he utter such a sentence.

The rule of the Yellow Springs Sect is that the gods help in times of emergency, but not in times of poverty.

That man named Batu was unlucky; all his livestock fell ill and died, and he was on the verge of starvation. It was a good thing that the City God helped him through this difficult time.

But later, these herders started wanting to gain something for nothing, and the Ox-Headed City God actually indulged them. However, if the City God were to support these mortals and then exchange their offerings for incense, it would eventually evolve into a conflict of faith.

Ordinary people do not work, they only pray, while the City God only steals and robs for the sake of incense offerings and prayers.

The end result will likely be mortals slaughtering each other, followed by tribes annexing each other, just like the northern frontier used to be. Moreover, the city gods' acquisition of intelligence will make these wars even more brutal.

As things progressed, in order to compete for incense offerings, these city gods would deliberately instigate wars, causing many things that angered both heaven and man.

The power of incense and prayers is a double-edged sword, and must be used with extreme caution.

Faced with his old friend kneeling before him pleading for mercy, Chen Ye could only say to him, "That's the rule. If he hadn't killed the ghost messengers, I would have cut off his incense offerings for a few years at most. But since he's so wild and untamed that he can even kill the ghost messengers he's been with day and night, then don't blame me for dealing with him according to the rules."

With a wave of his hand, Chen Ye summoned the Crimson Fire Serpent before the gods. The serpent transformed into a giant python, about to devour the Ox-Headed City God, when suddenly several angry roars echoed from within the City God's Pavilion.

"Punishment is one thing, but why take our lives? We are willing to follow the Yellow Springs Sect, but we never said we would give up our lives!"

Several City Gods appeared before Chen Ye, each a ferocious behemoth, half-human, half-beast deities looking down upon Chen Ye, this insignificant mortal.

Chen Ye looked at the enraged City Gods and asked in a deep voice, "Have you thought this through? If you resist, you will be punished as accomplices."

A city god with a wolf's head and a human body roared, "Don't waste your breath on him! We ancestral spirits are not city gods at all. Kill him and then we'll live our carefree lives!"

The City God extended five sharp claws from his hand, reaching out to grab Chen Ye. The sharp claws created a whistling sound, as if they wanted to tear Chen Ye to pieces.

Chen Ye sighed, and a majestic deity appeared behind him.

The Emperor of Fengdu was like a blurry shadow, but as soon as he appeared, he enveloped the entire City God Pavilion.

Those city gods who thought themselves superior were like ants before this deity.

"You are all guilty!"

With a majestic declaration, the Emperor of Fengdu extended his right hand and gently pressed down, causing the rebellious city gods to be forced to the ground.

Chen Ye turned away, refusing to look at him again.

These rebellious city gods dispersed into countless streams of incense smoke, which were absorbed into the palm of the Fengdu Emperor, and the light representing their intelligence dissipated. They were merely wild gods formed from the power of incense offerings; stripped of their incense, they vanished into thin air.

"These are the rules of my Yellow Springs Sect. Those who are unwilling to abide by them can get out of the Northern Frontier and become a wandering ghost, and I will not care about them. But if you are still in my City God Pavilion receiving incense offerings, you must abide by the rules of my Yellow Springs Sect. If you violate them, this will be your fate."

After Chen Ye finished speaking, the phantom of the Fengdu Emperor slowly dissipated.

After Chen Ye left the City God Pavilion, none of the hundred City Gods dared to say another word.

Chen Ye returned to the thirty-third floor. Although his methods were somewhat ruthless this time, he knew that the City God would eventually rebel, so it was better to make an example of him sooner rather than later, otherwise there would be more trouble in the future.

Having resolved this matter, Chen Ye finally had time to pick up the two letters and examine them.

One letter came from Mo Suixin of the Burning Incense Sect, and the other from Su Chunyi of the Qinghe Sword Sect; both letters contained the same message.

The five major sects held a secret meeting to discuss Zhang Qi's passing and invited Chen Ye to attend.

Chen Ye couldn't help but find Qu Heng and ask, "I understand that the five major sects need to make preparations for the passing of Master Zhang. But why invite a nobody like me to participate? Grandmaster, what do you think?"

Qu Heng was also somewhat surprised by the invitation, but since both of them had sent letters mentioning this matter, it was probably not fake.

It is likely that the official invitation from the five major sects to join forces will be sent to the Yellow Springs Sect soon.

Qu Heng pondered for a moment, then said, "There's nothing to ponder. Our Yellow Springs Sect has no reason to refuse. With the joint invitation from the five major sects, you have to go, even if it means facing mountains of knives and seas of fire."

(End of this chapter)