From the Carp that Brings Children to the Celestial Officials

Chapter 289 Building the Yin City
With You Ming and the City God of Changning Prefecture agreeing on the establishment of a county, the situation at the foot of Yuanling Mountain began to stir, like spring water thawing.

Within just half a month, the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of Revenue of the imperial court successively sent people here.

The procedures of surveying and demarcating the boundaries, registering households, investigating land, and establishing government offices were all completed in one go, as if it had been planned in advance.

This new city is named Yuanling County because it is close to Yuanling Mountain.

However, what is seen in the human world is only a small part; the real big event is the construction of the underworld city.

In the underworld, every newly established prefecture or county must construct an underworld city, which serves as a shadow of the mortal world and the root of its order.

However, this time, due to the special circumstances, the underworld did not set up a city and a prefecture as usual, but instead built two underworld cities.

According to custom, it was the Yin City Dharma Realm of the County City God.

The other is the Dharma realm of the [Envoy of Mountain and River Propagation] on Mount Yuanling.

What amazes many is that these two Yin cities are based on the Dharma Realm of the [Mountain and River Prosperity Envoy] who is responsible for bestowing children and blessings, while the City God Dharma Realm can only be built in a remote place.

It should be noted that the City God of a county is a seventh-rank official.

The one on Yuanling Mountain is only an eighth-rank cultivator.

However, regardless of what outsiders say, the procession building the Yin City Dharma Realm came from the prefectural city in a grand manner.

Late that night, the spirit bell tolled three times, and the divine official of the Craftsmen's Office under the City God's Office of Changning Prefecture, leading hundreds of earth slaves, slowly appeared from the void.

The leading officials were all in human form, dressed in black official robes, and their figures were elusive as they walked.

Behind them stood a group of ferocious-looking slaves with limbs as thick as pillars, clad in bronze-gilded armor.

These indigo slaves were also deified people, with low intelligence but great strength and skill in crafts, so they were specifically responsible for the construction of various buildings along the sacred path.

The slaves carried various tools on their backs; some carried stone rulers, some ink ropes, and some pushed millstones, making a great commotion as they moved.

However, humans in the mortal realm could not detect it at all, as if they were walking in another dimension.

Only some temple keepers in the city's temples vaguely sensed the passing of these divine officials and respectfully lit incense by the roadside to pay homage to them.

"The earth has four dimensions, and the soul has six paths. Now, I borrow this land to build the Yin City Dharma Realm..."

Upon reaching the very center of the city, the chief priest at the front untied the "Earthly Decree" from his waist and muttered incantations.

The "Earth Strategy Token" in his hand was immediately drawn by an invisible force and floated in mid-air.

In more distant places, along rivers and in mountains, a dozen divine beings, each hundreds of feet tall, were already waiting.

When the "Earthly Decree" was invoked, these divine beings each placed their palms on the earth and mountains, using the divine power of the government office to continuously mobilize the power of the earth's veins, converging them towards Yuanling County.

People often say that a certain place is a land of outstanding people and abundant resources. This so-called "land of abundant resources" refers to whether there is enough "earth energy" to support the land.

In particular, the earth's energy, refined by divine intervention, not only makes the land more fertile but also makes the creatures here healthier. At the same time, it gathers cultural energy, gradually enlightening the people.

"Insert the [Pulse-Locking and Soul-Binding Nails] to seal the five acupoints of the earth!"

The leading divine official once again loudly issued the order, and all the accompanying divine officials were seen throwing out rivets, which were originally dark, and they fell to the ground in all directions.

The moment it sank into the soil, it shone with a golden radiance.

When these rivets were joined together, they formed a huge light curtain that enveloped the entire new city before suddenly disappearing.

The purpose of these [Pulse-Locking and Soul-Binding Nails] is to bind the earth's energy and prevent it from dissipating. After stabilizing the earth's energy, the earth slaves are distributed in all directions and, according to the blueprints from the Craftsmen's Office, begin to construct the foundation of the Yin City, which consists of "Nine Palaces and Sixteen Formations".

They replaced bricks and wood with "soul-sealing stones" and quickly laid the foundation. With each stone that was laid, the earth's energy trembled and the void vibrated.

Once the foundation was completed, the divine official threw out a blueprint.

The blueprint unfolded in an instant, and the original plan drawn with ink and brush on it continued to expand and unfold, transforming into the layout of city walls, alleyways, stone bridges, markets and other structures.

It was as if someone had drawn a three-dimensional structural diagram with unparalleled skill.

The slaves, following the existing structural blueprints, continuously added bricks and tiles, and in a short time, the prototypes of city walls, gates, and pavilions were formed.

【Craftsmanship Department】Works very quickly.

Especially since Yuanling County was a project specifically overseen by the higher-ups, no one dared to slack off, and the city was almost completed in just half a month.

The cities of the underworld are a reflection of the cities of the mortal world.

The county town in the mortal world, though wealthy, was not large in scale, spanning only a few miles in length.

However, the city and realm of the underworld stretch for nearly a thousand miles, with towering city walls, orderly houses, wide roads, and a solemn atmosphere.

The central government office, in particular, was a sprawling complex with hundreds of rooms, comparable to a human palace.

Red lanterns were hung throughout the city, and although they had not yet been lit, their grandeur was already evident.

Such extravagance is nowhere to be found in this mundane world.

"Now that the Yin City Dharma Realm is complete, we now invite the gods to descend."

For a Yin City Dharma Realm, the most important thing is not what materials are used, nor how amazing the structure is, but that it needs a sufficiently powerful deity to preside over it.

Only the underworld city, where gods reside, can "come alive".

"Boom."

Several tall, strong men placed a huge incense burner, several meters in diameter, heavily in the main hall of the yamen.

"We have chosen an auspicious time to hold a ritual ceremony, burning three incense burners, offering five kinds of sacrificial animals, and kowtowing to the gods to enter the Netherworld..."

Almost simultaneously, dozens of temple priests in the mortal realm, holding talismans and reciting sacrificial texts, appeared.

The rising incense smoke surged in the temples of the mortal realm. As the chanting of the sacrificial text ended, the paper carrying the text turned into wisps of smoke in the incense burner. Almost simultaneously, a ray of light, visible only to gods or cultivators, suddenly shone from Yuanling Mountain.

In the void, a handsome young man dressed in official robes walked step by step toward the government office of the Yin City Dharma Realm.

He walked step by step into that empty throne, the main seat located at the very center of the Yin City.

The moment he sat down, the entire Yin City trembled violently, and the red lanterns hanging there suddenly lit up, like countless inverted stars appearing all at once.

The city walls, streets, and stone bridges, which had been shrouded in darkness, suddenly lit up in a blaze of light, a magnificent spectacle. The reflections of the palaces in the sky shone through the clouds, and the afterglow illuminated hundreds of miles of gloomy fields.
Just like a modern metropolis, which becomes brightly lit in the blink of an eye the moment the lights are turned on at night.

The incense, flowing like a spring and the sea, transformed into a brilliant golden tide that rolled and swirled in the air, soaring straight into the sky, dazzling and magnificent.

The entire Yin City Dharma Realm came to life.

(End of this chapter)