I was a charlatan in India

Shenhe felt something was wrong.

The reason is simple: there are lingams in Mina's house again.

Just a few days ago, she went to great lengths to collect incense ash from nearby to scare away a doctor who was about to perform an abortion on her.

Given Vasudiv's character, he shouldn't be regaining control over his daughter at this time.

There must be a demon in the abnormal situation.

Could it be that he's planning to get involved because of the recent rumors?

Shenhe did not hear the negotiations between Dana and Vasudiv.

Saraswati's residence was large, but if one relied solely on his followers, his vision was almost entirely limited to that one room.

Even secretly moving incense ash under Mina's bed was done in the dark, painstakingly moving it by referring to the layout of the courtyard in his own space.

However, just now, a linga tree has been erected again in Mina's house, and its quality is completely different from before.

Yes, the Linga is divided into different grades.

Most of the lingams made by the lower classes are sculpted from clay, or made from a stone pillar of a similar shape, which is done perfunctorily with chiseling and grinding.

Offerings are mostly just water and wildflowers, with occasional simple sacrificial items that might be secretly eaten by people in the neighborhood.

Some foolish worshippers, upon seeing that the offerings are gone, will even shout that the heavens have shown mercy!

But as the miracles occurred more frequently, the excitement gradually subsided, and the acts of worship gradually disappeared.

Of course, this simplicity and piety are irrelevant.

That's the situation; there's nothing we can do about it.

Even the one left behind by Agni was just an ordinary item, only it was offered with incense ash.

The area that these lingams can illuminate for the Shen River is not large, about the size of a playground, and many areas within it are hazy, clearly indicating some kind of interference.

Many Vaishya households, such as the Scarred Merchant and the Round-faced Merchant, commonly had bronze lingams.

The offerings were also much better, including water, milk, honey, and on certain days, ghee and fruit.

Those who are even better off, like Mina, would buy a thick, sturdy, and high-end black stone linga.

They are exquisitely crafted, and some are even decorated with ring-shaped patterns painted with pigments.

This has a strong religious flavor.

Moreover, the territory it brought was much larger, more than ten times that of those local goods, and the degree of obstruction was significantly reduced.

Therefore, although wealthy believers generally have little effort in asceticism, they are much stronger than the poor in terms of territorial control.

Shenhe discovered that although he disliked using caste to distinguish people, he didn't care at all about dividing people by wealth.

It seems I'm not such a noble person after all, unable to treat everyone equally.

It's just that they have different educations than the locals, and the structure of the discrimination chain is different.

This is not good.

We should reflect on this.

We need to accept the caste logic as soon as possible.

During this period, the doctor found him many followers.

Therefore, the Shen River has acquired many roots of both types of lingams, almost covering most of the low-caste areas of Varanasi.

The main groups are Vaishyas, Shudras, and Dalits.

The three merchants in the bathhouse were also among them; Scarface and Round Face were Shiva devotees, needless to say.

Upon hearing the rumors, the skinny merchant also slyly obtained a linga, but he was too lazy to make offerings for himself and left it to his household servants to do.

As for those of higher castes, doctors usually don't have access to them either.

Vasudiv was an exception.

These believers each had their own hopes, but Shenhe did not respond to any of them. He simply lit up the lingam by staying overnight and then left in a hurry.

The main reason is that they only make offerings and wishes; those who engage in ascetic practices are not common and therefore do not provide much energy.

In other words, its value to oneself is less than that of the lingam.

And a few ascetics...

Shenhe swore that he would not show himself until they clearly revealed their needs.

He no longer dared to blindly respond to believers.

Agni and Mina's troubles remain unresolved and continue to threaten their lives. If they encounter any more difficult situations, things will likely become even more chaotic.

Moreover, he was an ascetic, a fanatical believer; who knows how insane he might become?

Therefore, even though he coveted the power of arduous cultivation, Shenhe was quite restrained.

Of course, he also memorized the locations of those linga, and would wander around them whenever he had free time, just to scout out the locations.

In case of a real emergency, on-site response and resource extraction are also a backup option.

Anyway, these ascetics are always tormenting themselves, so they're not afraid of not being able to catch anyone.

As long as you can endure hardship, there will be endless hardship to endure.

However, even if you reside in the linga, you can only keep these unresponsive believers afloat for a short time, not indefinitely.

If believers make offerings regularly, the time will be relatively long; if the lingam is abandoned, the time will be very short, and it may even be destroyed on the same day.

No wonder gods like believers to worship them; perhaps this is the reason.

Believers are like food reserves; the more the better.

Therefore, the Shenhe River is dry on a daily basis.

He needs to run around the Linga that is about to lose contact, which takes about eight hours.

The good news is that he has no body and doesn't need sleep.

So my daily routine consists of waiting for Mina during the day and running around Varanasi at night.

The girl falls asleep, the Ganges sinks into darkness, and that is when he goes to work.

Consciousness, like a gentle breeze, swept across the densely packed rooftops of Varanasi, precisely striking the lingams that were about to go out.

Light it up, glide by, light it up again...

He found it somewhat absurd.

Even becoming a god doesn't mean you can escape the intense overtime work, the kind that's 24/7.

They're the chosen working class, that's what they are.

The linga that Mina just erected is no ordinary one.

This linga is entirely made of pure gold, gleaming brilliantly.

Adorned with exquisite statues of deities and serpentine reliefs, along with meticulously arranged agate crystals, it is not only artistic but also incredibly luxurious.

To put it another way, anyone with a bit of Shenhe's madness would want to cut it up and put it on.

This standard is extremely rare, even in Brahmin families.

Except for extremely devout people, or those who deliberately show off for some purpose, people normally wouldn't spend a lot of money on this.

Even if it's just for show, they'll choose to gild the surface, but the substance inside is probably nothing special.

If you threw it into a bathhouse, it might float up.

Correspondingly, the effects of this extravagant linga are extremely terrifying.

After Mina made the offering, it instantly illuminated most of Varanasi!

Nearby sounds and images, down to the smallest detail, were transmitted to Shenhe, allowing him to see even the movements of the surrounding families.

Even the power to manipulate incense ash has been greatly enhanced!

He could even carry a 30-kilogram bucket of rice over a high wall, inching his way towards...

This isn't stealing! This is, this is...

Okay, Shenhe has started stealing rice.

Making a doctor do work always deserves some reward, but it would be unwise to waste his already depleted cultivation energy on such a task, so he could only...

This is also to motivate the doctor to wholeheartedly help him develop followers, accumulate strength, and rescue Mina!

The so-called taking from believers, used...

cough cough.

Thirty kilograms of rice, give two kilograms to the doctor, store the rest in your spatial storage, and then quietly return the bucket.

In case Lamina comes in during an emergency, at least there will be food available.

Yes, yes, this is for Mina!

For some reason, Arti also started eating rice that was specially provided for Brahmins.

In addition, moving ghee, wheat cakes, chicken, and vegetables is a breeze.

Moreover, he can perfectly control the incense ash so it doesn't stick to the surface and cause pollution...

This is for an experiment, yes, an experiment!

This is also to provide protection for the believer Mina.

Ahem, how can you call it stealing when it's the work of the gods?

suddenly.

A conversation that Shenhe was extremely concerned about came from a wealthy family near Mina's house.