255: Gods

Soon, the group arrived in a Mortal kingdom, where a vast number of commoners lived. There were numerous temples and Daoist shrines, and various small shrines could be seen scattered along the imperial roads.

"The beliefs of the people here are surprisingly complex. With so many structures built, can they even manage to worship at all of them every day?"

Su Yao observed carefully. The shrines below were carved with the image of an unknown deity, and she had no idea what its origins were, yet all these commoners were worshiping it.

In front of the shrines were placed quite a bit of grain and fruit, evidently offerings intended for the deity.

The group watched everything before them in silence, then landed among the crowd of Mortals, concealing their own auras.

"You few are from out of town, aren't you?"

An Old Woman with a kind face leaned on a cane, a happy smile on her face as she looked at the unfamiliar faces.

"Everyone who comes here to worship belongs to our village. By all rights, I should know them all; every single one of them has been my neighbor for many years. Only your faces are particularly strange; I have never seen you before."

"May I ask where you all are from? Do you have a place to stay? If you truly don't, you can stay at my home tonight."

"Although my humble abode is very simple, it can certainly accommodate a few people. It is getting late now, so you should just stay."

The group exchanged glances and ultimately chose to have Su Yao step forward to communicate.

"Thank you, Old Woman. It is indeed our first time coming to this kingdom, and we intend to do some business here."

Hearing this, the Old Woman nodded, a benevolent smile appearing on her face.

"So you are merchants from afar. Our village is holding a ceremony tonight; if you wish to participate, you are welcome to join."

Upon hearing this, everyone nodded.

After the villagers finished worshiping the deity, they began to swarm back to the village. By this time, the sun had gradually set, and a massive bonfire was lit in the central square of the village, where almost all the men, women, and children of the village sat in a circle.

The men were responsible for slaughtering pigs and sheep; with knives flashing in and out, one dish after another was soon served before everyone.

The produce here was extremely abundant, and it was clear that everyone was eating very hearty meals.

For them, they only needed to farm and graze to obtain very rich grain supplies, as their local industries were already well-established, with large swathes of farmland and all kinds of cattle, sheep, chickens, and ducks.

The entire village appeared very prosperous.

The group sat around the bonfire. Knowing they were from out of town, the villagers were exceptionally warm, constantly introducing the local customs and traditions.

They quickly learned that the evening party was held to worship a deity.

It was said that today was the deity's birthday, and every time it was born, sweet rain would fall from the heavens, allowing everyone to be free from sickness and pain.

Therefore, as long as someone worshiped it, a miracle would descend upon them.

All the villagers present believed this legend without a shred of doubt, and today they chose to worship the deity.

The four of them privately used sound transmission to communicate; not one of them had ever heard of such a miracle, nor had anyone heard of such a deity.

To them, compared to these ignorant commoners, they knew much more.

In this world, it is impossible for such things to be gained without effort. Even Cultivation, although it is a system of immortal practice, has its own internal logic.

One must draw Spiritual Qi from heaven and earth, or absorb Spiritual Qi from Spirit Stones; only in this way can one improve their Cultivation.

Everything has a traceable path; it is impossible for anything to appear out of thin air. This is the principle their Revered Master has always taught them: whatever one does, one must be down-to-earth.

To just worship a little and receive sweet rain from the heavens, and to be able to heal one's own illnesses, is absolutely impossible.

There must be a price paid before such a reward can be obtained, or perhaps it is entirely fabricated.

Soon, as pig after pig was brought to the dining tables, the large crowd of commoners began to revel, and the entire village of over a thousand people was swaying happily.

A cow with a large red flower tied to its body was soon led by the crowd to the center of the square.

The Old Woman who had warmly entertained them earlier leaned on her cane, walked to the front of the cow with a smile on her face, and gently stroked the cow's head.

The villagers on the scene suddenly quieted down. Everyone ate their delicious food while watching the Old Woman before them, seemingly waiting for her to proceed with the next step of the ritual.

The Old Woman tapped the ground lightly with the cane in her hand, then began to perform a strange dance. She hunched her body, bent her legs, and kept clapping her hands in front of her, jumping rhythmically from side to side.

Wisps of light gradually began to spread toward this place from the surrounding forest. The group's expressions became somewhat surprised and extremely ugly. They were all too familiar with these auras; the source of this light was clearly emanating from alien beings!

The group looked toward the forest, their Divine Sense constantly sweeping and covering the area, yet they could not find the source of these lights no matter what.

"Damn it!"

Zhang Hai cursed angrily, stood up straight away, and charged toward the forest at a speed so fast that Mortals could not capture it with their naked eyes.

He circled the forest for quite a while, even tossing out Wangcai to let it track the scent, but he did not discover any traces of alien beings.

In the end, he could only return empty-handed.

"Thank you, Deity, for bestowing life upon us; thank you, Deity, for bestowing food upon us. That we can have the happy life we have today is entirely the reward of the Deity."

As the Old Woman muttered to herself, she raised both hands high toward the heavens. Everyone else followed suit and performed the same action. In the eyes of the group, this action had changed its flavor—this was clearly an act of sacrifice!

Soon, raindrops began to fall from the sky, and those lights merged into the raindrops, dripping onto everyone's bodies.

Everyone closed their eyes and enjoyed it blissfully, and quite a few people let out sighs of comfort.

Soon, a large amount of mist appeared, subsequently permeating the area in front of everyone, until the mist became so thick that one could not see their own fingers.

A quarter of an hour later, the mist vanished. The thousand or so commoners who had originally been sitting around the bonfire now appeared to be at least ten percent fewer.

The expressions of all four changed, and they hurriedly stood up. Even they had not been clear on how these villagers had vanished just now.

"Why are there suddenly so many fewer people? Where did they all go?"

Su Yao could not help but grab a villager beside her and ask. The villager scratched his head in some confusion, but still revealed a brilliant smile to answer them.

"They were, of course, received by the Deity and taken to the Paradise. Only those who are sufficiently loyal to the Deity and have made great contributions are likely to be chosen by the Deity to leave this world."