Chapter 59 Blasphemy 8. We'll take action as soon as we get back, starting with the sinking...
Chu Shenxiang is Shen Mingxin's sworn brother, but not Shen Chou's sworn brother. Shen Chou has only seen a small statue of Shenxiangjun at the Shen family's residence, but he has never been to Wangqiu Mountain to worship Shenxiangjun in the temple.
In the past, Shen Mingxin did not go up the mountain; only her parents came to worship the gods on time. Later, after Shen Mingxin's parents passed away, Shen Zhuan took over the position, going up Wangqiu Mountain to worship the gods every month without fail, rain or shine, on the first and fifteenth of each month, for more than ten years.
Chu Shenxiang had never met Shen Chou, but he sensed a trace of his own lineage in Shen Chou.
The Shen family has been offering incense to Chu Shenxiang day and night recently, and even though the incense had just arrived at their home, it had inevitably been tainted with some of the smoke.
It seems this is a member of the Shen family.
Chu Shenxiang made the judgment at a glance.
After a quick check of their ages and attire, Chu Shenxiang vaguely guessed that this was probably Shen Mingxin's sworn brother, Shen Chou. Shen Zhuan would occasionally mention him when he was rambling about family matters in the temple. Shen Chou was naturally lucid; over the years, the only person Chu Shenxiang had ever seen who wasn't lucid was Shen Mingxin.
However, today is not the first or fifteenth of the month. Why is Shen Mingxin's sworn brother going up the mountain in the middle of the night for no reason?
Chu Shenxiang was surprised, feeling that her small temple had been very busy lately.
Shen Chou didn't seem to have practiced martial arts, but his movements were strange and he was much faster than ordinary people. In no time, he ran from the foot of the mountain to the front of Shenxiang Temple.
"This is it."
He spoke softly, looked around, lit a tinderbox, illuminated the interior of the hall, and carefully stepped inside.
After entering, he neither worshipped the gods nor asked for the cup. Instead, he picked up the tinderbox, jumped onto the offering table, and went to the shrine to examine the statue of Chu Shenxiang.
After observing, he jumped off the altar, reached into his robe, and took out a leaf.
He picked up a leaf, gently blew on it, and the leaf suddenly sprouted and transformed into a spring branch in the blink of an eye. He grasped the spring branch and slapped it against Chu Shenxiang's incense burner.
The incense burner trembled.
The incense, though unseen, was affected and scattered suddenly like incense ash.
Shen Chou stared intently at the statue, but saw that it did not change in the slightest.
After waiting a while, he pulled the incense sticks twice more, making a total of three pulls. The incense smoke dissipated, but the statues remained unresponsive.
Seeing this, the last trace of tension and worry in Shen Chou's eyes disappeared. He relaxed, flicked Chunzhi, and laughed, "I told you, you were overthinking it. This Shen Xiangjun is called a god, but he really didn't become a god. He's just a broken stone that may have some supernatural powers. Shen Mingxin really lost out by becoming his sworn brother."
"Better safe than sorry."
A faint male voice rang out.
However, in the empty and dark hall, it seemed that only Chen Chou was there. Neither human nor soul was superfluous.
Where did that male voice come from?
Chu Shenxiang, who was observing the spring branch in Shen Chou's hand that was wrapped with a trace of divine power from some unknown deity, paused upon hearing the sound and raised her eyebrows in surprise.
Is there a second person here?
He looked closely at Chen Chou, only to find that the male voice seemed to be coming from inside Chen Chou's stomach.
"You're being careful, making me take that dangerous risk while you hide in the shadows..." Shen Chou said to the voice, a hint of mockery appearing on his overly effeminate face.
“Chou’er, what you’re saying makes no sense,” the ethereal male voice immediately turned bitter. “You were the one who set the plan to use you as bait and me as the predator to explore the Shenxiang Temple. I tried to stop you, but you said that this Shenxiang Lord is definitely not a god and that you’re not afraid.”
"I have no choice but to rely on divine power to protect myself and remain vigilant at all times, thinking that if Shenxiangjun is truly a deity and becomes angry, I will immediately protect her. Right now, everything is fine, yet you say such things to chill my heart."
"To chill your heart?"
Shen Chou snorted, "Coincidentally, your former lover is coming to Xiling. Since I've already broken your heart, go find him. He's a god, with boundless magical power, and handsome too. He's better than me in every way..."
"Why mention him?" the ethereal male voice sighed helplessly. "I already told you about our feud last time. He killed me with his own hands. No matter what, I can't be with him anymore. He's a god. When I have enough offerings, I'll share them with you, and you'll become a god too. How is that inferior to him? As for his appearance, he is indeed a snow lotus from the Heavenly Mountains, but I love your alluring charm, your yin and yang nature even more..."
Spring branches grew in my hand, wrapping around the heavy, thick waist, as if being embraced.
Shen Chou was pleased, but said, "Don't try to fool me! If you truly love me, you mustn't hesitate to go and avenge me right now!"
A faint male voice said, "We have just entered Yu County, and everything is unstable. It's impossible to do anything immediately. But the reason I specifically chose Yu County as my base when I entered Xiling is to avenge you, isn't it?"
"Otherwise, Mang County and Du'an County, whether in terms of the people, feng shui, or the influence of the Tongtian Goddess's incense offerings, would be more suitable for me to gradually devour the incense offerings of Xiling and replace the Tongtian Goddess than Yu County. No matter how I calculate it, I shouldn't have chosen Yu County. Don't you agree?"
"If it weren't for the fact that the seed of incense that your sworn brother secretly planted had been eradicated, and we were worried that there was a powerful figure or a true god behind it, so we didn't take action immediately after returning? How can you blame me for this? I'm innocent, Chou'er!"
Shen Chou raised her narrow eyes and chuckled, "Alright, you're good at arguing. So what's next? We've already ruled out Shen Xiangjun, who's most likely to back up the Shen family. Who else could be the one to eliminate Shen Mingxin's lineage?"
"If we can't find out, will we just let it go and not take any further action? Those past years were one thing, but now that I know the truth, I can't bear to see Shen Zhuan live a single moment longer. Only if he, a white-haired man, burys his black-haired son, suffers the cruel torture of being slowly sliced to pieces, and dies a miserable death, will my hatred be appeased..."
"Don't worry," the ethereal male voice said, "Only the gods can uproot the seeds of incense offerings. Since this Shenxiangjun is just a piece of rotten stone, then only the Great Goddess of Heaven can take action."
"Although I don't know why He helped the Shen family, He has been weakened by the backlash from the incense offerings. If we act again, as long as we are more discreet, He will not notice us. Besides, my new temple in Yu County will be completed in a few days. At that time, Yu County will be my 'territory'. Even if He notices, what can he do to me?"
“We’ll get started when we get back, beginning with Shen Mingxin,” the man said. “Do whatever you want, however you like, okay?”
Chen Chou was completely satisfied. He stroked Chunzhi and kissed her, then slightly parted his legs and whispered, "We've tried this desolate mountain temple a few times before. How about this time...?"
The ethereal male voice paused for a moment, then said, "Let's go back. There's nothing strange here, but the yin energy is too heavy. Birds and beasts don't come out at night. You're still just a mortal. Staying here for too long will definitely not be comfortable."
"All right."
Shen Chou felt a little regretful, but he didn't object.
The spring branch was gathered and returned to Shen Chou's hand, turning into a leaf. He stuffed the leaf back into his pocket, glanced at the offerings that had just been delivered from Yuejia Village that evening, spat, and scoffed, "A few pieces of bread and a spoiled chicken, how meager."
After saying that, he glanced at the statue again, then turned and left.
The tinderbox went out, and Chenchong's figure quickly disappeared down the mountain road.
The temple was quiet for a while.
A quarter of an hour later, a clump of weeds suddenly pushed aside a floor tile in the hall, transformed into a spring branch, and peered at the statue. Seeing that it did not move, it slowly dissipated and returned to ordinary weeds.
Another quarter of an hour passed, and a hand emerged from the statue, forming a hand seal to create wind that swept across everything in the temple.
The offerings were cleaned again, and the cloying, sweet smell of incense was also gone.
"That's certainly cautious."
Chu Shenxiang raised her eyes and looked at the patch of weeds sticking up.
If he hadn't been more cautious, he would have been killed by this sudden attack.
"The seeds of incense actually came from here."
Chu Shenxiang recalled the conversation between Chen Chou and the faint male voice that seemed to be hidden in his belly.
He was indifferent to the Shen family feud, the unfamiliar deities, and the disputes over incense offerings, and had no desire to get involved. The only thing that caused him a long-lost headache was the fact that this person and the deity were going to attack Shen Mingxin again.
Although taking action again doesn't mean I'm still a seed of worship, still driven by evil desires, still wanting to enter the temple at midnight for infatuation, but...
Chu Shenxiang's dark blue eyes fell on the worried face of the man.
"You don't need to look at me."
His expression was aloof and cold, like a heartless deity in an ancient painting, who looked down upon the world from the void and whose expression never changed because of the smoke and fire of the land.
"I won't go."
He said.
Human nature still depends on him.
Chu Shenxiang said, "The way of Heaven is constant, and cause and effect are self-evident. That is their business, not mine."
Human nature remains silent; we continue to observe it.
Chu Shenxiang said, "Shen Mingxin indeed has no karmic debts, and he shouldn't have to bear the consequences, but what does that have to do with me?"
Human nature is what matters.
Chu Shenxiang fell silent.
After an unknown amount of time, he raised his right hand again and formed a spiritual incantation that he had pondered for many years but had later abandoned. He used the aura of the placenta and fetal hair that Shen Mingxin had left behind as offerings to follow the incantation.
At midnight, a dream-spreading spell transformed into an invisible stream of light and landed at the Shen family's Mingyuan Garden.
“It was just a dream,” Chu Shenxiang said calmly. “Whether they believe it or not is up to them.”
Humanity began to clamor again, but Chu Shenxiang could not hear it, even though it was a part of him.
So he stopped listening and focused on manipulating his dream-spreading technique.
He had considered sending messages through dreams to find and rescue people countless times since arriving in this world, but he had never succeeded in doing so. Now, this dream-sending technique was being used for the first time in two hundred years.
Chu Shenxiang's consciousness sank into the void. Following the aura and spiritual incantation, she found a hazy old painting, which was filled with Shen Mingxin's aura and was also connected to Shen Mingxin's soul.
This was Shen Mingxin's dream.
He stepped forward, pinching a ball of light between his fingers. Inside was a dense image of the unknown deity within the Shenxiang Temple.
Chu Shenxiang didn't know how to explain the cause and effect in a dream, so she simply pinched this ball of light. As long as she threw it in and let Shen Mingxin see it, she would have accomplished her mission and done everything she could.
Anything more is irrelevant to him.
Thinking this, Chu Shenxiang opened the dream world and stepped inside.
When Chu Shenxiang first received a dream, she was not quite used to it. Her vision blurred for a moment before she regained her senses.
But once things stabilized, Chu Shenxiang immediately sensed something was wrong.
Did I actually have a physical form in Shen Mingxin's dream?
This situation could only be because Shen Mingxin dreamed of him, and he happened to be here, thus coinciding with the illusory dream.
Shen Mingxin dreamed of him...
Chu Shenxiang had a bad feeling.
He brushed away the illusion, slowly opened his eyes, and saw nothing but shimmering white snow, and tangled, illusory red silk—
For some reason, he found himself half-reclining on an empty altar he had never seen before, with a young man in a light red robe kneeling around his waist, his eyes filled with affection, shrouded in mist, as if weeping and lamenting.
"Move."
Shen Mingxin called out to him, "Good brother, move around."
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Author's note: A certain god's catchphrase: "I don't care" or "It's irrelevant."
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