Safe City Ch.218

Chapter 218: Rain-Praying Rituals

Lu Luo, the third-generation sect master of Fenglu Mountain, sat with a stiff expression in the seat immediately below the seat of honor, having accepted Qian Heng’s enthusiastic invitation.

Back when he was still alive, he hadn’t known much about the Divine Path.

After all, aside from the City Gods officially appointed by the imperial court, who would occasionally communicate with local officials through dreams, most deities had little day-to-day contact with ordinary mortals.

For one thing, the Divine Path didn’t have much to discuss with mortals. And even if there was something worth saying, using one’s cultivation to send a message through someone’s dreams was truly exhausting. There was also a good chance that, after spending the entire night laboriously delivering a message, talking until one’s mouth went dry, the mortal would wake up the next morning and…

Oh! They’d forgotten everything!

Over time, things settled into a routine: mortals offered their worship, deities performed their respective duties, and neither side interacted with the other in their daily lives. Communication was essentially a one-way affair.

Even Daoist sects, at most, maintained some connections with the local City Gods.

It wasn’t until Lu Luo had relied on his cultivation to transform into a Yin Deity after death that he gradually learned many of the unspoken rules of the Divine Path.

For example, deities placed great importance on their caves and abodes (洞府).

More powerful deities would even establish protective barriers around their abodes to prevent living people from wandering inside. A deity’s abode was essentially their home.

And the two deities who had come to inform him that he needed to collect his people had made it abundantly clear: the descendants of Fenglu Mountain’s cultivators had trespassed into someone else’s home.

The Black and White Impermanences who had delivered the message were also quite formidable. Their strength might not have surpassed Lu Luo’s own cultivation, but the problem was that, in Youdu, individuals of their caliber were merely sent out to run errands and deliver messages.

Lu Luo immediately realized just what kind of colossal entity this so-called Youdu was.

His feelings throughout the journey here had been something like this:

—He earned a monthly salary of five thousand yuan, had both a car loan and a mortgage to pay off, and had been going about his normal workday when the police suddenly showed up to tell him, “Hurry home and take a look! Your kid has smashed up someone’s Rolls-Royce!”

—So he’d rushed all the way back, his heart pounding with anxiety and dread, only to discover that his foolish child had already sat down to eat with the owner of the Rolls-Royce.

—And was apparently enjoying the meal immensely.

At the thought of this, Lu Luo looked at the thirteen young cultivators, and the muscles in his face twitched a few more times.

The thirteen cultivators from Fenglu Mountain sat as quietly as chickens.

They had thought that chasing a ghost all the way to the Ghost Gate was already outrageous enough. But who could have imagined something even more outrageous? Their founding patriarch, who had been dead for several hundred years, had suddenly appeared right before their eyes!

If, just moments ago, these thirteen young cultivators had still harbored some faint resentment toward the ghost deities who had forcibly detained them—like cats secretly bristling with fur, ready to hiss at Youdu at the slightest provocation amid the undercurrents of tension—then seeing their founding patriarch behaving so courteously toward the Ghost King had turned them into a flock of perfectly obedient little chicks.

They sat up straight, behaved themselves, and looked so well-mannered that they practically wanted to write the word obedient across their faces.

They focused solely on eating, without saying a word, while perking up their ears and trying their best to hear what the important people at the head of the table were discussing.

“Just a misunderstanding, a misunderstanding. These youngsters are still young and don’t know their limits. They were so eager to pursue the evil ghost that they saw a path and charged straight down it without thinking.

“For disturbing Your Excellency, I must take responsibility for Fenglu Mountain’s lax discipline. This humble Daoist apologizes to the Divine Lord on their behalf. Once I take them back, I will certainly discipline them strictly!”

Holding a cup of underworld tea in his hand, Lu Luo wore an apologetic expression as he raised it toward Qian Heng, who sat at the head of the table.

“I came in such a hurry this time that I didn’t bring a gift to make amends. But once I return to the mortal world, I will certainly make up for it with offerings of incense and fine tributes!”

Qian Heng burst into hearty laughter. Playing along with Lu Luo’s intentions, he took a sip of tea as well.

“There’s no need to go to such lengths. I invited Fellow Daoist here because Youdu is an important place, and outsiders must not trespass without permission.

“Fenglu Mountain has a thousand-year legacy, and I have long heard of its reputation. Your sect’s cultivators have always been generous in performing rites of salvation, upholding righteousness and observing precepts, eliminating evil spirits and guiding departed souls to the afterlife. You have accumulated considerable yin virtue through your good deeds.

“Since these youngsters truly are disciples of Fenglu Mountain, once they’ve finished eating, you may simply take them back to the mortal world.”

Lu Luo was somewhat flattered.

Fenglu Mountain did indeed enjoy a fair degree of fame among ordinary mortals, but under normal circumstances, he would have assumed that the deities only had a vague awareness of the sect’s existence.

It had never occurred to him that, in the eyes of the Yin Deity sitting before him, Fenglu Mountain seemed to enjoy quite a reputation in this place called Youdu, an underworld realm.

He hurriedly raised his teacup again.

“Thank you, Divine Lord, for your generosity and magnanimity. Fenglu Mountain will certainly remember today’s kindness!”

—As soon as he returned, he’d send a dream to the current sect master.

Qian Heng laughed. “You’re too polite! Come, come, everyone, eat up! If there’s anything about our hospitality that falls short, just let us know!”

The banquet was attended not only by the people from Fenglu Mountain, but also by officials of all ranks stationed at Youdu’s Ghost Gate. Most of these officials were Blue Sea residents, and since the meal was paid for with public funds, they were enjoying themselves immensely.

With them around, the atmosphere soon became lively. Some even summoned paper figures to put on dance performances.

Qian Heng chatted for a little while before heading straight down to join Lu Luo for a conversation.

Only then did Lu Luo learn that Youdu had actually taken over the duties of the Reincarnation Bureau.

He was astonished. When he was alive, he’d never known that there were actually two places in this world responsible for reincarnation.

Once again, Lu Luo realized just how enormous and powerful this divine system was.

Unlike the young cultivators, he had genuinely served as a sect master. He knew how to navigate the social niceties between ghosts and deities. With Qian Heng willing to make friends and Lu Luo equally receptive, the two soon became as close as old friends of a thousand years.

As they grew more familiar, Lu Luo even took the opportunity to improve the paper figures’ dance moves. After all, he was a Yin Deity who had cultivated for several hundred years. Controlling a few paper figures was well within his abilities.

With Qian Heng’s permission, Lu Luo formed a hand seal with his fingers and flicked them lightly. A spark of spiritual light flew out.

The paper figures, which had previously been waving their limbs stiffly, suddenly acquired two tiny dots representing eyes on their otherwise featureless faces. In an instant, they came alive, beginning to perform an elegant and graceful sword dance.

Qian Heng’s expression changed immediately as he looked at him.

A talented individual… No, a ghostly genius!

Controlling paper figures was something the Blue Sea residents had only recently learned. They could certainly make them move, but the results were extremely stiff. The figures walked slowly and consumed a great deal of divine power. In essence, it was little different from using a remote control to operate toys.

If not for the sake of maintaining the public image that “underworld officials must make an impressive show when they go out on duty,” the Blue Sea residents wouldn’t have wanted those paper figures following them around whenever they went out on business.

But the paper figures modified by Lu Luo looked much more lifelike. Apart from their slightly stiff movements, they were almost as mobile as living people.

Qian Heng praised him. “Fellow Daoist Lu, your technique for bringing eyes to these paper figures is truly exquisite!”

Lu Luo was rather pleased by the compliment, but he still maintained a humble demeanor, waving his hand repeatedly.

“Just a trivial little trick, nothing more. After becoming a Yin Deity, one can no longer physically touch anything. Sometimes, when there’s something that needs doing, one has no choice but to rely on these little techniques.”

Qian Heng could guess why.

After all, the technique they’d learned was something they’d picked up from a local ghost deity who had only recently joined Youdu.

Clearly, however, Lu Luo was a cut above the rest.

There really was a difference when someone came from a proper Daoist sect. Even his techniques were more refined.

Lu Luo was still marveling at the place.

“Youdu truly is extraordinary. When I was in the mortal world, the largest paper figures I could control were no bigger than a finger. But here in Youdu, I can manipulate paper figures the size of grown adults without the slightest difficulty!”

Watching from the sidelines, Cheng Qisheng thought: Of course. Youdu is the underworld. You’re a Yin Deity, so coming here is like a fish returning to water. Naturally, you’ll thrive.

The reason Yin Deities could manipulate paper figures was, fundamentally, because of the worldview of Fallen Heaven Star. The living burned paper effigies for the dead, so in this idealistic world, paper figures had become associated with yin energy.

And Youdu? It was a place where yin energy was concentrated upon yin energy.

Thinking this, Cheng Qisheng became even more confident that she could persuade Lu Luo to stay.

That’s right. Lu Luo had been deliberately lured here at Cheng Qisheng’s instruction.

Initially, she’d only wanted to try her luck. After all, this was a world of ghosts, spirits, and supernatural beings. She hadn’t expected Fenglu Mountain to actually have an ancestral Yin Deity.

A Yin Deity who had cultivated for several hundred years and had been a powerful cultivator even while alive was practically tailor-made for work in Youdu.

Of course, the thirteen young living cultivators weren’t incapable of contributing either. Although they couldn’t serve as underworld officials, they could become yang officials—officials who operated in the world of the living.

Yes, Youdu was so desperately short-staffed that it had reached the point where even living people were welcome, as long as they were capable of doing the job.

After all, these people were already engaged in hunting down and eliminating evil spirits. Surely they wouldn’t mind receiving an additional intern’s salary for their efforts.

Once they reached the end of their natural lifespans, they could conveniently transition from interns to full-time employees.

And if she could use this opportunity to bring the entire Fenglu Mountain sect into Youdu’s service as its workforce in the mortal world, that would be even, even, even more perfect.

On one side, the followers of the great Blue Sea Creator God were busy trying to poach Lu Luo.

On the other side, the great Blue Sea Creator God herself was already thinking about poaching their entire sect and bringing it over to her side.

While Cheng Qisheng watched Qian Heng trying to persuade Lu Luo to stay, the mental power hovering above suddenly took a turn.

Hmm?

Why did she hear someone offering a prayer to her?

The important thing wasn’t that someone was praying. Cheng Qisheng sensed countless prayers every day.

Things like:

“May my god bless me so I can get a chance to leave the city!”

“May my god bless this experiment so it succeeds!”

“Please, my god, could you help my combat power break through five?”

The great Blue Sea Creator God shared an extremely close connection with her followers.

And her followers always had plenty of thoughts. Even when they didn’t actually voice those thoughts, as long as they genuinely wanted something badly enough, Cheng Qisheng could vaguely sense it.

But this time was different.

The person praying to her wasn’t one of her followers.

And the content of the prayer was extremely strange.

Cheng Qisheng concentrated and listened carefully. She heard the other person chanting:

“Water, rain, well, river, sea, boat, snow, waves, bucket, fish—”

What on earth was that supposed to mean?

Without a follower link, how had this person managed to make her hear their prayer?

Cheng Qisheng was both puzzled and wary.

Cautiously, she separated out a tiny wisp of mental power. She made sure it was small enough that even if something happened to it, it wouldn’t cause her any serious harm.

Only then did she allow it to follow the direction of the prayer.

The sensation was much like passing through a passageway connecting different dimensions of another world.

In the next instant, that tiny wisp of her mental power appeared directly before the person offering the prayer.

Cheng Qisheng looked over and discovered that the person offering the prayer was actually a local shamaness from Fallen Heaven Star.

She was dressed in a dark-colored jacket, with a paper-crafted divine hat on her head. A yellow talisman was pasted to the hat, and she held a paper banner in her hand. An incense burner was burning in front of her.

She was trembling all over while performing some bizarre dance.

It was the sort of strange dance that looked almost like an epileptic seizure.

Cheng Qisheng: “…”

She suddenly remembered that, when she was a child back on Blue Star, she’d once seen a shamaness somewhat like this one. Back then, she’d thought the woman was just putting on an act, engaging in nothing but charlatanry and feudal superstition.

Yet now, she could clearly sense that the shamaness’s bizarre dance, the disjointed words spilling from her mouth that didn’t form a coherent sentence, the smoke from the burning incense, the strange yellow paper, and the grains scattered across the ground were all combining to form an actual message on the mental level.

And somehow, that message was successfully transmitted to Cheng Qisheng through some mysterious frequency.

It was just that the message was rather awkwardly phrased, and she had absolutely no idea what the woman was trying to accomplish.

The shamaness continued dancing with all her might.

“Water, rain, well, river, sea, boat, snow, waves, bucket, fish—”

“Water, rain, well, river, sea, boat, snow, waves, bucket, fish—”

Cheng Qisheng watched for a while before finally figuring out, from the perspective of the ordinary world and the conversations of the people gathered around the shamaness, that this was a ritual to pray to Heaven for rain.

The great Blue Sea Creator God: “…”

Wow~

As everyone knew, on Fallen Heaven Star, only the Heavenly Dao could control the weather.

In other words, was this shamaness using a method that looked like elaborate hocus-pocus to send Morse code to the Heavenly Dao?

Something like a divine communication channel?

But why was the message reaching her?

Could it be because she was now the Emperor Venerable of the Great Luo Blue Sea Heavenly Court? Was she acting as a substitute for the Heavenly Dao?

But unfortunately, she would have to disappoint this particular shamaness. She was still in the early stages of building her enterprise and hadn’t yet reached the level where she could control wind and rain.

Even Water-type ability users in this world couldn’t perform something as advanced as summoning rain. In fact, most Water-type ability users were tied down to divine positions and couldn’t travel very far.

Cheng Qisheng watched for a while. Eventually, the shamaness grew tired of dancing. With no longer any communication channel connected to her, that wisp of mental power naturally returned to its source.

Cheng Qisheng decided to give the matter some serious thought. Perhaps she could find a way to make this divine communication channel useful within the Great Luo Blue Sea Heavenly Court as well.

For example, take Lu Luo of Fenglu Mountain. What if he could establish some kind of special communication channel with the disciples of Fenglu Mountain?

Wouldn’t that be just like something out of a television show on Blue Star? A cultivator out hunting ghosts finds themselves outmatched, then summons their founding patriarch through a special communication channel…

She vaguely remembered seeing a scene like that in a zombie movie.

Cheng Qisheng decided to look into it and see whether she could make it work.

She had used up quite a bit of mental power, but she was now able to move around slowly again. Just as she was carefully sitting up, a voice sounded beside her:

“Boat, snow, waves, bucket, fish, water, rain, well, river, sea—”

She had barely slipped her feet into her shoes when another chant followed:

“Sea, boat, snow, water, rain, well, river, waves, bucket, fish—”

By the time she reached the living room, it sounded again:

“Water, rain, well, river, sea, boat, snow, waves, bucket, fish—”

Cheng Qisheng: “…”

Following the direction of the mental power, she discovered that shamans and shamanesses in different parts of the world were performing rain-praying rituals.

They all used similarly bizarre methods to somehow establish a connection with the Heavenly Dao channel. The only problem was that all these channels were now being routed to Cheng Qisheng, the current stand-in for the Heavenly Dao.

After listening continuously for over an hour, with different versions of what sounded like endless muttering of “water, rain, well, river, sea, boat, snow, waves, bucket, fish” right beside her ears, the great Blue Sea Creator God—who could finally eat slowly again and was happily sitting in front of a roast chicken—snapped the iron chopsticks in her hand.

She finally understood why the common folk standing beside the shamans and shamanesses sometimes said that praying for rain actually worked.

So the Heavenly Dao must have been incredibly busy, and eventually got so fed up with all the pestering that it couldn’t take it anymore!

That night, Cheng Qisheng lay down on the soft bedsheets she’d spent over an hour changing.

“Good night~ Aether~”

“Good night, City Lord.”

She let out a breath and slowly closed her eyes.

—”Sea, boat, snow, waves, bucket, fish, water, rain, well, river—”

—”Sea, boat, snow, waves, bucket, fish, water, rain, well, river—”

The great Blue Sea Creator God slowly opened her eyes again.

She slowly let out a long breath.

Heavenly Dao, you really don’t have it easy.

She absolutely had to hurry up and get the Heavenly Court built, then quickly appoint one or more Rain Gods.

—That night, all Blue Sea followers who were still awake received a divine oracle from their god.

“Get a dragon.”

“As soon as possible~”

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**TN

洞府 (dòng fǔ) – In Daoism, it refers to the blessed lands and grottoes inhabited by immortals and true beings.

In cultivation novels, it refers to the private residence or cultivation base that cultivators have opened up and set up in the mountains and valleys, with spirit-gathering arrays, alchemy rooms, and secluded meditation chambers.