Safe City Ch.224.1

Chapter 224.1: The Mountain God of Songbird Village

Zhou Dagen was panting heavily.

He was simply too exhausted. He had no idea where the little vagrant running ahead of him had come from. The child was clearly small, yet somehow he could run even faster than a grown man like himself.

Zhou Dagen’s legs felt like lead, and he was finding it increasingly difficult to keep running. Seeing the little vagrant dart straight into the deep mountains that had suddenly appeared out of nowhere, he couldn’t help feeling a little apprehensive.

But then he thought of that bag of grain seeds. His entire family had carefully selected them from their fields, and they had already been spread out to dry in preparation for planting next season.

If they lost those seeds, they would have nothing to sow. And if they had no money to buy more grain seeds, what would they do next year?

At that thought, Zhou Dagen no longer had the luxury of being afraid of the mountain. He took a deep breath and summoned his strength to chase after the child again.

“You little thief! Stop right there!”

As for the vagrant’s talk about some mountain god or other, Zhou Dagen didn’t believe a word of it.

He might believe that mountain gods existed in this world, but he would never believe that one would instruct a child to sneak into his own ramshackle, dirt-poor house and steal a bag of grain seeds.

A child was still a child. They couldn’t even lie convincingly.

But how on earth was this little brat running so fast? And how could he keep running for so long without getting tired?

“Stop spouting nonsense and insulting the divine! The Mountain God is a deity revered throughout the world. How could he possibly be so poor and shabby?! Stop right now, and I might even spare you a beating!”

Lu Song, the impoverished deity, was standing silently on a tree branch, preparing to make a grand and magnificent entrance.

“…”

What was he supposed to do now? Should he still make his grand entrance?

If this had happened in Blue Sea, the Blue Sea Command Center would definitely have gathered a whole team of experts to analyze the situation and figure out what he should do and say. All he would have to do was open his mouth and repeat their instructions.

And if he didn’t feel like repeating them, there would be plenty of Blue Sea residents enthusiastically volunteering to take over for him.

But now, faced with this awkward situation, he had no choice but to tough it out on his own.

Lu Song: I miss Qi Yi. I miss Qi Er. I want to go back to Blue Sea.

He braced himself and began mentally reviewing the lessons from 108 Ways to Get Along with the Locals, a course he had once taken back in Blue Sea.

Actually, Lu Song wasn’t particularly interested in socializing with people. He wasn’t the type who liked having lots of friends. Having Qi Yi and Qi Er as his two good friends was already more than enough for him.

However, that particular course had been taught by several members of the clergy, all of whom were especially skilled at preaching. Lu Song had attended with the mindset that perhaps if I listen long enough, I’ll eventually come to believe in Our God.

Unfortunately, after the lesson, when he went to seek advice from the clergy, he hadn’t even had a chance to open his mouth before they started asking him for advice instead.

That was because Lu Song ranked first on the Blue Sea Safe City Preaching Rankings.

The clergy were all eager to learn a few tricks from him so they could bring even more new believers to Our God.

The Lu Song of that time: “…”

In any case, although he hadn’t been converted himself and had instead ended up teaching several members of the clergy quite a few preaching tips he’d come up with himself, he had indeed learned some useful techniques for getting along with the locals during that course.

Sometimes, there was no need to introduce yourself when making an entrance. Nor did you have to ensure that everything you did appeared logical in other people’s eyes.

As long as you could bring the locals some tangible benefits, that was enough.

It was much like what had happened on Moon Silk Star. By the later stages, almost all the researchers had guessed that [Ota] was fake, but everyone tacitly pretended not to know.

That was because [Ota] had given them a safe life and generous benefits. And that was what mattered most.

After giving himself a mental pep talk, Lu Song gathered his divine power and slowly descended before the first outsider to enter the mountain.

To avoid frightening the man into running away the moment he saw him, he had deliberately waited until the man had passed beyond the mountain’s outer perimeter before appearing.

That way, even if the outsider decided to run, at least he would have a chance to hear a few words from Lu Song as he fled.

Fortunately, this was a magical world. Perhaps it was because he had become a deity that he could understand what the other person was saying. Otherwise, he really would have been a mute Mountain God, forced to communicate through gestures alone.

Lu Song had planned everything very carefully. However, the moment Zhou Dagen saw a figure that seemed almost like a phantom appear before him, he froze on the spot.

What made him even more stiff with shock was that the “vagrant child” he had been chasing also stopped running. Once Zhou Dagen’s eyes adjusted, he could see clearly despite the sky having grown somewhat dim. The “vagrant child” had limbs that looked like tree roots, and its face appeared to have no features at all.

After recovering from his shock, Zhou Dagen had no intention of running away. Instead, he dropped to his knees right where he stood and promptly kowtowed to the phantom before him.

“This humble one had no intention of disturbing Your Excellency! I beg Your Excellency, whether god or ghost, to spare my life!”

Songbird Village worshipped a local Earth God, and naturally had a temple caretaker as well. Zhou Dagen had heard quite a few tales about gods and ghosts from the caretaker. In his eyes, these supernatural beings possessed all sorts of abilities. How could an ordinary person like him possibly escape simply by deciding to run?

All Zhou Dagen could do was gamble that the being before him was either a benevolent ghost or a benevolent god. He pleaded:

“This humble one has elderly parents to support and young children to raise. I mistakenly thought that the bag of grain seeds had been taken by that little vagrant, which was why I gave chase. Had I known that Your Excellencies wanted the grain seeds, I would never have come after them! I beg Your Excellency to spare me!”

Lu Song looked at the man before him, whose clothes were nothing short of ragged.

Since arriving on Fallen Heaven Star, he hadn’t interacted with any of the locals. Now that he was finally face-to-face with one, he immediately understood what kind of lives the natives of Fallen Heaven lived.

The man had merely had his grain seeds stolen, yet here he was, desperately begging the thief to spare his life. Looking again at the tattered clothes he wore and his tear-streaked, snot-covered face, Lu Song couldn’t help feeling rather uncomfortable.

“Please, rise quickly…”

He imitated the archaic manner of speaking he had learned in the training course back in Blue Sea.

First came the apology. According to 108 Ways to Get Along with the Locals, the purpose of apologizing when you had offended someone wasn’t necessarily to obtain their forgiveness. Rather, it was to show them your attitude first.

That way, you could demonstrate that you had no intention of harming them.

“This child is in my care. It actually went and stole something from your home. I have failed to discipline it properly, and I offer you my sincerest apologies. San’er, return the grain seeds to their owner.”

The Ginseng Doll was utterly astonished. Even though it had no facial features, anyone could tell just how shocked it was.

Wild mountain spirits and monsters had no concept of something belonging to someone else. In their eyes, everything belonged to whoever managed to snatch it first. If an animal had its food stolen, that simply meant it wasn’t strong enough.

So why should they return something they had already managed to steal?

It was like a tiger snatching a pheasant from a fox’s mouth, only to inexplicably turn around and give it back to the fox.

The Ginseng Doll clutched the heavy sack tightly in its arms and protested in its clear, childish voice, “No!”

Lu Song shot it a meaningful look. “Hurry up. Give it back to this mortal.”

The Ginseng Doll hadn’t noticed the Mountain God’s signal at all, but it could tell from his tone that he was serious.

Although it was extremely reluctant, it remembered how things had been when it lived in other mountains. The monsters wanted to eat it, and humans wanted to eat it too. Only in the Mountain God’s territory could it enjoy some peace and quiet, without any monsters bothering it.

So, with its little feet trudging along and obvious displeasure, the Ginseng Doll finally tossed the sack beside Zhou Dagen.

“Here! Take it!”

Zhou Dagen was trembling all over. He thought to himself: Why don’t you just keep the grain seeds? Please don’t tell me you don’t eat grain seeds and have decided to eat me instead.

He wished he could bury his head in the dirt.

“I wouldn’t dare! If Your Excellency has some use for these grain seeds, please take them all! If they’re not enough, this humble one can go home and gather some more…”

Lu Song moved on to the second step: introducing himself.

“No need. Today’s incident was simply a misunderstanding. I am the Mountain God of this place, and this little spirit is my companion. It has a mischievous temperament and loves to play. I apologize for frightening you.”

Without giving Zhou Dagen time to react to the revelation that he was actually a Mountain God, Lu Song swiftly proceeded to the third step: offering something of tangible value.

This part was easy. Quite a few animals had recently arrived in the mountains. As the Mountain God, Lu Song could easily sense their locations as long as they were within his territory. He could also capture them effortlessly using his divine power.

There were no large predators in this mountain. The populations of the other animals were relatively stable, but rabbits had no natural enemies, so they reproduced at an astonishing rate, quickly forming a veritable rabbit infestation throughout the mountain.

Lu Song randomly selected five rabbits and used his divine power to capture them, placing them in front of Zhou Dagen.

After thinking it over, he decided that rabbits alone might not be enough. So he dug up a small piece of gold himself. But then he reconsidered. What if he gave the man gold on their very first meeting, and the man struck it rich and moved his entire family away?

He absolutely couldn’t let that happen! It had taken so much effort to finally get someone here. If this man moved away, who would spread stories about the Mountain God to the outside world?

While the other man wasn’t looking up at all, Lu Song hurriedly took the gold back and added two more rabbits instead.

He acted as though nothing had happened, as if he hadn’t just performed the rather questionable act of giving someone money and then taking it back.

“Consider these a token of my apology.”

Step Four: Use the benefits you offer to naturally introduce your own objective.

Lu Song had already thought this part through.

“Looking at your tattered clothes, you were willing to take such a risk just for a bag of grain seeds. Is your family struggling financially? How many people are there in your household, and how many mu of farmland do you own?”

Zhou Dagen still didn’t dare raise his head. Naturally, he had no idea that he had just missed out on a piece of gold. He simply kept his eyes shut, his forehead pressed against the ground, and answered fearfully:

“T-This humble one reports to Your Excellency, the Mountain God. My family is indeed very poor. Including my youngest child, there are nine of us in total, and we own three mu of farmland.”

He heard the gentle voice before him speak softly:

“In that case, I shall grant you twenty mu of farmland. This land will be isolated by divine power, so no wild beasts will disturb you. The soil and water are also fertile, and the harvest will certainly be far better than that of your existing barren fields.

“You and your family may cultivate it here. The harvest will provide you with food, and this can serve as my apology to you. Tomorrow, at the hour of the Dragon (7–9 a.m.), you may come here to claim your land.”

Zhou Dagen was utterly shaken. He had never imagined that such an incredible stroke of good fortune could possibly befall him. His heart was filled with both panic and bewilderment, and he hurriedly replied:

“Y-Yes! Thank you, Your Excellency, the Mountain God…”

But there was no further response from the being before him.

Zhou Dagen remained kneeling for a while longer. It was only when the area around him had fallen completely silent, save for the chirping of insects, that he cautiously raised his head.

He first looked to his left, then to his right. Where was the Mountain God? And where was the little spirit that had stolen his grain seeds?

In front of him, there were only seven rabbits and the bag of grain seeds he had chased all this way, lying quietly on the ground. They were the only proof that everything that had just happened hadn’t been a dream.

With his legs still weak, Zhou Dagen stared blankly at the rabbits for a while before finally realizing that this hadn’t been a disaster at all. It had been an extraordinary stroke of good fortune!

He had not only gotten back his grain seeds and received seven rabbits, but had also been granted twenty mu of farmland.

“Thank you, Mountain God! Thank you, Mountain God!”

Zhou Dagen began kowtowing again. But this time, he wasn’t doing it out of fear. His gratitude was entirely genuine.

Lu Song watched him secretly from his hiding place in the tree. Suddenly, he sensed a wisp of faith power entering his divine body.

A warm feeling spread through him, and for the first time, he was no longer in that perpetually cold state.

So this was what it felt like to have a believer?

Lu Song immediately began making little calculations in his head. If his believers built him a temple and he placed a statue of the great Blue Sea Creator God inside it, would the new believers end up becoming believers of the Blue Sea Creator God as well?

And if their God gained new believers in this region, might She also discover that Lu Song was here?

What a brilliant idea!

He would give it a try once he had a temple!

<< _ >>