The City God, also known as the City God Lord, holds an extremely respected status in the religious culture of Chinese history. Even now, there are many City God temples in various places, and the incense is absolutely prosperous.
He is a bit like a god who guards a city. According to the scope of responsibilities, a ghost catcher like Zhou Ze is a bit like the chief of a police station in the underworld. The head of the police is the director, and the city god is at the level of a county magistrate or even a mayor.
Because ancient cities also came in different sizes, the sphere of influence of the City God would naturally vary and change accordingly. A smaller one, such as the mayor on the grassland, actually could not control many people.
The larger ones are the current governors of important areas in the capital, which is very close to the status of local princes.
The old Taoist happily brought Gou Xin and the other two to visit the City God Temple in Tongcheng. At first, the old Taoist was worried that the three would find it boring.
But Gou Xin and the other two appeared serious and solemn, and even when they were bowing, they were extremely serious and rigorous.
The meticulous manner in which these three people kowtowed amazed many other pilgrims around them. For a long time, the Chinese have worshipped in any temple they can. It seems that they worship a lot, but it is hard to say how sincere they are. Therefore, the postures for worshiping gods and Buddhas are all kinds of strange. In short, they do whatever is comfortable and accustomed to them.
The postures and movements of these three people were coherent and neat, and they carried a solemn feeling, which really made the pilgrims around them brighten their eyes.
The old Taoist thought that these three had finally tucked their tails between their legs after coming to the City God Temple, and he was somewhat proud of his choice.
Little did they know,
Although Gou Xin and the other two were bowing, they were not trying to please anyone, but were truly paying homage and remembering.
That's right.
In memory of.
Because the old Taoist didn’t know that there had long been no City God in the sequence of the underworld.
Thousands of years ago, after the last generation of Lord of Mount Tai disappeared, the Ten Kings of Hell rose up, peacefully evolved, and established the current underworld.
Although there were people in hell who resisted and opposed, they were all quickly suppressed. However, most of the city gods in the world of the living were loyal to the Lord of Mount Tai and did not obey the jurisdiction of the underworld.
After this, the underworld took countermeasures, and the City God lineage was either suppressed or exiled, and this was no longer set up in the underworld system afterwards.
Although the world of the living is still prosperous,
But in Hades,
It is a completely different atmosphere and pattern.
The reason for this situation is that the city gods in various places are all local loyal people or brave generals who died in battle, and they have the blood of righteousness and unyieldingness flowing in their bones.
After the worship,
Gou Xin bought some incense and prepared to offer sacrifice.
But at this moment, a squeaking sound came from the ceiling.
Gou Xin raised his head and looked upwards.
Above, I saw three fat-headed and big-eared rats, with a faint red glow on their bodies, jumping on the beams, while the pilgrims below were completely unaware.
Seeing this,
Smiled,
This is Lucky Mouse.
It is auspicious for those who see it.
The temple is prosperous and the incense is popular, so the rats inside are naturally fat and big-eared, and are permeated with the scent of incense. Only the blessed can see them.
Gou Xin took out a handful of candy from his arms and quietly placed it in a corner behind the statue where not many people noticed.
When the old Taoist saw Gou Xin and the others were worshipping, he was happy to have some free time and ran to chat with a middle-aged Taoist who was setting up a stall in the temple.
In front of the middle-aged Taoist priest was a fortune-telling stall and a basket of fruit with a sign on it that read "Buddha's Apple".
This is because the fruit looks very much like the patterns on the top of a Buddha statue's head.
I know this thing. Its scientific name is actually custard apple. It is a tropical fruit, but it can also be picked in the mountains and is called wild fruit by the locals.
The authentic sugar apple is actually quite delicious. The flesh is sweet and tasty and milky white. But the experienced person knows that the sugar apples here must be picked from the wild. Due to the climate and soil, the fruits in this basket will definitely not taste very good.
"Want to eat?"
The middle-aged Taoist asked the old Taoist.
“It’s quite expensive, isn’t it?”
The old Taoist asked.
"fine."
The price is actually marked, but it is not cheap.
"Is it sweet?" asked the old Taoist.
"No money if it's not sweet."
The middle-aged Taoist priest replied with a smile.
"Okay, weigh me two pounds of unsweet ones and I'll take them away."
“… … ” A middle-aged Taoist priest.
Fortunately, a pilgrim came with a stick to interpret the fortune.
There is a fortune stick box in front of the temple, on which it is written that it costs 1 yuan to draw a fortune stick.
Therefore, there are really many people who come to shake the lottery ticket box, just thinking that it is cheap and it would be a waste not to shake it.
The middle-aged Taoist priest said a lot of confusing words, which must have contained some blessings and some warnings. Anyway, it made people feel that that was the case.
After the deregistration is completed,
The middle-aged Taoist took out a red book.
I chanted the name of Wuliang Tianzun,
"It's a thought, not a number."
This is naturally to ask for some money from incense offerings, which is also a reasonable thing to do.
The pilgrim took the book with a smile, and then was stunned.
There are rows of names on it, and behind them are the amounts of donations. At a glance, there is not a single amount less than one hundred!
There are even many that number in the thousands or even tens of thousands!
The pilgrim was a little hesitant, but felt embarrassed to give less than the required amount, so he took out another 100-dollar bill as the minimum payment and signed his name.
The middle-aged Taoist took the money and took the notebook back.
The old Taoist witnessed the whole process from the side. This routine was really good, but it was a pity that they were all left over from his tricks. He just watched it for fun and didn't say anything. When he saw Gou Xin and the others went out, he also went out to look for them.
When Gou Xin and the other two left the hall to look at the stone tablet,
The three mice that were originally on the beams scurried down and began to eat the candies.
They eat very quickly and their teeth are much sharper than those of ordinary mice.
After eating, he ran upstairs again.
Gou Xin and the other two were outside looking at the stone tablet. Xiao Bai was standing behind Gou Xin, while Xiao Hei was looking at the old Taoist who was still in the main hall.
"Don't worry, he's alive."
Gou Xin stretched out his hand to stop Xiao Hei who was about to speak, appearing very confident.
He has indeed been used to smooth sailing in recent years.
No matter what happens,
No matter who you meet,
Everything goes well!
Xiao Hei nodded and didn't plan to say anything else.
After the three of them toured the City God Temple, they were ready to leave. Gou Xin signaled Xiao Bai to call the tour guide sent by the bookstore.
When the old Taoist came out earlier, he saw them admiring the inscription, so he simply took the time to go to the toilet to flush the water. While doing so, he accidentally dropped the talisman paper hidden in his crotch.
It didn't fall into the urinal, but only onto the ground. However, there was water all over the toilet tiles, and most of the talisman paper was also wet.
It was impossible to stuff it back into his crotch. Although the old Taoist was not as mysophobic as his boss, he was not that obsessive either.
He could only shake his head and sigh, picked up the talisman paper, and threw it on the ground after walking out of the bathroom. He couldn't just leave the talisman paper in the toilet.
The wind was quite strong today and the talisman paper was blown away by the wind.
Gou Xin and the other two were waiting at the entrance of the hall. Since Zhou Ze had made such arrangements, Gou Xin seemed happy to let the old Taoist take him around. After the old Taoist came over, the two began to discuss where to go to the next attraction.
At this time,
What no one present noticed was that
Above the City God sculpture,
A woman's face slowly emerged.
Below the woman's face, there seemed to be an even darker face, which was always resisting but unable to break free from the woman's restraints.
"You lost your temple and come to steal mine!"
The man's voice came from the statue, but the pilgrims around were unaware of it.
At this time, Xiao Hei and Xiao Bai, who were standing outside the hall, raised their heads together and looked inside.
"What's wrong?"
Gou Xin asked.
"There seems to be some fluctuations."
Xiaobai replied.
"It's okay. This is normal. Although the netherworld suppressed most of the city gods, there are always some that slipped through the net. It's not easy for everyone."
After that,
Gou Xin bowed again towards the entrance of the hall.
The little black and white ones behind him also followed suit and bowed down.
This is a bit like Emperor Qianlong erecting a monument to vindicate the anti-Qing heroes of the past.
Even if everyone is eating from the underworld,
But in my heart, I still respect the heroes who dared to resist and go against the tide when the general trend was sweeping us.
At this time, inside the temple statue,
A woman's voice came:
"Your temple body? Open your eyes and look carefully. Is there still a tablet with your identity in the underworld
He was nothing more than a rat in the current of the past.
The more heroic others are, the more cowardly you appear.
What's the point of keeping all this incense
Give it to me!"
Women actually have the absolute upper hand in the stalemate, but it is not easy to refine a City God.
At this time,
The three mice seemed to be full and started to move around. Two of them bit the beams and actually cut the threads on them. The many banners that were originally hanging on them fell directly onto the City God statue.
For a time,
The two faces on the Buddha statue seemed to be suppressed together and no longer appeared.
A disaster seemed to be eliminated at this moment.
"Let's go to the next place."
After the worship, Gou Xin said to the old Taoist.
"Okay, the car is outside, let's go."
The old Taoist nodded. The City God Temple was so small, and the three of them had been playing there for so long, which was beyond the old Taoist's expectation.
But at this moment,
The middle-aged Taoist priest yawned and walked out, stretched and twisted his body. The banner fell down. He saw it and planned to call someone to hang it back up tomorrow morning.
However, when he bent down, he saw a piece of talisman on the ground.
"hehe."
The middle-aged Taoist picked up the talisman paper.
In line with the principle of no waste,
It was directly thrown into the incense burner in front of the City God statue and was ready to be burned.
The talisman paper quickly burned up.
When the middle-aged Taoist was about to sit back down,
The whole person was stunned immediately.
Because the banners that originally fell from above and covered the sculpture,
Suddenly, for no apparent reason, they all started to burn together.
"Oh my god, there's a fire, there's a fire, get a fire extinguisher, get a fire extinguisher!"
The middle-aged Taoist shouted.
The City God statue, which had been sitting there motionless for who knows how many years,
Suddenly opened his eyes!