Red Mansion: Incense and God Road, starting from the City God of Shenjing

Chapter 2 The Rise and Fall of Shinto and Fudo
"As expected, when troubled times come, evil will surely grow."

"But this is also a good opportunity for my Shinto to prosper..."

After a moment, the strange vision in his mind dissipated, and Jia Cong whispered.

Focus your mind on the "Shinto Treasure Seal".

I sensed a hazy space.

A desolate scene.

In the center of the space, there are eight balls of light suspended, one large and seven small.

This is the priesthood.

Seal characters are reflected inside.

The largest of them reads "The Seventh Rank City God of Daxing County appointed by Heaven and Earth: Jia Cong!"

As for the remaining seven ninth-rank and ninth-rank divine positions, including "Land God of Xiaowangzhuang", "Mountain God of Yujing Mountain" and "River God of Qingshui River", they are all vacant.

……

That’s right, Jia Cong is a time traveler. He traveled to this world of the Red Mansion nine years ago and became Jia Cong, an unappreciated illegitimate son of the eldest son of the Rongguo Mansion.

It was not until three months ago when he had a persistent high fever that his wisdom was unexpectedly awakened.

Along with it appeared the "Shinto Seal" bound to his soul and a congenital deity's Dharma body!
In this world, martial arts cultivate the body, Taoism cultivates the soul, Buddhism practices Zen, and Confucianism cultivates Qi.

They all possess extraordinary powers, such as martial arts.

Body building, acquired, innate, master!
There are nine levels each, and one level ascends to heaven step by step.

Even if one has reached the ninth level of body forging, one still has a strength of nine hundred kilograms.

He can be a captain of a thousand men in the army.

Buddhism and Taoism also have their own supernatural powers.

But Jia Cong didn't find any trace of the existence of any gods.

The gods and Buddhas worshipped by Buddhism and Taoism have no spirituality at all and are no different from clay sculptures.

Preaching is more related to spiritual practice.

In other words, Jia Cong is the only god in this world.

Shinto is divided into nine grades, which are recognized and loved by heaven and earth.

After Su Hui awakened, he worked hard for three months, starting from the ninth-rank landowner of Dalizhuang and working his way up to the seventh-rank City God of Daxing County.

Jia Cong felt more and more that Shinto was mysterious.

It is said that in the beginning there was the Tao, and God and the Tao were one.

The power of the gods comes from incense and divine power.

The former is the product of the devout offerings of believers and determines the upper limit of divine power.

Only true believers will offer incense.

Every hundred incense sticks can increase Jia Cong's divine power limit by a little.

The amount of incense offerings only increases and never decreases, and Jia Cong's promotion to a priestly position requires a total amount of incense offerings.

As for the divine power, it encompasses everything and evolves all things.

Not only can you transform ghost soldiers, but there's also a feeling that as long as you have enough divine power, you can make your wishes come true.

If there is consumption, it can slowly recover to the upper limit over time.

To put it most intuitively.

Although he is only a seventh-rank city god, Jia Cong can rely on his divine power to display the magical powers of the third level of martial arts or the third level of Taoist Qi training.

In the Daqian army, he is already one of the top masters.

This is just the simplest usage, and Jia Cong needs to explore deeper.

So far, Jia Cong has collected one thousand and twenty-eight incense sticks, and converted one hundred and two of them into divine power!

……

During the three months, in addition to continuous manifestations, he collected faiths and promoted his priesthood.

Jia Cong also constructed the framework of the City God Temple.

The Yin-Yang Department, the Quick Report Department, the Supervision Department, the Soldiers and Ghosts Department, etc. each have their own duties.

Including the ghost soldier commander Wang Er.

There were exactly three ghost soldiers in charge, each of whom commanded twenty-four ghost soldiers, divided into three teams.

Ghost soldiers are soldiers under the command of the City God.

They patrol the city every day and are under the jurisdiction of the City God to drive out evil spirits and protect believers.

Ordinary ghost soldiers have the strength of the seventh level of body forging, and the ghost soldier leader has the cultivation level of the second level, which is equivalent to the seventh level of acquired martial arts!

Holding a soul-binding chain and a soul-whip, he has the ability to capture souls and is the best way to defeat evil spirits.

If Jia Cong has divine power, he can go out in broad daylight.

In addition to the ghost soldiers, there are also civil and military judges, and day and night wandering gods, all of whom are the acquired grade of the second realm.

With such strength, it is not considered weak even in the huge city of Shenjing.

The most important thing is that this was only developed by Jia Cong in three months.

……

"It's getting late. If there's nothing else, I'll go back first."

Glancing at the sky, it was already midnight, Jia Cong spoke.

"Farewell to the City God!" The judges and clerks in the palace hurriedly stood up to see him off.

Jia Cong mobilized his divine power and turned into a beam of light, heading straight for the Shenjing City.

Finally, he fell into the hands of a wealthy family.

By the time his figure took shape, he had turned into a nine-year-old child.

What just appeared in the City God Temple was a Shinto image, which was not only extremely majestic, but also contained the great power of Shinto for both offense and defense.

It is one of the innate magical powers that the gods are born with.

What is revealed now is the true nature.

The Dharmakāya and its essence are mutually complementary and can be directly transformed in a single thought.

The innate gods are conceived by heaven and earth and born by nature.

Immortal.

Even if it falls for a short time, it will leave a mark that will fade away with the passage of time.

There will always be a day of resurrection.

……

Speaking of the Jia family.

At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, land was annexed and natural disasters occurred year after year.

Various rebel armies emerged and the people suffered.

There was a wealthy family in Taiyuan called Liu. They spent all their wealth, gathered together many heroes, and started an army to fight against the Yuan Dynasty.

He swept away the barbarians outside and the bandits inside, and it took him sixteen years to finally establish his rule over the world.

Eventually Daqian was established.

The meritorious officials were rewarded, and this led to the establishment of the four kings, eight dukes and twelve marquises, who were the founding heroes.

Among them, the Ning and Rong mansions, the eldest son Jia Yan and the second son Jia Yuan, were two lords from the same family and were in charge of the Beijing camp.

The eight dukes and twelve marquises all followed his lead.

The Liu royal family lasted through two generations, Taizu and Taizong.

The throne was passed to the current emperor, and the reign was named Kaiyuan.

In his early years, he could be described as wise and brave.

Internally, he worked diligently and cared for the people, and reduced taxes many times.

He personally led several military campaigns to foreign countries, including the northern expedition against foreign invaders.

It was at this time that the second generation of the Ning and Rong families once again emerged.

Jia Daishan inherited the title of Duke of Rongguo without lowering his rank.

However, in the last years of his reign, the retired emperor gradually became incompetent and made several tours to the south of the Yangtze River, wasting countless money and leaving the national treasury empty.

In the 45th year of Kaiyuan, the former crown prince rebelled, was defeated and killed.

Jia Jing and Jia She, the heads of the Ning and Rong mansions, who were officials of the Eastern Palace, were implicated.

One was confined at home, and the other became a monk in a Taoist temple outside the city. His son Jia Zhen was demoted one level and inherited the title.

From then on, the Ning and Rong mansions began to decline.

The retired emperor was so angry and seriously ill that he urgently passed the throne to his fourth son, Emperor Shunde.

As a result, four years have passed now, and not only has he survived, he has recovered.

This is why there are two suns in the same sky, and the throne is passed on but not the power.

It's absurd that there are two different policies.

Shunde, Shunde!
The reign title alone is enough to explain everything.

In this life, Jia Cong was born to a concubine in the first wife's house of Rongguo Mansion.

His biological mother died early, and his biological father, Jia She, was involved in treason and was not as valued in the family as his second son, Jia Zheng.

Not to mention him, the illegitimate son of the eldest son.

The courtyard where she lived was in a remote corner of the Rongguo Mansion, and she was served by only a third-class maid of similar age.

The days before were miserable.

When I walked into the room, I saw the maid Xiaodong'er was already asleep.

Jia Cong dispersed the puppet condensed by divine power on the bed and lay down on it himself.

The gods no longer need to rest like mortals.

But experiencing the daily ups and downs of life as a mortal is also a form of spiritual cultivation.

All kinds of wonderful methods and all kinds of great ways.

In the end, it's just a different path to the same destination.

To practice cultivation, one must inevitably cultivate the mind.

If your heart is not moved, what can the wind do to you?

When your state of mind is high, you will not be depressed by setbacks and hardships, and you will not be tempted by fame, wealth and desire.

His way of doing things has his own bearing.

Jia Cong is unwilling to be a useless person who can only rely on the Shinto seal.

……

(End of this chapter)