Hell Emperor

Chapter 450 Ye Jie - Incense

"Merit... No matter what kind of immortal official you are promoted to, you can spend merit to do it, but what exactly is this merit, and how can you obtain it?"

Looking at the records on the eight-sided stitched pages, Ye Jie was a little puzzled for a moment, with some confusion in his eyes.

Li Fei'e blinked, as if thinking of something:

"I heard that the immortal officials in the heavenly court would always think of ways to build temples for themselves so that they could enjoy the incense and offerings from the world. In the past, I didn't understand why they did this and thought they just wanted to gain a good reputation. Now it seems that the so-called incense and offerings are related to merits and virtues."

Ye Jie was thoughtful:

"Ghosts need hidden virtues, and immortals need merits. It sounds reasonable. Since merits can directly affect the promotion of immortal officials, it seems to be a very important resource."

Ina reminded:

"By the way, Palace Master Ye, the story of Xia Wei's single-handed battle against the incarnation of Xuannv on Fangzhang Fairy Island and guiding all living beings to ascend to heaven has spread. Everyone knows about her feat, and your identity has also been recognized by others. The demons and ghosts who have attained immortality in Japan are willing to build a shrine for you and offer incense to thank you for your selfless dedication. Are you willing to accept this small gift?"

Ye Jie raised his eyebrows. This was a good opportunity to try to gain merit, so he certainly wouldn't refuse:

"As the saying goes, with great power comes great responsibility. That's what we should do. However, since they are willing to do so, I will accept it with reluctance."

As Inai went back to report the news, soon after, a lot of new records appeared on Ye Jie's stitching page.

【The Book of Life and Death:】

[In the winter of the 639th year of the Moro calendar, Ye Jie built a temple in Dongying and received incense and offerings.]

[If the offering cycle is completed for a year without interruption, one point of merit can be obtained. The upper limit of regional merit is 5 points per year.]

“It really works.”

Ye Jie's eyes lit up. He didn't expect that as soon as the ancestral hall was built, such news would appear on the stitching page. It seems that this method is indeed feasible. As long as he enjoys the incense and offerings of the world, he can gain merit.

Some information on the stitched page attracted Ye Jie's attention. It clearly stated the upper limit of regional merit.

"The upper limit is five points per year? In other words, no matter how many incense temples I build in the East Japan region, even if I build hundreds or thousands of them, I can only gain five points of merit per year at most."

"This also means that if you want to gain more merit, you have to build incense temples in different regions. It would be best if you build temples all over the world. The wider the incense is spread, the better. Only in this way can you gain a lot of merit."

After understanding the situation clearly, Ye Jie turned his attention to his own file presented on the stitching page.

[The positions that can be promoted to Immortal Officials are as follows:]

[Monster Hunting Vanguard: Fight monsters and lead the way. The lowest rank is the early stage of the second transformation. Promotion requires 500 second transformation merits or ten monster king heads.]

At present, the merits collected by the incense temple are all first-level merits, and it is impossible to collect second-level merits. This also makes Ye Jie a little embarrassed. What should he do to collect second-level merits?

Ye Jie's gaze also fell on the word "first-level ancestral hall". If he could build a higher-level ancestral hall, he might be able to collect second-level merits.

Soon, the records on the eight stitched pages made Ye Jie feel happy and worried:

[To modify the life and death book file of the ancestral hall, change the "first-level ancestral hall" to "second-level ancestral hall", you need a sixth-grade incense burner, a pure gold life-size statue, and 11,000 merits. ]

What surprised Ye Jie was that even the archives of the ancestral hall and the book of life and death could be modified. However, what made him frown was that the cost of modifying the archives was extremely high.

The pure gold statue is relatively simple. Gold and silver are both worldly resources. Ordinary practitioners can get a lot of them if they are willing. What really makes Ye Jie embarrassed are the other two items.

An incense burner at the level of a magical instrument is not so easy to obtain. The power contained in the magical instrument would tempt even ordinary immortals. Without tens of millions of good karma, it would be impossible to obtain it.

According to the efficiency of the first-level ancestral hall in collecting merits, the efficiency of the second-level ancestral hall is estimated to not be much higher. In other words, it is not enough to just modify one second-level ancestral hall. Ye Jie has to build dozens or hundreds of second-level ancestral halls. Every time a second-level ancestral hall is built, an incense burner and a magical instrument are required. The merits collected by this temple would amount to billions.

In addition, this 11,000 merits also gave Ye Jie a headache. He didn't know how many years it would take to slowly collect them before he would have enough resources to modify the ancestral hall archives.

What troubled Ye Jie the most was the higher-ranking immortal official position after the second transformation.

If you want to be promoted to a second-level position, you need second-level merits. If you want to be promoted to a higher third-level position, you need third-level merits, and so on. Merits are different from hidden merits. There is no way to trade them. Only the merits you have accumulated belong to you. In addition, no matter how many first-level merits you have, they cannot be turned into higher-level second-level merits.

Even if Ye Jie built a large number of second-level ancestral halls, as his strength increases in the future, he will need to modify them into third-level, fourth-level, or even higher-level ancestral halls. The resources that will be consumed in this process will take an unknown amount of time to accumulate. It may take thousands or tens of thousands of years to accomplish this.

When Ye Jie thought of Xia Wei who was taken away by Taiyin Star Lord, his heart tightened. He didn't want to wait tens of millions of years to reunite with his disciple. It seemed that the method of building more ancestral halls was not feasible now, and he had to find another way.

Hua Xiaomei saw Ye Jie's distress and asked in confusion: "Brother Jie, didn't you find a way to gain merit? Why are you so distressed?"

Ye Jie sighed: "I have found a way, but it is not suitable for me. One turn of the ancestral hall can only collect one turn of merit, and I need a higher level of merit. I can't slowly spend thousands of years to build my own high-level ancestral hall bit by bit."

Nan Linghe pursed his lips and said, "How could this be? If only, if only I could find a high-end ancestral hall that other gods don't want..."

Ye Jie's mouth twitched: "Although you are very lucky, the ancestral halls all have owners. How can there be unwanted items for you to pick up... Wait a minute..."

Speaking of this, Ye Jie's eyes trembled, and suddenly he seemed to think of something.

Ren Changhong also figured it out and exclaimed:

"The ancestral hall has an owner, but only the statues enshrined inside have an owner. The effect of the building itself is the same. If the original statues are removed and replaced with Ajie's, wouldn't it become Ajie's ancestral hall? I still remember that there are a large number of Xuanwu Emperor Temples, Third Prince Temples, and Guandi Temples in Northern Juluzhou. They are all very high-level ancestral halls with incense and worship, and they can at least collect six-turn merits."

Li Fei'e opened his mouth, somewhat surprised:

"You mean... to rob other gods' high-level ancestral halls?"

Shen Qingge couldn't help but stroke his forehead, his cold eyes revealing a bit of helplessness:

"Occupying an ancestral hall would deeply anger the gods enshrined there. Every high-level ancestral hall was built by immortal officials with many years of time. They will not give it up easily. If it is robbed, they will definitely not let it go."

Ye Jie pondered and said, "That's true... occupying the immortal's ancestral hall is bound to cause conflict. Don't let yourself get into trouble instead of gaining merit. Let's wait for the right opportunity to discuss it."

Shaking his head and putting aside matters related to merit, Ye Jie turned his attention to the rare materials needed to be promoted to an immortal official.

Since merit is hard to come by and requires a very long time to accumulate, collecting rare materials like the Wanzai Mountain Spirit and thus being promoted to an Immortal Official in another way becomes the only option.

The most precious material in Ye Jie's hand at present is undoubtedly the half of the antler that the elephant Shura broke off from the top of the deer's head when he returned to the Demon Palace to rescue Changqing that day. It is the so-called thousand-year-old white deer antler.

Taking out the thousand-year-old white deer antler that was radiant and seemed to have magical powers, Ye Jie searched on the stitching pages to see if there was a suitable immortal official position. To his delight, he actually found one.

[Head of the Herb Garden: Fairy flowers are in full bloom, white deer are crying softly. The lowest rank is limited to the peak of the fifth rank, and promotion requires 15,000 merits or a piece of white deer fairy antler.]

"I never thought that this ten thousand year old white deer antler also has a corresponding immortal official position that can be promoted. As long as I can be promoted to the chief steward of the medicine garden, my realm will immediately reach the peak of the fifth level!"

Looking at the information on the eight-sided stitched page, Ye Jie's eyes lit up. As long as the modification was completed, his strength would undergo a drastic change.

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However, the message revealed on the stitching page made Ye Jie slightly stunned, and then a little dumbfounded.

[The lowest rank for the Medicine Garden Manager is three small realms higher than the current one.]

[Unable to modify the rank file. 】

"More than three minor realms? My current cultivation is at the peak of the first level. In other words, I can only choose from the three corresponding immortal official positions: the early second level, the middle second level, and the late second level?"

Ye Jie took a deep breath, then looked embarrassed.

"how so……"

The information revealed by the eight-sided stitched pages undoubtedly explained one thing to Ye Jie: even if he collected all the corresponding rare materials or merits, there was no way to reach the sky in one step. He could only improve three small realms at a time.

On the side, Shen Qingge seemed to see Ye Jie's confusion and thought:

"The improvement of the cultivation realm is bound to attract the attention of the will of heaven and earth. The thunder tribulation is the best proof of this. This is why the remaining pages of the Book of Life and Death cannot directly modify the rank files. It must be achieved indirectly by changing the positions of immortal officials. No immortal official can ascend to heaven in one step. To do so would be too ostentatious and would inevitably cause shock. One must ascend step by step and slowly."

"I see……"

Ye Jie understood. No matter what, the fact that the Book of Life and Death could directly improve his cultivation had already given him a great surprise, and he couldn't ask for more.

Since he failed to skip a grade, Ye Jie's next promotion goals were set on the three categories of Monster Hunting Vanguard, Demon Fighting General, and Pegasus Shepherd.

Being promoted to the Pegasus Shepherd in the late second stage is undoubtedly the most cost-effective, as it means crossing three small realms at once. The other two official positions cannot achieve such an effect.

However, obtaining the hundred strands of Pegasus silver mane required to become a Pegasus shepherd is undoubtedly a difficult task.

Pegasus are not mortal horses, but divine horses that graze among the stars, drink the water of the Milky Way, and eat the fairy herbs from heaven. Every Pegasus is under the management of the Heavenly Court and is so priceless that it is difficult to buy one even if one spends hundreds of millions of merits.

Silver mane is the symbol of Pegasus and contains the pure cultivation of Pegasus. It is also very expensive and can only be obtained in the Qinglian Palace, which sells everything.

It is extremely difficult to be promoted to a Pegasus Shepherd. In comparison, it is much easier to be promoted to a Demon Hunting Vanguard or a Demon Fighting General.

To be promoted to Demon Hunting Vanguard, one needs ten heads of Demon Fairies at the level of Demon Kings, while to be promoted to Demon Slayer General is even simpler, as one only needs three Demon Fairy hearts to be promoted.

"Magic Fairy... Where should I go to find the Magic Fairy?"

Ye Jie frowned. Demon fairy refers to a specific fairy. Not all evil fairies can be called demon fairies.

Whether it is a cultivator or a monster, the body will be nourished due to the absorption of spiritual power. Even if they die, the pure spiritual power condensed in the past will remain in the body.

When a practitioner eats the essence of a monster, it can speed up their practice and refine the remaining spiritual power in their flesh to achieve self-improvement. Conversely, if a monster eats a practitioner, it can also speed up their practice.

Among these, if a human eats a human, he will become a demon cultivator, and when an immortal eats an immortal, he will become a demon immortal, which is the target that Ye Jie wants to attack.

Yao Yin seemed to remember something and reminded:

"Speaking of which, when Su Miao and I were preparing to return to Northern Julu Continent, we discovered traces of the Demon Sect at Mangchen Ridge, which is the border between the two continents. If you want to find the Demon Cultivator, you can go there to check it out."

Ye Jie nodded. Demonic cultivators violated human ethics and were often despised by other practitioners. Once discovered, they were like rats crossing the street and would inevitably be punished. Only by gathering together and forming an unshakable demon sect could they have a place.

As everyone was talking, the ground beneath their feet suddenly shook. The strong tremor made everyone lose their balance and they cried out in surprise.

Ye Jie noticed something strange and started practicing his skills immediately. A reassuring aura spread out, calming the surrounding shock.

"What's going on...was it an earthquake?"

Nan Linghe was in a panic. Although he already had the cultivation level of a ghost immortal, he was still frightened by the earthquake. He quickly hid behind Ye Jie with a worried look on his face.

Ye Jie patted Nan Linghe's thin back to reassure her. He looked up and saw that the entire Ziwei Palace, along with the underworld land within a radius of 100 miles, was rising into the air in the shock, causing the surrounding ghosts to exclaim in surprise. Soon they had the answer:

"No, it's not an earthquake, but the Ark of the End has been completed. The Ziwei Palace has been transformed into a land boat and can set off today to the Northern Continent."