Chapter 471: He Has Another Dog Now!

Tang Luo flew for a while, then complained that his flying speed was too slow.

He landed directly and began the Tang family's rushing method, quickly rushing out of this remote mountain forest.

On the way, Tang Luo actually saw a few spirits and monsters, proving that the world's heavenly and earthly spiritual energy was not "idle abundance".

A bustling county town.

Tang Luo stood outside the tall city wall, unable to help falling into deep thought.

The county town's scale was not large, but the city wall was extraordinarily tall, over twenty meters high, and its thickness was also astonishing, five meters.

The city gate was small, but the opening and closing iron gate was very solid, with wood wrapped in two palms thick iron plates—it could no longer be called iron plates.

The defense was done extremely thoroughly.

Many traces could be seen on the city wall, including fire burns, a few cracks, claw marks, and repair marks.

Tang Luo walked into the county town and asked around a little.

In this world where productivity and various aspects were similar to ancient Huaxia, there existed immortals and monsters.

Moreover, monsters often came out to cause harm, so in such relatively remote places, there were such extraordinarily tall city walls to resist those mountain and forest spirits.

The worship of immortals was prevalent, and there were many temples of various kinds.

For example, the immortals worshipped by many people in this county town were the "Canine God", and a temple to the Canine God had been established; upon further inquiry, it was actually called the Heavenly Howling Dog.

Tang Luo glanced at the languid Heavenly Howling Dog, then walked toward the "Canine God Temple" in the city.

The Canine God Temple was located in the central area of the county town, and its scale was not small.

Incense was flourishing, people came and went, and there were many worshippers.

Several "guest-receiving Daoists" each had red faces full of light, smiling faces, rather stout builds, wearing Daoist robes on their bodies, with not a hint of ethereal grace.

Instead, they seemed somewhat tense.

Tang Luo entered the main hall and saw a golden, radiant golden wolf-dog statue, over three meters tall, sitting, surrounded by a group of imposing general and warrior sculptures guarding it.

This was exactly the divine dog that people passed down by word of mouth and worshipped—the Heavenly Howling Dog.

There were many legends about the Heavenly Howling Dog, the most famous of which was the Heavenly Dog Eating the Moon.

But this Heavenly Dog Eating the Moon was not negative; rather, it was given a righteous color.

Legend has it that a very long time ago, it was the Wolf Wolf Dog.

The moon in the sky was polluted by the demon clan with fresh blood, turning into a blood moon, greatly increasing the demon clan's power, and then they rioted and attacked, causing the human side to suffer heavy losses.

At the critical moment of life and death, the divine dog Heavenly Howling Dog stepped forward and swallowed the blood moon.

This greatly reduced the demon clan's power, and the immortals led the human race in a counterattack against the demon creatures, achieving victory.

Afterwards, the Heavenly Howling Dog spat out the swallowed blood moon; at that time, the blood moon had already returned to its original appearance.

Therefore, the Heavenly Howling Dog also had the title of "Moon-Eating God".

There were also various kinds of deeds and various nicknames.

And behind the golden statue, there was also a painting.

The painting depicted a golden-armored general, imposing and mighty, holding a three-pointed two-edged blade, with a vertical pupil between his brows, a stern countenance, and an old eagle standing on his shoulder.

Beside it was a line of small characters: Qingyuan Miao Dao Erlang Manifest Sage True Lord.

The colors were still vivid, obviously not hung up for long, probably often replaced.

The person in this painting should be Yang Jian.

Although due to the painting style, it had a general's belly, and the painting showed a big head and big ears, not resembling the true Yang Jian at all.

But the small characters beside it undoubtedly indicated the identity.

The position of the painting also subtly revealed its status, namely, the master of the divine dog.

"Have you remembered anything?" Tang Luo whispered a question.

After the Heavenly Howling Dog entered the main hall, it just stared blankly at the golden divine dog sculpture and the painting behind it.

"Meow." Hearing Tang Luo's question, the Heavenly Howling Dog meowed once, then lay down again.

I felt somewhat familiar, yet somewhat unfamiliar, but in the end could not recall anything.

However, its meow did attract the sideways glances of many worshippers.

In the temple of the mighty divine dog, a cat had actually sneaked in?

Cats and dogs cannot coexist! How could this be allowed?

Many devout believers glared angrily, their faces showing unfriendly expressions.

The Daoist beside also frowned and walked over, intending to drive Tang Luo away.

Dare to come cause trouble, do you believe or not that we'll beat you out with sticks?

Feeling the strong hostility, the Heavenly Howling Dog turned its head, dissatisfied, and let out a low growl.

The low sound echoed in the main hall, the originally lit candles flickered for a moment, and together with the incense, they instantly went out.

The bright main hall instantly became dim.

Everyone was startled, looking at the Heavenly Howling Dog in surprise and uncertainty.

Could this not be a monster?

Actually having a monster run into the divine dog temple to cause chaos?

At this moment, a special fluctuation was transmitted from the golden wolf-dog statue in the main hall.

An intangible special force gathered, converging onto the statue; originally, the statue's eyes had no spirit, but suddenly they gained luster.

Clearly still motionless, maintaining its original appearance, yet it gave people the feeling that it had already fixed its gaze on the Heavenly Howling Dog.

From a statue, it vaguely became a living thing.

"Roar!"

The Heavenly Howling Dog suddenly stood up, its fur exploded all over its body, and it let out a roar louder than before.

Faintly visible ripples spread out, crashing into the statue.

The statue shuddered, and several cracks suddenly appeared on it.

The believers and pilgrims were struck with terror, immediately kneeling on the ground and praying loudly, hoping the Dog God would bless them.

Under Xiaotian Dog's roar, the power that had already begun to dissipate re-condensed along with the believers' prayers, and it was even denser than before.

The Dog God's golden statue remained motionless, but in the air above, a wolf-dog's skull faintly took shape, and was slowly forming a complete Dog God.

The true Dog God avatar was about to descend.

"The power of incense..." Tang Luo sighed, patting Xiaotian Dog's head, signaling her to calm down.

Not staying to tangle with the soon-to-appear "Incense Dog God," Tang Luo pushed back and decisively left the temple.

In an instant, he vanished without a trace.

With no enemy found, the Incense Dog God's phantom slowly dissipated as well.

That faint phantom — ordinary believers and pilgrims could not see it at all; they could only feel that the golden sculpture seemed to have come alive.

A deity manifesting.

The few Daoists in the temple who had a bit of minor cultivation, or whose bodies were also tainted with a few threads of incense power, could see it.

After Tang Luo disappeared, they immediately knelt down and shouted loudly: "The Dog God has manifested! The Dog God has manifested!"

"The Dog God manifested and drove away the monster!"

The remaining pilgrims reacted and followed suit, shouting loudly.

Inside and outside the main hall, the atmosphere was filled with joy.

Tang Luo flew in mid-air, watched for a while, found a place to land, and entered the Gray Mist together with Xiaotian Dog.

Inside the Gray Mist, Xiaotian Dog's form was no longer a little cat, but a little dog.

Lying on the table in the Gray Mist, looking dejected.

Soon, Ao Yulie and Zhu Bajie also appeared.

"Any findings?" Tang Luo asked.

"Master, Erlang Shen really has other dogs! There are quite a few Dog God temples nearby, and the incense power is extremely flourishing." Ao Yulie said.

Incense power is also called the power of all beings' vows.

Whether it is the Heavenly Court or Ling Mountain's Leiyin Temple, those deities and immortals known and worshipped by the myriad people can all gather incense power for their own use.

There are also quite a few people who primarily cultivate incense power.

Therefore they attach extra importance to the believer aspect.

However, although Erlang Shen and Xiaotian Dog have some worship among the common folk, it is only a paltry two or three little cats' worth.

They never cared about that incense power.

"Achieving godhood through incense" — rise fast, fall fast; once faith is gone, immediate decline.

Born of incense, destroyed by incense.

Erlang Shen is so proud, and a heaven-defying genius; how could he covet this kind of power?

As Erlang Shen's divine hound, Xiaotian Dog naturally does not cultivate any incense power either.

In this mission world, the situation is different; the incense power is dense, almost comparable to the myriad households' incense of the Ling Mountain realm back then.

Combined with the situation of monsters running rampant, it can be understood.

The Dog God's existence proves that this mission world indeed has a Xiaotian Dog.

Just now counted as a long-distance clash between two Xiaotian Dogs, each letting out a "woof."

However, the "Incense Dog God" had not truly taken form; it was merely an instinctive counterattack — that Xiaotian Dog's true consciousness had not genuinely descended into that incense avatar.

"Looks like the area you explored is about the same as mine." Tang Luo said.

"Ha... ha..." Ao Yulie laughed awkwardly twice, "That... besides Xiaotian Dog, other temples have them too, but this region should be primarily Xiaotian Dog."

"This world's faith is the Heavenly Court." Zhu Bajie promptly rescued his junior brother, "But there is no Jade Emperor; replacing him are the Five Directional Heavenly Emperors."

The Five Directional Heavenly Emperors are respectively the Green Emperor, Red Emperor, White Emperor, Black Emperor, and Yellow Emperor.

Somewhat similar to the real world's myths and legends.

"And above the Five Directional Heavenly Emperors, the highest deity is Erlang Xiansheng Zhenjun." Zhu Bajie said, "Erlang Shen has risen to the top."

"That fierce?" Ao Yulie said, "Could Erlang Shen also be heavily injured, forced to use this method to heal... no wait, if he's tainted with incense in this situation, he'll be thoroughly unable to escape it, bound to incense power for life — this world's heaven-and-earth Qi isn't thin, there's no need to walk this road."

"It's possible he's injured too severely, only a wisp of remnant soul left; if he doesn't rely on this 'incense rebirth' method, he'd die?" Zhu Bajie guessed.

The two were somewhat at a loss.

Erlang Shen's unruliness is no less than Sun Wukong's; even if near death, he might not do this.

That would be a kind of enormous shackle, denying freedom.

"What else? What's the Heavenly Court's situation?" Tang Luo asked.

"A mess. Some titles are indeed old acquaintances, some aren't." Zhu Bajie said, "Oh, there's no Buddha, and no monk business either."

"What about the Third Holy Mother?" Ao Yulie asked.

"I've inquired; no one has heard of a deity called the Third Holy Mother." Zhu Bajie said.

There is Erlang Shen, and he's still the number-one-ranked Erlang Shen, yet there is no Third Holy Mother.

From this, Yang Chan should already be imprisoned.

All matters concerning her have also been deliberately erased, to prevent her from utilizing incense power.

"Speaking of which, Chenxiang has already been born, pity we have no idea where he is." Ao Yulie said, "Otherwise we could 'persuade' him that the sea of suffering is boundless and turning back is the shore, why not just shave his head and be done with it, why insist on holding out."

"Shaving the head in the first lunar month..." Tang Luo suddenly fell into deep thought.

"Master?" Zhu Bajie's spirits shook — Master thought of the key point?

"Does this world have a similar saying?" Tang Luo said in a deep voice.

"This... isn't too clear." Ao Yulie and Zhu Bajie were both bewildered; who would inquire about this kind of thing?

"Investigate it." Tang Luo said, "If there isn't any, publicize it."

Zhu Bajie instantly thought of a possibility: the Master is ruthless indeed.

You see, if Yang Jian truly has incense power clinging to him, and the saying 'shave your head in the first month and your maternal uncle dies' takes deep root in people's hearts.

Chenxiang shaving his head in the first month — not to say it would really kill Yang Jian, but it could also cause Yang Jian no small amount of trouble.

The drawback of incense power is also reflected here.

Wait...

Isn't our mission to stop Liu Chenxiang?

We've gone off track, Master!