Chapter 472: Is the Black Emperor Here or Not?

But as expected of Second Senior Brother, Zhu Bajie immediately thought of it — and he actually hadn't gone off track.

Stopping Chenxiang from splitting the mountain to save his mother doesn't conflict with screwing over Yang Jian at all.

You can still persuade Chenxiang that the sea of suffering is boundless and to turn back while screwing Yang Jian over; your mother's most likely living quite comfortably, at worst just confined.

You might not know this, but your maternal uncle is actually a sis-con.

Not a single problem.

"Where are you? I'll come find you." Just as he was pondering, Zhu Bajie heard Tang Luo say.

"Hm?"

"Are there any temples of the Five Directional Heavenly Emperors on your end?" Tang Luo asked.

"There's one of them — the Black Emperor Temple." Zhu Bajie nodded.

In this world, all kinds of immortal and deity temples spring up endlessly, great in number; just in the county town where Tang Luo was, besides the Dog God Temple, there were several other temples.

Whether in scale or in pilgrims and believers, they were all much smaller, but they weren't the kind of wild temples with no one worshipping at them — just that the incense wasn't that flourishing.

"Then let's pick this Black Emperor." Tang Luo said, "Find this guy and have a chat, see if this world has any old acquaintances or not."

"Cough." Zhu Bajie coughed lightly, observing a few seconds of silence for that unlucky Black Emperor.

No helping it — who told this Black Emperor's status to be so high? One of the Five Directional Heavenly Emperors; with your status that high, you ought to know something, right?

As for why not go straight to Yang Jian, the reason is very simple.

Yang Jian has no temple.

That's right — the Manifest Sage True Lord, whose status is the highest, even above the Five Directional Heavenly Emperors, has no dedicated temple.

However, almost every single temple hangs his portrait.

Yang Jian exists in every single temple; every one counts as his temple.

This move is extremely high-level.

While the incense flourishes, the influence of all beings' vow power is relatively smaller; if you stir up trouble inside a temple and draw out an incense avatar, it'll definitely be the temple's primary enshrined deity who comes out first.

Exiting the black mist space, Tang Luo left this small county town and headed for where Zhu Bajie was.

As for the imperial court and such, those naturally exist too.

But this is a world where all people revere gods; the presence of all kinds of temples is comparatively high.

On the court side, there are five Grand Preceptors, each corresponding to one of the Five Directional Heavenly Emperors, "acting on behalf of the Heavenly Emperor"; their status is so high that the five joining hands can even depose and enthrone emperors.

Divine authority stands above royal authority — a typical case of the divine right of kings.

The city where Zhu Bajie was wasn't some small county town, but a major city.

Bustling extraordinarily, all kinds of pavilions, towers, temples, and gardens, and not even very high city walls blocking the way.

The incense power generated by those densely packed temples gathering together is the city's "city walls".

Far more useful than real city walls; all kinds of mountain and wilderness monsters and spirits avoid it.

In the city, the most luxurious building is naturally the Black Emperor Temple.

Vast in area, large and small, all kinds of halls and buildings exceed four hundred rooms, enshrining the Black Emperor and a whole crowd of deities under his command.

And such a Black Emperor Temple still isn't the largest Black Emperor Temple.

Among the many Black Emperor Temples it only ranks in the top five; the largest Black Emperor Temple is in the north, a single temple is a majestic city.

"This scale is enough too; stir up a bit of movement and it should be able to draw out the true body." Tang Luo said.

He and Zhu Bajie walked together through the Black Emperor Temple, strolling leisurely, quite different from the devout believers around them.

Quite a few believers cast puzzled looks at them.

Good thing Tang Luo's words weren't heard by them, otherwise they'd probably rush over and tear them apart with their bare hands.

Besides believers, there were also some Daoists in dark robes, either walking or standing there, surrounded by crowds of believers, spreading the faith.

The atmosphere was quite peaceful and harmonious.

Heading toward the largest main hall, on the way the two of them were stopped.

Wanting to go to the main hall to burn incense and worship the god is no easy matter.

Unless you're a high official or noble, a person of the upper class, ordinary believers simply aren't qualified enough.

Tang Luo and Zhu Bajie both looked extraordinary in bearing, not common folk, but before revealing their extraordinary identities they couldn't possibly enter the main hall.

He thought for a bit; Tang Luo didn't force his way in to stir up trouble — after all, he came to ask about things, so step by step.

Go through the procedures.

The two found a relatively secluded small hall; the statue enshrined inside was likewise the Black Emperor.

Not many people worshipping there either.

"Let them out." Entering the hall, Tang Luo spoke.

Zhu Bajie nodded, cast an illusion technique, and guided the few believers kneeling before the statue, murmuring prayers, out of the hall.

Tang Luo walked up to the Black Emperor statue and looked up, examining it.

The Black Emperor statue was about three meters tall, wearing a square flat cap, carrying a wooden box on its back, the lid extending upward to cover the top of its head, serving to shade from sun and shelter from rain.

Overall it looked like the image of a scholar studying away from home — of course, the clothing was mainly black.

Even as a scholar's image, it was quite imposing; one hand stretched slightly forward, holding a book.

The writing on it was blurred and indistinct — not because too much time had passed, but deliberately done so.

The pose looked like bestowing a book.

And indeed it was; this statue is called the "Book-Bestowing Black Emperor", and this small hall is named the "Book-Bestowing Hall".

The Five Directional Heavenly Emperors don't have just five simple images, nor do they have specialized duties.

Including Xiaotian Quan, many slightly famous deities have quite a few stories, giving rise to all kinds of different images.

Different images also correspond to different "duties" respectively.

The Book-Granting Black Emperor before them was a story about the Black Emperor granting a book, telling of a scholar who, after receiving the Black Emperor's book, passed the imperial examinations and rose straight up the ranks.

Then, at the peak of his life, he suddenly awakened, became the most devout believer, joined the Black Emperor's temple, and became a Daoist.

He devoted the latter half of his life to the Black Emperor.

As a deity scholars worship, besides the Black Emperor, the other four Heavenly Emperors also have similar legendary stories and images.

Among them, their "jurisdictions" often overlap.

But there is no major impact.

You come to this temple to offer incense and worship today, and go to another temple to offer incense and worship tomorrow, and it will still generate incense power.

Even Daoists in temples going to other temples to offer incense and pray to gods has happened.

The fanatical atmosphere of "praying to gods and worshipping immortals" is only overall, not yet specific to any particular deity.

Of course, those who enshrine only one deity are not few.

But they do not reject other deities either.

If one publicly claims not to believe in deities, that won't do; they will definitely get beaten.

Deities are so good, yet you actually don't worship them — are you a spy sent by monsters? Beat them first, ask questions later.

Because Zhu Bajie cleared the area in advance, Tang Luo staring at the Black Emperor, looking at the Black Emperor's statue with the gaze of someone appraising an object, did not attract anyone to come beat him.

Zhu Bajie cast a spell, without causing a disturbance like Xiaotian Quan did.

On one hand, Xiaotian Quan that time was inherently a low growl of threat and warning, while Zhu Bajie acted low-key; on the other hand, the Black Emperor's temple had many statues, and this small hall was truly too insignificant.

To draw something out, one still had to do something.

Tang Luo reached out and knocked on the Black Emperor's statue: "Black Emperor, are you in? I have something I want to consult you about."

Hmph, no reaction, but incense power did gather, faintly conveying a feeling of rejection.

Ordinary people would feel the statue was imposing without anger, unable to help wanting to stay away; the timid or those with weak resolve would even kneel and worship on the spot.

Tang Luo was naturally unaffected, and knocked several more times.

The gathering of incense power became increasingly obvious.

A genuine resistance was clearly transmitted from outside the statue; an invisible defense had already formed.

Tang Luo pointed a finger, directly piercing the defense, touching the statue's main body; where his finger touched, a crack appeared on the "book."

The next second, half a "book" fell to the ground.

In an instant, Tang Luo and Zhu Bajie clearly felt invisible incense power sweep over, then begin to gather on a large scale.

The believers kneeling before statues in the other halls suddenly felt the deity statues before them seemed to faintly possess a touch more vitality.

"The deity has manifested!"

Someone immediately reacted, shouting loudly, kowtowing without stop.

Those Daoists also knelt down, bowing their heads to the ground.

Tang Luo and Zhu Bajie inside the Book-Granting Hall felt a heavy pressure attacking from the void in all directions, suppressing them, wanting to make them kneel.

Faint shouts of "Audacious!", "Why don't you kneel!", "Who is so presumptuous!", "Why don't you quickly apologize!" and the like rang out all around.

Soul-shaking.

The statue before them also began to "come alive"; slowly, a Black Emperor in black robes, dressed as a scholar, walked out directly from the statue.

Presenting a semi-transparent state.

It floated in mid-air, looking down from above, shouting at the two: "What monster are you, daring to run wild here!"

"The one I want to see isn't a clay-and-wood puppet like you." Tang Luo said, waving his hand.

The Book-Granting Black Emperor before them instantly dissipated into nothingness, scattered by him.

The Book-Granting Black Emperor that just appeared was merely a clay-and-wood puppet with power; the Black Emperor's true consciousness had not descended.

It would only react to events happening around it.

This reaction was nothing more than "Audacious monster, quickly kneel and await death" and such; it had no way to answer Tang Luo's questions.

As Tang Luo scattered this Book-Granting Black Emperor, the heavy pressure all around not only did not decrease, but instead became even more condensed.

This vast Black Emperor Temple, dense incense power surging, was converging toward the tiny Book-Granting Hall.

Quite a few Daoists sensed this.

The Temple Master, Temple Officiants, and these people were hurrying over here.

"Master, I'll go intercept these people." Zhu Bajie said.

"Good." Tang Luo nodded, waiting for the next Book-Granting Black Emperor or other deity incense avatar to appear again.

Zhu Bajie walked out of the Book-Granting Hall and saw a group of black-robed Daoists rushing over, their auras surging, clearly tainted with some incense power.

They themselves also possessed a certain level of cultivation; the two leaders were quite formidable.

Enough to deal with ordinary shapeshifted minor monsters.

Zhu Bajie took a slight breath in, opened his mouth and exhaled; white mist spat from his mouth, instantly enveloping a large area outside the Book-Granting Hall.

But before this white mist could take effect and confuse these Daoists.

The surging incense power all around began to squeeze the white mist; the mist's range continuously shrank.

"Huh, some skill." Zhu Bajie laughed, slamming both palms forward.

The entire space seemed to tremble; those rushing Daoists likewise shook and collapsed, falling unconscious.