[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-the-invincible-female-ghost-is-a-bit-of-a-hopele":3,"chapter-the-invincible-female-ghost-is-a-bit-of-a-hopele-the-invincible-female-ghost-is-a-bit-of-a-hopele-chapter-153":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"english","The Invincible Female Ghost Is A Bit Of A Hopeless Romantic",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},1706341,2180,"Chapter 153: Do Gods Survive Without Offerings and Devotees!!","the-invincible-female-ghost-is-a-bit-of-a-hopele-chapter-153",153,"\u003Cp>Do gods die?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They do.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Yuan’s Dao records this clearly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“A god is something that relies.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“It relies on things, and it relies on thoughts.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“If the thing is destroyed, the god is harmed; if the thoughts are extinguished, the god perishes.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What does that mean?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gods are not born from nothing, nor are they innate.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They must have something to rely on.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That is called “relying on a thing.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But having the thing alone is not enough; it also needs “thoughts.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Human thought.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>People believe in it, people worship it, people burn incense, kowtow, make vows and offerings.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Those incense flames, those powers of vow, those accumulated thoughts over time.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They slowly nurture a spirit-awareness; only then does it become a god.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That is called “relying on thought.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So what is a god, then?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A god is the combination of thing and thought.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The thing is its body, the thought is its soul.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But the problem is, things decay and thoughts can be cut off.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Stones weather, springs dry up, old trees wither.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even if those things remain, if nobody believes anymore, nobody worships, nobody burns incense,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>the “thought” is severed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When thought is severed, the god loses its support.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What happens to a god with no support?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Dao writes it plainly:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“When thought is extinguished, the god has nothing to rely on; with nothing to rely on, its form disperses; when form disperses, the divine light leaks outward; when the divine light is wholly leaked, the god perishes.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It sounds mystical, but looking at these blurred figures, it becomes clear.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They used to have shape and form.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Recumbent Ox Stone Lord should have been a huge rock lying by the field, fed by villagers’ incense to protect local harvests.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Now its form has dispersed, leaving only a gray, dusty mist barely condensed into a hunched humanoid shape.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Spring Mother should have been the deity at a mountain spring’s source, overseeing the flow of a water lineage.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Now her form is scattered; that tenacious dryness in her aura clearly signals that the water source is cut off and no one worships it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Flower Maiden is worse, her form barely holding together, like smoke that could dissolve at any moment.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Why did they end up like this?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Because no one worships them anymore.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Those farmers by the fields, those villagers below the mountain, the people who once burned incense and kowtowed to them—now they don’t believe, they don’t come, they don’t worship.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It’s like humans.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Human death has three phases.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The first is physiological death, when the heart stops.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The second is social death, when relatives and friends hold a wake.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The third is spiritual death, when the last person who remembers you forgets.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For these “gods,” when incense is cut off and vow-power gone, the “thought” that sustains them is severed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When thought is severed, form disperses.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When form disperses, the divine light starts leaking.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What is divine light?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It’s the god’s life.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Those sickly green, dim yellow, grayish light specks are their remaining divine light.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Where the light speck remains, the god remains.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When the light speck goes out, the god is dead.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If so, why don’t evil spirits die?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Those mountain fiends, lonely ghosts and wandering spirits—no one worships or offers to them, yet they survive well.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Some even live hundreds or thousands of years, far longer than these gods.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Take Yellow Braised Chicken as an example: clearly a weasel origin, but after undergoing tribulation it became the Zhao family’s Household Guardian Immortal and lives comfortably.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Does it not rely on offerings?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>People do worship it, so why doesn’t it, like these wild gods, face imminent death once offerings stop?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Yuan rifled through the Dao in his mind and found a passage:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Evil sprites and strange creatures have their own root.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The root lies in essence, in qi, in spirit; it does not depend on external things.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What does that mean?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>These evil sprites grow their roots themselves.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Take Yellow Braised Chicken: after hundreds of years of cultivation, absorbing the essence of sun and moon, ingesting the world’s spiritual qi, it gradually opened awareness.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That is the accumulation of essence.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It continued to cultivate, learning to inhale and exhale energy, to take human form, to perform small spells.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That is the accumulation of qi.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It went further, perceiving cause and effect, communicating with people, sheltering a community.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That is the accumulation of spirit.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Essence, qi, spirit—these are grown by itself, rooted in itself, no one can take them away.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even if nobody worships it, even if no offerings come, it can still live.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At worst it leads a cramped, shabby existence, but it won’t, like the gods, disperse at once when thought is cut off.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Evil sprites are even simpler.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Most evil entities form based on their own grievances, on malignant energy!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Dao also says:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Celestial ones are both essence and spirit.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Their root is within; their nourishment comes from people.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“If the inner root is not broken, then even without people’s nourishment they can still persist.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“If people’s worship does not cease, the inner root will grow even stronger.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yellow Braised Chicken cultivated for centuries; essence, qi, and spirit all belong to it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At the same time, it receives the Zhao family’s incense and vow-power, an extra “nourishment.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With this nourishment it lives better, stronger, and longer.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If one day the Zhao family stops offerings, it will at most return to its former state and survive, just less pampered.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That is its “root”—untouchable by others.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gu Qingwan survived because she was arranged a ghost marriage, sustained by the endless household resentment and grieving energy bound to that roof!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thinking back to Lu Yuan’s past demon-slaying work,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>why did he always perform that one final act of relief and release when facing evil sprites, no matter how malicious the sprite?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That relief-and-release dissolves the sprite’s grievances and rancor.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Evil sprites are fundamentally a combination of grievance and rancor.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Only by clearing their grievance and rancor can the sprite fully dissipate.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Therefore, the sprites that form into celestial-like beings are different from those “gods”!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They did not rely on being worshipped from the start.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What is the Recumbent Ox Stone Lord?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A cow-shaped rock by the field, treated as a sacred thing, with daily incense and kowtowing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Those incense and vow-powers, accumulated over time, gradually nurtured a spirit-awareness in the stone.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That spirit-awareness was “borrowed” the whole way—borrowing the rock’s shape, borrowing the thoughts fed by incense.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It never cultivated essence, never tempered qi, never condensed spirit.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Everything about it was given by others.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So once people stopped giving, it had nothing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The stone remained, but that was only a stone.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When offerings stopped, it lost its support.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No support, form dispersed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Form dispersed, light leaked.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Light leaked away, it perished.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That is the biggest difference between gods and evil sprites.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Evil sprites have roots; gods do not.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Evil sprites exist because they cultivated; gods exist because people worship.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That is why sprites can live hundreds or thousands of years, even hiding in remote forests unknown to people, still thriving.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gods must depend on people, on incense, on vow-power.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Once people forget, the god dies.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Yuan looked at those blurred figures and suddenly recalled a line from the Dao:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“People praise immortals, yet do not know immortals fear aging.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“They fear not the years, but the forgetting by the world.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Everything seemed to connect.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Why ordinary families worship their ancestors.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Why Taoist doors enshrine the Patriarch.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Because nobody wants their ancestors truly to “die.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Just like when the old man spoke of the Patriarch and generations past, he said the Patriarch and ancestral masters long ago died.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What Lu Yuan saw as those golden-phased silhouettes were simply the Patriarch and ancestral masters persisting in the world as a “thought.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For a moment, Lu Yuan understood why these wild gods had gathered at the foot of Zhenlong Temple.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Why they came to seek the Deity of Beauty.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They weren’t here to lure the Deity of Beauty into doing evil.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>From the beginning, he should have seen that.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After all, if the “gods” truly wanted to do evil and already had, they would no longer be gods—they would be malevolent deities.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As for whether they wanted the Deity of Beauty to lead them into wickedness…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Yuan thought, probably not.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Because if these gods wanted to survive, besides receiving incense and offerings,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>there was another route:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>to harm people, to make people fear them, to become malevolent deities.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They had already reached such a state but hadn’t chosen that path, which meant they had not fallen; their divinity remained.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They had come to beg the Deity of Beauty to take them in.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Only by following a strong god like her could they hope for a sliver of incense and vow-power to keep them going for a few more years.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even a thread of it could let them hold on a little longer.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Yuan suddenly recalled something the old man had said while drinking.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Gods are like people; they need to eat.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“People eat grain and food; gods eat incense and vow-power.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“If people don’t eat, they starve; if gods have no incense, they starve too.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At the time Lu Yuan laughed, saying gods wouldn’t starve.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Now he knew.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gods really can starve to death.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But that is not the worst.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The worst is that when a god dies, it does not get a chance to reincarnate.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>People die and can be reborn; sprites can attain release.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gods are different.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They are formed by accumulated thought; when the thought disperses, it truly vanishes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They do not become ghosts, they do not reincarnate, they leave no trace.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Like a lamp that runs out of oil—the flame goes out and nothing remains.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Yuan looked at those blurred figures and felt an odd bitterness.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They were once deities who protected regions.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Recumbent Ox Stone Lord safeguarded the local weather and harvests.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Spring Mother protected the mountain spring’s living water.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Flower Maiden tended to the mountain’s blooming seasons.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They had never done wrong or harmed people; they quietly stayed where they belonged, accepted villagers’ incense, and guarded the land.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Now that no one worships them, they have to “die”…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Yuan didn’t know what to say.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Because now there was one most important matter.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That is...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Deity of Beauty currently has no incense, no offerings...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She is busy playing mahjong every day like a demon!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She has no incense on her at all!!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Yuan’s earlier explanations about gods, evil sprites, and strange creatures…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>were correct.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But not absolute!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There are no absolute truths in the world.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even now, Lu Yuan still cannot fully comprehend Gu Qingwan’s overwhelming power.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It is a despair-inducing strength!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Take the Deity of Beauty for example!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She is a god with a true physical body!!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Didn’t the old man say plainly that the Deity of Beauty was the big bride the Patriarch gave to Lu Yuan?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Because she has a physical form.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She could even bear Lu Yuan’s children!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then where did the Deity of Beauty’s physical body come from?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That is an astonishing coincidence—an oddity among oddities.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Deity of Beauty’s predecessor was Liu Ruyan.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Liu Ruyan was originally human, then locked herself in a kiln and was fired into a beauty porcelain.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That beauty porcelain is Liu Ruyan’s true body!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After becoming the beauty porcelain, Liu Ruyan did not immediately fall into malevolence.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>However, she was discovered by the Commanding Ghosts Liu Family, forcefully enshrined and worshipped, forcibly made into an evil deity!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Afterwards, she underwent the Patriarch’s lightning-and-fire tempering...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Anyway, the Deity of Beauty’s existence is at once reasonable and utterly unreasonable!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Reasonable because, despite everything being filled with coincidence, the chain of events flowed together.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the end she indeed became a god with a body.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Unreasonable because the coincidences are ridiculously bizarre!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If any link had broken, she would not be what she is now!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It’s like coincidence opened doors for coincidence—coincidence to the extreme!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So the Deity of Beauty is a god who does not need to worry about incense or vow-power!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In other words, she is somewhat like Yellow Braised Chicken.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even without incense or offerings, at worst she lives frugally but will not perish!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Since she has no such worries, the Deity of Beauty naturally won’t rush to look for incense and vow-power.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Not now—because her fate is entangled with Lu Yuan’s, she only wants to stay at Zhenlong Temple and play mahjong all day.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even if in the future her entanglement with Lu Yuan is released and she wants to do her own thing,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>she probably wouldn’t go hunting for incense and vow-power!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Knowing her nature, she would likely travel, see the world, enjoy scenery.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So... these wild gods coming to seek the Deity of Beauty...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>truly picked the wrong person.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Setting aside whether she would accept them,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>even if she did, it would be useless.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Yuan looked at those ephemeral shadows...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although he felt bad, some things had to be said clearly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He cleared his throat and looked at the shapes within the mist:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Everyone, there’s something I need to make clear beforehand.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“She, might not be able to help you.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No sooner had he spoken than the light specks in the mist flashed violently.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Those sickly green eyes—the Recumbent Ox Stone Lord’s eyes—stared straight at Lu Yuan.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Their hoarse, ancient voices were full of disbelief:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“No...impossible...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The aura that night...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“We... all sensed it...”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Yuan slightly confirmed with his inner sense.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That night?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He immediately understood what the Recumbent Ox Stone Lord referred to.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On the night the Deity of Beauty formally became a god, the Patriarch tempered her with lightning and fire; that was no ordinary event!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The thirsty female voice of the Spring Mother also sounded now, tinged with urgency:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“That aura... was too powerful...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“We... in hundreds of years... never seen... such a mighty god.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The girl-like voice of the Flower Maiden, weak, added:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Compared to me... she’s far... far stronger.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Such a powerful god... how could... have no incense offerings?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Yuan opened his mouth.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For a moment, he did not know how to explain.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Indeed, from their perspective, such a powerful god couldn’t possibly have no incense.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What is incense?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Incense is vow-power and offerings; it is the foundation of a god’s survival.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The stronger a god, the more their incense should flourish.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The more incense, the stronger the god.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Yuan could only sigh and continue explaining:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Her strength that night... had nothing to do with incense.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The light specks in the mist flickered even more violently, still clearly disbelieving.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The hunched figure drifted forward half a step; sickly green eyes pinned Lu Yuan:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Gods... how can they not rely on incense...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“If not on incense... what does she...live on...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“That divine light on her... so bright...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“How much incense... would it take... to nurture that...”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Yuan: “....”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This could be explained to them; nothing about it was inexplicable.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Yuan could simply tell them exactly how the Deity of Beauty gained the Dao that night.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But he was sure of one thing: even if he told them, these wild gods would not believe!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even Lu Yuan himself still found the Deity of Beauty’s story ridiculously hard to accept.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“She doesn’t owe that divine light to incense; it was struck out of her by lightning and fire...”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Yuan still tried to explain.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>However...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Those sickly green, dim yellow, grayish light specks all stared at him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Their gazes clearly read: you’re lying.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Enough...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Forget it...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Yuan knew he couldn’t make himself believed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>These wild gods had lived for centuries, accepted a hundred years of the same deathly truth.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>How could a few words from him make them believe a god could live without incense?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He gave up on arguing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Yuan looked toward the woods behind him and said:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You come out. Explain it to them yourself.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course the Deity of Beauty had been with Lu Yuan all along.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He could not truly face danger alone.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After he spoke, the woods fell silent for a breath.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The moonlight dimmed abruptly for an instant.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Not because clouds covered the moon, but because something invisible drew away part of the moon’s sheen.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The sickly green, dim yellow, grayish light specks in the mist all trembled violently.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This was not fear.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was instinct.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Like beasts on a mountain sensing a predator’s aura,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>like fish in water detecting a flood.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Like a person walking at night suddenly feeling something fixedly staring down their spine.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was an ingrained, uncontrollable reflex.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Recumbent Ox Stone Lord’s trembling form nearly failed to maintain human shape.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Spring Mother’s dried breath seemed sucked dry for a moment; her gray-white mist nearly scattered on the spot.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Flower Maiden was worst of all; her girlish outline almost collapsed, leaving only two gray-white light specks frantically flickering in the fog.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then the Deity of Beauty walked out of the woods.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She walked slowly, with a casual gait,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>just like when she usually strolled out of the side hall, still holding half a frozen pear between her fingers.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But at this moment—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>the moonlight suddenly became immensely bright.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Not that the moonlight recovered, but rather... every strand of moonlight seemed drawn by some force, converging upon her.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Moonlight flowed behind her, a pale, elegant radiance gently spiraling.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Like stars surrounding the moon.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Like tributaries flowing toward the source.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Finally the moonlight fell upon her face, that flawless, peerless beauty, expressionless.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Those eyes, brilliant as a river of stars, now held not a hint of mischief.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Deity of Beauty tilted her head slightly, looking at them—fearful yet expectant—and spoke with sincerity:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I don’t have incense. Go back where you came from.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Yuan:......\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Are you for real?!?!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I called you out to say this??!\u003C\u002Fp>",2993,"2026-06-06T14:45:54.833Z",1,"novelbin.me","2684a3e58decca42900aa1992a22870a6579661a0915d5fbc2c11db42ac58e73","the-invincible-female-ghost-is-a-bit-of-a-hopele-chapter-154","the-invincible-female-ghost-is-a-bit-of-a-hopele-chapter-152",241,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fthe-invincible-female-ghost-is-a-bit-of-a-hopele-cover.jpg"]