Chapter Fifty-Three: The Tragic Deity

This well? Ji Feichen’s heart pounded wildly; he could sense the nether aura emanating from the dry well—there was definitely Netherwater here.

He exchanged a quick word with Bi De, then leapt into the abandoned shaft.

The well wasn’t deep—by all appearances, only about thirty feet, which would be ten meters by his previous life’s reckoning. Slippery moss, thick mud, withered grass, and scattered stones covered the bottom. There wasn’t even a single toad or earthworm to be found, let alone any ghosts or monsters.

Suspended in midair, Ji Feichen stretched out his hand and made a grasping motion. A wisp of yin energy trickled into the water. “I can still sense the yin aura—there must be a hidden space here?”

He summoned the twenty-four Azure Tide Pearls, their spiritual radiance illuminating the well’s depths. Suddenly, an unusual fluctuation of vital energy pulsed from beneath the mud. If he’d still been cultivating a demonic path, he would never have noticed it. But now that he cultivated primal energy, no change in the world’s currents could escape a practitioner’s senses.

He formed an earth-burrowing incantation and followed the trace of vital energy downward.

Passing through the muddy floor, he emerged into an entirely different realm.

Dark mountains, black waters, silence and desolation. Ghostly clouds and spectral mist shrouded everything, veiling the world in gloom. The domain was so dim that one could not see a hand before one’s face, save for a distant glimmer of light.

“It resembles the protective aura of a demon cultivator, but there’s no trace of evil—rather, it feels righteous, almost sacred?” Ji Feichen was puzzled. He directed the Azure Tide Pearls again. Twelve of the pearls above his head transformed into a great canopy. Golden chains and streamers of light hung from its edge. The remaining twelve pearls formed a radiant cloud beneath his feet, transforming into a lotus dais. He stepped lightly across the lotus to investigate.

As he drew near, he saw that the golden radiance emanated from a giant turtle, armored in gold and adorned with crimson whiskers. Its shell was carpeted with moss and mud, and it was busily digging downward. The nether aura was seeping from the tunnel beneath it.

“Are you excavating a passage to the Netherworld?”

The azure light illuminated the darkness. The armored turtle raised its head and, seeing Ji Feichen, was at first wary, but when it noticed the merit aura surrounding Ji Feichen, it brightened with joy. “Fellow Daoist, are you of the Celestial Gate?”

“I am,” Ji Feichen replied.

Seeing the light of merit, the turtle relaxed a little. One with true merit would hardly harbor ill intent. “I am the City God of this place. Because I refused to submit to the Da Hong Imperial Dynasty, I was suppressed and confined here.”

“City God?” Ji Feichen was taken aback and hurriedly pressed for details.

The turtle revealed its story in full. It had cultivated the Dao for a thousand years as a golden softshell turtle, worshiped by the people as a god of wealth, bestowing blessings on the populace. In the previous dynasty, when the faithful established towns and counties, it seized the opportunity to ascend as a local earth deity.

The Earth Deity was the master of the land; from a small village, it rose with the county’s fortune, eventually becoming a renowned City God. But as fate entwined it with the preceding dynasty, when the Celestial Gate supported Da Hong’s rise, it stood on the wrong side and lost the heavenly mandate. When the old order collapsed, it decisively abandoned its loyalties. Yet the Da Hong Dynasty bore it a grudge for its past allegiance and imprisoned it beneath Golden Turtle City, not allowing it to leave its divine domain.

“This blessed land is your divine domain?” Ji Feichen was startled—divine cultivation differed from immortal cultivation. Immortals drew power from themselves, but gods relied on domains outside themselves. A god’s domain was formed of endless incense and worship; even a human immortal entering would be subject to its power.

“Indeed. Were it not for my divine domain’s protection, Da Hong’s royal sovereigns would have long since captured and devoured me.” The golden turtle’s tone turned wry, then solemn. “I sense that in a few years, Da Hong will seek trouble with me again.”

Turtles bear the River Map and can divine destiny—a talent of their kind, much like the fox clan’s arts of transfiguration. In the City God’s premonition, he faced a fatal calamity ten years hence. Thus, he was digging through his divine domain, intending to reach the Netherworld and seek aid.

The world of the living might belong to Da Hong, but the Underworld was ruled by many ghosts and deities, among them friends of the City God who could help him escape his plight.

“But tell me, Daoist, what brings you here?”

Ji Feichen smiled. “A mortal asked for my help to exorcise some ghosts. I never imagined that passing through an abandoned well would bring me into the divine domain of a venerable god.”

The turtle official was relieved. “When I was City God, I dug thirty-six wells in the city to bless the people. The wells connect to my divine domain—they were my channels for patrolling the world. You must have entered through one of them. Without my protection, I suppose those wells have all dried up by now?”

With a sigh, the official lamented his fate—a god once worshipped, now fallen so low. Destiny is inscrutable; even divinities cannot escape its net.

“As for the ghosts you mentioned—they are a few spirits born at the edge of my domain, guarding something there. If you wish to catch them, just head left upon leaving the domain.”

Ji Feichen looked around, then said, “I would be honored to help you escape your predicament, venerable god. Might I ask for some Netherwater in return?”

The turtle’s foreclaw gestured to a pile of black mud nearby. Within it were not only the faint waters of the Nether, but also sands of the Yellow Springs and other rare treasures of the underworld.

“I forced open a path to the Netherworld, bringing out these useless things. If you want them, take them. As for saving me, there’s an imperial talisman from Da Hong’s True King above my domain. Remove it, and I can use my powers to leave at once.”

That talisman condensed the imperial dragon energy of Da Hong’s emperor, suppressing all demons and ghosts. Thus, the turtle official could not leave his domain and had to seek help from the Underworld. If Ji Feichen removed the seal, the turtle could immediately work his divine magic and escape.

“You do not intend to remain a god?”

“I have been a god for a thousand years; the worshippers of old have long passed away.” A trace of hatred flashed in the turtle’s eyes. “Since Da Hong treated me so, why should I watch over their lands? When Da Hong falls, then we’ll settle accounts!”

Ji Feichen fell silent, then agreed. He first collected half of the black mud and then flew toward the sky above the divine domain.

Above, all was dark except for a slumbering dragon coiled in the heavens. The crimson dragon’s head and tail were hidden, and beneath it lay a colossal turtle—none other than the turtle official’s true form, pinned by the dragon and unable to move.

As Ji Feichen approached, the dragon’s eyes glared with imperial majesty. The pressure of sovereign authority bore down; ordinary mortals would have been forced to submit, becoming slaves beneath the throne.

“The Imperial Dao has already had half its mandate severed by the Celestial Gate. The Human Emperor is now but a human king. What right have you to treat me so?” Ji Feichen was unhurried. The twenty-four treasure pearls shone around him, while the aura of merit swirled endlessly at his side.

“The king’s dragon energy is, in the end, merely the product of the people’s collective will. How could the power of man surpass the power of heaven?” The aura of merit and virtue enveloping Ji Feichen was earned through his many acts: bringing rain, establishing the twenty-four solar terms, saving the creatures of Mount Chenghuang, and transforming the geomancy of Turtle Mountain.

The yellow aura formed a canopy above his head. The Celestial Golden Dragon Tower soared out, and another golden dragon gazed coldly at the imperial dragon energy. In terms of dragon energy, Ji Feichen possessed his own—not the collective will of mortals, but the true essence of the dragon clan.

The two dragon energies clashed. Provoked by the crimson dragon, the black dragon aura within Ji Feichen rose higher and higher, its roar shaking the heavens, forcing the crimson energy back into a talisman.

“If I truly take this talisman, I will, in the unseen realm, bear some of the turtle official’s calamity, and will need to use my own merit to counteract the backlash of humanity’s dragon energy.” Ji Feichen hesitated. But then he thought, “Netherwater is key to my path—I cannot hold back now.” Just as he was about to act, the divine turtle beneath the dragon suddenly surged. Another wave of incense power exploded, a vast white fog contaminating the imperial talisman.

“Daoist, lend me a hand!”

Ji Feichen paused, then sighed gently. With a flick of his finger, a stream of merit and virtue from the Azure Tide Pearls peeled away the imperial dragon talisman.

He had been ready to sacrifice some merit to save the turtle. But the turtle official was so decisive, releasing a millennium’s worth of incense power in a single outburst, that Ji Feichen’s own loss was only a third of what he’d expected.

“You are truly generous, venerable god.” Ji Feichen flicked the dim talisman into his sleeve.

With the talisman dispelled, the giant turtle below immediately fused with its true form. Its eyes opened wide, and a vast divine radiance surged forth, restoring it to its full divine majesty.

In a blink, the divine domain was ablaze with brilliance once more.

“Thank you, Daoist, for your aid.” The words echoed like thunder through the domain, the god’s might awakening with each passing moment.

Ji Feichen’s expression did not change. He had no fear of the turtle turning on him now, but instead asked, “You gave up a millennium of incense in one breath—do you truly sense a great calamity?”

The turtle official could only smile bitterly. It had not been easy to find someone willing to save him; if Ji Feichen, after weighing gains and losses, feared sacrificing too much merit and refused, what then? So the turtle had no choice but to shoulder the lion’s share of the cost, leaving Ji Feichen with only a minor loss.

He nodded. “I have divined the heavens; ten years from now I face certain doom. Three years ago, a witch of the demonic path came here to spy; I fear she intends to use me as a blood sacrifice.”

The turtle gestured with a foreclaw, and several evil ghosts on the left side of his domain, along with a female skeleton, were swept before Ji Feichen by a wave of golden light. The ghosts had been guarding the skeleton.

At the sight of the female bones, Ji Feichen felt a resonance. He drew out the unfinished “Nine Clouds Profound Crystal Disk” and, using the “Jade Microcosmic Calculation Sutra,” divined the cause and effect.

After a while, Ji Feichen understood. He took out the dragon-phoenix coffin he had obtained from Turtle Mountain and pointed to the female skeleton within. “Venerable god, what do you make of these two sets of bones?”

The turtle official examined them for a moment. “Both skeletons come from the same person. If I’m not mistaken, this is the ‘Divine Turtle Nine Apertures Shedding Method.’” The nine palaces of the River Map on his shell glimmered with light. After a while, he nodded. “This person sought out nine turtle lairs to bury nine shed bodies, intending to transform each into a spirit turtle avatar. She would thereby add nine thousand years to her life and comprehend the Dao of the Nine Palaces. She must have a connection to our turtle clan.” The official’s heart smoldered with anger. They weren’t blood kin, but still both turtles of the Dao. Not only had she refused to help him, she even sought to use his life to achieve her own path?

The turtle official had been out of touch with the world for many years, but Ji Feichen, hearing this, immediately guessed the mastermind.

“The Nine-Spirit Ghost Mother? ‘Ghost’ and ‘turtle’ are one—only that half-human, half-demon witch would resort to such methods.”

The Nine-Spirit Ghost Mother was an anomaly among the demonic sects—a daughter born of a spirit turtle and a mortal woman. Abandoned and abused from childhood, she grew up twisted and domineering. Like Lady Golden Silkworm, she was a rare female cultivator of the demonic path, attaining the rank of human immortal. But centuries ago, she was badly wounded by the Celestial Gate; her body was destroyed, and only a remnant soul escaped.

Ji Feichen’s eyes flashed. “You have been victim to her schemes—do you plan to take revenge?”

The turtle, versed in fate, cast a divination and mused, “I have just escaped and must leave the mortal world at once. As for that woman, she will surely come to investigate any disturbance here, but the one who comes will likely be an avatar. There is no need for me to act—Daoist, you can easily subdue her yourself.”

He had no desire to linger, fearing Da Hong’s retribution. Still, he was unwilling to let the Nine-Spirit Ghost Mother’s treachery go unpunished. So he left Ji Feichen a talisman. “This contains my remaining power—enough for a strike at the human-immortal level. Together with the imperial talisman you just acquired, it will be more than enough to suppress her avatar.”

With that, Ji Feichen collected the rest of the Nether mud. The golden turtle shook itself, heaving the vast domain onto its shell and disappearing into the Netherworld passage in an instant.

A voice echoed down the tunnel: “Daoist, I shall never forget this great kindness—one day, I will repay you richly!”

With his departure, the earth veins of Turtle City trembled, the entire city shuddered, and its fortune faded. A hundred years hence, prosperity would turn to decline, and the city would never again see such glory.