My brother is so cunning

Chapter 998 Local Gods
After wandering around this city where humans and demons lived together for a whole day, Yun Zhongzi not only failed to uncover any evidence of the Creation Celestial Venerable's crimes, but he also failed to get a full glimpse of the local customs and culture.
The human world is too complex now, so complex that even Yun Zhongzi, with his knowledge and wisdom, finds it somewhat incomprehensible.

Five hundred years ago, he saw that the fox demon was wreaking havoc on the Shang Dynasty. He could make a conclusion with just a glance at the demonic aura from Zhongnan Mountain. Now, he could not see the demonic aura rising to evil. He had been observing it closely in the city for a whole day, but he still could not understand the suffering of the people.

Of course, mortals have their troubles, and it's not to say that this city is like the earthly Buddhist kingdom promoted by Western religions, where everyone is peaceful, perfect, and without any worries.

On the contrary, Yun Zhongzi keenly observed that the people here were not as simple and honest as they used to be. They were shrewd, calculating, greedy, and far from being simple and honest. Their thoughts were far more complex than those of the people during the Yin-Shang and Zhou dynasties.

Despite the diverse population, a remarkably well-ordered society is maintained. Conflicts occur frequently, but city administrators have long devised rules to resolve them. The public's moral standards need not be too high, but they must adhere to the rule of law.

In the many street brawls that Yun Zhongzi encountered, the phrase he heard most often was: "The rule of law saved you!"

Those who said this were either cultivators with a certain level of cultivation or strong and robust demons. On the contrary, because they were bad at talking, they were verbally abused by opponents who were much weaker than them. They were furious but tried their best to restrain themselves from using extraordinary martial arts to solve the problem.

After wandering around the city all day, it was now late at night. Although the streetlights were still shining brightly, illuminating large areas of public space, the lights in the windows of most of the buildings in the city had been turned off.

The streets were deserted, and most of the citizens, who had been busy all day, were fast asleep.

Yun Zhongzi sat alone on a park bench, sorting through his experiences of the day. He tried to sort out his impressions of the city and find the faults of Wenrui Jiejiao in teaching the masses from the chaotic information, so that he could have evidence of their crimes when reporting to his master, Yuanshi Tianzun.

Back then, it was much easier for him to determine that Daji had committed sins than it is now. He didn't need to collect evidence deliberately; there was plenty of evidence. For example, there was the evidence of Bi Gan having his heart removed, building the Deer Terrace, setting up the torture devices of burning alive, the pit of scorpions, breaking bones to examine marrow, and dissecting the abdomen to examine infants. The list goes on and on.

It was as if the fox demon, without any scruples or concealment, deliberately displayed its evil, intending to lay out these incriminating facts to give the rebels who planned to overthrow the Shang Dynasty a handle to use against it.

Having spent the entire day exploring cities that believed in the Jie Sect, Yun Zhongzi, though not feeling that the city was the utopian paradise he envisioned, found it difficult to speak ill of it against his conscience.

The fact that it could guarantee that hundreds of thousands of people in the city, regardless of their social status, would have enough to eat, wear, and have a place to live already surpassed 99% of the cities in the Great Zhou Dynasty.

If this city is a city of monsters and an evil place, then what are the other cities of the Great Zhou Dynasty compared to it?

Despite having observed for a whole day, Yun Zhongzi still refused to admit that the beings under the Jiejiao teachings lived far better than the humans who believed in the Chanjiao, Renjiao, and Xifangjiao.

He suspected that his observation time was still too short and that he had only seen the surface. He believed that as long as he found the truth hidden beneath the surface, he could expose Wen Rui's conspiracy.

In the dead of night, with no one around, Yun Zhongzi suddenly thought of something, made a hand seal and cast a spirit-binding spell, then pointed at the exposed muddy ground in the park.

In cities, the coverage of paved roads is extremely high. Roads are paved with asphalt, sidewalks are covered with paving stones, and the open spaces between buildings are paved with cement. Only in places like parks can you see natural soil.

Yun Zhongzi used his spell to summon the local land deity and city god. Such deities cannot be summoned through artificially constructed hardened ground.

The binding spell of a Golden Immortal is so powerful that even minor deities like local land gods, city gods, and mountain gods will be forced to appear against their will.

Summoning the local earth god and city god is the quickest way for immortals to understand the local customs and conditions. On his journey to the West, when the monkey encountered situations where it was difficult to investigate the local conditions, he would summon the earth god. He only needed to ask to find out what demons were causing trouble in the area. The spell took effect, and a plume of white smoke rose from the ground. Within the smoke, the figures of two deities, one tall and one short, emerged.

"You must be the local Earth God and City God, right? I have some questions for you, answer them truthfully... Eh?"

Yun Zhongzi was putting on airs of a celestial being, speaking in a dignified and serious tone, when he looked closely and was greatly surprised.

When the white mist dissipated, the appearance of the two deities was far beyond his expectations.

But when the smoke cleared, a little girl with shoulder-length green hair was standing in the middle of the field.

She was wearing a short shirt adorned with small floral vines, a diamond-shaped jade ornament embedded in her forehead, and bare, fair feet. She was tilting her head to examine Yun Zhongzi, and clutching half a piece of unfinished almond tofu in her hand.

A boy in green stood next to the little girl.

He wore a wide-brimmed hood, with a few strands of blue hair peeking out from under the brim. He was holding a wine jug and pouring it into his mouth, not caring that the wine was dripping down his chin onto his clothes. A spinning wing of wind lay at his feet.

Logically speaking, the Earth God is usually depicted as an elderly man with white hair and a long beard, while the City God is depicted as a dignified middle-aged official. This is why there are the folk sayings of Earth God and City God.

Yun Zhongzi summoned two children, especially the little girl in green, who looked to be only seven or eight years old, with a cute and innocent face.

"Are you the local land deity, city god...?"

Yun Zhongzi was somewhat unsure, and after staring at the two children in an awkward silence for a while, he finally spoke.

The little girl shook her head, wiggling the tuft of hair on her head: "Uncle, are you an immortal who has been in seclusion for a long time? We don't call them Earth Gods here, we call them 'Local Ecology and Livelihood Coordinators.' It's very difficult to get a position. Even if you accumulated merit in your life and cultivated a spirit after death, you still need to learn a lot about agronomy and plant ecology..."

"Huh? What coordinator?"

Yun Zhongzi didn't quite understand; it was completely different from the basic divine system of the Heavenly Court that he knew.

"I am the Urban Livelihood and Rule of Law Commissioner of the New Binhai City."

The green-clad youth, with a stern face and slight displeasure, said, "Your cultivation is quite advanced, managing to forcibly detain us. However, your actions have violated the 'Regulations on the Management of the Use of Extraordinary Powers in the City.' Considering this is your first offense, I will issue a verbal warning. You are not allowed to use the Soul-Binding Spell in the city at will next time. Otherwise, you will be detained for fifteen days for disrupting the city's administrative order!"

"me……"

Yun Zhongzi, feeling embarrassed after being scolded by the children, wanted to vent his anger at the neglect he had shown to the immortals, but he couldn't find a way to do so with the two child-like deities.

(End of this chapter)