The Deity of Lingshu - Chapter 1

Chapter 1

I was once a ruined idol in a gloomy temple out in the wilderness.

A hundred years ago, for reasons I still do not understand, someone performed Spirit Enlightenment on me and awakened my mind.

But because the right opportunity had yet to arrive, I could not leave this gloomy temple by even half a step.

In the first year after I gained self-awareness, everything I saw felt fresh. I thought the mortal world was truly fascinating.

In the tenth year, I began to feel bored and tried every method I could think of to escape this cage.

By the fiftieth year, I had grown irritable. I swore that if I ever met the one who had performed Spiritual Awakening on me, I would make him pay.

Then a hundred years passed. I calmed down-and went completely insane.

I stopped obsessing over it. I stopped blaming heaven and cursing fate.

All I wanted was to find a little amusement.

It was at that moment that a severely wounded cultivator on the verge of death stumbled into the temple.

This gloomy temple did not enshrine any righteous god. The inside was thick with sinister yin energy, and living creatures wanted nothing to do with it. Usually, I barely even saw spiders or rats, yet this time, an actual living person had come in.

Standing upon the high altar, I lowered my eyes and studied him.

The young man had barely shut the temple doors before he collapsed weakly to the floor. Blood flowed from the wound on his back, soaking the withered yellow weeds beneath him, making him look like an immortal blossom on the verge of wilting.

His phoenix eyes were lightly closed, his brows drawn together in discomfort. His face was pale as paper, and only the corner of his lips bore a streak of dark crimson blood.

When he wiped it away with the back of his hand, his once-faint lips became as vivid as if they had been painted with rouge.

I stared at that smear of red for a long while, then dragged my gaze away from his noble yet strangely bewitching face and slowly moved it lower.

Through the tear in the back of his immortal robes, I could just glimpse the snow-white slenderness of his waist. A body that should have remained untouched by even a speck of dust was stained with blood and filth, creating a startling contrast that struck straight to the senses.

For some reason, I licked the base of my slightly itching teeth.

Could a stone statue feel “itchy” too?

I was not sure.

But…

He smelled so good.

If I ate this person, would I stop being so bored?

I stepped down from the altar and slowly walked toward the dying man.

In the span of those few short steps, I excitedly came up with all sorts of ways to deal with him.

If I simply ate him, it would seem like such a waste of this rare, beautiful skin.

Why not just wait until he breathed his last, then use Body Possession to take over his body?

The only problem was that I might get struck by lightning…

Just as I was wondering whether being struck dead by lightning would count as interesting, the ready-made ghost at my feet suddenly spoke.

“It wasn’t me… I didn’t… Why? Why doesn’t anyone believe me? Why did everyone lie to me?!”

This man had only a single breath left keeping him alive. His consciousness had long since blurred, and right now, he was merely talking in his sleep.

Who knew what a dying man had dreamed of to erupt with such dense resentment?

And not only resentment.

There was also great fortune on the verge of scattering.

Interesting. Far too interesting.

A flicker of wicked amusement suddenly rose in me.

Rather than letting him die so easily, why not try a more entertaining game?

So I bent down, shedding bits of stone as I did, and asked him with a wide grin, “Do you want to live?”

That ethereal, eerie voice pulled him from his nightmare. He opened his eyes in confusion and looked at me, a tear still clinging to the corner of his eye, about to fall but not yet fallen.

Tenderly, I pinched away that tear. “Human, you are about to die, but I can save you.”

A stone statue grinning must have looked utterly strange and terrifying. Especially in this gloomy temple where uncanny winds howled through the cracks, it would have been enough to scare any less courageous adult into wetting themselves.

Yet whether the young man was not fully conscious, or thought he was still dreaming, his face was lifeless and ashen, without the slightest hint of fear.

I raised an eyebrow. “As long as you agree to help me with one small favor, I can grant your wish.”

I did not know how long passed.

Just as I was getting impatient and wondering whether I should simply swallow him alive after all…

The young man lifted his hand and grasped my finger.

Because he had lost too much blood, that long, slender hand had grown a little cold. But compared to stone, it was still far warmer.

A warm, fragrant, delicious living human.

“All right. Spread your legs, and I’ll save you,” I said with a bright grin.