The Evil Deity's Second Career - Chapter 4

Chapter 4

The woman’s name was Ji Lanci, a consort of the Emperor of the Great Zhou.

Her worshipping me that day had been a complete accident.

She said the rain was too heavy and every other temple was packed. She hated waiting in lines, and since my temple was deserted, she had ducked inside.

Even if she was just being honest, didn’t I have any pride to maintain?

“Fortunately, the deity heard my plea and showed me a clear path forward.”

“Hmm?”

Ji Lanci’s face was radiant with excitement. “That stick! They say divine oracles are cryptic and hard to understand, but you truly are a benevolent deity.”

Speaking of that stick, it wasn’t just any ordinary piece of wood.

Shi Jia had snatched it away after getting into a scrap with the God of Literature. He did it for no other reason than the fact that it was perfectly straight. No one can refuse a perfectly straight wooden stick, not even a showy peacock like Shi Jia.

“The stick pointed north, and to the north lies the Great Zhou palace. I entered the palace following the deity’s guidance, and of course, I have kept your divine grace in my heart.”

I shook my head. The smile on Ji Lanci’s face froze, and she asked cautiously, “Did I… misinterpret it?”

“North is up and south is down. Why didn’t you go south?”

“I didn’t think that far ahead.”

Ji Lanci was convinced that she owed her current position to the oracle I had bestowed upon her. Consequently, she had a golden statue cast for me and brought it back to the palace. Feeling a bit guilty for receiving such honor undeservedly, I asked her if she had any other wishes.

Preferably something like killing someone.

Ji Lanci’s eyes lit up at the offer. She performed a solemn, devout prostration before me. “The deity has opened its eyes. This Devotee is willing to maintain a vegetarian diet for the rest of her life, seeking only glory and wealth, and not a single shred of true love.”

She certainly had a wish, but it was a bit outside my area of expertise.

If she wanted glory and wealth, she should have prayed to Zhao Caishen. Praying to me was useless.

I was an evil deity. I knew how to kill people, and absolutely nothing else.

I had a premonition that by tomorrow, my gold plating would be stripped off and I’d be sent back to my drafty, broken-down little temple. Fortunately, Ji Lanci was a kind-hearted beauty. She had no intention of driving me away. Instead, she brought me to the Hall of Precious Splendor within the palace-the place with the most abundant incense offerings in the world.

Squeezing me into the dense rows of Buddha statues in the Hall of Precious Splendor felt a bit out of place.

Standing among a group of ancient Buddhas, I felt rather awkward. “Won’t I be discovered?”

Ji Lanci gave a mischievous smile. “The Emperor is busy seeking immortality and hasn’t visited the Hall of Precious Splendor in ages. The incense here is plentiful; please rest easy, Great One.”

Luckily, the old Buddhas had been dozing for years, so all that excess incense ended up in my stomach.

Every day, fresh offerings of fruit were placed on my Shrine. Ji Lanci burned incense for me three times a day, choosing only the highest quality sticks. This was a level of treatment that even the world-renowned Zhao Caishen had never enjoyed.

Ji Lanci was a good person.