novelraw Chapter 700: You're Not Devout Enough
Chapter 700: You're Not Devout Enough
As Yang Haoran entered the temple, the first thing he saw was a divine statue.
This divine statue was sitting cross-legged, with two heads. One head was that of a young, handsome man with an evil smile on his face. The other head was a terrifying ghost face, with an expression that seemed to be both crying and laughing, and both joyful and angry. The overall feeling it gave people was one of terror and eeriness.
Apart from that, the divine statue's hands were also a notable feature. They seemed to be boneless, twisted around its waist like a rope.
This divine statue was undoubtedly a Spirit God statue.
The statue wasn't very tall, only about 6.6 feet (2 meters) high, but for a small temple like this, a 6.6-foot-tall divine statue was already considered quite large.
The divine statue was located at the very center of the temple, with several smaller divine statues placed on either side. All of these smaller statues were also Spirit God statues.
In front of the divine statue, there was an offering table with a pig's head, fish, meat, and some ordinary fruits on it.
"I slaughtered our only pig at home to make today's temple fair a success," Old Town Chief said with a smile, looking at the pig's head on the offering table. His tone didn't convey any sense of heartache or reluctance, but rather a sense of pride.
"Wow, Old Town Chief, you're really willing to part with it," Yang Haoran said, his face full of surprise. "A pig is worth a lot these days."
"Ha ha, it's just a pig," Old Town Chief laughed. "It can satisfy our physical desires, but it can't bring me spiritual fulfillment. Killing it not only allows me to offer it to my god and express my devotion, but it also lets the whole town enjoy a feast. What do I have to be reluctant about?"Old Town Chief laughed heartily, then handed Yang Haoran three incense sticks.
"Come, show some devotion. After you've finished worshiping my god, I'll give you a divine statue as a gift."
Yang Haoran took the incense sticks and bowed slightly towards the Spirit God statue, but he didn't kneel down like the other believers. He simply nodded his head in respect, then inserted the incense sticks into the incense burner.
Old Town Chief watched this scene, his smile freezing on his face. After a moment, his smile disappeared, and his eyebrows furrowed slightly, his expression somewhat helpless. He shook his head gently.
"Official, you're not devout enough," he said. "Worshiping a deity isn't like meeting an official. You need to show genuine devotion, not just go through the motions."
Yang Haoran's face turned red with embarrassment, and he responded awkwardly.
"Heh heh, Old Town Chief is right. I don't know anything about this aspect, since I've never believed in any deity before. I'm a complete blank slate in this area. I'll need to ask Old Town Chief for guidance in the future, and I'm afraid I'll be causing him some trouble."
Old Town Chief had wanted Yang Haoran to worship again, but seeing Yang Haoran's attitude, he didn't press the issue. Yang Haoran knew how to worship a deity, but he just didn't want to kneel down to this Spirit God. If he did, even if the Death God didn't suddenly appear and bite him to death, he wouldn't be able to forgive himself.
Besides, this Spirit God was just a wannabe god, not a real deity. At most, it could only be considered a fake god. Kneeling down to a fake god was impossible for him.
"Ignorance is not a crime, but please, official, remember to kneel down when worshiping a deity. That's the only way to prove your devotion."
As he finished speaking, Old Town Chief took three incense sticks and began worshiping the Spirit God statue in front of Yang Haoran, kneeling down and kowtowing.
At this moment, he was doing this to set an example for Yang Haoran. Moreover, Yang Haoran needed to ask a divine statue to leave the temple and take it back to worship, and he had to report to the deity to avoid being blamed by the deity.
Old Town Chief bowed and spoke with an extremely respectful tone, while Yang Haoran stood aside, watching without interrupting, thinking about other things in his mind.
After a short while, Old Town Chief stood up from the ground and walked to another divine statue, which was about 1.6 feet tall.
This divine statue was not particularly tall, and its craftsmanship was not particularly exquisite, but it was still passable and not a sloppy work.
When Old Town Chief arrived at this divine statue, he did not burn incense again, but out of inner reverence, he still knelt down and performed a grand kowtow before wrapping the divine statue in a red cloth.
As he wrapped the divine statue in the red cloth, his movements were very gentle, as if he was afraid of hurting the divine statue.
"Your Excellency, this divine statue is now being given to you. I hope you won't forget to worship it every day, and it must be a sincere worship. Otherwise, it would be a great disrespect to my deity!"
When saying this, Old Town Chief's face was serious, his tone extremely solemn, and his words were filled with gravity. After finishing, he handed the wrapped Spirit God image to Yang Haoran.
"Old Town Chief, don't worry. Since I've decided to become a believer of my deity, I'll definitely be a sincere believer, offering the best food and drink, and I won't joke around. I swear on my honor."
Yang Haoran received the divine statue and responded with a serious face, even using his honor to swear.
"Your Excellency doesn't need to swear. I can fully sense your sincerity, and I believe my deity has also sensed your sincerity. The only thing that's not perfect is that you didn't perform the kowtow just now!"
Old Town Chief brought up this matter again, which made Yang Haoran a bit speechless. However, he didn't show any dissatisfaction and didn't intend to re-perform the kowtow to the Spirit God image. He just smiled awkwardly, as if he didn't understand the underlying meaning of Old Town Chief's words.
Old Town Chief saw that Yang Haoran didn't intend to re-perform the kowtow and didn't force the issue. He smiled and continued, "But it's okay. As long as you know what to do in the future, I've already set an example for you. Just follow it, and that's it. Remember, to gain my deity's protection, sincerity is the most important thing."
Yang Haoran nodded repeatedly, as if he had completely memorized Old Town Chief's words.
Old Town Chief was relatively satisfied with Yang Haoran's attitude and smiled. Then, he pulled Yang Haoran's arm.
"Now that you've chosen to believe in my deity, we're considered family. Let's go out of the temple, and I'll introduce you to everyone. We're one family, and we shouldn't speak of two different things. Now that your identity has changed, everyone's attitude towards you will also change. They won't treat you with hostility like before, and they won't even point their guns at you."
As he spoke, Old Town Chief wanted to pull Yang Haoran out of the temple, but Yang Haoran stopped him.
"Old Town Chief, wait a moment. I have something I want to discuss with you."
Yang Haoran's words made Old Town Chief's eyes reveal a puzzled expression.
"What's there to discuss? We can discuss it while drinking wine. Why not?" Old Town Chief said.
"There are too many people outside, and they might gossip. Besides, you've seen how the villagers treated me before. Although I've started believing in my deity, I'm not sure how much their attitude towards me will change. I'm not confident, so I think it's better to discuss it here."
Yang Haoran's face showed a troubled expression, and Old Town Chief couldn't force the issue. Moreover, his curiosity was piqued by Yang Haoran, so he nodded.
"Okay, what do you want to discuss?"
"I want to meet the divine envoy who helped you get rid of the evil ghost that day. I hope Old Town Chief can help introduce us," Yang Haoran said.
After saying so much, Yang Haoran finally got to the point.
In fact, he wanted to obtain information about the divine envoy from Old Town Chief's mouth. It would be simple to kill Old Town Chief, condense his soul, and extract it from his corpse to get the information he wanted through his ghost eye ability.
However, Old Town Chief had no grudge against him, and he was also quite old, so Yang Haoran didn't want to kill him. That's why he spent some time on Old Town Chief.