Crown Prince and Ghost King

Chapter 69

Many officials even started congratulating Xie Lian on his accomplishment, with words that the god found genuine, not mocking in the slightest. Whether one had the significant help of the richest Ghost King in existence or not, the Crown Prince still racked up five hundred lanterns. Half the number that Jun Wu received on a yearly basis reached in about two years.

Even the most stubborn martial and civil gods had to respect that.

To be fair, Xie Lian was surprised too.

While he kind of expected the ghosts, he did not anticipate all the lanterns that came from his human worshippers. After spending a good deal of his time in the mortal realm in PuQi Village rather than anywhere else – and no Blessing Lanterns came from the village, as putting together enough money for one was too difficult so soon into a worship in certain places – Xie Lian never even dreamed of a consistent stream of believers existing in the nearby PuQi Town.

The only good deed he accomplished there was dealing with the fetus spirit. Everything else Xie Lian had done in the village.

Not to mention, of course, the long expanse of time he spent away from the mortal realms, not listening to any prayers.

The merchants of his adventure in BanYue were the only people he genuinely expected to give him something, though not to the extent he just witnessed.

«QianQiu», he got the attention of his former disciple, slipping back into his habit of calling him by his name only. «Why are your worshippers so lenient towards a cult that focuses on me?».

He had been thinking about it since Mu Qing told him about the people around BanYue worshipping him ad Feng Xin, following the believers that started looking up to Xie Lian himself. He did have an idea, but Lang QianQiu was the Martial God of the East, and his territory included the area around BanYue.

Better to ask him directly.

«Some voices might have gotten out about me and you developing a positive relationship with each other», the martial god replied, instinctively speaking with the calm, highly respectful tone he always used when explaining things to his Guoshi. «There are many creatures around the Royal Palace of Yong'An, and GuZi is still a kid that talks more than he should. The mortals probably took it as some sort of "go ahead" to freely worship you alongside me».

The huge and sudden rising in numbers told that exact story. At first, when the worship of Xie Lian was just starting, it was difficult to find people willing to follow him outside of the small community that formed after the events of the BanYue Pass. Minor martial gods and civil gods were still worshipped all around, and so were the Elemental Masters, but Xie Lian's name didn't take long to be recognized as belonging to a very powerful god.

May it be Crimson Rain's intervention, may it be the mortals themselves doing their homework and learning about Xie Lian's past identity, it still came to light that the Crown Prince of XianLe was on the same level of Lang QianQiu in terms of importance, if not higher.

For a long time, that had been the main reason why the worship of Xie Lian in the territories around BanYue had dwindled a little bit and couldn't expand.

But then, with Qi Rong settling in the ruins of the ancient royal palace of Yong'An and Lang QianQiu often visiting with GuZi, voice started to spread that the two martial gods were getting along quite well. GuZi often talked about Xie Lian on his own, and those creatures and people who listened or saw him then interact with Lang QianQiu weren't slow in putting two and two together.

Even if there was no actual positive relationship between former Guoshi and former disciple, by that point many mortals believed there was no problem in worshipping both of them, and the cult expanded and mixed with the rest.