He and It Chapter 45: A God’s Marriage (16)

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Chapter 45: A God’s Marriage (16)

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: GaeaTiamat

Passing through the tall, grand buildings and the flowing springs that still gurgled in winter, Yun Chi followed Nali to the interior of a salon-like gathering.

As soon as he entered, he was almost distracted by the different aromas that rushed into his nose. The scent of sacred incense varied, but Yun Chi liked the smell of Sa’gya’s temple the most, which was dark and mysterious, like a hidden sea tide.

“What do you usually do when you gather?” Yun Chi asked, as he looked around the room and tugged at Nali.

Nali replied thoughtfully, “Talking, showing off the treasures of the gods, sharing what’s new and interesting in the territory, or asking for help, answering questions…Something like that.”

“Besides gatherings,” Yun Chi then asked. “Do you have any…other pastimes? Ah, I’m sorry, it’s my first time interacting with other God-family members, so I’m curious about many things…”

Nali smiled understandingly, “Of course. We stay in the temple, what else can we do? What do we do when we’re buried in the Holy Book of the Word? What do we do when the priests chatter about this and that? What do we do when we dance and dance forever, and then polish off the calluses with balm…”

Nali sighed, “Over there, as you say, your days should not be as boring as ours, right?”

“Hmm…” Yun Chi responded vaguely, as he examined the flowery scene in front of him.

In the luxuriously decorated hall, there were ten or so people sitting or standing, and all of them were young boys and girls with beautiful looks and slender posture. They gathered in one room, just like a tree in full bloom, with a few colorful flowers showing. Compared to what Yun Chi saw in the jewelry store, the gorgeous jewels in the dish were also not the least bit inferior.

In the past, their status wasn’t much different from that of gold and jade accessories for people to enjoy.

Nali clapped his hands and drew the attention of the God-family members to him, then he introduced them happily, “Gentlemen! We have a distinguished guest in our assembly today. The God-follower of the West Wind God!”

Even though Yun Chi was used to being the center of attention, he still found the stares a bit too hot.

“What a rarity, the divine family of West Wind God.”

“Now there are actually four Wind Gods…”

“Hello! I’m a God-follower of the God of Moriquan. Does the West Wind God have its own temple too? I never knew that!”

“I am the God-follower of Akros, the River God!”

“I am of the God of Pasture and Prosperity…”

“I am the Burning..”

“Me! I am…”

When he saw those enthusiastic reactions and Nali’s previous joyful appearance, Yun Chi’s heart couldn’t help but be a little puzzled. In theory, Sa’gya was already an old god who was dying out, so why did the West Wind God, as the subordinate he sent, feel…It felt like he had a prominent position?

Yan Yan looked behind him and saw that except for Mountain God Astolfo, who was sheltering an independent city-state, all the other gods were the dependents of minor gods. Yun Chi could handle them, so he kept quiet.

Yun Chi greeted them one by one and recognized a bunch of names of gods and goddesses. He was cheerful and joking, so he quickly took advantage of his social bullishness and blended in with the pile of God-family members and began to poke around.

“-other God-family members?” Yun Chi was surprised. “No. Right, my god only has me. Does your god have many god-family members?”

“That’s your luck,” lamented the girl beside Yun Chi, who belonged to the God of Pasture and Prosperity. “Nowadays there are more and more gods of fraternity, and we are the most favored devotees, but the only favored devotees. This year, the priests in my hometown sent three more young and beautiful human sacrifices to the God Lord, which really made me angry…”

The more she spoke, the more angry she became, while Yun Chi became more and more at ease.

The young man next to her also began to spout off, “Who says so? Those new human sacrifices are doing everything they can to win the Lord’s favor, and making the temple chaotic. I think they are devout to the Lord!”

…Yun Chi wondered in a fog, Have I entered the scene of some kind of palace scheme by mistake?

“The God Lord is far away from the world, so majestic and high-minded, of course he understands what kind of filthy scandal those people will do in order to compete for God’s favor!” Another teenager voiced out in righteous indignation. “Sometimes they are so blinded that they reward those lowly people. I feel angry just thinking about it…”

“Yes!”

“Absolutely!”

Stop it! What is your misunderstanding of God? How can a god know what’s going on in his temple? Instead of saying that the gods are blinded, they are encouraging you to fight…

Yun Chi had witnessed Sa’gya’s power. Once he and Sa’gya went swimming in the sea, and while eating, a piece of oyster meat fell out of his arms. Yun Chi swam along with the tumbling oyster meat, and when he was close enough to grab it, a huge tentacle came out of the abyss, waved at the tip of Yun Chi’s nose, then sucked the oyster meat quickly away.

The tentacle was flattened and opened to reveal a dense mass of sharp teeth, wider than a load-bearing wall, and the sweat on Yun Chi’s back stood on end as his limbs stiffened in fear. Sa’gya, who hurried to catch up with him, happened to see the scene and instantly became furious, as he roared and rushed into the abyss.

The white sea otter’s fleece exploded, and although his body almost doubled in size, compared to the face of the giant sea monster coiled at the bottom of the sea, it was too much to see. Yun Chi blocked his eyes even as he watched him break into the depths of the ocean, watched him tear the sea monster from the sea bed before it had time to escape, watched…as the sea monster got beaten up, lost nearly two-thirds of its body, then howled and fled for its life.

Under the sea, there were furious waves and landslides. When Sa’gya floated up with Yun Chi, he saw that the water in the nearby sea was dyed a strange light purple by the sea monster’s blood.

Sa’gya was an old god, and retained the power to set off that disaster. The new gods’ approach was entirely about establishing a small or large court in a temple, then encouraging the gods to turn on each other as a competition for piety and purity of faith.

While he was thinking about that, the God-family member next to him suddenly asked, “By the way, how old are you?”

Yun Chi thought about it, and chose the age of his body. He answered, “I’m seventeen.”

“Seventeen!”

“So young, only seventeen…”

His answer provoked a low murmur of emotion as Yun Chi explained, “Why? You guys look young too. How much older than me are you?”

Nali pursed his lips. His youthful face glowed as he said, “I’m forty-two years old.”

Yun Chi’s eyes rounded, his mouth dropped open, and he simply gasped.

“I’m a little older than you. I should be fifty…? Ah, sixty, come to think of it.”

“I’m thirty-seven!”

“I’m…I’m also over fifty…”

Most of those seemingly young Gods’ family members were actually elderly people who were over fifty years old. However, in Yun Chi’s eyes, as they grew old, they should grow wise. However, whether it was in style, or behavior, they acted like they were sixteen or seventeen years old, like blank sheets of paper. As if their time and experience were all stuck in the moment they entered the temple.

“Yes.” Yan Yan, as if he knew what he was thinking, leaned close and whispered, “The new generation of gods, in the form of favor, are extending the lifespans of Their most valued devotees.”

…And then, with the faith of the believers, extended the length of their own existence.

Perpetual Motion. ¹

In the old days, Sa’gya speculated with him about the motives of those new gods, using Roche, the God of Storms, as an example. At the time, Yun Chi laughed and commented that it was nonsense. However, the irony was there – the new gods were really trying to create perpetual motion in order to escape the cycle of change!

“So these gods,” Yun Chi said through his teeth. “Have a way to make their followers immortal?”

Yan Yan replied, “As far as I know, not at the moment.”

“What are you talking about?” Nali asked curiously. “This is a rare opportunity. Tell us about West Wind God!”

“Yeah, tell us about it!”

What could Yun Chi make up for them? He forced a smile and said inquiringly, “Actually, my life is not much different from yours, just that I go out more often…I’d like to know, is this how we’re going to be from now on?”

After he asked this question, there was a moment of silence in the room.

“What do you mean?” The God-family members looked at each other.

Yun Chi explained, “That is, I mean, everyone is a God-family member now? What about later? If you become a God-family member, you’ve reached an ultimate goal, and your life can end early.”

Sa’gya also said that there was no precedent for humans to live forever, so apart from this idea of perpetual motion, did those new gods have no other ideas…?

“The bride of the Lord God.”

Even among the gods, the oldest one looked up and whispered, “- becoming the bride of the Gods is our greatest wish.”

Yun Chi was stunned.

God’s bride…What was that again?

“That’s just a distant goal,” Nali sighed. “If there is a pure, forgiving, compassionate, generous, selfless, humble, valiant and fair person in a God’s family…white without a trace of original sin, able to give everything for God, then he is expected to be united with God, become His bride, and live with God forever in the pleasure of the firmament.”

“Legend has it that the eternally fading stigmata will appear on the bride of the God, and that it is the embodiment of the love of the God,” another girl continued. “But it’s too difficult to reach that standard…”

This seems like a scam by the new gods to fool you!

Yun Chi cried out in his heart. How could there be such a perfect person? According to Sa’gya, even Gods are full of seven emotions, and if one used these rules and regulations to compare, so if you believed in God, none of them would be qualified, right?

Yun Chi was silent, his intelligence base prying finished from talking to these God-family members. Now, he was afraid that he wouldn’t be able to control the impulse to throw cold water.

“Oh!” He deliberately acted, and counted the time. “Damn, I should go. This time out I don’t have long, and I have so many things left to do…”

With that, he stood up hastily. “I guess we’ll just get together next year. Nali, thanks for your hospitality, in gratitude!”

According to years of experience in social courtesy, at that kind of moment, people’s stay will end and after speaking that courtesy, the faster they leave the better. Others will believe that it is really urgent, because if you wanted to stay you wouldn’t find an excuse to leave.

So, Yun Chi said a seemingly regretful goodbye, and even let Nali send him off a little, as he  immediately headed towards the door, really like the very wind.

After a long time, a follower of the God of the Pastures asked curiously, “Nali, is he really a member of the God of the West Wind’s family?”

“You saw the light on his body.” Nali shrugged his shoulders. “And the punishment for lying about being a god-bearer of other gods is very severe, so forgive him for daring.”

“But I saw what he knew, ah. The West Wind God is of the four Wind Gods, and one of the great gods. Do his priests not even teach him common sense?”

The hall was silent for a moment.

After a long time, as if to make sure that Yun Chi had really gone far away, and could no longer hear their discussion, the oldest God’s family member said with a smile, “Since he is a follower of the West Wind God, it is an accident.”

He ruffled a flower with his long fingers and whispered, “In the past, the previous generation of the Lord God was tyrannical and unwarranted, and in order to maintain the power to rule, he didn’t hesitate to set off a war of god-killing. The Wind Gods of the East, South and North winds all fell under him. Only the West Wind God, in order to live, bowed down…”

Perhaps for fear of some well-known being, the last four words he spoke were extremely low, “…to save himself.”

He resumed a natural volume and gave another laugh, “Such a God Lord, indeed, must hide something from His followers.”