Wandering Gods of Day and Night
Chapter 297 - 198 Painter’s Scheme_2

Chapter 297: Chapter 198 Painter’s Scheme_2

Li Chengfeng spoke up, and both Yun Ziliang and Zhou Xuan broke into laughter.

"What are you laughing at? It really does feel real. During the meetings, I kept pondering over it, racking my brains, but I just couldn’t figure out how the divine miracle worked. It’s truly baffling."

Li Chengfeng still couldn’t wrap his head around it.

Zhou Xuan stopped laughing, leaned against the counter, and said, "Old Li, do you ever think it’s possible... that the Heavenly God is real?"

"..." Li Chengfeng.

"At first, I just wanted to fake one. Who would’ve thought, by sheer accident, I ended up awakening the real Heavenly God? That fire in the sky, nobody could fake that."

Zhou Xuan walked over to the table, grabbed an orange, peeled it, and just as he stuffed two slices into his mouth, an eerie "ahhh" echoed, startling him so much he nearly choked.

"Old Li, are you motherfucking summoning spirits here?" Zhou Xuan coughed twice.

"High Priest, how was the Heavenly God awakened? It’s been two thousand years, countless people, countless methods, and no one ever managed to awaken the Heavenly God... How come it happened with you?"

"You ask me, then who am I supposed to ask?"

Zhou Xuan polished off the orange and said, "Today’s awakening did have a hint of pure luck, but it still offers us some insights."

To the side, Yun Ziliang had started counting on his fingers: "I’ve summarized it. Let’s set aside the timing for now. There are six essential elements: the Heavenly God Totem, the tattooing technique, three Divine Images, the devout faith of the Bone Elder Association toward the Heavenly God, gathering of the Bone Elder Association’s members, and the Blood of the Heavenly Gods.

If we can gather these six elements, perhaps other yet-undefeated Heavenly Gods can be awakened, and more fires ignited."

"Lao Yun, you missed one thing."

Zhou Xuan reminded him.

"Everything’s there." Lao Yun counted again to ensure nothing was lost.

"The slaying of the avatar of a god." Zhou Xuan added, "The awakening of the Heavenly God happened after the avatar of the Heavenly Official was slain."

As the director of the grand masquerade involving the fake Heavenly God, Zhou Xuan, situated within the scheme, had a detailed understanding of the intricacies.

"Hiss, if that counts as an essential element, no wonder the fire of the Heavenly God failed to ignite for two thousand years."

Yun Ziliang, upon Zhou Xuan’s prompt, suddenly felt an unsettling realization and said, "The gods are meddling."

Li Chengfeng initially wanted to argue that the gods wouldn’t interfere—the Heavenly Official of the Bone Elder Association had supported them for years in their endeavors to awaken the Heavenly Gods of pain and calamity.

But upon closer reflection, it wasn’t impossible that the Heavenly Official’s surface-level support masked ulterior motives.

"Turns out, we weren’t wrong to curse the Heavenly Official. He’s been leading the Bone Elder Association further and further from awakening the Heavenly God." Yun Ziliang analyzed, "Once the Heavenly God awakens, the gods would no longer occupy the position of supreme faith, and their worshippers would dwindle, naturally causing incense to decline."

"As incense fades, the gods would grow progressively weaker. They wouldn’t just stand idly by and let themselves weaken without doing something about it. Their best move would be to ensure that the Heavenly God remains eternally asleep."

"Perhaps, both methods of the Bone Elder Association were valid. Whether the Praying Sect or the Suffering Faction, they could gather sufficient wish power and anchor hooks to awaken the Heavenly God. However, the Heavenly Official deployed tactics that formed a barrier, severing the connection between the wish power and anchor hooks.

Still, wish power and anchor hooks didn’t vanish into thin air; they continued accumulating within Mingjiang Prefecture. Once the barrier was breached, wish power and anchor hooks faced no more hindrance, flowing entirely into the Heavenly God’s body,

and thus, the Heavenly God was awakened."

Upon hearing this, Li Chengfeng gritted his teeth in anger and said, "The avatar of the Heavenly Official in the human world was that barrier. Well, good riddance to it—now that the Heavenly God has risen, the Heavenly Official won’t be able to stir up trouble anymore."

"Not necessarily." Zhou Xuan offered a possible scenario from his perspective: "The Heavenly God has just awakened, and the fire is very, very weak. What do you say, is it possible that the gods might try to extinguish it?"

"Impossible." Li Chengfeng said, "It’s extremely difficult for the gods’ true forms to descend from the Heavenly Dome to the human world. They can only send avatars. But the incense fire level of their avatars isn’t high—attempting to extinguish the fire would be courting death."

"The gods struggle to descend, yet they have Daoists as attendants." Zhou Xuan muttered phrases from the talismanic script.

Perhaps the gods couldn’t descend, and their avatars were too weak. But what about the Daoists?

A Daoist with seven or eight sticks of incense—could the Bone Elder Association hold them back?

"Whoa, I just remembered the Daoists. This is a big deal. I’ve got to go back and write an article explaining the implications of Daoists possibly extinguishing the Heavenly God’s fire in full detail, aiming to alert the Bone Elder Association."

Li Chengfeng finished speaking and was about to leave. Just as he reached for the door, he said to Zhou Xuan, "By the way, High Priest, the Hunger case has been finalized. I’ll pick a couple of people from the City God temple to investigate with you. The compensation is two Blood Well Human Brains."

"Two?"

This time, Zhou Xuan was surprised. Old Li, this Scholar, had unexpectedly turned "money-minded" to negotiate terms with the Bone Elder Association.

"One must evolve."

Li Chengfeng opened the store door and drove home to write his article.

Yun Ziliang began polishing the phonograph, musing aloud as he did, "Daoists—could they truly be about to descend?"

"Who cares? If they enjoy coming to the human world, then once they arrive, they might as well stay."

As the fire of the Heavenly God grows stronger, it has the potential to teach Zhou Xuan the Laws. Before Zhou Xuan can master the Laws, could that fire really be extinguished?

...

Li Yuan Building, Old Bone Library, Ninth District.

The Painter placed a book at each of the four corners of the Ninth District. He then pulled out his pocket watch, checked the time, and wrote it down on the front pages of the four books.

Time spans four domains: past, present, future, and disorder.

The Painter’s current action was to anchor the "present," designating the location as the "Ninth District." With the anchor point set to "present," he used the Time Law to traverse to the future. Even if lost, he wouldn’t remain in the future,