Unsheathed

The river god in black carried a badly worn chair over from a distant corner of the hall, taking a glance at the incense boy peeking over the side of the censer after he sat down. He smiled and asked, "This is such a major matter, yet you didn't tell this little guy whom you live together with?"

"Isn't everything still undecided? What is there to tell him?" the disheveled man replied without expression.

The river god in black retrieved his folding fan and lightly tapped the armrest of his chair, saying with a smile, "The only difference is whether it's a big cause for celebration or a small cause for celebration. You seem quite calm about all of this."

The disheveled man had been given the cold shoulder for several hundred years, never having the opportunity to receive a promotion. There was clearly a good reason for this, or else he should have been able to become the city god of a county city no matter what. Many of his old acquaintances were doing quite well now, so the incense boy in vermilion couldn't be blamed for sighing and lamenting all the time, sitting in a daze on the roof of the mountain lord temple when he had nothing to do and looking up at the sky hoping for good fortune to hit him on the head.

Still expressionless as before, the disheveled man replied indifferently, "In all these years, even the shit that I've eaten hasn't been warm, so should I care about the difference that a mere few days makes? Even I haven't said anything about this matter yet."

Who would feel comfortable hearing a reply like this?

The incense boy in vermilion rolled his eyes upon hearing this exchange. A cause for celebration? Piss off, alright. What cause of celebration could his master have? If this crappy little temple could keep its status as a mountain lord temple, then he should run off to all of the other mountain god temples, river god temples, and city god temples to offer incense and thank the heavens.

The incense boy had given up all hope now, and he would be over the moon as long as they weren't kicked out of the temple and forced to drift around with him lugging the censer. There were some rumors secretly spreading around several city god temples right now, saying that all of the deities regardless of their status would be reshuffled after Dragon Spring Prefecture rose to become a province.

The incense boy had even gone as far as to kowtow and act pitiful this time, but even this hadn't worked with his master, with the mountain lord still refusing to leave the temple and attend the Night Travel Banquet hosted by the formal mountain god of the Great Li Empire's Northern Mountain. Thanks to this, everyone was saying that Steamed Bun Mountain was done for, causing the incense boy to feel extremely anxious every day. He felt a strong urge to die together with his master straight away, allowing him to fight for a better reincarnation.

"So be it if you ignore the others, but just how many years does our relationship go back?" the river god in black said in an exasperated voice. "It's not an exaggeration to say that we've gone through thick and thin together, is it? You're not going to visit even when construction of my temple is complete?"

"Will you hold me in higher regard if I visit?" the disheveled mountain lord asked. "Our relationship will still be as shallow as always. Also, I'll definitely need to bring some presents if I visit to congratulate you, won't I? I have no money, and I can't bring myself to act wealthy to my own detriment."