Unsheathed

The old boatman continued to steer the boat with his bamboo pole, causing it to rapidly shoot downstream like a lively fish in water.

This water appeared dark and murky in the eyes of ordinary mortals, yet the old boatman could easily see through it, with the sparkling water fortune essence an absolute delight to look at.

Lone ghosts would occasionally swim past him on this river that led to the river god temple, and they would immediately kneel down and kowtow when they saw the old boatman.

The Swaying River possessed abundant water fortune, and thanks to the fact that the river god didn't seize much of this water fortune and allowed it to flow into the river god temple instead, those who had drowned and become ghosts here would be far more unlikely to lose their minds and devolve into malicious ghosts. As such, this could be regarded as a virtuous act by the river god.

However, the river god temple of the Swaying River had to pay a corresponding price for this, that being the slower nurturing of incense essence. As incense essence slowly accumulated over time, it was inevitable that a relatively significant portion that should have been used to shape and temper his godly body would go missing. In the eyes of the other river gods, the river god of the Swaying River most likely appeared to be mentally challenged.

This river god wasn't a cultivator and survived on the incense offerings of the mortal world. More importantly, the Swaying River only recognized Skeleton Shoal as its foundation, and it wasn't recognized in the genealogical records of any mortal empire.

Because of this, the emperors and rulers of territories located upstream of the Swaying River all had very peculiar attitudes toward the river god temple that existed outside their jurisdictions. They neither recognized the temple nor banned it, and the passes along the river neither supported their southward-traveling citizens offering the incense at the temple nor did they prohibit it.

Due to these reasons, River God Xue Yuansheng was the river god of an illegal temple that didn't belong to the official etiquette structure of any continent. Yet, he was actually working in vain to pursue that elusive hidden virtue? Could he retain any of this? He was working hard for the benefit of someone else, so what was the point of this?

Merit and virtue were the most unpredictable things in the world, while being recognized in the genealogical records of mortal empires would make things predictable and transparent. As long as the mountains and rivers were stable and the Ministry of Rites was in proper order, deities would receive their deserved rewards following each evaluation cycle. This would avoid many negative side effects, and the imperial court of a nation would formlessly help the deities resist and eliminate a significant amount of bad karma. This was the benefit of being able to receive compensation regardless of whether things were going well or not.

Without this status and support, however, things would be much more difficult to predict. Once a certain person succeeded in their prayers, who could guarantee that this wouldn't lead to a complicated web of karmic consequences?

The divine woman who had walked out from a wall mural had a brooding look.

This pertained to their Great Dao, so it wasn't appropriate for the old boatman to say too much about his old neighbor, the divine woman. Consoling her right now could very well be an act of pouring salt on her wounds.