Sensing their gaze, Xie Lian smiled faintly before turning around. He asked, "Is it your first time seeing a genuine cursed collar?"
The cursed collar, as its name implied, was a curse that took the shape of a shackle.
The Heavenly Officials that were demoted and banished from Heaven would receive an imprint of their sins on their body, something that could be considered as the accumulation of Heaven's wrath. This imprint took the form of a shackle, one that blocked the Heavenly Official's spiritual power. It was something one could never break themselves from or lose. It was the same as stamping a tattoo on their face or binding their hands and feet with chains. It was a type of punishment and also a type of warning, one that made the person in question feel both fear and shame.
As the laughingstock of the three realms and one who had been banished from the Heavens twice, Xie Lian naturally had this kind of cursed collar imprinted on his body. It was impossible for these two small martial gods to not have heard of this fact. However, there was still a difference between hearing someone say it in passing and seeing it personally with their own eyes. Thus, Xie Lian could understand why the two martial gods would have that kind of expression on their faces.
He guessed that this cursed collar of his probably made them feel a bit afraid and uneasy. After all, this wasn't the sign of a good thing.
Using the excuse that he needed a new top, Xie Lian originally wanted to slip outside and walk around. However, that didn't happen because Fu Yao rolled his eyes and said, "It would be utterly obscene of you, should you go outside to stroll on the main street with your current appearance." In the end, it was Nan Feng who casually grabbed some clothes from the temple for Xie Lian, stopping him from proceeding with his 'obscene' plan. But after Xie Lian tidied up and sat down again, he felt that after the previous events, the atmosphere had become somewhat awkward.
Therefore, Xie Lian took out the scroll Ling Wen Palace Hall had prepared for him before asking, "Do you guys want to take another look at this?"
Nan Feng lifted his head to give him a look before replying, "I've already seen it. I think he is the one who needs a better look."
Fu Yao retorted, "What do you mean I should be the one to take a better look? That scroll didn't even have any details—utterly worthless. Does it even deserve someone to keep reading it over?"
When he heard how Fu Yao said the scroll was utterly worthless, Xie Lian couldn't help but feel a bit sorry for the literary gods of Ling Wen Palace Hall. Those gods wrote so many scrolls, their faces even turned ashen in colour. Then, Xie Lian heard Fu Yao continue to say, "Ah, where did we leave off at? Oh yes, the reason behind why Nan Yang has so many female worshipers, right?"
Okay then. Xie Lian put away the scroll before rubbing that pulsing spot in-between his eyes. In his mind, he knew that they wouldn't be able to read anything tonight.
If no proper work could be done, then at least this situation could get cleared up. It turned out that apart from His Royal Highness the Crown Prince who spent hundreds of years collecting rubbish in the human realm, nowadays all the other gods were aware of the reason. Nan Yang ZhenJun Feng Xin, had once been called the Ju Yang (Tremendous Masculinity) ZhenJun for some years. The person himself had abhorred this name. Toward what Feng Xin had experienced, other people could only sum up their feelings with the words: "What injustice!"
This was because, the original and correct way to spell his name was Ju Yang (Altogether Bright), but with a different Chinese character for 'Ju'. The reason his name had been misinterpreted had been because of a small mishap.
Many years ago, a monarch wanted to renovate his temples. To show his sincerity, he personally wrote the words on a plaque for every temple hall. However, when he wrote the inscription on the plaque for Ju Yang Palace Hall, he somehow misspelled the first word.
This time, the official responsible for the temple renovation matters almost worried himself to death. He couldn't make sense of it. In the end, was His Majesty deliberately changing the name? Or had he not been careful and made a mistake? If it was deliberate, why hadn't he made a decree and state he wanted to change it to this? But if it wasn't on purpose, how could he make this kind of low-level mistake? It wasn't like he could go and say, "Your Majesty, you're wrong". Who knew if His Majesty would think he was mocking his carelessness? Maybe His Majesty would even think that he was suggesting his knowledge was superficial and his heart wasn't sincere! In addition, this was made with his Majesty's ink treasure. Was it going to become void?
The hardest thing to guess in this world was an Emperor's intentions. That official was extremely conflicted. However, after thinking things over, he decided that it was better to cause Ju Yang ZhenJun some grief rather than making His Majesty feel wronged.
One had to admit that the official made the right decision. When His Majesty discovered that Ju Yang (Altogether Bright) had changed into Ju Yang (Tremendous Masculinity), he didn't say anything. Instead, he invited a whole flock of scholars, before vigorously thumbing through ancient books. After finding countless minor details to justify the reason for the change, they wrote many articles, doing their utmost best to prove that the original spelling was Ju Yang (Tremendous Masculinity) and that Ju Yang (Altogether Bright) had been the wrong way to write it. In short, one night after this event, the whole nation's Ju Yang (Altogether Bright) temples turned into Ju Yang (Tremendous Masculinity) temples.
The Feng Xin who had suddenly gotten a Godly title change didn't find out about this matter until ten years passed. He had never carefully looked at the signs of his own temples before. One day, he just suddenly felt very gloomy. Why were there so many women who came to worship him in his temples? In addition, why was every one of them so shy, as they prayed with thoroughly red faces? What kind of things were they beseeching for when they lit the incense?
After he found out what happened, Feng Xin rushed into the summit of the firmament, faced the scorching sun and vast sky, before swearing a round of curses.
Unsurprisingly, he shocked all the Heavenly Officials there.
After he finished cursing, there wasn't anything he could do. If they wanted to worship him, then he could only let them worship. It wasn't like he could make life difficult for these pious and praying women. Thus, he braced himself before listening to their prayers for numerous years. This continued until an honourable monarch felt that this title Ju Yang (Tremendous Masculinity) was simply scandalous, and thus, he changed it to Nan Yang. However, people had not forgotten that other than being a martial god, Nan Yang was also a god who could offer blessings and protection. Just, everyone tacitly understood to never use those two words to address Nan Yang. At the same time, the other gods mutually knew how to assess Nan Yang ZhenJun. You only needed a few words: he was good!
As long as you didn't make him curse people out, everything was well!
On that side, Nan Feng's face had blackened so much, it could be compared to an old pot. But over here, Fu Yao was very excited as he spoke in a cultured manner, "A lady's friend, the most effective when praying for a son. The secret booster for the virality of men, Nan Yang, deliverer of children. Ah ha ha, ah ha ha, ah ha ha ha ha ha..."
Xie Lian benevolently resisted the urge to smile, an attempt to leave some honour to the Godly statue of Nan Yang in front of them. Suddenly, Nan Feng spoke up in an angry tone, "Stop being so weird here. If you feel too idle, don't panic, you can go sweep the floor."
The moment he said those words, Fu Yao's face also turned as black as a pot. If one said that the thing Nan Yang Palace Hall couldn't tolerate hearing was their previous title, then the thing Xuan Zhen Palace Hall couldn't bear hearing was sweeping the floor, that kind of thing. This was because, when Mu Qing had been doing the odd jobs at Huang Ji Temple, what he did all day was deliver tea to His Highness the Crown Prince Xie Lian, give him water, sweep the floor or make his bed. One day, Xie Lian saw how he would recite cultivation chants while sweeping the floor and became vigorously moved at how Mu Qing would take such pains and fight against adversity to study. This was what made him ask the Taoist Ministers for a favour, to receive Mu Qing as their disciple.