However, he could not tell anyone this news. Privately, he ordered the Nine Provinces Records to begin investigating the territories under the jurisdiction of each City God's Office, especially the earliest ones, to find out exactly how many believers had been lost.
The result left Xu Zhengyang speechless; the reduction was more than 60%.
What's going on?
Xu Zhengyang immediately ordered Ouyang Ying to lead a group of ghost messengers to conduct investigations. After obtaining relevant information, he and Li Bingjie analyzed the reasons together. Meanwhile, Li Bingjie also began browsing related information online, making a judgment based on all aspects of the situation.
Xu Zhengyang gave the reason for making such an instruction: it was necessary to understand the situation from multiple perspectives so that mistakes that could harm ordinary people could not be made when doing things in the future.
He, of course, refused to tell anyone the real reason.
The reason why Ouyang Ying and Li Bingjie were asked to do this was because Li Haidong had already led several key members to a foreign land, lavishly consuming Xu Zhengyang's already depleted and insufficient divine power, to carry out a detailed investigation into the foreign forces and masterminds behind "Dao Xian Gong".
As for Chen Chaojiang and the other ghost messengers, if they were to do this kind of thing, they would be far inferior to Ouyang Ying and Li Bingjie.
The investigation and analysis results came out quickly:
In today's world, where atheism has infiltrated for decades and has long held an absolute advantage, the already fragile theistic community has been further influenced by the collapse of the "Dao Xian Gong" cult and various propaganda efforts, leading the public to doubt or even abandon the existence of deities.
Haven't people lived their lives for so many years under atheism?
Moreover, with the rapid development and changes in science and technology, one mystery after another is being solved by science.
When people think about it carefully, they realize that living a good life is better than anything else; what's the point of believing in gods?
To put it bluntly: Can the gods send money to your family?
Xu Zhengyang's head was spinning.
To say he doesn't regret it is pure nonsense. If he does regret something... the Dao Immortal Technique was something he absolutely had to produce. Regarding this incident, he bears indirect responsibility, so who else can he blame?
If it weren't for his excessive eagerness for quick success and instant benefits after becoming a deity, his constant chivalrous acts, meddling in other people's business, and his use of ghost messengers to perform miracles everywhere, which indirectly forced the people to have faith in the gods in fear and blindly pursue faith, thus giving some unscrupulous people an opportunity, would he have ended up in this situation today?
Over the course of a few years, he was continuously promoted, expanding his territory, and rising rapidly through the ranks with great pride...
The City God's Office expanded rapidly, and apart from the necessary acting officials, there were a large number of ghost messengers.
You can do anything you want with ease and without fear!
Even the world's leaders, Xu Zhengyang dared to challenge them and put on airs in front of them.
How majestic and dashing!
Looking back now, if things had developed steadily and properly, allowing the public to gradually and spontaneously come to believe in divine intervention through seemingly insignificant events, and if the belief was that "heaven is watching," things wouldn't have come to this point.
How did I say it again?
Taking too big a step inevitably leads to trouble.
Xu Zhengyang was in a real bind, and it was incredibly frustrating.
What should we do? How can we realize our grand ambition of establishing a Heavenly Court?
Are we to continue to prioritize our own narrow-mindedness and allow ghost messengers to roam freely, intimidating and forcing people to believe in the existence of gods in order to gain sufficient faith power?
Xu Zhengyang couldn't do it; his conscience would be tormented.
And what if something unexpected goes wrong?
Or, go abroad and run rampant?
That won't do either. After all, no matter how recklessly they cause trouble, they're supposed to be doing good deeds, not creating legends about evil gods. If they actually go out and do good deeds, wouldn't that be like letting outsiders benefit from their own efforts?
No, no, I am a god, and all mortals in the world are treated equally; they are all one of us.
Tragic...
It's all fate!
It was already mid-May of the eighth year of the New Divine Calendar.
Xu Zhengyang told his family not to disturb him unless it was something special. Then he locked himself in his room and didn't go out for two days and two nights.
He meticulously reviewed every step he had taken over the years. For each major and minor event, he tried to consider whether a different approach might have been better.
He then came to the conclusion that he had indeed been very naive and impulsive.
Through the Records of the Nine Provinces, Xu Zhengyang felt a pang of heartache seeing the ghost messengers, exhausted and listless due to insufficient divine power. He had no choice; he needed divine power to sustain himself, his important subordinates on their journeys to foreign lands, his family members who now held acting divine positions—Chen Chaojiang, Li Bingjie, Ouyang Ying—and his beloved son, Xu Xiaotian; he also needed to keep the various levels of the City God's Office functioning properly; besides all this, the Heavenly Laws, the divine artifact, also required him to expend a portion of his divine power to slowly repair its damaged laws.
In order to ensure that his divine power was sufficient, and to prevent himself from gradually becoming a god in name only due to the depletion of his divine power, Xu Zhengyang had to make an extremely brave decision: to cut off his own arm!
He decided to make major adjustments to the current state god temples and local city god temples!
First, the existing national City God offices should be abolished, except for the three City God offices in the capital, Zhonghai, and Shancheng, which have the area of a Capital City God Office and should be renamed Capital City God Offices. All other local City God offices should be abolished, and then six state City God offices should be established for large-scale unified operation and management.
Secondly, the existing ghost messengers will be significantly reduced.
After making this decision, he immediately notified his subordinates, including Li Haidong, to rush back to China to prepare for an important meeting.
Emerging from the study, Xu Zhengyang walked downstairs. His family had just finished dinner; his parents were in the living room, playing with Xu Xiaotian while watching TV and chatting.
Li Bingjie went back to her bedroom to continue helping Xu Zhengyang gather relevant information and analyze things for him.
When Yuan Suqin saw her son come out, she said with concern, "Zhengyang, are you hungry? I'll make you something to eat."
"Oh, no need." Xu Zhengyang smiled and shook his head, patting the forehead of Xu Xiaotian, who had run up to him and was trying to please him, gently telling him to continue playing. Then he asked, "Where's Bingjie?"
“She went back inside,” Yuan Suqin said.
"Oh, I'll go check on her first." Xu Zhengyang nodded and turned back to the second floor.
Gently pushing open the bedroom door, Li Bingjie, who was sitting in front of the computer, turned her head and smiled, showing no sign of joy or surprise, and said, "Zhengyang, are you feeling better?"
"Mm," Xu Zhengyang responded, walked over, pulled up a chair, and sat down in front of his wife.
Nowadays, the only person who truly understands Xu Zhengyang is Li Bingjie.
Although she didn't understand the real reason why Xu Zhengyang had secluded himself to think about things, Li Bingjie sensed that he had encountered some setback. However, if Xu Zhengyang didn't say, Li Bingjie wouldn't ask, as she always did. Therefore, when she saw Xu Zhengyang arrive, Li Bingjie's first question was, "Are you feeling better?"
After chatting for a while about what had happened at home these past few days, Xu Zhengyang saw through the window that the moonlight was shining brightly on the ground, so he suggested that they go for a walk.
Li Bingjie nodded without hesitation, got up, and accompanied Xu Zhengyang out.
It's past 8 p.m.
Outside, the moonlight was like frost, like silver spilling onto the ground; the bright moon hung high in the night sky, making countless stars hide behind the deep night curtain in shame, with only a few stars that were far from the moon appearing and disappearing, blinking intermittently.
We walked along the gravel path of the mountain villa into the mountains behind it.
Even in early summer, the mountain breeze here remains cool and refreshing, making it quite comfortable.
The woods were filled with the chirping of insects, and the stone path was dappled with moonlight filtering through the dense foliage.
In this environment, no matter how agitated you are, you will be affected and gradually calm down.
Li Bingjie linked arms with Xu Zhengyang, leaned her head slightly on his shoulder, and silently soothed Xu Zhengyang's frustrated mood after his setback.
Xu Zhengyang remained mostly silent, walking slowly.
"Humans are very contradictory..." Xu Zhengyang suddenly sighed softly and said this.
“Hmm.” Li Bingjie echoed in agreement, then said softly, “So you don’t need to be too pessimistic and hurt yourself unnecessarily.”
"Perhaps." Xu Zhengyang smiled, thinking to himself that there were some things even Bingjie couldn't know. How could I truly be a compassionate and benevolent person? In fact, to a large extent, Xu Zhengyang's heart was not as broad and open as that of many ordinary people in the world.
However, without doing anything wrong, he simply had a kind heart and a bit of selfishness, and did so much for others and for himself.
Xu Zhengyang smiled and asked, "What have you been thinking about these past two days? Tell me about it."
“Hmm.” Li Bingjie nodded, pulled Xu Zhengyang to sit on a bench in the dim light, and said with a smile, “It’s been hard on you. You’ve done so much, trying to avoid becoming famous while still instilling awe in people and making them believe in the existence of gods… But you’re already famous.”
"Let's not talk about this," Xu Zhengyang interrupted Li Bingjie with a wry smile.
Xu Zhengyang is now famous, of course. Not to mention that intelligence agencies from various countries are already aware of this strange and dangerous guy; just the fact that his impassioned speech in Beijing that day caught him red-handed by the media from all over the world makes it impossible for him not to be famous. But this kind of thing doesn't matter. Most people are forgetful. Before long, once the news about this incident fades away, people will naturally forget about him.
Who would bother to remember someone who only made one appearance and stole the spotlight?
If all of this were feasible, then those big-name celebrities wouldn't need to create scandals and hype to attract attention so often.
Li Bingjie thought for a moment, then continued, "You said it yourself, people are very contradictory. Many times they hope that there are gods to uphold justice and morality; but when it comes to individuals, most of them hope that there are no gods... because no one wants to be transparent. Everyone has their own privacy, whether it's good or bad, right?"
Xu Zhengyang nodded, smiling without saying a word; these words were actually a bit like stating the obvious.
“Actually… there’s no need to meddle in everything, otherwise people’s lives would be too constrained. We should always consider others more.” Li Bingjie gently leaned on Li Bingjie’s shoulder, looked up through the narrow gaps in the lush foliage, searching for the bright moonlight, and said softly, “In this world, there are many things you’re not used to, social trends you don’t like. Are you going to interfere with everything? Wouldn’t that be too selfish?”
"Mm." Xu Zhengyang nodded with a smile.
“Actually, the reason why people suddenly gave up their belief in the existence of gods was not just because of that incident…” Li Bingjie sighed and said, “In the end, it was just a deep-seated resistance to gods that people had in their hearts.”
Xu Zhengyang remained silent.
Li Bingjie stopped talking, a slight sense of unease rising in her heart, fearing that her in-depth analysis might worsen Xu Zhengyang's mood.
After a while, Xu Zhengyang said with a smile, "The City God's government will be streamlined and downsized, and most of the ghost messengers will also be removed..."
"Oh." Li Bingjie looked at Xu Zhengyang's thin face in surprise.
“Perhaps in the near future, all the ghost messengers will be abolished… leaving only a few deities.” Xu Zhengyang helped his wife up and continued walking up the mountain, saying, “What we shouldn’t concern ourselves with, we shouldn’t concern ourselves with…”
Li Bingjie nodded, but in her heart she was thinking that she should try to help her husband analyze more in the future what he should and shouldn't interfere with.
Volume Seven, Emperor Chapter 364: So many things to do, when is there ever a moment of leisure?
Before Li Haidong and the others could return, Xu Zhengyang had already used the Nine Provinces Record to forcibly abolish all the City God Temples except for those in the capital, Zhonghai, and Shancheng.
The thousands of ghost messengers, who were closely connected to the City God Temples but had been on the verge of death due to insufficient divine power in recent days, were all taken in by Xu Zhengyang and temporarily kept in the State God Temple. Of course, after the City God Temple institutions were abolished, the supply of divine power rapidly increased, which in turn provided the State God Temple with ample spiritual energy, allowing the thousands of ghost messengers to receive a temporary boost and become much more energetic.
However, they were destined not to live much longer as ghosts.
As Li Haidong led his men on a hurried return journey, he sensed through the city's records that almost all the City God's mansions had vanished overnight. This greatly alarmed him, as he assumed something drastic had happened. The Prefecture God had first instructed them to return immediately for an emergency meeting, and now the City God's mansions had mysteriously disappeared… Li Haidong anxiously contacted Xu Zhengyang, and only after learning that nothing serious had occurred did he feel somewhat relieved.
An emergency meeting of the state government was held two days later.
This meeting and the previous expanded meeting were completely opposite in nature, one being an expansion and the other a streamlined one; the biggest difference was the small number of attendees: Xu Zhengyang, Li Haidong, Wan Yun, Chen Chaojiang, Su Peng, Wang Yonggan, Gong Xinhao, Yan Liang, Wang Chenghao, and Ouyang Ying.
The reason why Ouyang Ying was invited to participate instead of Li Bingjie was a decision made after the two of them discussed it.
Besides, even if any of them came, they would only listen to the meeting agenda and learn some experiences; they wouldn't directly participate in the discussions. Frankly, they don't understand it yet. However, women are often more perceptive and have different perspectives from men on many things. An outsider's view is often clearer, and using them to fill in the gaps isn't necessarily a bad thing.
However, even if Ouyang Ying and Li Bingjie have any opinions, they cannot raise them in the meeting; they can only report them to Xu Zhengyang privately.
After all, if they participate in the discussion, it will inevitably affect the thoughts and attitudes of others.
The reason is simple: who doesn't know Ouyang Ying and Li Bingjie's identities?
In this respect, Xu Zhengyang is suspected of nepotism.
The main topics of the meeting were nothing more than streamlining the City God's Office, with City God's Offices across the country basically abolished and unified under the jurisdiction of the six prefectures and three capital prefectures; in addition, the number of ghost messengers was to be greatly reduced, with the provisional quota of six ghost messengers in each of the six prefectures and five ghost messengers in each capital prefecture.