Gods and immortals are different. Aside from the 365 orthodox gods, gods do not have physical forms.

Most gods are actually a kind of spiritual entity, which is why gods compete for incense power—because incense power can strengthen them. These gods, having lost their physical forms, further cultivate the Dao. Once they lose incense power, gods lose their greatest support and eventually fall, becoming even less than ghosts.

Because ghosts can still cultivate, but gods cannot.

The so-called incense power, fully named incense wish power, is actually a kind of spiritual energy from living beings. Since they have no physical form, gods like the Earth God or City God need incense wish power to maintain their strength.

The only exception is the 365 orthodox gods conferred by the Investiture of the Gods. These 365 orthodox gods are called Yang Gods, because after being refined by the power of the Investiture of the Gods, their spiritual bodies have become almost indistinguishable from physical bodies. The spiritual body is their true form; they can cultivate and improve just like immortals. Although, compared to immortals, since they are not truly physical, they cannot improve as quickly as immortals, but they can absorb incense wish power to grow stronger, and when it comes to actual cultivation, their speed is not slower than that of immortals.

But minor Earth Gods like Charles Brooks are not so fortunate.

Other than the 365 orthodox gods who are Yang Gods, all other gods are called Yin Gods.

All Yin Gods are under the jurisdiction of the Underworld. For both Yin Gods and Yin spirits, the Underworld is actually the most suitable place for them to exist. If a Yin God wants to survive in the mortal world, they must have a vessel—these vessels are the clay or wooden statues made in their image. Yin Gods must absorb enough incense wish power through these statues to survive in the mortal world. These clay and wooden statues are their foothold in the mortal world. Because the Yang energy in the mortal world is too strong, most Yin Gods can only emerge from their statues at night. The more incense wish power they absorb, the stronger the Yin God becomes.

Incense wish power not only allows Yin Gods to survive in the mortal world, but is also the foundation for them to cultivate various divine abilities. Especially in the mortal world, Yin Gods can only rely on these abilities to contend with humans. Therefore, for Yin Gods, everything revolves around incense power.

Chapter Five: Memory and Divine Abilities

The main purpose of the Heavenly Court establishing Yin Gods in the mortal world is to monitor the world, reporting any disturbances to the Underworld or the Heavenly Court, and the Earth God is the lowest rank among them.

The Earth God is like a minor official in the human world. Each Earth God is responsible for a certain territory, and every month, they must report every detail of what happens in their domain to the City God, who then reports to the Underworld. Of course, if an emergency occurs, it is not limited to just once a month.

This is also why, after a person dies, the Underworld has an extremely detailed record of every person's life—because with these Yin Gods in existence, none of your actions can escape their surveillance. The saying "three feet above your head, there are deities" comes from this.

To allow Yin Gods to survive long-term in the mortal world, the Heavenly Court created hundreds of thousands of divine seals, which are like official badges. First, they serve as proof of the Yin God's identity; second, they provide a place for the Yin God to reside. For the hundreds of thousands of Yin Gods in the mortal world, the divine seal is their foundation, followed by the statue. However, later on, Yin Gods in the human world discovered that by absorbing large amounts of incense wish power, they could enhance their strength and divine abilities much faster than cultivating in the Underworld. Thus, competition broke out among the Yin Gods.

The more populous the area, the fiercer the competition for incense power. The larger the territory a Yin God controls and the more people who worship them, the stronger they become.

To compete for incense power, besides fighting among themselves, Yin Gods must also win the hearts of the people, making living beings worship them. Only then can they obtain incense wish power. Otherwise, no matter how large a territory a Yin God controls, if no one worships them, it is useless. The way to win people's hearts is to fulfill their wishes. In densely populated areas, this means ensuring favorable weather and family well-being. So, regardless of a Yin God's character, they must find ways to make the people worship them, which forces them to do many good deeds. In this respect, they are much better than those so-called public servants in his dream world.

Monitoring the world, fighting each other, and competing for incense power became the main theme of the world's order after the Investiture of the Gods. As for the struggles among Yin Gods, neither the Underworld nor the Heavenly Court cares much. In their view, as long as the Yin Gods can effectively help them monitor the world, it doesn't matter who wins or loses among them—what does that have to do with me?

Order is something that is hard to establish but easy to overthrow.

Yin Gods are not without rivals. For them, three thousand years ago, their greatest competitors were the ancestral spirits of humans.

What are ancestral spirits?

They are the spiritual entities of human ancestors after death—these are ancestral spirits.