21st Century Necromancer

Facing the proposition from the Inari God to become one of His belonging deities, Chen Yu ultimately chose to reject it.

While accepting the kindness of the Inari God and the ease of amassing enough belief through the offerings from thirty thousand Inari Shrines to attain Divine Enthronement, and becoming an Intermediate God within a hundred years, for Chen Yu, it also meant selling himself to the Inari God. Not to mention becoming His belonging deity, if the Inari God turned against him, He could easily sever Chen Yu's source of faith.

For deities, belief is their lifeline—how could it be casually controlled by someone else's hands?

However, Chen Yu was not against the idea of helping the Inari God advance further and become a supreme deity, surpassing the Powerful Gods. Because not wanting to become the Inari God's belonging deity and helping the Inari God become a supreme deity were not in conflict.

On the contrary, if Chen Yu could help the Inari God advance further, the benefits he could gain were substantial. At the very least, the friendship of a supreme deity would be worth the price of the monthly ticket.

The difficulty of helping a supreme deity, however, corresponded to the benefits one could gain from such a deed.

Supreme deities are not ordinary divinities. Compared to common deities, supreme deities are more mysterious and elusive, not even needing the belief of mortals or their names to be known, nor requiring mortals' rites and rituals.

Each supreme deity represents the most fundamental rules of the universe, an essential existence that sustains the operation of the cosmos.

Yet the information revealed by the Inari God made Chen Yu feel incredulous. The Inari God's words suggested taking a step further to become an existence like the Three Precious Children. But aren't the Three Precious Children, like Him, Powerful Gods? Why did it seem from the Inari God's words as though the Three Precious Children were already supreme deities?

In Japanese mythology, if any deity could possibly be a supreme deity, it would only be the separate Heavenly Gods described in the Kojiki that existed at the beginning of heaven and earth. Indeed, among the five separate Heavenly Gods, Celestial Ruler, Supreme Progenitor, and Divine Progenitor are collectively known as the Three Gods of Creation, representing the fundamental aspects of the cosmos and the duality of yin and yang.

These three are reflected in many mythological systems but don't have specific deities or images to represent them, very likely being the supreme deities from the dawn of the world.

Although the Three Precious Children hold noble identities—a Sun God, a Moon Goddess, and a God of Destruction—these three Divine Duties simply cannot support a supreme deity.

If Amaterasu were the only Sun God in all pantheons, then She might possibly be a supreme deity; but evidently, when Chen Yu observed Her last time, it was confirmed that Amaterasu was merely a stronger Powerful God, not a supreme deity.

Perhaps Chen Yu misunderstood the Inari God's intention? Maybe what He desired was not to become a supreme deity, but just to ascend to a position like that of the Three Precious Children, ruling over Gao Tianyuan as a Divine King?

If that's the case, then Chen Yu would rather not get involved, as the Inari God really isn't a combat-oriented deity. Instead, among the Three Precious Children, Tsukuyomi is not mentioned, but Amaterasu and Susanou are indeed related to warfare, especially Susanou, who could almost be seen as the God of War and Destruction within the Japanese deity system, and it's almost forgotten that His original dominion was over the sea as a Sea God.

Analyzing the situation in his mind, Chen Yu made a decision after some consideration. No matter what the Inari God's aims were, all he had to do was to help Her ascend to the position of supreme deity. Then, whatever the Inari God's original purpose might have been, She could achieve it effortlessly after becoming the supreme deity.

Having made up his mind, Chen Yu suddenly felt at ease, a change of heart that did not escape the notice of Jounouchi Hiromi at his side.

"Have you made a decision, Mr. Chen Yu?" Jounouchi Hiromi looked at Chen Yu. Although she could understand why Chen Yu did not want to become a subordinate divine being of the Inari God, she was equally concerned about what choice Chen Yu would ultimately make.

"Yes, helping such a deity to advance further is of no disadvantage to us," Chen Yu said with a slight nod, gently patting Jounouchi Hiromi's shoulder as he explained: "The Inari God desires to advance further, which suggests two possibilities. She either wishes to rise from a Powerful God to a supreme deity or to replace the Three Precious Children and become the new ruler of Gao Tianyuan. Regardless of Her thoughts, all I need to do is to provide the possibility of aiding Her to become a supreme deity, and She can then fulfill both possibilities."

"That's true, but becoming a supreme deity is easier said than done, right?" Jounouchi Hiromi certainly knew that what Chen Yu said was the best choice for the current situation. Still, elevating a deity to the rank of supreme deity, even for a Powerful God, is not an easy task. So, how would Chen Yu manage to accomplish this?

In response to Jounouchi Hiromi's query, Chen Yu actually laughed: "Hiromi, have you forgotten? The Death God Power I gave to the Little Rice Princess was presented by her to the Inari God, and hence the Inari God invited us to the feast. It is evident that She sees a possibility for further advancement through that power of death."

"And throughout the entire Japanese mythology, there are no deities dedicated to death, except for the Mother of Gods, Izanami, who, after death, lived in the Yellow Springs."

"So, with that in mind, if the Inari God becomes a God of Death, could you not also seize this opportunity to obtain what you desire?" Jounouchi Hiromi said, getting excited upon hearing Chen Yu's words.

The prospect of ascending to the rank of supreme deity was still too distant for her and Chen Yu, but assisting the Inari God to reach that status while using the opportunity to acquire one or two Ancient Godhoods was something they could at least imagine—and indeed achieve.

"I do have such considerations, but there is no rush for this matter. Even if we were to truly scheme for the position of a supreme deity, it would require time to plan and implement, it's not something that can be achieved overnight." If they were to pursue this matter, it would take at least a century to begin with. For mortals, this is an eternity, but for deities, using a hundred years to plot for something is already quite fast.

Hearing this, Jounouchi Hiromi set aside her concerns for the matter and instead asked Chen Yu about the gift the Inari God had given him: "By the way, Mr. Chen Yu, what was the gift that the Inari God gave to you? You haven't opened it to take a look yet!"

Reminded by Jounouchi Hiromi, Chen Yu took out the gift box given to him by the Inari God.

The black lacquered wooden box, inlaid with golden silk and shell depicting patterns of rice ears and auspicious clouds, was tied with a red cord, looking very beautiful. Moreover, the box itself emitted waves of divine power characteristic of the Inari God, which made this gift seem all the more extraordinary.