I Am the City God: I Recognize Merit, Not Yama or Immortals

[Underworld + Merit Points + Plot-Driven + No Clichés + Decisive and Ruthless]

To some, it's just a dilapidated little temple. But to certain ghosts and gods, it's a City God Temple that reaches up to the Ninth Heaven and suppresses the Nine Hells below...

In this world, “the human realm rules by day, while the night belongs to ghosts.” The four gates seal the heavens, the Ghost Gate stands wide open, and demons and evil humans roam unchecked. Li Xiang transmigrates into this world and becomes the “village guardian” of Li Village.

Fortunately, he awakens the Merit-Proving Dao System and becomes a City God in the flesh. As long as he has merit points, he can grow stronger. Cultivation techniques, divine abilities, elixirs... anything can be exchanged for.

[You fertilized a living creature. Merit points +1. Reward: Meridian-Clearing Pill.]

[You guided the souls of 18 ancestors of Li Village into the afterlife. Merit points +18. Reward: Cultivation technique and divine ability.]

[You killed 100 evil ghosts and restored peace to the world. Merit points +1,000. Reward: 100 years of cultivation.]

[Under the City God's protection, the world under his rule is orderly, free of calamities, and in harmony between yin and yang. Merit points...]

Many years later, a thunderous boom shakes the sky as the Gates of Heaven swing wide open and the immortals stand above the Ninth Heaven.

“Ha ha! From now on, the human realm will be our breeding ground...”

“Demon kings from every corner, Kings of Hell from all Ten Halls... heed my command! Come at once, and prepare to conquer the human realm!”

“Mortals are fit only to grovel at our feet. Ha ha... Huh?”

On the ground, a man stands with his hands behind his back. The demon kings and the Kings of Hell from all Ten Halls are kneeling behind him.

Li Xiang smiles faintly. “I, the mortal Li Xiang, invite you immortals to enter the cycle of reincarnation...”

(The blurb doesn't do it justice. Please read the story!)