Longevity: Starting as a Mud Statue in an Abandoned Temple

After Gu Changsheng died, his soul was stuffed into a clay statue in a deserted mountain shrine.

He tried to call for help, only to discover that he had become a "god." As long as the incense offerings continued, he would not die; if they stopped, he would vanish for good.

And so this bewildered, unlucky man began the most miserable path to godhood. He didn't dare show his power too often, afraid the Celestial Court would notice and tear down his shrine as an illicit temple. But he didn't dare do nothing either, afraid the offerings would stop and he would disappear first. He secretly treated the villagers' illnesses and protected the village from disasters in secret, slowly building up his incense offerings through word of mouth.

Dynasties rose and fell. The great gods, ennobled by the Celestial Court and worshipped by throngs of people, faded away one by one as their temples were destroyed and their followers scattered. But he remained that unremarkable clay statue in the deserted shrine.

Someone once asked an old villager what kind of deity it was. The old man replied, "I don't know its name. I just know it's powerful. It's been here for hundreds of years, and it's never left."