A World in a Jar

[Advance notice, full manuscript completed and currently being saved. Starts after the New Year~]

In this world, there are people born to wealth and privilege, and naturally there are also lowly rat spirits born despicable.

Chen Fu is the most despicable sort of lowlife, a leading figure among the lowest of the low, and an expert at stealing chickens and dogs.

In this village, there is nothing he can't steal, only things nobody has thought of yet.

If a flock of geese flies overhead, they are sure to leave behind every last feather.

This wretch has made quite a name for himself around Jiuting. The locals call him the "Buddha Thief."

That's because the place this thief most loves to lurk is the rafters of temples, right above the bald monks' heads.

Who knows whether he's ever disturbed the earth above the God of Pestilence, but he's certainly eaten plenty of the Buddha's offerings, and he's never once been caught.

*

As usual, Chen Fu returned home, pleased as can be, with a jar he'd stolen from a temple. He was just short of a crock for pickling vegetables.

It was ugly, sure, but he'd stolen it himself from the monks' stash, so it was a treasure of sorts. It was more useful for pickling his vegetables than letting those bald monks keep it in their temple.

The first day of pickling, nothing happened.

The second day of pickling, nothing happened.

But then...

"Damn it, where are my vegetables????!"

On the third day, Chen Fu stared at the empty earthen pit, burning with rage.

Bowl in hand, he was determined to find the reckless fool who had dared to disturb the earth above the God of Pestilence. But the moment he turned around, he spotted someone suspicious.

Chen Fu looked him up and down. The man was dressed in glittering finery, but looked dusty and shabby, with an unmistakable air of poverty.

It's you, thief!

"Thief."

"?"

After several rounds of questioning, the man, despite his shabby air, claimed to be some sort of creditor from Chen Fu's previous life. He'd gone through untold hardship to track him down in this remote corner and demanded that Chen Fu repay every debt, one by one.

"Repaying your debts is only right and proper," the man said.

Yeah, right.

Chen Fu rolled his eyes.

*

That night, Chen Fu dumped all the vegetables out of the jar. He didn't even rinse it. Heart aching, he carried it back to the temple and climbed over its high wall.

He cursed,

"Yeah, right. If someone stole your things, go find them. I wasn't the one who scraped the gold paint off you, and I didn't get a single benefit out of it. Why are you coming after me for the debt? Now I have to buy another jar just to pickle vegetables."

*

"Damn it, who the hell made the temple wall higher?"

*

Chi Jingyun had come to collect a debt, so he had never imagined that he would fall for that infamous rooftop thief.

In the end, not only was the gold paint that carried his accumulated merit gone, but most of his cultivation had dissipated as well. The three flowers gathered at his crown shattered across the ground.

But what could he do? A god cast down to the mortal realm for breaking a precept would have a short life there.

He didn't want Chen Fu to have a short life.

The Black Impermanence's tongue was already hanging out. Seeing the scene before him, his face grew even more terrifyingly grim as he desperately tried to stop this defiance of fate.

"Jingyun Ding, have you gone mad? I've never heard of any god in this world having two divine ranks."

By then, Chi Jingyun looked completely possessed, the very image of a madman who wouldn't listen no matter how much you pleaded. Cradling the body that had long since gone cold, he spoke in a terrifyingly hoarse voice:

"Then Chen Fu will be the first."

"I'll make him the first."

[Reforged fragments of Lao Jun's alchemy furnace, reborn as a little urn spirit x low-class, Buddha-hating, rich-hating petty thief]

Theme: What goes around comes around; retribution never fails. Keep a kind heart, and turn back before it's too late.