Lighting Method

"This..."

A patch of black ash lay on the bed, as deep and disorderly as furnace ash.

As the red cloth bundle shattered, a suffocating sensation suddenly surged into Yang An's mind, startling him to the core.

If he proceeded by hypothesis and assumed that the incense ash obtained from White Buddha Temple was useful—

Then the fact that both the incense ash and the red cloth bundle had instantly turned black and shattered—

Didn't that prove that the incense ash had truly worked?

A demon had entered his room last night?!

If he assumed the incense ash was useless—

Then its current state was merely a trick White Buddha Temple had used to deceive people.

Wouldn't that make him one of the suckers who had been cheated out of thirty copper coins?!

Neither possibility was easy to accept.

Yet judging by his inexplicable experience last night, Yang An leaned more toward the former. A chill ran down his spine.

He abruptly turned around and carefully inspected everything in the room, but found no observable traces at all.

Had a demon truly come last night?

The black incense ash was scattered all over the bed, its color having changed drastically. It was clearly unusable now. What was he supposed to do?

At that thought, Yang An had no time to clean up. He flung open the door and raced toward White Buddha Temple in a panic.

It seemed that, for now, he could only seek more incense ash to keep on him.

But an hour later—

Yang An returned, his heart filled only with disappointment and fury.

There were especially many worshippers at White Buddha Temple today, several times more than usual. Heads packed together in a dense sea.

Quite a few terrifying pieces of news spread rapidly through the crowd.

He heard that last night, many more people in town had suffered terrible misfortune and been killed by demons.

From the scenes they described, Yang An could already imagine the victims' gruesome fates—the same horrifying sights that had left him unable to eat for days before.

Even more terrifyingly, most of the incense ash people had sought from White Buddha Temple a few days ago had all turned into black ash this morning.

Everyone present was frightened senseless. They trusted completely in White Buddha Temple's profound divine powers, and dared not imagine what fate awaited anyone targeted by demons.

If they had not carried incense ash with them, they likely would have met with disaster last night. That was why so many people had come today.

Yang An also heard that as soon as dawn broke, many townspeople had fled madly toward the outskirts with bundles on their backs, dragging their families along as they tried to leave.

Yet before they had gone far, they ran into bandits and mountain brigands descending from the hills.

Those people ultimately met a pack of jackals and wild dogs. Their corpses were picked clean, not a scrap of flesh or skin left behind.

All kinds of news circulated through the crowd, and Jiu Nan Town's situation grew ever more terrifying.

The people had no other choice. Their only hope now was that White Buddha Temple could protect them.

But Yang An had not expected White Buddha Temple to raise its prices on the spot again. The incense money had risen from thirty copper coins three days ago to two hundred now!

Fuck it, why didn't those bald donkeys just go rob people?!

All his possessions combined were not worth that much. In the end, he could not even enter White Buddha Temple's gates and could only return the way he had come.

The authorities in Jiu Nan Town existed in name only now.

The dynasty had utterly collapsed. Those people who had enjoyed official salaries had lost their source of income, and they certainly would not care whether anyone else lived or died. Everyone was simply fending for themselves.

Clearly, there was no hope of relying on the authorities to seek justice for ordinary people like them.

"What kind of damned world is this? Do ordinary people really have no way to survive at all?"

Grumbling, Yang An returned home. The first thing he did was run into the kitchen and look at a large water vat in the corner.

In the memories left behind by the previous owner of this body, something passed down by his ancestors was buried beneath the water vat: a fragment of a scripture scroll that recorded legendary immortal arts.

Although the previous owner's father had left instructions warning that it must not be taken out unless absolutely necessary—

Yang An could no longer care about that, because he had already reached the point of absolute necessity.

This was the only path to survival he could think of!

Yang An used a ladle to scoop out half the water before laboriously moving the vat aside. The yellow earth beneath it showed no signs of having been disturbed. Clearly, the item had been buried there for a long time.

He found a small hoe and dug into the earth.

After the time it took to burn an incense stick, he unearthed a piece of hardened, blackened pigskin from more than a foot underground.

Yang An excitedly picked it up. With a little force, he snapped the hardened pigskin in half with a crack, revealing what was inside.

It was a yellowed sheet of paper, marked with clearly visible stains of some kind of filth. Its uneven edges made it obvious at a glance that it had been torn away.

"Is the legendary immortal art written on this?"

Filled with curiosity, Yang An took the paper out.

If what his father's final instructions said in his memories was true, this thing might very well change his current circumstances.

As for the disaster his father had warned it would bring, Yang An could no longer worry about that.

His life was practically gone already. How could he care about such things?

But just as his fingers touched the sheet of paper, before he could examine its contents, a translucent information panel suddenly appeared before his eyes.

"Lighting Method: One of the Thirteen Arts of the Fate Crane Sect, created by Old Man Fate Crane; using the finger as a candle and blood as fire, it can drive away evil demons and filth."

"Art cost: Within the candlelight's illumination, all beings possessing intelligence will gradually lose their minds until they descend into madness."

"Status: Can be purified!"

The suddenly appearing panel contained a great deal of text, giving Yang An quite a fright.

Once he carefully read through the information, however, joy immediately surged in his heart.

He released the hand touching the paper, and the information panel instantly vanished from his sight.

When he touched the paper again, the information panel reappeared.

After repeating this several times, Yang An finally relaxed.

"Just as I thought! This must be my golden finger!"

He tested it and confirmed that this was his own ability. Not only could he see the core information about the paper, but he also possessed an ability to purify it.

Yang An's heart became incomparably excited. This was undoubtedly a massive turning point that could change his current predicament.

Yet as he looked at the text in the information panel, Yang An also felt something strange.

If his father's final instructions had not explained things beforehand, then merely judging from the panel's prompts, he would never have considered this a legendary immortal art. It seemed more like some kind of evil technique.

So this had to be why his father had warned him before his death not to take this thing out lightly.

If he had not possessed his golden finger, and learned this art without knowing its cost, the consequences would have been terrifying.

Without thinking any further, Yang An immediately chose to purify it.

What followed was a faint current of heat seemingly flowing through the arm touching the paper, finally vanishing at his fingertips.

The sheet of paper he held showed no change at all.

But when Yang An looked at the information panel again, he discovered that its text had changed.

"Lighting Method: One of the Thirteen Arts of the Fate Crane Sect, created by Old Man Fate Crane; using the finger as a candle and blood as fire, it can drive away evil demons and filth, illuminate the heart, and cleanse the spirit."

"Art cost: None."

"Status: Purified!"

Seeing this result, Yang An roughly understood the function of his golden finger: it directly eliminated that terrifying cost.

In other words, the Lighting Method recorded on this paper was now an entirely new Lighting Method without any cost at all?!