Sacrificial Dao Furnace

"An illusion? Or... had I crossed over into another world?"

Looking at his familiar bedroom, Mo Chuan's heart was filled with uncertainty and alarm.

It turned out that the moment Huang Buyu offered up the painted skin, he had suddenly felt that "the calamity had been dispelled, and he could leave at any time."

He had once again seen his bedroom overlapping with the ancestral hall.

And indeed, he had returned to his bedroom at home.

Truth be told, ever since the auditory hallucinations had begun, he had no idea how much information he had looked up or how many preparations he had made.

He had considered every possibility, scientific and unscientific alike.

His ability to stay calm over what had just happened was not unrelated to the psychological preparation he had made during this time.

But even so, this still exceeded the limits of his imagination.

"Mm... what is this?"

He suddenly discovered something strange within his body.

Upon sensing inwardly, he was stunned to find that he had gained the ability of "inner sight."

Within his body, he found a two-handled, three-legged incense burner, as well as a stack of painted skins.

With a thought, the incense burner and painted skins abruptly appeared before his eyes. Waves of spiritual resonance rippled back and forth, leaving Mo Chuan's brows and eyes full of disbelief.

Sacrificial Dao Furnace

--Heaven's rain may fall heavily, yet it does not moisten rootless grass; the Dao may be broad, yet it saves only those with heart.

The origins of this furnace are unknown. It can intercept ownerless incense offerings.

However, incense offerings carried prophecies. To enjoy them, one had to resolve their obsessions and dispel their calamities.

As Mo Chuan absorbed the information from the Sacrificial Dao Furnace, thoughts churned endlessly in his heart.

If he had guessed correctly, the true body of the Sacrificial Dao Furnace should be the two-handled, three-legged burner in the Chen family ancestral hall.

Under the old Chen man's prayer of offering sacrifices, it had somehow pointed toward his soul by a twist of fate.

The Sacrificial Dao Furnace had thus recognized him as its master.

To prove this, he only needed to wait for the Chen family to hold another offering sacrifice.

Mo Chuan then put away the Sacrificial Dao Furnace and turned his gaze toward the stack of painted skins.

Painted Skin · Sudden Death

--Refined from the skin of one who died suddenly, it is utterly yin and steeped in Baleful Intent. It cannot be controlled by anything but yin beings, nor can it be worn by anything but the incorporeal.

This was refined by Yellow Immortal Jiazi. When a yin being wears it, it can change its face and assume human form.

Feeling the information contained within the painted skin, Mo Chuan wanted to wear it and experience changing his appearance. Unfortunately, he now possessed a physical body and could not wear human skin at all, so he could only abandon the idea.

After putting away the painted skin, there was not the slightest joy on his face. Instead, a trace of worry appeared.

"It looks like I've stumbled upon an incredible fortuitous encounter. But the premise of all this is... that this isn't my hallucination!"

Since he had developed "auditory hallucinations," it was possible that he could develop visual hallucinations as well.

In other words, everything he had just experienced—even the Sacrificial Dao Furnace and painted skins he had stored away out of thin air—might all be hallucinations fabricated by his brain.

Mental illness was hardly some rare condition in modern society.

When Mo Chuan had been in high school, one of the school's medical examinations had been held at a nearby psychiatric hospital.

He had personally seen many patients pressed against iron-barred windows, swearing solemnly as they spoke absurd nonsense.

So he had every reason to suspect that he, too, had developed some kind of mental illness.

"Actually, it won't be difficult to verify all this."

Mo Chuan took out his phone and checked the time. It was ten at night. He simply got dressed, summoned the Sacrificial Dao Furnace from within his body, held it in his hands, and headed out.

"Young man, that incense burner looks pretty exquisite!"

"Right? I thought so too. I just picked it up today."

"Where'd you get it? How much?"

"At the flower-and-bird market. They wanted eighteen hundred, but I slashed it to the bone and got it for one-fifty."

"Not bad! One-fifty's definitely not a loss. Even modern handicrafts cost several hundred!"

"That was my thinking too."

Sitting in the taxi, Mo Chuan found the chatty driver rather pleasant for the first time.

While chatting idly with the driver, he scrolled through his phone, where an online advanced mathematics course was playing silently.

In his view, even having another person as proof could not guarantee that this was not a hallucination.

What if this was a "brain in a vat" hallucination?

Therefore, his second method of verification was—mathematics.

His brain might weave strange and dazzling tales, difficult to distinguish from truth, based on his experiences and knowledge, deceiving him.

But mathematics would not!

The moonlight flowed like water, and the stars glittered brilliantly.

By the time Mo Chuan had wandered around beneath the stars and returned home, it was already two in the morning.

After verifying things all along the way, coupled with his wild thoughts, the mental strain left him utterly exhausted. The moment he got home, he collapsed into bed and fell asleep.

He slept through the night without dreams.

The next day, Mo Chuan was awakened by a murmur.

"Damn it! Again—"

Still groggy from sleep, Mo Chuan was about to curse in annoyance.

Before the words could leave his mouth, everything from yesterday surged into his mind, and his curse came to an abrupt stop.

He hurriedly sat up and opened his eyes. With a thought, the Sacrificial Dao Furnace leaped out.

The incense burner, which had been empty last night, was now silently filled with offering incense. Wreaths of green smoke drifted straight toward his face.

Through the curling smoke, the Chen family ancestral hall once again overlapped with his bedroom and appeared before him.

Inside the ancestral hall, the old Chen man was leading several dozen people, young and old, in kneeling beneath the shrine as they prayed without pause.

"On the sixth day of the sixth month of the Wuxu year, the descendants of the Qu Kou Chen Clan respectfully offer a lesser sacrifice, fruits, wine, incense, and flowers, to announce this sacrifice to our ancestors and comfort their heroic spirits... Our ancestors and forebears, bless your descendants with a flourishing household and sound bodies. With sincere devotion, may all ancestors come and partake."

"May you graciously accept these offerings!"

The head of the Qu Kou Chen Clan held the sacrificial text, swaying his head as he lit incense and performed the rites.

Ever since they had escaped yesterday's unprovoked calamity, he had knocked on the door of the town scholar in the middle of the night, promising a heavy sum of money in exchange for hastily composing a sacrificial text.

Today, he had spent the entire morning bustling about, gathering clan members and relatives for this grand offering ceremony.

Mo Chuan had little interest in the Chen family's overly literary ritual. What interested him more was the Sacrificial Dao Furnace.

Unlike yesterday, when he had summoned the Sacrificial Dao Furnace in a muddled state.

Now that he was deliberately observing it, the many mysteries of the Sacrificial Dao Furnace imprinted themselves upon his heart one by one.

Perhaps because he had dispelled the Chen family's calamity, as they offered sacrifices, threads of incense power flowed into every limb and bone of his body.

Besides making him feel refreshed, it also gave him a faint yet solid sensation that his strength was growing.

Guided by the incense offerings, he could enter that other world at any time.

When the Chen family's worship ended and the offering incense burned out, Mo Chuan thought he would be forced to leave.

Unexpectedly, although he felt that he "could leave," he would not be rejected if he insisted on remaining.

However, doing so would consume incense power.

He could clearly sense the incense offerings gathered within his body gradually being depleted.

"This offering sacrifice from the Chen family is enough to let me remain for more than three days. I won't stay for now. I'll wait until I've arranged my true body first."

After testing the mysteries of the Sacrificial Dao Furnace, Mo Chuan stopped lingering and returned to his true body.

Unexpectedly, the instant he opened his eyes, his phone vibrated with a ding.

He took it out and looked.

It was a message from a high school classmate he had not contacted in two years. The person was actually repaying money.

'Sorry, Chuanzi. Took me so long to pay you back. Accept it.'

Tsk!

Two pieces of good news at once!

Mo Chuan was overjoyed, to the point that he almost felt tears welling in his eyes.

Oh, thank heavens, he finally paid it back.

Two years ago, this high school classmate had borrowed two thousand yuan from him, then vanished without a word.

Mo Chuan had asked for it three times and gotten nowhere, so he had given up on ever getting the money back.

Who would have thought that two years later, the debt would finally be repaid? It hadn't been easy!

'Received!'

Mo Chuan accepted the money and sent back a simple reply. With two pieces of good news arriving together, he happily went to brush his teeth and wash his face.

After washing up, having unexpectedly recovered a bad debt, he simply went out to eat at a restaurant.

Unexpectedly, the moment he stepped outside, his phone rang again.

"Chuanzi, I heard you quit your job? I've got a position over here. Want it? The salary and benefits are excellent, with full social insurance and a housing fund."

The call was from a former colleague. The moment Mo Chuan heard it came with social insurance and a housing fund, he was immediately tempted.

In this society, social insurance was easy to find, but a housing fund was hard to come by!

"What kind of job?"

"Driving!"

"A truck?"

"...A hearse."

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