Going Home

In Jingqi Pavilion's central hall, everyone gathered before the main room.

Each person held a stick of incense.

Smoke curled through the air, forming a thin veil around them.

At the front of the hall stood a shrine.

It was covered with red cloth, hiding whatever lay inside from view.

"Bow!"

Li Botong stood in the hall with the shopkeepers. They raised their incense above their heads and bowed deeply to the shrine before them.

"Bow again!"

With each bow, wisps of incense offerings flickered in the unseen. Thick clouds of smoke gathered around the shrine, lending it an air of mystery.

Xiao Ran stood behind them without joining in. After all... bowing to himself just felt strange.

"Bow a third time!"

After the three bows, Li Botong and the others placed their incense in the burner before the shrine, one stick each. Before long, the burner was full, and the bright red incense burned steadily. Xiao Ran could clearly sense the version of himself inside the shrine greedily devouring the offerings.

After being transformed, the offerings became a part of the little fellow's own energy.

What was interesting was how unusual this energy was—or rather, how completely opposite it was to the powers Xiao Ran knew.

To some extent, it could influence the rules.

For instance, fire was hot, but this energy could change its nature and make it cold.

There were limits to this change, though. It seemed to depend on the incense offerings: the stronger they were, the greater the effect.

Xiao Ran sensed it carefully and soon understood how the strange tales caused by evil spirits came about.

It all came down to one thing: belief.

Take a country's currency. In essence, it was just a piece of paper, but the country declared it money, and