Settling In

If Huang Huai hadn't been so generous and left him with a good impression, the clerk wouldn't have bothered saying so much to him. After all, the house would surely sell sooner or later. Even if Huang Huai didn't buy it, he wouldn't lose anything.

Huang Huai had already made up his mind. He immediately cupped his hands toward the clerk. "Sorry for the trouble, big brother. Could you help me take care of the paperwork?"

The clerk laughed when he heard this. "Don't worry, young master. After those silver gourd seeds you gave me, I'd never cheat you."

Huang Huai watched the clerk walk away. He looked at the deed in his hand, stamped with the official seal, then at the little courtyard before him. A flood of feelings rose within him.

He had already looked the courtyard over. It might have seemed a little dilapidated, but the grounds were actually quite spacious.

A search for TWKAN

There were five rooms in a row, plus two side rooms on either side—enough space for a large Household.

It had simply grown a little disorderly from being uninhabited for so long. A path of bluestone slabs ran from the gate straight to the main hall, while weeds covered the ground on either side. A tree that looked to be at least ten or twenty years old cast its shade over the courtyard. What surprised Huang Huai most was the little pavilion in one corner, beneath which stood a well.

After all, wells weren't a standard feature of every household in ancient times. More often, the residents of an entire alley shared one.

Only wealthy families, or those with the means to afford it, could dig a well in their own private courtyard.

Following the bluestone path through waist-high weeds, Huang Huai entered the main hall and looked around. The house was built mostly of wood and gray brick, much like the old residences from the Ming and Qing dynasties that had survived into modern times. But it had been uninhabited for so long that dust and cobwebs filled the rooms.

After looking around, Huang Huai was quite satisfied with the courtyard. A little cleaning, some repairs or replacements for the damaged doors and windows, and a few quilts and other necessities would be all he needed to move in.

Before that, though, Huang Huai carried his bundle toward one of the rooms. He stopped before a badly damaged stone statue of a god and examined it. Its head was so badly broken that its original features were unrecognizable. A clearly battered incense burner lay tipped over on the ground nearby. The former owners had evidently abandoned it along with the damaged statue.

Stepping past the ruined statue, he trampled down some weeds to make a path and headed toward a room.

It was small—the smallest room in the house—but inside stood an altar table, thick with dust. Clearly, this was where the former owners had usually worshipped their gods.

Having grown up doing things himself at Xunzhen Temple, Huang Huai set about cleaning with practiced efficiency. Before long, he had tidied up the side room.

Looking at the clean altar table, Huang Huai took the statue of Holy Lord Emperor Guan out of his bundle and carefully placed it on the table.

He looked it over with satisfaction. Then he recalled that he had moved the statue of Holy Lord Emperor Guan three times in a single day, disturbing the god each time. He immediately took out three sticks of God-Worshipping Incense and two candles.

Earlier, when Huang Huai had burned incense and paid his respects to the statue of Holy Lord Emperor Guan in the inn room, there had already been candles on the altar table. He had simply replaced them with the candles he had brought.

Here, however, he had to prepare everything himself. There was no candlestick to hold the candles, so he could only make do by placing them on either side of the altar.

He held the three sticks of incense in his left hand and lit them with the candle flame. With his left hand above his right, he clasped the incense, raised it over his head, and bowed with a solemn, reverent expression.

There were rules for burning incense and worshipping the gods. Even the number of sticks mattered. People rarely burned just one stick when paying their respects; three was by far the most common.

The Daoist patriarch Laozi had said in the Classic of the Way and Virtue: "The Way gives birth to one; one gives birth to two; two gives birth to three; three gives birth to all things." Three represented all things, and it also represented the Three Pure Ones of Daoism.

Buddhists also burned three sticks of incense. The first, placed in the middle, represented reverence for the Buddha; the second, on the right, represented reverence for the Dharma; and the third, on the left, represented reverence for the Sangha.

Confucians likewise burned three sticks of incense. The three represented Heaven, Earth, and humanity: one stick to honor Heaven, one to honor Earth, and one to honor one's ancestors.

So, on this point, Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism were all in agreement.

Huang Huai hadn't found an incense burner in the room. Thinking of the fallen statue and broken burner in the courtyard, he looked at the altar before him and suddenly realized that the statue out there must once have been worshipped here, before it was damaged.

He had no idea what had happened here. The statue had been damaged and even moved outside.

Looking at the incense and candles set before the statue of Holy Lord Emperor Guan, Huang Huai found it awkward without a candlestick or incense burner. He resolved to find a decent incense burner and candlestick. He absolutely couldn't let the dignity of Holy Lord Emperor Guan be diminished.

As all sorts of thoughts passed through his mind, Huang Huai suddenly seemed to notice something. He stared fixedly at the God-Worshipping Incense and candles he had just offered.

Thin streams of smoke curled from the incense and candles, giving off a faint sandalwood fragrance that soothed the mind. They were far superior to the incense Huang Huai had burned over the years at Xunzhen Temple.

That, of course, wasn't what had shocked Huang Huai. Before his eyes, the three sticks of God-Worshipping Incense in front of the statue of Holy Lord Emperor Guan, along with the two candles, were burning at astonishing speed—far faster than anything he had ever seen.

Over the years, Huang Huai had burned all kinds of incense and candles. Even the fastest-burning ones he had seen hadn't burned a tenth as quickly as these.

To be precise, "burning fast" didn't begin to describe it. It was downright bizarre.

Through the curling smoke, Huang Huai looked at the statue of Holy Lord Emperor Guan, its features imbued with boundless majesty. If he hadn't worshipped this statue for years and known it so well, he probably would have fled at once.

Even so, a thought crossed his mind, and the mysterious portal appeared. He took a cautious step back, ready to return to the present world through it at a moment's notice.

This wasn't the time to worry about exposing the mysterious portal. He had to make sure he was safe first. If he lost his life, what would be the point of protecting the secret of the portal?

This abnormal phenomenon was clearly anything but normal. In a world where Gods and Devils could manifest, anything out of the ordinary could very well spell disaster for an ordinary person.

Huang Huai managed to stay relatively calm, his eyes fixed on the rapidly burning incense and candles, only because he trusted the statue of Holy Lord Emperor Guan he had worshipped for so many years—and because he was ready to flee at any instant.

To be honest, Huang Huai was quite curious about what he was seeing. This involved the statue of Holy Lord Emperor Guan, after all. He couldn't help but wonder what it meant.

He wanted to know what was going on, and whether the phenomenon really had been caused by the statue of Holy Lord Emperor Guan he had brought with him.

As all sorts of thoughts and guesses raced through Huang Huai's mind, the rapidly burning incense and candles were almost completely consumed at the same time.

The moment they burned out, the incense smoke that had been curling through the air stirred without a breeze. Wisps of it drifted straight toward the statue of Holy Lord Emperor Guan on the altar and vanished inside, as though a god were enjoying the Incense Offering.

The statue of Holy Lord Emperor Guan showed no change after receiving the incense. Yet Huang Huai's vision blurred. He thought he glimpsed a god high above the Nine Heavens, bathed in divine light, wearing a scholar's headscarf, with phoenix eyes and silkworm brows. One hand held a saber while the other stroked his beard. The god looked down at him from afar—and in the next instant, a ray of divine light shot toward him like a meteor.