Incense and Fire Prayer Power

Biodata

Power Progression

Nature and Generation

Worship and sincerity

• Incense, candles, prayers, and the wishes of worshippers generate Incense and Fire Prayer Power for revered statues and objects. When incense burns out, its energy can flow into the associated statue. 25
• Sincere wishes for wealth, love, peace, health, and protection produce genuine Prayer Power; Huang Huai believes modern worshippers can provide power comparable to the Otherworld's habitual worshippers. 64
• Huang Huai infers that incense and candles carry human thoughts and transform them into relatively pure Incense and Fire Prayer Power. Unmediated faith power, by contrast, can contain distracting emotions and thoughts. 207
• The quantity accumulated depends heavily on a deity's fame, the number of worshippers, and the prosperity of its temple or sacred site. Holy Lord Emperor Guan and Guanyin Bodhisattva are among the most richly supplied Sacred Beings. 50 295 296

Purity and reverence

• Frequent divine manifestations can weaken worshippers' piety and reverence. This reduces the amount of Prayer Power produced and may make it impure enough to harm rather than assist cultivation. 5
• Prayer Power is inseparable from the collective thoughts generated by believers. These thoughts cannot be prevented from arising and may contribute to the birth of Gods, Demons, and Malevolent Spirits. 429 454

Known Sources and Containers

Perception

• Huang Huai's Mind's Eye Observation allows him to perceive the distinct aura of Incense and Fire Prayer Power around certain revered objects, particularly statues. 50
• Vast accumulations can appear as seas, lakes, clouds, or tiny suns of divine light under this perception. 50 167 370
• Observing an especially dense concentration can cause Huang Huai mental fatigue. 50
• Mind's Eye Observation does not reveal anomalies in all objects; it is most effective on objects that have received worship and Incense Offerings. 50

Uses

Divine manifestation and recovery

• Statues use their stored Prayer Power to support manifestations in the Otherworld. A depleted reserve limits the strength a manifested deity can exert. 28 82
• Holy Lord Emperor Guan absorbs it to restore lost memories, recover strength, perfect his True Spirit, and forge a Divine Body. 58 210
• Guanyin Bodhisattva, the Life-Slaying Bodhisattva, the Jade Emperor, and other Sacred Beings can absorb Prayer Power from their respective statues to recover strength and enhance their foundations. 190 296 489

Deification and spiritual connection

• Incense and Fire Prayer Power is a central resource in the Incense and Fire deification path. Holy Lord Emperor Guan states that he became a deity through Incense and Fire rather than through a conventional cultivation method. 58
• It can help a Sacred Being condense a True Spirit and Divine Body, but high-status beings also require sufficient bonds and offerings of essence, energy, and spirit to return through manifestation. 5 269 338
• Large-scale sacrifices and accumulated Prayer Power were invested into Huang Huai's First Divine Court to support Holy Lord Emperor Guan's deification. 224

Cultivation resources

• Incense ash can be refined into Prayer Power Beads, which function as currency and aid cultivation. 62 362
• Deities and divine beings can readily absorb Prayer Power from these beads, while ordinary cultivators cannot necessarily draw it out directly. 92
• Huang Huai can nevertheless receive benefits when Holy Lord Emperor Guan directly grants him a pure mass of Prayer Power, strengthening his mental power and Primordial Spirit True Spirit. 82

Artifact refinement

• Long-worshipped objects can be refined into Incense and Fire Treasure Artifacts. 58 167
• An artifact's power is determined by the Prayer Power within it and by how strongly countless people believe it possesses a particular ability. 164
• Sacred Beings continue to value Prayer Power even after deification because it can strengthen divine clones, improve foundations, and refine former spiritual treasures. 460 561

Collection and Distribution

• Huang Huai initially gathers Prayer Power by bringing statues from the present world into the Otherworld, particularly statues of Holy Lord Emperor Guan that have received decades or centuries of worship. 80 110
• Temples, tourist sites, and temple fairs are major sources because crowds translate directly into greater Incense and Fire Prayer Power. 32 338
• The research institute and other factions collect incense ash and statues in exchange for Spirit Tea, Spirit Rice, and other Spirit Items. 370 489 556
• Great Qin and Great Han establish a continuing supply by expanding their populations and territories, though this also creates political and supernatural risks. 442 464
• Prayer Power is not distributed equally in times of crisis. Huang Huai and the Sacred Beings allocate most available resources to the Jade Emperor in order to accelerate his recovery. 462

Limitations

• Sacred Beings' demand for Prayer Power is described as effectively bottomless: it is needed for recovery, deification, cultivation, artifact refinement, and the support of multiple divine courts. 367 460 462
• Even the combined output of Great Qin, Great Han, and the present world may be insufficient for numerous high-status Sacred Beings. 462 463 554
• Expanding populations to increase Prayer Power can provoke conflict with local Gods and Demons and raises the danger of powerful entities forming from converging human thoughts. 429 463
• Sacred Beings of exceptionally high status, including the Jade Emperor, Queen Mother of the West, Guanyin Bodhisattva, and Empress Yunxiao, require vastly greater reserves than lesser deities. 338 463