Stove Fire to Ward Off Evil Spirits

Lighting a great furnace inside the body to ward off evil spirits and illness, and fight the uncanny?

Hu Ma marveled at the wonders of this world, but the thought also brought him immense comfort:

First, in this uncanny world, he finally had a way to protect himself.

Second, if what Second Master said was true, once the furnace was lit, evil spirits would find it unbearably scorching to come near him.

Didn't that mean that, although he wasn't an original inhabitant, he wasn't like ordinary evil spirits and wouldn't be burned by this body?

Was that because he was a Reincarnator, or was there some other reason he didn't know about?

Perhaps he would only find out after speaking with other Reincarnators.

Second Master checked him over and, once he was sure he had properly lit Hu Ma's furnace, took him to the side room to rest.

Good heavens. There was a huge communal sleeping platform, packed with boys in their early teens.

When he'd first woken up, Hu Ma had slept in the side room at home. In the outer room, there had been only Old Woman, chanting sutras through the night, and Xiao Hong Tang, who might or might not have been human.

He'd been holed up alone in the side room, lonely, anxious, and afraid. Now, all at once, they'd crammed more than a dozen boys his age in with him.

They were all bursting with energy, running up the hills and practicing boxing by day, and they clearly weren't too particular about hygiene.

The moment he entered the room, the stench nearly knocked him over.

Mm, the whole place reeked of adolescent boys...

"Once you're with Second Master, you certainly won't be as comfortable as you were back in the village."

Second Master saw Hu Ma frown as soon as he entered, plainly ill at ease. He sighed. "Old Woman spoiled you rotten, but you came here to learn skills, so you'll have to make do. I can't exactly take you to sleep in my room, can I?"

"..."

Hu Ma thought, I just came out of your room. It smelled about the same as this place...

But aloud, he nodded and simply asked Second Master where he should sleep.

Second Master glanced around, then pointed to a boy by the stove and told him to move outside, making room for Hu Ma.

At the left corner of the big sleeping platform, a stove had been built right into the brick bed. It wasn't burning wood this time of year, of course, but the chimney was still attached.

The stove split the sleeping platform in two. One side was crowded, with seven or eight boys squeezed together.

On the other side of the stove, along the wall, there was only a narrow space about half a meter wide—just enough room for one person to sleep.

Compared with the rest of the room, that was practically a private bed.

It seemed that, despite Second Master saying he wouldn't give Hu Ma special treatment, he'd still given him some.

Hu Ma agreed and laid out his bedding.

The others' quilts were torn and ragged, with cotton spilling out, or so thin they looked like heaps of rags.

But Old Woman had brought Hu Ma a thick, wide black cotton quilt. Folded in half, it was just right for spreading beneath him and covering him. The others didn't even have proper pillows; they slept with a cloth shoe under their heads. Old Woman had brought Hu Ma a pillow stuffed with wheat husks, comfortable and firm beneath his head.

"Everyone get to bed early. We're practicing our moves first thing tomorrow. No fooling around at night. Work on your breathing properly, and don't let your thoughts run wild!"

Seeing Hu Ma settle down quietly, without a fuss or complaint, Second Master seemed a little surprised.

He shuffled away, feeling as though something was missing. Then he put on a stern face and gave the boys a scolding before shuffling slowly back to his main room, hands behind his back.

"Hey, that's enough to make a fellow green with envy! He just got here and already gets to light his furnace. Some treatment..."

"Hee-hee, he can't even keep up when we run the hills, and they're lighting his furnace..."

"..."

As soon as Second Master left, the side room fell silent for a moment. The boys exchanged knowing looks, then gradually began to make noise.

According to Second Master, all the boys here had lit their furnaces, and their flames were stronger than Hu Ma's. Naturally, they had more fire in them and energy to spare. They were at the age when they could stir up trouble out of nothing, and Hu Ma really did get better treatment than the rest. It was no wonder they'd picked on him.

Hu Ma understood. He kept quiet, ignored the others, and lay down without a word.

"Hey, Hu Ma, I heard your family eats meat every meal. Is that true?"

"Is it true that Old Woman raises little ghosts?"

"..."

Whispers arose around him. Some boys asked in cautious little voices; others snickered softly.

But Hu Ma pretended not to hear and didn't say a word.

He could relax once he understood this world a little better. For now, it was better to meet every change with stillness.

"Heh, he really is Old Woman's young master. So high and mighty, won't even talk to us..."

When Hu Ma stayed silent, the others lost interest. After a while, some quietly counted the days until they could return to the village and talked about what they might eat. Others figured out how much they could earn during next year's Worship Taisui, and how many years they'd have to work before they could get married. Now and then, they teased each other with things like, "You've got a crush on the Dong family's big sister," and "You're hard again." Gradually, they drifted off to sleep.

Hu Ma kept pretending to be asleep, but in truth, he listened quietly to everything they said, trying to learn more about the village.

Only after the room had fallen completely silent did he silently review what he'd heard and turn his attention to the talisman drawn across his chest.

He could clearly feel that, with this talisman in place, the heat inside his body no longer escaped. Instead, it slowly accumulated.

As it built up, his body began to feel swollen and full.

Hu Ma steadied his mind and did as Second Master had taught him: he pressed his tongue to the roof of his mouth, hovering between sleep and wakefulness, and carefully guided the stream of heat along the willow-branch talisman drawn across his chest, bit by bit, down into his lower abdomen, storing it in his "furnace."

When he tried, Hu Ma felt a faint stir of surprise.

According to Second Master, this first step was called working the art. It took time to get used to, a slow, patient process.

The body's Yang energy was scattered and faint. It had to be guided strand by strand. At first, one wasn't used to it, and it was difficult to grasp that subtle feeling.

But when Hu Ma tried, he found the fire inside him surging, incredibly strong.

It took almost no effort. The heat quickly streamed along that cold talisman mark, flowing into the furnace in waves.

The process felt wonderful. Before long, he felt heat pouring through his lower abdomen, and his core brimming with strength.

With his core full, his courage swelled too.

Ever since his reincarnation, Hu Ma had been constantly on edge, timid and hesitant. Now, that feeling was gone.

Thinking of the pitch-black night outside, he even dared to go out alone to pee...

...Actually, maybe not.

Still, the discovery truly delighted him.

This is the method that really works, isn't it? Why didn't Old Woman let me come here sooner?

He savored the feeling, remembering how he'd encountered evil spirits before—even at Old Fire Pit—always feeling a chill first, followed by uncanny visions.

A kind of instinct told him that the fiery warmth now rising inside his body was the exact opposite of that chill.

If his body was warm, he naturally wouldn't fear the cold. If his furnace burned brightly, what evil spirit would dare cling to him?

This method seemed even better than Old Fire Pit!

Why rely on outside objects? Wasn't it better to strengthen his own foundation?

If Old Woman had let him learn this method earlier, he probably wouldn't have feared those evil spirits at all. Could it be...

...that Old Woman had really only been worried he'd have no time to find a wife if he learned this method?

He didn't have answers to those questions yet, but for the first time since arriving in this world, Hu Ma felt he had something to rely on.

He'd had such an effect from his first session. Once his furnace burned stronger, where wouldn't he be able to go?

An unprecedented sense of calm and joy rose within him. He worked the art with tireless enthusiasm, making the fire in his lower abdomen burn hotter and hotter.

And then...

...with a sharp gasp, Hu Ma suddenly jolted awake.

He looked up instinctively. Outside the window, the night was still pitch-black; he had no idea what hour it was.

The boys around him slept soundly. Some ground their teeth, some mumbled lazily in their sleep, and one had rolled over, clamped his legs around his trousers, and was rubbing himself without stopping.

It was the tail end of autumn, the start of winter. The boys had so much fire in them that they didn't mind sleeping with their legs and half their bodies bare.

But Hu Ma had woken from the cold.

He was a sound sleeper, and the thick quilt still covered him.

Yet his body was as cold as a block of ice. A gloomy chill rose from his limbs and seeped slowly into his body.

Only when it reached his lower abdomen was the chill slightly dispelled, as though the last few embers in a desolate furnace gave off a faint glow.

"That's not right..."

The more Hu Ma sensed his condition, the more uneasy he became.

Hadn't Second Master said that once his furnace was lit, the heat constantly escaping from his body would be sealed in?

Guiding that heat into his lower abdomen would create a ball of fire.

That fire should keep growing stronger, day by day. So why did his own flame seem to be shrinking?

Why was his body giving off cold instead of heat?

The sudden change made Hu Ma afraid to fall asleep. He propped himself up halfway and stared blankly out the window.

The dark purple sky had, at some point, quietly taken on a pale strip of dawn. Somewhere in the distance, a rooster crowed.

"Get up, boys! Time to run the hills..."

Outside, near the main room, Second Master's loud voice suddenly rang out.