Furnace Fire Wards Off Evil Spirits

To ignite a great furnace within the body, ward off evil and illness, and resist the bizarre?

While Hu Ma marveled at the magic of this world, he also found great solace in his heart:

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

Second, according to Second Master, once the furnace was lit, Evil Spirits would find it unbearably scorching if they came near him.

Didn't that mean that even though he wasn't an original, he wouldn't be burned by this body like ordinary Evil Spirits?

Was this because he was a "Reincarnator," or was it due to some other reason he didn't know?

Perhaps he would only know these things after talking with other Reincarnators.

Second Master checked everything, confirmed that he had lit the furnace for Hu Ma, and then took him to the side room to rest.

Good heavens, a large communal bed, filled with young lads.

When he first woke up, Hu Ma had always slept in the side room at home, with only the Old Woman chanting scriptures all night and Xiao Hong Tang, who was neither human nor ghost, in the outer room.

He had hidden in the side room, all alone, filled with fear. Now, it was good that he was suddenly given over a dozen peers.

Each of them was full of energy, running in the mountains and practicing martial arts during the day, and clearly not very particular about hygiene.

The moment he entered the room, he almost gagged.

Hmm, it was filled with the pungent smell of young virgins...

"When you come to Second Master's place, you definitely won't be as comfortable as you were in the village."

Second Master saw Hu Ma frown the moment he entered the room, looking very unaccustomed to it, and sighed, "The Old Woman spoiled you endlessly before, but now that you're here to learn skills, you'll have to make do. I can't possibly let you sleep in my room, can I?"

"..."

Hu Ma thought: I just came out of your room, and the smell was about the same as here...

On the surface, he nodded, only asking Second Master where he would sleep.

Second Master glanced around and pointed to a boy by the stove, telling him to move to the side to make space for Hu Ma.

This large communal bed had a stove built into the head of the bed in the left corner. At this time of year, no firewood was burning in the stove, but the chimney was still connected to it.

It was also because of this stove that the communal bed was divided into two halves, with one half crowded with people, seven or eight crammed together.

On the other side of the stove, against the wall, there was only a narrow space of about half a meter, which could only accommodate one person at most.

Compared to the conditions in the rest of the room, this was practically a single bed.

It seemed that Second Master said he wouldn't give Hu Ma special treatment, but he had still given him special treatment.

Hu Ma agreed and laid out his bedding.

He looked at the others; some of their quilts were tattered, with cotton leaking out, and some were as thin as rags.

But the Old Woman had brought Hu Ma a thick and wide black cotton quilt, half for the mattress and half for covering, which was just right. The others didn't have proper pillows, just stuffing a pair of cloth shoes under their heads to sleep, but the Old Woman had brought Hu Ma a straw pillow, which was comfortable and restful to sleep on.

"Go to bed early, we'll practice skills first thing tomorrow morning. Don't cause trouble at night, cultivate diligently, and don't overthink things!"

Seeing Hu Ma settle down obediently, without complaining or causing trouble, Second Master was somewhat surprised.

He left with a sheepish feeling that something was missing, so he put on a stern face and lectured the group of youths before slowly returning to his main room with his hands behind his back.

"Hey, hey, look at him, so pampered. He lit the furnace as soon as he arrived, what great treatment..."

"Hehe, he can't even keep up when running in the mountains, and he's lighting the furnace..."

"..."

As soon as Second Master left, the side room fell silent for a moment. The youths winked at each other and gradually started making noise.

According to Second Master, the youths here had all lit furnaces like him, and their fires were even hotter than his. Of course, their vitality was also more abundant, and they were at an age where they would cause trouble even if there was none. Coupled with the fact that his treatment was indeed better than others, it was only natural that they would provoke him.

Hu Ma understood this and remained silent, ignoring the others, and lay down to sleep.

"Hey, Hu Ma, they say your family eats meat every meal, is that true?"

"Is it true that the Old Woman keeps a ghost?"

"..."

Murmurs arose, some tentative, some low giggles.

But Hu Ma pretended not to hear, not making a sound.

He needed to understand this world a bit before he could relax. For now, it was best to remain unchanged and adapt to any situation.

"Heh heh, after all, he's the young master from the Old Woman's family, so proud, ignoring us..."

Seeing that Hu Ma remained silent, his companions lost interest. After a while, someone quietly began to count the days until they returned to the village, what they could eat, and some calculated how much money they could earn by participating in the Worship Taisui ceremony next spring, and how many years it would take to get married. Interspersed were jokes like "You like Sister Dong," and "You're hard again," and they gradually drifted off to sleep.

Hu Ma pretended to be asleep, but he was actually quietly listening to their words, trying to deepen his understanding of the village.

Only when the surroundings quieted down did he quietly sort his thoughts and turn his attention to the Talisman drawn on his chest.

He could clearly feel that after having this Talisman, the heat within his body was no longer dissipating outwards but was slowly accumulating.

As it gradually piled up, his body felt a sense of fullness.

Hu Ma then diligently stabilized his mind, following Second Master's instructions: pressing his tongue to the roof of his mouth, half-asleep and half-awake, he deliberately guided the heat, from the Talisman drawn with a willow branch on his chest, little by little, towards his lower abdomen, storing it in his "furnace."

Upon the first try, Hu Ma was actually slightly surprised.

According to Second Master's explanation, this first step was called cultivation technique, requiring slow adaptation and patient effort.

This was because the human body's Yang energy was scattered and weak, needing to be guided thread by thread. It was difficult to grasp the subtle feeling at first.

But when Hu Ma tried it, he felt a surging heat within him, extremely vigorous.

With almost no effort, he quickly guided the energy, stream after stream, along that cold, Yin-imbued Talisman into the furnace.

The process was incredibly comfortable. Before long, he felt his lower abdomen become scorching hot, filled with vital energy.

With vital energy full, his courage also grew.

Hu Ma even lost the constant jittery, timid feeling he'd had since his reincarnation.

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

...Never mind.

But this discovery truly filled him with pleasant surprise.

"This must be the truly useful method, right? Why didn't Old Woman let me come sooner?"

He joyfully felt this, recalling how when he encountered Evil Spirits before, even at the Old Fire Pit, he first felt a chill, followed by bizarre illusions.

A certain instinctive awareness made him realize that the fire he felt rising within his body now was completely different from that chilling sensation.

When the body is warm, it naturally doesn't fear the cold. When the furnace fire is strong, what Evil Spirits would dare to cling to him?

This method seemed even better than the Old Fire Pit!

Seeking external help was never as good as strengthening one's own foundation.

If Old Woman had let him learn this method earlier, he probably wouldn't have been afraid of those Evil Spirits by now. Could it be...

...Old Woman was truly just worried he wouldn't find a wife in the short term after learning this method?

He couldn't find answers to these questions for now, but Hu Ma finally felt a sense of confidence since arriving in this world.

With such results from his first cultivation technique, where couldn't he go once his furnace fire grew strong?

In his heart, he felt an unprecedented sense of stability and elation, "cultivating" with great enjoyment.

He made the ball of fire in his lower abdomen burn brighter and brighter.

Then...

...With a sharp gasp, Hu Ma suddenly woke up.

He subconsciously looked up and saw that it was still dark outside the window, unsure of the hour.

The other youths his age slept soundly, some grinding their teeth, some lazily murmuring in their dreams, and others turning over, clamping their legs tightly together in their pants, rubbing them incessantly.

It was already late autumn, nearing the beginning of winter. With bare thighs and half their bodies exposed, the youths had strong Yang energy and didn't feel the cold.

But Hu Ma had woken up cold.

He slept soundly, and the thick quilt was still wrapped around him.

Yet his body felt like a block of ice, with a faint chill rising and slowly seeping into his body from his limbs and bones.

Only when it reached his lower abdomen was the chill slightly dispelled, as if in a cold, desolate furnace, the few remaining embers emitted a faint glow.

"Something's wrong..."

The more Hu Ma felt his current state, the more uneasy he became.

Didn't Second Master say that after igniting the furnace for him, the heat radiating from his body would be sealed off?

Guiding this heat to gather in the lower abdomen would form a ball of fire.

This fire should have been growing continuously, accumulating day by day. But why did his ball of fire seem to be subtly shrinking?

Why was his body radiating cold air instead of heat?

The sudden, strange sensation made Hu Ma afraid to fall asleep. He half-sat up, staring blankly out the window.

He saw that the dark purple night sky had, at some unknown time, quietly gained a hint of fish-belly white. In the distance, a rooster, raised by someone unknown, suddenly crowed loudly.

"Alright kids, time to get up and run the mountain..."

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