A Stick and a Half of Incense

The boys in this wilderness settlement all believed in growing up wild.

The fight between Hu Ma and Cui Xie'er had shown just how domineering Hu Ma could be. The boys had grown less snide and more wary of him.

As Old Woman's grandson, he held a singularly exalted position with Second Master. He'd already carried an air of mystery, and now he'd gone toe-to-toe with the most capable person in the village. The strange, uncanny way he'd fought—and his vicious, ruthless blows—had left everyone intimidated.

"It's said Old Woman can raise ghosts. Could there be one following him around, too?"

"..."

Remembering those rumors, they looked at Hu Ma with even more awe.

The next morning, when the porridge was served, there was a new person at the ladle. The very first serving went to Hu Ma, and he got the biggest piece.

As for Zhou Datong, he admired Hu Ma even more.

Of all the people who learned skills from Second Master, he was the second laziest. Hu Ma was the laziest.

He'd even taught Hu Ma the basic forms, so he knew better than anyone what level Hu Ma had reached.

But so what?

The guy knew sorcery!

They weren't skilled enough to see what had really happened. All they knew was that it had been terrifying how Cui Xie'er had tripped the moment he approached Hu Ma.

Even Zhou Datong, who was close to Hu Ma, earned the boys' respect in turn—and got beaten up less often.

As for Hu Ma, he didn't dare let his guard down. He understood his current condition all too well. While there was plenty of blood food, the most important thing was to build up a roaring fire in his furnace as quickly as possible.

Because of his physical condition, he couldn't sweat through the daily drills like the other boys. Still, he earnestly studied the forms Second Master had taught him.

Xiao Hong Tang kept bringing him meals. With blood food in plentiful supply, his furnace fire grew more and more vigorous.

Second Master took him back to the woods to visit his godmother.

They lit three sticks of incense and offered two steamed buns, then cut four or five willow branches from his "godmother."

Because his furnace fire was so vigorous, he needed to replace the talisman every two or three days.

And each time, the Yin Qi it took to replace the talisman was greater than before. The first time Second Master replaced Hu Ma's talisman, he needed only a small piece of willow branch to draw it. The second time, he used an entire branch. By the third time, he had to bind several branches together just to draw it.

Second Master would often click his tongue in amazement, but he never dared slack off.

Whenever they ran out of willow branches, he simply took Hu Ma back to his godmother to cut more.

After several such visits, they arrived one time and couldn't find his godmother by the stream.

Second Master and Hu Ma searched around for a while, then finally found Hu Ma's shivering godmother behind a big tree dozens of meters away.

"Why are you wandering off?"

Second Master was very displeased. "I brought your godson over for a visit, and I couldn't even find your home."

Then he went and cut another bundle. Afraid his godmother might run off again, he even tied her up with a red cord.

After this happened a few times, even Hu Ma began to feel sorry for her. He ventured, "Second Master, if we keep cutting from godmother, she'll be bald..."

"It's fine. Worst comes to worst, we'll change what we call her. We can call her godfather instead..."

The gloomy wind sighed. The old willow tree, stripped of all but a few branches, trembled and rustled, sounding as if it were cursing them.

Though godmother had suffered, Hu Ma's furnace fire grew more vigorous by the day. Gradually, it roared with heat, filling him with energy. He felt like a completely new person.

Now, he even dared to go into the woods alone, let alone leave the village.

He also studied the skills Second Master had taught him with utmost care, never daring to slack off.

By now, the only eyesore was still Cui Xie'er.

The day after he'd been beaten, he spent half the day lying in bed. His injuries looked serious, but by the third day he was full of life again, making everyone marvel at the Black Oil Paste's wondrous effects.

His injuries had healed, but he was clearly still seething inside.

The other boys all thought he'd been bewitched the first time he'd fought Hu Ma, and that he'd definitely challenge him to another fight. But to their surprise, he suddenly became docile.

Second Master could see what lay at the heart of it. Cui Xie'er clearly understood, too, and didn't dare pick a real fight with Hu Ma.

He just glared at Hu Ma from behind now and then, his gaze dark and sinister.

But Hu Ma didn't care. Ever since arriving in this world, hadn't he been watched from the shadows plenty of times?

This little bit of pressure was nothing.

He focused all his efforts on training and stoking his furnace. Around the time he'd been with Second Master for a month, he finished a bowl of blood food Xiao Hong Tang had brought him—and suddenly felt something stir within him. The furnace fire in his lower abdomen surged to an incredible level, as if a butterfly had burst free from its cocoon.

To describe it more precisely, the fire in the furnace seemed so fierce that it was faintly melting something.

Hu Ma had been lying on his bunk, silently guiding the fire within his body through his exercises. As soon as this feeling came over him, he grew drowsy, and dark-red mist rose all around him.

Before he knew it, he was once again drifting into that secluded, shadowy temple. His body parted the mist, and he saw a stick of joss incense standing in the censer before him.

The last time he'd left this dream, he clearly remembered pulling out the joss incense.

But now, one still stood in the censer, a little over three feet long, with fine golden streaks running through it.

A speck of firelight flickered, dimming and brightening. The dark-red mist around it seemed thicker than before.

"Huh? That's not right!"

Hu Ma was puzzled. He glanced to the side, and his heart gave a little start. Beside the censer lay another stick of incense, just two or three fingers long, slender and dark red. It was the one he'd pulled out last time.

"Did one stick of incense turn into two?"

He had a vague sense that the incense had changed because of what he'd felt just now.

It seemed that once his cultivation reached a certain level and entered a new stage, one stick of incense in this temple had also reached its limit—and another had grown from it.

Could this incense be connected to the Tai Sui he ate every day?

He suppressed his excitement, moved closer to the censer, and studied it carefully.

It was as if the bright flame on the incense could light up the surroundings. Behind the altar table, within a vast expanse of deep shadow, he could just make out the vague outline of a statue. He still couldn't see it clearly.

He tried to walk around the altar table to get a better look, but as he moved, the mist flowed after him and the space shifted. It seemed he'd never reach the front of the statue.

Hu Ma could only slowly come to a stop, but the questions in his heart had only multiplied:

"One stick of incense has become a stick and a half. If I keep progressing like this, will it become two sticks, or even more?"

"What exactly is this temple?"

"The Reincarnator I connected with last time said that many people like me had come to this world..."

"Were they summoned here by mistake, just like me?"

"..."

These questions rose of their own accord in his mind, but there was no one who could answer them now.

He didn't know whether every Reincarnator had a temple like his.

"If this joss incense has grown so thick and long, has my ability to communicate with others grown stronger, too?"

He stirred slightly and watched the stick of incense.

The one standing in the censer was as thick as his fist and half a meter long—a world apart from its original, slender form.

The smoke rising from it was also much thicker, drifting and swirling along with the red mist, toward some unknown destination.

Although he knew this seemed like it would burn up the incense, Hu Ma had no intention of pulling it out.

The Reincarnator on Old Yin Mountain should have fallen asleep by now, so Hu Ma probably couldn't find anyone else. Even so, he couldn't help holding on to a little hope. It was like keeping his phone switched on in case someone called, even when he knew there was no one to contact.

Perhaps someone would find him?

Besides, from his three trips into the dream, Hu Ma had gradually realized that while he was in this temple, the joss incense kept burning, as if searching for others like him in hopes of connecting.

But when he woke up, the incense stopped burning on its own.

So if he left the incense standing in the censer now, would that be like turning on his phone and waiting for someone to get in touch?

In this strange world, where he didn't belong, he longed so desperately to hear the voice of someone like himself again...

"Rustle..."

While Hu Ma remained immersed in that strange temple, pondering all these connections, the door to the side room where he slept quietly opened. A figure slipped inside. It was Cui Xie'er, who slept in the other side room.

He was tall and gaunt, yet landed without a sound. His body was stiff and wooden, moving inch by inch like a puppet as he crept over to Hu Ma's bedside.

Looking down at the sleeping Hu Ma, his face grew even paler. His eyes seemed brimming with venomous hatred and murderous fury.

He slowly raised both hands. He was gripping a rusty knife.

The knife's point aimed at Hu Ma's sleeping face. Cui Xie'er lifted it high above his head, and a strangely savage look suddenly flashed across his face.

"That fellow trapped in Fox Coffin Village said he could hold out for a month, but half a month has already passed."

Hu Ma was still in the dream, thinking to himself. "I've learned a few skills, but I can barely protect myself, let alone rescue someone. If I could 'connect' with a third Reincarnator, I could find the guy some help—but there's no response!"

"Should I just put him out of my mind for now, then look for other Reincarnators once I get a chance to leave these mountains?"

"..."

From their brief conversation last time, he knew that Reincarnator understood a great deal.

If he could speak with him again, many of the questions weighing on his mind might finally be answered.

But the man was in trouble, and Hu Ma had plenty of trouble of his own. How could he help?

"Hiss..."

But just as Hu Ma was turning it all over in his mind, the dark-red mist around him began to flow quietly. Before long, it was rushing faster and faster.

By the time he noticed, he was astonished to find the mist surging and rolling like a tide beneath a violent storm. In the swirling haze, he could just make out a sharp blade suddenly thrusting toward his face.

He jerked awake and opened his eyes.

The moment he did, he nearly jumped out of his skin. Cui Xie'er's deathly pale face was right in front of him.

And in both his hands, aimed straight at Hu Ma's face, was the pointed knife.