Natal Spirit Temple

With a faint shiver, Hu Ma realized he had appeared inside the same dilapidated temple, thick with red mist. The incense on the altar before him had already been lit, and a strand of smoke stretched out beyond the fog, tethered directly to the tip of the incense.

"Huh?"

Hu Ma was a little surprised. This time, he hadn't lit his life incense himself, nor had he answered a call. How had the connection been made?

And the voice sounded familiar. A flicker of surprise stirred in his heart. "Brother Erguotou?"

"Haha, that's me."

The voice laughed. "I came specifically to thank you."

"How did you..."

"Mm, I forgot you're a newbie. Once you've connected with someone, you can talk to them directly as long as you're within a certain range."

Erguotou seemed to notice Hu Ma's confusion and explained with a laugh, "Of course, if you don't like being disturbed, you can break the connection."

Hu Ma didn't know the first thing about these methods, but hearing his old friend's voice made him happy all the same.

"You got out?"

"..."

"Yes."

The Reincarnator Erguotou laughed. "That young lady's a little haughty, and she speaks coldly, but she gets things done."

"She went to Fox Coffin Village and found the Hundred Corpse Mound I told her about. But instead of rushing to claim the treasure, she rescued me first. Then the two of us joined forces, dealt with that corpse fox, broke the Hundred Corpse Mound, and got the thing inside. We split it three ways."

"At first, she didn't say anything, so I thought I'd gotten lucky and happened upon a Treasure Appraiser."

"I didn't find out who she was until we were about to part ways. She said you'd passed the message on to her, and that was what saved me from disaster."

"If you'd gone with her, the three of us would have had to split that thing."

"But you didn't go, and I couldn't just leave you owing me such a huge favor. I'd only been recuperating for a few days, but I came up here as soon as I could to thank you for saving my life."

"..."

"That's great."

Hu Ma had kept the matter in mind ever since speaking with him before. But he'd only just arrived in this world and hadn't learned any skills yet, so there was nothing he could do to help.

The young lady from Cao Xin Hall hadn't told him what happened afterward, either.

Even the carriage they'd left at Great Sheep Village had been collected by the bearers. They hadn't said a word when asked.

Now that Erguotou had made it through safely, Hu Ma felt relieved. He smiled and said, "There's no need to be so polite. It was the least I could do."

"Heh. Maybe it was the least you could do, but it wasn't for me."

Erguotou laughed. "If you weren't such a righteous fellow—if you'd harbored ill intentions, hidden my information, and told no one—then you could've waited a few months for me to die, gotten yourself ready, and come claim the treasure yourself. Wouldn't that have been better?"

"Huh? You can do that?"

Hu Ma was taken aback. "I didn't think of that..."

"I heard from Miss White Wine," Erguotou's voice rang out again as Hu Ma reproached himself, "that you reincarnated into a village, and things haven't been going too smoothly for you lately?"

"Brother, great kindness doesn't need many words of thanks. You helped me through a disaster, so if there's anything you need, just tell me. I've been reincarnated into this damned world for over thirty years. I've weathered more dangers and seen more things than you, at least."

"..."

"Help?"

Hearing the hearty warmth in his voice, Hu Ma felt something stir inside him.

First, Erguotou had said he'd been in this world for over thirty years—longer than Hu Ma himself had been alive here.

So they really had all come from the same era?

Thinking it over, Hu Ma hurriedly asked. Erguotou immediately laughed and replied, "You really are a newbie. These things are common knowledge. I might as well teach you about them."

"The other Reincarnators and I have discussed it many times. We really are all from the same world and the same era. Even our birthdays mostly fall within roughly the same one- or two-decade span."

"But no one knows how it happened. We reincarnated into this world at different times."

"The oldest Reincarnator I know has been here for over eighty years. But in our original world, let's put it this way: if we actually met, he'd have to call me big brother..."

"..."

Hu Ma listened closely, growing more astonished by the moment.

Meeting this old friend made it easy to ask about things he hadn't understood before. Of all those questions, the most important was that his own method of reincarnation really was different from everyone else's.

But this wasn't something he could lay bare just like that.

He thought it over in silence, then said only, "I grew up in a village on Old Yin Mountain. I've barely even set foot outside its gates. Before connecting with you, I'd thought I was the only one who'd crossed over into this damned world. I really don't know much of anything..."

"Does every Reincarnator have this ability to connect?"

"..."

"Yes."

Erguotou chuckled. "The incense burning in our censers is actually a manifestation of our own life force."

"You can think of it as our lives—the 'life' in 'lifespan,' not the 'life' in 'surname.'"

"This life force is vitality. The greater it is, the higher your cultivation. When it burns away, we become dead men."

"Normally, as long as we light our life incense in our Natal Spirit Temple, we can use up our life force to search for other Reincarnators, exchange information, and help one another."

"..."

Hu Ma listened closely. These were things he'd wanted to understand for a long time, but Miss White Wine hadn't been easy to talk to last time, so he hadn't been able to ask such detailed questions.

Now that he'd picked up on the key point, he hurriedly asked, "When you say Natal Spirit Temple, do you mean..."

"You should be in a dream right now. Haven't you noticed that the place you're in looks a lot like a temple?"

Erguotou laughed. "That's what we've taken to calling it: the Natal Spirit Temple."

"Every Reincarnator has one. We don't know whether it belongs to some spiritual space or a dream or what, but there's a strange censer inside. Once you light your life incense, you can search for other Reincarnators in a certain area."

"Under normal circumstances, it can cover about a city. If there's another Reincarnator in the city who has also lit their life incense and is willing to answer, the two of you can connect."

Compared with Miss White Wine, Erguotou was willing to answer every question.

He even seemed a little long-winded.

He clearly assumed Hu Ma had reincarnated in some remote mountain village and hadn't had a chance to eat any too-sui, which was why he'd only now gained the ability to connect and was so unfamiliar with it. So he patiently explained, "Behind the altar is our Natal Stone Statue."

"I heard an elder say it's a reflection of our spirit. The skills we learn in this world and the cultivation we gain are all reflected in the statue."

"Even certain problems with our cultivation or our own condition will be reflected there. That makes it easier for us to spot our problems..."

"...That's also why Reincarnators tend to have good cultivation talent."

"..."

"Huh?"

Hu Ma's heart suddenly lurched.

It was lucky he'd worked so hard to hone his acting in front of Old Woman. Otherwise, he would've given himself away just now.

He really was different from the other Reincarnators.

In their temples, they could all see a stone statue behind the altar? And the statue looked like them?

But he abruptly lifted his head and looked behind his own altar.

The altar was in a terrible state of disrepair, and ominous red mist churned around it. Behind the altar, there was only darkness.

He could just barely make out the silhouette of a statue, but it was wrapped in thick, dark-red mist. He couldn't see it clearly at all, unlike Erguotou.

As he stared at the statue, he had the strange feeling it was staring back at him.

A nameless shiver ran through his heart. After a long while, he cautiously asked, "So you remembered your past life after you turned three, too?"

"Isn't it the same for everyone?"

Seeing Hu Ma ask such a simple question, Erguotou laughed. "Most of us were three, though some especially gifted ones were earlier or later."

"Usually, we'd be in a daze when some voice suddenly awakened us between the ages of three and ten, and we'd remember our past lives. Later, as we grew older and our life force flourished, we'd discover our Natal Spirit Temples and find other Reincarnators."

"..."

"A voice..."

Hu Ma listened closely, then hesitated before asking cautiously, "Was the voice you heard also that kind of..."

"Yes, a very strange voice."

Erguotou sighed. "We don't know who it was, and we can't remember exactly what it said. But vaguely, it only told us to be careful about our situation, not to reveal our identities, and things like that."

"We've discussed it with other people, too, but no one knows what it was. We just call it the 'Awakener.'"

"..."

"So that's it..."

Hu Ma's heart trembled. He'd confirmed what set him apart from everyone else.

The others were like proper Reincarnators. He alone seemed to have joined their ranks halfway through.

Everyone else had a Natal Spirit Temple where they could see their cultivation, but his own looked dilapidated, as though it had long been abandoned.

Everyone else had been awakened by some voice, but he'd been awakened by Old Woman...

Now that he'd confirmed how different he was from the other Reincarnators, he was even less willing to ask the questions that had been nagging at him.

Erguotou saw him deep in thought and realized there was a lot for a newcomer to take in. He laughed and said, "Our experiences are strange, but there's nothing to be done. We can only accept our fate. Take your time digesting it, brother. If there's anything you need help with, just tell me."

"I'm eager to repay you this huge favor."

"..."

Hu Ma could tell he wasn't just being polite or brushing him off. He slowly came to understand that no matter how different he was from everyone else, things had already turned out this way. He could think it over later.

But for now, there was another important question troubling him.

He paused, carefully prepared his words, and said slowly, "As it happens, there is something I'd like to ask you about..."

"Have you ever heard of someone who Ignites the Furnace?"

"..."

"Ignites the Furnace?"

Brother Erguotou was indeed well-informed. He laughed at once. "That's a Night Watcher's skill, isn't it?"