Sky-High Price Incense Ash

Chapter 047: Sky-High Incense Ash Transforms, Mountains and Rivers Expand.

Compared to Wangwu Mountain as Yuan Tianzong remembered it from a thousand years ago, the current mountains and rivers were majestic, grand, and vast. The sheer size alone made it a forbidden zone for ordinary people.

Vital energy condensed within the mountain, growing denser each day, brimming with life.

This transformation seemed to intensify after the Divine Smoke of Entering the Dao appeared. Late at night, one could hear the rumbling sounds of the mountains and earth growing, which was quite astonishing.

Atop the mountain peak, Yuan Tianzong stood against the wind, tiny bolts of lightning flashing as he opened and closed his eyes. Lightning also constantly flickered around his body; if it were a stormy day, it might even draw down heavenly lightning.

As he continued to absorb and refine the Divine Smoke, his connection, or rather, his affinity with the lightning of heaven and earth, grew stronger.

He merely stood there, and the power of lightning gathered around him, as if he were a manifestation of lightning itself, miraculous and extraordinary.

Yuan Tianzong was displeased with this phenomenon. In his opinion, it was a manifestation of his inability to control his own power.

"My mental energy has surged too much in the past two days; I need to meditate and consolidate."

"One thousand eight hundred and eight wisps of Divine Smoke. That should be enough."

A hint of fatigue appeared on Yuan Tianzong's face. The mental impact of each wisp of Divine Smoke was not something ordinary people could withstand.

In the two days since the Divine Smoke appeared, not a small number of creatures had been driven insane by it after accidentally obtaining it. This topic had even become widespread, as he had learned from the conversations of passersby.

A single wisp of Divine Smoke was already beyond the capacity of an ordinary creature's mind to bear. One could imagine what a thousand and eight wisps would mean.

Taking a deep breath, Yuan Tianzong turned back home.

Although Wangwu Mountain had grown much larger, it only took Yuan Tianzong a few extra minutes.

The mountain peaks receded, and the dense forest disappeared into the distance.

When the moon hung high above the willows, he descended from a great height. His meteorite-like speed did not produce the expected heavy landing sound; he landed lightly. The intense sense of dissonance came from his terrifying control over his body, making great weight feel light.

Speaking of which, ever since he had crossed over from the Dharma-ending era to the present, escaping the confines of the three realms, the shackles in his flesh and blood had vanished, and his body had begun a natural growth.

Through simple daily activities like eating, drinking, and excreting, his body would strengthen slowly every day.

This phenomenon led Yuan Tianzong to deep contemplation, recalling the opening words of the Huangdi Neijing: "The ancients, in their prime, lived to be a hundred years old and their movements were not impaired."

During the Dharma-ending era, he had explored extensively to break through to the Grandmaster realm.

In the process, he had found many secret rare books that had not been passed down. Some of the words within, after deciphering and interpreting, were astonishing.

One tattered ancient text stated: "Our ancestors underwent a coming-of-age ceremony after three hundred and sixty springs and autumns."

Three hundred and sixty springs and autumns, three hundred and sixty years, to just reach adulthood?

Such a record, compared to people today who considered a hundred years old to be a venerable age, the gap was astonishing.

For a moment, Yuan Tianzong felt that the record in the book was a bit outlandish, or perhaps nonsensical.

Now that he had broken free from his shackles through special means and his body was undergoing changes and growing on its own, Yuan Tianzong felt that the records in the book might not be entirely false or without basis.

His thoughts raced, and before him appeared a courtyard enclosed by a wooden fence.

This was his former small dwelling. Such a change was likely related to Bone.

He hadn't returned home for two days, out plundering Divine Smoke, and he hadn't expected this guy to be so handy and even build a fence. It was quite interesting.

Walking into the courtyard, he immediately saw a pile of crude jade boxes in the left corner, quite a few of them, about fifty or sixty boxes.

The rough jade boxes looked like they had been carved from jade dug from the ground not long ago, with simple craftsmanship. They were not only crude but also barely qualified as boxes.

"Bone."

Hearing the voice, Bone, who was lifting a shovel and digging, as if unsure what to do, looked up. A hint of joy appeared on his expressionless face, and he quickly ran over, his footsteps making a pattering sound.

"Write it down." Yuan Tianzong rubbed his temples, too mentally exhausted to bother guessing.

Bone understood. He took out a small wooden stick from between his ribs and quickly wrote a line: "Master, I dug up a lot of incense ash!"

Incense ash?

Yuan Tianzong walked to the jade boxes and lifted the lids. They were all filled with incense ash. He still didn't know what these things were used for, so he looked at Bone in confusion, wondering if the latter had a peculiar hobby of collecting incense ash, similar to how some people liked collecting underwear.

"What are you doing?"

Bone continued to write: "Incense ash has spirituality, it's very expensive!"

Very expensive?

Before Yuan Tianzong could speak again, Bone had already brought his mobile phone to him. It displayed videos about incense ash. With a slight swipe of his finger, it was all about these things.

Clearly, he hadn't been browsing adult videos recently but had been exclusively watching content related to incense ash, which was why his big data was constantly pushing such recommendations.

After watching for a while, Yuan Tianzong understood a little. He hadn't expected the incense ash he had overlooked to have such significant uses.

Some mutant bloggers claimed that incense ash had miraculous effects. A cousin of his, who had been scared silly in his youth and had been acting erratically ever since, had recovered and regained his senses after wearing a jade pendant made from incense ash.

In another video, a burly man said that incense ash contained rich spirituality and could be added to forging to create weapons that surpassed those of the mortal world, or perhaps even recreate mythical treasures.

"I discovered that incense ash can ward off evil!"

"Brothers, you'll never guess another use for incense ash... See this? These are the vegetables I grew, amazing, right? It can actually change the soil, turning local land into spiritual soil!"

The moment he saw this video, Yuan Tianzong's brow twitched.

Incense ash spiritual soil?

Dao seed?

Connecting the two, Yuan Tianzong immediately got to work, burying the seed, which looked like it had died, into the incense ash within a jade box.

"Bone, keep an eye on this jade box of incense ash. If there's any activity, notify me immediately. I'm a bit tired and need to meditate."

Bone nodded, making a clicking sound in response, "Okay, Master."

"Mm." Yuan Tianzong nodded and walked into the wooden house. He needed to meditate and stabilize his spirit.

Inside the wooden house, Yuan Tianzong lay down directly and fell asleep.

Sleep was one of the best ways to recover, and even more so for Yuan Tianzong, as his body had undergone an extraordinary transformation, giving him a self-healing ability far superior to other beings.

Outside, those who had been persecuted by Bone searched through the night, vowing to find him even if it meant scouring the entirety of Wangwu Mountain.

With every throb of the lump on their heads, their murderous intent grew stronger.

"Where did he go?"

"He probably knows we're looking for him and got scared, so he's hiding!"

"The price of incense ash has skyrocketed. He snatched tens of millions, even hundreds of millions from me!" The speaker grew angrier the more he thought about it. With so much money stolen, he didn't know if the police would even handle it if he reported it.

"Incense ash can also forge divine weapons and sharp tools, my god!"

The more they learned about the miraculous uses of incense ash, the louder their wails of anguish became, and the deeper their hatred grew.

"Find him! We must find him!"

Touching the lumps on their heads, everyone shared a single, unprecedented thought: they searched madly within Wangwu Mountain, digging three feet into the ground.

"Has anyone seen what he looks like?"

"His technique for knocking people out was so professional, the force was just right, and they were out in one hit. I didn't see his face."

"That was a white bone demon. It appeared outside the Celestial Master Temple before, and it was also snatching incense ash!" As the number of victims increased, so did the sources of information. Someone who knew what happened informed the crowd.

A skeleton?

No wonder, no wonder... No wonder he was so sinister. Turns out he's a creature from the underworld!