Burning Incense

"It looks like it's been abandoned for at least several decades." Looking at the rows of dilapidated wooden houses with collapsed roofs, Feng Xue sighed slightly. Although they looked terrible, they surprisingly didn't have that unpleasant smell of decay.

But it is precisely because of this that it seems all the more eerie.

It's like--

The decay of this village seemed to have been forcibly interrupted by some force.

As she walked through the alleyway made up of wooden houses, the crying gradually became clearer. After a moment, Feng Xue's vision suddenly opened up, and what appeared before her was a black coffin.

A pair of White Candle were placed in front of the coffin, with pieces of paper joss paper scattered around. In the center of the White Candle, a brazier burned slowly and half-dead, the heat creating air currents that lifted the surrounding joss paper into the air before it slowly drifted down again.

Everything seemed to tell a story of how, not long ago, this place was a place of mourning for the dead. But now, apart from the still fluttering paper money and the leaping flames, there was no sign of life. Only the mournful cries coming from near the coffin were heartbreaking.

"Good heavens, what a coincidence!"

Upon seeing this, Feng Xue was not alarmed but delighted. She immediately strode to the coffin, blew out the two White Candle, and then tore off a few rotten planks from a roadside house and threw them into the brazier.

The damp wooden planks immediately emitted a large amount of black smoke, but the fire in the brazier was also extinguished.

"A brazier, White Candle, joss paper and some unburned paper money... um, we're missing an incense burner."

Feng Xue reached out and gathered up the joss paper that was still in relatively good condition, piling it together with the White Candle and candlesticks, and then began looking for the incense burner.

Seemingly, no player had ever seen Feng Xue so stunned. Her crying paused for a few seconds, and then a pale white shadow began to flash back and forth in Feng Xue's peripheral vision, as if it wanted to attract attention but didn't want to reveal itself directly.

Feng Xue completely rejected this behavior, displaying the same blindness she had during the Burrlett era: no matter how much you waved around, I Think n't see you.

"Incense burner, incense burner... There should be one in the Ancestral Hall, right? In villages like this, people usually live around trees, and there should be a big tree near the Ancestral Hall... Hmm, I've got it!"

As Feng Xue muttered to himself, he glanced around, completely oblivious to the Ghostly Shadow closing in behind him. Finally, just as he suddenly bent down, the Ghostly Shadow lunged forward, its hands, covered in sharp nails, darting out—

"Aww!"

A piercing scream instantly tore through the sky, making Feng Xue understand what true wailing and howling really meant.

Looking down at the brazier she was holding, and then at the pair of ghostly hands piercing it, Feng Xue's face showed pity. The pale Ghostly Shadow grinned at Feng Xue, and seeing her expression, it didn't care why an ordinary brazier could burn it. It immediately turned into a wisp of black smoke and disappeared in front of Feng Xue.

"Black smoke again. Is this a standard skill for ghosts in this game, or is it actually a ghost?" Feng Xue shook her head, canceled the Temporary Phantom of the brazier, poured out the ashes, filled them with White Candle and joss paper, and walked towards what appeared to be the Ancestral Hall.

"Bro, is this guy really not afraid of death?" The two players who were observing Feng Xue from afar through binoculars stared at each other in bewilderment. They had never seen such a reckless player before, but seeing the Ghostly Shadow being burned by the brazier, they couldn't help but feel excited.

"Could the ghosts on this set be afraid of fire?" Putting down his binoculars, the player immediately broke off a few branches from a dead tree by the roadside, lit them with a lighter to use as torches, and felt a sense of relief. But just then, he suddenly felt that something was wrong.

"Brother!" Seeing his younger brother's terrified expression, the player immediately realized something, his face turning deathly pale. But before he could drop the dry branch, he heard whispers in his ear—

"It hurts, it hurts so much... my hand hurts so much..."

The player stiffly turned his head to look at the withered branch in his hand, only to find that the branch had somehow transformed into a skeletal arm. Ghostly blue flames burned fiercely at the broken ends of the arm bones, but they provided no warmth whatsoever.

"Grass!"

Regardless of how the other players are doing now, Feng Xue has already scavenged a bronze incense burner and several boxes of damp Incense Stick from the Ancestral Hall.

"It's still a bit shabby, but these are extraordinary times, at least I didn't burn newspapers, right?" Feng Xue mixed the damp, broken Incense Stick sticks with water, kneaded them well, and then rolled them back into thin strips. These Incense Stick, which had been stored for decades, actually had a few usable pieces, but after selecting a few, Feng Xue discovered a problem—

Although these incense sticks look usable, they vary in length and quality. When it comes to burning incense, it's better not to burn any at all than to have inconsistencies, otherwise problems will arise.

After realizing the sinister intentions behind it, Feng Xue immediately abandoned the idea of using it directly. Although he was confident that he could beat the game, since he was here to learn from the experience, he naturally had to follow their rules.

It's fortunate that he's a Martial Grandmaster; otherwise, without some professional equipment, it would have been impossible to produce such a large quantity.

A row of slightly thick Incense Stick were laid out in the brazier. Feng Xue lit a campfire with wood she had pulled from the dilapidated house and placed the brazier over the fire, intending to dry the Incense Stick.

Okay, maybe it's from the smoke?

Let these Old Fossils also experience the taste of "incense".

Feng Xue muttered something under his breath, adding firewood to the fire while continuing to roll incense sticks. Two hours later, he had rolled out a large handful.

"Although I don't know how many people are in this cemetery, judging from the size of this village, it should be enough if they all become ghosts."

Feng Xue carefully rolled up the Incense Stick sticks with joss paper to avoid damage, then carried a brazier of supplies and headed back up the mountain along the path she had taken down.

"Waaaaah~~~"

"Waaaaah~~~"

The sound of weeping rang in her ears again, but this time it was especially sincere, as if the ghost had suffered some great injustice. However, Feng Xue, who was returning to Burrlett scene, seemed completely oblivious to the sound, carrying the brazier and rushing up the mountain in a flash.

"You took my brazier away, at least light some incense for me!"

Finally, just as Feng Xue was about to leave the village, he heard a voice filled with grievance. Feng Xue smiled, turned back to the coffin, and said with a helpless expression:

"Just say you want it! How am I supposed to know you want it if you don't tell me? It's just three incense sticks, is it really worth scareding me like this? Let's make a rule: I'll offer you incense, and you're not allowed to bother me anymore!"

As Feng Xue spoke, she mounded a clod of earth in front of the coffin, adopting a stance of negotiating terms.

The ghost found this amusing, but still revealed its Ghostly Shadow and said:

It's a deal.

To everyone's surprise, Feng Xue extended her right hand, raised her little finger, and said seriously, "Words are no proof, let's pinky swear!"