Incense Burner, and the Method to Become a Night Roaming God

Xu Yi felt embarrassed under the gaze, and not understanding the old man's intent, he pushed the untouched char siu bao toward him.

"Master, you eat."

The old man looked at the char siu bao, then looked at Xu Yi.

In a few moments, the old man picked up his chopsticks and, one by one, polished off the char siu bao in mere seconds.

The old man said to Xu Yi:

"I won't eat this char siu for nothing."

As he spoke, the old man reached into his lapel, pulled out a pack of cigarettes, and held them out toward Xu Yi.

Xu Yi was just about to wave his hand in polite refusal, intending to say he didn't smoke, when suddenly—

From the crumpled paper pack in the old man's hand, he caught an unusual fragrance.

The cigarette hadn't even been lit, yet it already possessed such a scent.

If it were lit, just how fragrant would it be?

The very instant he smelled it, Xu Yi's eyes widened, his pupils lost their luster, and his soul seemed to drift away.

The clamor in his ears vanished entirely.

Following that, the sky disappeared, the morning mist disappeared, the pedestrians disappeared, the old man disappeared, the morning tea shop disappeared...

Between heaven and earth, only that pack of cigarettes remained.

Xu Yi subconsciously reached out his right hand, groping toward the pack.

At the same time, his injured left hand jerked upward, grabbing his right.

"Xu Yi! Don't take it! That cigarette is a trap!"

His own voice rang out inside his head.

He rebuked himself with dissatisfaction:

"What kind of trap could a cigarette be? Being this timid and cautious, wouldn't I just be a coward hiding in his shell!"

His own voice in his mind was urgent:

"This thing clearly has spirituality! It might even be a type of Spirit Remains!

This Spirit Remains has managed to give us a split personality just by a single glance, and you still dare to touch it?!"

Xu Yi hesitated, pulling his hand back slightly.

He sniffed that irresistible, exotic fragrance and stared at the pack of cigarettes, his heart filled with intense reluctance:

"If it really is Spirit Remains, if we just snatch it, wouldn't we be getting a massive bargain!"

His own voice grew even more anxious:

"I think you've been blinded by greed! If this is truly Spirit Remains, it is definitely coming for you and me! The spirituality inside has already been activated, and its target is us! You won't be able to snatch it so easily!"

Xu Yi endured the agony, gritting his teeth as he said:

"Then what do you suggest we do!"

The voice in his mind was extremely calm, as if completely unaffected by the exotic fragrance:

"Like this: you hold back for now, and then we'll sound the old guy out to see what he's actually doing and what his background is.

If he's nothing special, we'll just snatch the pack of cigarettes and leave!"

How could someone capable of producing such a treasure be "nothing special"?

Xu Yi had little reason left; he said excitedly:

"It's settled! I'll hold back for now!"

The moment Xu Yi reached an agreement with himself and resisted the attraction of the fragrance, everything before his eyes returned—

First the morning tea shop, then the old man, the pedestrians on the road, the morning mist...

Until the sky appeared once more, and the clamor of the 38th Shop District main street followed, returning to normal in his ears.

Xu Yi's vision returned to normal, and the fragrance emanating from the cigarette pack was no longer as intense.

At the same time, an unbearable pain surged from his left wrist, and Xu Yi couldn't help but wince and grimace.

The old man looked at Xu Yi, his eyes flashing with a sense of approval that Xu Yi could not see:

"Good."

Before Xu Yi could even speak, the old man tucked the cigarettes away and said:

"You don't want the smoke, and I cannot eat your char siu for nothing.

How about this: to repay you, I will pass on a technique to you that will allow you to train your ability to control spirituality."

Xu Yi's eyes widened.

This old man was a Night Roaming God!

The Hundred Night Miasma could only appear at night; this old man could only be a Night Roaming God.

Who is he?

How did he find me?

Why would he pass down a technique to me?

Could it be because...

I'm handsome!

Wasn't it because I'm handsome that Jing Tao took a liking to me in the first place?!

Thinking of this, Xu Yi felt a bit strange.

This old man... he isn't a pervert, is he?

The old man did not know what Xu Yi was thinking, and naturally, he would not hold it against him.

He took a censer about half the size of a palm from his bosom.

This censer was made of brass, and a five-clawed black dragon was painted on its body. The figure of the black dragon was faint and indistinct; it did not look like a solid entity, but rather like it was composed of smoke.

The old man pulled a pack of Huaguang Brand matches from his pocket, struck one, and reached into the censer to ignite it.

Flames rose inside the censer, yet Xu Yi could not smell any fragrance.

It was rare for Xu Yi to be unable to smell something. To him, everything in this world had a scent: people, objects, plants, mountains, rivers, birds, beasts, insects, fish, air, sunlight... everything had a scent.

Only this censer, aside from the smell of brass, truly emitted no other odor.

The censer exceeded Xu Yi's understanding, making him highly vigilant.

The old man noticed Xu Yi's wariness, but he did not care.

"It doesn't matter if you can't smell it now.

Take this censer back with you.

When you can smell it, you will naturally know what that technique is.

Once you smell the scent, you will naturally master the knack of that technique."

After saying this, the old man stood up.

"Once you smell that scent, you will become a Night Roaming God."

Xu Yi was stunned and asked in pursuit:

"Senior, what exactly is that scent?"

"Doesn't the Night Roaming God have a lineage? Where is the Night Roaming God lineage related to that technique?"

The old man did not answer. He rose and left, disappearing into the crowd in the blink of an eye.

Xu Yi did not give chase.

Firstly, he was certain he could not catch up.

Secondly, his left hand was injured, making it difficult to get into a scuffle—even without the injury, he reckoned he couldn't win anyway.

Thirdly, Xu Yi knew that with such a mysterious visitor, if he didn't want to talk, pestering him would yield nothing.

Xu Yi clutched his left wrist and looked at the brass censer on the table before him.

After checking his surroundings to ensure no one was paying attention, he tucked Ye Miao's sachet into his sleeve and covered his nose and mouth with it.

His spirituality was activated by Ye Miao's fragrance, and a black-and-white field of vision unfolded before him.

He looked at the censer again, and his pupils constricted—

He saw that inside the ignited brass censer, a small, bright yellow flame was burning.

Beyond the four colors of black, white, gray, and red, he had finally seen a fifth color while his spirituality was activated.

Xu Yi twitched his nose, his eyes filled with even greater suspicion.

Even with his spirituality activated, he still couldn't smell anything.

How strange!

What exactly was this bright yellow flame?

Xu Yi decided to take the censer back first and study it properly.

He finished his porridge, wiped his hands with a newspaper, tucked the censer into his pocket, and headed toward the Peacekeeping Hall.

At this very moment, at the Jing Family residence.

It was only six in the morning, but Jing Tao was already preparing breakfast.

She woke up at this time every morning because, besides cooking, eating, and feeding her father, she also had to perform her morning exercises—training her spirituality.

The first ray of dawn, also known as "Violet Light" by the Night Roaming Gods, allowed one's spiritual training to achieve twice the result with half the effort when bathed in it.