The Craving of Madness

Xu Yi felt a sudden spark of realization.

"Ye Miao's scent, when it meets my spirituality, activates it and grants me spiritual vision.

Jing Tao's scent, when it meets my spirituality, heals my wounds and sharpens my senses."

"Wait, why does Jing Tao's scent have side effects?

Does that mean, logically speaking, Ye Miao's scent should have side effects too?"

Xu Yi gripped Ye Miao's sachet, feeling a bit eager to test it.

"Forget it."

He walked toward the inn, lost in thought.

"If I inhale too much of Ye Miao's sachet and trigger a situation I can't control, that would be a huge problem."

It was only one o'clock in the afternoon, so there was still some time before his meeting with Jing Tao at sunset.

Xu Yi stopped at a small street shop to order a bowl of beef brisket noodles, followed by a meat sandwich with a mix of lean and fatty pork, topped with chopped green peppers, peanuts, and fresh onions.

After finishing his lunch, he returned to the inn, locked the door and windows, drew the curtains, and took out the Black Dragon Incense Burner given to him by the strange old man that morning, placing it on the table.

In the dim light of the inn room, the smoke-like five-clawed black dragon on the burner looked lifeless, far less vivid than it had appeared that morning.

"If it's true, as the old man said, that using this burner can temper my spirituality..."

Xu Yi couldn't help but feel a surge of excitement at the thought of what he might be capable of.

"Once my spirituality is strengthened, perhaps I'll have the ability to sniff Ye Miao's sachet more often and see exactly what those side effects are."

There was no fear in his tone, only anticipation.

Xu Yi poked at the small brass incense burner, unable to see anything special about it.

He took out a match and lit the incense inside, but he still couldn't smell a thing.

He used Ye Miao's sachet to activate his spiritual vision, peered at the bright yellow flame inside the burner, and leaned his nose in close, yet he still smelled nothing.

The situation was exactly the same as it had been that morning.

The old man's words surfaced in Xu Yi's mind once more—

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

Becoming a Night Roaming God was clearly not that easy.

Xu Yi maintained his activated spiritual state, sitting cross-legged on the chair, staring at the bright yellow flame in the burner.

He couldn't make heads or tails of it after a long while, so he just stared blankly.

Until the smoke from the unknown incense in the burner grew thicker and denser...

By the time Xu Yi realized what was happening, he was already surrounded by the thick smoke billowing from the burner.

He stood up in alarm, instinctively sensing that something was wrong. He subconsciously walked toward the door, but even after taking more than ten steps, he hadn't reached it.

Not knowing what was happening, Xu Yi bit the bullet, turned around, and walked back, intending to extinguish the burning incense and cut off this eerie smoke.

But after walking back more than ten steps, he couldn't see the table or the incense burner!

Something even worse happened—

The thick fog before Xu Yi's eyes gradually faded, and the scene appearing before him was no longer the inn's guest room!

The smoke from the Black Dragon Incense Burner had seemingly formed a passageway, and now that he had passed through it, he had arrived on the other side.

The room was very dim, lit only by a faint incandescent bulb. It was about twenty square meters in size, with an operating table in the center, making it look like a surgery room.

On both sides of the room stood two rows of display shelves with a total of six tiers, filled with all kinds of incense burners.

These burners varied in size and material—bronze, brass, purple copper, ceramic, plastic, and even wood.

Most of these burners held no incense, only a thick layer of ash left behind from burnt joss sticks.

Only a few burners had half-burnt sticks remaining.

As for complete sticks, there wasn't a single one.

Xu Yi felt an inexplicable sense of affinity for this room.

He subconsciously wanted to approach the burners, light the sticks, and smell their scent.

Suddenly, a voice came out of nowhere from the other side of the room:

"I've discovered that the scent on every woman is different."

Xu Yi whipped his head around, his eyes widening as if struck by lightning.

The person in the corner of the room was none other than himself!

The other Xu Yi stood up, walked to the display shelf opposite him, picked up a miniature semi-open purple clay incense burner, and said to Xu Yi:

"This woman was an outsider who came to Puxi City to strike it rich. She originally came to stay with relatives, but after arriving in Puxi, she was assigned to an ointment factory.

The factory's wages were low, but the workload was ridiculously intense; she quit after only a month."

The other Xu Yi's tone was perfectly calm as he spoke these chilling words:

"Later, I met her and caught the unique scent upon her. I was so happy that I refined her into incense."

The other Xu Yi cradled the incense burner in his arms, gazing at the half-burned incense stick with eyes full of affection, his tone as gentle as the sweetest lover's vow:

"This way, her fragrance belongs to me alone."

Xu Yi swallowed hard.

An extremely ominous premonition welled up in Xu Yi's heart.

As the other Xu Yi spoke, he found himself overcome by a sudden, intense emotion—

He wanted to light the incense in the other Xu Yi's burner and inhale that very scent!

Xu Yi was horrified by such a thought!

He did not consider himself a saint, but he was certainly no pervert who would harm the innocent for his own selfish desires!

The other Xu Yi did not care what he thought.

The other Xu Yi produced a flip-top windproof lighter and ignited the incense stick in his arms.

The other Xu Yi's face was shrouded in smoke, lost in a state of intoxication so deep he could not extricate himself!

Xu Yi caught a faint whiff of the incense.

He struggled desperately to restrain himself, to keep from falling into its thrall, but his efforts were in vain—he could not stop looking, could not stop wanting to breathe it in, could not stop his feet from moving toward the incense.

"Come!"

The other Xu Yi held the burner out toward him.

"This is the most valuable treasure in the world!"

The voice was sharp and high-pitched, as if he had descended into madness!

"This is everything I have ever pursued in this world!"

As the smoke drifted outward, the scent of the incense before Xu Yi grew even stronger!

Xu Yi gritted his teeth, forcing himself not to step forward.

He had a premonition that if he walked over now, he would become just like that other Xu Yi—a true pervert who wantonly slaughtered the innocent!

Xu Yi successfully suppressed the maddening urge to inhale the fragrance!

Yet, unexpectedly, even as he restrained himself from approaching, the other Xu Yi, face twisted in fanaticism, kept closing the distance between them!

With his nerves stretched to the breaking point, Xu Yi suddenly opened his mouth and bit down hard on his tongue!

The sharp pain dispelled the craving, dispelled the scent of the incense, and dispelled the thick fog that had filled the sky.

Xu Yi snapped his eyes open to find himself sitting in his inn room, the incense burner before him unchanged.

The only thing that had appeared was a faint, dull trail of light, like a tassel of amber, stretching between him and the burner.