Xu Yi had learned more about the Night Roaming God, and he was somewhat excited:
"One rank?"
Jing Tao hesitated, gathering her thoughts before she spoke:
"Legend has it that the Ascension Staircase exists in this world. If a Night Roaming God can climb it one step at a time, they can eventually shed their mortal body and become a 'true god.'"
Recalling what Jing Tao had told him before, Xu Yi interjected:
"If a Ghost Messenger climbs all the way to the top of the Ascension Staircase, can they become the Yin Son of Heaven?"
His words startled Jing Tao.
She hurriedly gestured for him to be quiet, her voice tense:
"You can't go around saying things this blasphemous!
The gods are said to be listening from just above our heads. Who knows whether they're listening to us right now?"
Xu Yi remembered the two points of divine light that had once hovered above his head. His heart tightened, and he immediately fell silent.
Jing Tao let out a breath and confirmed his guess:
"In theory, your guess is right.
But no one has ever proved it.
In fact, we're now in the legendary Age of Dharma's Decline. All kinds of powerful Hundred Night Miasmas keep appearing, including some that have never existed in recorded history. They've entrenched themselves in human society, and some even hold power and status. Their spiritual power is far greater than that of most Night Roaming Gods.
High-ranking Night Roaming Gods are exceedingly rare.
To become one, you have to kill a high-level Hundred Night Miasma and obtain more powerful spiritual energy. Only by transforming it into divinity can you climb another step and ascend.
The Hundred Night Miasmas of this era are too powerful. Countless high-ranking Night Roaming Gods have died on the path to ascension..."
Jing Tao's gaze dimmed:
"My master only ended up in his current state because he failed to hunt a Hundred Night Miasma..."
She didn't elaborate.
Xu Yi could tell his master's past was a sensitive subject, so he didn't press her.
None of this bad news had dampened his enthusiasm. His eyes still shone:
"Then... what exactly is a Ferryman?"
Jing Tao had no reason to be guarded around Xu Yi, so she explained:
"Master has some powerful ghosts working under him.
He also has good relations with some powerful ghost-type Hundred Night Miasmas in Puxi City.
His divinity can ferry ghosts across to the other side of the Yellow Springs, where they can be reborn. So the ghost-type Hundred Night Miasmas like to curry favor with him and befriend him.
At the very least, they won't go out of their way to provoke him.
What if they decide they don't want to be ghosts anymore and want to be reborn?
If they want to be reborn safely, they have to go to my master!"
That was the Ferryman's divine ability!
Xu Yi was itching to know more. He asked:
"Is that incense burner also Spirit Remains?"
Jing Tao confirmed his guess again:
"Yes, it's Spirit Remains, but no one knows which era it came from or which Night Roaming God's lineage passed it down.
Its spiritual energy is already very weak. It can only be used to train the spiritual energy of Night Roaming Gods who haven't entered the profession yet. No other abilities have been discovered so far."
Jing Tao couldn't explain anything beyond that.
As the two chatted, a gust of cold wind suddenly blew through.
The newspaper Xu Yi had taped over the window was blown away.
As it fell in front of Xu Yi and Jing Tao, Jing Tao's master—the old man Xu Yi had seen that morning—suddenly appeared before them out of thin air!
Xu Yi needed his help, so he eagerly got up, clasped his hands in greeting, and addressed him as "senior."
Jing Tao happily stood too, taking her master by the arm and inviting him to sit in the business owner's seat at Lingtong Hall.
Her master had already been a little unhappy when he saw Xu Yi with Jing Tao. He had watched her grow up and had looked after her for many years. To Jing Tao, he was both a teacher and a father.
What father would be happy to see his daughter hanging around with a street thug?
Only after Jing Tao gave up her seat did he feel a little better. The corners of his mouth lifted, a faint smile appearing on his deeply lined, aged face.
He looked at Xu Yi, an involuntary hint of approval in his eyes.
Yet beneath that approval, complicated emotions welled up. Looking at Xu Yi, he murmured:
"The heroes of this world are as numerous as carp crossing a river..."
In a single day, he had withstood the spiritual energy in the Spirit Remains, refined divinity, and become a Night Roaming God?
Even the ancient books preserved in the lineage had never mentioned anyone this outrageous!
Xu Yi couldn't quite make out what he'd said:
"Huh? Old sir, what was that?"
Master coughed.
"My surname is Yan. My given name is Luo."
The name left Xu Yi dumbfounded.
The same name as the King of Hell?
Wasn't it blasphemous to take a name so similar to a divine title?
What Yan Luo said next made Xu Yi somewhat nervous:
"That incense burner is Spirit Remains from a mid-ranking Night Roaming God, called Shadow Wood.
Legend has it that when the person who cultivated it lost control of their divinity, they accidentally mistook themself for the source of a fragrance and refined themself. That was how this piece of Spirit Remains came to be.
It happened in the previous dynasty, so long ago that the original spiritual energy of this Spirit Remains can no longer be determined.
All I know is that the spiritual energy remaining in it can mingle with a person's own spiritual energy and train it.
As long as the user can withstand the spiritual energy's corrosive influence, their own spiritual energy will grow stronger.
Once that spiritual energy reaches a certain level, it can build up gradually and eventually transform into divinity."
Jing Tao added:
"The chances of developing divinity the first time you use these Spirit Remains are incredibly slim."
Yan Luo felt a little sour at Jing Tao's praise, but he had to admit:
"That's true.
This kid might have been born for this line of work."
Xu Yi asked Yan Luo slowly:
"So the visions caused by the spiritual energy in the Shadow Wood incense burner were all fake?"
Xu Yi was extremely uneasy.
Was the other me I saw in the incense burner's mist—the psychopathic serial killer—real or not?
Yan Luo replied:
"Maybe they weren't entirely fake.
Anything involving spiritual energy is hard to explain.
It might have been false, or it might not have been.
Spiritual energy can sometimes foreshadow certain things. But no one can predict whether those things will come true."
Xu Yi accepted the answer and clasped his hands toward Yan Luo, speaking earnestly:
"Senior, what exactly is my lineage?"
Yan Luo looked somewhat embarrassed as he answered:
"The lineage that suits you is a bit scattered."
Though he felt awkward, he told Xu Yi everything he knew:
"Night Roaming Gods in your lineage have served emperors as perfumers throughout the dynasties.
But based on my research, perfumers should be in the middle ranks of the Ascension Staircase, not the upper ranks."
"The lowest-ranked Night Roaming God in your lineage is called a Sniffer.
I don't know what comes after the Sniffer."
Before you continue