Rite of New Life

The dazed Dong Ye reached out and picked up one of the little white foxes. The auras of the three immediately fell into disarray, then the auras of all four mingled together, carrying a faint additional trace of incense and worship.

"Looks like you do share some affinity!" Yu Chen did not care much about Dong Ye's change. Hu Seventy-Six beside him, however, was both delighted and helpless, his emotions exceedingly complicated.

As the household guardian immortal who had taken over the Dong Family, Hu Seventy-Six could be said to have been thoroughly led into a pit by the Dong Family.

Not long after taking over, he encountered the decline of the Dong Family's fortune. Just when he had painstakingly stabilized it, he was suppressed by Wang Daoist. When he had narrowly escaped death, he accepted a stick of incense offered almost jokingly by the muddleheaded Dong Ye and Dong Can, forming no small karmic bond and becoming completely tied to the Dong Family. In the end, he was dragged into the conflict among Yu Chen, Jin Guang, Mirror Flower, Wang Daoist, and the others.

Though the final outcome had been good, the experiences in between had truly been enough to make one's heart tremble with fear.

Thus, Hu Seventy-Six's feelings toward the Dong Family were truly very complicated. That was also why he had allowed his two most gifted children to appear before the Dong brothers.

Besides hoping that Yu Chen might take a liking to his two children and offer them a little guidance, he also hoped that his children could form a good bond with the Dong brothers.

Yu Chen understood Hu Seventy-Six's intentions as well. When he had instructed the two little white foxes and Dong Can earlier, although he had linked the auras of the three, it had only been in hopes that the two little white foxes could gain a trace of humanity from Dong Can, while Dong Can could gain some quick-wittedness from the foxes. He had not deliberately forged any karmic bond between them.

Yet after Dong Ye meddled, the four of them unexpectedly formed a contract in the unseen, extending the contract Hu Seventy-Six originally had with Dong Ye and Dong Can onto both sides' descendants.

Dong Ye seemed to realize that he had done something wrong. Looking at Yu Chen pitifully, he said, "Master..."

"Now you know you shouldn't move around carelessly?" Yu Chen stroked his head. Yu Chen had always been very tolerant toward children. Of course, he also rather enjoyed a few mischievous pranks aimed at children.

With a point of Yu Chen's finger, Dong Ye began dancing before him, completely beyond his own control.

Dong Ye's limp little body, under Yu Chen's control, completed one standard movement after another.

Yet no matter how standard the movements were, paired with Dong Ye's terrified expression and floppy body, they were anything but harmonious. Instead, they carried a rather comical air.

Dong Can, his older brother, immediately burst into laughter without the slightest hesitation. The two little white foxes tried to hold it in, but in the end could not resist. Lowering their heads, their bodies shook faintly.

At first, the white fox Hu Seventy-Six had amusement in his eyes as well, but gradually, his gaze changed.

As Dong Ye performed his strange dance, tiny specks of wish-power gathered in the unseen.

"Waaah..." Seeing the reactions of his brother and two little companions, Dong Ye, who already possessed some self-respect, could not help bursting into tears. As he cried, he shouted, "Master... Mas... you're bullying me... hic..."

He even began hiccuping as he cried. Yu Chen smiled, picked Dong Ye up, and pinched his nose. "I'm teaching you a skill that will let you establish yourself in the future, yet you little fellow truly don't appreciate it. Watch carefully!"

With that, Yu Chen set Dong Ye down, took half a step back, raised his hand, shifted his steps, and turned. Following a particular rhythm, he began an ancient ritual dance.

Yu Chen's spirituality leaped with the dance. Within his divine soul, seal-script characters flickered and shifted under the dance's influence, while layers of spiritual radiance spread from his body.

Wave after wave of melodious chimes, audible only to those with spiritual sensitivity, echoed through the air. Like green shoots after rain, they carried a clear and vibrant life force.

Whether Dong Can, Dong Ye, or the two little white foxes, all received a cleansing beneath the wash of this power. The two little white foxes struggled twice under the cleansing, then kicked their four legs and fainted.

Dong Can was even worse. By the time the little white foxes struggled, he was already sound asleep.

Only Dong Ye, the reincarnation of a mountain god, proved exceptionally tenacious. His eyes shone brightly as he watched Yu Chen, waving his hands and imitating Yu Chen's movements. Unfortunately, he was still too young and could not hold out to the end. When Yu Chen's dance reached its climax, the powerful impact exhausted Dong Ye's still-immature spirit, and he drifted into a heavy sleep.

Prayer: Rite of New Life—this was the name of Yu Chen's dance, and it had been one of his greatest contributions back when he was among the Snake Tribe.

Through dance, it transformed the power of the totem to the greatest extent, turning it into blessings beneficial to children. It granted every child within the prayer's range a blessing, protecting them as they grew safely and ensuring they would not easily die from illness or accidents.

"What a truly ancient and sacred dance. If those great gods learned of your existence, they would likely spare no effort to take you away and make you their most cherished retainer." Though he had not benefited directly, the white fox named Hu Seventy-Six still let out a long breath, deeply moved.

Being deeply involved with the divine path, he understood all too well just how great Yu Chen's method would appeal to deities.

Yu Chen said unconcernedly, "That is why I said it is a skill Dong Ye can use to establish himself after I leave."

"You are indeed right." The white fox nodded. If Dong Ye truly learned this, even if he only mastered one-third of Yu Chen's skill, there would be no shortage of people willing to protect him.

"But why did you dance it yourself first?" The white fox was somewhat curious. It could tell that Yu Chen did not actually like dancing, so why had he done this?

Yu Chen picked Dong Ye up, pinched his little cheek, and smiled gently. "He is still too young and doesn't understand many things. Reciting the Golden Light Mantra alone is enough to annoy him. If I want him to learn the dance properly, naturally I have to make him interested in it! Without interest, how could he study it well?"

After saying that, Yu Chen's lips curled slightly, and his smile became somewhat strange. "Besides, is being begged to teach the same as begging someone else to learn?"

Hearing this, the white fox looked at Dong Ye. For some reason, it felt that this child was just a little pitiful.

Over the next few weeks, after watching nearly the entire set of Prayer: Rite of New Life, Dong Ye began pestering Yu Chen to teach him the dance.

Yu Chen also mischievously taught him all sorts of strange movements. In the white fox's eyes, although these movements could exercise Dong Ye's body and activate his spirituality to the greatest extent, they also carried an unmistakably absurd quality.

Every time it watched Dong Ye practice, the white fox suffered terribly from trying not to laugh.

And whenever Dong Ye practiced dancing, the most common exchange between master and disciple was Dong Ye, holding a strange pose and stretching his muscles and bones, shouting, "Master, I can't hold on anymore!"

Yu Chen would raise his hand and cast a body-freezing spell, fixing him in place, then say listlessly, "Practice properly~"