Discovery

"I was overthinking it!"

As Xu Feng walked, he felt a little foolish, but his mind had finally settled.

Yet when he reached the fork, some impulse made him glance back.

That one glance!

Every hair on Xu Feng's back stood on end. Even some of the hair on his head sprang up!

Beneath the archway of the Life-and-Death Mystery Gate behind him, the smoke had gathered in an impossible quantity. It formed an incense pattern like a human face, filling the space beneath the archway and watching his retreating figure with an almost-smile.

When Xu Feng saw it, the face did not disperse. Only when a gust of wind blew through was all the incense smoke swallowed into the archway.

As for the three incense sticks on the ground...

Not even a smoldering tip remained.

Xu Feng let out a long breath. Facing the archway, he backed away slowly until he reached the main road.

The sun beat down on his back, but he felt none of its warmth.

He could barely keep his expression steady. He looked caught between wanting to speak and holding back.

Right now, he only wanted to know one thing. In the game, his master had said that his grandmaster knew thirty-six arts, his master knew nine, and Xu Feng had learned one.

Which of those thirty-six arts did the Incense Divination he had just witnessed belong to?

That shocking glimpse had set Xu Feng's heart racing.

Back on the main road, once his heartbeat had steadied, Xu Feng tried to clear his mind and think. After several minutes of hesitation, he gritted his teeth and headed toward the Dragon-Locking Temple again.

If you saved someone, you saved them to the end. If you escorted the Buddha, you took him all the way west.

A man's head had to be hard as iron!

All right, this had nothing to do with sunk costs, nor was it a case of "I've come this far anyway." Xu Feng simply understood that if something was wrong with this world, he needed to find out what was happening on this mountain.

He had been in these mountains for years without incident. He had never even seen anything supernatural.

There was no reason everything should turn so dangerous the moment the game console arrived. It was worth a try.

As his heartbeat slowed, Xu Feng kept walking and began to consider something deeper.

Why did his employer make him patrol the same route again and again, checking in every day?

Xu Feng hardly needed to think to know they must be aware of something. Then he remembered more. Every year, when his shift came around for leave, he underwent an extraordinarily thorough full-body examination.

Xu Feng had thought it was simply a benefit.

Looking back, it was a benefit, yes, but that did not mean there was no hidden purpose behind it.

If he assumed the worst...

His presence was almost like a detector.

Of course, perhaps he was thinking too badly of his employer.

But Xu Feng was used to considering the worst possibility first.

That way, if the truth turned out better, it would be a pleasant surprise.

And if his suspicions were right, could he find an excuse to transfer out of the mountains?

He probably could!

Lost in thought, Xu Feng quickened his pace, left the fork behind, and headed for the Dragon-Locking Temple.

The path to the Dragon-Locking Temple was nowhere near as broad as the main road.

It narrowed sharply and turned into the shadowy mountains. Stone steps covered many stretches. Xu Feng took out his trekking pole, ready to flick any "spicy strips" off the path.

Xu Feng had read about the Dragon-Locking Temple's origins, but the county gazetteer was hopelessly vague.

It simply listed every possibility.

There were two explanations in all.

The first was that a Taoist temple called the Dragon-Locking Temple had once stood here, making the site its ruins. But Xu Feng had never seen any trace of those ruins.

The second was that the word "temple" in its name actually meant "to observe": from the Dragon-Locking Temple, one could see the place where the ancient people had locked away a dragon.

The Dragon-Locking Temple also lay along a fork in the road.

The mountain path curved. Dense trees blocked his view, leaving him unable to make out what lay ahead. Xu Feng checked in first, then lit three incense sticks at the fork.

This time, there was nothing wrong with the lighter or the incense sticks. Yet no matter what Xu Feng did, he could not light them!

Worse, each time the incense was about to catch, Xu Feng felt a gust rise from his shoulder and blow out the lighter's flame.

Xu Feng did not turn to look at his shoulder.

He forced himself to hold his nerve and left without hurrying. Only after he had retreated downhill for ten minutes did he exhale and shudder all over.

Goose bumps covered his skin.

He tried lighting incense again there. This time, no chill rose from his shoulder, and the incense caught. His tools were fine. The problem had to be the Dragon-Locking Temple!

Xu Feng frowned.

He was a rank amateur—or not even that.

He had only just entered the trade of corpse stitching.

But he had a good memory.

He clearly remembered his master saying that Incense Divination belonged to the "ask" part of "look, listen, ask, and feel."

To ask meant asking the local deity first, then asking the souls of the dead.

Xu Feng had seen no gods anywhere on the mountain. Most likely, then, he had been asking ghosts.

At the Ancient People's Tomb, Xu Feng had asked, and the "ghost" there had answered.

Whether the answer was good or bad, it was still a response.

But the "ghost" at the Dragon-Locking Temple had a worse temper. It would not let Xu Feng ask.

So when Xu Feng climbed the mountain again, he did not try using incense.

He crossed the hill, checked in at the Heavenly Gate, and took the path through the Desolate Village back down.

Before long, Xu Feng saw the Desolate Village's archway.

He looked out over the village. An inexplicable desolation hung over it. This time, Xu Feng did not light incense to test it.

Lighting incense was, at its heart, a question. Asking was a form of interaction, a way to probe and understand. Yet for some reason—perhaps because unease had lodged in his heart—he could not shake the feeling that the buildings of the Desolate Village were like a living centipede.

After checking in, Xu Feng went straight back to his little courtyard.

By then, the sun was high overhead. It was almost one in the afternoon.

But so much had happened that day that Xu Feng felt as though three or four days had passed.

After a quick meal, Xu Feng rode his little three-wheeled scooter to the village again. This time, he noticed a tiny structure at the village entrance.

It was small, reaching only about halfway up Xu Feng's calf.

But Xu Feng knew exactly who was enshrined inside.

It was the local Land God.

Xu Feng now had something he wanted to test. Ghosts existed.

What about gods?

After all, Incense Divination to Question Ghosts was not the only art he had learned in the game. He had also learned Invoking the Gods' Protection.

This time, Xu Feng bought the best incense the village shop had, along with some cooked food, disposable chopsticks, and a bottle of Erguotou. He went to the shrine and arranged everything exactly as his master had done in the game.

Even the placement of each item was identical.

The shopkeeper followed him out, cracking sunflower seeds as he said, "You're making an offering to a god?"

When Xu Feng nodded, the shopkeeper pointed at the arrangement and said, "I'll say this—it looks pretty convincing!"