Blood-guided incense

"Fuck, that old man only said west of the city. He never said it was this far." Li Yichen pedaled his bicycle weakly, panting hard with his tongue hanging out.

By the moonlight, he looked at the abandoned building not far ahead and felt like crying, but had no tears left.

He was even starting to regret it. Had riding a bicycle for two solid hours really been worth saving a little on the fare?

Just as he was marveling that he had finally found the place, he suddenly felt the front of the bicycle dip. Then came a clang, and his whole body went flying.

With a thud, Li Yichen hit the ground spread-eagled and lay there for a long while, unable to get up.

"Fuck! Who the hell dug such a huge hole in the road? Have they got no consideration for anyone else?" It took Li Yichen a long time to climb to his feet.

Then he limped back and hauled the overturned bicycle upright.

"It's over. The wheel's all warped. This bike's completely wrecked. Why am I so damn unlucky?" A quick glance was enough for Li Yichen to know that the battered bicycle was beyond saving. The loss pained him terribly.

"Ah, I'll have to walk. At least it isn't far now." Li Yichen sighed, tossed the bicycle aside, and found a few large stones by the roadside to place around the hole before continuing toward the White Temple.

He had not been able to see it clearly from a distance. Once he reached it, he was dumbfounded.

Three of the White Temple's four courtyard walls had collapsed. Set into the sole remaining wall were two tightly shut wooden doors with peeling paint.

Li Yichen could not help curling his lip. With the place in this state, was there any point in keeping the doors shut?

At that thought, he reached out to push the doors, only for the entire wall to collapse first with a crash.

"Holy shit, you can't blame me for that." Li Yichen was utterly stunned. "I hadn't even touched it. It fell over on its own, okay?"

Li Yichen stepped over the ruined wall. Inside, the White Temple looked even more dilapidated.

The windows of the few brick-and-tile buildings were long gone, and he could even see the stars through their roofs. Waves of cold, sinister air drifted out of the rooms.

A gust of wind swept through with a low, mournful howl. Despite it being August, the place felt eerily cold.

Anyone else might have pissed themselves in fright, but Li Yichen was not particularly afraid. What was about to happen would be far stranger than anything before him.

The White Temple was small, after all, and he soon finished looking around. Finding nothing unusual, he chose an open patch of ground and emptied his bag: two white candles, three finger-thick sticks of Dragon Incense, and three copper coins.

Li Yichen checked the time. It was almost midnight, so he dared not delay any longer. He located due west and planted the two candles in the ground, spaced apart.

Then he arranged the three copper coins in front of the candles in the positions of the Three Powers.

By the time he had finished, it was precisely midnight.

He immediately held two fingers of his right hand together like a sword, cupped his left hand beneath them, and cried, "Candlelight, illuminate the Netherworld. Open!" As he spoke, he pointed in quick succession. Something eerie happened: with two soft puffs, the candles he pointed at burst into flame without warning.

Stranger still, although the candles had lit, their light did not spread. Instead, it grew hazier, as though the phantom image of another world were reflected within it, too indistinct to make out.

Next, he bit his finger and smeared it across the three sticks of Dragon Incense, staining each with a trace of blood before lighting them in the candle flames.

"First, homage to humanity," Li Yichen recited. Holding one incense stick between two fingers, he inserted it into the hole of the copper coin in the humanity position.

Without pausing, he recited again, "Second, homage to heaven," and inserted the second stick into the hole of the coin on the left.

"Third, homage to earth." He immediately inserted the final stick into the hole of the coin on the right.

Then he performed the Seven-Star Steps, reciting once more, "Three sticks of pure incense reach the Nine Hells; with the seven stars beneath my feet, I bow to the ghost sovereign... Golden dragons guide the way; blood of the lineage raises the soul..."

When he finished, the three incense sticks, which had seemed normal until then, began burning away at a speed visible to the naked eye. The white smoke they released gathered without dispersing, slowly writhing, a blood-red glow shining within it, until it finally took the form of three dragons made of smoke.

At that very moment, the three copper coins on the ground transformed into three streaks of golden light that enveloped the smoke dragons. In an instant, three golden dragons began circling above the candles, releasing rhythmic, soundless roars as though performing some mysterious ritual.

Although this was not Li Yichen's first time witnessing such a scene, everything before him still felt somewhat unreal.

Once the three golden dragons completed the final rite, they plunged headfirst into the phantom image within the candle flames and vanished. The hazy flames instantly returned to normal.

When the strange phenomenon disappeared, Li Yichen was left feeling bewildered instead.

Sure, he thought he must have looked pretty cool just now, but what the hell was the point?

For as long as he could remember, he had followed his grandfather and father in repeating the same ritual on this day.

More than once, he had asked his grandfather, "Grandpa, why do we do all this?"

"I don't know either." Every time, his grandfather would stroke his head and say, "It was passed down by your grandfather's grandfather... his grandfather, that is, your forefather. Every male in our line has to carry it on. You'll have to do the same when you grow up, until we've offered ninety-nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine sticks of incense."

"What exactly was that forefather of mine trying to do? Isn't this just making trouble for everyone?" Li Yichen muttered. "I don't even know how many sticks today makes. I'm the only one left in our line now. Maybe one day the family line will die out. That'd probably piss my forefather to death."

"Forget it. No point thinking about it. If there's wine today, get drunk today; leave tomorrow's worries for tomorrow." Since he could not figure it out, he simply stopped trying.

Without caring whether the ground was dirty, he lay straight down. "I can't get back anyway. Might as well make do here for the night."

Just as Li Yichen was preparing to sleep in a ruined temple in the desolate hills, three little golden dragons were traveling along the Path to the Netherworld, entering the Netherworld Realm.

Hiss, hiss... The closer they drew to the Netherworld Realm, the denser the death energy in the air became, and the golden light around the three little dragons rapidly dimmed.

By the time they had fully entered the Netherworld Underworld, their protective golden light had vanished completely, leaving their gray, smoky bodies fully exposed to the death energy.

Suddenly, they began emitting a dazzling red light. Then, as if receiving some kind of guidance, all three shot off in the same direction.

Thousands of miles away, inside a pitch-black cave, a scholarly-looking young man in black robes sat cross-legged with his eyes closed, his hair hanging loose.

Suddenly, his eyes opened, and a beam of eerie light shot out.

With a thunderous rumble, the entire mountain range began shaking violently, sending hard black rocks tumbling down.

Then he extended a hand and pressed lightly downward. The enormous mountain range instantly fell still, as though nothing had happened.

At that moment, three streaks of red light cut across the sky, shot into the cave, and hovered before him.