The moment the word "glory" reached his ears—
Xiao Xiao had already bent down and bowed three times to the "conceptual god" on the ritual altar.
The Fat Wizard picked up three slender sticks of incense.
Without any visible movement, three exceedingly thin wisps of pale, almost white smoke rose from their tips. They climbed straight upward, like three slender pillars supporting the space between heaven and man, only to break off abruptly in midair and vanish into the void.
"Through incense, commune with the divine; through sacred fire, summon the spirit. With my sincerity, I beseech its judgment!"
Xiao Xiao murmured the incantation.
He led the Fat Wizard through three rounds of kowtows and nine bows.
With every kowtow, the spirit tablet on the altar brightened a little; with every bow, the air around the altar grew a little hotter. When they reached the third round—hiss!
A faint sound came from the void, like red-hot iron being plunged into ice water.
Fine, elongated red threads came from every direction, shrouding the tablet like a spiderweb. At the center of that web, where those slender red threads intersected, an exceedingly tiny spark lit up.
Smaller than a pinprick.
Smaller than a mote of dust.
Yet it possessed a pure, deep crimson radiance that seemed almost solid. After a single glance, Fatty Xin hurriedly shut his eyes. His eyeballs felt scorched, and tears streamed down his face.
"Is this Hellfire?"
He wiped his eyes in bewilderment, but his tears would not stop. "Why does it feel like the smoke and fire blown out of the Wind sector of the Old Lord's Eight Trigrams Furnace..." "You think you're Xin the Monkey King? You're a blue gorilla at best!" Xiao Xiao stopped bowing and mercilessly mocked the Fat Wizard, though his own gaze