It was a pretty woman dressed in a blue xiuhe wedding gown.
Only her ashen-blue skin showed that she was not alive.
"Hello, you two. I'm Xianggu." Xianggu tried to lift the corners of her mouth, but failed. Unbothered, she took Fu Yu's hand and patted it soothingly. "Let me tell you the rest."
"In a sense, I did lie to Fu Yu. I wasn't someone fleeing disaster. I used to belong to the Blood God Cult. My adoptive father was an incense maker for the cult. He found me, took me in, and raised me. He was also the one who discovered my talent for making incense. So he taught me how. Especially God-Descending Incense."
Fu Yu seemed to want to stop her and hurriedly cried, "Xianggu...!!!"
A faint smile lingered in Xianggu's eyes as she shook her head stiffly. "It's all right, Fu Yu."
She continued where she had left off. "Back then, I didn't know my adoptive father belonged to the Blood God Cult. When he taught me to make incense, he told me it was God-Inviting Incense. He said my constitution was special, that I could make God-Inviting Incense even though I wasn't a celestial master. I was delighted. I worked very hard to learn, and made so, so much of that so-called 'God-Inviting Incense.'"
"Later, my adoptive father passed away, and no one in the Blood God Cult knew how to make God-Descending Incense anymore. They approached me. Only then did I learn that they and my adoptive father belonged to the Blood God Cult, and that the incense I made wasn't God-Inviting Incense at all! Everyone knew the Blood God Cult was an evil cult that committed every conceivable crime. Naturally, I refused to make incense for them. It went against everything I believed in. So I fled, and ended up here."
"The people here were kind. They accepted me. I also found plenty of ingredients for incense in the mountains behind the village, which was how I met Fu Yu. I decided to teach the villagers to make incense to improve their lives. Perhaps it was precisely that decision that led the Blood God Cult here."
"They held the villagers hostage to force me to make God-Descending Incense, but I refused. Then they threatened to sacrifice the entire village, so I had no choice but to agree. Who knew they would go back on their word!!!! If Fu Yu hadn't saved the villagers and me..."
Ji Nanshu pondered as he listened. He asked, "So that's where her golden light of merit came from. In that case, how did you become like this?"
A flesh corpse, though slightly different from an ordinary one.
An ordinary flesh corpse was made by forcibly imprisoning a soul inside a body within an hour of death, then refining it with a secret technique for seven times seven-forty-nine-days. Under normal circumstances, flesh corpses did not harm people and had no thoughts of their own.
Xianggu's situation was clearly different.
She was conscious, could think, and still remembered her life before death.
Xianggu said, "Because I happened to have a genuine stick of God-Inviting Incense. Fu Yu... lit it while refining me with the secret technique, to keep me here. I didn't understand at first either. I thought it over and over, and this was the only possible explanation I could come up with."
It was certainly possible.
"So Fu Yu is willing to give up half her merit for you just to try again and see whether God-Inviting Incense can let you stay in this body for another few months?"
"That seems like a rather steep price!"
Fu Yu smiled bitterly, then said resolutely, "I have no choice. I really can't just stand by and watch Xianggu leave me!! I'm willing to pay any price! Even my life-"
Ji Nanshu's gaze moved back and forth between them before he finally said, "All right... nine tomorrow night. Three sticks of God-Inviting Incense. They'll last a year. Here's a path you can take: the corpse-driving clan has a cultivation method for flesh corpses. If you can endure the hardship and do more good deeds, things will turn out well for you two."
Fu Yu and Xianggu exchanged a glance, their excitement plain to see. "Thank you, Mr. Ji!!!!"
"But there's something I have to tell you. The Blood God Cult hasn't been wiped out. They're still active in this era, in other forms. They're even plotting something. Don't let anyone find out who you are or that you can make God-Descending Incense. The celestial masters of this era-"
"Aren't very good."
Alas, the arcane practitioners have fallen into decline! Otherwise, why would I still have to worry about this?
Truly a life of endless toil!
Fu Yu bit her lip and steeled herself. "Please place restrictions on both of us, Mr. Ji! If we dare think or speak about God-Descending Incense, make us kill ourselves immediately! We absolutely won't let the Blood God Cult learn anything about God-Descending Incense!"
Ji Nanshu shook his head in refusal. "No need. If they approach you, stall them and find a way to contact me."
"All right!"
By the time Fu Yu and Xianggu's matter was settled for the moment, it was past two in the morning. Ji Nanshu and Chu Mo returned to the courtyard hand in hand.
Chu Mo had had a question since that afternoon: what kind of spirit creature was Fu Yu?
"Nanshu, what kind of spirit creature is Fu Yu?"
Ji Nanshu stopped and said softly, "My dear benefactor~ I'm tired. I don't want to walk~"
Chu Mo crouched down without needing to be asked. "Get on."
"You're so good to me, my dear benefactor~ I like you sooo much~" Ji Nanshu climbed onto Chu Mo's back and leaned close to his ear to whisper that bit of praise. "Fu Yu is a wolf~"
Under the light of the roadside lanterns, their long shadows were faintly visible.
Set against the cool moonlight, the scene looked tranquil and lovely.
"And what's the Blood God Cult?"
The curious-baby version of his benefactor had come online.
Ji Nanshu looked up at the silver moon, a hint of nostalgia in his voice. "An... evil cult that commits every conceivable crime~"
Back then, he had beaten the Blood God Cult's members so badly that they trembled at the mere mention of his name!
"Everyone in the Blood God Cult has a blood-red flaming skull on them. If you see someone with that tattoo, no matter who they are to you, remember to stay away."
"All right."
"And don't go doing anything else on your own! Mm... at least take me with you!"
"All right. I'll take you."
"I'll make you a protective talisman when we get back. Wear it against your skin, and don't take it off at any time."
Chu Mo fell oddly silent for a while, then asked cautiously, "...Not even when we're doing it?"
Ji Nanshu: "..."
Smack-
A crisp slap rang out.
It was Chu Mo. Ji Nanshu had given him a hard slap on the head.
"Have you got sex on the brain?!" Ji Nanshu's face flushed bright red with embarrassment.
Pain and pleasure, all at once.
Chu Mo's lips curved, his expression growing softer and more tender. "Nanshu, call me A-Mo from now on!"
"Hm? What?" Ji Nanshu did not register it at first.
"I said, call me A-Mo."
"A-Mo? Do you like me calling you that?" Ji Nanshu suddenly pressed his head against Chu Mo's and repeated it several times.
"Mm..."
"A-Mo, A-Mo, A-Mo-ah. That's a little mushy..."
Vaguely, Ji Nanshu felt something had changed between them. They seemed closer, yet there also seemed to be something else.
Anyway, it's a good development~!
He liked it very much.
Work, work, work, and work some more on stockpiling chapters!!!