Huh? Isn't this an adventure kingdom building game?!-Chapter 699 - 683: Living Long Enough to See Anything?
"No, no reward without merit. I feel kind of embarrassed about this..." Huang San had no strength to refuse. He knew he shouldn’t accept such a heavy gift, but he just couldn’t resist—it was too inviting!
As expected, he still had a long way to go to achieve unity of knowledge and action and needed to continue cultivating his heart.
Jiang Yuan looked at Li Tiezhu, "Big brother, can we bring out Third Master’s incense burner?"
"Yes! Yes, yes, yes!" The other person hadn’t yet recovered from the shock, but immediately complied, hurrying to the room to get the incense burner.
Having worshipped Huang Ye for so many years, and they only met for a few minutes, and now call him "Third Master." Who would listen to reason with this?
A plain large incense burner was brought out and placed on the table. Inside, there was plenty of incense ash, mostly from cheap machine-made incense, with occasional sections of differently colored ash from handmade incense.
He stood in front of the incense burner.
In his left hand, he held the incense, and in his right hand, a cluster of Earth Spirit Flame emerged to light the incense from below. He brushed the flame from the bottom to the top to extinguish it, releasing spirals of blue smoke.
"Third Master, please enjoy the incense." Jiang Yuan inserted the offering incense into the incense burner.
The other party’s eyes immediately became hazy, reverting to the original animal stance on all fours. It rushed to the incense burner in a few steps, took a deep breath with its nose pressed close, and absorbed the smoke completely.
"Sizzle~"
The scent was top-notch, the technique was top-notch. Huang San, in all his long years, had never enjoyed such a satisfying incense.
Dazed by the incense, his mind was full of wonder about how this world was truly filled with talents. What kind of life had he been living before, not knowing such pleasures existed!
Chuci was also observing the "incense ceremony" closely for the first time and was truly amazed by its elegance!
Li Tiezhu was even more bewildered. Good heavens! Even offering incense was done better than him. This young fellow was remarkable. Wouldn’t this enchant the Immortal Family until they were completely spellbound and dizzy?
Generally, a seven-inch incense stick is 21 centimeters long, and the burning time varies based on the materials used and their softness. Jiang Yuan’s incense is solidly made, and a single incense stick can normally burn for half an hour.
But Huang San just couldn’t hold back, hugging the incense burner and inhaling hard.
Just watching the red dot on the tip of the incense consume rapidly, with ash falling section by section, not a single bit of the smell leaked out. In just a few minutes, the incense stick was completely inhaled like a "vacuum cleaner."
Li Tiezhu didn’t even get to catch a whiff. Seeing the unique ash in the incense burner, he thought to himself that even ten thousand yuan had vanished without even a sound!
Even if it were made of gold, it wouldn’t be this expensive, right?
The more he thought about it, the more it pained him. He picked up the tobacco that had fallen on the floor, gave it a sniff, and put it back in his pocket with a helpless look.
After enjoying the high-quality incense, Huang San’s furry face was full of bliss, and he lounged dreamily on the table for a while before getting up, full of praise.
"Where were we just now? Spiritual energy, right?" It sat back on the tissue box with increasing patience, "There is and there isn’t. Some energy continuously merges into the air.
But if you’re talking about the concentrated essence of heaven and earth in cultivation stories, absorbing and refining, that’s pure nonsense.
This energy indeed comes from heaven and earth. If you understand the Bagua, you should know that the essence of heaven and earth is transformation. Kun embraces heaven’s transformation, giving birth to all things. As long as Earth keeps spinning, energy won’t dissipate.
Every living being is absorbing this power. No one can absorb spiritual energy while others can’t."
Jiang Yuan was slightly stunned and asked, "So are you saying spirit roots don’t exist?"
This statement made it laugh. With an elderly, shaky voice, it chuckled, "Well, I’ve never seen it. If you talk about wisdom root, some have it and some don’t.
Some cultivators can achieve things ordinary people can’t, mostly due to body and mind alignment, not from growing a unique root out of nowhere."
"Since these things don’t exist, how did you..." He couldn’t quite understand. A weasel sitting like a human in front of him, invisible, speaking human words, yet saying it doesn’t have spirit roots or special spiritual energy.
How did it achieve this?
"You mean my abilities? That’s simpler. There’s no secret, just two words—surviving."
"I don’t quite understand, please enlighten me, Third Master."
"Just living well. If you live long enough, you’ll naturally come to understand some things." Huang San crossed his legs and reminisced, "Generally speaking, a weasel can live five or six years, eleven or twelve at the most. If lucky and well cared for, twenty years might be the max.
But I’ve lived up to the age of one hundred and six.
I still remember when I was young, ignorant of everything, indistinguishable from the wild weasels outside. But I’ve always had a good temperament since I was young; I would eat and drink my fill and then just sit around daydreaming. Maybe it’s because of this simple life that I stayed strong until I was thirty."
Living a long time makes one knowledgeable. Gradually, I came in contact with humans and started to understand their nature. I could understand what they were saying and began secretly mimicking their way of walking and talking. Speaking was difficult, though. I started by imitating other animals’ sounds and then learned to mimic birds. It took me twenty years to finally shed my horizontal bone and start speaking human language.
Later on, as I gained more knowledge, I started doing good deeds to accumulate virtue. I saved children who accidentally fell into water pools; I brought wild fruits to lonely old people. With some gained skills, I began worshiping the moon.
Humans also used to have the habit of moon worship. As the saying goes, ’Men do not worship the moon, women do not worship the stove.’ The Power of the Moon isn’t something everyone can absorb. Some elders knew this and, upon seeing a cat worshiping the moon or any household animal bowing towards it, they would quickly kill it to prevent it from gaining spiritual skills and bring disaster to the household."
Jiang Yuan was utterly bewildered; this was truly a case of seeing something once in a lifetime!
Living a long time means you can witness anything; the more you understand, the more compassionate you become. Accumulating virtue in exchange for spiritual skills is quite fascinating!
Huang San thought for a moment and added, "Having some spiritual skills means you’ve officially entered the path of cultivation. Now, aside from worshiping the moon on full moon nights, engaging Pillar to take on tasks, acting as a mediator to resolve problems, and accumulate virtue, the most important thing is relying on incense offerings."
Incense offerings are not a secret, nothing to hide.
Unfortunately, Pillar’s fortune is too weak. He doesn’t dare charge much for taking on tasks to avoid backlash. Besides, he travels all over the place, incurring various expenses. After so many years, he can’t even afford to use good incense every day.
"As for evil techniques, they are even simpler. From curse-binding techniques to the Lu Ban Book, they’ve been passed down for thousands of years. There are always some incomplete magic techniques that have fallen into the public domain.
There is a saying that humans are the spirit of all living things. I often advise Pillar to open his mind and to accumulate virtue as it’s not easy to be a human for a lifetime! It took me twenty years just to speak. To become human, who knows how many more years of cultivation it will require.
Being born as a human comes with an innate air. Begging for a sealed fate is begging for this human air. With this foundation, even someone who knows nothing can use magic if they possess it.
The simplest methods are incantations for Bone-Dissolving Water, or writing a character with a spell to catch a scorpion. These are minor magical techniques summarized by predecessors. Techniques like eye-blocking, and remote item retrieval, can be used once or twice to amuse people without harm. But if used for bad purposes, it creates karma.
Evil techniques are similar; they involve using cruel methods for personal gain, nurturing little ghosts, and refining evil spirits. Such people don’t meet a good end, and after death, they face a full course in Hell."
It adjusted its glasses, smiling, "Don’t be fooled by the temporary prestige of those people. After death, that’s when the real accounting begins."
"Is there really a Heaven and Hell on earth?"
"Of course there is. You say you only see clay paintings in temples—that’s for sure." Huang San nodded, pointing a small paw upward, "Immortals are busy with their respective duties. They have no time to sit in temples.
However, I haven’t met an Immortal. Years ago, I saw a substitute Yin Messenger who was originally a Yin Walker. Later, he had a chance and got a title down below. When things got busy, they would have him help guide souls.
Forget about Immortals and Ghost Messengers, even seeing such a substitute Yin Messenger requires fortune. Without such great fortune, seeing one would not be beneficial."
Jiang Yuan felt somewhat bewildered listening to this.
Having said so much, it felt as if nothing was really said. As he looked out at the darkening sky, he stood up, "Thank you, Mr. Third, for your guidance. It’s about time; let’s have dinner together tonight."
"That’s perfect. I know a great place not far from here." Chuci, finding himself in his area of expertise, laughed heartily. "From the outside, it looks like a factory, very low profile, but inside, it’s another world.
It’s very quiet, and the dishes are quite good. Those who don’t want to be seen eating and drinking lavishly prefer setting a table there. Let’s go. Today I’m treating; let’s have a good drink!"
Li Tiezhu, hearing this, was highly enthused.
He had seen and experienced much, knowing that many with sensitive identities liked to frequent special eateries, where the cuisine was of exceptional quality. Since the last time he got tangled with a female ghost, after leaving the hospital, he’d been eating street food daily, so this was a rare chance to improve his meals.
"Mr. Third, Chuci isn’t an outsider, would you join us?" Jiang Yuan noticed its lips twitching and thought it hadn’t reached the stage of living off the land yet. It probably wouldn’t refuse good food.
Smoothing his whiskers, Huang San thought for a moment and then exited his invisible state.
Only then did Chuci realize that a small-sized weasel was sitting on the table!
Dressed in clothes and wearing glasses, especially when those eyes looked at him, they’d already transcended animal form. The gaze was entirely filled with human nature, as if an elder were looking at him.
"May I ask, Mr. Chuci, are there cheaper meals at the place you mentioned?" It spoke with a voice that was old yet gentle.
Chuci, who had played cards with a female ghost, thought he’d seen it all and wouldn’t be surprised by anything anymore. But then he realized he had overestimated himself. When he saw a chubby, furry little cutie speak human language, for a moment, he felt like watching an animated movie.
He even subconsciously looked down, trying to find subtitles.
"Ahem ahem!" Huang San cleared his throat, explaining, "Pillar’s fortune is thin; plain tea and simple food are enough to fill him. We must prepare the cheapest dish for him separately, with two bowls of rice. Dishes with abalone or lobsters that cost hundreds or thousands shouldn’t be given to him casually as the depletion of fortune is too severe to recover, shortening his life."
Jiang Yuan: ???
Chuci: !!!
"Haven’t you heard, wearing thin clothes increases longevity, as does frugal eating?" It scratched the fur on its head with a paw, muttering, "For others, moderate frugality and mindset adjustment are enough, but Pillar is different. He must calculate everything, or else excessive depletion will shorten his lifespan, and there’s nothing I can do about it."
Huang San pointed at Chuci, saying to Li Tiezhu, "If you had even a ten-thousandth of others’ fortune, you wouldn’t need to calculate every meal and clothing. Mr. Chuci’s fortune is so great that even squandering a mountain of silver or gold wouldn’t be a problem. Everyone has their fate; whether you accept it or not, it remains."
