EFB Chapter 1 Kowtowing and Offering Incense to Ghosts and Gods
Chapter 1 Kowtowing and Offering Incense to Ghosts and Gods
Dahao, Jiangnan East Road.
The first snowfall in the world came a little earlier than usual.
The sky and earth grew dark, and twilight descended. As the last ray of sunlight was obscured by dark clouds and dissipated above the dome...
The first snowflake swiftly swooped down from the sky to the earth.
……
Ning'an Prefecture, Taimu City.
It is under the jurisdiction of Xiali Village.
The heavy snow has been falling for three days without any sign of stopping; in fact, it's getting thicker and thicker, covering the originally muddy and dirty stone-paved West Street with a thick layer of clean white snow, as if it has baptized the entire city.
At the end of Xiali Village, there is a dilapidated mud house.
Under the eaves covered with black tiles, ice and snow accumulated into cones, hanging upside down under the eaves, like the bared fangs of a wild beast.
"His forehead is fine, but he has two cracks on each eyelid and one crack inside each eyeball."
"Three cracks on both sides of the nose, and six cracks below the nostrils."
"There are a total of seven cracks around the lips..."
"On the neck..."
In front of the mud house, directly opposite the entrance to the main house, stood a shrine, the snow on it swept clean.
The boy, wearing a patched cotton coat, was breathing out hot air and rubbing his hands together. His head was almost touching the shrine's cage as he muttered incantations.
The gloomy sky brought by the heavy snow made the light dim and visibility extremely poor. In addition, the light was even more sparse inside the cramped shrine. If you didn't get close, you wouldn't be able to count how many cracks were on the statue inside the shrine.
If the number of cracks is miscounted...
That could be fatal!
"There are a total of sixty-nine cracks on the porcelain statue of the ghost and god, three more than yesterday... But we are still eighty coins short of the peace money needed to buy a new porcelain statue of the ghost and god."
Bu Che's tone carried a hint of helplessness, and even a sense of resignation, as if he were simply giving up and letting himself be tormented by the gods.
As a college student who, through nine years of hard study, scored more than ten points above the first-tier university entrance exam cutoff and entered a university in the provincial capital, I chose to enjoy my freedom and savor university life.
Staying up all night playing games, smoking and drinking, sleeping in class—these are all things that...
He did almost everything!
He admitted that he had been somewhat indulgent, but surely the consequences of his indulgence were not enough to lead to his exile?
Banished to this world where evil spirits and demons wreak havoc on heaven and earth... Have you ever considered the psychological feelings of a fragile college student who can strain his back just by stretching?
Coming to his senses, Bu Che took a deep breath of the icy air mixed with frost and snow, which stung his mouth and nose.
"Based on the memories of this body, the gods of this world have fallen, and their resentment lingers, transforming into malevolent spirits that wreak havoc on heaven and earth..."
"After ten thousand years of struggle between humans and spirits, they finally invented porcelain statues of spirits. By burning paper money and these porcelain statues, they can collect the scattered thoughts of spirits throughout the world and gain a moment of peace!"
Bu Che rubbed his numb, frozen forehead.
"However, the porcelain statue of ghosts and gods has a limited capacity. If too many ghosts and gods' thoughts are deposited on it, cracks will appear in the statue. The more cracks there are, the more likely the porcelain statue of ghosts and gods is to reach its limit."
"If the porcelain statues of ghosts and gods are not replaced in time, the porcelain will shatter and emanate from them, like evil spirits devouring people, infecting their bodies, causing their flesh to rot, and stripping them of their will..."
Bu Che couldn't help but shudder. In his previous life, he was someone who was too scared to watch horror movies alone and had to invite a girl to watch them with him...
He felt like he was going to become depressed.
Phew, winters in this world feel so much colder than in my past life.
Looking at the porcelain statues of ghosts and gods quietly placed in the shrine.
The fired porcelain statues of deities are placed quietly on the altar in the niche.
The porcelain statue of a ghost or deity has a large head and a small body. Its face is as white as jade, and it wears a glass official hat. Its left hand holds a jade pendant, and its right hand holds a gold ingot. It wears an official robe with special embroidered patterns and a red glaze as the base color. It is so lifelike that it seems to have a real life.
However, the surface of this porcelain statue of a ghost and deity is covered with dense cracks, which makes the statue, which should have been benevolent and smiling, look ferocious and eerie.
University students are atheists.
However, when it comes to life and death, what's the point of talking about "my fate is in my own hands, not in the heavens"? You still have to worship.
Take three incense sticks from beside the shrine, light them with a tinderbox, gently wave them to extinguish the flames, then hold them flat with both hands and place them between your eyebrows, inhaling and exhaling three times as the smoke rises gently.
He then separated one of the three incense sticks, held the end of the incense stick in his mouth, pressed it against the altar of the spirits, bent his legs slightly, and raised his cheeks with the incense stick in his mouth, causing the incense stick to tilt upwards.
The other two incense sticks were inserted into the incense burner, which was covered with a thick layer of ash, in an odd posture.
This is the way of worship I learned after inheriting the memories of this body, called "kowtow incense".
It seemed a little strange, but Bu Che couldn't quite put his finger on what was odd about it.
With each breath, one-sixth of the incense stick in the mouth burns, then the ash is broken, as if bowing and kowtowing to ghosts and gods.
woohoo-
The moment he broke the incense ash, Bu Che felt a sudden gust of cold wind rise around him, biting and icy, as if it were seeping into the seams of his clothes, making goosebumps rise all over his body.
Finally, the incense stick with the broken ash was reinserted into the incense burner, and only then did the feeling of being watched by ghosts and gods disappear.
Bu Che took a few steps back, ending his worship ceremony for the day.
"I need to find a way to earn money for safety, otherwise... I'll have to move to a place with a porcelain statue of a ghost or god for protection."
Bu Che shook off the few snowflakes that had fallen on him, his expression solemn.
This person is not an orphan; in terms of relatives, he does have a father who has remarried.
But this father was inhuman. Every day, Bu Che worked hard, following the caravan and trekking for three hours to the county town to work. The money he earned through sweat and blood was secretly taken away by his own father...
He used the money from his son with his new wife to obtain a place as an apprentice in the "Porcelain Kiln".
When Bu Che returned home after a long day of hard work, braving wind and snow, he found that the place where he had hidden his money had been dug up and that his hidden "peace money" was empty. He felt as if the sky had fallen.
How can we live like this?
After causing a huge scene, Bu Che's original self decisively chose to sever family ties and start his own business!
But in this world, it's too hard to live without money. Without money for peace, you can't buy porcelain statues of ghosts and gods. Without the protection of porcelain statues of ghosts and gods, it's just as the saying goes, "Death is like the wind, always by my side."
Who knows when, in the middle of the night while sleeping, one is unknowingly invaded by the thoughts of ghosts and spirits, and in the end... one's whole body rots, becomes a corpse ghost, dies an inexplicable death, and is hated by people.
Bu Che tucked his hands into his sleeves and sighed. In the words of the fairy from his previous life, this was the great misfortune of his family of origin.
Fortunately, the predecessor was decisive and ruthlessly severed family ties.
This saved Bu Che some trouble.
Having been in this world for almost half a month, Bu Che is barely making ends meet with the savings of his predecessor, but finding a job is proving difficult.
Just like before, he would trek for an hour and a half to work before dawn, and then trek back for another hour and a half in the middle of the night...
Finally, did he die suddenly at home?
Bu Chezhen couldn't do it.
He's a college student, not a grandmaster!
"If only I could become a trainee at a porcelain kiln... I can sing and dance!"
Bu Che gave a self-deprecating laugh.
The idea of going to a brothel is great, but unfortunately I don't have the money.
The porcelain kiln is no ordinary place; it is where porcelain statues of ghosts and gods are made. It is said that there are also professional "porcelain masters" in the kiln, who have a high status and are paid with beautiful gold leaf coins!
However, becoming a ceramic artist requires extremely high professional skills, and firing porcelain statues of ghosts and gods is by no means an easy task.
In addition to preparing raw materials, such as precious kaolin and original kiln porcelain stone, the porcelain master also needs to use his martial arts secret technique of circulating qi and blood. Even from the moment the potter starts throwing the clay, the porcelain master's qi and blood need to be incorporated.
After trimming, carving, shaping, and drying, the glaze is applied, and finally it is fired in the kiln!
But the firing process... is where the porcelain master is truly put to the test!
The intensity of the heat is maintained by using qi and blood, etc.
The steps are incredibly complicated, but no matter which step you take, one thing is indispensable: the qi and blood of the porcelain maker!
Bu Che traveled with the caravan to the county town for work every day, and naturally had contact with the caravan members, overhearing the martial arts masters in the caravan chatting about it.
In this world, practicing martial arts is no longer simple; practicing martial arts without worshipping ghosts and gods is no different from suicide!
Because the resentment of fallen gods and spirits is everywhere in the world, a warrior with strong blood and energy is no different from a delicious steamed bun that exudes a strong fragrance in their eyes, and will attract the crazy erosion of the thoughts of the gods and spirits.
After all, powerful martial artists have stronger bodies than ordinary people and can withstand the thoughts of ghosts and gods for a longer time!
Ghosts and spirits... can even be resurrected by possessing the body of a powerful warrior!
Therefore, if you want to practice martial arts, you must first worship the gods, so that the thoughts of ghosts and gods can be integrated into your blood and qi, get rid of the erosion of ghosts and gods, and even turn the tables and become a "ghost and god martial artist" who absorbs ghosts and gods to cultivate!
Bu Che sighed, stretched out his hand, and a snowflake drifted down, melting in his palm with his body heat, emitting a bone-chilling cold.
"Rice and noodles cost money, firewood costs money, cloth costs money, and the porcelain statues of ghosts and gods for protection... cost even more money!"
"Sigh, living is so hard, much harder than getting into college."
"How can I live without cheat codes... Oh, I have cheat codes."
Bu Che muttered something to himself.
After the original owner of this body died suddenly and he transmigrated here, Bu Che really did have a cheat code...
If you close your eyes slightly, you can see a porcelain sword floating in your mind. The surface of the sword is covered with dense cracks, so many that you can't count them all.
While it's called a ghost and god porcelain statue, Bu Che, based on the original owner's memories, had never heard of a "sword" type of ghost and god porcelain statue.
It's supposed to be a sword that can cut through iron like mud, but it's covered in cracks and would shatter into pieces at the slightest touch...
Bu Che didn't know how to activate this "porcelain sword" that was full of cracks and flaws. He tried many methods, but the porcelain sword remained unmoved.
and so……
"Even with cheat codes, you might not survive in this world..."
Bu Che sighed softly.
He rubbed his hands together, then turned to go back inside to light a fire for warmth and think about how to earn some money for safety...
With his life hanging in the balance, Bu Che couldn't care less about anything else. He planned to go to the county town again with the caravan that his predecessor had been in contact with, to pick up porcelain clay from the porcelain kilns, and exchange his blood and sweat for money to ensure his safety.
Although it takes three hours to trek from start to finish, a total of six hours... I can endure it!
It's better than actually dying, isn't it?
However, just as he turned around...
In the shrine of spirits behind me...
A sharp, cracking sound rang out!
Bu Che's steps suddenly stopped abruptly.