After recalling his soul crow, Yuan Ming rode non-stop and quickly arrived at the outskirts of a village.

After dismounting, he led his horse on foot into the village. In an open space near an old poplar tree at the entrance of the village, he encountered several children at play.

These children were only seven or eight years old, their heads adorned with small braids. Upon seeing a stranger entering the village, their first reaction was not curiosity, but fear. They scattered and ran towards their respective homes.

The few villagers outside also disappeared in the blink of an eye. Every household in the village hurriedly closed and bolted their doors. Apart from the barking of dogs, there was no other sound to be heard.

Yuan Ming was somewhat taken aback by this scene. He led his horse through the village.

In the center of the village, he saw an old woman with white hair sitting next to a well. It seemed that she had fallen due to running too hastily and was having trouble getting up.

Yuan Ming led his horse over. The old woman, frightened, retreated continuously, her face ashen.

“Old lady, don’t be afraid. I’m just passing by. I mean no harm,” Yuan Ming quickly explained in the Southern Border language.

Seeing that Yuan Ming was clean and spoke gently, not like a bad person, the old woman finally relaxed a bit.

“In this godforsaken place, apart from bandits and human traffickers, hardly anyone comes. How did you end up here?” She brushed away the messy hair on her forehead and asked.

Yuan Ming stepped forward to help the old woman sit up and found that her ankle was twisted and somewhat swollen.

He grabbed the old woman’s ankle with one hand and her calf with the other. With a slight use of his magical power, he straightened the twisted muscles in an instant.

The old woman, who had been in great pain a moment ago, immediately felt no pain at all in her ankle.

“Are you a doctor?” The old woman looked at Yuan Ming again and exclaimed.

“No, I’m not a doctor. I’m just passing by and wanted to ask if there’s anywhere in this village where I can buy incense… the kind used for offerings,” Yuan Ming explained.

“That incense… We don’t have a temple to worship gods in our village, and everyone is too poor to afford incense. If you want to buy incense, you should head south from our Black Mountain Village to Baiji Town. You can buy incense in the funeral shop there,” the old woman thought for a moment and said.

“Thank you,” Yuan Ming said, thanked her, and left with his horse.

The old woman waited until he was far away before she dared to get up. She moved her foot and found that it had completely recovered, which made her extremely happy.

At this time, people gradually came out of their houses. Most of them were the elderly, weak, women, and children. There were few young and strong men. They all came over to ask questions.

The old woman, no longer trembling with fear, excitedly recounted what had just happened, concluding, “He’s just a wandering barefoot doctor looking for medicinal ash. There’s no need for everyone to make a fuss.”

…

Following the old woman’s directions, Yuan Ming quickly arrived at Baiji Town.

Although it was called a town, it looked more like a village built on relatively flat land. It wasn’t much bigger than the old woman’s village, and it was also sparsely populated and desolate.

Upon entering the town, Yuan Ming didn’t encounter the situation where every household was closed. However, the few people he did encounter all looked very wary and fearful.

After some difficulty, Yuan Ming found the location of the funeral shop and hurried over.

It was a small courtyard at the end of the town. There was no proper sign inside or outside the door. Without someone pointing it out, it would be hard for Yuan Ming to recognize it as a funeral shop.

However, as soon as he entered the courtyard, Yuan Ming saw several coffins in the yard. They were smaller and rougher than the ones he remembered from the Central Plains.

A thin old man in a grey robe was busy sanding one of the coffins.

“Young man, is there anything I can help you with?” Seeing that a stranger had come in, the old man stopped his work and looked up to ask.

“Oh, I want to buy some incense and candles,” Yuan Ming said.

Seeing that he only wanted to buy some incense and candles, the old man led Yuan Ming into the house.

In the dim wooden house, various items were scattered about in a mess. The old man lifted a wooden box from the ground and placed it on the table, removing the wooden board that covered it.

Inside the box were neatly arranged pairs of thumb-thick white candles and bundles of thin incense.

There weren’t many types of incense, one was red and the other was black. They only varied in thickness, the thinnest was like a willow branch, and the thickest was only about the size of a child’s little finger.

“I’ll take one of each of these,” Yuan Ming said, pointing at the bundles of incense after looking them over.

“Just the incense, no candles?” the old man asked, puzzled.

“No need,” Yuan Ming nodded.

The old man looked confused but didn’t ask any more questions. He took four bundles of incense out of the box, two red and two black, each of different thicknesses.

After paying, Yuan Ming left the small town.

He found a secluded cave in the mountains, set up traps outside, and then blocked the entrance with stones.

Then, he sat quietly in the cave, summoned the incense burner, and placed the newly bought incense on the ground.

At present, he was not sure whether the key to his soul possession was the incense burner or whether both the incense burner and the incense were equally important.

In any case, this first attempt had to be made in a relatively safe environment.

Yuan Ming first took out a thin black incense stick from the middle and inserted it upright in the center of the incense burner, about a finger’s distance from the last black incense stick on the burner.

His gaze moved back and forth between the two black incense sticks a few times. He found that although both were black in color, the incense that came with the burner was far superior in texture, craftsmanship, and surface smoothness to the newly bought one.

“It’s a pity that there’s only this one left.”

Yuan Ming gave a bitter smile, took out a match, lit the flame, and moved it towards the black incense in the middle.

The flame quickly ignited the incense, and a wisp of white smoke slowly rose, accompanied by a familiar scent of incense.The scent was no different from what Yuan Ming had smelled when he was attached to Wang Shun outside the City God Temple. In fact, it was also quite similar to the scent of the two black incense sticks he had lit before.

However, even as the incense burned, he remained completely lucid, without the slightest hint of drowsiness.

“As expected, it won’t be that easy…” Yuan Ming sighed.

When the black incense had burned halfway, Yuan Ming pulled it out of the incense burner, but stubbornly lit another slender black stick.

However, the situation remained the same.

After the incense had burned a small portion, Yuan Ming pulled it out and tossed it aside.

Next, he pulled out a slender red incense stick, inserted it into the incense burner, and lit it.

The bright red flame lit up at the tip of the incense, and a wisp of smoke rose.

Yuan Ming waited for a moment, saw no abnormalities, then pulled out the red incense and tossed it aside.

The third stick of incense was a slightly thicker and shorter red one, with a bamboo stick embedded at the base.

Yuan Ming inserted it into the incense burner and lit it.

Compared to the previous two sticks of incense, the only change this one brought was a thicker smoke. Other than that, everything was the same, and naturally, it couldn’t allow Yuan Ming to attach his soul.

After burning for a while, Yuan Ming pulled it out.

Finally, the only thing left in front of him was a slightly shorter and thicker black incense stick.

He had the highest hopes for this incense because it looked the most similar to the black incense that came with the incense burner.

Just as Yuan Ming solemnly inserted it into the incense burner and lit it, his vision became somewhat blurred under the cover of the smoke.

However, he himself didn’t feel any different, and the incense burner showed no changes.

Unsurprisingly, he had failed.

“It really isn’t that simple to find it!” Yuan Ming shook his head. Although he was a bit frustrated, he had been mentally prepared.

After speaking, he got up, moved the stone blocking the cave entrance, and went outside to breathe some fresh air.

Looking at the gradually setting sun, Yuan Ming decided not to continue his journey. He sat cross-legged under an ancient tree and began to practice the Nine Yuan Jue.

Finding the black incense was important, but cultivation couldn’t be neglected for a day.

……

Half a month later.

In a bustling market town, Yuan Ming, dressed in a green-gray robe, walked into a candle and incense shop.

The shopkeeper was an old man with white hair. Seeing a young man enter, he quickly greeted him with a smile.

“Shopkeeper, show me all the incense you have.” Before the old man could speak, Yuan Ming said.

“Alright, please wait a moment, sir.” The old man seemed a bit taken aback by Yuan Ming’s directness, but without asking further, he went back to the counter, took out all the incense in the shop, and laid them out for Yuan Ming to choose.

“I don’t know what you need it for? Although my shop is small, we have a wide variety of incense. If you need, I can introduce some to you.” The old man asked.

Yuan Ming glanced at the counter and knew the old man wasn’t boasting. There were about a dozen different types of incense on the table, varying in thickness, texture, and style.

Some were as thick as a thumb, with gold and silver lines outlining cloud patterns. Some were slender, but mixed with gold and silver spots, looking very exquisite.

Most of them, Yuan Ming had already bought and tried in the past half month.

After a moment of hesitation, Yuan Ming took out his black incense stick.

“Shopkeeper, have you ever seen this kind of incense?”

Upon seeing this, the shopkeeper quickly rubbed his hands, carefully took the black incense from Yuan Ming, and examined it closely.

After looking at it for a while, he seemed unable to find anything special about it and said with some difficulty, “I’m sorry, but I can’t see anything special about this black incense just by its appearance. May I ask where you bought it?”

Yuan Ming was speechless. If he could buy it or knew where to get it, he wouldn’t have come here to ask.

“I won’t lie to you, I came here because I can’t buy it anywhere else.” Yuan Ming said.

“If you could tell me where it’s from, I might be able to help you figure out what kind of incense it is.” The old man suggested after thinking for a moment.

“Oh, does it make a difference?” Yuan Ming asked, puzzled.

(End of Chapter)