Chapter 25 Getting involved with me will do you no good.
Achan seemed unaware of Bai Xiuming's gaze, and calmly walked to the table, sitting down on one of the only two wooden stools.
Bai Xiuming slowly ladled the white porridge from the earthenware pot, placed a spoon in the bowl, and then pushed it in front of Achan.
Ah Chan sipped her white porridge, her eyes fixed on the four dishes and a smoked chicken laid out in front of Bai Xiuming—the same ones Old Hu sold on the street.
The aroma of smoked chicken kept wafting into her nose, making her mouth water.
"You've just recovered from a serious illness, so you can only drink porridge right now." Bai Xiuming seemed to have guessed her thoughts, and before she could even pick up her chopsticks, he dashed her hopes.
Ah Chan sighed inwardly, reluctantly shifting her gaze from the smoked chicken, and sighed again, "It's really hard to be a person."
After finishing a bowl of porridge, my hunger was soothed, and I regained some strength.
Just as Achan finished her porridge, Bai Xiuming put down his chopsticks.
Neither of them moved. Feng Yang, being very perceptive, stepped forward to clear the dishes and chopsticks. After finishing, he picked up his things and left.
Outside the door, the sunset gradually faded, leaving only a last ray of light in the sky.
Achan rested her chin on her hand, tilting her head to look outside. Bai Xiuming sat quietly, not disturbing her.
Only after the last ray of light disappeared and the sun and moon began to turn did Achan turn her head: "What does Lord Bai want to ask me? Ask away."
"What are lichens, grave soil, and hollow locust trees used for?"
"Doesn't the master know that it's used for making incense?"
"What is its function?"
Achan blinked: "If it were anyone else, I definitely wouldn't tell him, but Lord Bai just saved my life last night, so I'll tell you secretly."
She leaned forward slightly, looking coquettish as if she was about to tell him a little secret.
"Those are used for sacrificial rites; it is said that they can be used to send the deceased back to their rightful place."
"I heard?" Bai Xiuming raised an eyebrow.
"Yes, I dug it out from my memory, I don't know if it's useful."
"If you don't know if it will work, why bother trying?"
Achan was somewhat surprised; Bai Xiuming's tone wasn't as aggressive as it had been the previous two times, although he still suspected her.
She thought to herself that this person probably saw her sickly appearance and felt sorry for her.
"What, is this a difficult question to answer?" Bai Xiuming asked.
“It’s not difficult. I just think that Lord Bai probably won’t believe this answer.” Achan’s tone was low. “On the day I went to pay my respects to my aunt, I saw that Madam Su. The next day was my aunt’s funeral. Early in the morning, my uncle’s whole family hired people to perform a ritual, saying that my aunt had turned into a vengeful ghost and would endanger the family. They said they would seal her in a coffin and release her after her resentment dissipated and she was gone for a hundred years.”
She glanced quickly at Bai Xiuming, whose expression was blank, making it impossible to tell whether he believed her or not.
“Sir, that’s my aunt. She’s the only person who has ever given me money since I fell into this state. I can’t stop my uncle, nor can I seek justice for my aunt. I can only try to put my mind at ease.”
"To seek peace of mind, almost dying from illness—was that also part of your plan?"
Achan was a little embarrassed and annoyed. Her voice had not fully recovered yet, and it would be a little hoarse if she talked too much: "That was an accident. I had been catching up on sleep during the day. Who knew I would suddenly fall ill?"
Then she raised her voice slightly, and her mood seemed to have recovered: "I have a lot to thank for you, sir. I am much better now."
Looking at the lively Achan, Bai Xiuming thought of what Physician Huang had told him last night.
Even if she is pampered, she only has twenty or thirty years left to live.
"My lord?" Seeing that he did not react for a long time, Achan was a little puzzled.
"You should still have some of the incense you made, right?" Bai Xiuming asked, turning his attention back to the present.
“There are still dozens more, all kept in my bedroom. If you wish to see them, you may take them.” Achan was very cooperative. “The sacrificial process is also very simple, and I can tell you everything.”
Achan recounted the entire sacrificial process without reservation. She even told Bai Xiuming the steps for making incense, and even mentioned the willow stump in the corner of the room.
Bai Xiuming didn't ask her anything more. He took the remaining Soul-Guiding Incense from A Chan's hand and then got up and left.
Achan stood at the door, watching his figure disappear into the darkness. At the same time, she felt a little strange. Bai Xiuming was unusually easy to talk to today. She thought she would be entangled with him for a long time.
After seeing Bai Xiuming off, she decided to boil some hot water to wipe herself down. But when she closed the door, she suddenly discovered that the latch had vanished.
...Apart from Bai Xiuming, who somehow got into her house last night, it seems no one else would do anything to her door latch.
Ah Chan angrily searched the house for a while and finally found a shorter piece of long wood that could be used as a door latch temporarily.
After Bai Xiuming received the incense sticks from A Chan, he did not return to the Mingjing Division, but went to the Sitianjian (Imperial Observatory).
The Director of the Imperial Observatory was still inside the Imperial Observatory when he heard that Bai Xiuming, the Commander of the Mingjing Division, was requesting an audience. He was somewhat surprised and personally went out to greet him.
Bai Xiuming stepped forward to greet the Supervisor, but his tone was casual: "Supervisor, how have you been?"
The supervisor was on good terms with the Ming King and often visited the Ming King's residence. Ever since Bai Xiuming was brought back to the Ming King's residence by the Ming King more than ten years ago, they had met frequently until Bai Xiuming was sent to Youzhou.
"You wouldn't come here without a reason, what brings you here, kid?" The supervisor led him into his usual room and asked casually.
After Bai Xiuming and the supervisor sat down, Bai Xiuming opened the box in his hand.
The supervisor glanced inside and saw a pile of incense sticks, made by someone with poor skills, and immediately lost interest.
"Who made this incense? The craftsmanship is so poor!"
Bai Xiuming suddenly found it amusing; if Ji Chan heard this, she would probably be very angry.
"I confiscated this incense. I would like to ask the Superintendent to take a look and see if there is anything wrong with it?"
Upon hearing his words, the supervisor picked up a stick of incense from the wooden box, first carefully smelled it under his nose, then pinched off a piece, crushed it into powder on his fingertip, and tasted it.
"Hmm, the yin energy is very strong, and the materials are nothing special. Who came up with this idea?" he asked Bai Xiuming.
Bai Xiuming didn't answer, feeling quite helpless with this elder's unpredictable thinking: "Just tell me, what's the use of this thing?"
"It's useless. If you burn a hundred or so at once, the yin energy will gather and might attract some low-level ghosts."
"Useless?" This answer surprised Bai Xiuming. He then recounted the sacrificial process of Achan as recorded by his spies. "Even with this ritual, it was still useless?"
"What is this ritual for?"
"Sending the deceased back home."
"Wow, quite the boast," the supervisor laughed. "If simply lighting incense could send the dead to the underworld, then monks and Taoist priests wouldn't need to bother with their rituals."
"So it really doesn't work?"
The supervisor took a sip of tea and rinsed his mouth: "At least in my memory, there has never been such a frivolous ritual. You can find someone to try it out. Anyway, this ritual is simple: catch a vengeful ghost, write down its birth date and time, and burn incense for seven days. See what the effect is."
He didn't say that Bai Xiuming also planned to try it, but the incense sticks in the box weren't enough, so he needed to find someone to make incense.
"I heard that the Imperial Censor can also make incense?"
The supervisor nodded at Bai Xiuming, knowing that this kid was up to no good when he came to see him.
Following Bai Xiuming's instructions, Jianzheng produced about a hundred incense sticks, which, upon inspection, were identical to those he had obtained from Achan.
Seven days later, the ceremony ended, and nothing happened.
The imprisoned ghost was neither summoned by the person burning incense nor sent away.
The supervisor was also very curious, so he came over to take a look on the last day, and the result was exactly as he had predicted.
"Give up now, I told you it was no use. No ceremony is simple. Even our Imperial Observatory spends a year preparing to announce the arrival of Heaven and Earth." The Director of the Observatory stood next to Bai Xiuming and made sarcastic remarks.
Bai Xiuming was not disappointed; this outcome was expected.
However, his subconscious still harbored doubts about the ritual.
"I've heard people say that in the days before incense, ancient people used fragrant wood to worship heaven and earth?"
“You know quite a lot.” The supervisor was happy to answer his questions and said, “There is indeed such a saying, but the so-called ancient people are not just any random people. You should have heard of the ancient legend of the war between the witch and the demon, right?”
"What does this have to do with what we're saying?"
“The ancients who could casually stick a stick into the ground to worship heaven and earth and receive gifts from heaven and earth were collectively called shamans.”
"Witches? The Witch Clan?"
"Yes, they don't acknowledge themselves as human. They believe their ancestors were the ancient witch clan, who were on par with the demon clan. These witch clans revered heaven and earth and nature. They had their own set of sacrificial rituals, which were simple and effective, but we couldn't use them."
"Why?" Bai Xiuming asked with interest.
"Previous supervisors have studied this and found that the souls of the Wu people possess a special power, which they call the power of the ancestors. As long as one has Wu blood, one can borrow the power of the ancestors in sacrifices, so the rituals are not so important."
"That sounds amazing, but why haven't I heard of it before?"
The supervisor sighed: "The last tribe of witches was wiped out two hundred years ago. You're only a few years old, so of course you haven't heard of it."
Who did it?
"It was done by the demon race. At that time, the demon race was powerful and once established the demon kingdom, sharing the world with my Great Xia. That demon emperor had a strong hostility towards the witch race, and he sent an army to the wilderness to exterminate all the witch race."
"Not a single one was left?" Bai Xiuming was somewhat surprised.
The supervisor said regretfully, "Not a single one was left. They used the sacred artifacts of the demon race to search for people through bloodlines, killing them one by one. The sage at the time also sent people to search for the witch race, but to no avail."
The supervisor's words effectively nipped Bai Xiuming's suspicions in the bud.
Perhaps the fox demon heard about or saw the sacrificial ritual somewhere, or perhaps the ritual really was related to the witch clan, but neither demons nor humans could use it.
Perhaps, as Ji Chan said, she did all this simply to put her mind at ease?
More than ten days have passed in the blink of an eye, and Achan has recently started making scented balls at home. She has blended three flavors of scented balls, using the most common recipe and the cheapest spices.
She took a small amount of the jade powder she had bought from the West Market and added it to the spices used to make the incense balls. Once the incense balls were made, they proved to be very effective at repelling snakes, insects, and rodents.
If you put a fragrant pill in the kitchen, you won't see a single mouse for more than ten days.
Achan is planning to open a fragrance shop, and she can use fragrance pills to open up the market. Although she still has some gold jewelry and silver, she can't just spend without earning. Her dowry is a long way off, and she needs some income.
A few days ago, I heard from Mr. Xu next door that his bookstore was infested with rats, so he hired a black and white kitten. However, the cat's destructive power was no less than that of the rats. Mr. Xu scratched two of his books, and he was so angry that he scratched the cat all over the floor.
Upon hearing this, Achan gave Boss Xu a fragrant pill. After only two days, Boss Xu realized the benefits of the fragrant pill and today he specially asked her to buy two more.
The ingredients for the incense pills weren't expensive. She calculated the cost: one pill cost twenty coins, which was a bit pricey for ordinary people, but affordable. After all, the main function of these incense pills was to repel snakes, insects, and rodents, and they were very effective. There would always be people willing to buy them.
Mr. Xu readily gave her forty coins and took two fragrant pills from Achan's hand.
This was the first time Achan had earned money on her own. As she was counting the money, she saw Bai Xiuming walking towards her in a moon-white dress.
"Lord Bai, it's been a long time." Ah Chan was in a good mood after making money, and greeted Bai Xiuming with a smile.
Bai Xiuming nodded slightly to her, walked up to her, and handed her the wooden box. After Achan took the box and opened it, she found that not only were the dozens of soul-guiding incense sticks not missing, but there were actually more.
She glanced at Bai Xiuming and thought to herself, "This man is indeed very suspicious. He took so long to come to see me. He probably tried out the ritual."
However, since she dared to tell him every detail of the ceremony, she was naturally confident that he wouldn't be able to find out anything.
Some rituals are useless even if you know the process.
After glancing at the box, Achan closed it. She carried the box back into the house, thinking that the incense might come in handy sometime and shouldn't be wasted.
After returning the soul-guiding incense to her, Bai Xiuming didn't leave, as if he intended to chat with her: "Were you selling something just now?"
"Yes, I sell incense pills."
Achan took out a fragrant pill from her purse and handed it to Bai Xiuming, intending to use it openly.
Just as Bai Xiuming took the incense pill, something suddenly flew out of the black ring on his index finger and roared at the incense pill in his hand.
Ah Chan stared at the small, dark creature for a long time before tentatively asking, "Lord Bai, is that... a dragon?"
“Dragon Soul,” Bai Xiuming explained, then asked her, “What is this made of?”
"Lord Bai, do you remember the jade used against the Snow Needle Snake? I bought some and ground it into powder. This incense pill contains the jade powder, which is very effective in repelling snakes and insects."
Bai Xiuming nodded without saying anything. Those jade fragments had no effect on people, otherwise they would have been taken away by the Mingjing Division long ago.
He didn't know that the thing could also repel snakes and insects.
Achan's attention was no longer on her incense pills. She stared at the ring on Bai Xiuming's finger, her eyes darting around, and tentatively asked, "Your Excellency has a dragon soul on your hand. Have you ever killed a dragon?"
"Are you curious?"
"Can't I say?"
"I have killed a fourth-realm black dragon." This was Bai Xiuming's battle that made him famous, and everyone in the court knew about it.
It was precisely because of this incident that he was able to maintain his position as the garrison commander.
Achan was somewhat surprised. The dragon race prided themselves on their noble bloodline and never associated with other demon races. The reason they were so arrogant was because they had the right to be so.
When fighting at the same level, the dragon race can remain undefeated due to their powerful physical bodies.
She didn't know Bai Xiuming's cultivation level, but it was definitely below the fifth realm. Even if he was at the fourth realm, being able to kill a black dragon of the same realm was no small feat.
Moreover, he doesn't look very old, so he might not have been at the fourth realm when he killed the dragon.
Achan suddenly understood why the demon race was so wary of the human race. Bai Xiuming looked to be under thirty years old, yet his cultivation had already reached this level. With the same cultivation, excluding the bloodline bonus, the demon race would need at least a thousand years to cultivate.
Humanity is indeed favored by heaven and earth.
"Since you've killed a dragon, sir, you must have obtained the materials from its body, right?" Achan continued to ask indirectly.
"Say what you want to say."
Achan took a few steps closer: "My lord, Lord Feng said last time that you were still catching snow needle snakes. Have you caught any?"
Bai Xiuming looked at Achan, his beautiful peach blossom eyes darkening slightly: "You have a way?"
Ah Chan's lips curled up. She had been thinking about being short of money, but unexpectedly, the opportunity came to her on its own.
"If I can help you catch a snow needle snake, could you do me a favor?"
Bai Xiuming pondered for a moment and then understood: "The materials you need to catch snakes are related to dragons?"
"Yes." Achan had nothing to hide, and she wasn't worried that Bai Xiuming would press her for the prescription and then abandon her after using her.
Bai Xiuming did not press further, but simply said, "What kind of help do you want from me? Tell me."
"I would like to ask you, sir, to help me get my mother's dowry back."
Bai Xiuming stared at A Chan for a long time, making her feel uneasy. Was her request too difficult?
It shouldn't be that bad.
Finally, Bai Xiuming spoke: "Do you know what it means if I go and ask for your dowry on your behalf?"
Of course, Achan knew that even though she wasn't human, she understood how others would view her relationship with Bai Xiuming after this incident.
Public opinion can be a fearsome thing, but Achan doesn't care about that.
"I know, but I don't care."
"Getting involved with me will do you no good," Bai Xiuming warned.
Achan opened her eyes wide: "Is Your Excellency afraid that my reputation will be bad and I won't be able to get married in the future?"
"You're thinking far ahead," Bai Xiuming scoffed, though that was certainly not what he meant.
"I have enemies everywhere. Are you sure you can handle it?"
He could ignore the rumors and gossip outside, as they would not harm him in the slightest. But once Ji Chan was implicated, his enemies would not care whether the rumors were true or false.
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