Wandering Gods of Day and Night

Zhou Xuan found it strange, while Zhao Wuya began to complain bitterly, wailing:

"I don't know why the incense burns backward. Just now, my sixth incense stick was burning wildly. I was afraid I'd suddenly ascend to the seventh incense level, surpassing my master in the Dragon Seeking Hall.

I was even picturing whether I should still call him 'Master' when I return to the tangkou, or maybe 'Xiao Tang,' considering my incense is too high. If I keep calling him 'Master,' I'm afraid he'll pick a bone with me.

And as for my fellow disciples, I'll have to keep my power hidden in front of them. After all, high incense invites jealousy. But I'll still reveal my sixth incense cultivation so they don't look down on me…"

Zhou Xuan wore the expression of "a subway-old man-phone situation."

Not bad, Ya Zi, pondering all the etiquette for a seventh incense level that doesn't even exist yet?

You're thinking way too much.

"It's hard being human, but being a man of high incense is even harder." Zhao Wuya wailed again.

"Stop rambling nonsense. I'm asking you, what's your incense level now?" Zhou Xuan asked again.

"Back to six sticks now." Zhao Wuya replied, "But somehow, it burned backward again—now it's at five sticks."

His cultivation at the moment resembled a buoy bobbing in water waves—when the waves surged, the buoy sank into the water; when the waves retreated, the heavily suppressed buoy leapt viciously above the surface.

"Your incense fluctuates like this—doesn't it feel horrible?" Zhou Xuan was more concerned about Zhao Wuya's physical condition.

Fluctuating incense was akin to someone gaining and losing weight in extremes—it must be unbearable.

"Painful, very painful." Zhao Wuya's face turned the color of coagulated pork liver, but his hands didn't slow down; he rummaged through his cloth shoulder bag and took out a paper wrapper. Inside was a package of honey fruits—cloyingly sweet.

He popped a couple into his mouth, raised his head, and said: "Much better now…"

"In this condition, and you're still fixated on stuffing yourself? You deserve to suffer."

Zhou Xuan hurried the driver to step on it, urging him to speed up and get Zhao Wuya back to the shop first.

...

By evening, two rickshaws pulled up at the entrance of the Zhou Family's Jingyi Shop. Zhou Xuan paid the fare using two paper notes and hauled Zhao Wuya back inside.

During the ride, Ya Zi devoured two packages of honey dates, a bag of spicy chilled pig feet, a box of chocolates—and even made the driver stop at a grocery store to buy two bottles of soda and three tea eggs...

Zhou Xuan even started suspecting if he was hypoglycemic.

"Brother Peng, Lao Yun, come take a look at Ya Zi; his incense is fluctuating wildly!"

"What's going on?"

As soon as Zhou Xuan placed Zhao Wuya on the bamboo bed, Lao Yun leaned over, touched Wuya's forehead, and said: "Hot one moment, cold the next. Isn't this malaria?"

Peng Sheng, whose incense level was high, attached himself to Zhou Xuan, channeling Perception into Wuya's abdominal region.

As the Perception entered Zhao Wuya's body, Peng Sheng immediately felt unbearable discomfort—he gagged on the spot, stuck his head off the bamboo bed, and vomited onto the floor...

"Ugh!"

The crowd saw Zhao Wuya spitting out a pale yellow, rounded, slightly elastic lump that bounced a few times on the ground.

"This looks like… like a tea egg." Peng Sheng remarked.

"Not looks like—this is a tea egg."

Zhou Xuan recounted Zhao Wuya's shameless culinary rampage along the way to Peng Sheng and Yun Ziliang.

"Men die for wealth, but birds… motherfucking birds die for food."

Yun Ziliang, seeing Zhao Wuya nearly choking himself to death with gluttony, could only think this Dragon Seeking Disciple lacked ambition.

Peng Sheng continued probing with Perception, and this time, he discovered the root of the issue.

"Inside Ya Zi's Secret Realm, it seems there are two winds—one wind is stirring his incense head, helping to elevate his incense level,

but the other wind is a bitter cold gust, threatening to freeze his Secret Realm and destroy it."

Peng Sheng turned to Zhou Xuan and asked: "Besides eating himself mindlessly, did Ya Zi do anything else today?"

"He inhaled Buddha energy." Zhou Xuan replied.

"Inhaling Buddha energy—could it be that the Buddha energy is harmful?" Peng Sheng, being a Ghost, had never inhaled Buddha energy.

"Harmful? Not possible. Buddha energy only boosts our cultivation." Yun Ziliang argued: "We disciples of the Dragon Seeking Hall are divine beings—divine beings can directly absorb Buddha energy."

"You sound so resolute—have you inhaled before?" Zhou Xuan questioned.

"Of course I did." Yun Ziliang replied: "I've also hunted Alien Ghosts before; Alien Ghosts, to varying degrees, carry traces of Buddha energy."

"I'm not sure what's causing his incense confusion, but I can suppress the turmoil within his body using tattoos."

At this point, Peng Sheng said to Zhou Xuan: "Brother Xuan, could I borrow your High Monk Moon Gaze tattoo?"

Zhou Xuan agreed, and Peng Sheng pointed his hand toward the upstairs hallway.

The "High Monk Moon Gaze" tattoo hanging in Zhou Xuan's bedroom suddenly unfurled like a hide laid flat and flew across the room.

"Go."

Peng Sheng directed the tattoo to hover above Zhao Wuya's body.

The tattoo spread out and floated faintly.

The image on the tattoo depicted a skeletal High Monk, time shifting chaotically, as the seasons spun erratically.

As Peng Sheng closed his eyes to concentrate, an image of the Kongming Mirror emerged within the tattoo's painting.

The mirror reflected an identical High Monk tattoo within.

According to Peng Sheng, a Tree Clan tattoo always has a mirror projection inside the Kongming Mirror.

And that projection is the true origin of the tattoo's eerie functionality.

The Kongming Mirror activated, and the High Monk mirror image within extended two hands outward, embracing Zhao Wuya and pulling him into the space within.

Zhou Xuan saw that within the High Monk tattoo, there was no longer just the High Monk—a graceful young Taoist had appeared.

The Taoist sat amidst mountain forests, raising both hands high. A surge of fiery energy flared within the tattoo map, setting the Fei Yue ablaze in roaring flames.