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Chapter 11: Incense burner
Chapter 11: Incense burner
"What’s going on?" Yuan Ming’s heart skipped a beat as he quickly looked at the warm spot on his right arm.
He had been in a dim environment for the past half a month, and his eyes had gradually adapted to the darkness. The warm spot was a faint blue mark that looked somewhat like an incense burner.
The originally faint mark was now becoming clearer at a visible speed, emitting a weak glow.
"Huh, when did this strange mark appear on my arm?" Yuan Ming was taken aback. He touched it with his finger. The blue mark was neither painful nor itchy, and there was nothing unusual about it.
After a moment of contemplation, he tried to mobilize the trace of mana in his dantian, concentrating it on his fingertips and touching the blue mark.
Although the light emitted by the mark was weak, it carried a faint fluctuation of mana, which inexplicably gave him an impulse to do so.
The blue mark suddenly emitted a suction force, and "whoosh", it swallowed the trace of mana!
Yuan Ming was shocked. This trace of mana was what he had painstakingly accumulated over half a month, and it was all lost in an instant.
In his panic, he tried to use his blood qi method to suck the mana back from the mark, but he couldn’t. His heart sank.
It was already difficult to accumulate mana, and now all his previous efforts were in vain.
Just as Yuan Ming was feeling somewhat despondent, a warm current emerged from the blue mark, and a hazy light immediately lit up on his arm.
Yuan Ming widened his eyes and looked at the light.
To his surprise, he saw a palm-sized blue incense burner emerging from the light. Under the support of the light, it landed steadily in front of him.
The incense burner seemed to be made of pottery, with three legs and two ears, but no lid. On one side, there was a Yin-Yang fish pattern of The Great Ultimate, and on the other side, there were stars engraved, depicting a starry sky-like array.
The Yin-Yang Great Ultimate pattern was shining brightly, looking very mysterious.
On top of the incense burner, there were three sticks of black incense, one short and two long.
Yuan Ming was startled by this strange sight. He was stunned for a few breaths before reaching out his palm and gently stroking the incense burner. The touch was delicate and real.
"It’s not an illusion."
Yuan Ming sat up straight, gently touched the three sticks of black incense, and found that the material seemed no different from ordinary incense, but it felt smoother.
He looked down at his arm again, where the mark was gone, leaving only a slight burning sensation.
"Strange, where did this incense burner come from? How did it get on my arm?"
Just as Yuan Ming was puzzled, a memory suddenly surfaced in his mind. He vaguely remembered falling into the river, tumbling in the turbulent waves, and finally being swept to the bottom by the undercurrent.
In the chaos, he saw a light at the bottom of the water and struggled to touch something.
That thing was the incense burner.
Yuan Ming’s pupils contracted instantly, and when he looked at the incense burner again, his eyes were filled with surprise.
Although he didn’t know what the incense burner was, it could attach itself to him, and it was definitely not an ordinary object.
Yuan Ming placed his palm on the incense burner, and felt a warm current seeping in, quickly entering his mind.
He felt a cool sensation in his mind, and the fatigue accumulated from days and nights of cultivation disappeared without a trace, leaving him feeling extremely invigorated.
"This incense burner is indeed a divine object, it can even have such a refreshing effect." Yuan Ming murmured joyfully.
Apart from this, he couldn’t think of a more plausible answer.
Just then, Yuan Ming sniffed and smelled a fragrant aroma. Following the scent, he saw a porcelain box about a foot square on the corner of the desk, with green patterns carved on the surface resembling birds and beasts.
He quickly lifted the lid of the box, and a burst of fragrance hit his nose.
Inside the box were variously shaped exquisite pastries, square, round, and flower-shaped, each with different colors, and still steaming hot.
Yuan Ming had been eating raw meat these days, and to save food, he ate very little each day. He swallowed subconsciously, grabbed a translucent square cake that looked like white jade, and stuffed it into his mouth, chewing vigorously.
A sweet and delicious date flavor mixed with the fragrance of osmanthus immediately filled his mouth.
"Delicious!"
Before he had finished chewing the food in his mouth, he hurriedly grabbed another lotus-shaped cake and swallowed it. It was crispy and sweet.
Yuan Ming simply stood up, using both hands, he devoured all the pastries in the box like a whirlwind, then picked up a teapot next to him and gulped down the tea until the pot was completely empty.
"Burp"
Yuan Ming let out a satisfied burp, sat back down on the dragon throne, wiped his mouth with his sleeve, and patted his slightly protruding belly, feeling extremely satisfied.
The feeling of being full was wonderful, he hadn’t eaten so heartily in a long time!
After eating and drinking his fill, Yuan Ming began to reconsider everything in front of him.
Was he brought here by that incense burner? If so, perhaps he could find some clues.
He looked around for the incense burner. There was one on the desk in front of him, but it was made of ancient bronze and looked very different from the one that had just emerged from his arm.
"Arm imprint!" Yuan Ming suddenly remembered something, hurriedly rolled up the sleeve of his right arm, and his eyes widened in surprise.
On his right arm near the elbow, there was a green imprint, exactly the same as the one on his original body, with a faint heat flow circulating inside.
Yuan Ming thought to himself that it was indeed so.
Now he was almost certain that he was brought here by that incense burner, but could he go back?
Although this body was an emperor and about the same age as him, he still wanted to return to his own body.
Yuan Ming touched the green imprint with his finger, but there was no response.
He tried other things, but the imprint remained motionless.
"It’s a pity that this little emperor is not a cultivator, there is no magical power in his body, otherwise I could try to summon the incense burner here." Yuan Ming gave up helplessly, sighing quietly.
After collecting his thoughts, Yuan Ming’s gaze shifted to the yellow satin books piled on the desk.
Now he didn’t know if he could return to his original body, so he decided to first understand the current situation, play the role of the young emperor well, and not let anyone see through him.
With this in mind, he picked up a book and opened it. It was a report from a state official about a flood in his jurisdiction, praying for the emperor’s mercy to allow the state granary to be opened for disaster relief.
What should have been a simple matter was made extremely complicated by the state official. He first busied himself with apologizing to heaven, then said that heaven was not merciful, and then used a long description to depict the disaster scene.
After thousands of words, he finally reported the specific disaster situation and relief measures at the end of the memorial, which made Yuan Ming’s head spin.