Perhaps because he had been busy for too long before, when Lu Bai woke up the next day, the sun was already high in the sky.
Pushing open the side room door, he could see that Master Tao had already set off to the countryside.
He poured a cup of overnight tea water and drank it to perk himself up, then turned to the backyard to fetch water for washing up.
……
Whoosh~
The hundred-plus jin stone table was lifted into the air by Lu Bai, shuttling back and forth in the yard like a mud truck.
He controlled the stone table to spin two more circles in the air before putting it back in place.
After messing around like this for a while, Lu Bai only felt slightly tired, and it didn’t seem to take much effort.
According to Master Bai Fourteen’s words, he didn’t need to rush to handle matters for people; during this time, he should practice more of the methods he had in hand, so as not to be rusty if something really came up.
Anyway, regarding those incense burning methods, after opening the crown for him, Master Bai Fourteen and Chang Shengtian had imparted them all to him at once.
In fact, most of the time it wasn’t that the immortals deliberately withheld knowledge; it was purely an aptitude issue. The vast majority of incense masters, even if they learned the incense burning method, couldn’t use it.
Teaching it would be a waste.
And with Lu Bai’s exaggerated aptitude, those two immortals were very confident, giving him everything they had without caring whether he could finish learning it.
To put it in words, these so-called incense burning methods were somewhat similar to shaman entering trance techniques.
Especially incense topping as confused duty.
It didn’t require practicing any special techniques, only adhering to a set of rules—rules for communicating with the immortals.
This aspect was very strict; even if the relationship between the immortal and the incense master was very harmonious, the process of communicating with spirits had to be strictly followed.
Lu Bai didn’t like handing over control of his body.
So he mainly focused on familiarizing himself with some incense viewing methods.
Most of them posed no difficulty for him; he learned them as soon as he tried, and what needed practice was only how to effectively use the borrowed immortal magic power.
By the way, in his view, these immortals were more like the jinchuriki in some anime.
The relationship between immortals and incense masters was a hiring one, not master-servant.
Because borrowing magic power was mutual; after the incense master joined the sect, as long as the rules were followed, they could use the magic power on their own without the immortal’s consent.
There were rumors that Grandma Wang San, the top incense master, could borrow immortal magic power and use it even stronger than the immortals themselves.
This meant that if Lu Bai didn’t burn confused incense, he could now ignore those two immortals entirely.
Of course, that was easier said than done.
But since Master Bai Fourteen had such a friendly attitude, Lu Bai naturally wouldn’t offend him needlessly; every day at a fixed time, he still remembered to offer an incense stick to Master Bai Fourteen and Chang Shengtian together.
After staying like this for a few days with nothing happening, over those days he had familiarized himself with these point incense borrowing power methods.
It wasn’t quite second nature, but at least he could guarantee no mistakes when using them.
……
Creak~
Lu Bai came out of Master Tao’s house, and the street was still bustling with activity.
“Lu Xiangtou, the usual?”
A burly man tied with an apron noticed Lu Bai and shouted loudly.
This man ran a restaurant at the intersection; since Lu Bai was too lazy to cook and it was close by, whenever it was mealtime, he simply came here to eat.
After a few times, they naturally became familiar.
“Sure.”
Lu Bai nodded and walked into the shop to sit down.
The burly man followed and sat across from him, asking, “Lu Xiangtou, do you have any inside news? I heard that evil spirits are causing trouble everywhere outside the city; what if they make it into the city someday?”
“With Master Bai Fourteen guarding the city, which brainless evil spirit would dare come in?”
Before Lu Bai could speak, a refuting voice suddenly came from outside the shop.
A middle-aged man dressed like a scholar walked into the shop fanning himself, followed by two young people.
“Yo, Shi Xiangtou, it’s been a while.”
The burly man warmly went up to greet him: “What have you been busy with?”
Shi Xiangtou glanced at him: “Busy handling matters outside the city.”
“Yes, yes, yes.”
The burly man lifted a corner of his apron to wipe the table: “One basket of beef buns, and two liang of liquor for you; on me, how about it?”
Shi Xiangtou’s expression improved a bit: “Disaster comes from the mouth; don’t say those words again in the future.”
After this indifferent reminder, he turned to Lu Bai and cupped his hands.
“This is Lu Xiangtou, right?”
His attitude toward Lu Bai was completely different from toward the burly man; perhaps he felt that only when both sides had equal identity did they qualify for equal communication.
“That’s me.”
Lu Bai’s attention wasn’t on Shi Xiangtou at all, but on the two apprentices serving behind him.
“These two still can’t graduate yet?”
Most incense masters brought apprentices, but apprentices were usually around ten to sixteen years old, like Master Tao’s.
But this Shi Xiangtou’s two apprentices behind him clearly looked like adults.
“Oh, A Niu, A Ma, come over and meet Lu Xiangtou.”
Shi Xiangtou casually beckoned, adding, “These two are good seedlings I met at Tao Family Mountain; I’ve just taken them in a few days ago, still far from graduating.”
Lu Bai looked at the two apprentices with great interest, a playful smile on his face.
Even though he hadn’t said anything yet, A Niu and A Ma were already sweating profusely.
After all, Lu Bai had a bright green “pure smile” on his head, clearly marking him as a death fighter.
Realizing this was a world with supernatural power, any death fighter with a brain would try to master that power.
That was normal.
But what they couldn’t understand was why Lu Bai’s actions were so fast?
This deathmatch duel had only started a few days ago, and he was already an incense master?!
Logically speaking, shouldn’t one first curry favor with an incense master, get taken as an apprentice, and then figure out how to learn the skills?
They originally thought their own progress as brothers was pretty fast, but after seeing Lu Bai, they inexplicably felt that their efforts to curry favor with Shi Xiangtou made them look like clowns.
“These two apprentices are great, full of energy.”
Lu Bai said with a smile: “They’ll definitely be able to help you a lot in the future.”
Shi Xiangtou waved the fan in his hand: “I’m not counting on that; as long as they don’t cause trouble later and drag their master into it, that’ll do.”
Buzz~
While Lu Bai was pondering how to find an opportunity to kill these two, his right palm suddenly felt a distinct warmth.
And not just him; Shi Xiangtou also showed an unusual reaction, clearly feeling the same thing.
This was Master Bai Fourteen contacting his spirit messengers; actually, by the rules, spirit messengers offered incense to the immortal every day, and that time was for communication.
Unless it was a very urgent situation, immortals generally wouldn’t choose such emergency contact.
Shi Xiangtou spread open his palm and muttered, “Something big has happened?”