The next day.
In a valley filled with the aroma of elixir.
An old man with white beard and hair was sitting under the eaves of a thatched roof. There was a clay pot on the stove in front of him. Fatty fish was stewed in it, and the broth was simmering, exuding an alluring aroma.
The old man saw a figure appearing in the direction of the entrance of the valley from a distance, and a smile suddenly appeared on his face.
It wasn't until the young man came closer that the old man said hello: "Yuan Ming, you came at the perfect time. I just stewed the fish in the pot and you arrived before I even had time to take off my chopsticks."
"Isn't it because I'm afraid that Senior Yuweng will eat fish but not drink, so I'm bringing you wine?" Yuan Ming was not polite and said with a smile.
As he spoke, he waved the two small crimson wine bottles in his hands.
"Hey, did you really bring wine?" When Yu Weng saw the wine, his eyes suddenly lit up.
He stood up hurriedly to greet him.
"How could I forget what I promised you?" Yuan Ming smiled and handed the wine over and said.
"Okay, okay, you just want to have a drink with me." Yu Weng smiled and led Yuan Ming to sit down.
"It smells so good. The fish feels particularly fresh today." Yuan Ming smelled the fragrance and couldn't help but praise it.
"Hey, no, this pot of fish is filled with three kinds of spiritual herbs that are over 30 years old. It is nourishing and flavorful. I wouldn't let the average person taste it," the fish man said with a smile.
"Senior, are you really okay with the elixir you just collected from the medicine garden?" Yuan Ming asked.
"If you don't tell me, if I don't tell you, who will know? From now on, you will come here often, and I will keep it and make up for you." Yu Weng said with a smile.
"Senior's good intentions, of course I don't dare to brush against it. But in the next period of time, I have to practice in seclusion for a while. When the seclusion is over, I will bring wine to see you." Yuan Ming said.
"It is a good thing to practice diligently." Yu Weng heard this and nodded in praise.
…
at night.
The bright moonlight leaked from the window and fell on Yuan Ming.
He held the incense burner in his arms, bathing in the luster all over his body.
At this moment, Yuan Ming suddenly felt something in his heart and slowly opened his eyes.
"It's a full moon night again, and I don't know when I can return to my hometown in the Central Plains?" He sighed softly.
His eyes narrowed slightly and fell on the green incense burner in his hand, and his eyes couldn't help but flicker.
I saw that more than half of the Tai Chi pattern on the incense burner had been lit up, but it was still a little short of being fully lit up.
"It's been several months, but it's still a little short of being fully lit..." Yuan Ming thought to himself.
At this time, he suddenly had a sudden thought: "Since this incense burner is also a magic weapon, I wonder if there will be any new changes if I try to use magic power to activate it."
With this thought in mind, he held the incense burner with both hands and began to pour mana into it.
As soon as the magic force entered, Yuan Ming realized something was wrong.
It was obviously different from when he activated the magic weapon in the past. His magic power was absorbed by the incense burner. It was the kind of absorption that was swallowed up.
But there was no obvious change in the incense burner.
"Isn't it enough?" Yuan Ming thought to himself and began to pour in the mana with all his strength.
"Bright……"
After a while, after Yuan Ming transferred most of his mana into the incense burner, a soft light finally lit up from the Tai Chi pattern on the burner body.
"It really works! Does this mean that you can light incense again?" Yuan Ming was delighted.
As soon as he thought of this, he immediately stopped practicing, closed the window, locked the door, and returned to the bed.
The last time he lit the black incense, he successfully possessed the young emperor, thereby obtaining the "Nine Yuan Jue" practice technique, which directly changed his destiny.
Therefore, Yuan Ming has always wanted to try burning incense again.
Unfortunately, several subsequent attempts ended in failure, and he was never able to light the black incense.
This time the Tai Chi pattern on the incense burner lights up, maybe it’s a new opportunity to light incense.
Yuan Ming thought about this and no longer hesitated. He immediately took the fire stick and lit the fire to light a stick of black incense stuck in the stove.
The flame lit on the huozhen was close to the incense head, and the trembling flames quickly licked it up.
After a while, a little green smoke curled up, and the second black incense was indeed ignited.
The smell, somewhere between sandalwood and rosin, soon filled the room.
The moment Yuan Ming smelled this aroma, his consciousness began to become drowsy, and the scenery in front of him became blurry.
He faced this familiar feeling again, without the panic he felt the first time. He just tried to open his eyes wide, trying to stay awake to fight against this feeling of drowsiness.
Unfortunately, his resistance could not last long as he fell into darkness and lost all consciousness.
Not long after, a burst of noisy sounds came from all around.
Yuan Ming felt a push on his shoulder, and immediately opened his eyes in confusion.
"Wang Shun, don't worry, what kind of day is it today, do you still dare to be lazy and sleep?" He rubbed his eyes and saw clearly that the person speaking next to him was a round-faced man wearing a brown short robe and looking like a handyman.
"What are you looking at me for?" The round-faced man subconsciously touched his cheek.
Yuan Ming did not answer in a hurry, but looked down at his attire. He looked the same as the round-faced man, and he seemed to be a handyman or something like that.
"The gap is a bit big..." Yuan Ming sighed in his heart.
The last time he possessed a young emperor, this time he became a lowly servant.
"I just slept for a while, why are you making such a fuss?" Yuan Ming said, imitating the tone of the round-faced man.
"You dare to talk back? Stop talking nonsense, hurry up and get the horse, and prepare the carriage in front. Madam is going to go to the Chenghuang Temple to offer incense. It's wasted time, and your boy will be in trouble." The round-faced man urged.
Yuan Ming then took advantage of the situation and observed his surroundings.
He found that he seemed to be in a deep house and compound, and behind him was a stable that was the size of four or five houses, with seven or eight tall horses that looked like horses.
These horses are all solid-colored horses, either black or white, red or yellow-brown, and none of them have mottled colors. They all look very energetic.
"What day is it today?" Yuan Ming asked.
When the round-faced man heard this, he looked at him with a strange expression and asked suspiciously: "Wang Shun, are you crazy?"
"What happened to me? I just drank some wine last night and was a little sleepy today." Yuan Ming said.
"If you don't have some skills in raising horses, and the master likes you, with your virtues, can you enter our general's mansion? If you don't hurry up, I will have to suffer the same fate as you." The round-faced man said angrily.
General's Mansion? Has he become a handyman in the General's Mansion?
"You haven't said yet, what day is today?" Yuan Ming continued to ask.
"My ancestors, today is the day when the Chenghuang Temple in the south of the city holds a temple fair. Our wife spent a lot of money to get the opportunity to pay for the first incense. If you don't hurry up, I'm really worried about you." The round-faced man
said angrily.
After Yuan Ming heard this, he got up and rushed to the stable.
He subconsciously picked three white horses in the stable, pulled the reins and walked out.
According to etiquette, a general's wife can only ride in a sedan with no more than three horses.
Since he had to pull a cart and there was no need to wear a saddle or harness, Yuan Ming followed the round-faced man and led the three horses out of the stable and to the front yard.
Arriving at an open courtyard in the front yard, a beautifully decorated and luxurious carriage was already parked there.
Yuan Ming led three horses forward and hitched them side by side to the carriage.
After settling everything, we waited for the arrival of the general's wife.
Yuan Ming took advantage of this time to look around and saw tall trees standing outside the courtyard in the distance, which seemed to be a garden.
Further away, there is a blue-grey tower with eight treasures and eight spires, about five stories high.
"Huh……"
For some reason, when Yuan Ming looked at the silhouette of the tall tower, he felt that it looked familiar.
At this moment, a group of people came here carrying a beautiful sedan chair.
Next to the sedan chair were several young and bright-looking maids, and behind them were two rows of soldiers wearing weapons and armor. Each one had a murderous look on their faces, and they had obviously killed the enemy in battle.
"Wang Shun, lower your head, do you want to die?" At this time, a round-faced man's warning voice came from beside him.
He turned around and saw that the other party had stepped aside, his hands hanging by his knees, his head lowered, and he could only look at the insteps of his feet.
Although Yuan Ming did not have the awe of a servant, he did not want to bring any trouble to the original owner of this body, so he lowered his head like him.
The sedan pulled up to the front, and immediately there were maids helping the elegant general's wife to transfer to the carriage.
After the lady and her maid got on the carriage, others lined up to follow them on the left and right sides.
Yuan Ming was responsible for driving the carriage to the south of the city.
Fortunately, there were a few cavalrymen at the front of the team to lead the way, otherwise Yuan Ming would have been really worried that he had gone the wrong way and someone would see it out.
The procession of carriages and horses passed through several courtyards before finally leaving the mansion and arriving outside.
The road outside the General's Mansion was so wide that Yuan Ming was surprised. The ground was laid with neat tiles and was swept very clean.
The mansions on both sides of the road are quite sparsely distributed, but just by looking at the gates, you can tell that they are all high-ranking officials, and each one displays luxury and dignity within the regulations.
The procession of carriages and horses headed south of the city leisurely.
Yuan Ming looked at the street scene beside the road and felt a little dazed for a moment.
He didn't know if his own memory was fused with the memory of this body, but he actually felt that the street scenes on both sides became more and more similar the more he looked at them.
Especially on both sides of the road, the two rows of thick pine trees towering straight into the sky are both large enough for two adults to hug.
"It's strange..."
Yuan Ming was filled with doubts as the vehicle drove slowly to another area.
Different from the previous empty and quiet residential areas where dignitaries lived, the streets here have become obviously narrower, and the ground is no longer paved with large bluestone tiles, but densely packed earth-fired blue bricks.
And there are a large number of street-facing buildings on both sides of the road, densely packed and row upon row.
Various plaques and flags are hung outside these buildings, and some even have bamboo and wooden sheds set up outside with various decorations to highlight their differences from other buildings.
Yuan Ming had been in southern Xinjiang for a long time, and he only had blurry and fragmented images of various memories of the Central Plains in his memory, but many of the images sleeping in his memory still corresponded to the scene in front of him.
Busy streets, crowded shops, crowded pedestrians, and enthusiastic hawkers...
Suddenly, Yuan Ming felt that he was no longer possessing others, but as if he had come here in person.
At a glance, he saw a small vendor's sign on the side of the road, which said "wine glutinous rice balls", and couldn't help but lick his lips.
Although he hadn't seen the glutinous rice dumplings made with fermented glutinous rice, or even remembered what they looked like, the warm, sweet, and soft texture had already emerged in Yuan Ming's memory.
In a restaurant not far away, the rich aroma of wine floated from afar, mixed with the aroma of food. It had a completely different taste from southern Xinjiang wine, and was extremely mellow.
Everything he saw, heard, and smelled felt indescribably familiar.
This chapter has been completed!