Hidden moth

Chapter 159: The Heart of All Things

He Kao stood up and disappeared, returning to his old house and bringing back something, a long silver-threaded wooden table.

The long table was made by my grandfather himself. According to the old tradition, it should be placed against the wall in the middle hall. During the New Year, ancestral tablets would be placed on it. It serves as both an altar for offerings and a god's altar.

But modern people don't care about these things anymore. Now a square table is placed in that position in the main hall. This long table was moved to He Kao's room and used as a study desk, and a desktop computer was also placed on it.

He Kao moved the altar here, and according to the requirements of the ancestral worship ceremony, he went out several times to prepare incense, candles and fruits, and then burned incense and worshiped... He didn't know if it was a psychological effect, but he seemed to have some feeling, but it was not real.

As a hidden moth, he could always feel the gaze of the person in the painting. This gaze seemed to have a tangible touch, and when he kowtowed in worship, this touch seemed to be even clearer.

If it weren't for the hidden moth, he wouldn't even be able to detect this extremely subtle change.

It seems that the idea is right, but the method may not be in place. So what is the problem? Is it the incense and candles?

He Kao recalled a story his grandfather told him when he was a child.

When my grandfather was a child, he used to follow his great-grandfather to worship his ancestors and light white candles. Those candles were not bought, but made by my great-grandfather himself.

The wax body is made of insect wax, and the wax core is twisted from reed fibers. This is an ancient method. However, using reed fibers is too troublesome, so later in the late ancient times, cotton thread, such as that used for sewing shoe soles, was used instead.

Why did Grandpa say this? Because there happened to be a power outage that day and there were no candles at home, Grandpa asked He Kao to go to the town store to buy some. While lighting the candles, he casually said a few words.

He mainly told He Kao how craftsmen in the past made candles. Those things were very expensive at that time, unlike paraffin wax which is so cheap now.

Ancient people used white wax as the best material for making wax, followed by yellow wax. Yellow wax is beeswax, while white wax is insect wax, refined from the secretions of wax beetles and also used as a medicinal ingredient.

He Kao didn't have to go and collect wax himself, as the omnipotent Dongguo website sold almost everything.

He Kao immediately left the secret residence where there was no signal, took out his mobile phone and placed an order. In order to avoid buying fakes, he repeatedly confirmed with the seller that what he wanted was insect wax, not paraffin wax.

Then he bought a box of dried catkins, probably for decoration.

There is no record of candles in the tradition of the art of magic. He Kao heard it from his grandfather, but the tradition of the art of magic does record a kind of incense that can awaken the mind. Lighting one in a quiet room can help to enter a state of mind. It has some magical effect of concentrating the mind and was also used in grand sacrifices in ancient times.

He Ke has inherited the materials needed to make the awakening incense and how to process it, but he cannot make it himself. He needs to have at least the fourth level of cultivation.

Call Lin Qingshuang first and ask her if she has any channels. If that doesn’t work, look for someone else.

After hearing this, Lin Qingshuang didn't ask what he wanted to do, but pondered, "The materials for making the awakening incense can be used to refine other elixirs. It's a pity to use them to make incense... That's why there aren't many of them."

He Kao: "It would be great if I could get it. How much is it?"

Lin Qingshuang smiled: "This is not about money. The people who make the awakening incense are unlikely to sell it for money. If I ask, others will give me face and not bid. But I can't just take it for free. I have to pay for it.

How about this, I'll make the deal for you: two sticks of incense for one million. You don't have to pay me, I'll just deduct it from the proceeds of your ginseng sale. I sold the ginseng for three million..."

That ginseng was sold for three million! In fact, according to He Kao's expectation, it would be a blessing if it could be sold for hundreds of thousands... Senior Lin was right, the thing can only be sold at a high price when it is in her hands.

Moreover, the ginseng dug by He Kao were all of the best quality and most effective as determined by his spiritual awareness combined with the art of identifying medicinal herbs.

As for burning high-grade incense, the incense for awakening the mind is also quite expensive!

A tube contains 100 cigarettes, so two tubes cost 1 million, which works out to 5,000 per cigarette. The usual method of use is to light one cigarette in a quiet room before sitting down. Each cigarette lasts for an hour, which is equivalent to burning a new phone.

For rituals, order at least three.

But it's impossible for He Kao to buy only three incense sticks, and no one would go to so much trouble to process only such a small amount. He wanted to ask someone for help, so he couldn't ask for too many, but two tubes was the minimum.

It's good to prepare more, so that you can use it during cultivation...

The incense arrived quickly, He Kao having fetched it himself. He thought to himself, perhaps with incense, candles wouldn't need to be so elaborate. But to be on the safe side, he decided to make the candles the old way.

The online seller claimed that it was high-quality natural insect wax, but in He Kao's opinion, it was far from pure and had too many impurities... Since it had come to this point, he had to do his best to make it better.

At the third level of cultivation, one could practice the method of refining things with spiritual consciousness. It was also a required technique for third-level appraisers of the Ruwei Sect. He Kao's first attempt at it was to refine insect wax and remove all impurities.

In addition, he repeatedly boiled, beat, and dried the catkins to obtain pure fiber and twisted them into candle wicks, finally producing a batch of candles with a texture as white as jade.

Everything is ready... No, there's still one missing piece of memorial text, mainly to explain who is going to be memorialized to whom? He Kao is not good at writing these, but he can let AI help him write one. The content is roughly as follows -

"Today, my children and I pay homage to our ancestor, Tan Jun, and say: 'In the past, he achieved great success and ascended to heaven, leaving behind his legacy for future generations. His techniques and alchemy have been passed down to this day.

I have been blessed with many blessings, and I will never forget them. I am fortunate to have obtained a photo of you, and seeing you is as if you were there. I offer incense and candles, and pay tribute to you, praying to the immortal spirits, and come to enjoy and respect you. Enjoy the meal!

After more than a week, the ritual preparations were finally complete. In the Gushan Secret Mansion, He Kao lit candles and incense, chanted and bowed, concentrating his mind, and then he sensed a change...

The three incense sticks that had been burning for a long time originally took an hour to burn out, but now they had burned down quickly, almost two-thirds. A voice was heard in the soul, chanting four verses:

"The Great Dao unites heaven and earth, broadens the mind and aligns with the ultimate truth, integrates qi to give birth to all things, and harmonizes with the spirit to connect with the people."

As the sound rang out, He Kao naturally understood what was going on. The specific artistic conception was beyond words... What he did was roughly equivalent to "consecrating" the picture.

But the so-called consecration is only for him personally. If it is someone else, you have to start over again.

From now on, when he "communicates" with the Immortal Tan in the picture, he won't need the sacrificial text just now. He can just burn incense and silently recite the four verses. The three sticks of awakening incense are necessary...

He Kao raised his head and saw that the eyes of the Immortal Tan in the painting seemed to be smart, and he received a divine thought.

In the Shu sect's sacrificial rituals, there is no need for five or three animals. Just a plate of fruit is placed as a symbolic offering. He Kao even went to the most popular temple in Qiyuan to see that apples were placed on the incense table there, so he also placed a plate of red apples today.

This divine thought was actually an introduction to apples, and it was not an introduction to the entire plate, but only the one on top.

Divine thoughts are not simple images or words, but a kind of idea. It is very difficult to express it in words. It is equivalent to a process of re-translation, and many details cannot be explained at all.

How complicated can the introduction of an apple be? It turns out that it can be quite, quite, quite complicated!

For example, He Kao seems to have witnessed the origin of the apple, the environment in which it grows, the process of harvesting, transportation, and sales, as well as the emotions that people who come into contact with it during this process have given it, including He Kao who bought the apple.

He Kao could certainly tell it was him, sensing in him a certain mood of choice and anticipation. He was indeed thinking about which apple to pick, and other things as well.

He Kao couldn't help but think of Wei Luo again. He invited Wei Luo to dinner that day and the other party ordered Hu La Tang.

While eating, Lady Wei said, "Many things in this world have unique flavors. For example, this bowl of spicy soup can reveal many places, many environments, and the thoughts and feelings of different people."

He Kaoting understood, but he could only marvel, because he himself could not do it... Now this painting is also so magical?

It’s normal to think about it. Seeing the picture is like seeing the person, so Master Tan must be more capable than Wei Luo.

The content of the divine consciousness is more than that, it also includes the conditions of the apple-bearing plants, their growth preferences, physical properties, etc. Regarding the physical properties, He Kao himself can also get results by using the art of identifying medicine, but the content of the divine consciousness is obviously more sophisticated and comprehensive.

This apple also has tonic effects and can be used as medicine. The divine consciousness not only introduces the effects, but also includes many processing methods.

For example, it can be used to moisturize dryness. You can steam it in a bowl and let it cool before eating. He Kao has never eaten apples like this before.

Even though he hadn't eaten the apple, he could already appreciate its flavor, including the flavors after being processed in various ways.

However, the efficacy of this apple is too weak and it actually has little medicinal value.

Divine thoughts cannot be expressed in words, but people's understanding of many concepts requires the help of language, so different people may understand different meanings and have different ways of expressing them.

What is this apple? He Kao realized that it was actually called "Haitang Yiguo". According to the ancient Chinese name, shouldn't apples be called "Lingo" or "Dannai"?

But this does not seem to be some "name given by the ancients". Even the expression "crabapple fruit" is the result of He Kao's own knowledge and processing.

The information given in "The Picture of Tan Xian Holding a Staff" is quite complicated, but the content that He Kao can understand is only consistent with his own cultivation and knowledge, and is within the scope of his acceptance and understanding.

Is this how "Tan Xianren" viewed the apple? Is this painting a verifier?

If he waits until his cultivation level is higher, will he be able to accept and understand more, more complex and more advanced content, and even trigger more wonders of this painting, instead of just using it for identification?

When he came to his senses, more than half an hour had passed. The candlelight was still bright, but the three incense sticks had burned out.

He Kao was very excited and surprised, because he finally discovered the wonderful use of this painting, at least the preliminary use, but at the same time he was also a little unwilling. After spending so much effort, was he just able to identify an apple?
After thinking for a while, he took the plate of apples away and placed the newly acquired pearl, Xue Guanghan, on the incense table. Then he lit three more incense sticks, concentrated his mind, chanted verses and worshiped.

**
(End of this chapter)