"A willow tree? Recognize a godmother?"
Hu Ma was taken aback by Second Master's strange words.
However, now that they were in the forest, he felt an unsettling, restless sensation from his surroundings. Although he hadn't been in this world for long, he had already witnessed many bizarre and mysterious phenomena with Granny. Compared to those, Second Master's current actions seemed almost trivial. Therefore, he refrained from asking questions, simply employing the discipline he had developed at Granny's side: don't ask, don't inquire, just do as you're told.
He knelt respectfully and kowtowed three times to the large willow tree.
Second Master said, "Kowtow one more time. Three for gods, four for ghosts. While three kowtows are a good thing, your godmother might not be able to bear it."
Hu Ma reluctantly added another kowtow. He vaguely sensed the willow tree tremble slightly.
"Alright."
Second Master stopped Hu Ma, telling him not to get up yet. He crouched beside the willow tree, stroked its trunk, and muttered, "Hu Ma, grandson of the Hubai Clan and a resident of Dayang Village, is in distress. Today, he comes to recognize you as his godmother and seek your protection. He seeks neither gold nor silver, only wishes to borrow a three-inch willow branch from his godmother to light the furnace. May you, godmother, remember this bond. When Little Huma is healthy and strong in the future, he will come again to properly honor you, his godmother..."
In the darkness of the night, Hu Ma peeked.
After Second Master finished speaking, he waited for several breaths. A chilly breeze seemed to blow, and the willow branches swayed slowly a few times.
There was a subtle feeling of reluctance.
But Second Master simply smiled and looked up. He pinched one of the branches that the wind had blown against Hu Ma's head, measured up a short length, and with a gentle snap, broke it off. He grinned at Hu Ma and said, "Thank your godmother. Let's go."
Hu Ma intuitively felt that this act was peculiar, yet tinged with mystery.
Once they had walked some distance away, he quietly asked Second Master, "Was recognizing this godmother just to borrow this willow branch?"
"Of course," Second Master replied. "Otherwise, as Walking Ghost Granny's grandson, why would you need to call such a little willow spirit your godmother?"
"Calling her godmother was just to make her happily agree to lend us the branch."
"..." Hu Ma nodded, then whispered, "But what if it hadn't agreed?"
"If it hadn't agreed, we'd still have to cut it off," Second Master said with a glare. "We already kowtowed. If it wouldn't even give us this little thing, wouldn't that be disrespecting me, Second Master, the witness?"
"But it seems you didn't ask if it would agree before you told me to kowtow..." Hu Ma silently grumbled to himself. Of course, its apparent agreement is a good thing, but naturally, I can't say that out loud. It seemed only Second Master could pull off something like this; Granny probably wouldn't have.
Second Master led Hu Ma back to the house on the hill, walking more slowly this time. Hu Ma indeed began to notice the difference between Second Master and Granny.
When he was with Granny, he always felt as if there were rustling movements around, and several kinds of grotesque creatures that even Granny seemed only able to converse with respectfully, sometimes even having to offer them gifts. But with Second Master, no such phenomena occurred.
Occasionally, there were prying eyes from behind the trees, but they kept their distance, as if afraid of something.
Was it actually much safer traveling with Second Master than with Granny?
Yet, Second Master admitted his abilities weren't as good as Granny's. So what was the difference?
Upon returning to the courtyard, heads poked out from the bedrooms on the east and west sides, watching them.
Second Master yelled at them, "Go to sleep, all of you! Stop gawking!"
"Second Master, is the Young Master of the Hu Family going to stoke the furnace on his first day?"
The youths were clearly afraid of Second Master, but not completely terrified. Even while being scolded, someone boldly asked, "Doesn't he need to learn forms first?"
"Not convinced, are you?" Second Master chided. "Go back to the village and ask your dad for a Green Tai Sui!"
After shooing away the curious youths, he led Hu Ma into the main hall. The room was simply furnished, containing only a worn-out square table and two Taishi Chairs, their armrests polished smooth and glossy from use. One of the chairs had a broken leg.
To the left was an earthen kang bed. Against the wall was a fire pit built of stones, currently extinguished, with an unwashed iron pot haphazardly tossed on top.
Second Master had Hu Ma wait to the side while he took out a fire steel and lit the oil lamp and the fire in the pit.
He placed a blackened iron kettle on the fire, filled it with water, and tossed in some walnuts and red dates.
Only then did he turn around, take out a tattered, thread-bound book, and flip to a page, seeming to carefully confirm something.
Then, crouching by the fire pit, he said to Hu Ma, "Granny said you're not good at remembering things. I, Second Master, don't know how much you've forgotten now. But a while ago, you were targeted by some ghostly thing, and it caused you a lot of harm. You still frequently encounter evil spirits, don't you?"
Hu Ma quickly nodded. "Yes, from time to time, I feel like something is watching me, and my whole body feels uneasy."
"But it doesn't happen when I'm with you, Second Master."
"..."
"That's because my, Second Master's, furnace is still burning bright. But I can't always watch over you, and neither can Granny."
Second Master said, "So, I plan to stoke a furnace for you too. That way, even if no one is protecting you, you won't be afraid of those things."
As he spoke, he drew on his pipe, the tobacco crackling, the red glow of the embers intermittently illuminating his face.
Night had fallen, and a cold wind blew, lending his words an air of mystery and solemnity.
"Stoke a furnace?"
"Yes," Second Master whispered. "These are troubled times. All sorts of nefarious things are crawling out of the great mountains, harming people without consequence. Our Dayang Village has survived thanks to the ancestors in the Old Fire Pit, but we can't rely on our ancestors for everything, can we?
"So, we've always been trying to figure out a method for us to make a living ourselves in this old forest.
"And indeed, there is a method.
"Those evil spirits are, in fact, just a mass of yin qi.
"We fear this yin qi, but they also fear the human vitality in us. The stronger our vitality, the more they fear us.
"That's why these lads stay here with me, Second Master, eating meat, running in the mountains, practicing their skills, and basking in the sun. It's all to make their bodies stronger. The stronger they are, the less likely they are to be targeted by those evil spirits.
"However, mere physical training isn't enough.
"To truly learn the skills to deal with those things, the first thing you must do is stoke a furnace within your own body, to lock in your yang qi...
"Brewing it stronger and stronger, until it's like a great, blazing furnace...
"Once you've reached that stage, just think, what evil spirit would dare to provoke you?"
"..."
This is truly... too unscientific, Hu Ma mused as he listened, an unexpected thrill stirring within him. It's not like being unscientific is a problem. My own arrival in this world was completely unscientific. If I can learn real skills, who cares about that?
"So, what do I need to do?"
"Heh heh, don't be hasty. Look over there..."
Facing Hu Ma's poorly concealed excitement, Second Master chuckled and pointed towards the front, at a wooden log leaning against the wall.
The log was dark in color, about as thick as a person could wrap their arms around, and roughly a meter and a half long, standing vertically on the ground.
Second Master said, "Move that stake over here."
"Alright." Hu Ma agreed immediately and ran to the stake, reaching out with both hands to move it.
The wood was dense and likely quite heavy. However, Hu Ma was now healed and full of strength; he felt he could manage one or two hundred pounds without issue. But as his hands touched the stake, a bone-chilling cold emanated from it. Despite his utmost effort, it didn't budge an inch.
Is it welded to the ground? he wondered. He instinctively glanced down but saw that the gap beneath it wasn't even filled.
This peculiar resistance unsettled him, so he looked to Second Master.
"Heh heh, figured it out, haven't you?" Second Master said, seeing Hu Ma's curious expression. "That's a ghost wood stump. It takes root the moment it touches the ground."
"Ghost wood?" Hu Ma felt a slight shock.
Although he hadn't learned much about this world in the past few days, he had gleaned some information from Little Hongtang, such as the dangers in the forest. For instance, some ancient trees would grow human-like faces on their bark.
Once such an old tree appeared, the entire surrounding forest would become extremely dangerous. Living people who entered would often lose their bearings and be trapped until they died.
Though curious about these things, Hu Ma never imagined seeing one firsthand like this.
"That's right. It was just felled a couple of days ago. The bark's been stripped off; otherwise, you'd be able to see a human face," Second Master said with a smile. "But even though it's been felled and the face stripped off, an evil thing is still an evil thing. This stump, as soon as it touches the ground, immediately takes root. Let alone you, even the adults in the village couldn't move it with sheer strength!
"To make it move, there are two methods. One is to roast it with fire, and the other... well, that depends on our own abilities..."
As he spoke, he knocked out his pipe, his chest slowly swelling.
"WOOSH!"
He suddenly blew out a breath, which shot out like a sharp arrow.
Hu Ma only felt a strong gust of wind rush past his side, and then he heard a crisp sound.
He saw the ghost wood stump, which he hadn't been able to budge even with all his strength, actually get sent flying by Second Master's breath.
"This..." Hu Ma was both astonished and delighted, thoroughly amazed by Second Master's feat.
"It's run off."
Second Master, however, proudly clasped his hands behind his back, stood up, glanced at the doorway, then turned back to Hu Ma with a smile. "That's the benefit of having a stoked furnace. A single breath from me, Second Master, can injure, if not kill, ordinary evil spirits.
"This technique has a name: True Yang Arrow. If I were to bite the tip of my tongue and spit out blood along with my breath, it would be even more powerful. That one is called the Blood Yang Arrow.
"I, Second Master, have never touched a real woman in my life. It's sixty years in a child body that has given me this power."
"..."
Hu Ma looked at Second Master's tall, sturdy frame, his eyes filled with admiration for Second Master's abilities.
But what's there to be so proud about that?