Xu Muchan slightly raised his face, feeling the faint breeze brush across his cheeks and circle around his body. The hem of his sacrificial robe fluttered gently in the wind.
That nauseating, fishy stench had completely disappeared, replaced by a cold and damp breeze.
The wind grew somewhat stronger, causing the banners hanging around them to rustle loudly.
The ritual masters standing in a circle around Xu Muchan and Xu Wangchuan were somewhat alarmed as they looked around. The atmosphere of today’s spirit-invoking ceremony seemed different from usual.
They instinctively looked toward the chief officiant standing before the altar.
The chief officiant wore a brightly colored wooden mask over his face. He spread his arms and legs and performed exaggerated leaps and movements. It was a dance with an extremely strange rhythm, its wide, sweeping motions resembling the movements of a beast.
He repeated the incantation for summoning the deity, then emphasized his voice as he called out:
“Invite—the—god—down—”
The drawn-out chanting began again.
Xu Muchan slightly turned his face and heard the enormous thing coiled above slowly begin to move. At the same time, four sets of footsteps began moving as well.
The footsteps were extremely heavy, as though they were carrying something.
Step by step, they walked up to Xu Muchan and Xu Wangchuan before lowering whatever they were carrying onto the ground.
The heavy object landed with a muffled thud.
Xu Muchan soon realized what it was—the golden statue of the deity they were inviting today.
Xu Qingming and Xu Zhifei followed the chief officiant’s instructions, lighting incense and worshiping before the statue. Afterward, it was Xu Muchan and Xu Wangchuan’s turn to worship.
But for some unknown reason, although Xu Muchan and Xu Wangchuan lit their incense and worshiped at the same time, before Xu Wangchuan had even finished bowing, the incense in his hand went out.
The chief officiant had no choice but to replace it with another three sticks of incense.
Xu Wangchuan bowed again.
This time, the incense did not go out, but it burned into a pattern of two short sticks and one long stick.
People feared three long and two short; incense feared two short and one long. This was an inauspicious omen.
This time, it was not only the chief officiant whose expression changed slightly. The others also began whispering among themselves.
Xu Wangchuan himself realized that something was wrong. Uneasily, he looked toward the chief officiant.
But with the exaggerated mask covering the man’s face, Xu Wangchuan could not make out his expression at all. He could only nervously ask, “Master…?”
The chief officiant was also puzzled.
When the Xu family had originally sent this child away to serve the God of Joy, he had clearly been greatly favored. Why were there so many strange occurrences today?
Thinking back to the fact that something had seemed wrong when the deity was summoned just now, the chief officiant also felt uneasy.
But the auspicious hour for welcoming the deity could not be delayed, so he could only have Xu Muchan offer another three sticks of incense on Xu Wangchuan’s behalf.
Although Xu Muchan could not see, he vaguely understood that something had gone wrong with the ritual.
Thinking that after all this commotion, the so-called deity they had summoned was actually his older brother, he pressed his lips together and suppressed a smile before offering another three sticks of incense.
This time, everything went smoothly.
Xu Wangchuan, who had been replaced, looked terrible, but he did not dare say anything.
After the worship proceeded smoothly, the chief officiant once again reminded them, “Now that the new deity has returned home, you must sincerely worship and make offerings to him from this day forward. The virgin boy must worship the deity every five days. You must not neglect it.”
Xu Qingming hurriedly agreed.
Afterward, the heavy golden statue was once again lifted by four people. Xu Muchan and Xu Wangchuan were ordered to follow on either side of the divine palanquin, escorting the golden statue all the way down to the basement.
Once the statue was in position, things became simpler. All that remained was for the virgin boy chosen to serve the deity to worship once more.
Originally, this task should have been carried out by Xu Wangchuan and Xu Muchan together—or, more accurately, Xu Wangchuan was supposed to take the lead, with Xu Muchan assisting him.
But for some reason, the God of Joy seemed particularly displeased with Xu Wangchuan today.
When the two of them carried fresh offerings forward, the plate of fresh fruit in Xu Wangchuan’s hands suddenly rotted in an instant, turning into foul-smelling liquid and giving off an overpowering stench.
Worse still, maggots could be seen wriggling their way out.
Terrified, Xu Wangchuan threw the plate away. The rotten, maggot-infested fruits rolled across the floor with a gurgling sound, sending everyone scrambling away.