The groggy boys woke up from their dreams in a panic, hastily throwing on their clothes and rushing outside.
Some didn’t even wash their faces or brush their teeth, and a few even forgot to put on their pants, tumbling out of bed, slipping on their shoes, and stumbling out the door.
Hu Ma, who had just arrived here the day before, was completely disoriented but had no choice but to follow along in a daze.
Second Master stood in the middle of the courtyard, holding a copper pipe.
If anyone moved too slowly, he’d give them a kick, sending them flying out of the courtyard.
Hu Ma, still sluggish and slow to react, almost got a kick too, but Second Master stopped himself when he saw it was Hu Ma, simply grunting, “Hurry up, keep up.”
Hu Ma felt his icy limbs and wanted to ask something, but he didn’t know where to start.
He followed the others as they ran out of the courtyard.
After running up the mountain for a while, the boys began to liven up, and laughter and chatter gradually filled the air.
Some hadn’t even properly put on their shoes but were still running fast.
As they rounded the hillside, they saw a clear spring bubbling out from beneath a rock, forming a small pool at the base of the slope.
The boys ran over and crouched down, splashing the cool water on their faces.
Some even went wild, stripping off their pants and jumping in.
But before they could splash around for long, someone started laughing and running back, shouting, “Whoever’s slow has to lick the widow’s butt!”
The group erupted into chaos, scrambling out of the pool.
Hu Ma finally caught up, feeling his limbs heavy and cold, his mind growing more and more uneasy.
Logically, after running for so long, his body should have warmed up, but instead, he felt colder and colder, his face pale, not a drop of sweat on him.
Watching the energetic boys ahead, he didn’t want to be the one to lick the widow’s butt, but his body felt heavier and heavier.
Yet, if he really wanted to keep up, it seemed he could.
His body was cold, but one spot felt unusually warm—his lower abdomen, where the furnace fire was.
Last night, after practicing his cultivation, that area had been warm and full, and it still was now.
Whenever he thought about speeding up, he could faintly feel the furnace fire spreading from his lower abdomen to the rest of his body.
It was this furnace fire that kept him from collapsing, even though he felt cold and weak, allowing him to keep up with the boys from a distance.
But as he ran, the furnace fire was clearly weakening.
Didn’t Second Master say that as long as he didn’t lose his virginity, the furnace fire would keep growing? Hu Ma grew more and more alarmed as he thought about it.
By the time he stumbled back to the courtyard, the others were already lining up.
In the courtyard, a large pot, a basket, and a winnowing basket were set up, with a stack of rough ceramic bowls beside them.
The boys who had returned from the mountain run eagerly grabbed bowls and lined up to get their food.
Surprisingly, there was meat.
When Hu Ma went to get his bowl of porridge, he noticed chunks of salted meat, about the size of a thumb, mixed in with the porridge.
Each bowl got a piece.
The boys were clearly most interested in the meat, their eyes wide as they argued with the server, “That piece, give me that one… you jerk!”
“You dog, acting like you’ve never had meat before…” A slightly chubby boy in front of Hu Ma turned around, grumbling, “They’ve already taken all the good pieces.”
Hu Ma, preoccupied, asked without thinking, “What is that?”
“Mountain meat,” the boy replied. “White Tai Sui. We only get a little bit each day, and it’s what keeps us going.”
“Why is the White Tai Sui black?” Hu Ma asked, still dazed, before realizing, “Oh, it’s cured, so it’s black…”
These boys were all growing teenagers, with high energy needs, and it was this cured White Tai Sui meat that kept them going all day.
No wonder they were so eager at mealtime.
But according to Second Master, even the adults in the village rarely got to eat this White Tai Sui, so this was a special treat for the boys learning their craft?
Hu Ma’s limbs were cold, and his mind felt sluggish.
He wasn’t particularly craving the Tai Sui meat, but he was eager to eat something warm to heat up his body.
Finally, it was his turn.
He picked up a bowl like the others, but the tall, skinny boy serving the food glanced at him and said with a smirk, “Young Master Hu, still fighting us for meat?”
As he spoke, he scooped a ladle of porridge, but just as he was about to pour it into Hu Ma’s bowl, he gave it a shake, and the piece of meat fell back into the pot.
Hu Ma looked up and saw the boy smirking, as if to say, “Why are you still here?”
This guy seemed to have some kind of grudge against him… But Hu Ma was too preoccupied to care.
He just took his porridge, grabbed a couple of steamed buns, and walked off to eat by himself.
They didn’t even have a proper table.
Everyone just squatted wherever they could find space, slurping their porridge.
Some were even playfully fighting over the meat in their bowls.
But as Hu Ma ate, he felt something strange.
The porridge was hot, and many of the boys were carefully sipping it to avoid burning their mouths.
But Hu Ma drank it slowly, feeling no warmth at all.
He could feel the heat on his tongue, but once it reached his stomach, it was as if the warmth disappeared.
Why was this happening? Even back in the village, he’d never felt like this…
He was starting to feel scared of this icy coldness.
“Little Hu Ma, come here!” Just then, Second Master emerged from the main hall and waved Hu Ma over, calling him inside.
“You’ve just lit your furnace. Eat this bowl of meat.”
“Huh?” Hu Ma looked up in surprise and saw a bowl on the square table in the room, filled with large, glistening chunks of stewed meat.
He turned and noticed that the piece of meat Second Master had hung from the rafters yesterday had been cut down.
“Isn’t that the gift Grandma gave Second Master as a token of respect?” Hu Ma steadied himself and recognized it as the meat he’d brought yesterday.
It was a sizable piece, but different from the Blood Tai Sui he usually ate—it was darker in color.
He turned to Second Master and said, “That was meant for you, Second Master. I’ll just eat with the others.”
“Eat it when I tell you to,” Second Master glared at him. “Your grandma gave me such a large piece of Green Tai Sui—that’s the Hu family’s way of showing respect. But at my age, what do I need to replenish? You eat it, learn your skills quickly, and then you can earn your own to give back to me.”
Hu Ma was touched, but seeing that Second Master wasn’t just being polite, he sat down and slowly ate, wondering how to bring up his concerns.
But before he could ask, as he ate the meat, he suddenly felt a warm current rising in his chest.
The icy coldness in his limbs was gradually driven away, replaced by a comforting warmth.
Even the cold rune on his chest became noticeable again, and he could feel it blocking the warmth in his body, directing it back down to his lower abdomen, where the furnace fire seemed to grow stronger.
This sensation of his frozen body slowly coming back to life made Hu Ma pause his eating.
“Second Master…” He tried to keep his voice steady as he asked quietly, “After eating this meat, I feel like the furnace inside me is burning stronger…”
“Of course it is,” Second Master chuckled. “This mountain meat, or Tai Sui, is the most nourishing thing there is. When you eat it, your fire energy increases, and the yin energy from Liu’er’s mother draws that fire energy into your stomach, making your furnace burn even stronger. It’s like adding good firewood to a stove—the fire just gets hotter. Why do you think those boys are so obsessed with that bit of cured meat?”
“Then…” Hu Ma began to understand but felt even more uncertain. “What if I don’t eat Tai Sui meat?”
“If you don’t eat it, as long as you keep your mind clear and don’t lose your virginity, the furnace will still grow stronger. The human body is like a fire pit,” Second Master explained. “Your generation is lucky. Back in my day, we didn’t have White Tai Sui to eat—we had to tough it out, but we still managed to light our furnaces.”
“But…” Second Master’s rambling made Hu Ma’s scalp tingle, and he cautiously asked his final question: “What if, without eating Tai Sui meat, my body has no warmth at all, and the furnace I’ve lit keeps getting weaker?”
“What kind of nonsense are you spouting?” Second Master gave him a strange look. “If a person’s body has no warmth at all, wouldn’t that make them a dead man?”
Hu Ma’s heart skipped a beat as he realized the true nature of his problem.
“I’ve lit my furnace and don’t feel any discomfort, so I’m not a demon. I can even use this furnace fire to ward off evil spirits, but that’s not the real issue…”
“The real issue is… I’m a dead man!?”
(End of Chapter)