What is an immortal?

"What's going on?" Yuan Ming's heart skipped a beat as he hurriedly looked toward the warming spot on his right arm.

He had been staying in the dim environment for the past half month, and his eyes had gradually adapted to the darkness. The warming spot was a shallow green mark, resembling an incense burner.

The originally faint mark now became clear at a speed visible to the naked eye, emitting strands of faint light.

"Strange, when did such an odd mark appear on my arm?" Yuan Ming exclaimed in surprise, touching it with his finger. The green mark felt neither painful nor itchy, and had nothing unusual about it.

He pondered for a moment, then tried to mobilize the sliver of mana within his Dantian, concentrating it on his fingertip and touching the green mark.

Although the light emitted by the mark was weak, it carried a barely perceptible fluctuation of mana, which inexplicably urged him to act like this.

Suddenly, the green mark emitted a suction force and "whooshed" as it swallowed that sliver of mana!

Yuan Ming was shocked. The mana he had painstakingly accumulated over half a month had been completely lost in an instant.

In his panic, he operated the Blood Qi Skill, trying to draw back the mana from inside the mark, but it was to no avail. His heart sank completely.

It was already difficult to accumulate mana, and now all his previous efforts were completely wasted.

Just as Yuan Ming was feeling utterly disheartened, a warm current emerged from within the green mark, and a hazy light suddenly shone on his arm.

Yuan Ming's eyes widened as he looked at the light.

Suddenly, to his amazement, he saw a palm-sized green incense burner materialize within the light. Supported by the light, it settled stably in front of him.

The incense burner seemed to be made of clay, with three legs and two handles, but no lid. One side was engraved with a Yin Yang fish Tai Chi pattern, while the other had stars dotted, etching an array map resembling a night sky.

The Yin Yang Tai Chi pattern shone brilliantly, looking very mysterious.

Above the incense burner, there were also three sticks of Black Incense, placed unevenly, one short and two long.

Yuan Ming was startled by this bizarre scene and stood in a daze for several breaths before he reached out and lightly caressed the incense burner, feeling a fine and real texture on his fingertips.

"This is no illusion."

Yuan Ming straightened up and gently touched the three sticks of Black Incense again, feeling that the material was similar to ordinary incense but smoother and more delicate to the touch.

He then looked down at his arm, where the mark had disappeared, leaving behind only a faint sense of heat.

"Strange, where did this incense burner come from? How did it get onto my arm?"

As Yuan Ming was puzzling over this, a piece of memory suddenly surged in his mind. He vaguely remembered falling into the river and being tossed and battered by the raging waves before being pulled into the depths by an undercurrent.

In the chaos, he saw a burst of light at the river bottom and struggled to reach for an object.

That object was the incense burner.

Yuan Ming's pupils shrank instantly, and when he looked at the incense burner again, his gaze became even more astonished.

Although he still did not know what the incense burner was exactly, if it could attach to him, it was definitely not an ordinary object.

Yuan Ming placed his palm on the incense burner and felt a warm current seep through, quickly travelling into his mind.

He felt a cool sensation passing through his brain, and the exhaustion from days and nights of continuous cultivation vanished without a trace, leaving him extremely invigorated.

"This incense burner is indeed a divine object, it even has such a refreshing effect," Yuan Ming murmured joyfully.

He looked at the three Black Incense sticks standing in the burner, fell into thought for a moment, then relit a tuft of cloth using the fire-drilling method and ignited one of the sticks.

He held the flaming cloth and carefully approached the incense burner, lighting one of the Black Incense sticks.

The tip of the incense ignited a spark, creating a tiny point of light in the dark cavern, with thin wisps of smoke rising.

Yuan Ming suddenly smelled a unique fragrance he had never encountered in his memory, something between sandalwood and pine. The faintest whiff made his consciousness grow heavy, and his eyes became blurred.

"Seductive scent?"

The thought had just flashed through Yuan Ming's mind when he plunged into darkness, losing all consciousness.

After an indeterminate amount of time, his consciousness gradually returned as noise buzzed around him.

"This is bad, beasts are attacking!" Yuan Ming startled, abruptly opening his eyes.

But what met his gaze was not the dim cave, but a very large desk inlaid with golden yellow embroidery.

The desk was neatly arranged with the Four Treasures of the Study and a stack of books wrapped in Yellow Silk covers. The inkstone was carved with dragons, and the brush was made with a jade handle and wolf hair. Each item was exquisitely luxurious.

"A dream?"

Yuan Ming suddenly came to his senses, looked up, and realized he was actually inside a grand and magnificent hall.

Below the hall, four people dressed in white brocade stood, two men and two women, their heads bowed on each side.

"Your Majesty, have you woken up?" At that moment, a sharp voice suddenly came from beside him.

Only then did Yuan Ming notice a feminine middle-aged man standing next to him, wearing a brocade robe, holding a duster, and with a pale, beardless face.

"Your Majesty?" Yuan Ming's eyes narrowed, was this person calling him?

Looking at the obsequious smile on his face, Yuan Ming furrowed his brow, his gaze landing on a smooth copper mirror next to the carved desk, which clearly reflected his figure—yet it was a youth dressed in a luxurious golden robe, embroidered with the design of a five-clawed golden dragon on his chest.

The youth had a similar age to him, but an entirely different visage!

Yuan Ming's body instinctively leaned back, hitting the backrest of the dragon throne.

"Aiyo, this servant deserves to die, to have startled Your Majesty," the effeminate man exclaimed in fright, quickly kneeling down in panic, calling out.

The four individuals below all shuddered and immediately knelt down, heads lowered, daring not to raise them even slightly.

Yuan Ming's heart was tossed by a storm of shock, paying no heed to the effeminate man and the others.

He had just been in the dimly lit cave, so how had he suddenly come to such a place? If this were a dream, everything around him seemed too real, whether it was touch, hearing, or smell—none differed from everyday life.

"Could it be that incense burner that brought me here?" Yuan Ming pondered his previous actions, suddenly harboring a notion that felt increasingly plausible the more he thought about it.

"I... I'm fine, all of you may leave first," he took a deep breath, steadying his mind, and slowly said.

"Yes!"

The effeminate man hesitated briefly but still hurriedly complied, leading everyone, walking backwards out of the palace.

Not until the hall was fully cleared did Yuan Ming stand up from the dragon throne, approaching the copper mirror to carefully examine himself from all angles, finally confirming that this body was not his own.

The grand hall was adorned with dragon and phoenix carvings throughout, with gold representing the supreme dignity of the emperor as the main color. Combining the effeminate man's form of address and the golden dragon robe on his body, this body seemed to be that of a young emperor.

"Was I killed by that incense burner and then reincarnated? But even if I were reincarnated, shouldn't I be reborn as a newborn infant? How could I end up in the body of a teenager?" Yuan Ming was filled with confusion.

He paced around the room for a moment, then settled back behind the desk, quieting his mind after a while, a bizarre idea emerging, "Could it be that my divine soul has left my body and possessed someone else?"

Besides this, he could not think of a more reliable explanation.

Just then, Yuan Ming's nose twitched as he caught the scent of something delicious. Following the aroma, his eyes landed on a porcelain box about a foot square on the corner of the desk, its surface carved with bird and beast-like patterns of turquoise.

He quickly reached out to lift the lid of the box, and an enticing fragrance immediately wafted out.

Inside the box lay an assortment of exquisitely made cakes, some square and some round, even flower-shaped, the colors varied and steam still rising from them.

These past days, Yuan Ming had been eating raw meat and, in order to conserve food, very little each day; he reflexively swallowed saliva and, without a second thought, grabbed a translucent square cake, glistening like white jade, and stuffed it into his mouth, chewing vigorously.

A gentle sweetness of dates blended with the fragrance of osmanthus flowers instantly filled his entire mouth.

"Delicious!"

He didn't wait to chew the food in his mouth completely before hastily grabbing another cake shaped like a lotus flower and swallowing it down—it was flaky and sweet.

Yuan Ming simply stood up, using both hands like a whirlwind, sweeping away all the cakes in the box in one go, and then picked up a nearby teapot, gulping down the tea with big swigs until he emptied it completely.

"Burp"

Yuan Ming let out a satisfied burp, plopping back onto the dragon throne, wiping his mouth with his sleeve, touching his slightly distended belly—unspeakable contentment.

The feeling of a full stomach was wonderful; it had been a long time since he had eaten so heartily and unrestrained!

After his meal and drink, Yuan Ming began to reconsider everything in front of him.

Had that incense burner brought him here? If so, he might find some clues.

He looked around, searching for the incense burner. There was indeed an incense burner on the desk in front of him, but it was bronze-colored and the style differed greatly from the one that had appeared from the mark on his arm.

"The arm mark!" Yuan Ming suddenly thought of something, quickly rolling up the sleeve of his right arm, his eyes widening at the sight.

There on his right arm, close to the elbow, was a green mark, identical to the original body's mark, with a warm current swirling faintly within it.

Yuan Ming thought to himself that it must indeed be so.

He was now fairly certain that he had been brought to this place by the incense burner, but could he still return? Although this body was an emperor and not much different in age from his own, he still wanted to go back to his own body.

Yuan Ming touched the green mark with his finger, eliciting no response.

He tried other objects as well, and the mark remained completely inert.

"It's a pity that this young emperor is not a practitioner of cultivation, lacking mana in his body; otherwise, I could try to summon the incense burner here," Yuan Ming gave up reluctantly, sighing to himself.

Once Yuan Ming gathered his thoughts, his gaze shifted, landing on a pile of yellow silk booklets on the desk.

Not knowing if he could return to his original body, it was best to grasp the current situation and play the role of the young emperor well, so as to avoid exposing any flaws.

With this in mind, he picked up a booklet and flipped it open, but it was a report from an official about a flood disaster in his jurisdiction, pleading for the emperor's grace to open the Kaizhou Prefecture granary for disaster relief.

A matter that could have been stated simply in a few words was made incredibly complex by the official, who started by profusely apologizing to heaven before stating that heaven was not merciful, then using a lengthy description to depict the disaster area's scene.

After several thousand words of verbose exposition, only at the end of the report did the official finally present the specific disaster conditions and relief measures, leaving Yuan Ming feeling overwhelmed.