Chapter 149: The New Daoist Hall

Young Master Ou and Mrs. Bai Lan immediately brought Ling Zhaoxiang to Lin Chengying's Daoist hall once again to thank Lin Chengying.

However, even if Lin Chengying counted his savings of over three hundred thousand, the Daoist hall he had rented with that money was not very large.

After all, land in Xiangdao is worth its weight in gold; even with over three hundred thousand on him, Lin Chengying could not hold out for more than a few months.

Seeing how small Lin Chengying's place was, Young Master Ou immediately said, "Master Lin, a master with true ability like yourself should not be so unknown."

Mrs. Bai Lan also chimed in, "Master Lin, to tell you the truth, we work for an advertising company, and our company is one of the top ones in the industry.

How about this, Master Lin, why don't we film an advertisement of you catching supernatural entities for you, how about that?"

Lin Chengying thought for a moment, shook his head, and said, "That won't do; we disciples of Maoshan cannot act so high-profile."

Young Master Ou immediately stepped forward and said, "Master Lin, you can't say it like that. In Xiangdao, look at people like Layman Liu or Master Zhao; which one of them isn't either in the gossip magazines or on television programs?

Even the television stations have things like 'Supernatural Records'; for a master with true ability like you, if you don't promote yourself, even the finest wine fears a deep alleyway."

Lin Chengying still refused, saying, "I appreciate your good intentions, but when I left my sect, my master gave me many teachings, and I cannot violate the rules of the sect."

Fearing that Lin Chengying was being put in a difficult position, Ling Zhaoxiang hurriedly stood up and said, "Master Lin is absolutely right. Young Master Ou, Mrs. Bai Lan, let's not make things difficult for Master Lin.

In the future, if your friends have any issues, they can come find Master Lin for help; it will be enough for us to just tell our relatives and friends."

Lin Chengying nodded and said, "That is acceptable; it will be enough for everyone to promote me among the neighbors."

After seeing Young Master Ou and Mrs. Bai Lan off, Ling Zhaoxiang turned to Lin Chengying with an apologetic look and said, "Master Lin, my friend meant no harm."

Lin Chengying nodded and said, "I know, I appreciate their intentions."

"By the way, you have encountered too many unlucky things these past few days, and your essence, Qi, and spirit have not yet recovered; you must be careful."

Ling Zhaoxiang nodded hurriedly and said, "I understand, thank you for the reminder, Master Lin."

He then added, "Master Lin, I see that this place of yours is quite remote; I'm afraid there aren't any wealthy clients nearby.

However, I know a friend who is a real estate agent; he surely has some good, cheap, large houses on hand. I can go ask him."

Lin Chengying naturally wanted to move to a larger place, so he hurriedly said, "If there really is such a good place, then I will have to trouble you, Mr. Ling."

Ling Zhaoxiang said very happily, "No trouble, no trouble at all."

As soon as Ling Zhaoxiang left the Daoist hall, he immediately called his good friend, Manager Shen.

On the other end of the line, he was flirting with his secretary.

The phone rang at this very moment.

The secretary hurriedly giggled and said, "Manager, the phone is ringing."

Although Manager Shen was unhappy that someone was calling at this time, he worried it might be a client, so he immediately picked up the phone and asked, "Hello, I am Manager Shen, who is this?"

Ling Zhaoxiang hurriedly said, "Manager Shen, it's me, Ling Zhaoxiang; you came to our company to discuss a partnership recently."

Manager Shen remembered something and said with a smile, "Ah, it's Director Ling. How do you have time to call me? Are you looking to buy a house?

Director Ling, you can rest assured, I will personally vet the listings for you; there will absolutely be no problems."

Ling Zhaoxiang said very politely, "Manager Shen, you are very kind. I don't have the intention to buy a house recently, but I have a matter I need your help with."

Manager Shen reined in his smile a bit and still said politely, "Please, just say it. As long as it is something I can help with, I will handle it for you immediately."

Ling Zhaoxiang immediately said, "It's like this: I recently encountered some strange occurrences, and fortunately, a master helped me solve the problem.

Now this master wants to find a place to open a Daoist hall, and I wanted to ask if you have any cheap listings here?"

Manager Shen didn't care about the supernatural things Ling Zhaoxiang was talking about, but he was certain that this was a business opportunity knocking at his door.

Moreover, he had a villa on hand that happened to meet the requirements Ling Zhaoxiang mentioned.

Although he, Manager Shen, did not believe in ghosts or gods, those big shots who could afford villas were very superstitious about Feng Shui and the like.

As for that villa he had, the original owner had long since gone abroad to develop their business and rarely returned.

And the few families who had moved in before had all encountered many problems and had all terminated their leases.

Therefore, this house had not been rented out for some time, and now it was perfect to rent to the master Ling Zhaoxiang was talking about.

Manager Shen hurriedly said, "Hahaha, Director Ling, you don't say! I happen to have a house on hand that is very suitable, and this place is right in Tsim Sha Tsui; the location is also very good."

Ling Zhaoxiang was very happy and hurriedly asked, "What about the rent?"

Manager Shen immediately said, "Since you, Director Ling, have asked, I'll take a loss: twenty thousand a month, how about that?"

Ling Zhaoxiang frowned and said, "Manager Shen, that's not very kind of you. In such a good location as Tsim Sha Tsui, to still have a villa sitting empty, and you're only asking for twenty thousand—is there something wrong with the house?"

Manager Shen kept a straight face and said, "What could be wrong with it? Director Ling, I'm only lowering the price because of your face."

Ling Zhaoxiang thought that if there was a problem with the house, Master Lin would surely be able to see it, and he could haggle the price down then.

He then said, "How about this, I will bring the master over to take a look."

Manager Shen hurriedly said, "Good, good, good, I'll come pick you all up right now."

Manager Shen hurriedly got up and drove to Lin Chengying's Daoist hall to pick up Lin Chengying and Ling Zhaoxiang.

Soon, they arrived at the villa Manager Shen had mentioned.

The villa was located on a busy street, with malls, hospitals, and schools nearby; it was indeed quite good.

However, as soon as Lin Chengying walked in, he discovered something was off.

Ling Zhaoxiang whispered in Lin Chengying's ear, "Master Lin, is there something wrong with this room?"

Lin Chengying nodded slightly and said, "Yes, there are no door gods outside this room, no Earth God inside the house, and it has been unoccupied for a long time; there are definitely supernatural entities here."

Upon hearing this, Ling Zhaoxiang immediately said to Manager Shen with great confidence, "Manager Shen, this isn't very kind of you. I see that the previous tenants of this house often ran into trouble, right?"

Manager Shen was secretly startled; how did he know about this?

However, his skin was already thick from years of practice, so he hurriedly said, "Director Ling, it's not like what you think."

Ling Zhaoxiang snorted coldly and said, "Manager Shen, I only came to you because we have worked together before. How about this, let's make it ten thousand a month."

Lin Chengying nodded to himself; the Daoist hall he had been renting previously cost twenty thousand a month, and the space wasn't even as large as this.

Manager Shen thought that having someone rent it was better than no one, but he still said with a bitter face, "Ten thousand a month isn't impossible, but it has to be a long-term lease, at least half a year."

Lin Chengying immediately nodded and said, "Deal!"

Both parties signed the rental contract very happily, and Lin Chengying even rented it for a full year directly.

Afterwards, he paid the rent very readily.

Lin Chengying looked at this three-story villa and could not be happier; at the very beginning, he could only open a Daoist hall in his own cheap rental unit, and later he rented a place of only one hundred square meters to open a Daoist hall.

Now, opening a Daoist hall in this villa of over five hundred square meters was much more impressive.

Lin Chengying was very grateful to Ling Zhaoxiang for helping him, so he took out self-made Peace Talismans, Evil-Warding Talismans, and House-Suppressing Talismans and handed them to Ling Zhaoxiang.

He said, "Mr. Ling, I really owe it to you this time. These three talismans are my way of thanking you; I hope you won't mind them."

Ling Zhaoxiang hurriedly put away the yellow talismans and said with a smile, "Master Lin, you are too polite. I am only repaying your life-saving grace."

Lin Chengying nodded slightly and said, "It hasn't been tidied up here yet. Let me clean it up a bit, and I will invite you over as a guest next time."

Ling Zhaoxiang was very happy and then returned to the company first.

Lin Chengying looked at the villa; before moving in, he still had many things to do.

He immediately put on his ritual robe, first respectfully inviting the local Earth Deity at the entrance, placing a statue, and setting out offerings.

Then he took out a large amount of 【items】 and scattered them in the villa courtyard; this counted as greeting the strange entities in the house.

Afterwards, he took the House-Suppressing Talismans to the entrance of every room, pasted them on the wall, and knocked three times with a ritual mallet.

Then he scattered consecrated copper coins all over the floor of the living room and placed a Five Emperors Copper Coin under the bed leg of every room.

Only then did he begin to clean the villa.

Soon, he arrived at the master bedroom on the second floor; two photo frames were hanging on the bedroom wall, and the people inside looked like they were from the late Qing Dynasty.

From the photos, one could see that the male host's braided hair was in the style of the late Qing Dynasty.

Because the house had not been lived in for a long time, the photo frames were already covered in spider silk.

Lin Chengying followed custom by taking out three sticks of incense, lighting them, and inserting them into an incense burner, then wiping the spider silk off the photo frames.

After toiling for a day, Lin Chengying finally finished cleaning the villa; tomorrow he could move the Founder's portrait and sculpture over, and then invite Zhang Wei and the others to have a housewarming banquet.

At night, Lin Chengying stayed in the villa; he had brought a folding bed for himself and slept on the first floor of the villa.

At the hour of midnight, in the master bedroom on the second floor, an exquisitely carved wooden bed appeared in the previously empty room.

In the center of the room, a man was lying on a chair smoking opium, and beside him was a beautiful and dignified woman massaging the man's legs.

If one looked closely, one could see that this man and woman were exactly the people from the photo frames.

The Opium-Smoking Man puffed on his opium and said in a somewhat stiff tone, "Use more strength."

A Juan responded timidly, then increased her strength and began to massage his legs.

But the Opium-Smoking Man was still unsatisfied and continued, "I told you to massage with strength."

A Juan dared not retort and had to massage his legs with even greater force.

But the Opium-Smoking Man seemed to still feel nothing and said somewhat angrily, "Did you not eat? I told you to use strength."

This time, A Juan's movements were even larger, knocking with a "bang-bang" sound.

The Opium-Smoking Man felt a bit bored and asked while lying down, "Why aren't you talking?"

A Juan said somewhat helplessly, "I have nothing to say."

"Hmm?" The Opium-Smoking Man immediately picked a quarrel, "You dare talk back? Do you know that a woman must follow the Three Obediences and Four Virtues? Obey your father at home, obey your husband after marriage, do you know that?"

A Juan hurriedly nodded aggrievedly and said, "I know."

The Opium-Smoking Man then said with a smug look, "Man on top, woman on bottom, do you know that?"

A Juan hurriedly nodded and said, "I know."

The Opium-Smoking Man said triumphantly, "Then do you know you were wrong?"

A Juan looked puzzled, shook her head, and said, "Ah, I don't know."

The Opium-Smoking Man was furious, immediately got up, and smashed his opium pipe against A Juan's head.

A Juan let out a cry of pain.

The Opium-Smoking Man shouted with dissatisfaction, "You are not allowed to react!"

A Juan immediately became expressionless and was hit by the Opium-Smoking Man again.

Afterwards, A Juan sobbed, "Husband, I know I was wrong."

The Opium-Smoking Man then lay down comfortably and said, "My feet are a bit itchy, scratch them for me."

A Juan immediately put down the mallet and took off the Opium-Smoking Man's shoes.

The Opium-Smoking Man immediately sat up to look at his feet and shouted, "Why is there no stench!"

"Hmm?"

The Opium-Smoking Man got up from the chair, looked around, and said, "There is the scent of a person? Who is so bold as to dare live in my room!"

He immediately walked out of the master bedroom, followed the scent to the living room on the first floor, and happened to see Lin Chengying sleeping.

The Opium-Smoking Man immediately looked at A Juan with a fierce face and said, "Go scare him!"

A Juan had a silly look on her face, shook her head, and said, "I can't, Husband, men and women should not touch."

The Opium-Smoking Man raised his hand and slapped her, shouting, "Idiot, I told you to scare him, not to touch him!"

A Juan had no choice but to bite the bullet and make faces at Lin Chengying.

The Opium-Smoking Man on the side was so angry that he shouted, "You are really stupid! He is asleep, how can he see you scaring him!"

A Juan trembled and said, "Ah? Husband, then what should I do?"

The Opium-Smoking Man immediately roared, "Do I have to teach you this too? Push him awake, call him up to scare him!"

A Juan hurriedly nodded, then lowered her head; the Opium-Smoking Man on the side casually pushed A Juan away and cursed, "I told you to wake him up, not to kiss him, you idiot."

"Get out of the way, watch how your husband scares him."

The Opium-Smoking Man walked in front of Lin Chengying with a fierce and malicious look, grinned hideously, and said, "You bastard, you dare sleep in my house; see how I teach you a lesson today."

Having said that, he used his own head to ram into Lin Chengying.

In reality, Lin Chengying had long since woken up and had been silently listening to what these two specters were up to.

Now hearing that the specter intended to lay a hand on him, he kicked out without the slightest hesitation, sending the specter crashing directly against the wall.

Afterward, he immediately formed a few hand seals and pretended to be asleep again.

The Opium-Smoking Man was not convinced even after being struck by Lin Chengying.

He stretched his body and charged at Lin Chengying once more, only to be beaten a few more times by Lin Chengying.

This time, the Opium-Smoking Man was frightened by Lin Chengying's strength and immediately ran back into the bedroom on the second floor.

A-Juan also hurriedly followed him back into the bedroom, crying out, "Husband, are you alright?"

The Opium-Smoking Man was overcome with shame and anger; he immediately stood up and gave A-Juan a sound thrashing, shouting, "Tell me, does it hurt!"

(End of this chapter)