Chapter 359

Chen Zheng's uncle, before his death, had once instructed Chen Zheng: Although three generations have passed and grudges have faded, this residence has become a dead house, yet no one should live in it anymore.

After a hundred years have passed, whether Chen Zheng tears down the residence or leaves it empty, no one should live inside it, because the murderous qi of this house is something no one can bear.

However, Chen Zheng's notion of returning to his roots is especially strong, and he is also very filial.

Although Chen Zheng's grandfather had escaped from Aomen, on his deathbed he still constantly thought of his hometown and his ancestral home. After all, in the Chinese mindset, everyone harbors a unique longing for their hometown, and the ancestral home of one's hometown not only holds childhood memories but also embodies the traditional Chinese virtue of loyalty and filial piety. What is loyalty? Loyalty to the country, loyalty to the emperor. What is filial piety? Besides obeying one's parents' words, the land of one's ancestors must not be sold; it should be well preserved and passed down from generation to generation.

Although Chen Zheng lives after the reform and opening-up, he has been influenced by his grandfather and father since childhood, making him one of the staunch upholders of this traditional mindset.

He wanted to keep this ancestral residence and improve its feng shui, so that from then on, falling leaves would return to the roots, telling future generations that this is the residence left by their ancestors, the Chen family's place of inheritance.

Thus, he searched everywhere for a feng shui master, hoping to improve the feng shui of this ancestral residence and dispel the influence left by the Five Ghosts.

Chen Zheng chose Pangzi not because of Pangzi's extraordinary ability. What enabled Pangzi to stand out among so many feng shui masters was the single sentence he had previously said to Fan Wuchang.

"Feng shui should be discharged, not contested."

The residence where the Five Ghosts convey wealth places its utmost importance on a single yin character, for the Five Ghosts are yin deities; they dislike homes with excessive yang, except for the mountain dragon facing the water dragon. Aside from the master of the house possessing a partial wealth destiny, the residence should preferably be of the yin-cool sort, so that the Five Ghosts will consent to enter. However, the Five Ghosts feng shui residence ultimately has its own time effect. Once the effect expires, if the layout is not renewed or the arrangement dismantled, the feng shui configuration will immediately backfire, and the yin-leaning residence will thus become an extreme yang residence.

As the saying goes, the Supreme Ultimate contains yin and yang; when yin flourishes, it declines; when yang flourishes, it withers; extreme yin and extreme yang will cause a place's magnetic field to tilt to an extreme, and if one side is overly weighed down, it will indeed become a deadly place. Although the residence previously leaned yin, Grandfather Chen was a person capable of using yin wealth, and with the Five Ghosts' protection at the residence, those who moved in not only came to no harm but also enjoyed smooth sailing and great unexpected wealth.

But as stated above, the time limit of the Five Ghosts Wealth-Conveying feng shui configuration is limited; it can turn a destitute beggar into a multi-millionaire overnight, yet it can also cause those whom one has supported to die a sudden death overnight. Moreover, all this cause and effect is not determined by the Five Ghosts, but depends on the master of the residence.

Before the time limit expires, the residence is still a windfall residence. If the effect passes, the master of fate, still blinded by greed, fantasizes about obtaining more wealth from the residence, or after the master of fate becomes rich, does not give more alms and do good deeds. When the time limit passes, the Five Ghosts will become angry, and the yin residence will thus become a pattern filled with yang killing energy.

Excessive yang energy will then fill every part of the residence; if a woman moves in, yin and yang will become imbalanced; if a man moves in, he will be overcome to death due to excessive yang energy.

At bottom, it all comes down to one word: greed. If Old Master Chen could have let go in time back then, today's great disaster would not have been caused, and the calamity would not have extended to three generations. All this cause and effect exactly fits that old saying: 'Human greed is never satisfied, like a snake trying to swallow an elephant.'

Sometimes, the more you want to gain, the more you end up losing. A person whose reason is blinded by greed often does not meet a good end. Especially when this person becomes utterly wicked because of money and power, after becoming rich they forget to do more good deeds.

Now this residence has obviously become a dead house with excessive yang energy; if one wishes to adjust its feng shui well, the most important thing is a single character.

"Discharge"

By any means possible, discharge the lingering yang energy from this residence, and then reconstruct the pattern to balance yin with yang. Pangzi's saying that feng shui favors discharge over confrontation hit the nail on the head of Chen Zheng's fate; aside from Pangzi's compassionate heart, this is also a major reason why Chen Zheng chose Pangzi.

From the moment we stepped into this courtyard, inside and outside seemed to become two different worlds; outside there was still a hint of cool breeze, while inside it was filled with scorching heat, wherever we walked, not a blade of grass grew—not extreme yin, but withered by the shock of yang killing energy.

Not long after, we all felt something abnormal—our whole bodies were sweating, restless and uneasy. Although it was just a small courtyard, it made us feel as if we were walking in the Sahara Desert, weak all over and extremely thirsty.

"Brother Zheng's uncle is really pitiful, actually living his whole life in such a house." I wiped the sweat pouring down my forehead, unable to help but sigh.

Such a harsh environment—let alone humans, even creatures accustomed to surviving in the desert might not endure it; it is practically a natural oven. Yet Chen Zheng's paternal uncle managed to endure a lifetime here, which is truly admirable.

There's no way around it—the Five Ghosts' punishment must be borne by someone, otherwise the Chen family would have long died out without heirs. Pangzi, sweating profusely, examined the layout of the residence, following my words handle interface said.

"Do you have confidence?" Fan Wuchang asked from the side; although his expression remained cold, the tears streaming down his face like a waterfall were enough to show he was also suffering greatly.

Pangzi shook his head, told me to look at the compass in his hand; only when everyone's gaze was fixed on the compass did Pangzi furrow his brow and say solemnly: "The yang killing energy in this residence is too strong; the compass has already lost its effect."

Isn't that nonsense? Look, the grass on the ground has all withered, the ground has been scorched to a blackish color; if the yang killing energy weren't strong, how could it be anything but perfectly ventilated on all sides?

Having seen this point, I couldn't help but worry, after all this yang killing energy wasn't formed overnight; it accumulated over years of sedimentation, bit by bit gathering at the residence's core; the feng shui geomancer's compass has already lost its effect, relying solely on the ability to judge gold and water, to harmonize the twenty-four mountains, it is indeed difficult to reconstruct the layout.

"Let me try..." Pangzi spat out a mouthful of turbid air, then set down the compass.

Immediately, he instructed Fan Wuchang to make a large canvas tent to encircle the residence, and to find people to dig a large well in the northwest corner of the courtyard, which must be completed before tonight.

Next, he called everyone out, and in a soft voice instructed Fan Wuchang to send people to collect the leaves of the five yin trees and the twigs at the ends of the five trees,.

The five yin trees refer to the locust, willow, pine, cypress, and mulberry. Generally speaking, these five trees are extremely yin wood, prone to producing spirituality and attracting unknown things; the twigs at their ends are where the spiritual energy of the five trees gathers, and the folk practice of using willow twigs to strike ghosts takes exactly these terminal twigs.

Because Pangzi's orders were really too many, Fan Wuchang had no choice but to have his subordinates divide the work: one side had people making the large tent, the other side had people digging the well, and he also ordered his subordinates to collect the leaves and twigs of the five yin trees.

It was not until four o'clock in the evening that the well was declared completed. To dig this well, just the workers had already been rotated in five batches, and the cost of digging was twenty times that of an ordinary household digging a well.

The reason is nothing else: because this residence is simply too hot, ordinary people cannot stay in it for long, especially the well-diggers, who would suffer from lack of oxygen underground; even though Fan Wuchang offered a price many times higher than the market rate, ordinary people were unwilling to take the job. Merely the well-diggers had already been rotated in four batches.

Not long after, the twigs and leaves of the five yin trees had been found by Fan Wuchang's subordinates; Pangzi took them, then after a moment of thought, mixed the five yin trees with medicinal ingredients, poured them into a large water bucket, and vigorously stirred with a stick. He had Fan Wuchang's subordinates use a spoon to sprinkle the water mixed with the five yin trees over every corner of the courtyard.

After the well was dug and the water sprinkled, Pangzi again assigned Fan Wuchang, who was dazed, a tough task: to set up a ritual platform beside the residence's well for performing the rites.

Everything Pangzi did left even me baffled—digging a well and sprinkling water, what does that have to do with adjusting feng shui? Moreover, he set up a ritual platform; frankly, are we here to examine feng shui or to catch ghosts?

Before I could voice my doubt, Pangzi again drew talismans in the guesthouse that Fan Wuchang had arranged for us, and mysteriously told me that there would be a great battle tonight, urging me to prepare early.

I asked him what he was doing; he began to stroke his beard and glare, putting on a mysterious act, and threw me a line: "The Buddha says, cannot be spoken, cannot be spoken." Then he continued to focus on preparing the talismans.

As night fell quietly, Pangzi left Yuan Qiu in the guesthouse, then told me to take up the command flag and accompany him out.

At that moment I happened to be offering incense before the altar for Little Fat, and was about to put the jade pendants of Red Granny and Murong Jiaojia into a box when Pangzi suddenly grabbed me and pulled me out of the guesthouse.

Only after Pangzi had pulled me out of the guesthouse did he mysteriously tell me that tonight he and I would spend the night at Chen Zheng's ancestral residence.