Chapter 487

After Ye Qi arranged our accommodation, she didn't linger much, exchanged a few polite words with QingSongShu, then went back to look after Yang Rui. Her face looked worried; even when she gave a perfunctory smile, it was forced.

The place the Yang family arranged for us was beautiful and comfortable. The Yang family seems rather traditional; their furniture, sofa, and large bed are all solid wood, without Western-style leather sofas. In the 1990s, that was truly rare.

After Pangzi entered the room, he sat down, picked up an apple on the table, casually wiped it, then stuffed it into his mouth. This glutton seems unable to kick his habit of overeating. Wherever he goes, the first thing he does is look for food. Or perhaps he always carries food with him.

「Looks like we won't be long before we can return to Shenzhen. Hai Sheng, I've invited Yao Meinv and Jingjing Jie to have snacks at Xiguan; are you coming? 」 Pangzi lay on the redwood sofa, lazily biting into a big apple.

I glanced at him coldly and said, "Go wherever you like, don't drag me into it; I still have plenty of things to do."

Pangzi gave a dismissive "tch": "Life debts must be repaid, life's kung fu must be practiced! How can anything ever be finished? Even Li Bai had a line: 'In prosperity, one must enjoy to the fullest; youth should not wait for old age...'"

「It's over, this matter isn't over」 Pangzi's words had just left his mouth when QingSongShu laughed and scolded, striking him on the back of the head.

Pangzi yelped in pain, rubbing the back of his head where he'd been hit, dissatisfiedly muttering to QingSongShu: "Dad, just speak properly, why do you keep hitting my head? This will knock me stupid."

"Stop, Pangzi, before you speak you need to straighten out the logic." I made a "ka" gesture, then sternly interrupted Pangzi: "Hitting you stupid and you being naturally stupid are two different things. Hitting a stupid person, and hitting a normal person until they become stupid, are even more different."

After saying that, I couldn't help bursting into laughter. Pangzi glared at me and shouted a curse, then lunged at me with claws and fangs.

Just as a scuffle was about to break out, QingSongShu unexpectedly waved his hands to stop us: "Alright, alright, no more fooling around. I have serious business to tell you to do, so listen up."

Pangzi and I immediately stopped, assuming a proper posture to listen to QingSongShu's instructions.

"Uncle, just tell us what it is, we're listening!" I said.

"Hmm," QingSongShu sat down, pondered a moment, then said: "You two, tonight pick up your gear and go keep watch all night at the Yang family's ancestral grave."

As soon as QingSongShu spoke, it was like a thunderclap. I almost couldn't close my mouth in surprise—why on earth do we have to go guard the Yang family's ancestral tomb?

"Dad, is Boss Yang paying us to help him guard the tomb? How much wages, what share do I get? Let's settle this first—your son's not a kid anymore, you need to leave me something to save up for a wife. You can't just decide everything and take it all from me." Pangzi's mind, aside from eating, probably only holds shiny gold coins.

"Shut up, I'm talking serious business." QingSongShu scolded Pangzi with a dark face; after Pangzi straightened his attitude, QingSongShu then asked us: "Have you noticed anything strange today? For example, the plowshare talisman?"

After QingSongShu finished speaking, Pangzi and I hesitated. After a moment, Pangzi looked at QingSongShu doubtfully: "Dad, you suspect someone is deliberately harming the Yang family."

"Hmm," QingSongShu stroked his long beard and affirmed: "The plowshare talisman has always been used to punish evildoers and ruin geomancy. If no one cast it, it couldn't just appear out of nowhere on the Yang family's ancestral ground. Moreover, the Five Directions Evil Gods striking the coffin is a particularly vicious and hard-to-master technique within the plowshare talisman; ordinary witchcraft practitioners basically lack the ability to use it. This is also one of my concerns."

QingSongShu said that the Yang family's ancestral grave originally had the Three Evil Gods steles and the rising serpent's full baleful qi opposing each other, but planting the plowshare talisman in the graveyard undoubtedly damaged the grave's foundation and harmed the rising serpent's spiritual energy. Consequently, in their evenly matched contest, the rising serpent fell into a disadvantage and was gradually suppressed by the Three Evil Gods steles.

Speaking of the Yang family's "criminal master" ground, it is a heavy evil formation. Years ago, after the rising serpent's spiritual form was wounded at seven inches, the criminal master ground turned into a heavy evil place. The Yang family's ancestor adopted a "fight poison with poison" approach, using the Three Evil Gods steles and the rising serpent's grudge energy to check each other.

Although both are evil influences, neither side can afford to lose. Because the Yang family's descendants survive by relying on the auspicious geomancy that bursts forth from the clam-and-snipe struggle. Thus, after the plowshare talisman harmed the rising serpent's earthly fortune, the Yang family subsequently suffered successive misfortunes.

"If I were the Yang family's enemy, I would definitely not stop like this. But if I didn't stop, I would surely make another move on their ancestral ground. However, Uncle, are you really expecting us to keep watch forever?" I asked QingSongShu doubtfully.

QingSongShu slowly shook his head and explained to me: "It's not about keeping watch forever. But tonight is the crucial point of success or failure. I suspect the rising serpent's spiritual form, suppressed by the plowshare talisman for so long, has had its foundation damaged; tonight it will surely take shape, absorbing the essence of sun and moon to restore its foundation."

"So tonight, no matter what, you must stay alert. Remember, if you detect any abnormality or see any suspicious person nearby, as a precaution you must strike first. Especially, you must never let the rising serpent come into contact with turtle blood." QingSongShu urged solemnly.

"Turtle blood? Uncle, why are you certain the villains will definitely use turtle blood tonight?" I asked curiously.

QingSong explained: "Today's plowshare talisman has its inscriptions on the iron plate written in turtle blood. The turtle is one of the five spiritual creatures, innately utmost yin and yang. Moreover, the turtle is the bane of serpents; if the villains want to ruin the Yang family's ancestral grave, the best method is to directly harm the rising serpent's spiritual form, and this turtle blood is their primary choice."

Hearing how serious the matter was, Pangzi and I dared not delay; we hurried to prepare close-combat magical gear. Once we had gathered the copper coin sword, Bagua mirror, command flag, and similar items, QingSongShu gave us another warning, telling us never to be careless and never to let our guard down.

After dinner, Pangzi and I took our leave of Yang Shouren on the pretext of resting. At eight o'clock we took our gear and headed for the back hills. QingSongShu, meanwhile, chose to stay and guard the Yang household, because the villains' aim was clearly to cut off the Yang line; thus he had to stay behind to protect Yang Rui.

But why did QingSongShu choose to act covertly instead of openly telling Yang Shouren?

Perhaps he feared alerting the enemy; perhaps he didn't trust everyone in the Yang family. QingSongShu, have you discovered any clues?

I cannot know the exact reason, but whatever QingSongShu says, Pangzi and I will follow. Whatever he orders must have his reasoning. This saying, this idea, has been deeply etched in my mind. In my impression, my master Li Feng and QingSongShu have never made a mistake.

After running up to the Yang family's ancestral mound, Pangzi and I picked up our gear and hid secretly in the weeds beside the tombstones. Because the climate was damp and the Yang family's ancestral grave was overgrown with weeds, many mosquitoes bred there. Before we had been hidden even half an hour, we were already covered in big bites from being stared at by mosquitoes.

After guarding until midnight, I saw the round stream circling the grave suddenly churn violently; then, just as QingSongShu had predicted, the rising serpent began to take shape.

This was the first time I'd seen the spiritual form of a geomantic sacred site take shape, and my heart surged with excitement. Since ancient times, the geomancy tradition has held that sacred lands possess spiritual forms. Lands that bring forth pearls like a qilin, lands where doves fall into sunlight, lands where the rising serpent brings criminal mastery, lands where centipedes face the sun—all these give rise to their own spiritual forms. Once a sacred land is occupied by someone lacking virtue, its spiritual form takes shape and hunts down geomancers who practice acupressure.

Yet what I regret is that the rising serpent's spiritual form is not an animal but a hazy, illusory gas. Though it arises from water, it is utterly insubstantial and cannot be touched.

In geomancy, besides needing a certain ability to read terrain, one must also study the invisible currents that ordinary people cannot see. The spiritual form is one such invisible current. My ability to sense qi is far from perfected; although I recognize it as a gas, I cannot make out the rising serpent's detailed form.

"Pangzi, can you see that spiritual form clearly?" I asked curiously, turning my head while crouched in the grass. But the instant I turned, I froze.

Pangzi's face suddenly grew solemn; he gripped his copper coin sword tightly. Just as I was about to ask him a question, he began chanting a spell and directly commanded his copper coin sword to fly forth.

At the same time, a large net flickering with eerie red light flew toward the shaping rising serpent. Just then, Pangzi's copper coin sword shot out, tearing open that red net. Startled, the rising serpent's spiritual form instantly turned into a wisp of green smoke and dispersed.

All this happened in the blink of an eye; when I came to, I saw the sword shatter the net and the rising serpent vanish. At that very moment, a red figure flashed through the grass and fled into the mountains.

"Chase..." Seeing that red figure, I decisively grabbed the command flag, kicked off, and lunged forward first.

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