Chapter 87

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, whether Chen Zheng tears down the residence or leaves it empty there, no one should live inside, because the house's killing qi is something no one can bear.

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

Chen Zheng's grandfather, although he escaped from Macau, at the time of his death still constantly thought of his hometown and his ancestral home. After all, in Chinese thinking, everyone has a unique longing for their hometown, and the hometown's ancestral home, besides being full of childhood memories, also contains the Chinese traditional loyalty and filial piety thought. What is loyalty? Loyalty to the country, loyalty to the emperor. What is filial piety? Besides not disobeying parents' words, the ancestral land must not be sold; it should be well preserved and passed down generation after generation.

And although Chen Zheng lives after the reform and opening-up, since childhood he has been influenced by his grandfather and father, and is also one of those who firmly uphold this traditional thought.

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

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

And Chen Zheng chose Pangzi not because Pangzi's abilities were exceptionally high. To stand out among so many feng shui masters, it was precisely because of a sentence Pangzi had once said to Fan Wuchang.

"Feng shui should be discharged, not contested."

For a house of the Five Ghosts' wealth, the most important consideration is a yin aspect, because the Five Ghosts are yin spirits; they dislike a house with excessive yang, apart from the sitting mountain dragon facing water dragon. Besides the master of the house having a partial wealth destiny, the house should preferably lean toward the yin-cool type, so that the Five Ghosts will enter the house. However, the Five Ghosts feng shui house ultimately has its own time limit. Once the effect expires, if the layout is not reset or the layout is dismantled, the feng shui layout will immediately backlash, and the yin-leaning house will thus become an extreme yang house.

As the saying goes, Taiji has yin and yang; excessive yin leads to decline, excessive yang leads to withering; extreme yin and extreme yang will cause a place's magnetic field to tilt to the extreme, and if one side is overly weighed down, it will indeed become a dead land. Although the residence was previously yin-leaning, Chen Taiye was a person who could use 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 feng shui layout is limited; it can make a penniless beggar become a multi-millionaire overnight, and it can also cause overnight death to those whom the master has supported. Yet all this cause and effect is not decided by the Five Ghosts, but depends on the house's master.

Before the time limit expires, the house remains a wealth-bringing house. If the effect ends and the master is still blinded by greed, fantasizing about gaining more wealth from the house, or if after becoming rich the master does not increase charitable deeds, when the time limit ends the Five Ghosts will become angry, and the yin house will thus turn into a pattern filled with yang killing qi.

Excessive yang qi will then permeate every part of the house; if a woman moves in, her yin and yang will become imbalanced, and if a man moves in, he will be killed off by the excessive yang qi.

This ultimately comes down to the character of greed. If Chen Taiye back then had been able to stop in time, today's great disaster would not have occurred, and the calamity would not have extended to three generations. This cause and effect exactly fits the 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 will end up losing. A person whose reason is blinded by greed often will not meet a perfect end. Especially, this person, having become utterly wicked through wealth and power, after achieving riches forgets to do more good deeds.

Now this residence has obviously become a dead house with excessive yang qi; to adjust its feng shui well, the primary focus is a single character.

"Discharge"

Trying to find ways to discharge the lingering yang qi from this residence and to rebuild the pattern, using yin to regulate yang. Pangzi's saying "feng shui should be discharged, not contested" hit the mark exactly on Chen Zheng's vital point; besides Pangzi's compassionate heart, this is also an important reason why Chen Zheng chose Pangzi.

From the moment we entered 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 hot qi, where we walked, not a blade of grass grew—not extreme yin, but withered by the shock of yang killing qi.

Not long after, we all felt abnormal, our whole bodies drenched in sweat, restless. Although it is 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 that uncle is also too pitiful, actually lived his whole life in such a house. 」I wiped the sweat droplets rolling down my forehead, couldn't help but sigh.

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

「There's no way around it, the punishment of the Five Ghosts must be borne by someone, otherwise the Chen family would have long died out. 」Pangzi, sweating profusely, examined the layout of the house, and said along with my words.

「Do you have confidence? 」Fan Wuchang asked from the side. Although his expression remained cold, the tears streaming down his face like a waterfall clearly show he is also suffering greatly.

Pangzi shook his head, gesturing for me to look at the compass in his hand. When everyone's gaze was fixed on the compass, Pangzi furrowed his brow and said solemnly: "The yang evil in this house is too strong; the compass has already lost its effect."

Isn't that nonsense? Look, the grass on the ground has all withered, the earth scorched to a blackish hue; if the yang evil weren't strong, could it be that it's perfectly ventilated on all sides?

Having noticed this point, I couldn't help but worry as well, after all this yang evil didn't form overnight; it accumulated over years, bit by bit gathering at the house's core. The feng shui compass has already lost its effect, and relying solely on dividing gold and separating water, the skill to harmonize the twenty-four mountains, it's truly difficult to reconstruct the layout.

「Let me try... 」Pangzi exhaled a turbid breath, then lowered the compass.

Immediately, he ordered Fan Wuchang to use canvas to make a large tent to encircle the house, then find people to dig a large well in the northwest corner of the courtyard, and it must be completed before tonight.

Next, he called everyone out, and softly 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 locust, willow, pine, cypress, and mulberry. Generally speaking, these five trees are extremely yin wood, prone to developing spirituality and attracting unknown things; the tips of their branches are where the five trees' spiritual energy gathers. The folk practice of using willow branches to strike ghosts takes exactly these tip twigs.

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

It wasn't until four o'clock in the evening that the well was declared completed. To dig this well, just the workers alone had gone through five batches, and the cost was twenty times that of an ordinary household digging a well.

The reason is simple: this house is extremely hot; ordinary people can't stay inside for long, especially the well diggers, who would suffer oxygen deficiency underground. Even though Fan Wuchang offered a price several times higher than market rates, ordinary people were unwilling to take the job. Merely the well diggers had already gone through four batches.

Not long after, the twigs and leaves of the five yin trees were retrieved by Fan Wuchang's subordinates. Pangzi took them, then after a moment's 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 ladle to sprinkle the mixed water over every corner of the courtyard.

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

Everything Pangzi did left even me bewildered—digging a well and scattering 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 major battle tonight, urging me to prepare early.

I asked him what he was doing; he started stroking his beard and glaring, putting on a mysterious act, and tossed me a line: "Buddha said, cannot speak, cannot speak." Then he continued focusing on crafting the talismans.

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

At that moment I happened to be offering incense to Little Fat at the altar, and had placed the jade pendants containing Red Granny and Murong Jiaojiao into a box, just about to take it into the room, when Pangzi grabbed me and pulled me out of the guesthouse.

Only after Pangzi 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 home.