Chapter 91

Before the Republic of China, people firmly believed in Feng Shui, especially the burial place of ancestors, which must not be taken lightly. Usually, when an ancestor passed away, people would seek a piece of auspicious land to bury the ancestor, relying on the land's Feng Shui to bless future generations. In searching for dragon veins and pinpointing tombs, a place with a true dragon vein is prized; first one observes the passage of the coming dragon through the gorge, then examines the star peak where the tomb begins after the gorge. One must clearly discern the coming and going of the dragon vein.

Of course, do not think that searching for dragon veins is really that simple; the few words above may be something that ordinary people might not grasp even after spending half a lifetime, and what laypeople are unaware of is that searching for dragon veins also requires understanding celestial phenomena.

Among the works of Feng Shui patriarch Yang Gong Yang Yun-song, there is a classic entitled the Shaking Dragon Classic, which sufficiently explains the importance of the stars to the land's configuration.

Peaks take their names from stars; starlight shining down gives mountains their form. The two words 'dragon spirit' are the secret for seeking mountains: spirit is the vital energy, dragon is the substance. Do not say only high mountains have dragons; yet on flat land the true trace is lost. Flatland dragons arise from high veins; high rising star peaks, low falling tombs... Greedy martial ones without support falling, how can high ridges host dragons? Although support is entering the tomb, making the tomb follow form is different. The tomb follows the stars as a brace and nipple; form and spirit, big and small, follow the dragon lineage.

The meaning of this passage is simple: mountain peaks take shape on earth and form images in heaven. They correspond mutually with the stars above; if stars support and enter the palace, the land is a true dragon vein; if no stars support and fall to the ground, even the finest mountain shape is merely superficial.

Furthermore, because people firmly believed in funerary Feng Shui, a profession later emerged among the populace… the geomancer. Such people are especially skilled in the physiognomy of the five arts of mountain, medicine, fate, divination, and physiognomy, specializing in searching for dragon veins and pinpointing tombs for others. Although they are not Daoists, their abilities are still not to be underestimated; indeed, some individuals' skills can be called heaven-defying.

In the Sanlitun area of Yanjing, a legendary tale of an old geomancer is circulated, or rather, it is a tragic story that bears a great relation to the four words 'mountain river dragon vein'.

This story took place at the end of the Qing dynasty, when the Eight-Nation Alliance happened to be invading China, burning, killing, looting in the capital, committing every conceivable evil.

That retired old geomancer was also a person of considerable wealth and reputation in Sanlitun. At the time when the Eight-Nation Alliance invaded, his entire household fled, leaving the capital.

Only this old geomancer remained alone behind. Moreover, he did something that no one expected.

It was not a resolute march to death, nor staying behind to spit contemptuously at those foreign devils. Instead, he set up a banquet at home, sent out invitations to many officers of the Eight-Nation Alliance, and even produced his family's treasured artifacts and ancient paintings, presenting them to these foreigners.

At that time, many people cursed this old geomancer as a traitor, a great Hanjian, saying all sorts of things.

However, the next morning after the Eight-Nation Alliance officers attended the banquet, people discovered nearly two hundred corpses in the old geomancer's home.

Without exception, they were the officers and soldiers who had attended the banquet the previous night. Upon entering the house to inspect, they saw the old geomancer dying in the center of the hall, his seven orifices bleeding, yet wearing a smile.

Only then did people realize they were mistaken, gravely mistaken. This geomancer was not a traitor but a martyr. The banquet he arranged was a silent, soundless Hongmen feast that placed people in a deadly situation.

Nevertheless, people also wondered: what kind of ability did this old geomancer possess that could silently place people in a deadly situation?

Initially, seeing the old geomancer bleeding from his seven orifices, people thought he had poisoned those foreign devils to death. Later, after examining the corpses thoroughly, they found not only that the Eight-Nation Alliance soldiers showed no signs of poisoning, but also that the old geomancer himself merely bled from his seven orifices, with no bruising on his body, and probing with silver needles detected no trace of toxin.

At the time, this incident became a strange tale in Sanlitun; some said the old geomancer was an immortal incarnate, others said his Daoist arts reached the heavens, unable to tolerate the Eight-Nation Alliance's deeds, and with supreme cultivation he perished together with those foreign devils.

However, rumors are just rumors and may not be true. Although people kept speculating, each speculation had no connection whatsoever to the truth.

Only after a year did people, through the drunken fragments of speech of the old geomancer's living friend, faintly infer the truth.

In fact, this old geomancer was neither an immortal reincarnation nor versed in any Daoist arts. What he borrowed was the momentum of the dragon vein within the Forbidden City. Already, a month before the Eight-Nation Alliance invaded, while observing the stars at night, he had learned that the Purple Star would fall and the Forbidden City would surely be breached.

Later, the Eight-Nation Alliance indeed slaughtered the capital, burning, killing, looting, and massacring large numbers of innocent civilians. Watching the splendid rivers and mountains being thus desecrated by these barbarians, countless innocent lives were harvested by these tigers and wolves.

The exalted Celestial Empire was thus trampled by these frontier ministers; at this point, not a single person stepped forward to save the tottering Qing realm. In the court, people's hearts had already rotted; beyond the state, the land had already changed its appearance.

This old geomancer was ultimately just a person; he could not alter the rise and fall of the dynasty, nor change this already corrupt populace. All he could do was stake his own life, shedding the last drop of blood for the Yan-Huang lineage, hoping his death would awaken people's long-numbed spirits.

Since he is a geomancer, what he excels at is observing dragon veins and examining sand. This old geomancer is no exception; his forte is seeking dragon veins and laying out strange formations. Moreover, precisely because he is a geomancer, the site chosen for his yang residence has superb Feng Shui, being a living dragon spot among the Nine Dragon lands.

To set up this scheme, within a hundred li of the living dragon land he built six small towers, respectively corresponding to Lian Zhen, Tan Lang, Wen Qu… these seven stars. Using this as an array, he gathered the dragon vein's qi into his own home.

On the night of the banquet, the old geomancer indeed activated this heaven-piercing killing formation, borrowing the momentum of the mountain-river dragon vein to silently suppress and kill all the attending officers.

However, cultivators' mystical arts are meant for saving the world and helping people; once one uses arts to harm others, heavenly retribution is inevitable. Moreover, this old geomancer used formations to kill over a hundred people—this heaven-defying act, do you think heaven could remain unangered?

Thus, the day the allied forces died was also the moment the old geomancer suffered heavenly retribution. Yet, although he acted against heaven, borrowing the mountain-river dragon vein to entomb over a hundred people, his final moment before death remained free of regret or resentment. This can be seen from his face, which, despite bleeding from the seven orifices, still bore a smile.

In short, borrowing the momentum of the mountain-river dragon vein is an extremely heaven-defying technique within physiognomy, specifically in land physiognomy; put plainly, it is the ancient array for summoning wind and rain. Although mysterious and formidable, possessing the power to revive the dead and flesh white bones, it is extraordinarily perilous; a single misstep can plunge one into eternal damnation.

"Rest assured, the mountain-river dragon vein momentum I speak of is not the same as that of the legendary old geomancer. I merely construct earthly momentum to correspond with heavenly momentum, borrowing the qi movement of the Nine Yin Stars to dispel the yang evil qi in this deathly abode; I am not as heaven-defying as that geomancer, nor as perilous." Seeing my pallid complexion, Pangzi hurriedly explained to me.

The legendary old geomancer, using the mountain-river dragon vein momentum, entombed over a hundred Eight-Nation Alliance soldiers; besides borrowing heavenly momentum, he also drew the dragon qi from a radius of several hundred li. Although the formation he set up is heaven-defying, put plainly, it also drained the qi movement of the surrounding area. It is like tearing down the east wall to patch the west—beneficial yet harmful. Therefore, Pangzi would not do such a thing; what he employs is precisely the method of borrowing heavenly momentum within the mountain-river dragon vein momentum.

By this point, I too am becoming more confused; although I know that in the story the old geomancer, when borrowing the mountain-river dragon vein, also had to correspond with heavenly timing, yet what exactly is this simple borrowing of heavenly momentum?

"Guide the earth to attract heavenly momentum!" Pangzi pointed a single hand at the sky, then said: "In twelve days, it will be the day when the lunar star's orbital trajectory is at its most vigorous; as long as I set up a Nine Yin Formation here, I can draw the dark yin qi down to cleanse this house anew."

"Just...?" Pangzi furrowed his brows, somewhat hesitant.

Unable to contain my curiosity, I pressed: "Just what?"

"Just that although the Nine Yin Formation can cleanse all yang evil, every advantage has its drawback. If I do not withdraw the Nine Yin Formation within three days, this residence will turn from a yang land into a yin land... at that point, it could be far more terrifying than a corpse-nurturing ground."

I rolled my eyes and said: "Then why not just withdraw the Nine Yin Formation after three days?"

"I thought the same, but for some reason I vaguely feel something is off!" Pangzi muttered, furrowing his brow.

Just as I was about to ask him what felt off, suddenly, a panicked scream rang out from the silent night sky.

The scream was a woman's voice, the whole utterance only three characters.

"Save me..."

This sound came so suddenly, filled with panic and despair; a few seconds later it cut off abruptly, as if it had never existed, yet I and Pangzi truly heard it.

The first thought that flashed in my mind was that someone had met with misfortune, and a serious one at that. If they had encountered bad people, a victim's cry for help would not be so brief. But the brevity of this utterance makes it possible that the speaker suffered some mishap within those few short seconds.

Almost at the same moment, I and Pangzi swiftly rose and hurried toward the source of the sound.