Chapter 188

, The Genie Starting from Marvel

After finishing breakfast, Lin Fengjiao began to wander around the idle funeral hall, looking for a possible entrance while trying his best to avoid the flow of people.

Soon, Lin Fengjiao discovered an unlocked window on the side of the funeral hall, and the position of this window happened to avoid the normal activity areas of the Pigeon Building's residents, achieving a certain degree of concealment.

Standing in front of the window, Lin Fengjiao observed the interior through a thick layer of dust on the glass. The large funeral hall was empty, with Taoist statues placed in the center, covered in spiderwebs; it looked like it really hadn't been cleaned in a long time.

Just as Lin Fengjiao was preparing to enter the funeral hall through the window, he lowered his head and discovered a faint mark at the bottom of the window frame, where the dust had been scraped away a little bit by something.

By comparing the window's edge seal with the newly appeared mark, Lin Fengjiao discovered that their relative positions matched perfectly, which meant that the appearance of this mark was highly likely caused by the movement of the window seal.

Someone had just gone in not long ago!

Realizing this, Lin Fengjiao immediately abandoned the idea of going in to investigate, hid on the side, and pulled a short sword from his sleeve with his right hand. At the same time, he lightly wiped his two fingers against the ground, and a faint spiritual energy shot out from his fingertips, completely erasing the footprints and other obvious traces on the ground.

Not long after, Lin Fengjiao heard very faint footsteps inside; if he hadn't been concentrating, he really wouldn't have noticed them.

After waiting quietly for a few seconds, a gust of wind blew out from the funeral hall, and the window creaked open from the inside. Lin Jiu leaped lightly and flipped directly out of the window. After landing, he waved his hand back, and the window automatically closed again.

Lin Jiu? Why is he here? Did he also discover that something was wrong with this place?

Lin Fengjiao pinched a magic seal, held his breath, lowered his presence, and reduced the exchange of information between himself and the outside world, putting himself into a state of turtle breathing. He did not immediately cancel this state even after Lin Jiu left.

Sure enough, two minutes later, Lin Jiu suddenly returned, stood at the entrance, looked around, and then looked inside the funeral hall. Everything was the same as when he had come out; nothing had changed.

An illusion?

Lin Jiu hesitated for a moment, pressed his right index and middle fingers together, and lightly tapped the window handle before turning and leaving.

After waiting for a few more minutes, Lin Fengjiao released his magic seal and came to the window.

At the handle, there was a transparent, hard-to-detect aura entwined; it was the magic seal Lin Jiu had used to seal the funeral hall.

Such a basic magic seal? Did he discover me?

Lin Fengjiao felt a bit suspicious. The thing Lin Jiu left on the handle was too basic; even his few incompetent disciples, as long as their brains were working, could discover it if they were careful. The performance of this magic seal did not quite match Lin Fengjiao's judgment of Lin Jiu's level.

After hesitating for a moment, Lin Fengjiao decided he still had to go in and take a look.

He took a compass out of his clothes, aimed the center of the compass at the sun in the sky, and gently moved the cover on the compass. Sunlight spread along the Bagua mirror in the center of the compass. In the blink of an eye, the entire compass was filled with yellow energy, and the patterns representing the directions also lit up.

Afterward, Lin Fengjiao gently turned the compass to deflect the sunlight falling on the Bagua mirror, accurately shining it onto the window handle.

The light path formed by the refraction in the air induced the magic seal mark on the handle to shift, bit by bit transferring from the handle to the Bagua mirror.

Respect, Three Pure Ones, Three Veins, Demon-Subduing True Monarch...

Lin Fengjiao's right hand rotated rapidly on the compass. The borrowed power, under his guidance, formed a golden seal, firmly suppressing the collected magic seal within the Bagua mirror.

Seal!

The light on the compass pulsed like breathing, rising and falling, before returning to its original appearance. Lin Fengjiao flipped his right hand and put the compass away. He had used every technique he knew; if Lin Jiu could still discover him, then there was nothing he could do.

The wind rose.

Lin Fengjiao summoned a breeze, opened the window in the exact same way as Lin Jiu, and entered the funeral hall. His feet landed without even kicking up any dust.

He didn't know until he came in, but once inside, Lin Fengjiao felt a chill of Yin energy drilling straight into his bones. The sunlight outside seemed to become useless once the window was closed; not a hint of warmth could penetrate inside.

Lin Fengjiao tapped his right hand on his crown, guided it straight down to his chest, and a fire of the heart ignited directly, instantly dissipating the gloomy atmosphere in the surrounding environment.

He was just about to follow the aisle next to the funeral hall to the back to take a look—after all, the front hall was usually a place for coffins, chanting, and rebirth, where family members and friends came and went, so there usually wouldn't be any secrets—but when he passed the statue, Lin Fengjiao stopped his steps.

Looking up at the statue, Lin Fengjiao took three steps back. When his right foot landed, the distance between his heel and the threshold was a little less than the fourth step.

Three long and two short?

How could a Taoist funeral hall be laid out like this? Even a place for sending people to rebirth shouldn't be done this way. If he couldn't move the statue forward or backward, that would be one thing, but with the position stuck so rigidly, it was hard not to think that this was intentional.

He continued to look up at the corners of the ceiling. Now Lin Fengjiao could be certain that the owner of this funeral hall was doing it on purpose. All the positions of the ritual objects, spirit talismans, and carvings were just slightly off from the correct standard positions—not much, but on a compass, it would be about one grid off in the reverse direction.

There's a problem, there's definitely a problem.

Some evil paths, not daring to worship the Three Pure Ones or the righteous path, yet needing this as a cover, would intentionally make mistakes in some details. This way, neither the ancestors nor the Celestial Masters would pay attention to him because of his daily "homework." After all, there were so many proper Taoists that they couldn't keep track of them all; who would care about one who got the positions wrong?

Following the side aisle, Lin Fengjiao arrived at the back of the funeral hall. Here, a statue of a Celestial Master was placed, and in front of it were some deposited spirit tablets and an incense burner.

All the names on the spirit tablets were blurred, as if they had been intentionally polished away.

Continuing forward, there was a relatively hidden secret room, but the door to the secret room seemed to have been completely rusted due to not being used for too long, having completely lost its ability to reset.

Lin Fengjiao held his short sword and carefully moved forward. The floor here was covered in ceramic shards, all intentionally smashed by someone, and there was a faint white powder scattered on the ground. Although he didn't touch it directly, Lin Fengjiao felt that it was most likely bone ash.

Moving a bit further, there was a basin on the ground that had been kicked over, with some burnt debris scattered around it. The bottom of the basin was engraved with a Fire Gathering Array, which was also a commonly used magic array and a must-learn for Taoist disciples. However, learning it was one thing, but no one would actually use it; the mana conversion rate was too low, and there were plenty of better versions—you could find several just by asking any teacher.

Bone ash, a fire basin—could this be a simple cremation room? But why hide it to burn things? Was it burning something that couldn't be seen?

Lin Fengjiao carefully backed out. There was nothing else inside; the end was just a dirt wall.

Whoosh!

The moment Lin Fengjiao exited the secret room, a gust of wind flashed through the entire room. With a swish, the three remaining incense sticks in the incense burner suddenly ignited, and bright red blood flowed out from each spirit tablet, while the blurred names on them became clear.

Chen You, Xiao Feng, Yan Shu...

The names of every resident in the Pigeon Building appeared on the spirit tablets.

What is going on?! Lin Fengjiao stood where he was, observing everything in all directions, not daring to act rashly at all.

Suddenly, something fell from above. Lin Fengjiao backhanded his sword and cut it into two pieces.

It was a rotten wooden sword hilt? A nameplate was hanging on the sword tassel. Lin Fengjiao tilted his head to look at the nameplate. This side had the Taoist character for "Nine."

With a light hook of his short sword, the tassel flipped over in the air. The back of the nameplate had a surname: Lin.

Lin, Jiu.

"Lin Jiu?!" Lin Fengjiao read it out in surprise.

After this name was spoken, the entire funeral hall was filled with Yin winds, and whimpering cries came from the ground. All the spirit tablets in front of the incense burner began to vibrate continuously.

Snap! The moment the Chen You tablet placed at the highest point suddenly broke, a darkness spread from behind the tablet toward the entire room. All the Taoist symbols carved on the walls were swallowed by a blackness like ink, and a strange mark emerged within this blackness.

Just by taking one look, Lin Fengjiao felt as if his brain had been heavily struck by a hammer. Whispers of hatred echoed in his mind, and at the same time, there was a seductive voice enticing him to fall.

Fortunately, Lin Fengjiao's decades of cultivation were not in vain. The moment his soul was impacted, he immediately began to visualize Taoist scriptures in his mind, keeping his spiritual consciousness clear while controlling his body to run wildly toward the window.

With a leap, Lin Fengjiao crashed directly out of the window; at this point, he couldn't care about much else.

After rolling with the momentum, Lin Fengjiao backhanded his compass, pointed one finger at the sky to channel the sunlight, and held the compass with the other hand, aiming the Bagua mirror directly at the window.

"What are you doing here?" Lin Jiu suddenly appeared beside him, looking at Lin Fengjiao and questioning him.

At this moment, Lin Fengjiao discovered that the window he had just crashed out of had returned to normal, as if everything had been an illusion.

Slowly rising and putting away his gear, Lin Fengjiao looked at Lin Jiu. "Just came to see if the crystal ball was placed inside."

Lin Jiu narrowed his eyes. "Is that so? And did you find it?"

"I don't know, I haven't gone in yet." Lin Fengjiao decisively lied through his teeth. Although he wasn't sure if the illusion inside just now was a counter-espionage tactic, Lin Jiu definitely had some problems.

"Oh?" Lin Jiu took two steps to the right, guarding against Lin Fengjiao while looking into the window. Everything inside was indeed normal, and the magic seal he had left on the handle was gone without a trace. "Then what was that just now?"

"Morning exercise. I borrowed the items from the apartment manager; it makes me feel a bit more at ease to carry them." Lin Fengjiao continued to make things up.

"Alright, then continue your morning exercise. Remember to notify me if you have any news." Lin Jiu had a smile on his face.

"No problem." Lin Fengjiao nodded.

"Then I'll be going first."

After Lin Jiu turned around, his smile completely disappeared.

Damn it, this Lin Fengjiao is indeed also a Taoist, and his cultivation is profound. Did he go in or not? If he went in, what did he find? If he didn't go in, where did the magic seal I left behind go?

No, I can't drag this out any longer. Tonight, tonight I must find the key to the problem!

Lin Jiu made a decision in his heart.

Lin Fengjiao breathed a sigh of relief and walked out from the other side. On the way, he saw Yan Shu sitting on the side of the road basking in the sun, and Auntie Mei was enthusiastically helping people deliver mended clothes. Everything looked peaceful and quiet.

Looking at this scene, Lin Fengjiao felt a faint chill in his heart. The many spirit tablets he had just seen in the funeral hall included everyone present, not a single one missing. Thinking back to the corpse aura emanating from Yan Shu's body when he was acting strange, Lin Fengjiao had reason to suspect that in this Pigeon Building, apart from the few people who had arrived later, there wasn't a single living person!

Taking the elevator all the way up, Lin Fengjiao seemed to hear Lao Die arguing with someone.

Coming out of the elevator to take a look, they were indeed arguing. Lao Die was standing at the doorway, and another voice came from the stairs; the two were saying some pretty nasty things.

"Lao Die? What's going on?!" Lin Fengjiao hurriedly ran over.

"A nasty guy who relies on being a bit older to look down on this and that, treating his lack of restraint as a personality. He's almost in the grave and still doesn't know how to save some virtue for his mouth." As Lao Die spoke, he looked at Lin Fengjiao, or more accurately, at his hands. "Oh my, where is Lao Die's breakfast?! Are you trying to starve Lao Die to death?"

"Let's talk back inside. I'll cook you some glutinous rice when we get back." Lin Fengjiao looked left and right, pulling Lao Die into the room.

"Eating glutinous rice early in the morning? Are you trying to torture Lao Die's fragile stomach?" Lao Die continued to grumble.

A moment later, Lao Die, barely holding a bowl of glutinous rice, finished listening to everything Lin Fengjiao had to say, the most critical part being the hypothesis that there were no other living people in this building.

Lao Die remained silent, remembering that when he was arguing with that guy called Lanzui Dong just now, the talisman he was carrying had been glowing.

He had originally thought it was just the Dog Talisman's youth-restoring effect preparing to take effect; he hadn't expected the resurrection effect to be preparing to take effect, or perhaps both effects were ready to go.

"Lao Die? Lao Die?" Lin Fengjiao called out softly a few times.

The distracted Lao Die came back to his senses. "Ah?"

"Lao Die, do you think we should call the two next door over to discuss this?" Lin Fengjiao asked.

"You're right. Go call them; there are some things that really need to be talked about properly." Lao Die nodded and replied.

Lin Fengjiao walked out of 2110, and after confirming that there was no one around, he knocked on the door next door.

However, Lin Fengjiao, who was still not familiar enough with this place, didn't know that on the other side, across a circular corridor, in a room on the other side, Lin Jiu was observing their every move through a tiny crack.

He must have found out something. It seems this time there will be another massacre.

Lin Jiu silently lit a cigarette, the smoke drifting in front of his face.