Chapter 195: Dragon Spine

The entire Qiu Family manor was shrouded in a pall of deathly qi.

I also noticed that after Qiu Fengnian returned to the Qiu Family manor, his spirit and energy deteriorated greatly, and his responses became sluggish.

Even more terrifying, while we were researching where that three-eyed golden toad had fled, Qiu Fengnian's fourth son ran into trouble.

As the richest family in Chang City, the Qiu family is wealthy and influential.

The Qiu Family manor is a garden-style estate; each of the four children occupies a separate courtyard, and they each have their own businesses outside.

Qiu Fengnian's fourth son, Qiu Hetong, and his daughter-in-law Wang Shu had just had a son the previous year; the little guy was only three months old.

But over the past week, the little guy's condition has been poor; he often falls asleep and never wakes up, refuses food and drink, is thin and yellow; the doctor said that if this doesn't improve, the child may not survive.

At such a young age, even administering nutritional IVs to sustain life is difficult.

But just now, the little guy suddenly woke up, wailing loudly, crying so hard he couldn't catch his breath, and his already sallow little face turned purple from strain.

Wang Shu then held him, comforting him and feeding him milk.

The little guy bit down and, in one go, bit straight through, creating two bloody holes.

A three-month-old infant has no teeth—how could those blood holes have been bitten?

But when we rushed over, we saw Wang Shu holding the child, sitting dazedly in a chair.

Wang Shu's front was stained with blood, and the infant in her arms had an abnormal bluish-purple hue.

Hearing the commotion, the infant abruptly turned its head to look at us.

At that sight, everyone sucked in a breath of cold air.

That infant's face was bluish-purple, eyes wide open, eyeballs threaded with blood vessels, its four exposed fangs pressing against its lips, covered in blood!

"Corpse qi has entered the body, first infecting the youngest infant in the household," Liu Junyan immediately judged, "that toad must have returned to the grave pit."

He then produced a talisman paper, pinched it between his fingers; it ignited without flame, turned to ash, dissolved in water, and had Qiu Hetong feed it separately to Wang Shu and the infant.

After drinking the talisman water, mother and child vomited uncontrollably, but once they finished vomiting, they regained consciousness.

Liu Junyan instructed Qiu Hetong, just in case, to keep Wang Shu and the infant under separate watch; Qiu Hetong promptly agreed.

Qiu Fengnian then took us to his father's graveyard.

The graveyard is located near the Qiu family's ancestral home; driving there takes nearly an hour, dusk was falling, and Qiu Fengnian's condition kept worsening.

Liu Junyan placed her hand, holding prayer beads, on Qiu Fengnian's head, quickly recited a mantra, and finally pressed her forefinger to his brow.

Qiu Fengnian shuddered all over, and his eyes instantly cleared.

Normally one car would suffice, but Qiu Fengnian, now jumpy as a startled bird, suddenly arranged six vehicles; aside from his eldest son accompanying him, the rest were all tall, burly bodyguards.

The Qiu family's ancestral home lies in a village on the outskirts of Chang City; although it was already evening, as soon as Qiu Fengnian entered the village, the clan chief still led people to warmly greet him.

Qiu Fengnian said he was only coming back to pay respects to the ancestors, would leave after finishing, and need not disturb the clanspeople; thus the clan chief led his entourage away.

Half the bodyguards stayed at the village entrance to keep watch, while half followed us toward the back of the village.

Behind the village stretches a vast expanse of farmland, and beyond the farmland lies a range of mountains.

As we approached, we saw a graveyard at the foot of the mountain.

But the Qiu family's ancestral grave is not in that graveyard; Qiu Fengnian led us up the mountain, winding along the mountain path, turning countless times, circling many peaks, and when we finally stopped, a mountain hollow appeared before us.

Although this mountain hollow is a depression, it is an excellent spot for sheltering wind and gathering qi.

More importantly, right in the center of the mountain hollow, a raised mountain ridge runs through, and the Qiu family's ancestral grave sits upon this ridge.

A mountain with a ridge is called a dragon's spine.

Burying the ancestral grave on the dragon's spine, the Qiu family ought to have been immensely wealthy and noble, with a thriving population.

In other words, without that toad, Qiu Fengnian's rise to wealth might have been a bit slower, but his overall fortune would have steadily risen, an upward slope.

Perhaps in ten years, perhaps fifteen, the seat of Chang City's richest would still belong to Qiu Fengnian.

Yet in that originally superb feng shui treasure spot, buried was that toad.

Therefore, that toad had originally been hidden in this mountain ridge's feng shui treasure land, secretly cultivating; but the Qiu family dug it up, damaging its cultivation and seizing its feng shui treasure land.

If Qiu Fengnian had simply thrown it away or destroyed it back then, none of what followed would have happened.

But he instead believed the toad's words and began to venerate it.

The toad received the Qiu family's incense offerings and remained in the Buddhist niche to heal its wounds.

After three years, its wounds had mostly healed.

And during those three years, the Qiu family, affected by the yin influence of the ancestral grave's feng shui, also began to develop.

The toad then obfuscated the truth, claiming all the credit for itself, and lured Qiu Fengnian into a blood sacrifice.

That blood sacrifice did not help the Qiu family; it harmed them.

The toad continually absorbed the essence and blood of the Qiu family's main line, growing until the day it reached maturity— which would be the day the entire Qiu family was exterminated.

And that day is this month's end.

If Qiu Fengnian acts any slower, and the toad truly achieves perfection, everything will be over.

"What are you thinking?" Liu Junyan suddenly asked.

I then repeated my earlier thoughts in front of Qiu Fengnian.

The more Qiu Fengnian listened, the darker his face grew; his fists clenched with a grating sound, he suddenly pointed at the ancestral grave and gritted his teeth: "Can I have someone dig it up? If possible, I want to personally chop it in half with a spade!"

"Then what do you think made it choose to return here at this time?" Liu Junyan countered.

Qiu Fengnian blinked, then asked: "Why?"

"Because your family's ancestral grave has long been rooted here; the feng shui of this area is intimately tied to your family's fate." I explained, "Whether you choose to relocate the grave or destroy it utterly, reducing it to fragments, the outcome is that the Qiu family itself abandons this feng shui treasure land."

The Qiu family rose to prominence thanks to this feng shui treasure land; without it, their fate is easy to imagine.

That toad is too clever; by doing this, it has truly got the Qiu family firmly in its grasp.

If another feng shui master were summoned, even the nation's foremost expert would likely be helpless at this point.

But…

I glanced at Liu Junyan and said, "The black toad is just a black toad; it was never a three-eyed golden toad; its good fortune today must be borrowing the light of that piece of Golden Scale."

Before, I only suspected, but when I saw this mountain ridge, I had already confirmed that the scale armor on the black toad's forehead is a piece of Golden Scale from Liu Junyan.

Although this mountain range stretches far, it is not the location of the Dragon Vein, so how could a Dragon Spine appear out of nowhere in this mountain hollow?