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Глава 15

“This is the earth’s energy, also known as a ‘magnetic field.’ It’s not surprising that there’s a reaction,” Old Fei said, glancing at his watch. “It’s nine o’clock at night now, which is the hour of Hai (9-11 PM). We can start now.”

Mayor Guo turned his head and looked around. His younger brother only had one arm left, and neither Old Fei nor his father-in-law could do it themselves. He had to do it all by himself. He sighed softly, took off his gold-rimmed glasses and handed them to Youfu, then picked up the iron hoe and went to the small mound.

"You're talented, work hard, I have high hopes for you. After the mission is successfully completed, the organization department plans to promote you further," Secretary Qin said solemnly and seriously from the side.

"Thank you for your trust, father-in-law and the organization..." Mayor Guo's spirits lifted upon hearing this, but he immediately fixed his eyes on Daoist Fei and asked with lingering fear, "Will... will there be anything strange down there?"

Master Fei chuckled and took out the small sandalwood box from his robes. He opened the lid, reached in with his fingers, scooped out a piece of cinnabar, rubbed it in his palm, and then smeared it on Mayor Guo's face, saying, "This is Chenzhou sand, which is most effective in suppressing yin substances. You can dig with peace of mind. I will guard this place."

At this moment, Mayor Guo's face was blood red, looking like a cannibal. Youfu shook his head. His brother had been educated by the Party for so many years, yet he still believed in such nonsense. If we follow Master Fei's theory, wouldn't all the archaeological teams in the world have to be painted with big graffiti?

Although Mayor Guo was rather thin, he was quite strong due to his upbringing in the countryside. He wielded the hoe with great force, and given the dry soil, each dig revealed a large chunk. After about an hour, he had dug more than two meters deep.

Youfu, standing to the side, used his one arm to help him move the clods of earth and roll them down the hill so that his brother could work more easily.

"Wait..." Master Fei suddenly called out, noticing that the white yin energy was growing heavier and heavier, indicating that they were getting close to the ancient tomb.

Mayor Guo took the water bottle handed to him by Secretary Qin, drank a few sips of cold tea, and kept panting.

"The corpses inside ancient tombs usually produce poisonous fumes after they decompose. I'm giving you a pill that I made in secret. If you take it, you won't be afraid of the corpse poison." Master Fei took out a small black pill from his pocket and handed it to Mayor Guo.

Mayor Guo quickly stuffed it into his mouth and swallowed it. Then he frowned and asked in confusion, "Old Fei, why does this medicine taste like Huoxiang Zhengqi Water?"

Master Fei smiled rather awkwardly and explained, "I made some improvements to the Huoxiang Zhengqi Pill..."

At this point, Mayor Guo could only trust Master Fei's secret elixir. He steeled his resolve, glanced at his father-in-law, Secretary Qin, and raised his iron pickaxe high to dig into the pit...

With a muffled thud, sparks flew from the pickaxe; there was something below.

Chapter 21, Part 2

"Make way! Wait for me." Master Fei swayed and jumped into the pit. Then, with a flick of his hand, he lifted Mayor Guo onto the top of the pit.

Under the moonlight, a white stone slab was revealed at the bottom of the pit. Master Fei secretly took out two pills and put them in his mouth, then carefully scraped away the loose soil with a hoe.

This is an ancient stone coffin.

Master Fei squinted and saw inscriptions on the ancient stone coffin. In addition, there were rectangular holes on the surface of the stone lid, arranged in the pattern of the "Gu" hexagram from the sixty-four hexagrams of the I Ching. The white yin energy was slowly escaping from these holes...

“The eighteenth hexagram of the I Ching, ‘Mountain Wind Gu,’ with Gen above and Xun below, the first line reads, ‘Inheriting the father’s business, there is a son, the father is without blame, and the end will be auspicious.’ Hmm… Inheriting the father’s business, having a filial son, no disasters, and even if danger is encountered, it will ultimately be auspicious.” Master Fei muttered to himself.

"Old Fei, what have you discovered?" came Secretary Qin's anxious voice from the pit.

Master Fei did not answer. Instead, he leaned over the stone coffin and carefully examined the oracle bone script engraved on its surface by the moonlight. Finally, he recognized the two characters " ". He was instantly struck as if by lightning, his whole body trembling. Overwhelmed with joy, he burst into tears, sobbing uncontrollably…

Those above the pit heard the sobbing and were extremely shocked. They hurriedly peered inside.

"Mr. Fei, Mr. Fei, are you alright?" Secretary Qin asked anxiously.

"Feng Hou... I've finally found 'Feng Hou's Tomb'..." Master Fei stammered incoherently.

"'Feng Hou's Tomb'? It really is... found?" Secretary Qin was overjoyed, and his eyes became a little moist.

Master Fei slowly stood up, his face gradually regaining its composure, tears still glistening in the corners of his eyes. He took a deep breath and then solemnly said, "This humble Taoist is about to open the 'Tomb of Feng Hou,' dating back four or five thousand years. Looking back on the history of our ancient Chinese ancestors, the Yellow Emperor personally buried Feng Hou here. This humble Taoist is fortunate enough to open it himself five thousand years later. What an honor this is..."

You Fu thought about it and felt something was wrong, so he whispered to Secretary Qin, "Secretary Qin, the Feng Hou Mausoleum has a long history and should be considered one of the most important cultural relics in our country. Although it has been discovered, opening the coffin without the approval of the national cultural relics department is a serious crime if the cultural relics are damaged."

"Hehe, Elder Fei has the approval documents from Beijing, he's very wealthy, you can rest assured about that," Secretary Qin said with a smile, seemingly completely confident.

"That's good." Youfu, being a detective, vaguely sensed that something was amiss, but given his position, he couldn't say much.

Master Fei reached behind his neck and pulled out a short peach wood handle with a steel tip, a pressure point peg. This peg could be used for finding auspicious burial sites in feng shui, or as a pressure point weapon in martial arts combat. It was flexible and practical, and it was not among the controlled knives of the public security department.

"It's getting late, I must open the coffin," Master Fei said loudly. He then inserted the steel end of the acupoint stake into the gap under the stone coffin lid, circulated his internal energy, and then shouted "Lift!" He forcefully lifted the hundreds-of-pounds stone coffin lid...

The stone coffin was shrouded in swirling white mist, which looked extremely eerie under the pale moonlight. A musty smell wafted over, and Secretary Qin and the others on the pit immediately felt their hair stand on end, their teeth chatter, and they felt a chill run down their spines.

The white mist gradually dissipated, and under the moonlight, a person lay quietly inside the stone coffin...

"Old Guo!" A terrified cry suddenly escaped from Mayor Guo's trembling mouth...

Chapter 21, Part 3

"Who is it?" Master Fei stared blankly at the male corpse in the stone coffin and said in a daze. Feng Hou was a person from nearly five thousand years ago. Even if there were any bones left, they would have long since turned into fossils. But the person in front of him was wearing a gray polyester Zhongshan suit, dark blue nylon socks and yellow rubber shoes...

"It was Old Guo, the owner of the old house, who passed away a few days ago," Mayor Guo replied tremblingly.

"Impossible!" Master Fei said decisively. "I have observed that the yellow soil on this tomb has been subsided for many years and the original soil has not been disturbed. Moreover, there are no signs that the stone coffin has been opened. It is certain that this is an ancient tomb that no one knows about for thousands of years."

"How did Old Man Guo get inside?" Mayor Guo whispered, still shaken.

"Strange, this is really strange." Master Fei shook his head, completely baffled, and then leaped onto the pit.

Secretary Qin said seriously to Mayor Guo, "Youcai, you're absolutely certain that this male corpse is the old man Guo who just passed away?"

"It's absolutely true. I even found these clothes and shoes in the closet at the old house." Mayor Guo's face was flushed, and he almost swore an oath to the heavens.

Secretary Qin nodded, then turned to Master Fei and said, "Master Fei, money doesn't lie. This person must be Old Man Guo. The key question now is, how could a dead person crawl into an underground stone coffin that has never been broken into?"

At this moment, Youfu, who had been observing from the sidelines, was also deeply puzzled. First, this Taoist priest Fei was somewhat strange, managing to find an ancient stone coffin underground using so-called "earth energy." Second, there were no signs of recent disturbance on the small hill, yet the body of the already buried Old Man Guo had inexplicably appeared inside the stone coffin—this was scientifically inexplicable. Finally, what was Taoist priest Fei's background? As Secretary Qin had said, he possessed approval documents from the capital for excavating the coffin. Considering the tomb-raiding gang that had recently appeared in the Fenglingdu area, it seemed there were quite a few strange things surrounding the "Feng Hou Tomb."

A few thin clouds drifted by, slowly obscuring the moon, and the moonlight gradually dimmed.

"Is the old man Guo you mentioned the owner of that old house?" Master Fei asked thoughtfully.

"Indeed, he is a direct descendant of Guo Pu, the great physiognomist of the Eastern Jin Dynasty," Mayor Guo replied.

"So, the last successor of the 'Ghost Embracing Incense' feng shui mystery has also died without any offspring," Master Fei muttered to himself.

“He has no descendants, but he did adopt an abandoned baby girl a few years ago,” Mayor Guo said from the side.

"Oh, where is that girl now?" Master Fei asked, intrigued.

“She’s in my home now, and is currently being treated as my adopted daughter in name only,” Mayor Guo replied.

"What's her name?" Master Fei then asked.

“Nizi, Guo Ni,” Mayor Guo told him.

"I want to see her." A smile returned to Master Fei's face.

Secretary Qin looked up at the night sky and said, "Old Fei, it's getting late. You should go back to the town guesthouse to rest. What should we do with this stone coffin?"

"First, put the coffin lid on and bury him. Tomorrow, I'll go and dig up Old Man Guo's new grave to see what's inside," Master Fei said with a cold laugh.

"You Cai, go down and get to work," Secretary Qin instructed.

"Yes, father-in-law." Mayor Guo picked up the hoe and turned to look at the pit. He was so shocked that his soul seemed to leave his body. His whole body trembled uncontrollably, and his finger pointed shakily at the pit. He could no longer speak.

The stone coffin was empty; Old Guo was gone…

Chapter 22, Part 1

The moonlight was hazy, and the inside of the stone coffin seemed to be stained with a faint blood red. Everyone stared at the empty stone coffin, dumbfounded, and for a long time, no one spoke.

"Could it be that you're seeing things?" Youfu broke the silence.

"It's impossible that we're all seeing things," Secretary Qin stated firmly.

"There's a ghost... there really is a ghost." Mayor Guo murmured timidly.

The smile that usually graced Master Fei's face was gone, replaced by an unusually serious expression. His brows were furrowed, and he remained silent as he leaped into the pit, his sharp eyes searching every corner of the stone coffin.

He found a line of ancient and vigorous small characters at the bottom of the stone coffin. The script was Qin Small Seal script, which looked like four lines of verse: "That corpse, your corpse, no corpse, no breath, what do you seek in the corpse, ghost pot, incantation..." Master Fei recited it softly, and at the same time, he smelled a faint, inexplicable scent in his nose.

"Mr. Fei, what are you muttering about?" Secretary Qin asked, puzzled.

Master Fei seemed not to hear him, continuing to repeat the four lines of verse. Then, shaking his head, he looked up at the clear night sky and murmured, "The Qin Small Seal script originated with Li Si, which was more than 1,700 years ago. But this stone coffin of Feng Hou is nearly five thousand years old. How could the Qin Small Seal script be engraved inside the coffin..."

Master Fei forcefully closed the stone coffin lid with both hands, then leaped onto the pit, looked up at the sky and said with a bitter smile, "Alas, this stone coffin of Feng Hou has already been stolen."

"It's been stolen? Didn't Elder Fei not find any signs of breaking ground?" Secretary Qin asked doubtfully.

"I not only know the time of the tomb raiding, but I also know exactly who the tomb raiders were," Master Fei said confidently.

"Who is it?" Secretary Qin was eager to know.

Master Fei smiled and said, "First of all, the owner of this stone coffin is undoubtedly Feng Hou."

"Mr. Fei, are you so sure?" Secretary Qin asked, half believing and half doubting.

"This stone coffin was carved from a single, oblong piece of moonstone. Such a large, single piece of moonstone is extremely rare. When I leaned over the coffin, I could see a floating, wavy blue halo from a certain angle, thus confirming that it is moonstone, also known as the 'June birthstone.' This moonstone coffin was not carved with iron or bronze tools, but rather with stone tools that are harder than moonstone. The difficulty of this task is unimaginable. If bronze or iron tools had been used, it would have been much more time-saving and labor-saving. Bronze tools appeared during the Xia and Shang dynasties around 2000 BC, and iron tools appeared even later. Therefore, this stone coffin must have existed before the appearance of bronze tools, which is consistent with the production level of the Neolithic period during the reign of the Yellow Emperor. Moreover, the oracle bone script carved on the coffin lid reads the two characters 'Feng Hou,'" Master Fei explained.

"Hmm, that makes sense." Secretary Qin nodded repeatedly as he listened.

Master Fei continued, “However, this is definitely not where Feng Hou was buried. Someone stole Feng Hou’s remains and moved the stone coffin here. Their purpose was to set up this ‘ghost embracing incense’ feng shui mystery to protect the clan’s descendants.”

"You mean..." Secretary Qin seemed to understand.

“That’s right, the tomb raider was none other than Guo Pu, the great divination master of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, more than 1,500 years ago,” Master Fei said quietly.

Chapter 22, Part 2

"Is this just an empty coffin?" Mayor Guo breathed a sigh of relief.

"The Moonstone Coffin can absorb moonlight from not too deep underground. I speculate that when Guo Pu buried this coffin, it was only about a foot deep. Over the past thousand years, natural subsidence has caused it to sink to more than two meters. If it were any deeper, it probably wouldn't be effective," Master Fei analyzed.

"If there are no corpses, where did that white earth energy come from?" Secretary Qin was still completely baffled.

"Well..." Master Fei hesitated, "The Moonstone Coffin can capture some of the moon's yin energy, but it's not enough to create an aura that envelops the old house. Could it be..."

"Could it be something?" Secretary Qin pressed.

Master Fei recalled the faint, inexplicable smell he had detected inside the stone coffin, but that was just a guess... After a moment of contemplation, he said, "The coffin lid has a 'Gu' hexagram from the I Ching carved out. The earth's energy comes from those hollowed-out yin and yang lines. In short, the I Ching is profound and complex, and even I have not fully understood it."

"Then, where did Guo Pu hide Feng Hou's remains inside the stone coffin back then?" Secretary Qin asked, puzzled.

"I'm afraid only Guo Pu's direct descendants know this," Master Fei replied.

"You mean the 'Hidden Wind Map'?" Secretary Qin asked, seemingly having a sudden realization.

"Indeed, Guo Pu hid Feng Hou's remains and other burial objects, marking the exact location in the 'Hidden Wind Map,' instructing his descendants to keep it a secret and pass it down through generations. To prevent natural disasters and man-made calamities such as war and plague, he set up this 'Ghost Embracing Incense' feng shui mystery, protecting his descendants from the calamities of successive dynasties after the Eastern Jin Dynasty..."

Youfu chuckled, then quickly shut his mouth again.

Master Fei looked at Youfu and asked with displeasure, "What are you laughing at?"

Youfu had no choice but to tell the truth: "I don't understand why Guo Pu would go to such lengths to set up such a huge scheme. Are the remains of Feng Hou from thousands of years ago really that important? In short, the whole thing is unbelievable from both a logical and emotional standpoint."

"Well..." Master Fei coughed, stammering as he tried to evade the question, "The thoughts of reclusive masters are bound to differ from ours..."