Inheriting a Taoist temple, the story begins with Wu Zetian offering incense.

Chapter 91 Tonight, someone's going to die in Cloud Mist Mountain! [Seeking monthly votes]

Upon hearing the words "fortune telling," Granny Gongsun's curiosity was immediately piqued.
"What does the Taoist priest want to know? His career? His wealth? His marriage? Haha, could it be that he's taken a fancy to some girl?"

Zhou Yi, holding his whisk, gently tapped the girl's head:
"Stop with the gossip, I just want to know if there have been any special visitors to Hunyuan Palace these past two days."

There's no such thing as a thief who can be a thief for a thousand days, but there's no such thing as a thief who can be a thief for a thousand days. Since Xie Yukun wants to deal with Hunyuan Palace, we naturally need to make thorough preparations.

If he comes, then we'll deal with him right here.

If they don't come, then go find them... Cause and effect are time-sensitive, so shaving your head early will keep you cool.

Holding her sword, Gongsun Da Niang strode like a follower to the Sanqing Hall. Just as she was about to take out her treasured snacks to place on the table, Zhou Yi took out the offerings he had prepared from his bag.

When worshipping the Three Pure Ones, the offerings are very particular, and are generally divided into five offerings and ten offerings.

The five offerings refer to incense, flowers, lamps, water, and fruit. The ten offerings are based on these, adding tea, food, treasures, pearls, and clothing.

Incense is easy to understand; it's the fragrance of incense and candles. However, when worshipping Taoist ancestors, you shouldn't use incense with added artificial fragrances. Instead, it's best to use incense made from natural materials such as sandalwood and agarwood.

The flowers refer to fresh flowers, not plastic flowers or roses. Roses are too flamboyant and not suitable for offering to the Taoist ancestor.

The flowers Zhou Yi prepared were a few daffodils cut from the yard, arranged in a glass vase, looking simple and elegant.

The lamp refers to an ever-burning lamp. In the place where the Taoist patriarch is worshipped, an oil lamp that cannot be extinguished should be placed. Believers need to add oil to the lamp regularly. However, since there are small night lamps in the temple, oil lamps are not required.

Fruit is of utmost importance. Offerings to the Taoist ancestor cannot contain meat or fish; only fresh fruit is required. The arrangement of the fruit on the plate is also important. Single plates must be used, which means the numbers three, five, seven, or nine, and the number of fruits in each plate must also be odd.

Zhou Yi placed three apples, three mangoes, three oranges, a cantaloupe, and a bunch of bananas on the table—five kinds of fruit, none of which showed any signs of spoilage.

As for water, Zhou Yi simply placed two bottles of mineral water on the table.

Today was rather rushed, and I was only using the site of the Three Pure Ones Taoist Ancestors to perform a divination. Five offerings will suffice. There will be a large-scale ritual later, and I can prepare ten offerings then.

After the offerings were prepared, Zhou Yi took out the incense and arranged it properly. Then he opened the cabinet under the offering table and took out an octagonal divination board.

The abacus is about 40 centimeters in diameter. In the very center is a Tai Chi symbol, and further out are the Bagua (Eight Trigrams). Outside the Bagua are the abacus beads. The whole abacus looks like a large pot lid.

This was the first time Gongsun Da Niang had seen such a strange abacus, and she asked in a low voice:

"Master, what is this?"

"The Bagua abacus is a ritual instrument used to create the sixty-four hexagrams of Fuxi. Unfortunately, many people don't know how to use it now, and even some Taoist priests don't understand the incantations of the Bagua abacus."

Zhou Yi was deeply impressed by this Bagua abacus. It was when he was in elementary school that a heavy snow fell, and his grandfather, who had been away from home for half a month, suddenly returned with this dirty and somewhat worn abacus, which he treasured and hid away.

After the roof of the Sanqing Hall was tiled, he couldn't wait to hide the Bagua abacus in the cabinet under the offering table, saying that with the Three Pure Ones protecting it, no one could find it.

Now, seeing these objects brings back memories of his grandfather, and Zhou Yi unconsciously recalls his grandfather's voice and smile.

Granny Gongsun fiddled with the abacus beads and muttered to herself:

"I never imagined there was such a thing as an abacus in the world. Taoist priest, could you tell my fortune?"

Zhou Yi took a white cloth and carefully wiped the dust off the abacus:

"You can only have your fortune told once a day. If everything is going smoothly for you and everything is fine, there's no need to have your fortune told. It will deplete your good luck."

After saying this, he placed the cleaned abacus on the offering table, lit incense and candles, bowed to the statues of the Three Pure Ones, and then inserted them into the incense burner.

Everything is ready; we can now cast the hexagram.

The process of casting a divination was a bit complicated, and Gongsun Da Niang was completely confused, not knowing what the steps were, but she operated the I Ching extremely smoothly.

I've been learning this since I was a child, and I learned it with an atheistic mindset, so I haven't forgotten any of the mnemonics or formulas.

After this divination was completed, Zhou Yi silently recited the hexagram:
"With Qian below and Zhen above, the yang energy is excessive, making it a six-clash hexagram!"

Gongsun Da Niang asked:

"Master, what is the Six Clashes Hexagram?"

“It means that someone who died a violent death has come to our Hunyuan Palace.” After saying this, Zhou Yi looked at the Five Elements hexagrams again, which showed the hexagram of Xun wood entering Gen earth.

Xun represents ropes and obstructed breathing, while Gen represents termination. Together, they foretell that the other party will die a violent death due to suffocation, strangulation, or a fall.

After reading it, Zhou Yi let out a soft sigh:

"Someone's going to die tonight in Cloud Mist Mountain!"

As a high-achieving college student, Zhou Yi had an instinctive aversion to things like murder, but he knew that many things were unavoidable and that he couldn't simply hide from them.

Since someone is courting death, he has no choice but to play along.

Gongsun Da Niang tried to ease the tension:

"Could it be that I killed him or something similar, that he died a violent death?"

Zhou Yi shook his head:

"According to the divination, the other party died in the White Tiger position, which is the first steep bend on the mountain road, far away from Hunyuan Palace... I won't cook today, let's go to town to eat and calm down."

Gongsun Da Niang nodded heavily:
"Great! I've been craving honey-glazed roasted chicken."

Zhou Yi put the Bagua abacus into the cabinet under the offering table, locked it, bowed to the statues of the Three Pure Ones, and led Granny Gongsun away in a long stride.

He first went to his room to change into casual clothes, no longer wearing his Taoist robe. He also took a few talismans and stuffed them into his bag. He then told Aunt Gongsun, who had just changed into jeans, to bring a jacket.

It gets quite chilly in the mountains after dark; wearing just a T-shirt can be a bit uncomfortable.

With everything ready, the two rode their motorcycle down the mountain, enjoyed a delicious dinner in town, and bought two servings of fruit salad on the street, which made Grandma Gongsun feel even more nostalgic for modern society.

Before eating the fruit salad, she skillfully took out her phone and took a picture, having learned to disinfect food with her phone without any instruction.

Zhou Yi had little interest in food; the thought of someone dying on the mountain that night made him lose all interest in it.

While strolling around town, Granny Gongsun whispered:
"Although I talk about fighting and killing all day long, I've never even killed a chicken... Daoist, you don't need to feel guilty. It's inevitable to be nervous the first time you have no experience."

The Book of Changes: ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

No, what you said sounds rather ambiguous.
He shoveled a mouthful of fruit salad into his mouth and said:

"I'm just not used to it. There are good and bad people in this world. If we don't want good people to be bullied or wronged, we have to make those who do evil leave this world early."

After finishing their fruit salad, it was already dark, so the two rode their motorcycle back to Yunwu Mountain.

Upon reaching the fork in the road leading uphill, Zhou Yi stopped his motorcycle and affixed a talisman to the signpost on the mountain road.

Grandma Gongsun put on her denim jacket and asked:

"Taoist Master, are you already setting a trap?"

Zhou Yi shook his head:

"Although some people are eager to die, we must give them a chance to live. After 11 p.m. tonight, if any car or person passes by here, the talisman will automatically burn as a warning."

After affixing the talismans, Zhou Yi rode his motorcycle, carrying Gongsun Da Niang, and turned onto the mountain road. He then affixed two more talismans along the way, which would spontaneously combust after 11 o'clock when someone passed by.

When they reached the White Tiger position, which was a steep bend in the mountain, Zhou Yi stopped again and pasted an anti-Five Thunder Talisman that his grandfather had forced him to learn on the cliff next to him the night before he received his university graduation certificate last year.

The Five Thunder Talisman is a commonly used talisman in Taoism, which can expel evil spirits and purify the magnetic field. However, the Anti-Five Thunder Talisman is different. After use, it will trigger the power of thunder and evil, causing people to fall into mental confusion or perceptual disorders, which is the legendary phenomenon of being trapped in a ghost wall.

Zhou Yi finally understood why his grandfather insisted he learn this talisman before he received his graduation certificate... Perhaps this was his graduation exam in the Taoist sect.

Zhou Yi affixed the talisman, but not entirely reassured, he added a restriction that would only be triggered after 11 p.m. by someone with ill intentions passing by.

After setting all that up, he drove Granny Gongsun up the mountain, quietly waiting for tonight's...graduation ceremony!
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It will be available tonight at midnight. Next, I'll share my thoughts on the release!

(End of this chapter)