Under One Person: Feng Shui Master, I Will Protect the Mountains and Rivers with My Own Body

Life in the cave passed by faster than Yan Sen had imagined.

He spent the first day almost entirely in a daze.

The aftereffects of refining the spleen earth were much more serious than he had imagined. His whole body, from the very bones, felt sore and heavy, as if he had been beaten hard by dozens of big men with wooden sticks all day and then thrown into a blender and rolled around seven or eight times.

He didn't even have the strength to lift his hand, and could only lie on the moisture-proof mat that Yan Que had laid out, whimpering like a dying puppy.

Yan Que has been behaving unusually these past two days.

He stopped forcing Yan Sen to memorize those mystical scriptures and stopped using grand principles like "No pain, no gain" to educate him.

He was just like any ordinary father who doted on his son, busy with all sorts of things.

He would use that small pot to cook the remaining bamboo shoots and wild vegetables, along with the cured meat he brought from the foot of the mountain, into a fragrant porridge of salted meat and vegetables, and then feed it to Yan Sen spoonful by spoonful.

Since Yan Sen couldn't move his body, he used hot water to wipe Yan Sen's face and hands. Although his movements were rough, they were very careful. He even cleaned the dirt out of Yan Sen's fingernails.

As night fell and the temperature in the mountains dropped, Yan Que, fearing that he would catch a cold, covered him tightly with his faded tattered shirt, while he himself wore only a single garment and leaned against the rock at the cave entrance to keep watch.

Yan Sen initially enjoyed this emperor-like treatment; it was the first time he'd ever experienced anything like it in his life. But after two days, he started to have second thoughts.

Something's not right, something's really not right.

This old man, who usually skimps on his food and treats me like a donkey, complaining that I'm too slow even when I walk a few steps, how come he's suddenly become so gentle and considerate?

There must be a demon in the abnormal situation!

By the third day, Yan Sen's body had finally recovered. He could walk again, although his feet still felt heavy, as if filled with lead, but he felt a strong and solid power within him that he had never experienced before. He felt that as long as he stood on the ground, no one could push him over.

"Father." Yan Sen looked at Yan Que, who was packing his things at the cave entrance, preparing to break camp and run away, and tentatively spoke up.

"Hmm? What's wrong? Still feeling unwell?" Yan Que didn't even turn his head, quickly stuffing the pots and pans into his backpack.

"No..." Yan Sen organized his thoughts, "Have you... eaten something wrong these past two days? Or are you bewitched by the feng shui of Longhu Mountain? Why are you being so nice to me?"

Yan Que paused in his action of stuffing things in.

He turned around, looked at his son's suspicious and wary little face, chuckled, and that familiar, slick, and mercenary look returned.

"You brat, I'm being nice to you, and you're not happy about it?" He walked over and instinctively reached out to rub Yan Sen's head, but halfway up, he remembered that his son had just recovered from a serious illness, so he gently patted his shoulder instead.

"You've really come back from the brink of death this time, how could your father not be heartbroken? Besides, you're now the future pillar of our Yan family, a person we need to protect, you understand?"

What he said made perfect sense, but Yan Sen still felt something was off. There seemed to be something else hidden in his father's smile, something like... guilt?

"Alright, stop overthinking." Yan Que slung his packed backpack over his shoulder. "Everything's packed, we should go."

"Go? Where to? Are we still running down the mountain?" Yan Sen asked. He figured that since the black market people had been captured by the Taoist priests from the Celestial Master's Mansion, they should be safe now.

"No." Yan Que shook his head, a mysterious smile on his face. He pointed to the outside of the cave and then to the top of his head.

"Let's... go up."

"Going up?!" Yan Sen's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. "Dad, are you out of your mind? If we go any higher, we'll be inside the Celestial Master's Mansion! We've been setting up traps and traps in their back mountain, stealing their earth energy for cultivation. Now instead of running away, we're just walking into their trap? Do you think we're going to live forever?"

Yan Sen thought his father must have gone mad. What's the difference between this and committing a crime in front of a police station, not only not running away but also running into the police station to ask the police officer what they're having for lunch?

"You don't know anything." Yan Que rolled his eyes at him, lowered his voice, and said with a hint of amusement, "You think people don't know we've been in the cave these past few days?"

Yan Sen's heart skipped a beat, and he instantly realized: "We've been discovered?"

"We were discovered when we were watching those tomb raiders fight with the disciples of the Celestial Master's Mansion in the mountains." Yan Que's tone was not tense at all; instead, it was as if he was talking about an interesting thing that had nothing to do with him.

"What?!" Yan Sen was truly panicked now. "Then...then why have we been stuck here for two days? Why haven't they come to arrest us?"

"Arrest us?" Yan Que chuckled. He walked to the cave entrance and gestured down the mountain with his chin.

"They're just watching a show. They're wondering who we two little mice are and what we're up to."

Yan Sen looked in the direction his father pointed and carefully observed with the [All Things Connected to Qi]. Sure enough, in a mountain hollow on their way here, he "saw" a hidden but exceptionally pure Qi, which was staying there at a distance.

That energy was like a deep pool of water, calm on the surface, but containing astonishing power beneath.

These past few days, their every move has been under the watchful eyes of others!

A chill ran from the soles of Yan Sen's feet straight to the top of his head. He felt as if he had been stripped naked and thrown into the city center, with no secrets left.

"Then...then if we go up now, won't we be even more doomed?" Yan Sen's voice was trembling with sobs.

"So you're still a bit green, kid." Yan Que patted the back of his head, looking like a wise man who wanted to "let you learn more."

"Son, remember this: the world of martial arts isn't just about fighting and killing; it's about human relationships and social graces. We were on someone else's turf, borrowed their feng shui, and used their 'power' to solve our own problems. Now that the problems are solved, to just pack up and leave is unethical; that's called freeloading."

Yan Que straightened the collar of his tattered shirt, striking a pose as if he were going to a banquet.

"If we've been discovered and don't go and pay our respects, that would be incredibly impolite. Come on, Dad's taking you to freeload a meal!"

Yan Sen was completely dumbfounded.

Looking at his father's matter-of-fact expression, his mind was in complete turmoil.

So, all my anxiety and fear these past few days, all that setting up formations and practicing exercises, were just like watching a TV show in other people's eyes? And now I have to go out of my way to let them see it?

What kind of nonsense is this?!