Tianjin, starting with unorthodox methods to achieve immortality

Chapter 285 The Rules of Kowloon

As soon as his divine sense reached the doorway of the room, it encountered an invisible barrier that he could not penetrate at all.

"That's interesting."

Chen Mo tried several times before withdrawing his divine sense, but his expression remained unchanged.

A middleman selling information in the back alleys of Temple Street actually had a restriction in his shop that could block divine sense.

He had some doubts at first, but now he feels much more at ease.

This restriction wasn't particularly sophisticated, but it was rather ingenious.

It doesn't use the methods of Taoist talismans; it's more like a mixture of Buddhist incense offerings and vows with folk spirit medium practices.

It's not very powerful, but it works.

The man on the bench glanced at Chen Mo sideways when he saw that Chen Mo was standing still.

The man was in his early thirties, wearing a cream-colored fitted suit with a wide collar, through which the shape of an eagle's claw could be faintly seen on his chest.

His right leg was resting on his left knee, his foot dangling in mid-air, trembling intermittently.

Chen Mo carried the wicker box and sat down at the other end of the bench.

After waiting for about the time it takes to burn an incense stick, the door behind the curtain opened.

The man who came out was a big, fat man with a string of amber prayer beads around his neck, each bead as big as a thumb.

"Next."

The man on the bench jumped up, lifted the curtain, and slipped inside.

They go in quickly and come out quickly.

Less than fifteen minutes later, the man came out with a grim face, and the copper bell on the door rang loudly.

"Next."

Chen Mo picked up the rattan trunk and lifted the cloth curtain.

The inner room was darker than the outer room, with the only light source being a kerosene lamp on the table.

The wick was held very low, and the flame was only the size of a soybean, casting a dim, yellowish light on the room.

A person sat in the lamplight.

You can't tell his age; you could say he's forty or sixty.

She has a round face with her features squeezed together, giving her a naturally smiling look.

He wore a melon-shaped hat on his head, with a dusty red pom-pom on top.

On the table in front of him were a purple clay teapot, a teacup, and a small bronze incense burner.

Three incense sticks were inserted into the incense burner, and wisps of smoke rose up, drawing winding lines in the lamplight.

Chen Mo extended his divine sense and scanned the area, only to discover that the barrier originated from this small incense burner.

The smoke from the burning incense sticks swirled in the room, enveloping the entire inner room.

"Please sit down."

The man gestured to the chair across the table and spoke in perfect Beijing dialect, without a trace of Cantonese accent, completely unlike the old man outside who was folding paper ingots.

Chen Mo placed the rattan box at his feet, and the flame of the kerosene lamp flickered in the breeze he created, causing the other person's face to flicker in and out of the light.

"This gentleman looks unfamiliar. Is this your first time here?"

The know-it-all picked up the purple clay teapot, poured himself a cup of tea, but didn't pour one for Chen Mo.

"Through an introduction."

"What should the matchmaker be called?"

Chen Mo took a business card out of his pocket, placed it on the table, and pushed it over.

The business card was given to him by the fat man. The front of it read "Wantong Trading Company - Lin," and the back had a string of numbers written in pen.

The fat man's handwriting was messy.

After observing for a while, the know-it-all's smile deepened: "So you're Boss Lin's friend. Then let's not stand on ceremony. What do you want to know?"

Chen Mo looked directly into his eyes: "The address of Xuan Yin Zhai."

His smile remained unchanged, but the fingers holding the teacup paused for a moment.

"Xuan Yin Zhai? Are you looking for someone from Xuan Yin Zhai, or for its gate?"

"Is there a difference?"

"The difference is huge."

He put down his teacup and tapped his fingers twice on the table. "Finding someone is one price."

"If you're looking for a door, that'll be a different price."

Chen Mo didn't say anything, but simply took out a fifty-dollar silver note from his pocket and handed it over.

The know-it-all glanced at the silver note but didn't touch it.

"Fifty silver dollars isn't enough to find the address of the Xuan Yin Zhai sect."

"I'd like a large yellow croaker."

"Big yellow croaker" is slang in this industry, referring to a large gold bar.

A pure gold bar weighing ten taels.

Chen Mo reached into his pocket, and when he pulled his hand out, there was a bright yellow thing between his fingers.

The gold bar made a muffled thud on the table, drowning out the faint sound of rain outside the window.

The man didn't touch the gold bar; instead, he took out a pencil stub from his sleeve, grabbed a crumpled piece of packaging paper from the corner of the table, and wrote a few words.

After finishing writing, he pushed the paper in front of Chen Mo.

Murray House, Central.

Murray House?

Chen Mo's eyebrows twitched slightly.

He knew about the Murray House; in later movies, it was portrayed as a famous haunted location.

"Is Xuan Yin Zhai located in Mei Li Lou?"

"That's right."

The know-it-all picked up his teacup, took a sip, and tilted his head slightly downwards. "There's a lot to it."

"How so?"

"Murray House is backed by Victoria Peak, faces Garden Road, is to the left of St. John's Cathedral, and is to the right of Pentecost Garden."

"This place is considered quiet in the middle of the hustle and bustle of Central, but those in the know understand that it is the most cursed piece of land in all of Hong Kong."

"In Kowloon, it's called a yin place."

"Victoria Peak is the dragon vein of Hong Kong Island. Walking down from the top, you reach Murray House, which is exactly the tail of the dragon."

.

"Mountains and water gather energy, but the dragon's tail is the opposite."

"It can't dissipate the wind, and it can't nourish people by gathering water. The yin energy sinks down and can't be dissipated. Over time, it soaks the entire land."

Chen Mo didn't speak, but gestured for him to continue with his eyes.

"Setting up a sect in a place like this is either asking for trouble or has ulterior motives."

Pepsi wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, held up a short, thick finger, and continued, "For the sake of this gold bar, I'll give you a few more pieces of information as a bonus."

"The sect leader of Xuan Yin Zhai is surnamed Gu and named Gu Yunzhou. Ten years ago, he suddenly moved the entire Xuan Yin Zhai from Shanghai to Kowloon and settled in the Mei Li Building."

"There is actually a strange place hidden in that building."

Chen Mo's pupils contracted slightly.

Strange territory.

This thing is not some blessed land, but a distorted space formed by the entanglement of resentment, evil energy, and death energy.

Behind every eerie realm lies one or countless horrific deaths.

"continue."

The know-it-all picked up the purple clay teapot, slowly took a sip of tea from the spout, and rubbed his right thumb and forefinger together in front of him.

The meaning of this action is universal.

Chen Mo reached into his pocket and took out a small yellow croaker, placing it on the table.

"That's enough."

"Sir, you are a straightforward person, so I'll say a few words that others don't know."

He tucked both gold bars into his sleeves, leaned back in his chair, and the red pom-pom on his melon-shaped hat swayed a few times.

"That eerie realm has existed for many years."

"Before the Murray House was built, that piece of land was a mass grave."

"After the building was completed, it started to be haunted."

"Twenty years ago, a vengeful ghost somehow emerged from that eerie place. The Hong Kong geomancers later named it the Red-Faced Rakshasa."

"This thing has been in the Ghost Realm for decades, absorbing countless amounts of Yin energy and resentment, and has already become quite powerful."

"And then?" Chen Mo asked.

"Later, several masters from Hong Kong joined forces to raid the area."

"Seven people entered the Ghost Realm, four came out alive, and three died inside; their bodies couldn't even be brought out."

"However, it is said that the Red-Faced Rakshasa was wiped out by them, his soul scattered and he will never be reincarnated."

The know-it-all paused for two breaths at this point, "But the ghostly realm still hasn't dissipated."

"and then?"

"Ten years ago, after Gu Yunzhou rented the entire Meili Building, no one has seen him since."

"There are rumors in the martial arts world that he wants to use that strange realm to transform into a Corpse-Dissolving Immortal."

Chen Mo sat up straight, his expression becoming more serious.

In Taoism, the path to immortality is divided into three stages: Celestial Immortals ascend to the ethereal realm, Earthly Immortals roam famous mountains, and Corpse-Dissolving Immortals undergo metamorphosis after death.

The Corpse-Dissolving Immortal is a cultivator who abandons his physical form, his soul sheds his body, and transforms into another existence.

Not entering the cycle of reincarnation, nor falling into the netherworld, is called "corpse liberation".

This method has become a forbidden technique since the arrival of the Red Moon.

"How is he now?"

"Nobody in Kowloon knows the answer to this question."

Fifteen minutes later, Chen Mo folded the paper, stuffed it into his pocket, and got up to pick up the rattan trunk.

The know-it-all behind him casually added, "Sir, may I add one more thing?"

"You're the third person to listen to Xuan Yin Zhai in the past two weeks."

Chen Mo paused for a moment, but without turning around, he lifted the curtain and walked out.

The rain outside was heavier than when we arrived, and a layer of white mist splashed up on the stone pavement of Temple Street.

He switched the wicker basket to his other hand, opened the black cloth umbrella he carried with him, and walked out along the alley.

The alleyway was just ahead, and a few people were standing there indistinctly in the rain.

The man in the cream-colored suit in the middle was the same man he had just met in the shop.

Next to this man stood four policemen in green woolen uniforms, with batons at their waists.

The one in the lead stood in the rain with his hands behind his back, and someone was holding an umbrella for him.

He looked to be in his forties or fifties, with a square face, and most striking were his thick, bushy eyebrows.

His looks and demeanor are exactly like that guy who stepped out of a zombie movie.

Chen Mo's heart stirred, but his face remained unchanged as he held the umbrella and walked straight ahead.

"Sir, please wait a moment."

The speaker was the square-faced policeman, whose tone was polite, and whose Cantonese had a slight Chaoshan accent.

Chen Mo stopped and slightly raised the edge of his umbrella.

"What's up?"

The policeman walked up to him, cupped his hands in greeting, and said, "My name is Ho Shui-kau, from the Criminal Investigation Department of the Kowloon Police Station. My colleagues call me Uncle Kau."

"Sir, you look unfamiliar. May I ask what brings you to Kowloon?"

Uncle Nine spoke in a refined manner and was quite polite.

It didn't feel like a police interrogation; it had more of the manners of a gangster.

Moreover, the cupped-hands gesture involves the left hand holding the right, with the thumbs interlocked and the palms slightly cupped.

This is a variation of the Taoist kowtow.

"I need to take care of some personal business."

Chen Mo did not return the greeting, but simply replied in a calm tone, "I'll leave after I'm done."

After hearing this, He Ruijiu's expression relaxed noticeably, as if he had breathed a sigh of relief.

"That's good, that's good."

He nodded, his tone becoming even more amiable, "Since you are just passing through, the Kowloon region will naturally not make things difficult for you, however..."

""

Before he could finish speaking, the man in the white suit behind him couldn't hold back any longer.

Why are you wasting your breath talking to him?

He took a step forward, pointing at Chen Mo, "You ask him first what my two underlings did to offend him that he would resort to such violence?"

"Do you think we and Shenghe are all dead?"

Chen Mo ignored him, his gaze passing over He Ruijiu's shoulder and landing on the people being supported by the two policemen behind them.

The two thugs who had just asked him for money were now unconscious, their faces shrouded in a layer of grayish-black aura.

He looked like he was barely breathing, with one foot already in the grave.

He Ruijiu pointed at the two men and asked cautiously, "Sir, have these two young men offended you?"

"They just asked me for money."

Chen Mo's lips curled up slightly, a playful smile on his face, but his eyes remained cool.

"Since you like money so much, why don't you start eating gold and silver ingots instead? There are so many that you can't possibly eat them all."

He Ruijiu frowned, unsure how to answer.

The man in the white suit persisted, pointing at him menacingly: "Do you think you can just order my people and Shenghe's people around like that?"

Seeing that he still dared to be so arrogant, the police officers behind him exchanged glances and retreated in tacit agreement.

He Ruijiu's expression changed drastically, and he turned around abruptly to glare at the man in the white suit.

"Cheung Chau boy, shut up."

The man in the white suit was bewildered by his glare, but relying on his status as a top member of the Wo Shing Wo organization, he retorted sharply, "These two are my underlings. They've been wronged like this; what's wrong with me demanding an explanation?"

"Demand an explanation?"

"Fortune and misfortune have no fixed gate; they are summoned by oneself."

Chen Mo finally focused his attention on him, "If you don't put your hands down, you might leave even earlier than them."

Before Cheung Chau could react to the meaning of those words, Ho Shui-kau had already taken a step back.

His expression was subtle, clearly indicating that he didn't want to get involved in their affairs.

The man in the white suit froze for half a second, then exploded in fury: "You son of a bitch!"

"7

As he spoke, he threw a punch and charged at Chen Mo.

But the fist, which had only been halfway through its swing, mysteriously stopped in mid-air.

Because Chen Mo was looking at him coldly.

There was no murderous intent, no emotion, and not even a trace of human warmth in his eyes.

The man in the white suit felt as if he had been doused with ice water at first glance, his body chilled to the bone.

I wanted to speak, but my body was already out of control.

"Great...save...!"

The man in the white suit opened his mouth and squeezed out two indistinct syllables from his throat.

The police officers behind him had already retreated ten steps away, and even He Ruijiu stepped aside, his thick eyebrows furrowed into a knot.

"Uncle Jiu, should we...?"

"6

The police officer holding the umbrella behind him was interrupted by He Ruijiu raising his hand halfway through his sentence.

"etc."

He Ruijiu's voice was somewhat low, his eyes fixed on the face in the white suit.

At this moment, that face was turning grayish-white at a speed visible to the naked eye.

His fist was still raised in mid-air when he suddenly fell straight backward, crashing onto the stone pavement and splashing water everywhere.

His eyes were wide open, but his pupils were already dilated.

The police officers seemed to be frozen in place.

The shortest policeman, the least timid of them all, took three steps back, his lower back slamming into a utility pole at the alley entrance with a dull thud.

He Ruijiu's pupils suddenly contracted.

He cultivated Taoism for forty years, capturing zombies and suppressing vengeful spirits.

But to shatter a living person's soul with just one glance—I've only ever heard of such a thing from my master's oral accounts.

Killing with divine will.

Pure crushing power.

The person who made the move wasn't casting a spell at all.

He just glanced at you, like you would an ant, and the ant would die.

The difference in spiritual attainment is so great that ants are not worthy of living.

Now, even He Ruijiu's legs were somewhat out of control, his knees bent slightly, and he almost knelt down on the spot.

A cultivator's intuition about danger is hundreds of times stronger than that of an ordinary person. His subconscious is frantically warning him to stay away from the person in front of him.

Don't waste a single second.

"Sir..."

'

He Ruijiu wanted to say something, but found his mind blank and he didn't know how to start.

"Get out of the way if you're not going to block the way."

Chen Mo's gaze swept over the group, and everyone quickly lowered their heads, none daring to meet his eyes.

He Ruijiu subconsciously took three or four steps back, his heel slipped in a crack in the stone slab, and he almost lost his balance.

By the time he regained his footing, Chen Mo had already walked through the alley.

None of the surrounding police officers dared to stop them; they automatically parted to make way for them.

Only after his figure turned the corner of Temple Street and disappeared into the rain in the direction of Nathan Road did anyone in the alley dare to catch their breath.

The policeman holding the umbrella was the first to collapse, squatting on the ground, holding his forehead, and panting heavily.

I had been holding it in for too long, and my face turned a deep liver color.

He Ruijiu secretly made a calming hand gesture behind his back and circulated his internal energy three times before his knees finally stopped trembling.

"Ninth Uncle..."

""

The short policeman in the corner finally straightened his tongue, pointing tremblingly at the man in the suit on the ground, "Cheung Chau boy, he..."

""

"He's dead."

He glanced down at Lin Zhiqiang, who was sprawled on the ground.

A pale gray face, dilated pupils, a slightly protruding tongue—the standard look of someone who's been scared to death.

The short policeman had actually figured it out long ago; he could still tell the difference between the dead and the living.

He wasn't asking if the other person was dead or not; he was asking how they died.

One look and I'm dead. How am I going to write a report?

"How are we going to explain this to our superiors? Are we going to get glared at to death?"

"this...?"

He Ruijiu squatted down and glanced at the eagle claw tattoo on Cheung Chau's chest.

This Red Pole of Wo Shing Wo, the most powerful among those below the Double Flower Red Pole, had been running rampant in Kowloon for seven or eight years and no one dared to mess with him.

Now I'm lying in the rain, like a dead dog.

But He Shenghe will not let this go easily.

They wouldn't dare seek revenge on the person who killed Cheung Chau, but they would definitely go to the police station for an explanation.

"What's there to explain? He asked for it."

He Ruijiu took a deep breath, turned around and walked to the two thugs who had been thrown on the ground. He squatted down and examined their eyelids.

The whites of his eyes had turned bluish-gray, his pupils were barely moving, and the bluish-black aura on both sides of his nose had spread to his temples.

Seventy percent of his three souls and seven spirits have scattered, and the remaining thirty percent is slowly seeping out. Even if he were sent to St. Mary's Hospital now, he couldn't be saved.

In the words of the Maoshan sorcerers, this is no longer an illness, but a case of yin energy invading the soul, which is incurable.

He remembered what Chen Mo had said: "Since you like money so much, why don't you start eating gold and silver ingots? You can never finish them all."

Gold and silver ingots are burned as offerings for the dead.

When those two thugs went to him to ask for money, they probably never dreamed that what they wanted was money meant for feeding the dead.

He Ruijiu slowly stood up and waved to the policeman holding the umbrella.

"pony."

Xiao Ma quickly came over, but his legs were still a little weak, and he almost tripped over Lin Zhiqiang on the ground after taking two steps.

"Throw these two here."

"Leave it here? Instead of taking it to a hospital?"

"They couldn't save him even if they sent him to the hospital. We called the Wo Shing Wo branch and told them to come and collect the body themselves."

"Tell them that Cheung Chau lad got into trouble with things he shouldn't have, and it has nothing to do with the police station."

"If they don't believe it, they can have a forensic examination done. The only result they'll get is sudden death."

"What if the people from Wo Shing Wo ask who it is specifically...?" Xiao Ma swallowed carefully. "What should we say?"

He Ruijiu remained silent for two breaths.

Rain fell on the brim of his hat, forming a small stream that dripped down the edge of the brim and onto the epaulets on his shoulders.

The shoulder insignia bears the emblem of the Kowloon Police Station, a crown with crossed batons below, a symbol of the British Empire's power in Hong Kong.

Unfortunately, it's so light and flimsy that nothing can subdue it.

"Just say you don't know."

"If they ask how Cheung Chau died..."

"7

"The murderer cannot be found."

He Ruijiu looked at him coldly, "Do you understand? There is no murderer."

"The boy from Cheung Chau suddenly fell ill and died on the street. His two younger brothers also developed acute illnesses. That's the whole story."

"Everyone should keep what happened today to themselves."

Xiao Ma wanted to ask something, but He Ruijiu glared at him and stopped him.

"There's one more thing."

He Ruijiu tapped the handle of the baton with his fingers, making three crisp tapping sounds.

"From now on, if you see this person in Kowloon, just walk away. Don't question him, don't stop him, and definitely don't provoke him."

"Even if you see him killing or setting fires, you turn your face away."

"Ninth Brother, this isn't in accordance with regulations..."

'

"rule?"

"Rules are made for ordinary people."

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