Tianjin, starting with unorthodox methods to achieve immortality

Chapter 286 Various Forces

Across the street, the old woman selling fish balls clutched the silver dollar in her pocket, her face showing some panic.

Just now, it was she who told Uncle Jiu about Chen Mo's situation.

She has been setting up a stall on this street for forty years and has seen all sorts of people, but she has never regretted taking a dollar as much as she did tonight.

On a low stool behind the stall, the burly man who had come from Baofu Incense and Candles earlier was watching this scene with great interest.

His surname is Shi, and his given name is Hu. He is the third in his sect.

"Third Senior Brother, did you see clearly the way that person attacked just now?"

The speaker was a young woman sitting opposite Shi Hu, who looked to be in her early twenties. She was wearing a plain blue jacket and looked like an ordinary female student.

"It's not very clear."

Shi Hu's voice was muffled, and the flesh on his cheeks was squeezed together, making his eyes look even smaller.

"The distance was too far, and that kid was too fast. I only saw the guy in the white suit rush over, and then I froze."

"Settled?"

The fifth brother, Li Changye, peeked out from the other side. He was a baby-faced young man who looked to be no more than twenty years old.

"What does 'frozen' mean? Does it mean the three souls and seven spirits are sealed? Or has the body been invaded by external evil?"

"How would I know?"

Shi Hu slapped him on the back of the head, annoyed. "If I could understand it at a glance, why would Master have sent so many of us out here?"

After saying that, he looked away and pulled a yellowed piece of paper from his pocket with a pained expression.

There were only two lines of text written on it, and the handwriting was messy, clearly written in a hurry.

"Damn it, that old bastard Know-It-All really dares to ask for money. He took two spirit stones from us with just these two lines of text."

"It's so dark."

Li Changye leaned over and glanced at it, his baby face full of heartache: "Two spirit stones! Our Yinshan Sect only manages to save less than a hundred spirit stones a year from all the incense money."

"Senior brother, if this news is false, I'm going to go back and smash up his lousy shop."

"6

"What are you smashing?"

Shi Hu glared at him, "That old bastard, Wan Shi Tong, may be ruthless, but his information is never wrong."

"He said that Xuan Yin Zhai is in the Ghost Realm of Mei Li Lou, so it must be there."

"But this old man is too shrewd; he only gave us the location and wouldn't say anything else."

"I asked one more question, and he wanted to raise the price by one spirit stone."

"If we add another piece, we'll really be starving."

The young woman sighed. Her name was Liu Qingyuan, and she was the fourth in her sect.

Despite being a woman, she was more composed than her two senior brothers.

"However, if we can get the original copy of the Corpse Dissection Method this time, then the spirit stones will be worth it."

"It's not that easy. According to that unscrupulous merchant, we're not the only ones inquiring about Xuan Yin Zhai. There might even be a fierce battle."

As soon as Shi Hu said this, Li Changye and Liu Qingyuan both looked up.

"Not just us?"

A hint of tension flashed across Li Changye's face. "Who else?"

"The know-it-all didn't say who it was, but the implication in his words was that there have been at least three or four groups of people inquiring about the Meili Building Ghost Domain in the last half month alone."

Shi Hu picked up a peanut from the table, cracked it open, and popped it into his mouth. "The old man said we're not the first to ask, and we might not be the last."

"When I asked him who else was there, he started to hold out his hand, one finger, and one spirit stone."

"That old bastard," Li Changye cursed.

Liu Qingyuan didn't join in the cursing, but instead frowned and pondered: "Third Senior Brother, can you inquire about the Xuan Yin Zhai and the 'Corpse Dissolution Method'?"

Those who have fallen are mostly people from the industry.

"Among those in the trade who are interested in this secret technique, there are only a few: Xuan Yin Sect, White Bone Cave, and our Yin Mountain Sect."

""

She extended three fingers and pressed them down one by one: "The Xuan Yin Sect and the Xuan Yin Zhai Sect share the same origin, but they separated a hundred years ago. The cultivation methods they use are of the same origin but different paths."

"They want the 'Corpse Dissection Method' probably to complete their family's lineage."

"The White Bone Cave has been searching everywhere for Yin Sect secret techniques over the years. Last time, a thousand-year-old corpse king appeared in western Hunan, and it is said that it was taken away by their people."

"As for our Yinshan Sect..."

She didn't continue, but Shi Hu and Li Changye both understood.

The Yinshan Sect is divided into three branches. One branch specializes in using talismans to suppress corpses, while the other two branches are respectively skilled in crafting magical artifacts and geomancy.

The three branches appear to be of one mind, but have been secretly competing for decades.

Whoever gets the "Corpse Dissection Method" will be able to surpass the other two.

"It's not just these three."

Shi Hu finished chewing the peanuts, wiped his mouth with his sleeve, and said, "When the know-it-all said that, the expression on his face was like he was looking at a bunch of idiots."

"The fact that this old man made that expression means there are probably other people who have their eyes on Merrilou that we can't even imagine."

Central, Des Voeux Road.

The sixth floor of the Queen Hotel has floor-to-ceiling windows facing the sea.

Rainwater streamed down the glass, blurring the view of Victoria Harbour outside the window into a hazy gray.

The rain wasn't heavy; it started falling in the morning and hasn't stopped even now that it's almost noon.

There were fourteen people sitting in the room.

Any one of them could be considered a big shot in Hong Kong and Kowloon.

At this moment, they all sat quietly, even deliberately softening their breathing.

An elderly man, around sixty years old, was sitting in the main seat, wearing a gray cloth long gown.

The white hair at his temples was combed meticulously.

His surname is Jian, and his given name is Yin. He is the president of the Hong Kong Feng Shui Masters Association. People in the industry privately call him Old Ghost Jian.

There was a cup of tea in front of Jian Yin, but the tea had gone cold, and he didn't touch it.

"Have they all arrived?"

"Mr. Jian, we're still missing one person."

The speaker was a middle-aged man sitting first on the left, wearing a well-tailored gray long gown, his hair slicked back with hair wax.

His name is Zhao Mingcheng. He is Jian Yin's eldest disciple and also the vice president of the guild.

"The monk Basong, whom we invited from Southeast Asia, arrived at the Tsim Sha Tsui pier this morning."

"I've already sent someone to pick them up; they should have arrived long ago."

Jian Yin didn't say anything, but simply raised his finger and tapped it lightly twice on the table.

Zhao Mingcheng's expression changed slightly, and he quickly stood up: "I'll go down and take a look."

He had just stood up when the door was pushed open.

The man who came in was a short, stout Thai native with dark skin.

Around her neck hung more than a dozen different colored threads, each adorned with a uniquely shaped bone ornament.

Following behind him was a lean, middle-aged Chinese man wearing round-framed glasses, who looked like an accountant.

"President Jian, my apologies, my apologies. It was raining and there was a traffic jam, which caused the delay."

This man, named Huang Wenxing, is a local bigwig in Bangkok's Chinatown. He's a middleman who connects various religious figures with their masters.

Unlike Huang Wenxing, Master Basong was not very polite. After entering the room, he glanced around without bowing or nodding.

He walked straight to an empty chair, sat down, took out a pack of unbranded cigarettes from his pocket, and put one in his mouth.

Smoke rose, carrying a strange, fishy smell.

Among the feng shui masters present, two young and impetuous ones immediately frowned and said, "Smoking is not allowed here."

Master Basong didn't even lift his eyelids, slowly exhaling a puff of smoke.

Huang Wenxing quickly tried to smooth things over: "Please forgive me, masters. Master Basong has been practicing for decades and has a rule that a stick of incense must be lit before any ritual is performed."

"This is a tradition passed down through their lineage, not an intentional act of disrespect."

Jian Yin glanced at everyone, waved his hand, and said, "It's alright."

Once he uttered those two words, everyone else, even if they were unhappy, could only swallow their anger.

Jian Yin's gaze fell on Master Basong, lingering for about two or three breaths before turning his attention back to the people at the table.

"I invited you all here today because it's raining, and there's something I need to discuss."

"That eerie place in Murray House, Central, has been acting strangely again lately."

As soon as these words were spoken, the expressions of several people at the table changed.

"Which murder cases are you referring to, Mr. Jian?"

The young man who spoke was Zhou Zihuan, the youngest director of the Feng Shui Masters Association, whose family's Feng Shui skills were well-known in Hong Kong and Kowloon.

"Three patrol officers went missing near Murray House last month, and this month two more bodies were found in Bingtou Garden. They died in the same way, their faces were bloodless, their pupils were dilated, as if something had drained their energy."

"It's not just these few cases."

Zhao Mingcheng picked up where he left off, pulling a folded piece of paper from his sleeve and unfolding it on the table. "From last year's Double Ninth Festival until now, sixteen people have died within a radius of three hundred paces of Meili Building."

"The police station suppressed the case and didn't report it, but if more people keep dying, they won't be able to cover it up anymore."

Jian Yin picked up the now-cold tea and took a sip. The tea had lost its flavor, but he drank it very seriously.

"The realm of the supernatural is expanding outwards."

"I personally went to survey it last year on the Double Ninth Festival, and the boundary of the Ghost Realm is still within the area of ​​the building foundation."

"I went there again last month, and the boundary has been pushed outward by nearly fifty steps, almost touching the wall of Bingtou Garden."

""

"If we let it expand any further..."

""

He didn't finish his sentence, but everyone present understood.

"Master Jian, I have a question."

Zhou Zihuan raised his hand, like a student asking a question in a classroom, "That strange realm of Meililou, didn't Elder Jian personally lead people to exterminate it once twenty years ago?"

"Wasn't the Crimson-Faced Rakshasa utterly destroyed by you? How come his Ghost Domain is still there, and even expanding outwards?"

That was a blunt question, and even a bit offensive.

Jian Yin's expression remained unchanged, but Zhao Mingcheng spoke first: "Zihuan, Elder Jian has his own considerations regarding what happened twenty years ago."

"It's alright."

He raised his hand to stop his apprentice, his gaze falling on Zhou Zihuan's face. "That's a good question."

"Twenty years ago, seven of us entered the Ghost Realm, and four of us came out alive. Although the Crimson-Faced Rakshasa was wiped out."

"But the Ghost Realm is like a wound on a person. Even if you clean the maggots away, the wound is still there. As long as the Yin energy doesn't dissipate, new things will grow sooner or later."

"Then why not just seal off the Ghost Realm?" Zhou Zihuan pressed.

Jian Yin glanced at him but didn't say anything.

Zhao Mingcheng answered for him: "It can't be sealed off. The source of that strange realm is not the Crimson-Faced Rakshasa, but the mass grave below."

"Three hundred years of dead bones piled together, resentment seeped into the earth's veins, intertwined with the feng shui of Central. You can seal the surface, but you can't seal the root."

"Mingcheng is right."

Jian Yin nodded. "Twenty years ago, I invited thirteen feng shui masters from Hong Kong and Kowloon to work together to set up an array. We nailed four peach wood stakes to the four corners of Murray House and drew a mountain-sealing and mountain-suppressing talisman with cinnabar mixed with black dog blood. Only then could we barely suppress the ghost realm."

"Two of the four peach wood stakes are now rotten, and the talisman is about to lose its effectiveness."

"So, Elder Jian has gathered everyone here today to reseal the Ghost Realm?"

"It's not just about resealing it." He put down his teacup, crossed his hands on the table, and said, "Tonight I plan to bring people in and solve this problem at its root."

The room erupted in uproar.

Twenty years ago, seven people went in, four came out, and three died inside, their bodies never even brought out.

Now Jian Yin says he wants to go in again, and judging from his tone, he wants to go even deeper than last time.

"Mr. Jian, please think it over."

The speaker was an elderly man sitting second from the right, named Fang Zhenshan. He was the only surviving feng shui master of the older generation in Hong Kong and Kowloon. "Twenty years ago, you went in and lost three fellow disciples. You yourself were bedridden for more than half a year and still haven't recovered."

"Let's go in again this time..."

""

I appreciate Brother Fang's kindness.

Jian Yin interrupted him, "But if that strange realm is not eliminated, it will surely become a great threat in the future. I, Jian Yin, have lived for sixty-eight years, and this is the only thing I have done in my life. That is enough."

Fang Zhenshan opened his mouth, but ultimately didn't say anything more.

"I've already decided who will be entering the Ghost Realm tonight."

Jian Yin’s gaze swept over everyone present. “I will not force anyone. Those who are willing to go, stand on the left; those who are not, stand on the right. In the future, no one in Hong Kong and Kowloon will gossip about this.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Zhao Mingcheng was the first to stand up and walk to the left.

Next was Zhou Zihuan, who hesitated for less than a second before walking over as well.

Then there's Fang Zhenshan. Although he doesn't approve of Jian Yin taking risks, if it really comes down to it, this old man is willing to risk it all.

One by one, seven people stood on the left.

The remaining people remained seated, some lacking the necessary skills, for going in would only mean certain death.

Some had elderly or young children at home and dared not risk their lives, while others simply thought Jian Yin was crazy and did not want to go crazy along with him.

Jian Yin glanced at the seven people on his left and nodded: "Okay."

He then turned to Master Basong and, speaking in broken Thai and English with gestures, said, "Master Basong, about tonight's matter, you..."

Master Basong finally raised his eyelids, stubbed out his cigarette on the table, took something from his waist and placed it on the table.

It is a bronze mirror.

It's about the size of a palm, and the frame is covered with tadpole-like Sanskrit characters.

"I'll go with you tonight."

"But I'm not doing this to help you."

He pushed the bronze mirror towards Jian Yin, saying, "This mirror is called the Soul-Reflecting Mirror."

"I want that thing inside the Ghost Realm."

Jian Yin's pupils contracted slightly.

"What does Master Basong want?"

"The method of dissolving corpses." Master Basong's lips twitched slightly, which could be considered a smile. "What you Hong Kong people use, we Thais can also use."

The atmosphere at the table suddenly became subtle.

Jian Yin stared at the Soul-Revealing Mirror for a long while before slowly speaking, "Where did Master Basong hear that there is a corpse-dissolving method in the Ghost Realm?"

"There are more than just your group of feng shui masters in Hong Kong."

Master Basong lit another cigarette, but didn't light it. "I spent two hundred dollars to pry this information out of that know-it-all in Temple Street."

He's a know-it-all again.

Jian Yin cursed inwardly, but didn't show it on his face.

This old man sells information to both sides, and he's taken advantage of countless people with his mouth. Doesn't he fear he'll burst if he doesn't just sit there?

"I am not very clear about the matter of corpse dissection."

Jian Yin picked up his teacup and took another sip, but this time he found it somewhat bitter. "I went in only to suppress that eerie realm and restore peace to Hong Kong and Kowloon."

"If Master Basong has ulterior motives, then I cannot..."

""

"President Jian, there's no need for you to beat around the bush with me." Master Basong lit a cigarette. "You want to suppress the evil realm, and I want the corpse-dissolving method. There's no conflict. You Hong Kong people call this a win-win situation."

Jian Yin remained silent for a moment, then finally nodded.

"Then let us do as Master Basong says."

He stood up. "Gather at the Murray House at midnight tonight."

"In the realm of ghosts, whether human or ghost, everyone has to rely on their own abilities once they enter."