Chapter 36: Mr. Li of the Hall of Serendipity
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Wang Bin and the old man emerged at that moment as well, taking their places beside Li Chengfeng as they addressed the villagers gathered around them.
“Everyone, listen. He’s my classmate, and he’s also a feng shui master. He runs the Hall of Destiny in Qingzhou City, where he helps people interpret dreams, analyze names, and read feng shui. He has genuine skills.”
“A great many things have happened in our village lately. Someone dies almost every day, and it must have something to do with these two stone oxen.”
“My classmate just said that he could hear the two stone oxen crying out. Their cries were terribly mournful. I believe him.”
“And I believe that he can help our village overcome this disaster.”
Li Chengfeng was deeply moved by Wang Bin’s words. Being trusted by someone truly felt wonderful.
While Wang Bin was still speaking, a middle-aged woman suddenly stepped forward. She stared at Li Chengfeng in astonishment, looking him up and down. The more she looked, the more familiar he seemed. Before long, she recognized him.
Her face filled with excitement, and she exclaimed in disbelief, “You—you’re Master Li from the Hall of Destiny!”
Li Chengfeng nodded. He glanced at the woman and realized that he did not know her.
The middle-aged woman, however, was beside herself with excitement. She set down the farming tool in her hand, walked over, grabbed Li Chengfeng’s hand, and cried out, “Master Li, I know you! I know you!”
“A few days ago, my younger sister’s child drowned while bathing in the reservoir. We couldn’t find the body anywhere. You were the one who used a gourd to locate it.”
“I followed behind you that day. I saw the entire thing with my own eyes as you used the gourd to find the child. It was truly miraculous.”
At this, the villagers surrounding them stared at Li Chengfeng in astonishment. He was the master who had found a child’s body with a gourd? How could that be? He was far too young!
The news about a body being found with a gourd had caused a sensation online a few days earlier. Many people had seen it on their phones, but few had believed such an eerie story.
The middle-aged woman had witnessed the entire process with her own eyes. When she returned, she told everyone in the village what had happened. The villagers had been half-convinced, treating it merely as gossip to discuss in the streets and over tea.
Now that Master Li, the man who had found the body with a gourd, was standing right before them, the villagers immediately recalled the news and the woman’s story. They could hardly believe that the video circulating online had actually been real.
The woman was visibly agitated. Tears glimmered in her eyes as she clutched Li Chengfeng’s hand.
“Master Li, so many strange things have happened in our village these past few days. Countless chickens, ducks, cattle, and sheep have died.”
“The grandparents of my child died one after another two days ago, and the child’s father is growing weaker by the day.”
“You must save our village. I don’t care how much it costs. Even if they refuse to pay you, I will!”
The woman spoke with utmost sincerity. Once she learned that Li Chengfeng was the Master Li from the Hall of Destiny, she placed absolute trust in him and treated him with profound respect.
The villagers standing nearby began to waver as well. They had not wanted to believe such things, but the strange events occurring in the village left them no choice.
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People were dying in the village every day, casting a shadow over everyone. No one knew who would be next. Every villager lived in a state of panic.
Now blood was seeping from the stone oxen, a flock of crows had flown into the village, shrieking wildly, and the rats were fleeing for their lives.
All of these were ominous signs. A great calamity was about to descend upon the village.
Seeing the villagers choose to believe Li Chengfeng, Wang Xilai grew furious and shouted, “What era are we living in? We must believe in science, not superstition!”
“I hope all of you will come to your senses. Don’t believe anything a swindler says.”
“If you get cheated, don’t blame me for not warning you.”
Wang Bin’s expression turned grim. He raised his hand and pointed at the stone oxen, from which blood was still slowly seeping, and demanded angrily, “Village Chief Wang, weren’t you the one preaching science to me? Then use science to explain why these stone oxen are bleeding.”
“This…”
Wang Xilai stammered, completely at a loss for an explanation.
The bizarre sight of stone oxen bleeding was something even a team of experts and professors would probably be unable to explain. At most, they would hide behind the guise of scientific knowledge and deceive the common people with some fabricated excuse.
Wang Xilai, however, stubbornly argued, “I’ve already sold these two stone oxen to people from the island nation. No one is allowed to touch them. If anyone does, they’ll answer to me.”
“I’m the village chief. Everything in this village is up to me.”
“Anyone who refuses to obey me can forget about having an easy life here from now on.”
His words completely enraged the villagers.
The old man stepped forward and shouted angrily, “Wang Xilai, who do you think you are to talk like that? Without the support of the men and women of this village, you’d be nothing here!”
The other villagers chimed in, angrily confronting Wang Xilai.
“We elected you village chief because we trusted you, yet you’ve done something like this!”
“Without obtaining permission from the entire village, you secretly sold the two stone oxen to people from the island nation. You have no shame at all. You’ll do anything for money!”
“If we can elect you village chief, we can elect someone else. Just wait until you’re thrown out of office!”
Wang Xilai had aroused the fury of the entire village. Seeing that the situation was turning against him, he hurried to his Audi, opened the door, and shouted at the villagers gathered around him.
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“Listen carefully, all of you!”
“When the next village election comes, anyone who dares not vote for me will find it impossible to survive in this village!”
The moment Wang Xilai finished speaking, the villagers became even more furious. Several of them grabbed their farming tools and rushed toward him. One of them shouted loudly, “Damn you! I’ll make sure you can’t survive right now!”
Terrified, Wang Xilai hurried into the car, slammed the door shut, and sped away.
The villagers had only meant to frighten him. They had no intention of actually beating him, since assaulting someone was against the law.
Li Chengfeng, Wang Bin, and the villagers could not help laughing. Wang Xilai was nothing more than a coward who bullied the weak and feared the strong.
After driving Wang Xilai away, many villagers gathered around Li Chengfeng, gazing at him anxiously. The middle-aged woman asked desperately, “Master Li, you have to save our village!”
“Don’t worry, sister. Since I’ve encountered this matter, I certainly won’t stand by and do nothing.”
Li Chengfeng knew very well that every day of delay meant another death. As time passed, more and more people would die. He had to break the Earthly Fiend Ox-Severing Technique as quickly as possible.
He glanced at the sky. The sun had not yet set. Then he began calculating with his fingers. Although the hour was somewhat late, it would not have any serious effect.
Hearing the stone oxen’s agonized cries, Li Chengfeng did not want to delay any longer.
First, he instructed the villagers to dig more than a dozen deep pits around the stone oxen. This would allow the Earthly Fiend energy to flow into the pits and reduce the impact of the baleful energy on the stone oxen.
Once the pits had been dug, Li Chengfeng walked once around the stone oxen, then crouched down and watched the blood dripping from their bodies onto the ground while calculating the positions of the Seventy-Two Earthly Fiends.
Because he had not brought his Three-Harmony Compass, he could only determine the positions by counting on his fingers.
Using the points where the blood struck the ground, Li Chengfeng calculated the locations of all seventy-two Earthly Fiend positions. Whenever he found one, he marked it. In less than half an hour, he had located all seventy-two.
The seventy-two Earthly Fiend positions were all situated around the two stone oxen.
Li Chengfeng instructed the villagers to dig downward wherever he had placed a mark.
The villagers were hardworking and straightforward. They rolled up their sleeves and began digging. As they shoveled into the earth, they discovered that the soil was unusually loose, as though someone had dug there before.
They had not been digging for long when one villager suddenly let out a terrified scream and dropped heavily onto the ground, flinging his farming tool aside.
“Oh, mercy me! You scared me half to death! There’s something down here!”