Chapter 41: Folk Forbidden Arts: The Three Corpses Blocking Wealth (Part 3)

Li Chengfeng still found it hard to believe that such a legendary wealth-attracting beast as the Treasure-Spitting Mouse could truly exist. The little creature before him was likely just a mutated mouse; it could never be the fabled beast of legend.

With dusk approaching and no desire to waste further time, he said offhandedly, "It's just an ordinary mouse. Let’s head back."

"Hmm." Wang Bin replied softly, thinking that he must have been mistaken. The Treasure-Spitting Mouse was a legendary creature of fortune, a beast seen perhaps once in a thousand years; how could one possibly encounter it in the real world? Even if one did, it was unlikely anyone would recognize it.

Li Chengfeng took out an unfinished sausage, peeled off the casing, and tossed it to the little mouse. With a serious expression, he said, "Little guy, we’re heading home now. Stop following us, you hear?"

"Squeak! Squeak!" The little mouse seemed to understand him. After chirping twice, it snatched up the sausage and scampered deep into the cave, disappearing in the blink of an eye with remarkable speed. Once the mouse was gone, the noises that had been trailing them behind the cave also vanished. With the sky growing dark, the two were in a hurry to descend the mountain and gave the matter little further thought.

By the time they returned to Wang Bin’s home, it was already evening. As they walked into the courtyard, they could hear the sound of many people chatting inside the house. The small courtyard was filled with gifts: cartons of cigarettes and alcohol, various tonics, fruits, cases of sausages, cartons of milk, as well as pork heads, beef, and mutton.

Staring at the pile of goods in the yard, Wang Bin was bewildered. Uncertain of what was happening, he hurried into the main room. Li Chengfeng, seeing the crates of cigarettes and alcohol, understood immediately. Having helped the village solve a major crisis, these items were clearly gifts from the villagers. He shook his head helplessly, a wry smile appearing on his face. When one works in the field of geomancy and the spiritual arts, food and drink are the things one never lacks.

As Wang Bin entered the room, it was packed with people—some sitting, some standing, and others squatting on the floor. The middle-aged woman and the elderly man were there, too, and on the table beside them sat six stacks of crimson cash. Wang Bin was baffled as to why so many people had come to his home.

Seeing Wang Bin return, the middle-aged woman hurriedly asked, "Nephew, where is your classmate? Why didn't he come back with you?"

"He—he's outside."

Upon learning that Li Chengfeng was outside, the villagers in the room all hurried out. Since Li Chengfeng had broken the Earthly Malice Ox-Dissecting Curse yesterday, the village had returned to peace. There had been no further deaths among the livestock, and most importantly, no more villagers had died today. This brought a sense of relief to everyone. To prevent those two islanders from causing more trouble, they had even dispatched men to guard the two stone oxen.

To express their gratitude, the villagers had purchased many gifts and pooled together 60,000 yuan to present to Li Chengfeng. The villagers present stared at him with eyes full of gratitude. The elderly man handed the 60,000 yuan to him and said with deep emotion, "Mr. Li, if not for you, every last one of us in this village might have perished. You saved our village and every single one of us. You are our great benefactor. You must accept this money."

Looking at the simple and sincere villagers, a smile touched Li Chengfeng's lips. He took only 200 yuan, shook the banknote in his hand, and said, "Sir, 200 yuan is enough. Please take the rest back. These are minor matters; they really don't require this much money."

Seeing Li Chengfeng take only 200 yuan, the villagers were agitated. Every one of them looked grim, appearing as if they were about to attack him. An outsider might have thought Li Chengfeng had some deep-seated grudge against them. The villagers spoke up one after another, reprimanding him indignantly:

"Mr. Li, you must accept this money today!"
"If you don't take it, you’re looking down on the people of our village!"
"If you don't take this money, you aren't leaving this village!"
"That's right, don't even think about leaving until you take it!"

The villagers were incredibly stubborn. Li Chengfeng knew full well that if he did not accept the money, they would never let him leave. Helpless, he had no choice but to accept it. Only then did the villagers’ faces soften into smiles, and they departed, satisfied.

Once everyone had left, Wang Bin looked at Li Chengfeng with astonishment. He had earned 60,000 yuan in less than a day, plus gifts worth at least twenty or thirty thousand. The villagers treated him with the reverence due a deity—it was truly enviable. The geomancy profession was far too lucrative; he had earned a year's worth of an average person's wages in just one day. Wang Bin draped his arm over Li Chengfeng's shoulder and joked, "You're something else, kid! Earning that much money in less than a day."

Li Chengfeng laughed as well, replying in a teasing tone, "Jealous?"

"Of course I am!" Wang Bin said, feeling a bit sheepish. "Chengfeng, can you teach me how to read feng shui? I want to be a geomancer too. Being a geomancer isn't just about earning money easily; it’s about earning the respect of others. This line of work is just too good."

Li Chengfeng shook his head with a smile. Learning the arts of Qi Men and Feng Shui was no easy task. It required not only immense talent and intuition but also the ability to calculate the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches, the positions of auspicious and baleful stars, and the twenty-four cardinal directions.

Li Chengfeng explained a great deal, and Wang Bin listened intently, but ultimately, he abandoned the idea of becoming a geomancer. He realized he didn't even know what the Heavenly Stems, Earthly Branches, the Sixty Jiazi, or the twenty-four directions were. How could he be a geomancer? He’d be more suited to being a con artist. A true geomancer had to be proficient in the wonders of the Great Unity, the Two Modes, the Three Talents, the Four Symbols, the Five Elements, the Six Harmonies, the Seven Stars, the Eight Trigrams, and the Nine Palaces. Without even a grasp of the basic arcane arts, becoming a geomancer was simply impossible.

The next day, Li Chengfeng returned to Qingzhou City, with Wang Bin following him to the Suiyuan Hall, eager to witness the power of the folk forbidden art known as the "Three Corpses Blocking Wealth." The first thing Li Chengfeng did upon returning was to walk to the altar, light three sticks of incense for the founder, and bow three times. He then said solemnly to the portrait of the founder, "Founder, rest assured, I will make those swindlers pay the price and vent your anger for you. Please make do with this copper incense burner for now; once I’ve earned enough money, I’ll buy you a pure gold one."

After speaking, he bowed three more times before inserting the incense into the burner. As he looked up at the portrait, he was startled to see the founder in the painting nod at him. His heart skipped a beat! If Wang Bin had seen that, it would have been a disaster. He quickly turned his head, and seeing that Wang Bin was busy drinking water and hadn't noticed the nod, he let out a sigh of relief.

After finishing his water, Wang Bin asked impatiently, "Chengfeng, everything is ready. When will you use the forbidden 'Three Corpses Blocking Wealth' technique to teach the Shenghai Gold Shop a lesson?"

Li Chengfeng calculated the date on his fingers. To cast the "Three Corpses Blocking Wealth" technique, one had to choose a "Three-Break Day." As luck would have it, today was exactly that. Tonight would be the perfect time to go to the Shenghai Gold Shop and cast the spell.

Wang Bin, however, looked confused and asked curiously, "Chengfeng, what is a 'Three-Break Day'? And why must the 'Three Corpses Blocking Wealth' be cast on such a day?"