Chapter 1

Chapter 1

My name is Qiao Moyu. I’m a junior at Nanjiang University, and the only Earth Master successor of the modern age.

In ancient times, “Earth Master” was a general term for feng shui practitioners. Later, it came to refer specifically to feng shui masters who could read the stars.

As the saying goes: first-rate Earth Masters observe the constellations, second-rate feng shui masters seek the water’s mouth, and third-rate practitioners wander everywhere underfoot. Most of the people still active in the world today are ordinary feng shui practitioners. In ancient times, those who truly mastered the arts of stargazing and reading qi all served in the Imperial Astronomical Bureau, pledging their abilities to the imperial family.

My Qiao ancestors once held the position of Director of the Imperial Astronomical Bureau. They were also the hereditary leaders of the Feng Sect.

This time, at a friend’s invitation, I traveled all the way to Egypt and arrived in a beautiful ancient city in the south-Luxor.

“Hello! You must be Master Qiao, the one my uncle recommended. I’m Mike, a staff member at this museum.”

Under the blazing sun, a young man wearing sunglasses clasped my hand and shook it enthusiastically.

“You’re finally here. If you’d come any later, everyone in our museum would have gone crazy.”

Mike was the nephew of Hong Kong’s richest man, Big Liu-a second-generation heir who, despite his young age, loved ancient corpses more than corporate management. After graduating from his master’s program, he ran off to Egypt to study mummies.

The place where he worked was a small mummy museum: the Luxor Mummy Museum.

Luxor sits on the banks of the Nile River, which runs straight through the city and divides it in two. On the east bank are magnificent temples and residential districts, while the west bank is home to the tombs of pharaohs and nobles.

The mummy museum is on the east bank. It isn’t large, with only one underground floor, and its entire collection amounts to just over a hundred exhibits-all mummies made from various animals and humans.

Curious, I leaned closer to a glass display case. Inside the glass cabinet lay a crocodile mummy about three meters long.

“So crocodiles can be made into mummies too?”

“Yes. The Egyptian water god Sobek was depicted as a crocodile, and he was considered the guardian deity of the Nile River. Priests would make crocodiles into mummies and offer them to the gods.”

Mike gave a bitter smile.

“The problem started with this crocodile mummy.”

Mike explained that every mummy was covered by a glass case. After the museum closed at night, the cleaning staff would wipe the glass clean.

But about a month ago, one of the cleaners, a man named Tot, took a rag to wipe the glass as usual. To his astonishment, his hand passed straight through the cover.

That’s right. The glass had vanished.

Tot was utterly stunned and stood there frozen for a long time.

Only after a while did he come back to his senses. He assumed the museum staff must have removed the glass and simply forgotten to tell him.

Curious, Tot stood in front of the display case and stared at the crocodile mummy for quite some time. Then he cautiously reached out his hand.

“Honestly, what he did was completely normal. Anyone would be curious about ancient and mysterious mummies like these. Tot said he only wanted to touch it and see what a crocodile felt like.”

“And then?”

Jiang Haoyan, standing beside us, couldn’t help cutting in curiously.