Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Mount Tai humbles everyone who talks tough-except for the man in front of me, Ji Kang.

“Ha… ha… hilarious… this tiny… little stretch… is nothing. Basketball… training… is way more… exhausting than this.”

Ji Kang had one hand braced on his knee. His pretty-boy face was flushed scarlet, and he was panting so hard he could barely get a full sentence out.

Jiang Haoyan supported him from the side, encouraging him nonstop.

“Come on, we’re almost there!”

Ji Kang lifted his head in delight.

“At the finish line?”

Jiang Haoyan said, “No. The ticket office.”

“What?”

Ji Kang let out a wail, and his legs trembled even harder.

Watching from the side, I couldn’t help rolling my eyes.

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

In ancient times, Earth Master was originally 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 stars, second-rate wind masters seek the water mouth, and third-rate practitioners roam everywhere. Most of the people walking the world today are ordinary feng shui practitioners. In ancient times, those who mastered the arts of observing stars and reading qi all served in the Imperial Astronomical Bureau, working for the imperial family.

My Qiao ancestors were once the chief officials of the Imperial Astronomical Bureau, as well as the hereditary sect leaders of the Feng Sect.

A week ago, I received a phone call while I was in Egypt. The caller claimed they had kidnapped my good friend Hua Yuling and told me to come to Mount Tai to ransom her.

Of course I didn’t believe it.

This was Hua Yuling we were talking about-the Saintess of Ten Thousand Poison Cave, the hope of all of Longling Stockade, the successor of the Flower Demon God.

She had a Golden Cicada Gu inside her body and could command ten thousand insects. How could someone kidnap her that easily?

But after I returned to China, I couldn’t get in touch with Hua Yuling no matter what I tried. I went to her home and discovered she really had disappeared.

While I was questioning her family and friends, a boy named Ji Kang insisted on coming with me to Mount Tai.

He said he was Hua Yuling’s fiancé, and that Hua Yuling had planted a gu in his body, allowing him to sense her location. That was why I brought him along.

I never expected that someone who looked so tall and strong would turn out to be this useless.

Dragged down by Ji Kang, by the time the few of us finally crawled our way up to the Eighteen Bends, it was already past eleven at night.

Ahead of us was a wide, flat clearing where many climbers had stopped to rest. Jiang Haoyan and I supported Ji Kang from either side and headed toward the crowd.

It was deep in the night. Someone had tied a plastic bag to their trekking pole, and the cold west wind made it rustle sharply. From the distant valley came the occasional strange animal cry, raising goosebumps all over anyone who heard it.

A group of young students huddled together. A guy with dyed yellow hair lowered his voice and said, “Do you know why you can’t talk carelessly on Mount Tai?”

“Because you’re too out of breath and might get a stitch. Classmate, could you make some room for us?”

There were six or seven students, both boys and girls. They were all squeezed together, so they didn’t actually take up much space, but they had arranged their trekking poles on the ground in the shape of a five-pointed star, occupying a large area.

Seeing his story interrupted, the yellow-haired guy glared at me unhappily. A cute, round-faced girl was tucked under his arm, and she stuck her tongue out at me.

“Sorry! You can sit. I’ll move this stuff right away.”

“We’re students from Shandong Sport University. My name is Xiaoyuan, and this is Chen Minghui, my boyfriend.”

“We were telling ghost stories. I’m a scaredy-cat, and doesn’t everyone say the Five-Star Red Flag protects every Chinese child? So I made a five-pointed star with these. Hahahaha-”

Xiaoyuan had a bright, outgoing personality. As she chatted with me, she efficiently gathered up the trekking poles and made room for us to sit.

Seeing that the terrifying atmosphere he had worked so hard to build had been ruined by us, Chen Minghui refused to give up. He started making trouble again, grabbing a backpack beside him and rummaging through it before pulling out a suona.

My expression changed in shock.

“Classmate, what are you doing? You’re not planning to play the suona here, are you?”

Chen Minghui thought I had been frightened and gave a smug grin.

“That’s right. Of all instruments, the suona is king. Tell me what you like, and this brother will play it for you.”