Chapter 166
Chapter 166
“Since you used Tao Xiaoyu’s name to cast the hexagram, she is the primary subject of the entire reading.”
Seventh Master looked at me and said, “This hexagram is mainly for Tao Xiaoyu. Since Xiao Meng is her boyfriend, we can glean a little bit about him as a side note, but it won’t reveal any major events concerning him.”
I felt a sudden wave of disappointment.
I had thought Seventh Master’s earlier words meant that Meng Yifan wouldn’t go to prison.
“Seventh Master, then why don’t you just use your own method to cast another reading for Meng Yifan?” Song Xiaotian suggested. “Use what you’re best at. With your skill level, you’ll definitely be able to see his final outcome.”
Seventh Master looked grave. “That’s true in principle, but the problem lies in the fact that I am the hexagram master and Xiao Meng is the client. If I don’t get involved in his affairs, I can read for him. But if I am to be involved in his future, then I become part of the karma, and the reading will be inaccurate.”
“I use Yin Pan Qi Men. In Qi Men, we call it to ‘set up the board,’ not to cast a hexagram. Within this board, if my karmic involvement is too great, the board becomes meaningless. There’s no point in trying to deduce anything because the board belongs to Xiao Meng, while I am a variable.”
Song Xiaotian looked dazed, as if he were listening to a lecture in a foreign language.
He wasn’t the only one; I didn’t understand it either.
Although Qi Men and Six Yao both evolved from the Eight Trigrams, they are different systems. Their processes and methods of interpretation are naturally distinct.
Therefore, I couldn’t quite grasp what Seventh Master was explaining.
“I’ll give it a try first. Take the conclusion as a reference only; don’t put all your faith in it.”
Seventh Master sighed and said no more. He borrowed a pen and paper and began to draw.
He was also worried about Meng Yifan, so his mood was equally heavy.
After all, Meng Yifan was facing a murder charge. If it was proven, he would face execution.
I watched from the side as Seventh Master began to set up the board. I was curious, but I also wanted to see the mysteries of Yin Pan Qi Men.
I saw Seventh Master first draw a three-by-three grid on the paper. I recognized this much-it was the Nine Palaces.
King Wen’s Sixty-Four Hexagrams are derived from doubling the Eight Trigrams, so there are eight palaces in total, known as the Eight Palaces and Sixty-Four Hexagrams.
The Nine Palaces consist of the Eight Palaces plus a central palace.
However, that was the extent of my understanding. I couldn’t follow any of the subsequent steps at all; it was completely different from Six Yao.
Song Xiaotian and I could only wait anxiously. Since we couldn’t smoke in the shop, the two of us sat there with our legs shaking like we were having spasms.
After about ten minutes, Seventh Master put down the pen and took a deep breath.
“Seventh Master, how is it?”
He shook his head, his expression grim. “I believe I will be involved in the future, though perhaps not extensively. Still, it has influenced the board. I can see a portion of it, but the latter half is too blurry. Combined with my own subjective emotions, there’s no point in continuing the deduction.”
I said, “Then please just give us the gist of what you saw.”
Seventh Master nodded. “This is the Dragon Trap Formation. It speaks of a flood dragon attempting to transcend its tribulation to become a true dragon. Just as it’s about to succeed, it is struck back to its original form by heavenly lightning, trapped in a quagmire.”
“Struck by lightning, the flood dragon was already heavily injured. Falling into the mud now is a case of misfortunes never coming alone.”
“Being so injured, how can it rise? At this moment, if a great rain were to fall, the dragon could break free, soar into the sky, and continue its transformation. But if the Heavenly God does not grant this rain, it will not only fail to become a dragon but will even be trapped to death in that quagmire.”
Seventh Master looked at us and explained, “Applying this to reality, my interpretation is that either Xiao Meng really did kill someone, but he didn’t leave many traces at the scene, leading the police to know he’s the killer without having the concrete evidence to convict him. Once the police find that evidence, he’s dead. But if the police can’t find it and are forced to prosecute anyway, and he hires a lawyer for an innocence defense, the final outcome remains uncertain.”
“The other possibility is that Xiao Meng didn’t kill anyone, but his coincidental appearance at Tao Xiaoyu’s doorstep has made him a major suspect. If he can clear his name, he’s innocent. If he can’t, he’ll still be prosecuted. If there’s evidence, he’ll be convicted; if there isn’t, they’ll just grit their teeth and push forward with the prosecution anyway. He’ll have to hire a lawyer for an innocence defense, and the outcome would still be uncertain.”
This time, I understood.
Meng Yifan’s current situation was like a dragon trapped in a swamp. Whether that dragon could escape depended entirely on whether the Heavenly God would send down a rainstorm to save him.
But who could influence the Heavenly God? Who knew if that rain would ever fall?
Applying this to Meng Yifan’s case, whether the rain fell was equivalent to whether the police could find concrete evidence, or whether Meng Yifan could clear himself of suspicion.
Right now, we were the only ones who could help him. We had to investigate-investigate the truth behind the deaths of Tao Xiaoyu and Xiang Kai.
But we weren’t the police. We couldn’t use conventional methods to investigate; there were too many restrictions.
We had to use what we were best at.
Soul Summoning!
“Let’s summon Tao Xiaoyu’s Ghost directly.”
I said, “If we want to know who the killer is, no one knows better than the victim.”
As long as Tao Xiaoyu told us herself who the murderer was, we would have a direction. Following that lead, we might even stay one step ahead of the police.
“That’s a good idea, but to perform a Soul Summoning for Tao Xiaoyu, we need a female Spirit Medium.”
Seventh Master said, “I’ll go invite Xiao Qing. You guys get the money ready.”
When we performed the Soul Summoning for Li Xiumei before, we had invited Xiao Qing to act as the Spirit Medium.
She charged a fee-ten thousand yuan per session-but it was very reasonable.
Money wasn’t important right now. Forget ten thousand; even if it were a hundred thousand, we had to spend it.
In the afternoon, Seventh Master went to find Xiao Qing while I stayed at the shop to delegate tasks to the others. Song Xiaotian and I certainly wouldn’t have time for work lately; Meng Yifan’s situation wasn’t something that could be resolved in a day or two.
So, I assigned them their workloads. It would definitely be exhausting for them.
I also had Xie Peng post a recruitment notice at the door and told him to post the information online as well. The shop was seriously understaffed; we needed to hire a few more people.
If we really couldn’t find anyone, I told him to swallow his pride and contact some of our former employees to see if they were willing to come back.
That evening, Song Xiaotian and I met up with Seventh Master and Xiao Qing.
We met directly near the residential area where Tao Xiaoyu lived.
Seeing Xiao Qing again, I noticed her face had grown even paler; her health was clearly deteriorating.
Seventh Master had mentioned she had a terminal illness. Being a professional Spirit Medium was essentially trading her life for money; it would only make her die faster.
But she did it to leave some money behind for her family and child.
She was a pitiful yet great woman.
Xiao Qing was a very simple and honest person. Her standard fee was ten thousand, but because we had given her an extra five thousand last time, she actually offered to charge us five thousand less this time.
Of course, I wouldn’t agree to that and transferred the full ten thousand to her anyway.
The woman was earning money with her life. If I took advantage of that, I was afraid I’d go to hell.
“Wait, how are we supposed to get in?”
Song Xiaotian asked, “This is a villa district, not a normal neighborhood. The security guards are like the Imperial Guard.”
Seventh Master and I were instantly stunned.
Right, how were we going to get in?
The three of us could risk climbing over the walls, but with Xiao Qing’s physical condition, how was she supposed to climb?
Damn it!
What were we going to do now?