Chapter 161

Chapter 161

By then, I was completely certain.

The entire series of strange incidents that had just occurred in Yao Nan’s home had been caused by fire-form baleforce!

But I hadn’t finished checking–the master bedroom remained.

Under ordinary circumstances, a guest couldn’t casually enter someone else’s bedroom.

As for the master bedroom, even a very close friend shouldn’t enter without an invitation…

That rule applied in the countryside just as much as in towns and cities.

But desperate circumstances required flexibility, so I could no longer worry about such things.

While everyone gathered around Yao Tianlin, I pushed open the master bedroom door, walked inside, and stepped onto its spacious balcony.

Then I was utterly shocked and couldn’t stop myself from cursing.

“Damn! There’s another one! This is freaking… a little too much.”

The master bedroom balcony looked out over a road leading toward the center of Lianghe Town.

There was nothing wrong with that in itself. The problem was… a newly erected billboard stood a short distance away across the street, turned sideways toward the apartment–which meant one of its sharp corners pointed directly this way.

A third fire-form baleforce!

Good grief! Even I found the situation absurd.

Yao Nan’s home was actually surrounded by three fire-form baleforces. It would have been strange if nothing serious happened!

And from the appearance of these three fire-form baleforces, all of them were relatively new.

The three enormous smokestacks visible in the distance from the kitchen seemed to have just been completed.

The white directional lines at the three-way intersection outside the living room also looked freshly painted.

The billboard opposite the master bedroom balcony had probably been erected within the last couple of days.

The situation was now perfectly obvious.

Someone was deliberately using feng shui to create an inauspicious configuration and harm Yao Nan’s family!

“Good thing I came. Otherwise, who knows how many more accidents might have happened?”

I thought this silently as I withdrew from the master bedroom.

Then I returned to the living room.

With Wang Min’s emergency assistance, Yao Tianlin had barely survived the dangerous stage of his acute myocardial infarction.

Although he still lay collapsed on the couch, he could at least draw breath with some difficulty.

I walked over and spoke directly.

“I’ve found the source of today’s accidents. Someone is using an inauspicious feng shui configuration to harm the Yao family.”

The moment I spoke, everyone in the living room turned to look at me.

Zhao Jiao’s expression was especially strange.

“Young man, you’re Nannan’s deskmate, aren’t you? I remember Nannan brought you over to greet us before the birthday party.”

“Yes, Auntie.”

I nodded.

I still treated Yao Nan’s mother with considerable courtesy and respect.

Zhao Jiao’s expression and tone were both filled with suspicion as she stared into my eyes.

“You’re saying the gas stove shot out flames by itself, the television outlet burned, and my husband suffered an acute myocardial infarction because our home’s feng shui is bad?”

“The feng shui inside your home isn’t bad. Someone used the buildings and structures in the surrounding environment to create an extremely powerful three-in-one fire-form baleforce configuration.”

Before Zhao Jiao could answer, Wang Min scolded me irritably from beside her.

“Young man, you’re so young. Instead of studying properly, why are you playing at ghosts and spirits here? You need to believe in science. Feng shui and all that…”

“Dad! If you don’t understand, then stop talking nonsense! Don’t say such insulting things to Brother Wu.”

Wang Dachun directly interrupted his father.

Wang Min was dumbfounded.

He had never imagined that his son, who ordinarily feared him deeply, would dare yell at him.

And in front of so many people, no less.

Before Wang Min could recover, Yao Nan had already rushed over and tightly grasped my hand.

“Deskmate, you have to save my dad. Please.”

She had cried until tears covered her beautiful face, and her large eyes brimmed with them.

I patted the back of her hand and spoke softly.

“There’s no need to make it sound so dire. Uncle Wang already stabilized his condition. Even without me, ten days or two weeks of recuperation in the hospital would set him right.”

“Of course, with me here, he should recover more quickly…”

No sooner had I finished speaking than…

Bzzzt, bzzzt.

A freestanding water dispenser nearby began spitting sparks and caught fire as well.

Zeng Jin’s parents hurried over to extinguish it.

But horrifyingly, every appliance and electrical outlet in the apartment began spitting sparks with a bzzzt-bzzzt sound, accompanied by the noise of short circuits and overloaded current.

Then, with a sudden roar, flames nearly half a foot high leaped from them!
It was probably too late to extinguish them all by hand.

Wang Min said anxiously, “Let’s carry Old Yao outside first.”

My expression changed slightly, and I said in a grave voice, “Dachun, Yao Nan, hurry and find three mirrors and three bowls of clean water.”

“All right, Boss. I’ll get the water. Yao Nan can find the mirrors.”

Wang Dachun ran toward the kitchen as soon as he finished speaking.

This was Yao Nan’s home, so any guest knew where to find bowls and water.

Mirrors, however, were something only a member of the household would know where to find.

While the two of them searched for the mirrors and bowls of water, I began moving too.

I took three copper coins from a pocket inside my clothes. Then I quickly threaded a red cord stained with cinnabar through the hole in each coin.

“What are you children still doing? Hurry and get out first! The apartment is going to catch fire any moment.”

Wang Min was furious.

As he and the other adults fumbled to lift Yao Tianlin onto someone’s back, he yelled loudly at us.

What I did next left every one of them stunned.

Pinching the three copper coins strung on cinnabar-stained red cords in my right hand, I threw them simultaneously.

“Ancient coins, treasure of ages, obey my command. Go!”

Whoosh!

The three copper coins actually separated in midair and flew in three different directions at once.

Wang Min and the others stared until their eyes nearly popped out!

They stood frozen, even forgetting to continue lifting Yao Tianlin from the couch.

Wang Min blurted out, “My God! That completely violates physics and mechanics!”

How could someone throw several objects and have them separate by themselves to fly in different directions?

His dumbstruck appearance almost made me laugh.

An ordinary person certainly couldn’t do it–even an average folk cultivator might not manage, because the move placed extreme demands on one’s methods and control.

But copper coins were relatively light. By channeling qi directly into them, I could just barely control their direction over a short distance!

It was a minor technique I had devised myself during the New Year’s holiday after seeking Master’s advice and discussing the subject in depth with Bai Su.

Master had even offered me rare praise for it.

At first, I had hoped to use this method to control throwing knives, steel needles, and similar objects. Wouldn’t that give me a formidable hidden-weapon technique?

The results disappointed me… Anything controlled this way flew much too slowly, and I first had to channel my own qi into it.

I might as well throw the object directly with the force of my muscles. Using the method for hidden weapons seemed unnecessarily redundant.

But it was perfect for showing off!

It looked unbelievably cool.

Just like now…

The adults, including Wang Min and Zhao Jiao, were already thoroughly stunned by this one miraculous display.

From their perspective, I had merely tossed out my hand. The three copper coins separated in midair and flew toward the kitchen, the living room balcony, and the master bedroom.

Then the red cords wound themselves around a windowsill and balcony railings, suspending the coins so they swayed gently in midair…

The entire process took less than ten seconds.

As soon as the three coins hung from their red cords, something miraculous occurred.

The flames leaping from the various appliances and outlets all went out in a single instant!

The open flames vanished, leaving only the bzzzt-bzzzt of electricity.

Beside me, I heard Wang Qian gasp and whisper, “The fire really stopped? That’s incredible.”

At that moment, Wang Dachun and Yao Nan called out almost simultaneously.

“Deskmate, I found the mirrors! Three of them.”

“Boss, I have the three bowls of water too.”

Both of them had moved efficiently and returned extremely quickly.

Excellent!

I issued instructions in a loud voice.

“See the copper coins I suspended with red cords? Place one mirror beneath each coin, then put a bowl filled with clean water in front of it, directly between the mirror and the window or balcony.”

Yao Nan and Wang Dachun hurried to work.

When the first mirror and first bowl of water were put in place…

The bzzzt-bzzzt of short-circuiting electricity vanished. Every appliance and outlet quieted and returned to normal.

When the second mirror and second bowl of water were put in place…

Yao Tianlin’s breathing calmed as he lay limp on the couch. He no longer gasped like a broken bellows, and some color returned to his face.
When the final mirror and bowl of water were placed, Yao Tianlin actually rose from the couch on his own!

His breathing and complexion had both returned completely to normal.

The sight left his wife and the other relatives and friends dumbfounded!

“Honey, y-you…”

Zhao Jiao hurried to support him, terrified that something might happen to her husband.

But Yao Tianlin waved a hand.

“Jiao, don’t worry. I’m fine now.”

Wang Min muttered to himself, his face filled with disbelief.

“Impossible. How can this be possible? Even if someone survives an acute myocardial infarction, they’ll be weak for quite some time and need to recuperate in the hospital. Old Yao, you suddenly recovered?”

Wang Dachun and Yao Nan had finished their tasks and returned to the living room. I walked over with both of them.

By then, none of the adults present dared underestimate me.

They all looked at me with complicated expressions, seemingly unsure what to say.

I spoke first and smiled.

“Uncles and aunties, you believe me now, don’t you?”

“Well…”

They hesitated, then nodded vigorously.

The facts stood before their eyes. They had no choice but to believe!

Yao Tianlin stepped forward, took my hand, and spoke gratefully.

“Little Brother Wu Zhong, thank you so much. People say this world contains genuine extraordinary experts. I never believed it before, but now I do!”

I had always responded better to kindness than force.

Naturally, praise and flattery pleased me.

Especially when they came from the father of a good friend.

I answered modestly, “There’s no need to be so polite, Uncle Yao. I’m Yao Nan’s deskmate and good friend. This was only a small favor. Besides, Uncle Wang reacted quickly and administered first aid. Otherwise, even if I could temporarily suppress this fire-form baleforce configuration, the situation would have been very troublesome.”

Yao Tianlin nodded and looked at Wang Min.

“Old Wang, thank you!”

“No need. We’re old friends.”

Wang Min waved a hand, then regarded me with amazement and spoke with complete solemnity.

“Little brother, I apologize for my attitude just now. I never imagined such a young extraordinary expert could exist!”

Wang Dachun immediately sidled over, hooked an arm around my shoulders, and waggled his eyebrows smugly at his father.

“Of course! This is my boss. Dad, I told you not to talk nonsense about things you don’t understand. My boss is incredibly powerful.”

At that moment, Zeng Jin’s father, Zeng Daquan, appeared thoughtful, as if something had suddenly occurred to him.

“A boy surnamed Wu, extremely young, but a genuine expert with extraordinary methods… Ah!”

He stared at me in astonishment.

“Y-you’re the one Boss Duan mentioned before, aren’t you? So it was you!”

I smiled without denying it.

Zeng Jin had told me about this long ago.

He had actually discovered my identity even earlier than Wang Dachun… After we resolved the incident involving Miss Duan’s vicious corpse at Duan Family Manor, Boss Duan attended a gathering with his friends and apparently mentioned the reputations and abilities of Old Cao, Yuan Fei, and me.

Both Zeng Daquan and Zeng Jin remembered.

Zeng Daquan simply hadn’t known what I looked like.

Today, after I displayed my methods and immediately suppressed the danger of the inauspicious fire-form baleforce configuration, he finally made the connection.

In any case, after a round of conversation…

The adults in the apartment were now utterly convinced. How could any of them dare look down on me in the slightest?

They were almost too embarrassed to treat me as a middle-school student.

Zhao Jiao sighed emotionally.

“My daughter is truly fortunate to have a deskmate and good friend like you. If you hadn’t been here today, Xiao Wu, we never would have known how to resolve this fire… fire…”

“Fire-form baleforce.”

“Yes, exactly. We never would have known how to neutralize this uncanny thing. We don’t understand feng shui.”

But I shook my head.

“Auntie, the fire-form baleforce hasn’t been fully neutralized. I’ve only used these methods to suppress it temporarily. They address the symptoms, not the cause. You can’t keep coins hanging here forever, along with mirrors to reflect the baleforce and bowls of water. To eliminate the root of the problem and neutralize the baleforce completely, we’ll need other methods.”

My explanation made them anxious again.

They hurriedly asked what they should do.