Chapter 238
Chapter 238
A so-called dragon vein was, in fact, the course taken by mountains and rivers across the land.
In feng shui, the image of the dragon was used to represent the direction, rises and falls, turns, and transformations of massive mountain ranges.
Dragons were adept at change. They could be large or small, bend or stretch, hide or appear, fly or dive. Mountain ranges were similarly ever-changing, which was why they were called “dragon veins.”
In feng shui, the Kunlun Mountains were universally recognized as the ancestor of all mountains and the source of all dragon veins–the ancestral dragon among dragons, also known as the root dragon vein.
Both The Book of Burial and The Classic of Dwellings that Master had given me mentioned that the dragon veins originated in the Kunlun Mountains, then extended continuously throughout China.
The structure and hierarchy of dragon veins resembled a great tree, hence the classifications of root dragon vein, trunk dragon vein, branch dragon vein, leaf dragon vein, and so on.
There was only one root dragon vein: the Kunlun Mountains!
Trunk dragon veins were comparatively more numerous…
In the north, for instance, the Tianshan, Qilian, Yinshan, Helan, Khingan, and Changbai mountain ranges were all large trunk dragon veins.
The Central Plains had the Liupan Mountains, Qinling Mountains, Taihang Mountains, Five Great Mountains, and others.
Farther south were Mount Emei, Mount Qingcheng, the Wuyi Mountains, the Tianmu Mountains, and so on.
All these famous mountain ranges were trunk dragon veins too! Of course, even dragon veins at this level varied in size and strength, which made the subject even more complicated…
Throughout history, every imperial house of a unified dynasty that succeeded in conquering the realm had once occupied at least one complete trunk dragon vein!
Only then could it gather enough dragon qi to ultimately unite the realm.
As for the other medium and small dragon veins, such as branch and leaf dragon veins, they were far more numerous–but ordinary people still could not withstand their power.
Even someone who wished to be buried in an auspicious feng shui site on a leaf dragon vein would need to be at least a second-rank official to barely hold it down.
Otherwise, if an ordinary person were casually buried at the corresponding dragon-vein burial site, it would bring disaster instead of blessing their descendants!
Dragon veins were primarily determined by the course of mountains and rivers, but in truth… dragon veins were also hidden within great rivers. These were called water dragon veins.
Water dragon veins were less obvious than ordinary dragon veins–earth dragon veins–and the feng shui fortune they brought was also less apparent and powerful.
Yet the places where water dragon veins converged were still exceedingly rare treasures of feng shui!
I looked at the clear, deep underground river before me. It ran through the mountain and flowed between layers of rock. It was not large, but if it ultimately emptied directly into the Chuan River north of Lianghe Town…
Then it would be equivalent to a branch dragon vein!
The Chuan River itself was vast and surging, qualifying as a trunk dragon vein among water dragon veins.
Of course, if the underground river ultimately flowed into the tributary of the Chuan River that wound around Lianghe Town, its feng shui qi would be one rank lower. It would be only a small leaf dragon vein…
“Because this water dragon vein is an underground river hidden inside the mountain’s rock layers, I can’t determine whether it ultimately leads to the Chuan River outside town or the tributary within town.”
“Huh, wait! I can use the golden compass Master gave me. This feng shui ritual implement is extraordinarily profound. Perhaps it can directly calculate where the underground river empties.”
I abruptly realized the solution.
I carried the ritual blade and golden compass, those two precious ritual implements, with me almost all the time.
It was somewhat troublesome, but there were benefits. First, it kept them from getting lost. Second, it ensured I had something to protect myself with if an emergency arose.
Unexpectedly, that caution proved useful in my present situation.
I quickly took the golden compass from the inner side of the backpack on my back, held it in my palm, and poured qi into it.
Hum!
It trembled faintly as subtle golden ripples spread outward. A three-dimensional phantom compass expanded around the physical compass, displaying the directional markings of the Twenty-Four Mountains and the divisions between auspicious and inauspicious positions clearly before my eyes.
“It truly is an exceptional instrument for reading feng shui and distinguishing auspicious directions from inauspicious ones!”
Every time I used the golden compass, I could not help marveling at it.
I aimed it directly at the clear underground river flowing slowly ahead. The three-dimensional golden phantom surrounding the compass immediately began to change.
Fine strands of golden light shifted on their own before my eyes, using my position as their reference point to calculate the courses of the mountains and the water dragon vein…
At last, the light became still.
I looked at the phantom compass.
“Just as I thought! It’s exactly what I vaguely sensed. This underground river may not look large, but it winds north through the mountain’s rock layers before emptying directly into the surging Chuan River outside town.”
In other words, this was actually a branch-level water dragon vein!
Where its feng shui converged would have been worthy of burying at least a prince in ancient times! An ordinary person could not be buried there directly for fear that they could not withstand its power. But if a skilled feng shui master who knew the craft altered it a little, they could be buried there and bring blessings to their descendants…
“I never expected to discover a water dragon vein while investigating an abandoned grave behind the school.”
I clicked my tongue in wonder.
On closer thought, however, it did not seem so strange.
After all, Lianghe District Middle School occupied the highly auspicious feng shui formation known as Three Stars Attending the Moon. A water dragon vein hidden within the rear mountain was just about believable, wasn’t it?
This also showed that the little town of Lianghe truly had excellent feng shui!
Once my curiosity was satisfied, I put away the golden compass again and waited obediently for Roundy and Old Cao.
Before long, Roundy’s voice sounded in my mind again.
“Wu, Old Cao and I are already in the tunnel. We’re feeling our way toward you! Once we arrive, we’ll attack those flying-head creatures head-on, and you attack too. We’ll catch them from both sides and finish them in one stroke!”
“All right! I’ll head toward the tunnel exit now. Call out once you arrive, and I’ll make my move.”
As I answered the fat bird, I walked from the underground river back toward the tunnel.
The nine flying-head creatures were actually still blocking it. Like octopus monsters from the deep sea, they slowly bobbed up and down while twisting their whip-like spines…
I approached to a distance of about one zhang, then stopped.
I drew the ritual blade from my waist again and held it in my right hand. At the same time, I pinched a talisman between the fingers of my left hand, ready to respond to Old Cao and Roundy at any moment.
Just then, Old Cao’s voice came directly from the tunnel ahead.
“Xiao Wu, are you there?”
“I’m here, Old Cao!”
“Good. I’m going to have the paper horse make a charge. It should knock several flying-head creatures away. Take the opportunity to kill them. Roundy and I will handle the rest.”
“All right! But there’s no need to rush. You and Roundy can kill a few along the way, then charge into this underground cavern to rest. They don’t dare come in anyway.”
The moment I finished speaking, a horse’s loud neigh rang out from the passage ahead!
Old Cao and Roundy had clearly arrived.
Immediately afterward came the clatter of hooves…
I saw a paper horse charge out of the tunnel, barreling straight into the nine flying-head creatures clustered together!
Bang!
The tunnel was not particularly narrow, but the nine flying heads were packed densely together. When the paper horse rammed into them, they had no room to evade and were scattered in every direction.
Three were even sent flying straight into the underground cavern. They crashed to the ground and immediately began making strange, frightened squeaks.
Entering this place seemed to terrify them.
At that moment, I had no time to think about it. I hurled the Evil-Shattering Talisman in my left hand at one of the flying-head creatures farther away, while using qi to control my ritual blade and attack the closer one.
My hand rose and the blade fell, splitting open its hard skull. Then I pierced the shriveled, gray-white brain tissue inside and the bloodred tumor growing on it.
“Wahaha! Behold how sharp Lord Bird’s claws and beak are!”
Roundy shouted arrogantly as it shot out of the tunnel like a round cannonball. It pounced directly on another flying-head creature not far from me…
Bird and monster grappled fiercely.
Roundy might have been fat and plump, but its movements were astonishingly swift. The flying-head creature lashed its spine at Roundy like a whip, trying to strike it, only for Roundy to catch the bone in its beak.
It twisted hard and flung the spine aside. Then its sharp talons forcibly crushed the flying-head creature’s skull before closing around the red tumor inside…
With a wet pop, it crushed that too.
Only at times like this could one see that this damned fat bird truly was a bird of prey–a king among eagles!
As for Old Cao, he had probably heard how eerie this place was, so he brought the phoenix pole he usually used when carrying coffins. After decades of use, it was already close to becoming a ritual implement. Flexible yet hard as iron, it could ward off evil and strike ghosts, making it tremendously powerful.
He had already swung it violently inside the tunnel and smashed one flying-head creature apart. Now he charged to my side. With several heavy thuds of his pole, he finished off the flying-head creature that my Evil-Shattering Talisman had left dazed and disoriented…
At last, the three of us had successfully regrouped in this eerie underground cavern!