Chapter 258
Chapter 258
To be honest…
If all the villagers had suddenly disappeared, the case might have been easier!
That would certainly have been the work of a rogue cultivator, demon, ghost, or monster, and it would have left traces that could be followed.
Cultivators would find it shocking, but not incomprehensible.
What happened to Daling Village, however, was profoundly sinister!
Old Cao took a pull from his pipe and smacked his lips.
“The entire village vanished with its residents. Not a trace or ruin of any building remained, as though the place had always been wild forest… Thinking it over, feng shui seems like the only art capable of such a thing.”
He asked me,
“Xiao Wu, do you know of any powerful feng shui method that could accomplish what Brother Yuan described?”
I shook my head.
“No. Feng shui is unfathomably profound. I haven’t mastered even a ten-thousandth of it. Perhaps such miraculous methods exist, but they’re beyond what I can know now, Old Cao.”
“True…”
Old Cao exhaled smoke that slowly rose and curled through the coffin shop.
He grinned at Yuan Fei.
“Brother Yuan, this job really is big, and the money is substantial. But it must also be extremely dangerous! How exactly do we divide the payment? As the saying goes, even brothers keep clear accounts. Let’s settle it beforehand.”
I knew Old Cao was not greedy. He simply valued rules and always kept his word.
Since Yuan Fei had called this a “big job” rather than asking us for a personal favor, naturally we had to agree on the terms first.
Yuan Fei thumped his chest.
“Brother Cao, don’t you trust me? Given our friendship, everyone who helps will receive an equal share. Of course, money is only a small factor. What matters is our bond.”
Old Cao waved a hand.
“We don’t need many people, only people we trust who’ll be useful. Xiao Wu, what do you think?”
I answered at once.
“Of course I’m joining!”
If we solved Daling Village’s disappearance, the money would greatly improve my parents’ lives. They could buy a home in town!
They could also take over a shop and run a small business, which would be far more comfortable than living in the mountains.
My parents earned some money raising pigs, chickens, and ducks, but the work was exhausting, and village life in the countryside was never as convenient as town life.
“All right, I’ll go too. Little Hu should come with us. Your cultivation is already quite impressive among ghosts.”
Wang Hu, hovering near the ceiling, immediately floated down and gave Old Cao a cupped-hands salute.
“I’ll follow all of Boss Cao’s instructions!”
Wang Hu had been at the coffin shop for two years.
Old Cao had taught him a great deal about cultivation and occasionally burned soul-fortifying incense to nourish him. Wang Hu’s spirit body had become extremely stable, and his cultivation advanced quickly.
Even an ordinary vicious ghost might no longer defeat him in a fight.
Moreover, Wang Hu could now move within a fifty-kilometer radius of the place where he had died!
The energy of the land no longer confined him so tightly that he could not even leave Lianghe Town…
In short, he could now help Old Cao and me considerably.
“Should we ask Brother Li?”
The thought suddenly occurred to me.
But Old Cao shook his head.
“This will probably be dangerous, and we’ll be investigating in the mountains. That doesn’t suit Brother Li’s field as a corpse retriever. He might not be much help.”
That made sense to me.
Corpse retrievers did their best work in rivers.
There was no need to trouble Li Miao…
As for Big Bull and Ergou?
We could bring them along.
But since their cultivation as coffin carriers was weaker, the four of them together would receive the same share as one of us.
In other words, if we uncovered the truth about Daling Village and gave the wealthy Yu City businessman Wang Wenguang a satisfactory answer,
then Yuan Fei, Old Cao, I, and Big Bull’s four-man group would each receive as much as 125,000 yuan!
At the time, that was enough to buy a home in Fubei County.
…
Once everything was settled, we agreed to travel Saturday morning to a valley about seven and a half kilometers northeast of Guxin Town: the former site of Daling Village.
I called home in advance. I called the little shop at the village entrance and asked someone there to notify my parents to come take the call, then told them I had something important to handle that weekend and would not return.
Dad said little. Mom worried and fussed over me for a long while on the phone.
As for Master, I asked them to pass the message to her at the far end of the village…
Friday arrived.
I did not need to return to Wujia Village after school. When I reached the coffin shop, only Wang Hu was there.
“Huh? Uncle Hu, why are you here alone? Where’s Old Cao?”
“Oh, Young Mr. Wu. Old Cao and the others were invited to dinner at the Shunfeng Grand Restaurant by that old-school conjurer named Ni Yang. He told me to tell you to go there after school too.”
So that was it…
I nodded.
“Thank you, Uncle Hu. I’ll head over now.”
I put down my schoolbag and went to the Shunfeng Grand Restaurant.
The so-called grand restaurant was actually the business owned by Old Master Xiao’s son from Xiao Family Bend. More than two years earlier, Master and I had examined the feng shui when their family rebuilt its homestead.
Another feng shui practitioner, Yu Kangming, had lacked the skill to recognize the Black Tortoise Basking Its Back formation, yet slandered us in front of Old Master Xiao.
With a single slap, Master had left Yu Kangming’s face swollen like a pig’s head…
Old Master Xiao’s son gave me a restaurant VIP card afterward, but I had never used it in the past two years. One should not accept rewards without earning them; their courtesy was no excuse to take advantage.
Unexpectedly, my first visit would be for a dinner hosted by the feng shui practitioner Ni Yang.
At the Shunfeng Grand Restaurant, I followed Wang Hu’s directions toward the Prosperity and Wealth private room on the third floor…
The restaurant had only three floors.
The first held the main dining hall, and the second had private rooms. The entire third floor contained only two luxury private dining rooms: Prosperity and Wealth and Smooth Sailing.
I had learned all this from casual conversations with Wang Dachun and Yao Nan. Their families were prominent in town, and they often ate here.
I climbed the stairs.
Unexpectedly, two men in black suits blocked me at the third-floor landing!
Both were burly men at least 1.8 meters tall.
They wore sunglasses and stood with folded arms, radiating a faint air of menace.
They had plainly been through countless brawls and armed fights. These were no ordinary men!
They were obviously thugs assigned to Ni Yang by the tycoon Wang Wenguang.
When Yuan Fei recounted the details, he mentioned that Ni Yang had returned in three black Mercedes-Benz cars. Aside from Ni Yang, the others were there both to assist him and to keep watch on him for Wang Wenguang.
What did they mean by blocking me now?
I was displeased.
But I understood at once. Tonight’s dinner was not merely a chance for everyone to meet.
It seemed Ni Yang also intended to test the helpers Yuan Fei had found.
I smiled faintly and paid them no mind at all.