Chapter 3

Chapter 3

I picked up my black tea and took a refined sip, projecting the aura of a true master-unlike Lu Lingzhu, who was acting like a total country bumpkin.

“It’s no matter,” I said. “The Tao Te Ching states that ‘all things carry Yin and embrace Yang, and through the blending of Qi, they achieve harmony.’ This sentence actually explains the relationship between the attributes of Yin and Yang.

“When elements with opposing attributes meet, they produce a clashing Qi that cancels each other out, returning everything to nature. Whether in the East or the West, all evil spirits and ghosts are beings of extreme Yin. The West’s concept of Light and Darkness is just like the East’s Yin and Yang; Yang can overcome Yin, and Light can dispel Darkness. The underlying principles are the same.”

Director Chen gave me a thumbs-up.

“Master Qiao, you really know your stuff.”

I shot a glance at Lu Lingzhu.

“Not really. I’m just an ordinary… college student.”

I wasn’t like Lu Lingzhu, who had spent her life training in the mountains and had barely finished high school before following her master into the world of wandering occultists.

Sure enough, Lu Lingzhu took a violent bite out of her dessert, glaring at me through gritted teeth.

This tactic never got old; I felt a surge of secret satisfaction.

After dinner, once the sky had turned pitch black, I pulled a Luopan from my bag and began searching the estate for the location of the Ghost Tomb.

In Qi Men Dun Jia, the Du Gate is the gate of concealment. It is used for hiding one’s form and staying secluded from the outside world.

The Du Gate is located in the southeast Xun Palace: ‘Xun gives birth to Li; it flourishes in spring and withers in summer.’ I kept my head down, following the Luopan while chanting the mnemonic under my breath. Soon, I found the location of the tomb entrance.

“It’s right here.”

Director Chen looked at the ordinary birch tree in front of us, looking a bit dumbfounded.

“What do you mean? The entrance to the tomb is under this tree?”

“There’s nothing strange about it. The Du Gate is originally of the Wood element; those who violate it meet frequent disasters. Lu Lingzhu, you’re up-”

Lu Lingzhu pulled a dagger from her bag and cautiously pricked her fingertip, squeezing out a bead of blood the size of a grain of rice.

“Is that enough?”

A gust of wind blew past, and the bead of blood congealed on her fingertip.

Director Chen stammered, “This…”

I was speechless.

“You eat so much every single day, would it kill you to squeeze out a little more blood?”

“Hmph, why don’t you squeeze your own?”

Though Lu Lingzhu talked back, she ultimately behaved. She used the dagger to prick herself again and smeared the blood onto the tree trunk.

She was agonizingly slow, one drop at a time. A child getting a finger-prick blood test at the hospital would have been faster than her.

By the tenth drop, the branches and leaves of the entire tree began to tremble violently.

*Rustle-*

A gust of Yin wind swept through, and the tree suddenly shifted several feet to the side out of thin air, revealing a tightly sealed stone door in the ground.