Chapter 1

Chapter 1

My name is Qiao Moyu. I’m a freshman at Nanjiang University and the only contemporary Earth Master successor.

In ancient times, an Earth Master was another name for a feng shui master.

As the old saying goes: “First-class Earth Masters observe the stars; second-class wind masters seek the water’s source; third-class masters wander the earth.” Most of those walking the world today are merely ordinary feng shui masters. Those who could master the art of observing the stars and reading qi served in the Imperial Astronomical Bureau in ancient times, pledging their lives to the imperial family.

My Qiao family ancestors served as the Director of the Imperial Astronomical Bureau and were the hereditary leaders of the Feng Sect.

Recently, at a friend’s invitation, I went to Ailao Mountain in Yunnan to participate in an adventure variety show, where I met many friends from the entertainment industry. But ever since I returned from that trip to Ailao Mountain, I’ve felt like everything has gone wrong.

It started with a string of red rashes on my back. The rashes formed the shape of a pentagram, and soon after, I developed a high fever. It took three days of constant fever reducers to finally get my temperature down, only for it to be followed by a crushing weakness in my limbs that made even walking a struggle.

At first, I thought it was just an ordinary fever.

I didn’t expect my entire dorm to be infected so quickly. Everyone’s backs mysteriously developed the same pentagram pattern, which then rapidly spread throughout the city. Everyone was talking about this sudden plague.

Watching the pentagram on my back grow more vivid by the day, I finally realized the truth: I had been struck by a curse.

Curses originate from shamanism. As the ancient texts say: “To report to the gods with words is called a prayer; to ask the gods to inflict calamity is called a curse.” This means that while the Zhu You Arts are for healing, curses are for harm.

In that cave on Ailao Mountain, I had suspected a powerful curse was hidden behind a stone slab and didn’t dare open it. I never imagined the curse would be so domineering; there was no need to open the slab at all. Simply lingering there for a while was enough to be afflicted.

Once cursed, the body gradually withers and the immune system collapses. Eventually, a minor cold or a small accident could claim your life. Modern medicine is powerless against it; it can only be resolved through the Zhu You Arts.

Unfortunately, most of the Thirteen Branches of Zhu You have been lost to time-especially the twelfth branch, the Forbidden Branch.

The Forbidden Branch can suppress evil, drive away ghosts, dispel curses, and trace them back to their source. Since the late Qing Dynasty, almost no one has known how to use it.

Fortunately, my ancestors were from the Imperial Astronomical Bureau, and I am acquainted with some successors of the secretive Eight Great Sects of Jianghu. After spending a great deal of money and exhausting every possible resource, I finally discovered that the last heir of the Zhu You Arts is in Sichuan. His name is Zhu Kang, and he is a professor of archaeology.