45

The crowd at the scene: …

But thinking about it, the act of stuffing a leader’s business card into a coffin seems quite feasible. After all, those who become leaders must have good luck and fortune, born to handle these things.

The group walked to the entrance of the cave, and this was Lin You’s first time entering a cave.

Compared to the developed tourist spots, this cave didn’t have lighting, nor were there any colorful lights. The stalactites, illuminated only by flashlights and phones, displayed their magnificent and extraordinary beauty without any restraint.

Lin You was holding Furball, which had been either eating or sleeping these past few days. It was still dozing in Lin You’s arms, only waking up with a sleepy meow when it was jolted.

In the cave, the only sounds were of water flowing and footsteps. Occasionally, there were sounds of something fluttering its wings and flying away in the dark.

Lin You felt a little scared and hurried a few steps, quietly following behind Bo Chuan.

The group walked deeper and deeper, eventually reaching a large hall. Xiao Ma, who was leading them, finally breathed a sigh of relief and said, “We’re here.”

This was the place where the coffin was discovered.

In a hall about the size of half a football field, one half was a pool of water, while the other half was a flat area in a semi-circle. Above the hall, the ceiling opened up, much higher than the cramped space before, about three stories high. A beam of sunlight shone through a crack in the rocks, casting a patch of light onto the water, which reflected onto the rock wall. Even without using flashlights, the place was bright.

This scene was truly breathtaking. In the vast hall, even with dozens of people, they all seemed incredibly small.

Among the group, there was someone skilled in exploring caves. He set up his compass and praised, “This place is great—well-hidden, yet accessible. It’s an excellent location.”

Someone immediately retorted, “How can a cave burial be considered good?”

The other person rolled his eyes and pointed with the compass, “Saying cave burial is bad is not always true. It depends on the situation. Take this place, for example. The orientation, the mountain and water, the energy flow on both sides, the harmony of up and down—all these factors must have been carefully considered before being chosen. And look…”

He pointed to the sliver of daylight above, “It’s like a cave, but not quite. Who can say it obstructs the flow of energy?”

Bo Chuan nodded. While he wasn’t as precise as those who specialized in this field, he had sensed the accumulation of spiritual energy in this place since entering the cave. Especially when they reached this point, he had a feeling of enlightenment. There was no way the Feng Shui could be bad.

This left Xiao Ma dumbfounded.

“Masters, then what’s going on here?”

There were only two guesses: one was the coffin being raised, the other was related to Feng Shui. Now that both were being dismissed as fine, what exactly had gone wrong?

The coffin that had been raised was still in its original position. The group moved forward and examined it from all angles, but no one could find anything wrong.

Inside the coffin, there were only a few scraps of cloth, faintly showing signs of being left by the former owner, but there were no bones to be found, and not a single burial item. It left everyone stumped, unable to even speculate about what might have been buried with it.

At this moment, Bo Chuan pressed his finger to the corner of the coffin. A small amount of dirt stuck to it, clearly having just adhered recently.

Bo Chuan straightened up and quietly told Lin You, “Hold Furball over here…”

Lin You’s heart skipped a beat. She knew it—Bo Chuan had specifically mentioned Furball, so he must have wanted to use it!

She had something on her mind and quietly leaned close to Bo Chuan’s ear. “It won’t harm Furball, will it?”

Even if it was to dispel bad energy, she didn’t want her cat to get hurt!

Bo Chuan saw her unsteady and, wanting to help, but stiffly kept his hand just an inch away, saying, “… It will be fine.”

Since Bo Chuan said so, Lin You could only anxiously hold the cat closer to the coffin.

Furball was licking its paws, its silly expression unchanged as they approached the coffin.

Lin You’s eyes showed doubt, but Bo Chuan, with his keen observation, quickly noticed something different.

“Be careful!”

Without hesitation, he pulled Lin You close to him.

A small green snake, about the thickness of a pinky finger, swiftly slithered toward the water pool, as if something were chasing it. It quickly disappeared into the water.

Lin You, still shaken, hugged the cat tightly, trembling. She was terrified of snakes and bats!

Just as the snake disappeared, a swarm of bats suddenly flew out from the distant cave passage, as if summoned by something.

Lin You felt like her blood had run cold and her feet were frozen in place.

She had thought the bats would fly out through the cracks in the passage, but surprisingly, they flew in all directions within the hall. They didn’t attack anyone but instead seemed to be performing some kind of dance, soaring up and down in an orderly fashion.

The group of skeptical experts soon noticed that the bats were flying in circles around the water pool.

Amidst this tension, Lin You clutched the edge of Bo Chuan’s clothes tightly, holding Furball close.

Furball seemed uncomfortable and let out a long meow.

At that moment, the lead bat abruptly paused mid-air. Its forward momentum slowed, and after a moment, it led the rest of the bats back to where they came from.

The middle-aged man who had been talking to Bo Chuan gave him a thumbs up.

“Impressive, no wonder you’re the Zhengyue. You’d already guessed it. Good thing you brought this raccoon cat along.”

The swarm of bats had created quite a psychological pressure on everyone.

Some of the younger, less convinced people thought Bo Chuan was just lucky, as if a blind cat had stumbled upon a dead rat, and couldn’t help but mock him.

“Since Zhengyue is so famous, surely you have more than just the cat as a backup, right? Looks like you must have a conclusion by now?”

Bo Chuan shielded Lin You behind him, his gaze darkening. “Yes.”

This answer left the other person at a loss, and they began to feel like Bo Chuan was just pretending to be more impressive than he was. “Oh? Well, let’s hear it. Enlighten us.”

Bo Chuan scoffed lightly. “It’s actually simple. Inside the coffin, it should be the original body of the mountain god from the mountain.”

His statement struck like thunder, silencing the surrounding people.

The original body of the mountain god? Aside from Bo Chuan, who came from a Zhengyue background, no one else knew what the original body of a mountain god was.

“Mountain gods, local deities, city gods, and underworld spirits have had benevolent humans act as their representatives for thousands of years. As a mountain god, it’s not surprising that this coffin dates back at least a thousand years. At that time, benevolent humans were buried by the mountain people in caves and blessed lands, becoming guardian mountain gods.”

Bo Chuan subtly glanced at the fat cat, now licking its belly after finishing its paws, his voice steady.

“That’s exactly why there are no remains or burial goods inside.”

The way of heaven has its own reasoning. Not just any noble or high-ranking person who is buried in a blessed land can become a deity or immortal. Only those who are revered and worshipped by the local people can.

The people who were here to study feng shui and perform divinations were temporary locals who were invited. Although each of them had some skills, hearing Bo Chuan talk about the mountain god and merits felt like an ordinary person seeing a cyber Bodhisattva in person.

“You’re just talking, but how come there’s actually something to it?”

Bo Chuan didn’t care whether others could accept it or not. He pointed to the water pool and said, “As for the evil spirits you mentioned, it’s simple. It’s actually the mountain god’s protective spirit causing trouble. You disturbed the mountain god’s coffin, and that’s when it emerged. After it came out, it was angry and just gave a small retaliation.”

“That’s just a small retaliation?” someone questioned.

One of the experts clenched his right fist and slapped it into his left palm, looking enlightened.

“No wonder! I’ve been feeling so hot at night, always wanting to twist around on the floor.”

If it was a snake, everything made sense.

Their sleepwalking state really resembled that of a snake, didn’t it?

The fear of cold and warmth, feeling like their limbs were unnecessary, only wanting to twist and move on the ground—just like the time when one of them got bitten after applying some realgar to his legs, claiming there were centipedes in the house that night.

Three people in a room, and two of them turned into snakes. And still, you used realgar? No wonder you got bitten.

“Taoist, you really are amazing. So, what should we do about this?”

Bo Chuan replied, “You’re in luck. Tomorrow is the Dragon Boat Festival. At noon, go to the well and fetch water, but only during noon. The water at noon has the strongest yang energy of the year. Taking a bath with it will do.”

The little snake spirit wasn’t malicious. It just left its aura on the three of them. Even without treatment, they would recover in about a month.

However, with the opportunity to use the noon water, it could be resolved earlier.

The experts took a bite of melon and followed along, not only watching the snake and insect display (…), but also attending a lecture on mountain gods from a disciple of Zhengyue (…), adding a few WeChat contacts (…). They didn’t do much else.

Xiao Ma, however, tearfully asked Bo Chuan, “Master, so does this cave still have development potential?”

It’s the mountain god’s burial ground. If they ruin it, won’t the whole mountain suffer?

Bo Chuan replied, “That’s simple. Just move the mountain god’s coffin to my temple. There’s a feng shui treasure spot behind the temple. Just swap it with that… Also, the tombstone should be moved back. You can add a glass protective cover and put it in the cave for people to visit.”

Bo Chuan said this quickly, but Xiao Ma breathed a sigh of relief. If it could be repaired, that was great. At least they wouldn’t waste time only to find that the cave couldn’t be developed.

Bo Chuan turned around and relaxed a bit. Actually, burying the mountain god behind the temple was somewhat self-serving.

The small mountain god often visited Lin You’s home for food and drinks, and would occasionally use his spiritual power to repay debts. From the beginning, he had enhanced the land Lin You owned, and later he even strengthened the mountain around Lin You’s house. Occasionally, he would take a stroll on the mountain…

Normally, such progress would bring some intellectual changes, but the small mountain god not only had a spiritual bottleneck, but even his intelligence had not changed at all.

Bo Chuan thought for a moment and concluded that it was a two-fold issue. First, the incense at the mountain god’s temple was still sparse. With little incense, the temple was dilapidated, and with fewer sources of spiritual energy, there was naturally no progress. Secondly, the mountain god’s coffin was buried too deeply. While this cave had good feng shui, it had been over a thousand years, and it was time for the god to move house.

He decided to take the coffin to a place closer to the temple. The tombstone should be left to remind people of the mountain god.

In summary, it was an investment worth trying.

Bo Chuan’s words left everyone half-believing, half-doubting. By noon the next day, the three experts followed his advice, fetched the noon water, and after taking a bath, they felt refreshed, and no strange events occurred after that.

Everyone who had witnessed Bo Chuan’s explanation that day believed that this young man really had some skill. Later, Xiao Ma secretly reported to the leader. Soon, they managed to move the coffin and placed the tombstone at the scenic spot.

On the noon of the Dragon Boat Festival, Bo Chuan, for the first time in a long while, took out his phone and sent a message of well-wishing to his family and his sect.

The message to the sect was brief, simply stating that he had found a way to cultivate his spiritual power. Although he had just started, the future was promising.

After sending the message, Bo Chuan immediately tossed his phone aside, completely ignoring the series of frantic follow-up questions from his fellow disciples.

【Kid, answer me! Give your poor senior brother a hint!】

【What is it?!? Ah, crawling in the darkness!】

【Unworthy disciple, in less than a hundred words, where’s the backstory?!】

Bo Chuan discarded his phone and squatted in the kitchen of Lin You’s house, staring at the steamer.

It was Dragon Boat Festival today, and Lin You had been quite frightened the day before. She hadn’t had an appetite this morning and only began feeling hungry after wrapping zongzi for half the morning.

The zongzi were made with glutinous rice, salted duck egg yolks, marinated pork, and a chestnut in each, creating savory salted egg and chestnut zongzi. Sweet zongzi were made with red beans and honey-pickled dates, wrapped in the same glutinous rice. The two types of zongzi were steamed separately, both fragrant in their own right.

The yellow eel caught from the river was made into salt and pepper eel segments. The leftover pork from wrapping the zongzi was stir-fried with green peppers. The egg whites left over from the salted duck eggs, along with two egg yolks, were stir-fried with dried scallops sent by Bo Chuan’s family, and a pot of fried rice was made. The mugwort Lin You had planted wasn’t ready to harvest yet, so wild mugwort was picked from the mountain, juiced, mixed with glutinous rice and flour, and shaped into green mugwort dumplings.

While cooking, many villagers came to bring Lin You zongzi, and Lin You reciprocated by giving back the ones she had made. Back and forth, the two types of zongzi turned into a big plate of assorted zongzi with unknown fillings.

Yao Jiu first stayed at home to drink two sips of yellow wine with his father, then came to Lin You’s house for a meal.

The salt and pepper eel was golden in color, with tender meat and a peppery fragrance. The salt and pepper didn’t overpower the eel’s freshness. It was aromatic and crispy with tender eel inside. The stir-fried three-line pork with green peppers was incredibly satisfying, especially when eaten with fried rice, giving a hearty, satisfying feeling. The mugwort dumplings had a slight bitterness, but Lin You sprinkled some roasted soybean powder on top, making them look quite cute.

When the zongzi were finished, the salted egg yolk pork zongzi had the savory, oily essence soaked into the glutinous rice. The sweet zongzi, which had seemed plain, became a whole new experience when Lin You drizzled honey over them.

The honey wrapped around the sweet zongzi, and using a fork, Lin You ate a whole zongzi, dipping it in the honey. Even Lin You, who usually had a small appetite, finished an entire one.

Yao Jiu, rubbing his stomach, still wasn’t satisfied: “If only every day was a festival.”

Not long after the incident with the cave, people in the town quietly helped Bo Chuan move the coffin to the back mountain.

Xiao Ma rubbed his hands: “Master, you were really accurate. The tombstone was sent to the provincial authorities for identification, and it’s pretty much as you said.”

Although Bo Chuan had a general idea of what had happened, he was still curious about the mountain god’s past: “Oh, what did the tombstone say?”

Xiao Ma immediately perked up and reported everything he knew.

It turned out that the tomb belonged to a mountain king. The specific time could only be estimated to be during the Qin or Han dynasty. The name and year were unknown, but the locals referred to the female king as Xian Gu. She had fled to the mountains to escape the chaos of war. At that time, the war was constant, and people were constantly fleeing.

Xian Gu gradually became the leader of these refugees. In order to ensure their survival, Xian Gu established a base in the mountains, training soldiers, organizing farming, raising fish, and cultivating mulberry trees…

The mountain people, hiding in the vast mountains, lived peacefully for several decades in the midst of the turmoil.

After Xian Gu passed away, the mountain people’s old totem worship still lingered, so they buried her in a cave, believing that she would always protect the mountain.

Bo Chuan remained silent after hearing this, and Xiao Ma thought he had done something wrong, not daring to make a sound.

Unbeknownst to him, Bo Chuan was silently criticizing.

The characters from the legends were nothing like the fat cat in reality that loved to eat so much…

All I can say is, the gap between ideals and reality is greater than the gap between humans and pigs.

Bo Chuan buried the empty coffin of Xian Gu and then turned to head towards the cave in the mountains.

Xiao Ma: “…Master, is there anything else in that cave?”

Heaven help, please don’t let anything else strange happen.

Bo Chuan: “Did you forget about that little snake?”

“The coffin has been moved, so the guardian spirit can’t just be discarded after it’s done, right?”

But when Bo Chuan went to the cave to search, the little snake spirit was nowhere to be found.

Returning empty-handed, Bo Chuan stayed in the temple a bit longer that night, staring at the beams, troubled. The main beam was so hard to find—he searched the entire mountain but couldn’t find a suitable one.

Just as he was worrying, he suddenly heard a rustling sound.

Something, like a fire poker, poked its head out from the beam.

Bo Chuan: …

So, it wasn’t in the cave, but now it’s come knocking at my door?