Chapter 620: Chapter 6 Qingwu Preface Chapter 620: Chapter 6 Qingwu Preface Chen Zhengcong ca to his senses and imdiately found his phone on the sofa, dialing a quick access number.
About a dozen seconds of dial tone later, a hoarse voice ca through the phone.
“Didn’t I say to contact by email for anything in the future, don’t call ? What the hell are you up to?”
“It’s you who’s up to sothing! There’s sothing wrong with the item you sold , it nearly cost my life!”
“Hmm?” The person on the other end didn’t rush to dismiss any involvent, but instead said calmly, “Don’t rush, tell slowly.”
Chen Zhengcong spent about a minute explaining the whole situation.
After a mont of silence, the other party answered, “The thing I gave you is genuine. The Yang Baojin you wanted to harm has an expert by his side.”
“Impossible! I recognize every person around Yang Baojin. There can’t be any mistakes.”
“If I dare to say it, I’m confident. However, since I’ve taken your money, I have no reason not to help you. How about this, bring one million to Pugang Road Cold Storage, and I’ll lend you the fiercest Fiend to ensure a clean and thorough job.”
After so thought, Chen Zhengcong saw no other option and reluctantly agreed, “I’ll head over now, wait for at the Cold Storage.”
“Good.”
Chen Zhengcong hung up the phone, moved stack after stack of shiny Hong Kong dollars out of the safe, filling a bag to the brim, and then took the money to the basent to get his car, and hurried to Pugang Road Cold Storage.
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Yongfa Garden Block B, 3rd Floor, Room 304, Ma Ji Paper Shop.
“Cough cough! Stop knocking! What ti is it? We’re not open yet! Co back, cough cough, co back tomorrow.”
Paper Craftsman Ma was skinny to the bone, with sunken eyes, and he especially suffered from chronic tuberculosis and asthma. Although he was only in his thirties, climbing just a few flights of stairs would leave him bent over, unable to straighten his back. He scraped by solely on his ancestral paper crafting skills, leading a very difficult life.
The door opened, and through the iron bars, the wrinkled-face man known as Mr. Wu, Qian Wu, locked eyes with the Paper Craftsman Ma.
“I’ve said we’re not open. Co back at nine tomorrow morning.”
Ma the Paper Craftsman said irritably.
But Mr. Wu remained unmoved, “There’s an urgent matter that requires paper effigies, please open the door.”
“I told you to co back at nine tomorrow!”
As Ma the Paper Craftsman was about to close the door, Qian Wu caught the door firmly, his seemingly frail palms as unyielding as welded iron.
“What are you doing? I’m going to call the police…”
Before Ma the Paper Craftsman could finish his sentence, his vision spun, and he collapsed to the floor, fainting. From beneath him, a faint black compass pattern erged on the ground, with clockwise rotating trigrams and heavenly stems inside, and counterclockwise rotating earthly branches and twenty-four solar terms outside, the sight dizzying at a glance.
“Born in the month of Yin, Shen, Si, or Hai, during 3-5 pm, in the month of Zi, Wu, Mao, or You, encountering the ti of Wei, in the month of Chen, Wu, Chou, or Wei, encountering the ti of Mao, you are naturally afflicted by the Hemp Cloth Fiend, and being near funerals easily brings you ailnts. But running a paper effigy business at ho ans you often deal with funerals, which is why you’ve been ill since childhood. Today, I’m taking the Fiend from your destiny for my own selfish reasons, but it also counts as doing you a favor. I hope you don’t mind.”
Under Mr. Wu’s feet, a compass grid pattern also erged, but it was empty inside. The two compass patterns intersected, and finally, the black compass moved under Mr. Wu’s feet, leaving the area around the Paper Craftsman void.
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“Since ancient tis in China, there has been the concept of Destiny by Constellations and the auspicious or ominous nature of divine fiends, which starts with using the day pillar’s heavenly stems and earthly branches, then connects with the year, month, hour, or major cycles and annual fortune, to determine a person’s fate. This thod of divination, known as the Four Pillars Divine Fiend, refers to the collective term for both auspicious deities and fierce fiends,”
“The auspicious deities, such as Heaven’s Mandate, Monthly Virtue, Heavenly Happiness, Fortune Star, State Seal, Hua Gai, etc., have since ancient tis prolonged life and brought wealth and high status. Those often protected by auspicious deities tend to be successful in all their endeavors. As for fierce fiends, like the Four Void, Hemp Cloth, Salty Pool, Lonely Star… the morally corrupt and wretched people in the world often have fierce fiends clinging to them.”
“Auspicious deities and fierce fiends are complicated and difficult to understand; an auspicious deity can save lives and bring imnse wealth, while a fierce fiend could cause death, but the opposite can also be true. The mysteries within are not sothing that can be explained in a sentence or two. The word ‘destiny’ is like a vast river, awe-inspiring to look upon. Over the centuries, those who can discern a hint of its course already possess trendous skill, as for those trying to defy fate and seize divine fiends for their own use, it’s just wishful thinking. That’s what I originally thought…”
Mr. Wu withdrew his thoughts and pulled out a human-shaped talisman paper from his pocket. He bit open his middle finger, clasped his hands in prayer, and began to chant, “May the body be as vast as the flood, may the laws follow Zi Ping, may the Qi flow freely, may the Three Yang thrive, may the Five Elents be stored and reared, may the Eight Characters converge, may the stars lay out the linen robes, may the Creation reveal its mysteries.”
After Mr. Wu had spoken, a black compass beneath his feet began to spin, and the paper figure in his hands was shaking incessantly. Blood sared on the yellow paper actually ford a weeping face with facial features.
The linen-robed fiend naturally attracts lonely spirits and wild ghosts, which is why it’s easy to contract diseases at funerals. However, so people shadowed by the linen-robed fiend can rely on this fate to communicate with the dead, which is why there’s such a thing as “rice asking.”
“Dongsheng, who hard you?”
Qian Wu asked sternly.
The facial features on the paper figure beca more twisted and agonized, emitting a whimpering howl that nonetheless made no sound.
Mr. Wu furrowed his brows and asked again, “Where is the person who hard you?”
This ti the facial features on the paper figure smoothed out a lot, and Pei Dongsheng’s voice clearly reached Mr. Wu’s ears: “Pugang Road underground Cold Storage!”
No sooner had the words been spoken than the paper figure soared into the sky, turning into a ball of fla and scattering apart.
Mr. Wu walked out of the large building in Yongfa Garden; the streets were already almost empty, cars were parked haphazardly on the asphalt road, and only the billboards shone brightly.
“Cold Storage…”
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“Is there soone in Hong Kong who can so easily solve the hex of the Six Calamities Ghost?”
The man speaking was dressed in a cold storage work uniform, hopping down from a huge block of ice.
“There is. Chen Lang from the Fortune Association, Mai Xiaoling from Mai’s Cleaning Company, and Xu Shaoguang, a visiting professor at the Zhuhai Academy. All three have high expertise in divine and malevolent forces. Though the Six Calamities Ghost is fierce, it’s normal for Chen Zhengcong to make mistakes as he’s not very competent.”
The uniford man looked at the other in surprise, “Rare for you to praise soone.”
“I’m just being objective. Their knowledge in divine and malevolent forces indeed isn’t bad, but it’s not yet to the point where I would complint them.”
The man was wearing blue and white striped hospital garnts and holding a clipped newspaper in his hand with only one piece of news on it: “Zhongxing Baode International Auction Company will hold a charity auction on the fifteenth of next month, with early auction items including a handwritten manuscript of the Qingwu Preface by Lai Buyi.”
“Wutouzi, have you ever heard of the Qingwu Preface?”
“Of course, it’s the geomancy secret text by the divine diviner Lai Buyi. Why, are you interested?”
“It’s said that when Lai Buyi’s Qingwu Preface was written, because it revealed heavenly secrets, it was taken away by the envoy of the Nan Hua Deity, the White Ape. Later, it fell into the hands of the famous statesman Liu Bowen, who, with the help of the arcane arts within the Qingwu Preface, assisted Zhu Yuanzhang to unite the Central Plains and drive out the Mongols. I am indeed very curious to see it for myself.”
“The deposit is twenty million though,” Wutouzi said in surprise.
“If it’s genuine, twenty million isn’t too much.”
The man in the hospital clothes replied with a smile. Suddenly, a ssage ca in on his phone. He looked down to open it, and it read, “Take the number four ice coffin and leave imdiately!”
“What happened?”
Wutouzi asked.
“The boss wants us to leave right away.”
“What about that surnad Chen? And besides, this place is full of…”
The man in hospital clothes imdiately stood up, “Maybe he has betrayed us. You get number four onto the truck, leave everything else. The boss said, leave now!”
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