Chapter 16 Heavenly principles

Flowers seemed more beautiful in the fog, and people looked better from a distance. Standing in the mountains, Cen Baihe looked like a star, and standing there, he seemed like a painting.

“Young Fifth.” When the two bodyguards who were following behind First Master Cen saw Cen Baihe, their faces became more serious and went over to greet him.

Qi Yan glanced at the four people behind Cen Baihe, and then at the two bodyguards who hurried up to greet him. They treated Fifth Master Cen like a rare item. In his opinion, except for his poor health, Fifth Master Cen was full of vigor. Even when he was just standing there without speaking, people dared not ignore him.

 Cen Baihe did not look at the bodyguards around him. He glanced over at the young man standing next to his elder brother who had his hands behind his back. His steady posture was completely inconsistent with his baby face.

“Master Qi?” Cen Baihe walked closer and stood beside Qi Yan. He looked up and watched the scenery at the foot of the mountain. There was a winding river not far away. It was peaceful and beautiful.

Hearing his name, Qi Yan smiled at him.

“How old are you?” Cen Baihe’s tone was calm. Even though this question was asked abruptly, his serious expression made it seem like this was an important question.

“Twenty-two,” Qi Yan asked him in return, “And you Fifth Master Cen?”

Cen Baihe didn’t expect Qi Yan to return the question. His eyelids trembled slightly, “I’m seven years older than you.”

When First Master Cen heard the conversation between his younger brother and Master Qi, he felt an inexplicable pain in his heart. He remembered that several fortune-telling masters had said that his brother would be lucky to live past thirty-five years old and blessed by the gods. He felt that every year when his brother grew older, it was torture to him.

Cen Baihe smiled after he told Qi Yan his age, “Being young is great.”

First Master Cen could barely hold his tears.

“Mr. Cen is young and capable,” Qi Yan smiled, “There’s no need to envy me.”

Cen Baihe laughed lightly, and said suddenly, “Master Qi is good at joking around.”

The mountain wind blew, Qi Yan squinted, opened his eyes and then looked at Cen Baihe. His face seemed indifferent to the world and his eyes were like a pool of stagnant water.

He averted his gaze and laughed, “Mr. Cen, I don’t joke around with strangers.”

Cen Baihe fixed his gaze on him and said after a long time, “I thought that we are close after being in the same car.”

Qi Yan smiled and shook his head. He stretched out his hand in the air to grab the air, spread his palms and showed them to Cen Baihe, “Time is like the wind, you can’t catch it no matter how hard you try. But when you spread your hands, didn’t you realize that the wind is in your hands?”

Cen Baihe looked at Qi Yan’s hands without speaking.

Qi Yan smiled, “Mr. Cen, please stretch out your hands.”

 Cen Baihe glanced at him, and slowly spread out his palms. His palms were white and thin, and the palm prints were clear. Only the lifeline was broken, and the end of it was unclear.

When he was eight years old, his master told him that it was a virtue to help those whose life was too prosperous that their body could not sustain it.

First Master Cen thought that Qi Yan would say something, but he didn’t. His fingers ran across Cen Baihe’s lifeline, and he felt a resistance against his hand.

After a while, he retracted his hand and curled his slightly trembling index finger. He turned around and said to First Master Cen, “Mr. Cen, the wind is strong in the mountains, let’s take a look in the house.”

Mr. Cen, who was worried that his younger brother would catch a cold in the wind, wanted to say this a long time ago. Hearing Qi Yan said that, he hurriedly agreed.

 Cen Baihe looked down at his palm, wondering if it was his illusion. Just now, when this young man named Qi Yan reached out and touched his palm, his palm seemed to be penetrated by a hint of coolness. 

The old mansion of the Cen family was a traditional courtyard house. However, the Cen family had carefully maintained the main structure of the house. Although this house was hundreds of years old, it had an ancient charm to it rather than looking dilapidated.

Qi Yan walked into the Cen’s mansion, and the first thing he saw was an old osmanthus tree in the yard. The osmanthus tree grew very luxuriantly, and its green leaves looked vigorous.

It was a good choice to plant osmanthus trees in the yard. Many communities and even parks would plant them. One reason was that its fragrance was strong but not overwhelming, and the other was that it symbolized wealth and peace.

 The entire yard was shaped to accumulate blessings from all four directions. The carved patterns on the window lattices were mainly grapes, double lotus, and pomegranate. He didn’t know whether the owner of the house did it intentionally, but there was nothing related to dragons here. Not even patterns related to carps jumping across the dragon gate.

　 This piece of land was in the location of a crouching tiger. If something related to the dragon appeared, it would become a conflict between the dragon and the tiger.

But what’s more interesting was that the introduction of patterns with small birds and animals would make the Feng Shui of this land stronger. The only thing that was not good was that it might affect the fortunes of other people nearby.

Based on the ability of the Cen family’s ancestors, the Feng Shui master who was invited must have known this, but Qi Yan did not see it in this house.

He stood in front of the main entrance of the Cen’s family hall and looked at the plaque directly above that read “Virtue and Responsibility”, and he had a new understanding of the Cen family.

“Master Qi.” Master Zhao and Master Liu came out and saw Qi Yan standing outside the main entrance of the Cen family’s main hall. The two of them motioned to their apprentice to wait beside them. They walked to his side and looked at the plaque.

After staying silent for a while, Master Liu touched his forehead and asked, “Do you have any ideas Master Qi?”

Him asking this indicated that neither he nor Master Zhao had any idea, and the behavior of the Cen family was admirable.

 Qi Yan saw that the two masters were embarrassed, knowing that while they were helpless with the current situation, they also felt that they should help the Cen family. He turned his head and glanced back at them. Cen Baihe stood quietly under the sweet-scented osmanthus tree. His face was perfect and seemed a little unreal as he looked up at the tree.

 He understood the feelings of these two masters, it was just like the times when he could see a natural disaster that was about to happen but he couldn’t say it. Heaven was determined but ruthless. If he spoke out, then he would have defied heaven and caused even more serious repercussions.

Thousands of years ago, even the powerful celestial master Li Chunfeng and Yuan Tiangang had to speak carefully in front of heaven.

The people in the past trusted celestial masters who had countless roles, but they could not go against the way of heaven, let alone in this era where faith was lacking and the celestial masters had no status.

With the development of science and technology, human beings had already regarded themselves as masters of the earth, but they didn’t know that no matter how advanced technology became and no matter how powerful human beings were, everything came from nature and the earth. With each passing day, the sea might become a mountain, and the mountain might become a flat ground, but nature remained and  humans were not necessarily the masters of the earth anymore.

No one could defy heaven and earth,even the so-called masters.

 As they understood this, they felt helpless when they were powerless to change the outcome of what they already knew. As far as he could remember, he hadn’t seen his master try to change others’ fate, maybe because he had experienced too much, he never wanted to experience that kind of helplessness.

“Master Qi?” Master Liu called out to him softly when Qi Yan did not say anything.

 Qi Yan retracted his gaze. He lowered his head, sighed and shook his head. He spent so much effort today, and it only helped Cen Baihe extend his life by less than two years. He hadn’t thought of other solutions yet.

Seeing that even Qi Yan shook his head, Master Liu and Master Zhao had a knowing look on their faces.

After a while, the other two masters also came out. The five of them looked at each other without saying anything.

After seeing the silent expressions of the five people, Cen Qiusheng’s heart sank. He knew that repairing the ancestral house might not work. But before the five of them confirmed that, he still insisted on asking, “What do the five masters have in mind?”

 The most prestigious Master Wei among the five opened his mouth and said, “This is a place where a crouching tiger hides its treasures. It is indeed a good location.”

Cen Qiusheng was silent for a few seconds, “Is there nothing to modify?”

Master Wei knew what Cen Qiusheng was hoping for, but he still shook his head slowly.

 When Cen Qiusheng saw that, he leaned against the back of the chair, as if he was a few years older in an instant. His whole body was slumped down. He closed his eyes, concealing the emotions under his eyes, and opened them after a long while, “Is there a way to alleviate it?”

The four famous masters were silent again, lowering their heads and not looking at Cen Qiusheng’s expectant eyes. They really couldn’t bear to break this old man’s heart again, but it was a fact that they couldn’t do anything.

“Old Master Cen, so sorry…”

Cen Qiusheng waved his hand, interrupting Master Zhao’s unfinished words, and said hoarsely, “You are not to blame for this.” After saying this, he suddenly remembered that the youngest Qi Yan hadn’t spoken yet, and he couldn’t help but cast his eyes on him.

In fact, before this incident, he had no idea who Qi Yan was. Later, he heard from his relative that he met a particularly powerful young man who could not only tell fortunes, but also study natural phenomena, so he looked him up.

Then he discovered that although this young man had not done much fortune-telling, he never made any mistakes. The few people who asked him about Feng Shui had indeed come out of their predicament.

“Does Master Qi have any ideas?”

When Cen Baihe walked into the house, he heard his father ask.