Chapter 37: Mountain Spirit

“Mr. Yang, if you don’t help me, I’ll have to jump off the building,” Mr. Li was sitting in the living room of Mr. Yang’s house, his chubby face was full of sorrow, “I have already injected a lot of money into this project. It’s a mess right now and I can’t find a partner, so I have to use my own savings. We’ve been friends for so long, please help me.”

“Mr. Li, it’s not that I don’t want to help, but it depends on fate to meet the master,” Right Mr. Yang said that, Mr. Li knelt in front of him, “Mr. Yang, I’m begging you.”

“Hey!” Yang Gang immediately bounced off the sofa and stretched out his hands to help Mr. Li up, “Don’t be like this, I’ll take you to see Master Qi, but I cannot guarantee that he would help.”

“Thank you, thank you.” Mr. Li thanked Yang Gang again and again. Since the incident, he had brought a few Feng Shui masters over to take a look. All of them shook their heads and said there was no solution and that he had angered the gods. He thought these masters were just trying to scare him, but there were a series of incidents in the past few days, which devastated him. In desperation, he could only ask Yang Gang for help.

At this moment, he had no choice but to try everything. Mr. Yang was kind enough to take him to the master. Many of his competitions would have stepped on him instead.

When Mr. Yang took him to a very ordinary community, he almost thought that they took the wrong way, but he didn’t dare say anything since he was the one asking for help. So he followed Mr. Yang into the elevator.

The elevator went all the way up to the 7th floor. He walked out of the elevator and saw a very ordinary corridor. There were also flyers on the wall about maintenance work and lock opening etc. It didn’t look like a place where masters lived.

“When you see the master, you must be respectful,” Mr. Yang turned to instruct Mr. Li, and knocked on the door of 704. Mr. Li squinted at the house number, and thought that this number was not very auspicious. His phone number, house number, and license plate number all had 6 or 8 in it.

But seeing Mr. Yang’s respectful appearance, Mr. Li thought to himself, “Maybe Master Qi is strange and likes to live with ordinary people.”

The door suddenly opened, and Mr. Li saw a young man in a blue shirt standing at the door. Was this Master Qi’s grandson or his apprentice?

“Master Qi, I’m sorry to bother you again.” When Yang Gang saw Qi Yan, he bowed respectfully.

Mr. Li didn’t think that this young man was the powerful Master Qi that Yang Gang had mentioned. He couldn’t help but suspect that he must have been deceived by this young man. How could this person be a master?

Just as he was thinking about this, Master Qi raised his head and looked at him with a smile. Those clear eyes made Mr. Li temporarily suppressed the doubts in his heart. Scammer or not, he’d have to bring him over to take a look first.

“Hello Master Qi.” As a businessman, he knew how to please others. “My name is Li Fu. Please forgive me for disturbing you.” After speaking, he handed him some gifts with both hands.

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They were all expensive items like ginseng and deer antlers. He thought that Master Qi was an elderly person, so he bought him these. Who would have thought that he would be a young boy, and Mr. Yang didn’t even think about telling him in advance…

“Hello.” Qi Yan saw that this man named Li Fu had a big shoulder and thick waist. His receding hairline revealed his bright forehead, but the golden watch on his wrist and the jade ring on his finger were even brighter.  “Please come and sit in the room.”

Following custom, he made tea for the two of them, and then looked at Li Fu with an unfathomable expression, “Mr. Li is surrounded by bad energy and evil spirits. Who did you offend?”

As soon as Qi Yan said these words, Li Fu almost fell to his knees. But he soon calmed down. Maybe Master Qi had heard the rumors and said it on purpose. He had to be steady and not be fooled. “I have indeed encountered some troubles recently.”

Qi Yan smiled, reached out and took a sip from the teacup, “Why don’t you tell me what’s going on.”

Li Fu came to ask for help, not to check the authenticity of the master. So he told Qi Yan everything, even the fact that he had invited another Feng Shui master to take a look.

“Land of the dragons?” Qi Yan raised his eyebrows, “The master was right, it might really be a land of dragons, but has Mr. Li ever thought about what dragons represent in Chinese culture? “

Li Fu looked at Master Qi cautiously, “Yes… it’s the emperor.”

“It might be the emperor, or the one in the supreme position,” Qi Yan smiled, “Do you think you have such a fate?”

Li Fu shook his head violently, and swung his hand along with him. If he had such a good life, why would he need to be in such fierce competition with those in the same industry.

“The cliché saying is that you cannot bear such good fortune,” Qi Yan said with a smile when he saw that Mr. Li was frightened, “I think Mr. Li should have asked someone else for help before?”

Li Fu smiled embarrassedly, it didn’t seem nice to tell him that. When he looked up and saw Master Qi’s knowing look on his face, he nodded honestly, “The other masters also said the same thing. Someone did try to help me, but the effect didn’t seem to be significant.”

Before the ritual was completed, there was a wind that blew away all the things on the altar. The expression on the master’s face changed and he left without even asking for payment. Recently, all his family members suffered health problems like fever and vomiting. They did not get better even after a few days in the hospital.

Qi Yan rubbed the teacup in his hand, considering whether he should go and take a look. According to Li Fu’s description, there must be spiritual beings in Hongliang Hill. Spiritual beings were extremely rare and good. In the feudal period, there were impure masters who hunted them in order to improve their spiritual power, but it didn’t end well.

With the development of science and technology and the lack of human belief, there were fewer and fewer spirits in nature. Even if there was one, no one would dare disturb it as it must have received a lot of blessings from heaven to be present under such conditions.

He couldn’t understand how one could disturb something so precious.

“I’ll go with you to take a look.” Qi Yan sighed. In ancient times, what humans referred to as gods also included these spirits. If he had disturbed a spirit, it wouldn’t be just Li Fu who was affected.

“Thank you, Master Qi, what do I need to prepare?” Li Fu took out his mobile phone, “No matter what you need, I will have someone prepare it.”

After Qi Yan said a few things, he looked at Li Fu and said, “Of course, these are secondary. The most important thing is that you need to write a confession of sin.”

“A confession of sin?” Li Fu and Yang Gang were both stunned. They didn’t know why that was necessary.

“You have disturbed the gods, don’t you need to apologize?” Qi Yan took out a stack of papers, a bottle of ink and put them in front of Li Fu, “Write it.”

He didn’t know what the papers and the ink were made of, but there was a hint of fragrance. Li Fu inhaled the scent and his heart gradually calmed down. He picked up the pen and dipped it in ink, “Master Qi, is there any taboo while writing?”

“Don’t be dishonest,” Qi Yan lit three incense sticks and placed them next to Li Fu, “Start writing.”

Li Fu didn’t like reading since he was a child, and his essays often didn’t make sense. At the moment, he was a little worried. He really didn’t know how to write to show his sincerity.

“Think about if someone came to your house one day and said that they thought your house had a good scenery and that they would throw out all the things in your house and redecorate it. Then let a bunch of strangers come to your house for a tour. How would you feel?” Qi Yan looked at Li Fu who was frowning, “Think about why no one had developed the land even though housing prices are getting higher and higher every day. It’s also not a historic site, why hasn’t anyone done it?”

He was asking Li Fu to use his thinking skills.

Li Fu’s body kept shrinking with every word from Qi Yan. When he’s done speaking, Li Fu wished he could just crawl into a hole.

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“Write slowly, and we’ll go out after you’re done,” Qi Yan glanced at the time, “It’s still early anyway, so we have to wait until evening.”

“Why?” Yang Gang couldn’t help but ask.

Qi Yan looked at him with a mysterious smile on his face, and Yang Gang immediately understood. It must be a good time then.

Qi Yan didn’t know what Yang Gang had thought about, but he looked at the sun outside and just didn’t want to go and speak to the gods under such a hot sun.

Li Fu was inspired by Qi Yan’s words and he even wrote a few idioms that he did not usually use, showing his sincerity.

Yang Gang looked at Master Qi who was drinking tea quietly and whispered, “Master Qi, I heard that the masters that Lao Li invited did not have any solutions, and some even vomited blood, you must be careful.”

“Don’t worry, I’m just going to talk to the gods respectfully, not disturbing their peace. There’s nothing to be afraid of.” Qi Yan picked up the remote control and turned on the TV. He said to Yang Gang, “Don’t be nervous, we’ll watch some TV to pass the time.”

Yang Gang: …I won’t be able to focus.

About two hours later, Li Fu managed to finish his confession. Qi Yan took the letter and read it again. The handwriting was a bit ugly, and there were a few smudged words. Although the writing was not very good, the words were sincere. It could be seen that Li Fu was really frightened this time, so he did what he was told.

“It’s kind of embarrassing that my handwriting is ugly.” Li Fu’s face was a little red, and he was almost too embarrassed to look at Qi Yan.

“It’s fine.” Qi Yan flicked the papers and laid them flat on the table, “Put a handprint on each piece of paper.”

Li Fu stretched out his big palm. He was still thinking about how to do it when Qi Yan slapped his hand on the letter. He wasn’t sure if he was hallucinating, but when his hand touched the paper, a faint but warm sensation traveled from his arm to his palm and disappeared.

“Done.” Qi Yan let go of Li Fu’s arm, “We’ll leave after I get everything we need.”

When they arrived at the foot of Hongliang Hill by car, it was already after 6 o’clock in the evening. Qi Yan looked up at Hongliang Hill bathed in the afterglow of the sunset. As soon as he stepped on the hill, the mountain wind blew, and his hair was dancing in the wind like withered grass in the cold winter wind. Li Fu, Yang Gang and some staff who followed Qi Yan were pale with fright.

Qi Yan took nine steps back and bowed three times to the hill, “I come as a disciple of the 23rd-generation master to visit the Mountain Spirit. Please forgive us for disturbing your peace.” After worshiping it, he took out three sticks of incense and stuck them on the ground.

The people behind him saw the incense sticks ignited without fire, sending out curls of green smoke into the forests.

The mountain breeze stopped at this moment, and the few people who came with Qi Yan were overjoyed. The incense sticks burnt out in a short period of time.

“Thank you Mountain Spirit.” Qi Yan bowed and continued to walk forward. This time there was no movement. Walking along the trail, everyone soon discovered that this road was too quiet, and it was terrifyingly quiet.

There were supposed to be a lot of animals and small insects in the summer, but there was no sound at all

But at this time, no one dared to disturb Master Qi who was at the front. They followed carefully behind Qi Yan and gave each other moral support. Yang Gang was terrified. If he knew that this place was so scary, he would not have joined out of curiosity.

As the hill was not too high, they were soon halfway up the hill, where the opening ceremony was held before. Qi Yan saw that there was an altar, but it was lying on the ground without legs, and the tribute on it was gone, only some broken pieces remained.

Li Fu’s legs trembled slightly when he saw the scene as these things were only placed yesterday. At that time, the master was injured and went down the hill, so no one could tidy up the altar. He didn’t expect it to end up like this in just one day.

However, Master Qi was not bothered at all. He watched Master Qi walk around, and even picked up the altar with missing legs. What was peculiar was that the altar could still stand upright.

Qi Yan lit up three sticks of incense and burnt a talisman. He looked at the leaves that were swaying and gave a big salute to the top of the hill, “Please calm down, this is just a misunderstanding. Li Fu did not mean to offend. This is the written confession by Li Fu, please take a look.”

Whoosh

A gust of wind blew and the letter that Qi Yan held in his hand flew into the air. Everyone watched it disappear into the woods.

The master whom Li Fu invited before said that he had offended the gods and no one could help him solve it. But Qi Yan not only appeased the god, he could even communicate with it. Qi Yan was like a demigod himself.

Everyone thought that it was magical to see the letter being blown away by the wind. In less than a minute, the wind blew again, and the letter flew back and fell in front of Qi Yan. Then, it stopped moving.

Qi Yan didn’t touch the letter and bowed, “Thank you for your magnanimity. The incident with Li Fu was unintentional, please remove the bad luck from him. Besides, his family is innocent. Please show them mercy.”

The Mountain Spirit promised to leave the villagers alone, but it still did not want to forgive Li Fu and his family.

It’s a pity that Qi Yan’s persuasion didn’t work. The strong wind came back, and everyone felt that the temperature around them plummeted, and they shivered from the cold. In particular, Li Fu’s face turned blue.

Perhaps to the Mountain Spirit, he had protected the villagers in this hill like its children, but they sold it for their own benefit. It was angry but it didn’t want to hurt the villagers, so all the negative emotions were unleashed on Li Fu.

Seeing that the people could not hold it any longer, Qi Yan finally made a move. He took out a piece of talisman paper and shot it in the air. It made an explosive sound and the heat came back.

However, the cold air rushed towards Qi Yan. They even saw a thin layer of ice on the ground under Qi Yan’s feet.

A cloud of black energy rushed towards Qi Yan, but before it touched him, it was dispersed by Qi Yan’s finger.

“Boss…” The secretary stammered and leaned against Li Fu, “Is he… fighting the Mountain Spirit?” 

As soon as he said this, everyone turned to look at him as if he had said something terrible, causing him to shrink his neck in fright.

“Ah…” Li Fu opened his mouth for a long time before he made a sound, “Look!”

Everyone turned their heads and saw countless dead leaves fluttering in the wind, but these dead leaves were like sharp knives, and they made several cuts on Master Qi’s clothes. For some reason, they were not able to hurt him but only circled around him.

Everyone watched for a while, and although they didn’t understand the technique, they could see that Master Qi was defending throughout and didn’t mean to hurt the Mountain Spirit at all.

Perhaps it also finally understood and the attack gradually weakened. It seemed like it was retreating. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Qi Yan quickly made a gesture, “I call upon the gods to be witnesses. Li Fu will set up a golden statue of the Mountain Spirit and never overstep the boundaries. Please calm your anger.”

The wind stopped suddenly, and only the leaves were still swaying slightly. Qi Yan turned to look at Li Fu, “Li Fu, come here!”

Li Fu ran to Qi Yan’s side with small steps, and his whole body was shaking.

“Kneel! Speak!” Qi Yan kicked the back of his knee, and Li Fu knelt down with a thud.

“Wh-what do I say?” Li Fu looked at Qi Yan like a scared little boy.

“Say that you are willing to build a statue of the Mountain Spirit and every year from today onwards, someone will come and worship it. Qi Yan saw the frightened look on his face and couldn’t stay angry at him. “The gods have always been magnanimous. As long as you promise to do it, it will definitely forgive you, and it will keep your family safel.”

When Li Fu heard the words, he kowtowed nine times, and then made a promise according to Qi Yan’s words.

The leaves all stopped swaying, and the chirping of insects and birds could be heard again in the forest, as if all the supernatural phenomena had not happened at all.

“M-Master Qi…” Li Fu knelt on the ground and looked at Qi Yan pitifully, not daring to get up.

Qi Yan didn’t look at him, but at the direction at the top of the mountain, “This mountain is indeed a spiritual place, and the spiritual energy of Capital City is hidden under this mountain for a while. Don’t feel bad for giving up this mountain. In fact, it is a virtue.”

“No, no,” Li Fu shook his head, “I have absolutely no regrets. What I want to ask is, is the Mountain Spirit gone?”

“Gone?” Qi Yan looked at him, “It is the mountain itself, and it has been guarding this land.”

Hearing this, Li Fu felt even more awe in his heart. Thinking that he had brought a large number of people to develop this land, he felt that he was very stupid. 

Master Qi, who dared to talk to the Mountain Spirit and defended against it, was like a god himself.

They went down the hill, and Li Fu asked curiously, “Master, why did you dare to fight with the Mountain Spirit?”

“If I hadn’t, do you think he would be willing to negotiate with me?” Qi Yan looked out of the car window. Hongliang Hill at night was like a tall black shadow, looming over the Hongliang Village, “It knew that it couldn’t do anything to me, so it reluctantly agreed to my condition.”

If it could be solved just by building a statue, the masters that Li Fu had invited before would have already thought about it.

As soon as Qi Yan finished speaking, Li Fu received a phone call from his family, saying that their high fever had suddenly receded, and they stopped vomiting. After he hung up the phone, he looked at Qi Yan with gratitude in his eyes. If it wasn’t for the fact that they were in the car and there wasn’t enough space, he would have immediately knelt to Qi Yan.