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墨書 Inktalez
After a while, he took out his phone and moved forward in the direction of the gap. As he walked, he compared it with the compass and muttered, "There better not be any water... there better not be any water..."
I asked what he meant by that, but he didn't explain. Not long after, I heard the sound of rushing water and couldn't help but shout, "There's an Underground River!"
Ma Rulong replied irritably, "Don't be so alarmed; I'm not deaf!"
Feeling a bit embarrassed, I chuckled and said, "Aren't you the one who didn't want any water? Now there's an Underground River; doesn't that count?"
Ma Rulong answered, "If you were me, you'd definitely hope it doesn't count, but unfortunately, we've hit the nail on the head."
"What do you mean?" I asked.
Ma Rulong asked if I remembered the gap we just passed. I said it had only been a few minutes, so of course I remembered. He said, "If I'm not mistaken, the ground above that gap must resemble a fierce tiger."
"How do you know?" I asked curiously.
Ma Rulong inquired if I understood feng shui. I said I knew a little about it and understood that feng shui is related to geomancy and the Eight Trigrams, but didn't know much beyond that. Ma Rulong explained, "In feng shui Treasure Sites, there's something called Tiger Descending into Dragon Pool. This is a burial site; if buried properly, it can produce military officials in three years and great generals in ten years—an entire family filled with military officers."
I immediately recalled the village legends about this old grave and asked, "Are you saying this place is the Tiger Descending into Dragon Pool?"
Ma Rulong nodded and then turned to point back down the path we had come from. "That's right; the place we just arrived at is where the fierce tiger is located. As we continued on our way, the path kept descending. This kind of Treasure Site has a saying about a thousand-mile dragon coming from the southeast, and where the peak descends is the Dragon's Den. I calculated the direction, and it matched that saying perfectly; that's how I confirmed this is a Treasure Site."
I was taken aback and asked, "So this really is a good place? Then why do you say burying here leads to death?"
Ma Rulong said, "At first, I didn't understand either. Because of death, I didn't think of it as a Treasure Site. But now that I think about it, this Treasure Site must have collapsed and turned into a hungry tiger's hunting ground; that's why anyone who comes here meets their end! That's why I've been saying there better not be any water—because I was afraid this place might really be an ancient Treasure Site. But unexpectedly, I've guessed right!"
I had no idea what he meant by fierce tigers or dragon pools; I could only tell from his tone that things seemed rather grim.
Ma Rulong did not explain much and continued to lead me forward. We had not gone far when our path was blocked. In front of us was a mass of dark objects. Ma Rulong took out his phone to take a closer look and then exclaimed, "Coffins!"
I followed him to see, and indeed, there were coffins everywhere. I couldn't tell how many were lying haphazardly, completely blocking our way, leaving only a small gap to squeeze through! I was horrified; how could there be so many coffins? Ma Rulong suddenly realized and said, "Now I understand why that family dug a pit but didn't find any coffins; they all ended up here!"
Of course, it was just one family, so it was impossible for them to have this many coffins. Most of the coffins here were quite old and somewhat decayed. Ma Rulong said that over time, the terrain had changed. The original path from the tiger to the dragon's pool was once clear. But who would have thought that the landscape would shift, causing the coffins buried here to fall down and block the way? The tiger could not reach the dragon's pool, and over time, it became a starving tiger. Ma Rulong speculated that this Underground River might also be blocked, turning the dragon's pool into stagnant water.
To verify his guess, we approached and opened a few coffins, revealing ancient corpses that had long since decayed. I asked if the person who jumped from the building in the village was scared by these ancient corpses' evil spirits.
Ma Rulong shook his head and said, "This is not a Ghost Land. Although the feng shui has changed, it is not extremely yin. Even if there are ghosts, they cannot exist for too long. That person must have been driven insane by the Tiger Malevolence."
I asked what Killing Aura was. Ma Rulong explained that it is different from Yin Qi, mostly arising from the terrain. Many Taoist sects have studied various formations based on this concept to artificially generate Killing Aura against enemies. However, this was more commonly used in ancient times; nowadays, warfare relies on firearms, and few people understand formations.
It made sense; sending a bunch of bombers to drop bombs while also needing to set up some Nine Palaces Eight Trigrams Formation would be ridiculous.
As for this altered feng shui, Ma Rulong could not restore it; it was an inevitable trend. However, one could imagine that the generals buried here must have had very tragic descendants. They might not have been exterminated entirely but would likely have fallen into poverty like commoners.
In Ma Rulong's view, the secret of the deep pit had been unraveled. Feng shui is only influenced by the descendants of those buried there and poses little threat to us. But I did not think so; if it were merely a shock from Killing Aura, where did this Yin Qi come from? Why did the village's stray dogs rush in and howl in terror? Surely they weren't scared just by seeing these coffins.
Ma Rulong could not explain either; he wanted to climb over these coffins to take a look at the dragon's pool. I actually wanted to leave as soon as possible; even if there were no ghosts here, it still felt eerie. In such a dangerous place, it would be safer to leave quickly. But Ma Rulong, resolute as iron stone, refused to go; I couldn't persuade him and had no choice but to continue following.
We climbed over those coffins blocking our way and pressed on. Before long, we found that Underground River. However, what followed was an unpleasant stench. Using my phone's light, I could see white foam floating in the water, which looked greenish as well. Ma Rulong speculated that there must be some factory nearby secretly dumping wastewater into the Underground River.
This is quite common; to avoid environmental health inspections, most factories have become clever about it. They no longer discharge wastewater openly as they used to but instead dig underground pipes to drain it into the Underground River. This way, ordinary people find it hard to notice; with some money given to higher-ups, they can easily cover it up.
Seeing this scene, Ma Rulong felt there was no need to search for the end of the dragon's pool anymore; with water like this, any dragon would surely be suffocated.
I asked him why he had come all this way if he thought that was the case.
Just as we were speaking, a sudden hissing sound filled the air. In the foul, greenish water, splashes began to rise, as if something was about to emerge. Both Ma Rulong and I kept retreating, and soon we saw strange snakes crawling up from the water!
The snakes were covered in scales, resembling lizards but without legs. They were as thick as arms and about two meters long, with an unknown number of them. I was so scared that my legs felt weak, and Ma Rulong shouted, "Run!"
He turned and fled a few meters ahead before I finally reacted. As I ran, I yelled at him angrily, "What kind of path did you lead us down? This is supposed to be a dragon's pool, but we've ended up in a snake's den!"
Ma Rulong replied, "Can you blame me? The dragon's pool has turned into a Deadly Spot, and it's normal for these little snakes to appear. If you want to blame someone, blame the heavens; I didn't change the terrain!"
Cursing was pointless now; those snakes were crawling quickly, and the sound of their scales scraping against the ground made my scalp tingle. I finally understood why the village dogs had been howling in terror when they rushed in. With so many snakes around, even one could bite them to death! Most importantly, these snakes emitted a faint Yin Qi, exactly like what I had felt in the deep pit earlier.
I shouted, "Why do these snakes have Yin Qi?"
Ma Rulong seemed to snap out of it; he stopped running, turned around, bit his finger hard enough to draw blood, and smeared it on the compass while shouting, "Get back here now!"
I was so frightened that my face turned pale; I thought he had gone mad. I asked, "Who are you yelling at? There's no one here!"
Ignoring my question, Ma Rulong focused intently on his shouting. A few seconds later, a thick stream of Yin Qi suddenly shot out from the filthy water. Ma Rulong was overjoyed; holding the compass in one hand and pointing at the strange snakes with the other, he shouted, "Kill them!"
The Yin Qi that emerged from the water hovered for a moment before diving toward the ground. Wherever it passed, the strange snakes emitted panicked sounds and kept trying to evade it. I didn't understand why these snakes were afraid of Yin Qi or what exactly it was.
But Ma Rulong didn't have time to explain; he directed the Yin Qi to drive away the Serpent Swarm. After a few minutes, the strange snakes finally realized that under the protection of that Yin Qi, it was unlikely they could reach us and began to slowly retreat.
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