CH 16

The atmosphere inside the small store was quite stifling, as the three individuals sat there staring at the thin, delicate talisman paper that lay in the center of the office desk with wide-eyed expressions.

“Old Liu, don’t be too disheartened. Don’t be too upset. I will take responsibility for this…” I stared at Blind Liu’s bronze-like face with great admiration, amazed at how a human face could manage to resemble a statue.

“I owe my life to this talisman, and if you require any form of compensation, please do not hesitate to ask. I will do everything in my power to assist you,” I offered.

“Compensation?” Blind Liu scoffed, his voice filled with a bitter chill. “Due to karma entanglements, I want you to repay me with your life. Will you agree to it and put an end to everything?”

“Well… we’re in a society governed by laws presently, and if something were to happen to me, you would also be implicated, wouldn’t you?” I said this before wiping the cold sweat off my forehead. Blind Liu, who was usually a harmless herbivore that kept to himself, surprised me by demanding my life as compensation for the incident. “This is a civil dispute; how about I compensate you with some money instead?”

“Compensate me with money? You’ve got some nerve,” Blind Liu then took out a peach wood box from his arms, and with both hands, he started to chant a spell over the talisman paper, with an attitude of reverence as if he were holding a plaque of his ancestors.

“This talisman was left by my grandfather to suppress our family’s bad fortune, ensuring that the Liu family would flourish for a hundred years, sprouting branches and leaves and never fading away,” Blind Liu said.

“But as far as I know, you’re already in your forties and still single. Maybe the talisman has already lost its effect?”

“Smack!” The pole hit the ground, making my and Xia Qing’s eyelids twitch in fear. We were both afraid to speak out of turn.

“My Liu family is a family of geomancers. How could the wisdom of our ancestors be understood by commoners like you?” Blind Liu spoke with a stern voice.

I nodded and bowed repeatedly, admitting my mistake. After all, I was in the wrong.

“To be honest, you are very lucky to have come across this talisman. It has survived through wars and disasters, avoiding the foreigners and the Japanese, only to be finally taken out by you,” Blind Liu remarked.

“I am an ignorant person who is not afraid of danger, like a blind cat that happened to run into a dead mouse,” I replied.

As the talisman was put back into the peach wood box, I couldn’t help but feel that the thunder talisman had gained a bit more vitality. Maybe it was just my imagination.

“You have disturbed the ancestral talisman paper of our Liu family clan and inadvertently incurred the karma of the Liu family. In the future, if the Liu family encounters any difficulties, you must lend a helping hand; otherwise, you will face the consequences of karma and bring great misfortune upon yourself.”

Upon examining the thunder talisman, he discovered that it was not severely damaged and only had some depleted energy. This made Blind Liu’s grim face slightly more pleasant.

“Alright, alright. In the future, just give the word, and I, this mere youngster, will be at your beck and call.”

“Words are easy to say, but who knows how sincere you truly are?” Blind Liu sighed as he retrieved the peach wood box. “You have incurred the karma of the Liu family. If you were to encounter any misfortune, the Liu family will also be implicated. Looking at the darkness on your forehead, it seems that your fate may be nearing its end. You have caused a great deal of trouble for my Liu family.”

If someone had told me on the street before that my fate was doomed because of the darkness on my forehead, my first reaction would definitely have been to take off my shoes and chase after them to fight. However, after experiencing some recent events that cannot be explained by science, such as being forcibly contracted by a supernatural streaming platform and spending a night in a hotel where at least four people had died, my worldly views largely changed. I might even have actually seen a possession by an evil ghost.

All of these events were making me realize that Blind Liu was not speaking nonsense at the moment. Perhaps my fate was truly coming to an end.

“Old Liu, do you know of any way to break this curse? As you said, we are like fleas on the same boat right now,” I asked.

“Who knows what kind of evil spirits you have provoked? Besides, I am just a fortuneteller. I can read faces and characters, but I have no knowledge of exorcism or fighting demons,”

Blind Liu said as he removed the blindfold from his eyes and took out a bottle of eye dropper from his pocket. He slipped a few drops into his eyes, and Xia Qingzhi, who had been sitting quietly in the corner, finally spoke up.

“Wait, you’re not really blind?” she asked incredulously.

“I never said that I couldn’t see. I blindfold myself to train my senses and to better understand the connection between heaven and man,” Blind Liu replied after slipping the eye drops into his eyes. He then covered his eyes again with the black cloth.

“Little girl, why are you here if you’re not studying? I can sense that you’re shrouded in negative energy, and it’s not good for you to be hanging around this Gao guy,” he continued.

“I came here to…” Xia Qingzhi began to explain.

“Ahem!” I coughed to interrupt her. I couldn’t have her reveal the truth about the Underworld show incident, as it was stated in the contract I signed.

“To be honest, I’ve recently been troubled by something, and for some specific reasons, I have to go to places with scarce population and heavy negative energy every few days,” I admitted.

“Why do you need to go to those places?” Blind Liu frowned.

I placed the black package on the table and opened it, revealing its contents. Then, I reached inside and retrieved the gold bar, reciting the old adage, “People die for wealth as birds do for food.” Although I couldn’t divulge the deeper reasons for my actions, I hoped that Blind Liu would be able to understand my predicament.

“Wait a moment,” Blind Liu interrupted, his full attention captured by the general outline of inner eye manual. “Where did you obtain this book? You, brat, are not dumb enough to actually steal from the Miaozhen temple, are you? The secrets contained within the inner eye practice method are not disseminated to outsiders. Even the inner-chamber disciples must accumulate merits and virtues for five years before they’re permitted to study it.”

“Do I seem like a thief or a bandit to you?” I retorted, “This book is…nevermind, it’s not stolen or robbed.”

“Just remember,” Blind Liu warned, “if you’ve obtained something through illegitimate means, you’re inviting trouble. These days, practitioners are not like they used to be.”

“Is the Miaozhen Temple difficult to deal with?” Blind Liu’s question left me feeling uneasy. After all, I wasn’t sure where this book given by the underworld show came from.

“Well, it seems like the newborn calf is not afraid of the tiger,” he continued. “Over the past millennium, Taoism has undergone extensive development, resulting in numerous factions. There are five types of schools based on their theories: the accumulated virtue school, the classical school, the talisman school, the cauldron pellet school, and the divination school.”

“When we look at different regions, there are also various schools such as the Longmen School, the Laoshan School, the Suishan School, the Huashan School, the Yushan School, the Heshan School, the Huo Mountain School, and the Wudang School, among others.”

“Furthermore, if we divide them based on lineage, there are even more schools, such as the Shaoyang Wang Xuanfu, the Zhengyang Zhong Lihan, the Chunyang Lu Dongbin, the Ziyang Zhang Bodian, and the Chongyang Wang Zhongfu. etc”

“The Miaozhen temple I mentioned earlier belongs to the Suishan School and is considered one of the most influential schools of our time.”

“Wow, there are still so many people practicing Taoism these days?” I exclaimed.

“The world is constantly changing, and there are many strange and talented individuals. It’s just that immortals and Taoist masters choose to live in seclusion and avoid worldly affairs,”

“That’s reassuring to hear. If they’re not interested in worldly affairs and are hiding away in the mountains to practice, even if I opened the inner eye and managed to use the X-ray technique, they won’t be aware of it,” I said as I casually flipped through the pages of the Inner Eye manual.

“Besides, except for its good appearance, this book is completely blank. Old Liu, do you think your Taoist friends also like to play these kinds of tricks? Do I need to soak this paper in realgar wine to reveal some hidden words?”

“If you truly wish to practice Taoism, let me give you four words of advice: ‘Sincerity brings success,’” Blind Liu closed the book. “This book should not be shown to just anyone. Remember, don’t force anything and trust in fate. Everything will fall into place naturally.”

I chatted with Blind Liu until the afternoon, and we finally cleared the air between us. I even proposed to hire him as my supernatural consultant and offered him a gold bar as payment, but he refused. This guy was quite interesting. He would rather be chased by urban management officers in the wind and sun every day than help me with my live broadcast.

After seeing Blind Liu off, I turned to Xia Qingzhi, who had already started doing her homework in my store. This girl had become so familiar with me that she didn’t even consider herself an outsider anymore.

“Hey student, finish your homework and go home quickly. It’s getting late,” I urgently needed to catch up on some sleep, as I felt like dozing off even while standing.

“I came to provide some clues. I found some markings left by my brother at home. Can we go and take a look together?” The shy high school girl spoke up only after Blind Liu and I finished our conversation. Although I didn’t want to refuse, going to her home could lead to misunderstandings from outsiders. Detective work was usually done in secret.

“Let’s do it another day. I’m really tired right now.”

The hope on Xia Qingzhi’s face faded, but she didn’t give up. “I have photos of those markings on my phone. Why don’t you take a look first, and then come to my house tomorrow when you’re feeling better?”

“Qingzhi, your brother’s situation is very complicated and dangerous. I can’t reveal too much to you. This is not something a high school girl like you can participate in.” I knew from my experience at the underworld show that it was dangerous. “Go home quickly. I will investigate your brother’s case thoroughly.”

“But…” The girl held her phone and ultimately didn’t force me. She picked up her backpack and left silently alone. “I’m sorry for bothering you.”

Watching her lonely figure, I couldn’t help but think of myself at that time. Misunderstanding and loneliness were things that everyone would experience. At such times, no one could help her.

After she left, I turned on the computer and, as usual, I was going to record everything that happened last night in written form in a document.

Just as I was about to brew a cup of tea, I suddenly noticed that Xia Qingzhi’s homework and textbook were still on the table. “How old is this girl? Why is she so forgetful?”

She had just left not long ago, so I should be able to catch up to her now.