Chapter 25: Xuanlin’s Story (2)

“My family’s craft is a very strange craft. It’s about architecture. You can call it feng shui, but no. You can call it Taoism, but no! To put it simply, this craft is the craft of construction workers. It’s the hidden craft of construction workers. It can be used to bury certain objects in certain places, or to change some architectural details, and then it can have a certain effect on the people living in the house.” Xuanlin took a sip of tea and said to me.

“Like the trap you set in the Anyu office building?” I asked.

“Yes, that was almost the most vicious one. In fact, many people in the past knew this craft, but of course some people only knew a little bit and it didn’t necessarily have any effect. Our family is considered the true orthodox successor. There is a story about our heritage, which is somewhat unbelievable. It also involves why our family lives in seclusion in Shicun. Am I being too wordy? I haven’t gotten to the point after talking for so long. Do you want to hear this story?” An Yu asked me.

“Yes, I’ve always been a curious person.” That’s true. If I wasn’t curious, how would I have wandered into the Hungry Ghost Tomb?

An Yu nodded and continued to tell the story.

Xuanlin’s father finally confessed everything to Xuanlin. He told Xuanlin that even if he didn’t ask, he would tell Xuanlin everything at the end of the summer vacation, just because Xuanlin was already sixteen years old.

But after his father finished telling him the story, Xuanlin was stunned. He really wanted to ask his father if he was making up the story, but he couldn’t bring himself to ask. If his father was just an ordinary villager in Shicun, he would never have made up such a story. But if he wasn’t an ordinary villager in Shicun, why had they ended up in Shicun?

Xuanlin thought of the extraordinary things in his family, and the words of his late grandfather. He had a hunch that these things, and the magical craftsmanship, were probably true.

However, it took him a long time to accept these things after receiving more than ten years of scientific education.

That night, Xuanlin couldn’t sleep. He kept thinking about what he had said.

In fact, our ancestors were just craftsmen long ago. To put it plainly, they were builders. Although they were highly skilled, they didn’t have much wealth or status.

Later, our family began to prosper. At the height of our prosperity, the prime minister of the day would come to our family to build a house.

According to the family history, the beginning of this prosperity was during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty.

This involves an ancestor of ours in the Ming Dynasty, Xuan Yi, who brought prosperity to the family because he learned this magical craft. Several successful facts made him famous, and then brought prosperity to the family.

As for where this craft came from, it is not recorded in the family history book, but is a secret passed down from mouth to mouth. Today, I am passing it on to you, and that is that our ancestor learned this craft from the immortals!

“Immortals?” When Xuanlin got to this point, my heart started pounding and I couldn’t help but shout! The Ming Dynasty, another era that makes me sensitive!

I couldn’t help but associate this with my master’s story.

Xuanlin was not too shocked by my abnormal reaction. He smiled and said, “You think it’s incredible, too, don’t you? This is how it was passed down in the family. It is said that my ancestor disappeared for a year for no reason, and after he returned, he learned this craft. Before he died, he revealed that during the year he was missing, he somehow ended up in the realm of the immortals one night. He stayed there for a very short time, but he couldn’t say how long. It might have been a long time, but it felt like a very short time. Then he wandered around and found a stone tablet. He somehow knew what was written on it. After reading it, he learned the craft.

Afterwards, Xuanlin looked at me in shock and asked me with a smile, “Are you shocked? In fact, our family doesn’t believe this either. What we analyze is that in that year, our ancestor met a folk master and taught him this craft.”

My hands were trembling a little. In order to avoid Xuanlin seeing anything unusual, I put my hands in my pockets and then asked casually, “Haha, didn’t your ancestor say where he went to become a fairy?”

“He said he knew he was in Kunlun. Isn’t that a bit ridiculous?” Xuanlin said calmly, obviously he would never take this legend seriously.

With a ‘pop’, I accidentally knocked over the cup on the table in my excitement. The two characters Kunlun were like a feather arrow, hitting my heart. I couldn’t calm down at all, but I couldn’t tell Xuanlin about it. I took a few deep breaths before saying to Xuanlin, “You know I’m a Taoist priest. When I heard Kunlun, I couldn’t help but think it was too amazing. I can’t say I believe it or not, I just think it’s too amazing.”

“Yes, I also thought it was amazing when I heard it. But it’s just a legend. Anyway, our family prospered and declined because of it, mainly because we were too greedy.” Xuanlin changed the subject without thinking.

I tried to control myself from thinking about Kunlun, and then asked, “What’s wrong?”

“Probably because of the huge amount of silver, they set up a scheme that was hated by both men and gods, which directly caused the death of the entire village. Then our family also lost many people in that incident, for reasons unknown! In the end, the family that prospered, only two of the dozens of male descendants remained, not involved in it.” Xuanlin said this. After all, it was a long time ago, and he didn’t feel much pressure when he talked about it.

He and I both knew that this was definitely a punishment from heaven.

“In fact, Xuan Yi’s ancestors left many rules and restrictions on our craft. Perhaps after a long time, we lived too well and became crazy, and forgot these ancestral teachings! After that disaster, our family declined, and nothing went well. Our children died at birth. Later, we met a wandering Taoist priest, who said that our family had committed too many sins, and that the karma was too heavy. We had already been cursed by heaven. If we wanted to continue our family, we had to give away all our wealth, then find a remote and poor place, live in seclusion for generations, and never use this craft again, so that we could escape this disaster. Xuanlin continued.

“So did your family do it?” I think that kind of request would not be followed by an ordinary family, right?

“Of course not at first. Later, after suffering a lot, and after the family line was about to be broken, they tried to do it in a desperate attempt. They didn’t expect that after that, things would settle down, and they would take root there, that is, in Shicun. No wonder the Taoist priest once said that the benevolent heavens will always leave a way out for people, and whether to take it or not is only a choice of one’s own.” Xuanlin said with a bitter smile.

I felt the same way. Yes, it is really only a matter of choice whether to accept or reject it.

After a long silence, I said, “But your family has always been reluctant to give up this craft, and it has been passed down from generation to generation. Later, after living in Shicun for a long time, my mind began to become active, and I felt that the curse of heaven was almost over, so I wanted to get out, right?

“Yes, I just wanted to leave the village, I didn’t think about using this craft again,” Xuanlin said to me.

“That’s a good idea, but who can guarantee what will happen in the future? Just as your family was once prosperous, it almost perished because the descendants could not control their greed and forgot the family’s teachings. Moreover, didn’t you also use this craft?” I said.

Xuan Lin was silent. He was obviously thinking about what I had said.

After a long time, he said, “You may be right. Who can guarantee the future? But please believe that I originally did not intend to use this skill, but I have a terminal illness anyway, and I have lost the most important person. How can I allow scum like An Yu to continue to roam the world? Instead, I would rather pay the price of my life for a different ending.”

This was the first time Xuanlin had been so emotional, and I didn’t know what to say. After all, I had helped An Yu break the game, and I had participated in it. Although in the end, the biggest reason I broke the game was that the game was too vicious and had already involved innocent people, and I had to break it.

In my eyes, An Yu’s affair was actually just a financial and sexual transaction. It was something that both parties were willing to do, and it was definitely not noble. But in this society, can you say that it is vicious? No! Just as there is light, there must be darkness. Such things have existed since ancient times, otherwise there would be no brothels.

But why did Xuanlin risk his life for such a thing?

“Do you want to hear the story and the ending?” Xuanlin suddenly said to me.