Chapter 032: The Feng Shui Master

Afterward, Gu Huaishan led Lin Le and the others along the broad, smooth mountain road, bringing them up to the Dragon's Breath Mountain Villa perched atop the summit. All the way, Lin Le, with his acute perception, carefully sensed the shifting currents of spiritual energy in their surroundings.

When they were less than thirty meters from the villa’s gates, Lin Le suddenly halted. There was no mistake—the boundary between the waxing and waning of spiritual energy was right at this level!

“Lin, is something wrong?” Gu Huaishan asked with a puzzled look.

“Oh, it’s nothing. Let’s go in,” Lin Le replied.

On the way, as Xu Xi’er chatted with Gu Huaishan and Guo Zhao, Gu Ya quietly slipped to Lin Le’s side.

“Truly worthy of your reputation, Young Master Lin—every time you bring a different girl,” she teased.

Lin Le smiled. “Miss Gu, your words sound almost jealous.”

“Jealous? Don’t be ridiculous! Why would I be jealous of you? You’re flattering yourself,” Gu Ya retorted quickly.

“Oh, is that so? Perhaps,” Lin Le replied breezily, then strode ahead.

For some reason, his offhanded manner only made Gu Ya more unwilling to let the matter rest.

“The last time it was your supposed disciple; now what about this beautiful Miss Xu? Don’t tell me you’re going to claim she’s your sister or something?” Gu Ya pressed, catching up.

“Well, that’s not it. She’s just my… little sweetheart…” Lin Le replied with a laugh.

“You…” This time, Gu Ya was left completely speechless.

As they spoke, the group arrived at the mountain-top villa’s entrance. The villa itself was exquisitely grand, far surpassing anything the Lin family had owned at Shengshi Hua Court. In recent days, Gu Huaishan had hired professionals to thoroughly clean the villa inside and out, making it appear all the more luxurious and imposing.

Yet in stark contrast to the villa’s magnificence was the scene before its gates: the parched, yellowing vegetation, and even several camphor trees near the entrance had withered entirely, their branches and leaves lifeless as if long dead.

Xu Xi’er had been praising the grandeur of Lin Le’s new home, but fell silent upon seeing the desiccated plants. Once the villa doors were opened, the sight inside was even more jarring—almost no sign of living greenery in the courtyard, only withered, yellow plants, a heavy pall of death over everything.

After standing for a moment, Gu Huaishan and Guo Zhao both felt a stifling pressure settle over their hearts. Fortunately, as martial artists, their robust constitutions allowed them to endure it.

Xu Xi’er and Gu Ya, however, were not so lucky.

“Brother Lin Le, I feel a bit dizzy,” Xu Xi’er murmured, pressing her forehead.

“Don’t worry,” Lin Le said. He took her hand, channeling a thread of true energy from his own body into hers through her palm. Xu Xi’er immediately felt a wave of clarity and energy; her dizziness vanished at once.

“Gu Ya, how are you feeling?” Lin Le turned to her.

Gu Ya, still smarting from Lin Le’s earlier teasing and now seeing him openly hold Xu Xi’er’s hand, was already annoyed. She answered offhandedly, “I’m fine, I’m not so delicate…”

But her face betrayed her—her eyes were unfocused, her composure slipping.

“Stubborn,” Lin Le said, and without another word, took her hand as well, channeling a thread of true energy into her.

“You…” Gu Ya was startled. As the pampered daughter of the Gu family, she was nearly twenty yet had never been so close with anyone. She opened her mouth to scold him for his boldness, but as soon as she felt the true energy entering her, surprise overtook her anger.

So this was the power of martial true essence—strange indeed.

With the infusion of true energy, both Xu Xi’er and Gu Ya’s discomfort eased considerably. Only then did Lin Le turn his attention to the courtyard.

Behind him, Gu Huaishan said, “Earlier, I had a feng shui master friend take a look. He said the spiritual energy atop Dragon’s Breath Mountain has been devoured by deathly yin energy, leaving it depleted—hence this scene. Incidentally, I’ve invited that feng shui master here today, but he had other matters to attend to, so he’ll arrive later.”

“Deathly yin energy?” Lin Le echoed in surprise.

“That’s right. I later looked into it: in ancient times, a great battle took place atop this mountain, turning the summit into a burial ground. Although the remains were properly relocated during the mountain’s development, the spiritual energy here was thoroughly disrupted,” Gu Huaishan explained.

“Is that also what your feng shui friend said?” Lin Le asked.

“Yes,” Gu Huaishan nodded, then added, “Lin, I heard from Gu Ya that you’re very skilled in the arts of geomancy. What do you think of my friend’s theory?”

“If you want my opinion, your friend’s words are utter nonsense,” Lin Le declared bluntly.

“What?!” Gu Huaishan and Guo Zhao were taken aback by this appraisal.

“Lin—” Gu Huaishan began, but just then, a voice sounded from beyond the courtyard.

“Who is this arrogant brat, spouting such drivel here?”

Everyone turned to see an elderly Taoist standing at the gate, clad in grey robes, his hair bound with a bagua hairpin, and ten-direction shoes on his feet. His beard and hair were snow-white, giving him a fairy-like air, but the anger in his eyes was directed squarely at Lin Le.

Lin Le’s brows furrowed—not at the Taoist’s rebuke, but at the aura he sensed from the man. Foundation Establishment? Just like himself—a cultivator!

Before joining the special bureau, Lin Le had never believed in the existence of real cultivators. Had anyone told him people practiced immortal arts, he would’ve deemed them insane. But after three years at the bureau, witnessing countless inexplicable events, and inheriting the Lingxiao Method from the memories of the Lingxiao Emperor, Lin Le believed in cultivation without a shadow of a doubt.

Still, he hadn’t expected to encounter a fellow practitioner here in this small coastal city. Though the other’s cultivation was shallow—a novice at Foundation Establishment compared to Lin Le’s own advancement—it was enough to surprise him.

“And this is…?” Lin Le inquired.

“Ah, Lin, this is the feng shui master I mentioned—Master Liang Qiuyang!” Gu Huaishan introduced. “Master Liang, this is—”

Before he could finish, Liang Qiuyang waved him off coldly, saying, “Such an ignorant and reckless youth is not worth knowing!”

Clearly, Liang Qiuyang was still incensed at Lin Le’s dismissal of his conclusions as nonsense.

Gu Huaishan was embarrassed. He had hoped to introduce the two and perhaps have Master Liang examine Lin Le’s villa, but before a single friendly word passed between them, they were already at odds.

“Master Liang, you misunderstand—my friend Lin didn’t mean it that way…” Gu Huaishan tried to mediate.

“I meant exactly what I said!” Lin Le interrupted, his voice firm. “I’m not ignorant, nor am I speaking carelessly. Your claims about yin energy destroying spiritual energy are pure nonsense!”

“You…” Liang Qiuyang was so furious he could barely speak, pointing at Lin Le in outrage. His reputation in the city’s feng shui circles was second to none, well-respected even in the capital. Never before had he been contradicted so rudely, especially by a mere youth of seventeen or eighteen. For a man so proud, this was intolerable.

“Very well, I’d like to hear your so-called wisdom—why do you say my words are nonsense?” Liang Qiuyang barked.

“You want to hear it? Then I’ll explain,” Lin Le replied coolly. “There is such a thing as yin energy devouring spiritual energy, but I have never heard of ordinary human deaths generating yin so powerful it could drain the spiritual energy from an entire mountain! If what you say were true, wouldn’t every battlefield in China be a wasteland where nothing grows? And even if, by some stretch, the yin here was that potent, could it really affect the operation of automobiles? Furthermore, as a feng shui master, you must be adept at reading auras. Haven’t you noticed that the spiritual energy everywhere on Dragon’s Breath Mountain is abundant except at the summit? At the boundary where the energy fades, the density doesn’t decrease, but actually peaks—spiritual energy is unusually concentrated there. Isn’t that a strange phenomenon? Surely you’ve noticed.”

Liang Qiuyang was stunned, his expression growing more and more astonished. In truth, he had observed these anomalies, but had dismissed his doubts at the time. Now, as Lin Le laid them out one by one, these subtle inconsistencies loomed large—glaring flaws he could not refute.

Reflecting on it, perhaps it was precisely because the phenomena atop Dragon’s Breath Mountain were so abnormal and inexplicable that he had made such a rash conclusion. Now, Liang Qiuyang’s curiosity was piqued—what was the real cause behind these strange occurrences?

“You see so clearly—have you already discerned the reason for the Dragon’s Breath Mountain anomaly?” he asked incredulously.