Yujing City, 381 Bright Road, Jiangnan Province Daoist Alliance.
At 8 a.m., as soon as Zhang Fan arrived at the office, Old Yu dragged him away in the Five Spirits Rainbow Light car and brought him here.
"Even in prison you can get your sentence reduced, but at work it’s only overti... It’s not even working hours yet."
Zhang Fan checked his phone—only 8:30.
"Old Yu, why’d you bring here?"
"Boss’s orders." Yu Fu parked the car in the lot, searching for a spot as he spoke.
"I heard it’s because the Wuwei Sect has been causing a scene lately, and all the Daoist Alliances are short on people." From the side, Little Gourd whispered quietly.
With manpower shortages, the Daoist Alliances everywhere had started borrowing experts from all the major mountain sects and Daoist temples.
Xia Weisheng and Po Jie, for example, were borrowed from Zhenwu Mountain by the Daoist Alliance. Since the Thirteen Zodiacs kept popping up in Jiangnan Province, they’d co all the way from Jiangbei Province.
"What’s that got to do with us?" Zhang Fan couldn’t help but ask.
"Boss’s business isn’t just registered at the Industry and Comrce Bureau—you also gotta report it at the Daoist Alliance." Little Gourd said casually.
If you want your business to do well, you gotta run to governnt offices regularly.
The Daoist Alliance is an official organization, after all.
"When you need to pay, you pay. When they need your help, you can’t just pretend you don’t hear."
"Little Gourd, you’re talkative today." Old Yu parked, pulled a cigarette from his pocket, and lit up.
"You guys go ahead."
"Old Yu, you’re not coming in with us?" Zhang Fan asked offhandedly.
"Go on, Old Yu doesn’t like places like this." Little Gourd opened the door and urged.
From the outside, the Jiangnan Province Daoist Alliance looked like a small Chinese-style courtyard. Without the sign at the door, you’d think it was just soone’s house.
But standing at the entrance, Zhang Fan imdiately sensed that the energy here was extraordinary.
In the yard stood a phoenix tree, lush and spreading wide like a canopy, the air all around was noticeably cool and refreshing.
"The feng shui layout here... an actual spring with living water," Zhang Fan muttered softly to himself.
"Tsk tsk, Zhang Fan, your eye for this stuff is getting more and more brutal," Little Gourd couldn’t help but praise.
Yujing City—Zijin Mountain crouching like a dragon to the east, Stone Mountain a tiger to the west, Gilded River to the south, Black Tortoise Lake to the north. That just happens to match the Four Symbols: Cyan Dragon, White Tiger, Vermilion Bird, and Black Tortoise. For this city alone, it’s been seen as a blessed land of royal qi by generations of geomancers...
But when you look at the map of Hua Country, Yujing City’s location turns out to be the Death Gate in the Nine Palaces Eight Trigrams.
So Yujing is also called Jinling—Jinling, Jinling, the natural tomb of emperors.
The Jiangnan Province Daoist Alliance happens to sit at the Life Gate of Yujing—the living hidden in the dead, yin giving birth to yang, the wonder of endless life, a wellspring amid death.
Because of that, this courtyard, while not on any famous mountain or great river, is calm in a busy city, cleansing the dust of the mundane world—a perfect spot for cultivating Dao and studying the profound.
"In all of Yujing, there’s probably no place better for cultivation than here," Little Gourd muttered solemnly.
The last ti he’d been to the Jiangnan Province Daoist Alliance, he was just a kid following his Maoshan master.
"Let’s go."
Zhang Fan stepped forward, entered the big gate, and saw a young Daoist man sweeping the bright front yard.
Nearby, at a doorway, two middle-aged won ca out and respectfully bowed to a middle-aged Daoist behind them.
"Taoist Qingfeng, now that you’ve read their birth charts, we’re relieved. You have to co for a drink at the wedding," one of the won said sincerely.
"They read birth charts for people here?!" Zhang Fan’s face showed a trace of surprise.
"Daoists reading charts, divining marriage... pretty normal, isn’t it?"
Little Gourd said offhandedly, grabbing Zhang Fan’s right hand and taking a look.
"I can read a little for you too... see here..."
"See what?"
"Little finger past two joints—husband and wife, separate beds."
"What does that an?" Zhang Fan was baffled.
"Straighten your hand. If your pinky passes two joints on your ring finger, after you get married, you’ll definitely sleep in separate beds from your partner..." Little Gourd said flatly.
"So that ans..."
"Either you’ll be living apart in different places, or your feelings just aren’t working out." Little Gourd acted all mysterious.
"There’s such a saying? With how slick you talk, how co you haven’t found yourself a girl?" Zhang Fan shot him a look.
"In love, talk is useless. It’s useful for everything else."
"You..."
Zhang Fan paused for a mont, then stared with big eyes and was actually speechless for once.
"Co on, let see for you..."
Saying that, Little Gourd held Zhang Fan’s right hand and straightened his fingers one by one.
"Who said you could look? I an... isn’t the Daoist Alliance an official organization? Why do they do this stuff?" Zhang Fan looked at the middle-aged won just sent off, full of confusion.
In his eyes, reading birth charts and matchmaking was a warlock’s business—not sothing that should happen here.
"You think just anyone can co here for a reading?" Little Gourd shook his head.
"Ever heard that saying?"
"What saying?"
"Here, laughing and chatting are scholars; the comings and goings, never common folk. The people who get their birth charts read here are all rich or powerful."
Before he finished, Little Gourd pointed at a sign hanging on the nearby room’s door. On it was a big red character: ’Doctor!’
"The Daoist doctors here are amazing too..."
"Their dical skills are divine, especially good at solving all sorts of ’forks in the road’... You want them to check you out?" Little Gourd grinned aningfully.
"Get lost! Who the hell has a ’fork’?" Zhang Fan rolled his eyes.
"Are you two from ’Night is not bright’?"
Just then, a gentle voice ca from the side, pulling Zhang Fan’s attention back.
Zhang Fan turned to see a woman approaching. She was just over twenty, tall, fair-skinned, with her long hair in a bun, dressed in a Daoist Robe, her bearing exceptional.
User Comments
0 comments from readers