"The house speaks?"
Sha Lifei, holding the incense burner with a look of disbelief, said, "How can a house speak, could the Daoist have heard wrong?"
At this mont, Lv San had controlled a swarm of rats to scout the entire county city, and this was the only place where he found sothing amiss, so they all concentrated here.
"This is not so strange."
Another disciple from the Taixuan Orthodox Sect shook his head and said, "An object, when possessed by a yin soul, and as the years pass, can beco sentient."
"Old houses, ruined temples, ancient tombs, the sa principle applies. If soone dies inside, over a long period of ti, they may take the building as their body and turn into a pernicious entity causing trouble; dealing with such houses is most troubleso."
Having said that, he looked around, "The Fengshui of this place is diocre, and there is a vigorous human and Yang energy; the old locust tree in the courtyard is also very suspicious, I estimate it was a set up from a long ti ago."
Li Yan quickly asked, "What exactly did you hear, Daoist friend?"
The Daoist moved his ears again, his expression turning ugly, "It’s very chaotic, there are many people crying and shouting, n, won, the old and young, but I can’t make out what they are crying and shouting about."
"Many people?"
Li Yan pondered, "Is there a thod to resolve this?"
"This..."
The Daoist’s face showed so embarrassnt, "Mr. Li, do not take offense. My fellow brothers and I are mainly experts in magic platforms. We are not skilled in the art of Fengshui."
The other two disciples from the Zhushan Sect also nodded, "In such situations, our sect would usually require a Fengshui master to identify the crux before performing a ritual to seal the earth’s energy, contain evil in a ruined temple, lest it spreads and poisons further."
"Usually, for performing a ritual, one would use an ’altar’; there are ’Thirty Assembly True Altars’ for cultivation and refinent, known as ’Jing’, with ’Sixty Communication True Jing’."
"Layouts by practitioners of the Mystical Sect all over the world cannot deviate from these principles; even those locales for Corpse Refining are no exception."
"The arrangent here is certainly a form of ’Jing’. We need to find the crux and identify which kind it is before we can apply a targeted counterasure."
"I see."
Li Yan turned to look at Wang Daoxuan, "Daoist Wang, can you discern it?"
Wang Daoxuan was an expert in Fengshui, and the Western Mystical lineage excelled at warding off calamities and offering blessings, but whether he could break this formation, Li Yan was not clear.
Wang Daoxuan gazed at the old house, deep in thought, "I can give it a try, see if I can find the crux."
With that, he took a compass out of his bosom. First, he walked a circle around the old house, marking various spots. Then he went to a higher nearby place to observe the layout of surrounding streets and buildings.
In the end, with a large piece of paper, he drew and scribbled, establishing the Eight Trigrams and the Nine Palace, with various lines twisting and turning, dizzying anyone who watched.
Li Yan glanced at it and didn’t ponder further.
The various Magic thods in the world only grew more profound as ti went on. With the limited lifespan of humans, it was impossible to master everything.
Especially Fengshui, which encompasses everything.
Since he practiced Escape Skill, he had to delve into Qin Dunjia and was already wracking his brains; as for Fengshui, being clear about the basics was already quite good.
Wang Daoxuan’s paper beca increasingly chaotic.
His brow furrowed tighter and tighter.
The others, seeing this, were not in a hurry.
This house appeared ancient, already laid out long ago. That it could stand so many years in Dangyang City without being discovered surely had its mysteries.
Even more bizarre was the fact that no unusual aura leaked out.
Honestly, if not for Lv San’s spells, they wouldn’t have been able to find it.
Of course, Li Yan wasn’t idle either. He spoke to the arrest officer Yang and asked him to go to the county governnt to retrieve the old cadastral atlases.
The so-called cadastral atlases were land registries.
They arranged and connected houses, mountains, ponds, and fields in sequence and clearly marked the corresponding nas, hence the na cadastral atlases, as the land diagrams resemble the scales of a fish.
Originating in the Northern Song, they are still in use to this day.
The Great Xuan Dynasty had decreed that anyone constructing houses in the city must register with the governnt. No matter how many tis the property was sold, the transaction details of both buyer and seller would be recorded on the cadastral atlases, and even guarantors were required.
Perhaps they could find so clues from these.
Arrest officer Yang did not dare to neglect this and quickly took people back to the county governnt, asking the archivist to sift through the cadastral atlases from the specially-stored archives.
Once the atlases were brought over in a hurry, Yang’s face showed so embarrassnt, "Young Hero Li, there is so problem with the cadastral atlases."
"The records of this house are too old, not included in the new atlases. After several heavy rains and leaks, along with damage by insects and rodents, I’m afraid we might not be able to find out much."
It was not yet dawn, and as Li Yan looked at them with the light of a torch, he imdiately shook his head slightly.
The cadastral atlases were a gray and dusty ss, not just because of insect damage, leaving many holes and debris, but also water-damaged, with many pages stuck together.
He carefully peeled apart the sticky atlases. Indeed, the writing on them was sowhat blurred and could only be intermittently recognized.
"In the second year of Kai, the deed holder is Yu XX, thanks to the court XX, got the old house located in Dangyang City X, XXX, to display the honor..."
Li Yan looked it over with a furrowed brow and handed it to Households Commander Zheng beside him.
Households Commander Zheng also inspected it carefully, and thoughtfully said, "This should be in the second year of Kaiyuan, the second year after the establishnt of the Great Xuan Dynasty."
"As I know, just after the wars, with desolation everywhere, the court was bestowing titles and properties generously. Whoever had made contributions to the state was given fields and estates."
"The Yu family also received court honors... There should be clues in the county annals."
Without a word, arrest officer Yang then got the "Dangyang County Annals."
Indeed, they found a clue.
The na recorded there was Yu Shiqing.
"So, it is him!"
Households Commander Zheng suddenly realized and said with a grave face, "This man had so reputation, originally an official of the forr Great Xing Dynasty, who didn’t want to serve. The court, to show benevolence, did not settle accounts with them and instead bestowed land properties for them to retire."
"But this man’s son, Yu Wantong, later entered the Green Mountain and beca a general of the Longxiang Army, rebelling and was executed along with his whole family."
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