One divination a day, a trainee celestial master

As night falls, Cuiwei Mountain is enveloped in the dim sound of pine trees.

In the kitchen of Shouyi Temple's backyard, a dim light bulb illuminated the rising fumes.

Jiang Shou was quite familiar with the area. He went specifically to the strategic reserve pond in the backyard and used a landing net to catch the fattest crucian carp.

Heat oil in a wok, then sauté scallions, ginger, and garlic until fragrant. Fresh pork liver and pork kidneys with slits are tossed in the hot oil, coated with a rich, glossy red sauce.

He slowly pan-fried the large crucian carp over low heat until both sides were golden brown and the edges of the skin were crispy and charred.

Just as the dishes were placed on the square wooden table in the pavilion, that orange-clad figure arrived as expected.

Fat Tiger squatted upright on the edge of the table, looking at the crucian carp with a caramelized aroma in his special little dish, and then at the half-plate of stir-fried liver and kidney next to him.

Surprisingly, it didn't rush to grab the food today. Instead, it lowered its head and sniffed, its little pink nose twitching twice. Then, it slowly and deliberately tore off a piece of crispy fish meat, its chewing movements even exuding a touch of elegance.

After finishing the fish, it ate the pig liver on the plate clean, and finally stuck out its tongue to lick the sauce off the edge of the plate until it shone.

Jiang Shou, shoveling rice into his bowl, watched the fat cat, who was now washing its face with its paws after a satisfying meal, chuckle and leaned closer: "Senior Fat Tiger, are you satisfied with tonight's cooking?"

Fat Tiger stopped washing his face and gave a haughty "meow," which was considered an affirmative answer.

"Well..." Jiang Shou rubbed his hands together, a fawning smile spreading across his face. He lowered his voice and tentatively asked, "Since you're enjoying your meal, senior, could you please show me the way? Besides that old plaque, is there anywhere else in this temple where the patriarch or some old man's secret manuals or magical artifacts are hidden? Like that 'Taoist Arts Treatise' or something? If you know, just nod, or point in a direction with your paw..."

Before he could finish speaking, Fatty Tiger glanced at Jiang Shou, opened his mouth, and let out a fishy-smelling burp right in front of him. Then he turned around, his furry, chubby buttocks facing him, and with elegant cat-like steps, swayed and waddled into the shadows of the main hall, not even sparing him a meow.

"Fine, you've taken advantage of me and now you don't care anymore." Jiang Shou rolled his eyes, then reluctantly picked up his rice bowl and continued eating.

After clearing away the dishes, Jiang Shou returned to his room. Instead of going to sleep, he sat cross-legged on the bed and began circulating his inner energy.

After a long while of practice, I felt the [Guardian of Oneness - Dao Seed] in my dantian. It was still slowly rotating tirelessly, and the faint but pure true essence was dripping down to the bottom of my dantian.

This feeling of constantly growing stronger as long as he was alive made Jiang Shou sleep very soundly.

……

The next morning. Sunlight pierced through the thin mist and shone on the bluestone slabs of Shouyi Temple.

Jiang Shou sat cross-legged under the old locust tree, closing his eyes and breathing deeply. With each breath, the pale golden "Dao Seed" in his dantian rotated steadily. Strands of pure true essence were extracted and flowed into the olive-sized dantian at the bottom.

One cycle of Qi circulation was completed. Jiang Shou opened his eyes, exhaled a breath of stale air, stood up and walked into the main hall, where he offered incense to the Three Pure Ones and the old man in the side hall.

As he watched the wisps of smoke rise, Jiang Shou reached into his robes and pulled out the dark, black Suihan Token.

As I gently stroked the surface of the wooden plaque with my fingertips, accompanied by a familiar "rustling" sound, four lines of ancient, simple calligraphy, glowing with a bluish light, slowly emerged on the back of the plaque.

Jiang Shou looked down, and with just one glance, the relaxed expression on his lips vanished.

[Kun Hexagram, First Line, Sixth Line] [A headless, vengeful ghost, its obsession hard to dispel. Deep in the abyss and mire, yin energy gathers.] [Three thousand meters southeast of the old factory of the Great Zhou Dynasty, across the wooden bridge, lies an abandoned grave.] [It is advisable to retrieve the head, reunite the body and the corpse, to appease the vengeful spirit.]

"A headless vengeful ghost..."

Jiang Shou frowned slightly. The Kun hexagram belongs to Yin, and the first six lines represent an extremely heavy Yin energy. The information in this hexagram... is it about Zhao Meini, the porcelain factory worker whose head was chopped off, whose resentment is trapped in the mud because her body was separated from her head?

"The old factory of the Great Zhou Dynasty, three kilometers southeast, past the wooden bridge, lies a desolate graveyard..."

Sui Hanling was forcing him to follow up on the headless female corpse case at the Da Zhou porcelain factory!

Two days ago at the county hospital, he had just pulled Chen Sancan, the only eyewitness, back from the brink of death. Today, this follow-up task was immediately assigned.

Jiang Shou held the wooden plaque, lost in thought.

Finding the head? That's easy for him to say. He's just a half-baked Taoist priest who started out as a food deliveryman. He can't exactly go out into the middle of nowhere in broad daylight with a shovel, dig someone's head out, and then go to the police station with the head in his hand, can he?

"We can't force this; we have to leverage the police's influence."

Jiang Shou put away the wooden plaque and decided to first sound him out.

……

10:00 AM, Nanxi Lane, Qixia Town.

Jiang Shou, dressed in ordinary casual clothes, knocked on the Zhou family's door.

It was Li Xiuju who opened the door. When she saw Jiang Shou, she was taken aback for a moment, then a bright smile bloomed on her face, and she quickly opened the door wide.

"Little Celestial Master! Come in quickly, come in quickly!" Li Xiuju was washing clothes in the yard, and her complexion was much better than it had been two days ago.

"Sister-in-law, I just happened to be passing by and came to see how Brother Chen is recovering." Jiang Shou said with a smile as he walked into the courtyard.

"Much better. Yesterday afternoon, Sancan's uncle was at the hospital with him and said that Sancan was able to drink some rice porridge. The doctor said that after a few more days of observation, he can be transferred back to the town's health center." Li Xiuju poured Jiang Shou a cup of hot tea, her gratitude overflowing. "We really owe a debt to Master Jiang. You are truly a great benefactor to our family."

Jiang Shou held his teacup, smiled, took a sip, and casually steered the conversation back on track.

"Sister-in-law, now that Brother Chen is awake, what's the outcome of the police investigation into the porcelain factory case? Who was so ruthless?"

When this was mentioned, Li Xiuju's smile faded, she sighed, and pulled over a plastic stool to sit down.

"We got the information. The murderer... was Liu Dayong from the second workshop of their factory."

"Liu Dayong?" Jiang Shou pretended to be all ears.

"He's an honest man." Li Xiuju shook her head, her tone tinged with a hint of regret. "When the police came to arrest him, he was just staying in his rented, dilapidated bungalow. The door wasn't even locked, and there was half a bottle of Erguotou (a type of Chinese liquor) on the dining table. He had no intention of running away at all."

As Li Xiuju recounted the story, a repressive and twisted tragedy was slowly pieced together before Jiang Shou.

Liu Dayong is a bachelor in his thirties. He is taciturn and not good at speaking. At the factory, he usually just works and eats in silence. But he has a fatal weakness: he is sentimental and has an extremely strong possessive desire.

Two years ago, he became infatuated with Zhao Meini, a newly hired female factory worker specializing in body painting. Zhao Meini was beautiful and had a sweet tongue; a few kind words were enough to make Liu Dayong lose his mind. From then on, Liu Dayong spent almost all of his monthly salary on Zhao Meini, except for a few hundred yuan for food. He bought her bags, clothes, and treated her to meals; she granted his every wish.

"Just two months ago, Zhao Meini ran to Liu Dayong crying, saying that her mother, who lived far away in her hometown, had been diagnosed with stomach cancer and needed to have surgery at a large hospital in the city. She urgently needed 300,000 yuan for the surgery," Li Xiuju sighed.

"Where would Liu Dayong, a poor migrant worker, get so much money? But seeing Zhao Meini crying her eyes out, he gritted his teeth, took his ID card, and borrowed from more than a dozen online lending platforms, even resorting to high-interest loans, until he managed to scrape together 300,000 yuan, which he then transferred to her."