One divination a day, a trainee celestial master

The next morning, a thin mist enveloped the eastern suburbs of the county town.

The iron gate of the Da Zhou Porcelain Factory was half-closed, and fallen leaves covered the lawn in the courtyard.

Xia Qiu, dressed in plainclothes police uniform, leaned against the police car door with a slightly furrowed brow. Beside him stood trainee officer Sun Mingzhou, munching on a meat bun while looking around.

"Captain Xia, what are we doing here in this abandoned factory so early in the morning?" Sun Mingzhou swallowed his steamed bun, somewhat puzzled. "You said you had clues about Zhao Meini's case, what clues? Who are we waiting for here?"

Sun Mingzhou had never met Jiang Shou at Li Xiuju’s house before, so he didn’t know what relationship Chen Sancan had with Jiang Shou.

Xia Qiu was somewhat embarrassed by the question. She couldn't very well tell her subordinates, "We're waiting for a Taoist priest who, in the middle of the night, calculated where the victim's head was buried," could she?

"Waiting for... a special informant." Xia Qiu's eyes darted around, and he gave a vague reply.

Sun Mingzhou nodded as if he understood, and was about to ask a few more questions when the roar of an engine suddenly came from afar.

"Rat-a-tat-tat..."

A blue three-wheeled motorcycle drove up along the dilapidated factory road.

Jiang Shou pulled out the car keys and jumped out of the car.

Today he specially wore a gray sports jacket and jeans, with sneakers on his feet, looking like a college student who got up early for a morning run.

Seeing his attire, Xia Qiu breathed a barely perceptible sigh of relief. If he had appeared today wearing that conspicuous blue Taoist robe and carrying a compass, she really wouldn't have been able to resist turning on him on the spot.

"Officer Xia, good morning," Jiang Shou greeted with a smile.

Xia Qiu didn't laugh, but turned to Sun Mingzhou and said, "Xiao Sun, go to the trunk and get the shovel and spade."

"Huh? Oh, okay." Sun Mingzhou was confused, but he still obediently went to get the tools.

While Sun Mingzhou turned around, the two stood face to face.

Jiang Shou's gaze unconsciously fell on Xia Qiu's chest. Although this woman was wearing a plainclothes police jacket today, with the zipper halfway up, the tight black undershirt underneath still perfectly outlined her impressive figure.

Jiang Shouqian coughed and quickly looked up, trying his best to maintain a righteous and serious expression.

Xia Qiu looked at him, her lips moving slightly. She had a bellyful of questions she wanted to ask about Chen Sancan's "miracle," about how he had managed it. But when the words reached her lips, she didn't know where to begin. Her pride as a police officer and her materialistic beliefs prevented her from asking a "charlatan."

Jiang Shou noticed her hesitation and, fearing that she might launch into some kind of materialistic "confess and you'll be treated leniently" lecture, he quickly preemptively struck.

"Officer Xia, don't overthink it." Jiang Shou put on a pedantic, old-fashioned look and talked nonsense in a serious tone. "Actually, Brother Chen Sancan's matter is just a simple psychological suggestion plus magnetic field interference from traditional feng shui."

I slightly adjusted the magnetic field around his hospital bed, giving him a subtle subconscious stimulus. Science—all of this is based on scientific evidence.

Xia Qiu stared at him intently, her gaze complex. She didn't believe in his magnetic field interference whatsoever.

At this moment, Sun Mingzhou ran over carrying two shovels.

"Team Leader Xia, here it is."

Xia Qiu took a shovel, not dwelling on the previous topic, and simply gestured with his chin towards Jiang Shou: "Lead the way."

Jiang Shou nodded, turned around and walked ahead: "Go southeast, it's about three kilometers."

[Three kilometers southeast across a wooden bridge, one finds a desolate grave.]

The back hill of the Da Zhou Porcelain Factory was an undeveloped wasteland, without even a decent dirt road.

The dew was heavy on this early autumn morning, and the three of them trudged through waist-deep weeds and bushes.

The mountain path was rugged and difficult to traverse. After walking for almost half an hour, Sun Mingzhou finally couldn't hold back any longer and whispered to Xia Qiu, "Team Leader Xia, who exactly is this guy? Are we just blindly following him around in these deep mountains and forests? Is he reliable? He's from the technical department..."

Xia Qiu stopped and turned around to glare at him with a warning look.

Sun Mingzhou shrank back, quickly shut his mouth, and obediently followed behind as a laborer.

After crossing another small hill, the terrain ahead began to slope downwards.

A gust of wind carrying the fishy smell of water blew by. Jiang Shou pushed aside the last clump of bushes, and a murky stream, two or three meters wide, appeared before him.

A dilapidated wooden bridge spans the stream, its planks rotten and blackened, covered in moss.

After crossing the wooden bridge, the opposite bank was a low-lying swamp, full of muddy puddles and exuding the stench of rotting leaves.

At the edge of that swamp, a small, inconspicuous mound rose up. There were no tombstones or traces of sacrifices around it; it looked like a naturally formed clod of earth, but it stood out somewhat out of place in the flat swamp.

Jiang Shou's mind sank, and he mobilized the true essence in his dantian, drawing out a wisp to force into his eyes.

"The Art of Qi Observation," activated!

The world before his eyes instantly faded. Right above that small mound, Jiang Shou could clearly see a thick, ink-like black cloud churning and twisting violently.

A distorted human face was faintly visible within the black mist. It had no eyes, only an open, empty mouth, emitting a silent, mournful wail.

This lingering resentment was tightly bound to the ground beneath the small mound by an invisible black thread, unable to break free. It could only struggle futilely in place, radiating a bone-chilling cold.

"This is it."

Jiang Shou pointed to the small mound on the opposite bank and turned to look at Xia Qiu.

The three of them carefully stepped across the creaking wooden planks of the bridge.

The muddy ground was soft; with each step, the muddy water would soak up to the top of their shoes. Xia Qiu and Sun Mingzhou trudged through the mud to the mound.

Xia Qiu squatted down, put on gloves, and carefully examined the soil on the surface of the mound.

There was a heavy rain a couple of days ago, and the surrounding soil was washed away and leveled out. Although the soil on the surface of this mound was also wet, upon closer inspection, one could still see some signs that it had been turned over and reburied, and that it was not compacted properly.

"Xiao Sun, get started." Xia Qiu stood up, took a half step back, and gripped the shovel tightly in his hand.

Sun Mingzhou also sensed that something was wrong, and without saying a word, he picked up a shovel and started digging.

"Sizzle—sizzle—"

The sound of shovels cutting into the damp soil echoed through the empty marshland.

As an informant, Jiang Shou consciously retreated to stand on a slightly drier rock a few steps away.

Xia Qiu wasn't idle either; she took another shovel and helped clear away the excavated soil.

Digging mud is hard work. After only a few strokes, fine beads of sweat appeared on Xia Qiu's forehead. Her movements were swift and efficient, each shovelful of mud carrying a sense of tenacity.

As she bent over, exerted force, and threw up dirt, her dark, tight-fitting undershirt was completely stretched open.

Jiang Shou stood on the rock, his view perfectly unobstructed.

He watched Xia Qiu swing the shovel, the astonishing arc rising and falling with the movement, each exertion of force accompanied by a highly regular and visually striking sway.

"Swoosh—" A shovelful of soil flew up and shook.

"Swoosh—" Another shovelful of dirt flew up, and then the ground shook.

Jiang Shou felt his breathing quicken uncontrollably.

He swallowed hard, quickly looked away from the bushes beside him, and silently began reciting the "Guardian of Oneness" mantra in his mind.

"If the mind is not calm, the vital energy will not manifest; if the spirit is not settled, the form will not be clear..."

Just as Jiang Shou was forcibly suppressing his inner fire by reciting Taoist mental techniques.

A muffled "thud" suddenly came from the mud pit.

Sun Mingzhou's shovel seemed to have hit something.

"Team Leader Xia, we've found it." Sun Mingzhou's voice was a little tense.

Xia Qiu immediately threw down the shovel, half-knelt in the mud, and used his hands to carefully remove the wet mud from the bottom of the pit.

A dark blue factory uniform jacket, covered in mud and soaked by rain, was revealed.

As the coat was slowly lifted, a head tied with a plastic bag and beginning to emit a faint odor came into view.