One divination a day, a trainee celestial master

A plume of white smoke, carrying the aroma of cumin, rose from the grill at the food stall.

The portly owner came over carrying two stainless steel trays and placed a plate of sizzling, oily lamb and beef skewers, along with a plate of smashed cucumber, heavily on the table.

"Everything's ready. Please enjoy your meal."

"Dad, let's have a drink." Jiang Shou picked up a skewer of sizzling mutton, took a big bite, and clinked his beer mug with his father's.

Jiang Huaiyuan was also a little tired. He tilted his head back, gulped down half a glass of ice-cold beer, and let out a long sigh of relief.

"By the way, Lao Jiang, I have something to tell you." Jiang Shou chewed on his mutton, his tone as casual as if he were talking about how cabbage was cheaper today. "I went to the Inclusive Finance Center this afternoon and got the inheritance paperwork done for the old man's 250,000 yuan debt."

"Cough...cough cough cough!" Jiang Huaiyuan choked on the mouthful of beer he had just swallowed, his face turning red. He slammed down his glass, glaring at his son: "Are you crazy?! That's 250,000 yuan! Why did you sign that? We could just have the court take that dilapidated Taoist temple away!"

"What's there to collect? That's the old man's life's work." Jiang Shou tore off a tissue and handed it over, waving his hand dismissively. "Besides, your son was lucky. Yesterday, I dug up some old things that the old man buried under a tree on the back hill. Today, I went to the antique market to have someone knowledgeable take a look. They can be exchanged for quite a bit of money, more than enough to cover this debt."

Jiang Shou didn't dare to mention the million-dollar Wen Zhengming calligraphy directly, fearing his father's heart wouldn't be able to take it, so he could only use the previous excuse about the gold-wrapped jade bracelet to brush it off.

Jiang Huaiyuan looked at him with disbelief: "Can it really sell for that much money?"

"Why would I lie to you? I'll settle the debt at the beginning of next month." Jiang Shou poured himself a full beer. "That dilapidated Taoist temple is now completely mine."

Jiang Huaiyuan sighed as he looked at his son's resolute expression and didn't press the matter further.

Jiang Shou put down his wine glass, looked at Jiang Huaiyuan's face, which was a little greasy from the smoke of the barbecue, and asked casually, "Dad, was the old man really that capable when he was young? I heard people talking about his name in the county town today."

Jiang Huaiyuan picked up a piece of smashed cucumber with his chopsticks, chewed it a couple of times, and his eyes gradually became somewhat deep.

"Your grandfather... was more than just capable." Jiang Huaiyuan exhaled a breath of alcohol. "When I was a child, there were so many important people from Qiyun County, and even the provincial capital, who would come knocking on our old house in the middle of the night in Mercedes-Benz and Santana that I couldn't count them on two hands."

"Those big bosses and high-ranking officials, when they see your grandfather, they all respectfully call him 'Master Jiang Xian'. But your grandfather has a strange temper. When he looks at feng shui or settles disputes, he sets his own rules. If he doesn't like someone, he won't even open the door for a mountain of gold and silver."

Jiang Shou listened intently: "Then why didn't he teach you any skills? I don't think there's a single proper disciple in that dilapidated Taoist temple."

Jiang Huaiyuan chuckled self-deprecatingly, picked up the cigarette case on the table, took out a cigarette, and lit it.

"He would never let me touch these things." Through the swirling smoke, Jiang Huaiyuan's voice was somewhat low. "He once told me that the karma he carried was too heavy, and it would bring misfortune to his descendants. He said that I was born with a missing soul, making me prone to attracting those unclean things."

Jiang Huaiyuan flicked his cigarette ash: "Later, he somehow found a piece of wood struck by lightning, saying it was to be placed in my life palace to replace that soul. He also said that I could only live my life as an ordinary mortal, doing down-to-earth work and living a peaceful life. If I dared to get involved in matters of the Yin and Yang realms, I would surely suffer a terrible disaster."

Jiang Shou's hand, which was holding a skewer of lamb, froze in mid-air.

"Missing a soul, replace it with lightning-struck wood?" Although this sounded eerie, Jiang Shou knew, considering the Suihan Token in his pocket and the "Disposal Record," that the old man was definitely not joking.

"So what's wrong with his body?" Jiang Shou frowned, half-jokingly voicing a long-held question. "I remember once when I was a child, I saw him taking a bath shirtless, and his back and chest were covered in dark red scars like centipedes. How did he get this condition? Could the old man have been involved in the underworld when he was young?"

Jiang Huaiyuan's movements came to a complete stop.

He stared at the half-smoked cigarette in his hand, remaining silent for a long time before slowly speaking.

You were five years old that year.

Jiang Huaiyuan's voice was tinged with undisguised bitterness: "Your mother suddenly fell ill and passed away a few days later. Not long after your mother passed away, you suddenly started having a high fever. The fever was 40 degrees Celsius and wouldn't go down. We went to the county hospital and the city hospital, but the doctors couldn't find any cause for the illness. In the end, they just told us to go home and prepare for our funeral."

Jiang Shou's heart skipped a beat. He remembered the old man's letter mentioning "a persistent high fever when he was five years old".

"Just when I was about to despair, your grandfather carried you back to the temple."

Jiang Huaiyuan took a deep drag on his cigarette, recalling that painful past: "He didn't say anything. He just locked himself in the side room for half a day. When he came out, he was carrying an old cloth bag containing some yellow paper and an old peach wood sword. He told me he was going to the Ten Thousand Mountains in western Jiangxi."

"The Ten Thousand Mountains of western Jiangxi?" Jiang Shou was taken aback. That place is still a continuous primeval forest, with treacherous terrain and few people.

"It's strange," Jiang Huaiyuan shook his head, "Ten days after your grandfather passed away, your high fever miraculously subsided. But you still lay in bed like a wooden statue, unresponsive no matter how much we called you, and your breathing was so weak we could barely feel it."

"I stayed by your side for a whole month."

Jiang Huaiyuan's eyes reddened slightly: "One month later, in the middle of the night, the door of the Taoist temple was pushed open. Your grandfather was standing outside the door."

Jiang Huaiyuan stubbed out his cigarette, his hand trembling slightly. "I'll never forget that scene. His Taoist robe was torn to shreds, and his entire body was covered in dried, blackened scabs. You could even see the bone in his right shoulder. He looked like he had just crawled out of a pile of corpses."

Jiang Shou held his breath as he listened. He could almost imagine the fierce battle that stubborn old man had gone through in the deep mountains and forests.

"He wouldn't even go to the hospital," Jiang Huaiyuan continued. "He just bandaged up the wound casually, and the next morning, he mustered all his strength to carry you to the statue of the patriarch, saying he wanted to pass on some kind of legacy to you."

Jiang Shou's heart stirred.

"You woke up that night." Jiang Huaiyuan picked up his glass and downed the rest of the beer in one gulp.

"After he was saved, he was bedridden for a full six months before he could get out of bed. It was during that time that he developed an incurable illness, coughing up blood every time it rained."

Jiang Huaiyuan looked at Jiang Shou: "I asked him what he encountered in the mountains. He only said one sentence to me: 'Things are over, at least temporarily. No matter what happens in the future, you are not allowed to interfere in those matters.'"

"From then on, his health deteriorated day by day. He stopped seeing all the big bosses who used to come to him. He stayed alone in that dilapidated Taoist temple, occasionally going down the mountain to check the feng shui of the surrounding neighborhoods and to do some weddings and funerals to earn a little money to buy rice."

Jiang Shou touched the Suihanling badge on his chest through his clothes. What exactly did the old man settle in the Ten Thousand Mountains back then? It was "temporarily" settled—what did that mean? Did it mean that thing would come back to haunt him again?

The two remained silent for a while.

"Dad." Jiang Shou raised his glass and gently touched it to his father's.

"Don't dwell on the past. This old man just wants you to live a peaceful life." Jiang Shou took a sip of his drink. "I'll take care of things from now on."

Jiang Huaiyuan smiled, said nothing more, and picked up a skewer of mutton to eat.

"Hiccup~!"

A loud burp came from the next table, followed by a familiar, boisterous boasting that instantly broke the oppressive atmosphere at Jiang Shou's table.

Jiang Shou turned his head and glanced at the table. It was the same group of burly men as before, with more than a dozen empty wine bottles lying haphazardly on the table.

"Hey! Have you heard? Something bad has happened again at that haunted house in Jinshui Bay in the south of the city!" A fat man hiccuped and slammed his hand on the table as he shouted.

"What's wrong? Didn't that middle-aged couple from out of town just move in recently because they were looking for a cheap place?" another person chimed in.

"Move in? She couldn't stand it for more than half a month!" The fat man said mysteriously. "I heard that woman gets up in the middle of the night and the TV in the living room turns on by itself, and she often hears a little girl crying!"

"Is this really that strange?"

"That's right!" The fat man took a sip of beer. "The couple was so scared that they ran out in their pajamas that very night. Later, they spent a lot of money and hired several groups of people. Taoist priests from the Taoist temple in the east and monks from the temple in the north all came and held rituals there for several days and nights."

"And the result?"

"There's nothing we can do!" The fat man shook his head and laughed. "I heard that when a Taoist priest was performing a ritual, the crystal chandelier in the living room fell down and almost killed him. Later, after the monks and Taoist priests left, this woman went to the bathroom at night, turned on the light, and saw that the bathtub was full of bright red blood! Now, no monks or Taoist priests within a ten-mile radius will take this job, no matter how much money they offer."

"That couple is now forced to rent a place to live, and they're going to the real estate agency every day to cause trouble, insisting on canceling their lease. The agency is almost calling the police, but they're also innocent; the contract was signed in black and white, and it was over 800,000 yuan cheaper than the market price at the time. They were greedy for such a huge bargain, and now they're stuck with it, even harder to sell!"

Jiang Shou listened with great interest as he munched on a lamb skewer. A haunted house in the Jinshuiwan villa district in the south of the city? In the past, he would have taken this as a ghost story. But now, with the Suihan Token in his pocket and the Dao Seed circulating in his dantian, he was unusually sensitive to this kind of gossip that was "related to his profession."

Just as he was straining his ears, ready to listen further...

A skinny guy at the next table suddenly changed the subject and tapped an empty wine bottle with his chopsticks.

"By the way, let's not talk about that unfortunate haunted house anymore." The skinny guy lowered his voice and looked around at his drinking buddies at the table with a mysterious look. "Have you guys heard about the boss Wang who runs 'Daqiang Building Materials' in Lingxia Town these past few days?"