Chapter Ten: The Dragon-Seeking Ruler

Half a month later, Teacher Xing informed me to visit the Daoist sanctuary, saying that my decree, official seal, and ritual implements had arrived.

I eagerly hurried there. Upon arrival, Teacher Xing instructed me to first offer incense in gratitude to Heaven and Earth before receiving the decree. Holding three incense sticks, I silently thanked the heavens.

Finally, kneeling on the ground with both hands raised high, Teacher Xing lifted his hand, and a bright yellow decree glowing with golden light descended into my palm.

Teacher Xing told me to use my mind to store the ritual implements, official seal, and decree into the armory. Each celestial being who descends has a weapon repository to store items, which can be retrieved when needed.

Yang Yue sat behind the tea table, continuously fiddling with a brass-colored, foldable, elongated object topped with a lifelike dragon head.

“What is that?” I asked curiously, moving closer.

“This is called a Dragon-Seeking Ruler. I recently ordered it online,” Yang Yue said affectionately, unable to part with it. “The day it arrived, it rained heavily from the sky.”

Many people only know about the Dragon-Seeking Ruler from watching “Detective Chinatown.” Some think it’s a scam, but in truth, each ruler contains a dragon spirit. Every ruler is inhabited by a dragon spirit after being made. It can be used for acupuncture point detection and answering questions. The higher the spiritual cultivation of the dragon spirit inside, the more accurate the answers.

When the Dragon-Seeking Ruler was first brought back, it contained only a juvenile dragon about a dozen years old. After Teacher Xing reported it to Heaven, he replaced the young dragon with an ancient great dragon several tens of millions of years old. These days, Yang Yue has been harmonizing with the great dragon inside, and the ruler’s accuracy has already exceeded ninety percent.

“Why did you suddenly decide to get this?” I asked.

Yang Yue put down the ruler, her expression serious. “I’ve been feeling something’s wrong lately.”

Her health had been deteriorating; the area where she had surgery often ached so severely she couldn’t sleep through the night. She had a strong intuition that someone, or more than one person, was attacking her body.

After bringing the Dragon-Seeking Ruler home, she wrote down the names of suspicious people around her and investigated one by one. The ruler pointed to three names: Feng Huyuan, Xu Linlin, and Zhao Zhixia.

Feng Huyuan was a fairly well-known feng shui master in City B, specializing in fortune-telling and geomancy. He was the master who introduced Yang Yue to this line of work, and she had been grateful to him.

But over time, she realized Feng Huyuan was hypocritical and insincere. When he helped others with fortune-telling and birth charts, he would secretly record their birth data and use mystical methods to divert their wealth, health, and lifespan, then either sell them at high prices or keep them for himself.

One must understand that a person’s lifespan, fortune, and health are extremely valuable.

Moreover, Feng Huyuan took in many female disciples. Yang Yue had never understood why until he began making advances toward her.

Unwilling, Yang Yue parted ways with Feng Huyuan. He had long secretly siphoned off her lifespan, health, and wealth. Many of the malevolent things attached to her body were his doing. He never intended for her to truly recover.

“I never expected Feng Huyuan to be such a despicable man. At first, I thought he was a respected elder,” Yang Yue said. She once took me to meet her master—a man in his sixties wearing a Zhongshan suit, who looked like a sage. To think he engaged in such vile deeds behind the scenes.

Suddenly, I recalled Feng Huyuan had once read my birth chart. My eyes widened, and I anxiously asked, “What about me? Did he siphon my fortune too?”

“I already asked about you. Yes,” Yang Yue nodded gravely. “That vile old man took your fortune, lifespan, and health as well.”

“That rotten old man,” I gritted my teeth.

“Who is this Xu Linlin?” I pointed to the second name on the list.

Yang Yue blinked, signaling me to ask Teacher Xing. When I looked at Teacher Xing, a rare embarrassed expression flashed across his face. He placed his fist by his lips and cleared his throat, saying, “That… was all before Teacher Yang arrived…”

Xu Linlin was initially a devotee Feng Huyuan brought to the sanctuary. She was also the Jade Emperor’s daughter. The first time Teacher Xing saw Xu Linlin, a vivid scene appeared in his mind: Xu Linlin in red clothes, tearfully kneeling before the Jade Emperor, earnestly begging to descend to the mortal realm to marry Xing Zhengang, hoping the Jade Emperor would grant their union. But she was refused.

Later, Xu Linlin risked breaking heavenly laws by fighting guards at the Southern Heavenly Gate just to come down and find him.

Moved by her devotion and wishing to make amends, Teacher Xing entered a relationship with Xu Linlin. But soon he realized they were incompatible. Xu Linlin smoked, drank, had tattoos, got into fights, and swore—a behavior reminiscent of a gangster woman. Teacher Xing found it intolerable.

Later, seeing Teacher Xing’s poverty, Xu Linlin willingly became the kept woman of a wealthy tycoon after meeting him. Less than six months later, the tycoon grew tired and discarded her. She tried to return to Teacher Xing, but by then Yang Yue was by his side, and Xu Linlin was never given another chance.

“Because of that, she hates you,” I said, finding her truly ridiculous. She was the one who pushed Teacher Xing away, yet now she resented him for having someone else.

“She probably thinks that without me, she might have had a chance. Also—” Yang Yue gestured to her face. “Don’t you think something’s wrong with my face?”

Yang Yue’s once delicate features had grown somewhat distorted. Looking closer, it seemed as if a transparent layer of clay had been smeared on her face, making it unlike before.

“What’s going on?” I asked, puzzled.

Teacher Xing explained, “Yang Yue’s face has been switched!”

“Ah, faces can be changed?!” I was incredulous.

“Xu Linlin used to help others with divinations but later stopped due to health reasons. She apprenticed under shamans in Singapore and Thailand who performed face-swapping magic for her. Feng Huyuan and Xu Linlin often did dirty dealings together. Feng Huyuan also gave Xu Linlin Yang Yue’s birth chart.” Teacher Xing’s face darkened, and his tone grew somber.

Due to long-term backlash from casting evil spells on others, Xu Linlin suffered severe retribution. At first, it appeared on her face: black marks of resentment spread all over, making her once fairly pretty face ugly and rough. She wore heavy makeup year-round to hide the dark patches beneath thick foundation.

The very first time Xu Linlin saw Yang Yue’s fair and exquisite face at Feng Huyuan’s place, she felt a deep jealousy and inferiority.

What Xu Linlin did in the mortal world was nothing compared to what she really did to Yang Yue in the divine realm.

One night, Yang Yue’s chest suffered another painful episode, agonizing throughout the night. Teacher Xing, anxious, tried to treat her and discovered a strangely shaped flower, like a phantom, continuously blooming and folding on her chest.

Sensing something was wrong, Teacher Xing closed his eyes and saw a scene in his mind.

In the divine realm, outside Yang Yue’s chamber, Xu Linlin cautiously looked around. Seeing no one, she quietly opened the door and slipped inside. She rummaged through the wardrobe, taking out an entire set of Yang Yue’s clothes, including underwear, then flew on clouds to the demon realm.

At the demon realm’s entrance, a man was waiting for her. He was clearly a demon lord, and a toad-turned-demon at that. Teacher Xing recognized him as Yang Yue’s ex-husband on earth, Li Qiang.

“Did you bring the items?” Li Qiang hurriedly asked Xu Linlin.

“All of them, from inside out, just like you said. Is your formation ready?” Xu Linlin entered the demon realm with Li Qiang. The demon realm also had many independent mansions; Li Qiang’s house was among them.

Li Qiang had a flower garden in his mansion. Xu Linlin laid out all of Yang Yue’s stolen clothes there, surrounded by a circle of black stones arranged into a formation. Li Qiang looked pleased, closed his eyes, and murmured a long string of demon realm incantations. After finishing, he made several hand seals and pressed down. Suddenly, half a heart, half a liver, and a spirit pearl glowing with a multicolored glaze appeared hovering above the clothes.

Li Qiang squatted and buried a black seed in the flower bed. The seed quickly sprouted, growing stems, and soon a huge, strangely shaped black flower bloomed at the top, emitting a stench like rotting corpses.

Xu Linlin pinched her nose in disgust. “What’s that smell? It’s awful.”

“Don’t underestimate this flower. The Titan Arum is a sacred object in the demon realm. I had a hard time getting the seed,” Li Qiang said.

Xu Linlin still looked uneasy. “Are you sure it will firmly bind the Yang Yue in the mortal world?”

A malicious glint flashed in Li Qiang’s eyes. “As long as she dares to think about separating from me, the Titan Arum’s poison will activate immediately, making her suffer worse than death.”

The vision ended. A surge of anger rose from Teacher Xing’s heart. No wonder Yang Yue’s health had deteriorated so badly. It seemed from the moment she was born in the mortal world, Xu Linlin had cast all sorts of evil spells on her. That toad demon was deliberately arranged by Xu Linlin to be Yang Yue’s husband. To prevent Yang Yue from leaving him, a demonic flower was even planted in her chest, explaining why she would fall ill whenever she thought of divorce.

Teacher Xing’s spirit flew to the demon realm, uprooted and burned the Titan Arum, and retrieved Yang Yue’s clothes, half a heart, half a liver, and the spirit pearl. Because they had been in the demon realm too long, these items were tainted with impure and filthy energies. He purified them with the Samadhi True Fire and the Guanyin Divine Water before returning them to Yang Yue’s body.

That night, the pain in Yang Yue’s chest gradually subsided, and she finally fell into a deep sleep.