The Night Watcher of Great Jing - Chapter 14

Lu Zhao brightened when he heard that Zhao Li had found a lead.

He sent two commandants to a carriage company to rent two carriages and several dun-colored horses, then took Old Yi toward Mount Jin.

The mountain lay south of Shengjing.

Carriage wheels rolled and hooves thundered all the way to its foot.

Beyond the official road stretched nothing but brambles and abandoned graves. The wagons could go no farther, so they continued on foot.

Pale-faced and profoundly relieved, Zhao Li climbed out of the carriage.

Its wooden wheels had no suspension, and the road was terrible. The jolting had nearly shaken her stomach out.

She looked enviously at Lu Zhao as he swung down from his horse and resolved that the first thing she would do was learn to ride.

“Are you all right?” Lu Zhao asked quickly when he saw her complexion.

“I’m fine!”

One commandant remained to guard the carriages. Led by Old Yi, the others stumbled through the rough ground toward the mountain.

Old Yi feared he might lead them on a fruitless trip and be hauled into prison for “tea.” He examined every fork with great care.

After a long walk, he finally saw a distant mountain shaped like a crouching tiger and breathed a sigh of relief.

“It’s over there.”

Zhao Li was already weak-kneed from walking with an injury.

When she heard him, she looked up and cursed inwardly.

“White Tiger Biting the Blade?”

“What?” Lu Zhao had not heard clearly and asked her to repeat it.

Zhao Li had no time to answer. She hurried forward and looked into the distance.

The rocky mountain resembled a crouching tiger stretched along the horizon.

A canal, white as a bolt of silk, passed directly through its mouth.

Zhao Li had never been a top student in geomancy. She had been terrible at both aura-reading and prophetic symbolism.

Yet years of exposure had taught her to recognize certain things.

The terrain before her formed an unmistakable White Tiger Biting the Blade—an arrangement of tremendous evil.

In ancient times, such formations were commonly used to suppress exceptionally wicked monsters.

Burying a human here was like laying them inside a tiger’s mouth. Towering baleful energy would scorch them every day.

Even the gentlest person would eventually be driven mad.

Water also represented yin. This place had become a starvation ground that concealed and nurtured yin energy.

Placing a corpse here was like laying a living person in a frying pan. It would never know a moment’s peace.

Zhao Li did not need to open her Mind’s Eye to know the baleful energy here must reach the heavens.

“Old Yi, was the mountain always shaped this way?”

She looked around, searching for higher ground from which she could see more clearly.

“No. The Ancient Qin Canal originally ran around the mountain. Later, some noble person established a dowry estate south of the mountain and built this cross-channel for irrigation.”

Old Yi had traveled this area for years and knew it intimately.

“Three years ago?” Zhao Li asked as she found a higher spot.

After taking another careful look, her teeth began to ache.

“What idiot did something this stupid?”

A row of willow trees had also been planted beside the ancient man-made canal.

Willows could contain yin energy. On top of the already disastrous White Tiger Biting the Blade, the trees had effectively formed a sealed sack from which yin resentment could not escape.

In a few more years, when the sack could hold no more and the yin energy overflowed, nothing within several *li* would know peace.

Lu Zhao observed Zhao Li’s reaction.

He stepped beside her, took out a dull jade pendant, and placed it in his mouth.

Cold rushed to his head.

When he looked at the mountain again, his ankle nearly buckled, sending him tumbling from the rise.

Black clouds blanketed the mountain. In this state of opened sight, he could even hear sobs and howls within them.

He spat out the pendant and, without waiting for the chill in his skull to fade, asked in terror, “What kind of place is that?”

It was so vicious. Was this the ghost realm of the yin capital?

Zhao Li glanced curiously at his pendant.

“A Yin-Gathering Pool.”

There was no need to search for Miss Lin’s grave. It had to be submerged inside that Yin-Gathering Pool.

Zhao Li sighed, once again marveling at her own astonishing bad luck.

She had only just entered the profession in this world, yet she had already encountered such a vicious opponent.

“A… Yin-Gathering Pool?” Lu Zhao’s face overflowed with curiosity.

Zhao Li picked up a stick and drew on the ground.

Lu Zhao, the commandants, and even Old Yi crowded around to watch.

Her drawing skills were superb. Sketching the mountain terrain in the dirt was effortless.

“Old Yi, where was Miss Lin buried?” Zhao Li handed him the stick.

He tilted his head and compared the landscape for a long time before marking a location.

Using the stick as a pointer, Zhao Li gave an impromptu lesson on White Tiger Biting the Blade, starvation grounds, and Yin-Gathering Pools.

“Even without this new canal, no one should have been buried here. Miss Lin died violently and was laid in this place. No wonder her entire family perished during the capital’s plague.”

“Then, three years ago, some brilliant fool added this masterpiece. Even the most good-tempered spirit would be driven mad.”

She casually tossed the branch aside.

All this unfamiliar knowledge had left Lu Zhao completely at sea.

“What do we do?” he asked repeatedly.

The master of that courtyard was terrifying. Perhaps he really should resign and flee to Jiangnan.

“Investigate.”

Find out which idiot had caused this disaster.

Zhao Li sighed and gave Lu Zhao a look, signaling him to send the commandants and Old Yi farther away.

Only then did she lower her voice.

“Investigate the Daoist who performed the Lin family’s funeral rite.”

“Was this unexplained canal really built for irrigation?” Zhao Li paused. “And were the willows beside it truly planted by coincidence?”

She refused to believe the world contained so many coincidences.

Lu Zhao’s ashen face showed that he agreed.

Then there was the fact that everything had begun at the Pacification Office.

The strange chain of coincidences pointed to a single suspicion: someone had disregarded every common life in the area and created this evil formation to use a ghost against the Jingning Guard, leaving them in utter chaos.

Lu Zhao was a seasoned operator. He understood the instant Zhao Li raised the issue and thought even farther than she had.

His hand settled on the long saber at his waist.

Seeing how grim he looked, Zhao Li comforted him.

“Don’t worry, Master Lu. Once a formation like this has been discovered, it is easy to handle.”

They had found the root of the trouble. There was no reason to delay, so the group hurried back.

After meeting the commandant guarding the vehicles, Zhao Li gritted her teeth and climbed into the carriage again.

They returned to the Pacification Office with Old Yi just as the evening meal was being served.

As a witness who had seen the Daoist fifteen years ago, Old Yi was quietly taken to an inner room beside the duty quarters to await questioning.

Zhao Li was ravenous and on the verge of a hypoglycemic crash. She chewed vigorously on a rose-filled candy Lu Zhao had bought during the return journey.

As she passed the duty quarters, she looked inside curiously.

Her superior Shen Yan was extremely busy. Dossiers covered his table, and aides and subordinates filled the study.

Zhao Li’s glance was no more than curiosity, yet one of Shen Yan’s guards stopped her.

“Miss Zhao, my master instructed you to return to the courtyard and rest and eat.”