Chapter 564: Knowing a Little About Feng Shui

"Where were you the first time you watched my stream? Did anything strange happen around you?" I asked this question almost every time I met my livestream viewers. As far as I knew, only three types of people could see my stream.

People whose days were numbered, people born with a natural affinity for spirits, and people who just happened to have an evil entity passing by at that exact moment.

"I started watching when you were streaming at Anxin Hotel. At the time, I think I was..." Wu Youde thought for a good while before continuing. "Right, I was right here in this living room. My wife is pregnant and goes to bed early, and I didn't want to bother her, so I was lying on the sofa scrolling through my phone. I accidentally saw an ad selling 'meat', and when I clicked on it, it brought me to your stream."

"Right here in the living room?" I stood up and paced around the space. As soon as I'd entered this villa, I'd felt something very strange. The architectural layout here violated the feng shui of a dwelling for the living, committing numerous taboos. It was only thanks to Wu Youde having enough Yin Merit to suppress it that no accidents had occurred until now.

"There's definitely something unclean in this house of yours." I'd spent plenty of free time discussing feng shui and geomancy with Blind Liu, and over time, I'd gained some understanding of it myself. "In the ways of feng shui, obtaining water is paramount, and sheltering from the wind is secondary. Your villa is surrounded by desolation on all four sides. It has no water when it needs water, and no wind when it needs wind. No wonder the entire district is full of empty ghost buildings, leaving yours as the only occupied household."

"Streamer, you even know feng shui?" Wu Youde, despite his injuries, leaned against the sofa and forced himself to stand up.

"Ordinary people can't see my stream. You haven't opened your Heavenly Eye, you're in the prime of your life, and you don't have the physiognomy of someone who will die young. Given all that, there is only one reason you could see it: there's an evil entity causing trouble around you." I turned my head to look into Wu Youde's eyes. A blood-red hue fluttered deep within my gaze, as if I wanted to see right through him. "Moreover, that ghost is in this very house right now."

Cold sweat beaded on his forehead, and his Adam's apple trembled slightly. "Streamer, don't scare me."

I ignored him and asked my own question. "Who originally designed this house for you?"

"A friend of mine. We used to be business partners, and he knows a bit about the mystic arts. I don't really believe in that stuff, but he offered to design it on his own initiative. He was very enthusiastic."

"What's this friend's name? Where is he now?"

"People in the industry call him Mr. Paper. He's a feng shui master and a high-level executive in the Li Group. He's an incredibly capable guy." Wu Youde clearly still appreciated his friend's kindness. "That brother is very loyal. When I fell on hard times, he was the one who reached out a helping hand and helped me set up my film studio."

"Loyal?" I shook my head. "I'm afraid he's the one who wants you dead the most."

"Wh-what do you mean?" Wu Youde stammered. The events of today had already taken a massive toll on him.

"That friend of yours deliberately designed your home for the living using the feng shui of a tomb for the dead. Do you still think he meant well?" Mentioning Mr. Paper, I couldn't help but feel a sense of familiarity. It seemed I'd heard that name the first time I visited Shuangfo District.

"That... can't be, right?" Wu Youde still couldn't believe his friend would screw him over like this. He didn't understand feng shui, but he knew exactly what the words 'tomb for the dead' meant.

"You don't believe me? Then let me point it out, piece by piece." I walked over to the doorway. "This entire place is a ghost house. It's a miracle you've managed to live here for so long."

I pushed open the security door and pointed at the main road directly outside. "Feng shui favors meandering curves and forbids direct alignments, because a direct charge carries a sharp, violent momentum. If a residence bears the brunt of it, the resulting disaster will be massive. Your front door directly faces the oncoming road. The longer this road is, the greater the danger; the more cars there are, the more disasters will occur. This villa of yours is a typical 'Tiger's Mouth House.' It doesn't house people—it eats them!"

Closing the door, I turned around. "Entering from the main door, you immediately see the bathroom and the kitchen. The kitchen represents 'Lone Yang Parched Fire,' while the bathroom represents 'Solitary Yin Murky Water.' Water and fire are incompatible, so the two clash. Moreover, the bathroom faces the main door. Foul energy greeting the door is also a sign of declining fortune."

I stood where I was and looked up. A bow-shaped entryway arch hung above my head. "The entryway is like the human throat; it can block evil energy and protect the residence. However, the ceiling here should be high, not low. Too low, and it creates a sense of oppression. In feng shui, this is an inauspicious omen, symbolizing that family members will struggle to make progress, constantly enduring suppression and constraints."

With a wave of my hand, I said coolly, "You must remember to tear down this entryway. Otherwise, it will breed an evil ghost inside. Neither you nor it will be able to leave, guaranteeing a situation where one of you must die."

Just by casually glancing around, I'd already pointed out a whole bunch of feng shui taboos. Before I even finished speaking, Wu Youde's face was completely covered in cold sweat.

"Don't be nervous. Since you first saw my stream in the living room, the biggest problem must be located there." Wu Youde's villa was huge. I had to pass through the central corridor and step down two stairs just to reach the living room.

The hall had a Western-style decor, with a large number of plants grown on the balcony. The wallpaper was a dark shade, making the space look stylish and minimalist.

"An elegant room doesn't need to be large, and fragrant flowers don't need to be many. The living room is a social area for welcoming guests, so it shouldn't be dark. The most important aspect of living room feng shui is ample light. The plants on your balcony are too lush and block out the sunlight. The Yin energy can't get out, and the Yang Qi can't get in. It's highly likely to breed evil entities. You'd better change the wallpaper to something brighter, too, to make the room feel well-lit." I kicked the steps. "These two steps were probably designed by that friend of yours too, right?"

"Is there an issue with the steps too?"

"The living room is the largest of all the rooms. With the floor being uneven like this, your family's fortune will be affected, experiencing constant ups and downs and bumpy patches." Having spent so much time observing Blind Liu, I'd picked up some basic feng shui knowledge. To an expert, I might have gotten a few things wrong, but it was more than enough to bluff Wu Youde.

After spouting nonsense for a good while, I wandered through the rest of the house. Lo and behold, I actually made an unexpected discovery.

Generally speaking, large sculptures, like those made of stone or bronze, are taboo in a household. They each have their own magnetic fields, and placing them indoors easily causes harm to newlyweds, pregnant women, and the sick.

Yet Wu Youde's family had been Acting in the Opposite Way. Right behind the living room sofa stood a Western-style sculpture as tall as a person.

"Were you sitting on the sofa the first time you watched my stream?"

"Yeah, I was lying down." Wu Youde assumed his posture from that time. Watching him from the front, I suddenly felt a chill run down my spine.

"Lying on the sofa like this, with a life-sized sculpture placed right behind your back, don't you get the illusion that there's someone standing behind you?" I stared at the sculpture, feeling somewhat uncertain. "Your friend told you to buy this sculpture too, right?"

"No, he gave it to me as a gift when I first moved in. He said it was carved by some European artist." Wu Youde still liked the sculpture quite a bit. After all, he could loosely be considered half an artist himself.

"The evil entity in your home might just be coming from this sculpture. If you trust me, let's smash it right now. This statue probably has a Hidden Universe Inside and is concealing something else." I had observed the area for a long time, and this statue was the only thing suitable for an evil spirit to inhabit.

"Smash it? That's not a good idea. This thing was very expensive."

"If you don't want to keep getting sick, do as I say." Very few people would place a large sculpture in their home. Furthermore, this was my first time seeing someone give a sculpture as a housewarming gift. It was highly abnormal.

"Then I'll go get some tools." Wu Youde smiled bitterly and sat up from the sofa.

"There's no need for that much trouble." I stood in front of the statue. "Take your wife and hide behind me. It would be best if you could retreat past the entryway."

After the couple hid themselves, I channeled the Pre-Heaven True Qi within my body and moved a Suppression Talisman over the sculpture.

According to common sense, evil entities feared the power of talismans and would definitely flee or resist. But I waved it around for a long time, and no anomalies appeared on the sculpture.

'Could I have guessed wrong?' I tapped and knocked, unwilling to overlook a single detail. When my hand pressed against the sculpture's chest, I suddenly realized that most of the statue was hollow; only the chest was solid.

"There's filler inside the sculpture's chest cavity! Top-heavy? Even an artist wouldn't make such a common-sense mistake." I slapped the Suppression Talisman onto the top of the statue's head, took a half-step back, and smashed a Crushing Fist into the statue's lower abdomen.

How could a hollow plaster sculpture withstand my attack? The expensive piece of art instantly exploded, snapping in half at the waist.

Plaster shards covered the floor. The statue's lower half was completely ruined, while the upper half still retained its basic shape.

I carefully pried open the plaster of the statue's upper half. Sure enough, there was something else hidden inside.

Wrapped beneath layers of plaster was a Double-Faced Buddha Head the size of a baby's head!

'Two-Faced Buddha? Mr. Paper gave him this statue. Could he be connected to the Two-Faced Buddha too?' The moment I saw this thing, I suddenly recalled the scene from my first visit to Shuangfo District when I scouted Li Changgui's villa at night (details in Chapter 406). At that time, I had pretended to be a ghost to scare Li Chunqiang and captured Li Changgui's female secretary alive, interrogating her for a lot of intelligence.

Mr. Paper was a high-level executive of the Li Group and held a special status. Even Li Changgui had treated him with the utmost respect. Furthermore, the design of the entire Shuangfo District was his handiwork alone. Now, I highly suspected that this Mr. Paper might very well be a feng shui master working under the Two-Faced Buddha!

First Destiny, Second Luck, Third Feng Shui. The strength of the Two-Faced Buddha's faction was unfathomable, and there was no telling how many more backup plans they still had hidden.

'If Mr. Paper is connected to the Two-Faced Buddha, then why would he target Wu Youde? Could it be that this guy's Fate Pattern is also very special?' Just as I was pondering this, a gust of Yin wind suddenly assailed me from behind, followed by the scream of the pregnant woman.

"Crap!" I rolled forward, ignoring the plaster shards covering the floor, and narrowly avoided the attack from behind.

On the floor where I had just been standing, five bloody scratch marks remained. Wu Youde's strike just now had been aimed straight at the back of my heart. If his sneak attack had succeeded, the consequences would have been unimaginable.

"Old Wu!" the pregnant woman cried out, but her husband remained completely indifferent.

I stood up and faced Wu Youde. His current condition was incredibly bizarre. The five fingers on his right hand were a mangled mess of flesh and blood, to the point where even the finger bones were clearly visible. Yet, he seemed completely oblivious to the pain, and his face even wore an eerie smile.