Breaking the Spell

Auntie Jiang had thought the problem was already solved, so she was shocked to hear what Mr. Mengfei said.

"Brother? How come it still isn't solved? You have to help us!" With that, Auntie Jiang started to kneel again.

Mr. Mengfei hurriedly caught her and said he would see the matter through, telling her not to worry.

"I'll write a Chinese herbal prescription for you first, brother, to prevent any lasting effects. The rest will have to wait until this afternoon!"

With a few simple actions, Mr. Mengfei had awakened Jiang Kui, who had been unconscious for over half a month. Auntie Jiang now regarded Mr. Mengfei as a master beyond the mortal world and obeyed his every word. Taking the prescription he had written, she went out to buy the medicine.

Jiang Kui had recovered somewhat. Sitting on the bed, he weakly cupped his fists at Mr. Mengfei. "Brother, even though we've never met before, I'll never forget the debt I owe you for saving my life. Whatever you need, just say the word. As long as it's within my power, I'll do my best."

Mr. Mengfei chuckled. "Haha, there's no need to thank me. Get some rest. This afternoon, I'm going to take a look at your family's ancestral graves and find the root of the problem!"

Jiang Kui pondered for a moment, then nodded.

By now, Jiang Kui understood that someone must have tampered with his ancestral graves. Things like this happened from time to time in the south, and Jiang Kui had heard a little about them before.

Auntie Jiang soon returned with the medicine and put it in a clay pot to simmer. After taking the medicine and sleeping for a while, Jiang Kui regained some of his energy. At least he had no trouble getting out of bed and moving around.

At noon, the three of them hurriedly ate a few bites.

Jiang Kui then led Mr. Mengfei into the mountains. Auntie Jiang wanted to go too, but Mr. Mengfei said women were taboo in such matters, so she had no choice but to give up and wait anxiously for the two men at home.

The Jiang family's ancestral graves were some distance from the village, and Jiang Kui had only just recovered, so his strength was limited. He and Mr. Mengfei stopped and started along the way, walking for nearly three hours before finally reaching the burial ground at four in the afternoon.

People in the south placed great importance on feng shui, and with all the mountains and waterways in the south, there were many places blessed with excellent feng shui.

Mr. Mengfei looked around and saw that the Jiang family's plot was indeed excellent.

The bright hall was broad, while the Azure Dragon and White Tiger embraced it on the left and right, closely guarding the area.

"What a fine place!" Mr. Mengfei could not help exclaiming to himself.

Jiang Kui looked at his family's ancestral graves, his face expressionless.

What good was all that fine feng shui? His younger brother and sister-in-law had died one after the other, and now they had become nothing more than a mound of earth on the mountain.

Sigh...

Jiang Kui sighed softly as he looked at a new grave. A sudden, inexplicable wave of sorrow and self-reproach washed over him. If he had sold this plot of land, he would have wronged his ancestors, but at least his family could have remained safe and sound.

Mr. Mengfei also noticed the new mound. It was small, unlike the other imposing graves, because the graves of those who died unnatural deaths could not be built too grandly. In some places, those who died unnatural deaths could not even be buried among the ancestral graves.

Mr. Mengfei patted Jiang Kui on the shoulder, urging him to bear his grief, then began searching around the blessed plot.

Mr. Mengfei made a circuit but found nothing at all, leaving him secretly puzzled.

By rights, if something could affect people so quickly and effectively, the problem should lie with the ancestral graves. But I've walked all the way around and haven't found a thing.

"Brother Jiang, do you sweep the graves every year?" Mr. Mengfei asked Jiang Kui, who stood beside him.

Jiang Kui did not know what Mr. Mengfei meant, but he nodded. "Yes."

"Then look around and see if there's anything here that doesn't belong in your burial ground. Strange stones, anything you haven't seen before that seems odd to you. If you find something, don't touch it. Tell me!"

Jiang Kui nodded, and the two split up to search carefully.

By then, the sun was already sinking. Seeing it descend, Mr. Mengfei grew anxious. The mountains were different from the city; the sun would set quickly. If it went down, this matter would be difficult to deal with today, and if they did not resolve it today, who knew what other trouble might crop up?

At that thought, Mr. Mengfei stopped and narrowed his eyes. A stream of Qi from his dantian flowed up the governing vessel and into his eyes.

If it had been a little darker, one would have been able to see a faint silvery-white glow coming from Mr. Mengfei's eyes.

Channeling Qi into his eyes, Mr. Mengfei quickly scanned the dozen or so graves.

Almost all the graves were free of problems, but when Mr. Mengfei looked closely, he found that a barely perceptible wisp of blood-red Qi was emanating from a rather imposing grave.

Mr. Mengfei called to Jiang Kui, who was still searching, and strode toward the grave.

Jiang Kui followed him over.

"Brother Jiang, whose grave is this?" Mr. Mengfei asked, looking at the grave.

"My grandfather's. Is there something wrong with it?"

Jiang Kui was puzzled. He had just searched this area and had not found any strange objects like the ones Mr. Mengfei had described.

"Come on! Get out the cinnabar and realgar we brought." Without further explanation, Mr. Mengfei pulled Jiang Kui up onto the grave mound.

He had just noticed that the faint red aura was strongest at the peak of the mound.

Once they were up there, Mr. Mengfei took out a spare entrenching shovel and quickly dug a couple of times into the peak. Jiang Kui did not stop him from digging into his ancestral grave.

Clang! The shovel struck something hard. Mr. Mengfei put it down, dug a little more with his hands, and pulled a golden-yellow box from the mound.

A pale yellow talisman was stuck to the box, but the shovel had just damaged it.

Seeing that something really had been dug out of his ancestral grave, Jiang Kui felt a surge of rage rush straight to his head. This was the chief culprit responsible for killing his younger brother and sister-in-law's family!

Mr. Mengfei peeled off the talisman and gently opened the golden-yellow box.

A stream of blood-red baleful Qi instantly rushed straight at his face.

Mr. Mengfei had long been prepared. He raised his hand and flung out a handful of realgar mixed with mugwort ash.

Realgar was a substance of great yang, while mugwort was the essence of the yang energy in plants. Together, the two were especially effective against things of yin and evil. The moment the red baleful Qi touched the mugwort ash and realgar, it vanished without a trace.

Though Jiang Kui could not see the baleful Qi, he felt an icy chill that immediately raised goosebumps all over him and made every hair on his body stand on end.

Jiang Kui silently marveled at the many methods Mr. Mengfei had at his disposal. If he had found this thing himself, he would probably have fallen prey to that evil Qi.

After dispersing the baleful Qi, Mr. Mengfei scattered the remaining mugwort ash in his hand around the box, just in case. Then he looked inside the golden-yellow box.

Inside was a pool of liquid and a strangely shaped piece of wood.

"Hm?" Mr. Mengfei dipped a finger in the liquid and sniffed it. "It's liquor!"

He then picked up the piece of wood, weighed it in his hand, and sighed softly.

"Brother, what is this?" Jiang Kui came closer and looked questioningly at the wood in Mr. Mengfei's hand.

"Sigh, it's a piece of locust tree root. And there's liquor in the box!" Mr. Mengfei sighed as he looked at the sinister objects.

The locust tree was also known as ghostwood, and its Qi was among the most yin of all trees. Soaking a locust tree in liquor and then activating it with certain special methods was as sinister a way to harm people as could be.

"Then this...!?" Jiang Kui did not understand why there was no joy at all in Mr. Mengfei's voice, despite his having found the root of the problem.

Mr. Mengfei explained, "Although I don't understand these tricks for harming people, I'd guess there's a very good chance that this locust tree root and the liquor were the main reason your younger brother and sister-in-law came to grief. Your sister-in-law died of cancer because of this locust tree root. As for your brother driving drunk, that was because of the liquor!"

After hearing Mr. Mengfei's explanation, Jiang Kui gritted his teeth and stared at the box in his hands, wanting to smash it to pieces at once. But he did not dare touch it recklessly, for fear of offending something else.

"Burn it!" Mr. Mengfei grabbed a handful of realgar and tossed it into the liquor in the box. The liquor and the locust tree root immediately turned black.

Jiang Kui took out a lighter, found some firewood, and burned the harmful things to ashes.

"Brother, what's wrong?" Jiang Kui asked, seeing Mr. Mengfei staring silently at the flames.

"Your problem still hasn't been solved!" At those words, Jiang Kui's heart, which had only just settled, leaped back into his throat.

"But this! Haven't we already found the root of the problem?" Jiang Kui shouted.

Mr. Mengfei shook his head. "I thought all the problems came from here, but apparently not. Only one thing they used to harm people turned up here. From what I know, these two things shouldn't be the cause of your illness. Let's hurry home!"

Jiang Kui did not dare say anything. He added some more wood to the fire, and the two quickly went down the mountain.

After returning home, Mr. Mengfei looked at Jiang Kui's house. The black Qi that had coiled around it had indeed thinned somewhat, but as soon as he entered the gate, he saw that the black Qi swirling around the courtyard had not only failed to disappear but had grown even denser.

Seeing Mr. Mengfei standing still, Jiang Kui knew he had discovered something. He did not dare disturb him and let him look around.

"Heh, how despicable!" Mr. Mengfei stood there for a full half hour before discovering that the source of the black Qi swirling around the courtyard was the northwest corner of the house.

Mr. Mengfei pulled Jiang Kui outside and went to the northwest corner of the house. Crouching down, he scraped at the ground a couple of times with his hand and soon found a patch of loose soil.

He dug gently, and a glass bottle appeared before them.

Inside the bottle was a little figure cut from black paper, with strange red symbols drawn on it. White hairs were packed around the figure, and a closer look showed that they were the same kind of white hairs the realgar had forced out of Jiang Kui's body earlier.

"Brother! What's this?"

Jiang Kui was stunned. Someone had tampered with the very entrance to his home, and he had never noticed.

"This should be something like a combination of the Art of Yasheng and Nanyang Gong Tau. Since he wants to wipe you all out so badly, let's give him a taste of his own medicine!" Mr. Mengfei was mild-tempered and almost never lost his temper.

But seeing that someone had used such vicious methods against Jiang Kui's family, Mr. Mengfei was angry!

"How?" Jiang Kui's eyes lit up when he heard they could strike back at those people. He utterly hated the person who had killed his younger brother.

"Let's go home and have sister-in-law heat up a pot of oil!"

After the two returned home, Jiang Kui told his wife what had happened. Without another word, Auntie Jiang poured a whole bucket of rapeseed oil into the pot.

The way Auntie Jiang poured the oil showed just how angry she was too!

Soon, thick smoke was billowing from the pot of oil.

Without another word, Mr. Mengfei opened the glass bottle and threw it into the pot of oil, contents and all.

The thing inside had been inanimate, but as soon as it entered the oil, the little black figure began struggling in the pot as though it had come alive.

Ten minutes later, the little black figure marked with strange runes and the white hairs had fried down into a lump, while the glass bottle had shattered into fragments from the heat.

Mr. Mengfei turned off the heat, then had Jiang Kui drive out and pour the pot of oil onto the national highway. Afterward, he had the couple scatter some mugwort ash around the house, and the remaining black Qi hanging over its roof vanished in an instant.