Chapter 93: Returning to the Ancestral Gravesite

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I was wrong?

Xu Buhuo's words stunned me. Just then, the car accidentally ran over a stone, jolting me and causing me to hit the glass. The pain snapped me out of my daze.

I was wrong?

Wrong about what?

“Old man, what do you mean?” I looked at Xu Buhuo in confusion, knowing he must have discovered something. Many things about what happened earlier felt strange, but I couldn’t figure out where I had gone wrong.

“Didn't you just say that the Feng Shui formation was used to seal something underground?”

I nodded.

“Do you really think the Feng Shui formation can only seal and has no nurturing function?”

Nurturing function?

The four words flashed in my mind like a bucket of cold water poured over my head. Suddenly, I understood why my earlier guesses had felt off but I couldn’t pinpoint why.

At first, seeing the Feng Shui formation arranged around the grave, I instinctively assumed its purpose was to seal some dangerous thing underground.

Then, seeing Zhao Bayi’s and Xiao Dong’s birth charts, I guessed that Xiao Dong’s life was artificially created for sacrifice to release whatever was sealed beneath the ground. I even thought at the time that their method was overcomplicated—why sacrifice Xiao Dong at all? Why harm Zhao Bayi? They could have just broken the Feng Shui around the tomb to release the thing beneath. It seemed pointless and excessive.

Now, coming to my senses, I am sure Xu Buhuo is not speaking nonsense—I was indeed wrong. I had mistakenly regarded the Feng Shui formation as a seal, rather than a source of nurturing.

They started their plan long ago. From this, it’s clear that the Feng Shui around the tomb was covertly arranged by the old man who chose Zhao Bayi’s ancestral burial site.

They buried something beneath the tomb and altered the Feng Shui around it to use it for nurturing, allowing whatever was buried beneath to grow.

Now, with Zhao Bayi dead, the entire nurturing ritual is coming to an end. Both Zhao Bayi and Xiao Dong were chosen by them. To bring out the thing hidden underground, they needed the lives of both.

“If you carefully look at the child’s birth chart, you’ll see that this month of this year, he indeed has a calamity—an unavoidable death calamity.”

I instinctively recalled Xiao Dong’s chart, combining it with the current year and month, confirming that Xiao Dong truly faces a death calamity this month.

Obviously, the calamity has now arrived.

At this moment, Xu Buhuo continued: “Based on what you said, if the information is correct, Zhao Bayi’s burial marked the end of this nurturing ritual. Xiao Dong is the vessel for the underground thing to emerge. We don’t know exactly what is hidden beneath, but it’s clear that this thing needs a vessel to come out. It’s like a spirit; to unleash its strongest destructive power, it needs a living host.”

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Thinking carefully, only by considering it this way does the whole matter make sense. No matter what the underground thing is, it must be special. Not just anyone can serve as a vessel. Some people are never possessed by spirits no matter what, while others are naturally susceptible and easily controlled by spirits.

The underground thing is very special and requires a suitable and unique vessel. That is why they deliberately created Xiao Dong, specifically to serve as a vessel. The process was similar to a sacrifice.

The result of a sacrifice is death. The result of being a vessel is that Xiao Dong remains alive, but becomes like someone possessed by a ghost. Both his temperament and behavior change completely.

His body is still Xiao Dong’s, but his soul within is no longer his own.

Looking out the window at the scenery slipping away behind us, I felt troubled. At first, I thought this was a simple matter, but now it has become so complicated. Especially after realizing the plan had been in motion for at least thirty years, it’s clear the underground thing is not simple—it’s extremely dangerous.

Age brings wisdom.

At this moment, I did not regret bringing Xu Buhuo along, because I knew if he hadn’t immediately seen the truth, I alone would probably still be blindly fumbling around.

Recalling the Feng Shui formation used to nurture the thing underground, I was very curious—what exactly was it, and what was the purpose behind it?

“Old man, do you know who arranged this?”

As a member of the Sixth Division, Xu Buhuo had much more experience and knowledge than I did, and was aware of the existence of certain evil practitioners. On this basis, I thought he should know who was behind the arrangement.

If we could find out who was behind it, maybe we could uncover the whole story and find a way to stop it.

“We haven’t seen the person yet, so it’s not certain. But judging by how things are going, if there’s no surprise, the planner probably belongs to the Dark Gate.”

Dark Gate?

I heard the term for the first time and looked at Xu Buhuo in confusion. He asked me in return, “Didn’t your grandmother ever tell you about the existence of the Dark Gate?”

Thinking carefully, I was sure I had never heard the term while learning from my grandmother, so I shook my head.

After a brief pause, Xu Buhuo explained what the Dark Gate was.

In metaphysics, there’s the concept of Yin and Yang.

In reality, there’s truth and falsehood, right and wrong, black and white. Ultimately, everything has two sides. The human heart is the same—there are good people who work to solve problems for the world, and there are evil practitioners who stop at nothing to achieve their own ends, harming lives.

The good people, under the organization of relevant authorities, formed the Sixth Division.

The evil practitioners, in response to the Sixth Division’s suppression, naturally banded together to form the Dark Gate.

Within the Dark Gate are people who study all sorts of sinister arts and act strangely—people like Old Man Qin. From Xu Buhuo’s explanation, I learned that the Dark Gate and the Sixth Division have existed for over a hundred years.

During this time, the two sides have been in constant open and covert conflict. The Dark Gate arranges plots everywhere, using any means to seize what they want, while the Sixth Division either intervenes to stop them or cleans up the mess afterward.

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For example, what happened in our village—if it got out, it could easily cause social chaos and disrupt the fragile order. That’s why the Sixth Division is powerful and has a wide sphere of influence. There are people like Xu Buhuo and my grandmother who operate on the front lines to disrupt and block the Dark Gate’s plans, and others who handle the aftermath and prevent information leaks.

When talking about the Dark Gate, Xu Buhuo said that the person who used paper dolls to kill his brother was a member of the Dark Gate.

After saying this, Xu Buhuo advised me that, given my current level of experience, if I ever encountered someone from the Dark Gate, it was best not to think twice and just run.

Dark Gate members are cruel and specialize in all kinds of harmful magic. Encountering a powerful Dark Gate member and getting slapped or breaking a trap they set would bring disaster upon oneself.

Though the description didn’t sound too alarming, Xu Buhuo’s solemn expression told me he truly feared the Dark Gate.

It made sense. Whether on TV or in reality, bad people have the upper hand—they can kill freely, while good people face many restrictions, making things difficult.

As we talked, I brought up the mysterious woman who had disappeared somewhere.

Xu Buhuo’s expression immediately changed, and he said gravely, “She’s very dangerous. It’s best not to provoke her.”

Arriving at Zhao Gen’s village, Zhao Gen, following Xu Buhuo’s instructions on the way, immediately gathered eight strong village men, armed with hoes and other tools, and rushed to Zhao Bayi’s tomb.

Their purpose was to stop whatever was happening.

According to Xu Buhuo’s analysis, no matter what the underground thing being nurtured was, like a fruit, it was now ripe. The Dark Gate had taken Xiao Dong, hoping to transfer the nurtured thing into him. This required secret rituals, complicated methods, and a lot of time.

Before that could happen, the only thing we could do was to use brute force to destroy the tomb.

At that point, no matter what was hidden underground, it would be affected.

Rushing to the mountain, I saw that besides the hole Zhao Bayi had dug being blocked, the tomb was unchanged. I breathed a sigh of relief.

The tomb had not yet been disturbed, indicating the underground thing was still there. Xu Buhuo told us to wait a while, then went to a high place to observe.

All the previous information had been based on my description. Xu Buhuo clearly wanted to see for himself to confirm if it matched our earlier suspicions.

While waiting, I saw Zhao Gen sitting on the ground, lost in thought. I instinctively opened my Heavenly Eye to examine his face.

What I saw shocked me so much that I immediately stood up.