Daomu Biji: The Mystic Nine

The pockmarked old man said the sentence in the Changsha dialect, so the general idea became muddled. He vaguely recognized a few words that sounded like “bastard” (1) or other swear words, but the sentence was quite long. As Qi Tiezui listened, he couldn’t help but think, what's this expert trying to say? Did he specially find some random person on the street to scold me? But that didn’t make any sense. This expert had gotten so entangled in this mess, so he must have passed on a few useful words.

He continued listening and realized that the old man didn't know the meaning of these words. He only remembered the general pronunciation. When he asked the old man to repeat it again, the old man obliged.

Qi Tiezui suddenly understood.

This was an ancient verse, which was spoken in a dialect. It was very difficult for those who weren’t familiar with it to understand what it meant.

The gist of it was: those who hadn't practiced for thirty-six years shall not enter. The dragon, cave, sand, and water seemed to be in chaos, but weren’t. The three evils wouldn’t invade if there was a lot of hesitation. The sky was underground and the world was on fire. The cave wasn’t restrained with two combined water sources. (2)

The first sentence made Qi Tiezui’s expression look very ugly. When Zhang Qishan asked what it meant, he said, "This expert said that those who have studied the art of feng shui for less than thirty-six years shouldn’t go in."

Everyone was silent, and Zhang Qishan asked, “What else?”

Qi Tiezui drew several lines on the ground. "The master must have gone down. He described the dragon, cave, sand, and water as being chaotic, which is the Luan Tou School’s way of speaking. He may be from Shanxi. The feng shui pattern here seems to be chaotic, but not. Why is that? It’s because no one will build an ancient tomb where the feng shui is chaotic. But it’s actually not chaotic here, the chaos is man-made. These words have a hidden meaning. In other words, someone hid the feng shui here.

“’The three evils won’t invade if there’s a lot of hesitation’. The ‘hesitation’ here refers to maggots, which means slow-crawling insects. ‘Three evils won’t invade’ means there aren’t ordinary insects here, but there are some that move slowly.

“I don’t understand the ‘sky is underground and the world is on fire’ bit. The ‘two combined water sources’ is referring to the seal boundary around the small hall at the heart of the cave. It binds all the feng shui qi together to form a barrier, which shields against bad luck and evil spirits. That, combined with the first sentence just now… if we look at it in reverse, this—"

Qi Tiezui shook his head. "The purpose of the feng shui qi barrier is to block the invasion of evil spirits. If it’s reversed, then it means that the two combined water sources are to prevent evil spirits from coming out. There aren’t ‘three evils' here because all the living animals are eaten up by the so-called ‘hesitation’, and so on. If there is a tomb below, then those buried in it must be very evil. Fearing that the tomb’s atmosphere would influence the surrounding landscape, feng shui was used to fight it. Since ancient times, there have only been a few people like this."

"Which historical figure do you think may be buried near Changsha?"

"Fo Ye, if I had to say it, you’re the only one." Qi Tiezui said.

Zhang Qishan looked at Qi Tiezui coldly, and then turned around and said, "Since your expert said it’s dangerous, don't go down. Lieutenant’s very good at what he does, so if even he can’t get out, I'm afraid it's really dangerous down there. I won’t be able to protect you, so wait here. Old man, stay here and accompany Ba Ye. If anything happens, take him back to Changsha and gather reinforcements."

Old Man Zhang shook his head, "Let the younger ones accompany Ba Ye. I’m familiar with this place."

Qi Tiezui had already made up his mind and said, "Fo Ye, I’m not trying to be brave either. I usually find it too troublesome, and I don't want to move around more, but you also know the rules of the Nine Gates. Anyone can become a member of the Nine Gates as long as they defeat one of the families. I’ve always been the weakest, and there are eight hundred people trying to take over my position every year. If you hadn’t given me the nominal position of special counselor of the secretarial office before, I’m afraid I would’ve had to abdicate long ago. It’s high time I return the favor. I’ll accompany you to the next level. I want to see this rare feng shui situation and help you find the end of this vein."

Zhang Qishan nodded and didn't mention it anymore. Without saying a word, he headed down the mine shaft first. The others followed him down one by one like dumplings. Qi Tiezui didn't expect Zhang Qishan to be so frank and straightforward, and was dumbfounded.

He took a deep breath and thought to himself, whenever you go somewhere, look at the water gate first. If the gate is completely enclosed, there are real dragon knots inside. If the heavenly tortoise, snake, lion, and elephant guard the gate, there must be a very precious dragon there. The marble pillar guards the sun and moon gate to secure a place of wealth. The gate of Beishen Town must have a big, noble dragon. The prince’s gate has a lion obelisk, while the house of the poor has broken and collapsed walls. If princes live here, the gates will be locked and heavily sealed. If you see those heavenly creatures at the water gate, you can follow the tracks and find their ancestors.(3)

He then slipped into the tunnel, sliding down into the unknown darkness below.

****

TN Notes:

(1) It actually translates as “turtle descendant”, which is an insult equating to bastard because turtles were once thought to conceive by thought alone, making paternity impossible to prove (I had a good laugh at that). Pinyin is guī sūn (龟孙)

(2) I got the general idea based on the later paragraphs, so just keep reading.

(3) It's Tiffany approved so just think of it as mysterious feng shui mumbo jumbo (╥﹏╥)