Talisman

The black Honda slowly drove into the town but didn't head towards Qin Yu's home. Instead, it made a turn and stopped in front of a newly constructed four-story unfinished house.

This house was the new home of Qin Yu's second uncle's family. In the countryside, there is a custom that when a new house is completed, a housewarming banquet must be held. The timing of this event is also important. When the construction of the new house begins, a auspicious day can be chosen. If it is not chosen in the same year, one must wait for another three years, and during these three years, no firecrackers or fireworks should be set off inside the new house.

Qin Yu's second uncle was someone who loved lively celebrations. It was very uncomfortable for him to not be able to set off firecrackers and fireworks during festivals, so as soon as the house was completed, he found a Feng Shui master and chose an auspicious day for the housewarming banquet, which would take place tomorrow.

After getting out of the car, Qin Yu looked at the new house, his brows slightly furrowed. He turned around to survey the surrounding environment, and his expression immediately changed, filled with seriousness.

"What's wrong, Xiao Yu?" Zhang Hua, who got out of the car on the other side, noticed the expression on his cousin's face and asked.

"Cousin, which Feng Shui master did they hire to select the location for this house?" Qin Yu inquired.

"There's only one family in our town who knows Feng Shui, the Li family. They hired Mr. Li to select the location!" Zhang Hua replied.

"Mr. Li? I remember that Mr. Li had a sudden heart attack and passed away last year!" Qin Yu said, confused.

"It's Mr. Li's son, Mr. Li Guofang!" Zhang Hua clarified.

Upon hearing his cousin's response, Qin Yu nodded thoughtfully. Mr. Li had been practicing Feng Shui for nearly half his life for families in the town, so he shouldn't be unaware of this kind of layout. If it was his son, it could be understood that he might not be as skilled in the craft.

"They say that a mediocre doctor harms people, but if a Feng Shui master is mediocre, the harm caused is even greater than that of a mediocre doctor!" Qin Yu grumbled.

"What are you muttering about, Xiao Yu?" Zhang Hua asked.

"Ah, it's nothing. Let's go, cousin. Grandma and the others must be inside, and we shouldn't keep them waiting."

...

Qin Yu was relatively favored by his grandfather. This was evident from the different treatment he and Zhang Hua received when they entered the new house. Zhang Hua rolled his eyes at him, as if to say, "See, you, the grandson, are more favored than me, the son!"

Among them, Qin Yu's grandmother and third uncle's attitudes were the most obvious. His grandmother held his hand and refused to let go, while his third uncle smiled widely. He was extremely satisfied with his smart and studious nephew. However, when his gaze fell on his own son, Zhang Hua, his expression changed.

Finally getting away from his grandmother, Qin Yu entered the hall of the new house alone, closing his eyes and sensing something. After a long while, his face darkened.

"San Feng Sha, financial loss and family misfortune. I'm afraid that within a few years of moving into this new house, something bad will happen to my second uncle's family."

Standing outside the house, Qin Yu had already sensed that the location of the house was extremely unfavorable. It resembled the San Feng Sha described in the Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon. Now, standing inside the house and experiencing it firsthand based on the eight trigrams, he was a hundred percent sure that it was indeed the San Feng Sha.

San Feng Sha is an extremely malicious energy. The Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon states that having San Feng Sha in a home will inevitably cause the occupants to suffer from physical discomfort, financial losses, and disturbances in the household. It may even lead to bloody disasters.

"Since I've encountered it myself, I can't let my second uncle's family continue to be harmed by this San Feng Sha!"

Qin Yu pondered over the methods for dispelling the negative energy described in the Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon. According to the book, there were generally three types of methods: suppression, transformation, and alteration.

Suppression involved using special rocks, peach wood, weapons, and talismans to forcefully change the energy field. However, this method was quite aggressive and only served to suppress the negative energy. Over time, the negative energy would accumulate and eventually resurface.

Transformation typically involved burying stone-carved Tai Chi diagrams and other formations underground to dissipate the negative energy. The Tai Chi diagram, in particular, had the ability to absorb all kinds of negative energy and had the principle of "no exterior, no interior."

Alteration, as the name suggests, involved changing the surrounding environment at ground level to eliminate the source of the negative energy. However, this method was more suitable for small-scale structures as it could be costly for larger ones.

Since his third uncle's new house had already been constructed, transformation was no longer feasible. Furthermore, with the auspicious day for the housewarming ceremony approaching, there was no time to completely renovate the site. For now, Qin Yu could only find a way to suppress the negative energy and gradually transform it in the future.

"Cousin, I need a favor from you," Qin Yu requested.

To suppress the negative energy, he would need the assistance of certain items. He directly approached his cousin Zhang Hua and said, "I need a wolf hair brush and cinnabar."

For the purpose of suppression, ordinary weapons or peach wood wouldn't suffice. The items had to be consecrated and blessed. Since Qin Yu couldn't find such items at the moment, he had to resort to another type of tool: talismans.

However, true effective talismans were different from those drawn by so-called Taoist priests. Genuine talismans had to be drawn using a wolf hair brush, as the wolf hair itself had the power to dispel negative energy. Moreover, the symbols on the talismans were not the same as those currently drawn by Taoist priests.

"Why do you need these things?" Zhang Hua asked in confusion.

"Just get them for me first, and I'll tell you later," Qin Yu replied.

He didn't have time to explain at the moment. Although the Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon provided instructions on drawing talismans, Qin Yu was still a novice at it. Drawing talismans required precise strokes, and he hadn't memorized the specific talismanic patterns for suppressing negative energy.

The wolf hair brush was difficult to find, but Zhang Hua managed to borrow one from an elderly gentleman. With the wolf hair brush, cinnabar, and a yellow piece of paper all gathered, Qin Yu kicked Zhang Hua out of the room, ignoring his cousin's protests and accusations of being ungrateful.

The room Qin Yu occupied was a rough room in which his third uncle resided in the new house. It was simple and tidy, with nothing but a bed and a table.

Before starting to draw the talisman, Qin Yu washed his hands and paid homage to the Heavenly Empress of the Nine Heavens, the ancestral figure of feng shui.

After completing these rituals, Qin Yu spread the yellow piece of paper on the table and dipped the wolf hair brush into the cinnabar. He visualized the appearance of the talisman in his mind and began to draw with a flowing stroke.

"Ah! Several strokes went wrong."

Qin Yu put down the brush and shook his head as he looked at the talisman he had drawn on the table. He compared it to the image in his mind and realized that drawing talismans was not as simple as it seemed.

Taking a deep breath and focusing his mind, Qin Yu didn't lose heart. He replaced the yellow piece of paper and continued to draw.

As Qin Yu continued to draw talismans, he piled up a stack of failed attempts on the side of the table. Beads of sweat formed on his forehead, and he was starting to feel a bit exhausted.

"What am I missing?" Qin Yu wondered, recalling the description of talismans in his mind. "Talismans are the convergence of spiritual energy, and the one who draws them is the transmitter of that energy."

"The transmitter of spiritual energy..." Qin Yu silently repeated these words. As a student of Chinese literature, he was familiar with classical Chinese, but what exactly was this "spirit"?

According to legend, objects that had been blessed by Buddhist rituals were filled with spiritual energy. Such objects had the power to dispel negative energy and ward off evil. But where did this spiritual energy come from, and how did the high monks acquire it?

Qin Yu carefully searched through the mental pages of the Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon, a voluminous book with over ten thousand pages and no index. He had to flip through it one page at a time, hoping to find any mention of the "spirit."

"I found it!"

After half an hour of searching, Qin Yu finally came across a section about the spirit.

"Spirit is the qi of heaven and earth, stored within the heavens and the earth..."

After reading this page, a bright light flickered in Qin Yu's eyes. The so-called spirit was actually the qi of heaven and earth, and talismans were a means to gather this spiritual energy by using specific patterns. It was through the convergence of heaven and earth's qi within the talisman that its power to suppress negative energy was derived.

Some accomplished monks and Taoists had special cultivation methods to guide the spiritual energy, similar to the Buddhist concept of the Buddha's light illuminating everything. It was a method of harnessing spiritual energy.

The Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon also mentioned incantations for gathering spiritual energy. Qin Yu memorized the incantation and, once again, picked up the wolf hair brush. He recited the incantation aloud:

"Thoughts wander aimlessly, cease the confusion, Pure land can be attained through true realization. Unobscured in the present, constantly internal cultivation, All depends on cleansing in deep practice."

As Qin Yu chanted the incantation, he felt a refreshing breath permeate his body, flowing through his arm and into the tip of the wolf hair brush.

Without further ado, Qin Yu took a deep breath and swiftly made a stroke. The strokes of his brush danced like dragons and phoenixes, accompanied by a faint yellow glow that was visible to the naked eye as the wolf-hair brush tip moved across the paper.

"It's done!"

As Qin Yu made the final stroke, the entire yellow talisman briefly emitted a radiant light before returning to its normal state. A distinct pattern, identical to the protective talisman in Qin Yu's mind, formed on the yellow talisman.

After completing the talisman, Qin Yu looked up and glanced outside the window, only to realize that it had already turned dark. It seemed that he had spent quite a long time drawing the talisman.

"I'll put it away for now and find an opportunity to talk to my second uncle about it when we go up to the beam tonight!"

...

Dinner was lively, with most of the relatives from his mother's side of the family present. Everyone engaged in conversation, while young children ran around the house, playing and chasing each other, occasionally met with stern warnings from the adults.

After finishing their meal, nobody left. Especially the younger generation, they stayed, waiting for the "going up to the beam" ceremony. In rural areas, it was customary to choose an auspicious day to commence this ceremony for a newly completed house, often starting at midnight.

The weather in March was still a bit chilly, and most of the elderly and children had gone home to sleep. The younger ones gathered around the charcoal fire, teasing each other.

The flickering fire cast a reddish glow on everyone's faces. Laughter and joy filled the air, with a strong sense of family.

"Do any of you young lads know the origin of the 'going up to the beam' custom?"

Uncle Zhang Yuanqiao walked over and addressed the circle of younger relatives.

"Uncle Zhang, you won't stump us with that!"

A young woman spoke up. She was Zhang Min, the daughter of the eldest uncle's family. She had been married for over five years and was now a teacher at the local primary school.