Chapter 3

"What is this thing?"

After feeling a wave of dizziness in his mind, Ye Tian discovered that his brain seemed to have a palm-sized turtle shell, densely engraved with various patterns. When Ye Tian looked at it carefully, the turtle shell suddenly disappeared, and a line of seal script appeared before his eyes. However, this did not stump Ye Tian; he had been learning seal script from the old Taoist since he was five years old.

"Li Shan Yuan, born in 1880 in Huayin, Shaanxi, has three brothers and four sisters. He passed the imperial examination in 1896 and studied under the 49th generation successor of the Ma Yi School of Physiognomy..."

Staring at the mysterious characters that appeared in his mind, Ye Tian was momentarily stunned. Just by glancing at the old Taoist, he seemed to know a lot of things?

Even if Ye Tian were dull, he knew that this information must be related to the old Taoist, but whether it was true or false, he had no way to verify it.

"Hallucination, it must be a hallucination. How could this old guy look like someone over 100 years old?"

Although Ye Tian was mischievous, his academic performance was still good. Simple arithmetic was no problem for him. If Li Shan Yuan was born in 1880, he would be 106 years old now. Ye Tian couldn't believe that the old man in front of him was that old.

"Huh? Why did you stop reciting?" The old Taoist, who was closing his eyes and nodding his head while listening to Ye Tian recite the scriptures, opened his eyes with dissatisfaction when the sound stopped.

Ye Tian was still in a daze and found an excuse, "Ah, Master, I've been reciting these since I was five. Can we skip them?"

"You are too young, and I cannot teach you deeper things yet, as it might go against the natural order. These are the basics, and you must master them..."

Hearing Ye Tian's words, the old Taoist habitually extended his right hand to tap Ye Tian's head, but he pulled back when he saw Ye Tian's injuries.

Although Ye Tian was young, he was quite shrewd. He did not tell the old Taoist about the information in his mind but said, "Master, I've been learning from you for several years. How about I help you with a divination today?"

"You?"

The old Taoist turned his head and gave Ye Tian a sidelong glance, saying, "You haven't even learned to walk yet, and you're thinking about running. How do you plan to do it? By looking at hand lines or facial features?"

The old Taoist asked this because he had only taught Ye Tian some basic knowledge. More advanced topics like bones, complexion, and posture were not suitable for Ye Tian's age.

"Let's go with facial features..."

Ye Tian sat up straight and looked at the old Taoist's face, saying, "Master, your upper third (from the hairline to the eyebrows) is high, long, and full, broad and square. You must have been very successful in your youth, right?"

"Hey, you little brat, you're actually getting the hang of it?"

The old Taoist laughed, saying, "I passed the imperial examination at 16, and everyone in the area knows it. Hmm, I never told you this? Did you really figure it out on your own?"

Although the old Taoist was a bit puzzled, he didn't take it seriously. The Ma Yi physiognomy he practiced was a legitimate tradition, and it wasn't surprising that Ye Tian could discern some things from his "upper third."

"Damn, it's real?"

The old Taoist didn't care, but the shock in Ye Tian's heart was indescribable. It turned out that this old guy really passed the imperial examination. Then... the information that appeared in his mind must also be true?

Ye Tian took a deep breath and put on a small con man's act, saying, "Of course, I figured it out. Master, your eyebrows are long and fine, not broken, which is the sign of the Three Sworn Brothers of Peach Garden. You must have three brothers. There are two small moles at the corner of your right eye, which indicate a pair of phoenixes, so you must have four sisters, making a total of seven, right?"

The first part was a bit vague, but Ye Tian said it more precisely to see the old Taoist's reaction. If he was right this time, it would prove that he wasn't hallucinating.

"Oh, right, Master, I see that your forehead is a bit dark. You might have a blood disaster today..."

The last sentence wasn't from the information in his mind but from observing the old Taoist's forehead, which was a bit dark, so he said it offhand.

Who knew that before Ye Tian finished speaking, he heard a "thud." The old Taoist, who was sitting in a chair and leaning back on two legs, suddenly stiffened at Ye Tian's words and fell backward, chair and all.

The place where they were sitting was at the entrance of the front hall. When the old Taoist fell backward, his back of the head hit the stone threshold of the hall.

When the old Taoist got up from the ground, his wooden hairpin had fallen out, his hair was disheveled, and his head was covered in blood, not much better than Ye Tian's condition from the day before. This indeed confirmed Ye Tian's prediction of a blood disaster.

However, the old Taoist didn't seem to care about the injury. Instead, he grabbed Ye Tian, who was sitting beside him, stunned, and said, "Brat, did you really figure that out on your own?"

To deduce a person's fortune, misfortune, nobility, or longevity from their facial features was relatively easy, but to accurately determine the number of siblings was beyond even the old Taoist's capabilities.

The old Taoist, although a genuine practitioner of the Ma Yi tradition, had only a fraction of the original knowledge passed down over a thousand years. The art of longevity, however, was well-preserved.

When the old Taoist traveled, he mostly used some street techniques, summarized as "touch, listen, trap, and scare."

"Touch" meant to gather information about the area where he would set up his fortune-telling stall, understanding the basic characteristics of people of different ages and whether the area was predominantly inhabited by officials or commoners, which was crucial.

"Listen" meant to get the person seeking a fortune to speak first and reveal their concerns, then address them accordingly. "Trap" involved using ambiguous statements to elicit the truth, and once a clue was detected, he would immediately follow up.

"Scare" involved fabricating stories about offending deities to frighten the person, who, in a state of confusion, would reveal the information he wanted.

With these techniques and his genuine skills, the old Taoist was known as a living deity in many places.

In the 1940s, during the Japanese invasion, Li Shan Yuan fled to Maoshan to avoid the war, but he couldn't escape it. He later returned to Shaanxi to settle down.

If he hadn't been labeled as a demon or snake at the beginning of the turmoil, he wouldn't have had to hide here and might still be living a carefree life elsewhere.

As a direct descendant of the Ma Yi tradition, the old Taoist was confident that his physiognomy skills were unmatched in the country. Having lived for over a hundred years, he had never encountered anyone more skilled than him.

To deduce the number of siblings from facial features, the old Taoist could be about 80% accurate, but he had over a hundred years of life experience and physiognomy practice.

When Ye Tian was his age, the old Taoist was still reciting the Three-Character Classic in a private school. Hearing Ye Tian's words, he was shocked. Could this boy be possessed by the ancestor?

"Master, I saw the blood disaster, but... about your siblings, ahem, I heard it from your sleep talk..."

Seeing the old Taoist's reaction, Ye Tian was a bit scared. He vaguely felt that the information in his mind was something significant, and he didn't know if it was good or bad, so he didn't tell the truth.

"Sleep talk? No wonder. I was wondering how you could be so accurate."

Hearing Ye Tian's words, the old Taoist let out a long breath. If Ye Tian had really figured it out, he would be a genius, not just a prodigy.

After cleaning the wound on his head, the old Taoist said, "You've learned to read people's expressions. You're starting to get the hang of this profession. Let me tell you about our Ma Yi tradition..."

The old Taoist had taken Ye Tian as a disciple mainly because he was bored in the remote mountains and wanted someone to talk to. Although he had taught Ye Tian many skills and taken him to Maoshan to study feng shui, he hadn't told him much about his lineage.

Seeing Ye Tian's quick wit, the old Taoist was moved. He was over a hundred years old and might pass away at any moment. He needed to pass on the tradition.

"Our ancestor, Ma Yi Dao Ren, has passed down to me, the 50th generation. Although much has been lost, we are still unmatched in physiognomy and feng shui..."

"Master, I already know all this. Tell me something I don't know..." The old Taoist was interrupted by Ye Tian, who had heard these self-praising words many times.

"Brat, in this profession, you should observe more and talk less. Impatient!"

The old Taoist glared at Ye Tian and continued, "Not counting you, I have had two disciples. Your eldest brother, Xun Xin Jia, went to Taiwan with his family in 1949 and has been out of contact since. Your second brother, Zuo Jia Jun, should be around fifty now. He stayed with me the longest, but his family background was poor, so he fled to Hong Kong in the 1960s. Apart from you, I haven't passed on my longevity skills to them, but they are not people with shallow blessings. You might encounter them in the future..."

Thinking about his two disciples, the old Taoist sighed. Although he had seen many ups and downs in his life, he still felt a deep connection to them.

"Master, you have overseas connections? If you find your two brothers, you could go abroad and live a good life, right?"

Hearing the old Taoist's words, Ye Tian was shocked. Unlike ten years ago, when having overseas connections was something to hide, it was now something to be proud of.

A classmate's uncle had returned from the United States and gave him an electronic watch, which made the boy so happy that he walked around with his hand tied to his chest for a week.

"Find them? Even if I found them, I wouldn't go. This place is beautiful, and I plan to spend my old age here..."

The old Taoist smiled and shook his head. He had witnessed almost all the major events in modern Chinese history and had long seen through the world. For a hundred-year-old man, wealth and fame held no appeal.

Suddenly remembering something, the old Taoist stood up, "Alright, we'll talk about this later. It's time to take you down the mountain to see the world. Go, get the Taoist robe from the chest in your room..."

[bookid=1623837, bookname=《Gold Pupil》]

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