Chapter 7

"Damn it!!!"

"Bang! Beep..."

Wu Shichun clenched his fists and slammed them down hard on the steering wheel in front of him.

Wu Shichun's face was ashen, and his eyes seemed to be spitting fire.

The teasing words of Old Jin still echoed in his ears, and Wu Shichun felt like he could eat someone alive.

He was a vice president of a major group, a man who had seen many storms, and yet he had been so easily tricked by a lazy, good-for-nothing wastrel!

Old Jin was one of the top scholars in the traditional Chinese medicine industry, having written over twenty medical books, each of which was revered as a classic by countless practitioners.

When Old Jin heard his description, he burst into laughter on the other end of the phone.

He said to Wu Shichun, "Little Wu, Little Wu, you're a vice president of a large pharmaceutical company, how could you be fooled by such a con artist? Back in the 1960s and 1970s..."

With his extensive experience, Old Jin cited examples and found some scams very similar to Wu Shichun's encounter, analyzing them one by one for Wu Shichun.

For example, the suffocating feeling that terrified Wu Shichun was, according to Old Jin, a result of a common powdered neurotoxin...

By the time Wu Shichun finished listening to Old Jin's explanation, his face had turned a ghastly shade of multicolored.

It took him several minutes to barely suppress the raging anger in his heart. Wu Shichun lowered his head slightly and gritted his teeth, saying, "You, Yang Chen... little bastard, just wait and see!!"

...

In the afternoon, Yang Chen unexpectedly received a call from an unknown number with a Beijing area code.

As soon as he answered, he heard a familiar voice, "Haha, Yang Chen, I'm at Jinzhou Railway Station, come pick me up!"

Hearing this voice, Yang Chen was taken aback and then asked in surprise, "Fatty, you're in Jinzhou?"

"Yeah, I just got off the train, hehe, surprised? Unexpected, right?" The young man on the other end of the phone chuckled and continued, "My phone is about to die, so I won't talk much. Come pick me up quickly!"

"Okay, I'll be right there." Yang Chen nodded in agreement and hung up with a wry smile.

The person who called him was named Zhu Shishou, a university classmate from Beijing and one of the few friends he had made during his year and a half at university.

It was a joy to have a friend visit from afar, but what if he only had less than 300 yuan in his pocket?

He could ask Tang Yino for help, but Yang Chen didn't have the face to borrow money from her.

In the end, he could only put on his shoes and rush to Jinzhou Railway Station.

Zhu Shishou was a fat man, and a very fat one at that.

At 183 cm tall and weighing 136 kg, he was a striking figure wherever he stood...

His chubby face always wore an innocent, harmless smile, and his oversized white sportswear, which he had somehow acquired, looked quite out of place on him.

When Yang Chen got out of the taxi, he immediately saw Zhu Shishou standing under a tree in the square, cooling off.

Seeing the fat man's disheveled appearance, drenched in sweat from the scorching sun, Yang Chen couldn't help but laugh...

"Damn, what's so funny?" Seeing Yang Chen, Zhu Shishou, dragging a black suitcase, smiled but grumbled, "You skinny guys don't understand the sorrow of us fat people..."

As they spoke, they put their arms around each other's shoulders.

Zhu Shishou's thick hand pressed on Yang Chen's shoulder as he asked curiously, "Why did you take a taxi?"

They hadn't seen each other for almost two years. When Yang Chen was expelled from school, Zhu Shishou was still a sophomore, and now he was a senior.

In Zhu Shishou's memory, Yang Chen's family should have been quite wealthy, as evidenced by his generous spending in college.

Yang Chen didn't feel any pressure and smiled, saying, "There was a bit of a change at home, and I'm now penniless..."

"What happened?" Zhu Shishou knew Yang Chen's character and wouldn't joke about such matters.

"The family business went bankrupt." Yang Chen didn't want to elaborate and simply explained, then asked Zhu Shishou, "Why did you suddenly decide to come to this poor place, Jinzhou?"

Zhu Shishou grinned, "We haven't seen each other for almost two years, I missed you..."

Yang Chen felt a chill.

After a joke, Zhu Shishou asked, "Do you have anything to do this afternoon?"

"I'm a wanderer now, what could I have to do?" Yang Chen shrugged indifferently, "What's up with you?"

"Hehe, it's good that you don't... " Zhu Shishou chuckled again and patted Yang Chen's shoulder, "You're from Jinzhou, so come with me to a place this afternoon."

"Where?" Yang Chen asked.

"Um..." Zhu Shishou took out his phone and checked a text message, then asked uncertainly, "Yangxi Town, Dalong Mountain, do you know where it is?"

"Yes." Yang Chen nodded, "It's not far from the city. By car, it should take less than half an hour."

"Alright, come with me to Dalong Mountain first. We'll go early and come back early. We can find a place to gather in the evening. You don't know, the girl who got you expelled from school was pregnant last winter..."

Yang Chen was thus conscripted.

Yangxi Town, under the jurisdiction of Luxi County in Jinzhou City, is about 36 kilometers from the city center. It is a typical agricultural town with a population of less than 80,000, and only about 50,000 permanent residents. Most of the young people have left to work elsewhere, leaving behind mostly the elderly, children, and some women who stay at home.

Dalong Mountain is a collective name for several peaks, covered with bamboo. On rainy days, it is shrouded in mist, looking like a fairyland, with very beautiful scenery.

A few years ago, the local government promoted tourism development, and Dalong Mountain received significant publicity.

However, due to a lack of supporting facilities and subsequent funding, the development was halted halfway.

This was Yang Chen's first visit to Dalong Mountain. Sitting in the taxi, he watched the scenery outside the window and listened to Zhu Shishou's incessant chatter, feeling inexplicably content...

"Thank you, sir." Zhu Shishou paid the fare and thanked the driver as he got out of the car.

Standing on the stone-paved road, breathing in the fresh air, Zhu Shishou looked content and asked Yang Chen, "Have you been here before?"

"No, this is my first time." Yang Chen收回了远望的目光，扭头问道：“说吧，莫名其妙从京城跑过来，你到底干啥来了？”

"There's a temple on this mountain, and there's an old Taoist priest named Yuqing Zhenren..." Zhu Shishou scratched his head and said, "I came to find him to do something... or rather, my father wants him to help with something."

"Yuqing Zhenren?" Zhu Shishou's words made Yang Chen's heart skip a beat.

Zhu Shishou's mention of Yuqing Zhenren brought back a memory for Yang Chen.

In the current world, although there weren't as many spiritual and martial cultivators as in the future, there were still some extraordinary people active in high society.

For example, qigong masters who practiced breathing techniques, Taoist cultivators who practiced the cultivation of primordial energy, feng shui masters who practiced the manipulation of qi, and Buddhist monks who specialized in the cultivation of the spirit. These were the prototypes of the spiritual and martial cultivators of the future, with some of them having destructive power comparable to third-stage spiritual and martial cultivators, making them not to be underestimated.

However, most of the so-called qigong masters, Taoist cultivators, and feng shui masters who roamed the world were just charlatans who had learned a bit of superficial knowledge and used it to deceive people, especially during the period from the early 1960s to the late 1980s.

But the Yuqing Zhenren mentioned by Zhu Shishou did leave a slight impression on Yang Chen.

If he remembered correctly, he had met this Yuqing Zhenren in his previous life, at the grand ceremony for the establishment of the Chinese Taoist Alliance on Zhongnan Mountain. Since they were both from Jinzhou, he had even chatted with him for a bit...

But if Yang Chen's memory served him right, this Yuqing Zhenren was just someone with a bit of genuine skill, but not particularly powerful. He couldn't recall the finer details at the moment.

He just didn't expect Zhu Shishou to travel all the way to Jinzhou to visit this Yuqing Zhenren.

Seeing the look of disbelief on Yang Chen's face, Zhu Shishou couldn't help but boast, "You don't know, this Yuqing Zhenren is really powerful. Although he rarely leaves Jinzhou, he is very famous in Beijing!"

As he spoke, he raised his thumb, "My father told me that as early as the early 1990s, this Yuqing Zhenren was a frequent guest in the homes of many high-ranking officials in Beijing. If there was any strange occurrence, inviting him to the house would guarantee that the problem would be solved..."

No matter how much Zhu Shishou boasted, Yang Chen maintained a smile and didn't argue.

Each school had its own expertise in the development and use of energy particles.

Strange occurrences did indeed exist.

Humans, being the pinnacle of all living beings, have powerful souls. The intense resentment of those who die abnormally can indeed alter the magnetic field and the distribution of energy particles around them.

Under these conditions, the soul can be preserved in an intangible state.

Since these souls have a certain degree of consciousness, they can use the magnetic field and energy particles in the environment to create what are known as supernatural events.

To deal with these, qigong masters often use their powerful magnetic fields to directly disperse them. However, if their strength is insufficient, they are the most vulnerable to the backlash from the magnetic field, so qigong masters rarely take action against such strange occurrences.

In comparison, Taoist cultivators can use talismans and ritual objects made from basic particle equations to harness the power of nature to suppress these malevolent spirits, which, while not the most sophisticated method, is effective.

Additionally, Buddhist monks can use their highly concentrated spiritual power when chanting scriptures to significantly alter the magnetic field and the distribution of energy particles in an area, thus cutting off the foundation on which these spirits rely for survival.

In summary, none of these methods are as effective as using a third-stage spiritual technique like "Holy Sun Descends" to obliterate these unique spiritual entities with overwhelming force, leaving no room for any lingering issues.

Moreover, in his previous life, Yang Chen was a grand elder of the Chinese Taoist Alliance. Who could be more knowledgeable about these common methods than him?

At his level, teaching the reclusive old Taoists on Zhongnan Mountain would be like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut!

Since it was within his expertise, Yang Chen felt reassured... It would be interesting to see how the current Yuqing Zhenren compared to the one from twenty years later.