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Chapter 29: Dongyu Fang Gu
🕑 Added 2025-02-24 10:15:16 +0000 UTCThe people here didn’t know what feng shui was, so it was naturally difficult for them to accept. But on the flip side, the entire County City was an untapped market waiting to be explored.
Chen Xiao’s so-called promotion of residential feng shui wasn’t about making a big public spectacle or shouting about it in the streets. Instead, he asked Pang Hemu to introduce him within his social circles.
This was how feng shui masters typically expanded their business by establishing one successful case and then letting word spread through the client’s social network. Once a reputation was built, those in need would come seeking help. However, since no one here understood what feng shui was, Chen Xiao had to take the initiative and ask Pang Hemu to help spread the word.
As for yin residences (burial sites), since he hadn’t yet figured out the exact geomantic layout of the region, Chen Xiao was wary of making mistakes and decided not to take on such cases for the time being.
Instead, he focused on yang residences, residential feng shui. With a few successful cases under his belt, he was gaining experience and confidence. He planned to hone his skills to perfection while also making a name for himself as a feng shui master.
Having personally experienced the benefits, Pang Hemu readily agreed to help.
Despite the unsettling experiences of energy clashes and overwhelming pressure, the Golden Jade Prosperity feng shui formation had undeniably proven effective.
Although Pang Hemu had suffered some heartache and nearly lost face, he had secured two major business deals, earning profits several times or even dozens of times higher than usual. Of course, he would have preferred if the process had been less nerve-wracking.
With things settling down, Chen Xiao suddenly found himself with more leisure time. He slept until late morning, and after a slow breakfast, he either took a casual stroll to Taxue Xunxian Pavilion or stayed in his courtyard, reading and deepening his understanding of this world’s knowledge.
Thanks to Pang Hemu’s enthusiastic recommendations, a few people became interested in residential feng shui and, out of curiosity, invited Chen Xiao to take a look at their homes.
Some did it as a favor to Pang Hemu, while others genuinely had a need.
Regardless of their reasons, Chen Xiao treated everyone equally, meticulously examining their residences and offering adjustments based on their specific conditions.
However, while all of them followed his recommendations, the results varied, some homes developed a strong energy field and gathered prosperity, while others absorbed the energy but failed to establish a stable aura. Some houses showed no change at all, remaining exactly as they were before.
Chen Xiao wasn’t discouraged by this. As a former feng shui master, he understood that not every house could develop its own feng shui potential. Some were built on locations that weren’t particularly good or bad, neutral ground with no inherent geomantic energy.
For houses like these, there was no way to harness the land’s fortune. Their occupants could only rely on their own luck; their fate had little to do with the house itself.
Another issue was the house’s orientation. Since Chen Xiao hadn’t yet deciphered this world’s calendar system, he couldn’t determine the owners’ elemental attributes or adjust the feng shui accordingly. In such cases, no matter how he arranged the layout, it wouldn’t take effect.
Overall, among those who sought his help, one-third saw significant improvement, one-third experienced mild effects, and one-third saw no change at all.
A 30% failure rate would have been frustrating for a former master like him, but for the wealthy elite of County City, it only fueled their obsession with residential feng shui.
When it worked, the effects were astonishingly immediate. Even with only a one-in-three chance, these people were more than willing to spend large sums of gold to try their luck. After all, a 30% probability wasn’t low. If they succeeded, their prosperity would benefit future generations. If they failed, it was merely a financial loss, something they could easily afford.
Before long, more and more wealthy individuals sought out Chen Xiao for feng shui consultations. His courtyard often saw two or three groups of visitors in a single day. But he was only one person, no matter how much he tried, he couldn’t possibly handle them all.
Pang Hemu took the initiative to organize the requests, setting up a proper queue. It took nearly six months before Chen Xiao managed to finish assessing all the residences.
Of course, with any new phenomenon, there were always skeptics, stubborn individuals who refused to believe and even tried persuading others to reject it. Among them, the most vocal was a businessman named Sheng.
Chen Xiao had no interest in dealing with such people. By now, he had gained quite a following. He didn’t even need to argue, his loyal supporters would shut the naysayers down for him.
Dragging his weary steps back to the main house, Chen Xiao collapsed into a chair at the round table in his bedroom. He picked up the teapot and poured himself a cup of tea. The housekeeper had refilled it before leaving, and it was still warm. After drinking a cup, he finally felt a little more refreshed.
Working non-stop for so long had taken a toll on him. Even with his young and healthy body, he was starting to feel the strain.
This exhaustion was worse than back when his master, furious over his mistakes and near-fatal backlash, had forced him to run from one feng shui consultation to the next. Back then, at least people understood what feng shui was.
And with Fang Gu, an undisputed master with an impeccable reputation, overseeing everything, there had been little resistance to his work.
Here, things were different. He constantly had to explain himself, why he did things a certain way, what the benefits were. Sometimes, he had to make changes to the house itself, even demolishing and rebuilding certain sections. Not everyone was willing to go along with it, so he had to persuade them. Otherwise, the final results wouldn't turn out as expected, and his own reputation would take a hit.
If this had been in his past life, he would have walked away without hesitation. Any Feng Shui master personally invited to assess a property would never have to deal with such resistance.
Feng Shui masters of old never feared anyone or any power. Their reputation was built upon the legacies of countless great masters over the centuries. No one wanted to offend a Feng Shui master—you never knew how they might retaliate using Feng Shui. Losing money or facing bad luck was the least of one’s concerns. Ruthless Feng Shui masters could go as far as destroying their enemies’ ancestral graves, leaving them bankrupt and their families ruined. The most vicious ones could even employ techniques that severed a family’s bloodline entirely.
That said, as exhausting as this work was, the rewards were substantial. At first, those who invited him for consultations, out of respect for Pang Hemu, would pay him in gold coins if they were generous, or just silver if they were stingy.
But as more people sought him out, his reputation grew, and his fees skyrocketed. Now, a single consultation earned enough to support an ordinary family for a lifetime. At first, he kept his earnings at home, but as they accumulated, he had no choice but to deposit them in the bank.
With financial stability secured, Chen Xiao began pursuing other goals. He had stopped working at Pang Hemu’s antique shop and wanted to resign from his position as the third shopkeeper. However, Pang Hemu refused to let him go, insisting that even if he only held the title in name, he would still receive a full salary.
Chen Xiao was no stranger to this kind of arrangement. In his past life, wealthy real estate tycoons often did the same, hiring Feng Shui masters as honorary consultants, paying them a salary for essentially doing nothing. It was a disguised way of keeping a capable Feng Shui master on standby for when they needed them.
After spending so much time together, Chen Xiao found Pang Hemu to be a decent person. Apart from losing his rationality whenever anything related to immortal cultivation came up, he was generally easy to talk to. Of course, their conversations were always about topics that interested Chen Xiao, Feng Shui and antiques, because Pang Hemu made a deliberate effort to cater to his interests.
It was clear that Pang Hemu, coming from a family with three generations of business experience, truly knew how to win people over. His sincerity made interactions with him feel effortless and pleasant.
As the first person in this world to treat him with genuine respect as a Feng Shui master, Pang Hemu had earned a spot in Chen Xiao’s circle of friends. Since it cost him nothing and put Pang Hemu at ease, Chen Xiao saw no reason to reject the honorary consultant position.
That evening, after having dinner outside, he went to the neighborhood bathhouse for a soak before returning home. There was only one major downside to living in this courtyard, there was no bathroom. If he needed to relieve himself, he had to use a chamber pot. Washing his face and hands was fine, but if he wanted a proper bath, he had to heat water himself. And Chen Xiao had no patience for boiling a large pot of water and hauling bucket after bucket into a wooden tub.
Snuggling into his warm blankets, he quickly drifted into a deep sleep.
Ever since he started performing Feng Shui consultations, he had never again experienced hunger at inappropriate times. Not only had his meals returned to normal, but in just six months, he had even grown taller. His once narrow shoulders had started to broaden, gradually taking on the frame of an adult.
Chen Xiao was quite pleased with this. In his past life, he had been tall with a well-proportioned physique. He hoped to grow into the same long-legged frame this time around as well.
That night, in a half-dreaming state, he felt as if he were wandering aimlessly in a pitch-black space. Then, a faint golden light appeared in the darkness. Slowly, it grew brighter and brighter, drawing him toward it.
It was a golden Luojing compass, the Luo Pan, as ordinary people called it. It was about the size of an adult's outstretched hand, with a magnetic needle spinning in the center. Around it were densely packed concentric circles filled with characters, a total of eighteen rings extending outward from the central "Heaven Pool."
Chen Xiao gazed at the golden Luo Pan with nostalgia, carefully tracing the familiar markings. He had never missed his trusted Feng Shui tool as much as he did now. As the most essential instrument for a Feng Shui master, he had, of course, owned one himself.
Just then, the Luo Pan in front of him flipped over, revealing an engraving at its central "Heaven Pool" position:
"Dongyu Fang Gu You Made Luo Pan!"
"!!!???"
Chen Xiao jolted awake, shooting up from his bed in shock.
