Chapter 041: The Malignant Feng Shui Formation

The cleaning lady told me her surname was Xie. She had worked as a cleaner in this hotel for nearly eight years now.

She was here even before the hotel changed owners.

Two years ago, there was a murder in the hotel—a woman was strangled to death in the stairwell. The police intervened and quickly found the killer.

That woman had been brought to the hotel after getting drunk and stayed in room 627.

In the middle of the night, she woke up to find herself assaulted. She burst into tears and ran out, shouting that she would call the police. The perpetrator, fearing exposure, chased after her.

She pressed the elevator button, but when she saw the killer coming, she had no choice but to flee to the stairwell.

But she couldn’t outrun him. He caught up with her there.

During the struggle, the woman tumbled down the stairs.

Yet the depraved killer was not content to let her go. He followed after and strangled her to death.

When Ms. Xie finished telling the story, I immediately understood that the strangled woman was Zhang Caiwei.

Ah… this woman! I hardly know what to say about her. The way she dressed, so revealing—how could she not attract the wrong kind of attention? And at her age, so young and beautiful, why didn’t she take better care of herself instead of going out drinking?

Getting drunk—wasn’t that just giving criminals an opportunity?

Of course, the criminal deserved death and was utterly detestable. But Zhang Caiwei also bore some responsibility for failing to protect herself.

But now, what’s done is done, and no one can undo such a tragedy. There’s no use talking about it anymore.

All I can do now is find the reason she’s trapped here and help her move on as soon as possible—let her enter the cycle of reincarnation, be reborn, and hope that in her next life, she won’t make such foolish mistakes again, that she’ll have a bit more awareness of self-protection.

“And then?” I asked Ms. Xie.

She went on to say that ever since that woman died—she meant Zhang Caiwei—the hotel had known no peace. Every day, there were ghostly disturbances…

Manager Xu had already told Shang Wuwei about these things, so I’d heard them from his mouth. So I cut Ms. Xie off and asked, “You don’t need to tell me about the hauntings. Tell me what the new owner of this hotel did about it!”

At my words, Ms. Xie hesitated for a moment, but didn’t ask how I knew. She went on to tell me that the new owner was a well-known figure in the city.

His name was Kong Shaotian, though many respectfully called him Master Tian.

He’d made his fortune in mining, then branched out into many other industries. Now, he was one of the city’s wealthiest businessmen.

Ms. Xie’s evaluation of Kong Shaotian was summed up in two words: “very rich.”

“Oh, so Mr. Kong bought this whole building,” she said.

Yes, indeed—very wealthy.

A building like this, situated in the prime district of the city, must be worth a fortune! To buy it outright—ordinary rich people couldn’t manage that.

“And then? After Mr. Kong bought the building, did the ghostly disturbances finally stop?” I asked.

“Yes! After Mr. Kong took over, he brought in someone to take a look. They said they arranged some kind of feng shui pattern on the rooftop, and ever since then, there have been no more hauntings. It’s just that… I don’t know why, but last night, it started again…” Fear clouded Ms. Xie’s face once more.

Rooftop?

I caught a key word.

They set up a feng shui arrangement on the rooftop?

Is that why Lvzhu and the others can’t leave—because of something on the rooftop?

Is that force of lightning stopping them from leaving coming from up there?

“Please… don’t tell anyone I told you this! I could really lose my job!” Ms. Xie warned me again.

“Don’t worry! I won’t say a word! Anyway, Ms. Xie, you’d better get back to work—let’s pretend we never met today!” I assured her with a smile.

She nodded rapidly. “Yes, yes! We never met!”

With that, she waved and left with her tools.

When she was gone, I pondered for a moment, then pushed open the fire door and headed for the elevator.

There was no need for the stairs now—I had to get up to the rooftop as soon as possible.

This building had over twenty stories. According to the hotel’s floor plan, floors one to eight were for the hotel; above that were offices.

If I wanted to reach the rooftop, I’d never make it in time by climbing stairs.

I pressed the elevator button, stepped in when it arrived, and pressed for the top floor.

When I got out, I saw a sign for some biotech company. I paid it no mind and went to find the stairs up to the roof.

I climbed the stairs and found the door to the rooftop locked.

That was no obstacle for me. I couldn’t walk through walls, but opening a locked door without a key was easy enough for me.

Even though I knew it wasn’t exactly proper.

But I had a hunch—the feng shui array up on the roof was no benign thing. If I tried to get Kong Shaotian to open the door for me through normal channels, I doubted he would ever allow it.

So I decided I’d take a look myself, see exactly what he’d had installed up there.

If it was a normal feng shui array, not the kind that harms others for personal gain, I’d slip away quietly.

But if it was something sinister, I couldn’t stand idly by.

I placed my palm against the lock and focused my spiritual energy. The hidden lock clicked open with ease.

I pushed the door open slowly.

The moment I set foot on the rooftop, I felt extremely uneasy. A gust of wind blew, but instead of feeling cool, I felt a stifling heat.

It was midsummer, so some heat was to be expected, but this was different—a dry, oppressive heat that made me irritable and anxious for no reason.

Something was wrong. Very wrong.

If this had been a regular feng shui arrangement, I wouldn’t be feeling this way.

A feng shui pattern, also known as a feng shui array, is meant to harmoniously harness the surroundings and the energies of heaven and earth, to be in tune with nature, to seek the right moment, the right place, the right people.

But this array was nothing like that. It seemed to be forcibly suppressing or siphoning something away.

I quickly took out my compass and began to walk around the rooftop, holding it steady.

I hadn’t even finished my first circuit when I clenched my teeth and furrowed my brow.

Damn it—there really was a powerful feng shui array here. I couldn’t yet determine its precise nature, but one thing was clear.

This was an evil array.

Yes, an evil feng shui array.

Such arrays are unethical, set up by sinister practitioners. Their most typical feature is harming others to benefit oneself.

They siphon off other people’s luck, fortune, or even vital energy for someone’s personal use.

It’s not unlike those who keep little spirits for their own gain.

Damn it, I never expected I’d run into something like this.

I’d often heard my master say that some feng shui practitioners, blinded by greed, use their knowledge to make quick money at the expense of others, pursuing their own secret aims.

Many clients trust and even revere such practitioners, because they can use feng shui to achieve quick results.

But what they don’t know is that such methods always come at a price—harming others or even themselves. More often than not, it isn’t worth it.

My master despised feng shui practitioners like that.

And I, too, loathed such people.

I continued circling the rooftop with my compass.

Soon, following its guidance, I found the array’s focal point.

It was a small house that jutted up above the rooftop.

Its door was locked.

But I knew the heart of the array wasn’t inside, but on the roof of the little house itself.

So I didn’t need to open the door to know there would be stairs inside leading up to the roof.

The rooftop was the true heart of it all!

I took a deep breath, placed my hand on the lock of the little house, and prepared to open it…