A knife hidden at the door will inevitably lead to ruin and loss of family fortune, and will also cause personal harm and extinction of one's lineage.

As we mentioned earlier, this is a form of divination.

The ancient doctor once placed bamboo leaves and cypress leaves wrapped in red paper on the beam of Old Lady Jiang's new house, praying that the homeowner would live a long and healthy life.

This is naturally a good way to ward off evil.

In the Huichuan area, there is a specific term for bad curse spells: "Xia Zhen Yan" (下镇魇).

There are three types of curses: minor, medium, and major.

Minor misfortune: After the new house is completed, the homeowner's life is not peaceful. They always feel that there are noises or evil spirits in the house at night.

The ominous sign indicates financial ruin for the family; whatever they do will result in losses, or misfortune will strike unexpectedly while they are at home.

A very bad omen, indicating that the head of the household will die a violent death and have no descendants.

These are the three different distinctions of the Lower Nightmare.

Of course, some people will say that this is all feudal superstition, while others will say that good fortune can suppress a hundred misfortunes, and that people with good fortune in their lives are immune to any kind of exorcism.

But if it were really that insignificant, why do people in rural areas have to keep watch all night when building houses? It's all to prevent anyone from causing trouble!

Li Xiangdong looked at the iron knife, then picked up all the movable bricks from the walls of the house and examined them.

Sure enough, right opposite the iron knife, on the walls on either side of the main gate of the second courtyard, another curved knife with a bluish-green blade was found!

Li Xiangdong's eyes were icy cold. This was an extremely ominous spell. It seemed that the person who cast the spell hated him so much that he was still alive!

Let alone someone who has been reborn and naturally holds a sense of awe for the unknown, even an ordinary rural person would be furious to see someone doing such a bad thing.

Li Xiangdong had once heard a legend about what happened in the neighboring Guanyutai brigade.

Forty years ago, there was a small landlord family in Guanyutai Village. Ever since his only son got married, his family had been in turmoil. His parents-in-law thought that the daughter-in-law was the cause of the trouble, so they beat and scolded her and insisted on divorcing her.

This daughter-in-law was also a strong-willed person; she hanged herself on the very night her parents-in-law wrote the letter of divorce.

This family compensated the daughter-in-law's family with some money, and soon married another woman. However, this daughter-in-law went insane for no apparent reason.

He then took a third, fourth, and fifth wife, all the way up to the ninth. Of those nine daughters-in-law, none of them died or went insane; none of them lasted a full year.

The small landlord's family was nearly driven mad. Ever since their son married his third wife, they had been consulting a feng shui master to examine both the ancestral grave and the new house. The feng shui master thoroughly examined both the ancestral grave and the new house. He was puzzled; the feng shui of both the grave and the new house seemed fine, so there shouldn't be such a situation causing harm to the family.

The feng shui master pondered the matter and concluded that the house might have been cursed. However, after searching everywhere he could, he couldn't find the cursed object. The feng shui master subtly suggested that it might be inside the walls or the foundation.

The small landlord's family was troubled when they heard this. If it was in the foundation and walls, it would be equivalent to demolishing the entire house!

The fact that their family was called "small landlords" indicates that they weren't particularly wealthy; they were just better off than ordinary people by being frugal. They couldn't bear to demolish their house, nor could they afford to continue spending money to marry off their wives.

He married nine daughters-in-law, spent all his money, and had no children. In the end, the landlord's son died of illness, and the landlord and his wife also died of depression.

If it weren't for what happened later, the incident involving the small landlord at Guanyutai would probably have been forgotten over time.

But ten years ago, when the production brigade was building a road, the small landlord's house was in the way, so the brigade demolished his house.

This push had a significant impact. The walls of the small landlord's house were all made of adobe bricks, which were basically just piles of mud mixed with chopped wheat straw. Surprisingly, they found two rusty pairs of scissors inside the broken adobe wall!

This caused quite a stir. No one said anything publicly, but it was the talk of the town behind the scenes. Especially the older folks who knew the inside story back then said, "It seems the feng shui master was right!"

Sure enough, someone had placed a talisman inside the wall!

As for who placed this protective object, the circumstances have changed drastically over the past thirty years, and no one can say for sure anymore.

But from then on, for miles around, regardless of winter or summer, and no matter who was building a house, one person had to sleep day and night on the new house site, just to prevent anyone from having bad intentions.

The residence of Li Xiangdong and Li Lan was naturally guarded by someone, none other than their second uncle, Li Yuan.

When Li Jin was unavailable, he would have Li Yuan move over and live in a makeshift shack to keep an eye on things.

Li Xiangdong looked around but couldn't see Li Yuan anywhere. He couldn't believe that Li Yuan had placed the talisman.

It could only have been placed there by someone while he was away.

Li Xiangdong quickly recovered from his extreme anger. Once something is done, there will be traces. He didn't believe that it couldn't be found out.

Most importantly, he learned a surefire way to break the curse from Old Madam Hong. It would definitely turn the tables on them.

He then went to Li Lan's new house and wandered around for a long time, lifting up the surface bricks to see what was underneath.

He was engrossed in flipping through the pages when suddenly a flashlight beam shone down on him, accompanied by an angry voice—it was Li Yuan's.

"Who are you? What are you doing rummaging through my house?!"

Li Yuan ran over quickly and grabbed Li Xiangdong by the collar.

"Second Uncle, it's me!"

Li Yuan shone the flashlight on his face and, sure enough, it was his nephew. He then let go of him, smoothing out the wrinkles in his collar. "I thought someone was trying to cause trouble! When did you get back?"

Li Xiangdong smiled. "I just got home this afternoon. What were you doing just now?"

Li Yuan scratched his head sheepishly, "A child came over and told me that your second aunt had a relapse and that I should hurry back!"

How is Second Aunt?

"Hey, this kid is lying. Your second aunt is perfectly fine. She's at home watching over the Golden Dragon and Jade Phoenix!"

As Li Yuan spoke, his expression turned somewhat unpleasant. "What were you flipping through just now? Did someone cast a spell to suppress you?"

Farmers have an innate awareness of such matters.

Li Xiangdong took out two knives. "These were found in my yard. We haven't found any here yet, sister!"

Li Yuanqi's hands trembled slightly; in fact, besides anger, the main reason was guilt.

Li Xiangdong interrupted Li Yuan, who was about to apologize, and asked, "Whose child is that?"

After thinking it over for a while, Li Yuan suddenly realized that the child who brought the message was not from their village at all.

Li Xiangdong advised Li Yuan not to be angry, saying that the child who appeared at night was probably from a nearby village, and they could investigate it slowly.

Li Jin prepared the meal, but after waiting and waiting for Li Xiangdong to arrive, he thought for a moment and then went to the new house on the saline-alkali land.