Chapter 81: The young man who keeps jumping off the building in Tianming Group
The first three days of the second week's course were held in the classroom, while the final two days involved students and their teachers traveling to the Qinling Mountains to conduct simulations in excavated tombs. The teachers spent half a day demonstrating the process, and the remaining day and a half conducting simulations. The students were graded based on their performance.
Tiancheng is located in the southeast sea halfway across the country, while the Qinling Mountains are in central China, very, very far away.
But the wisdom of the ancient spiritual masters remains here. Tiancheng has a portal connected to the Qinling Mountains. As long as the spiritual masters inject spiritual power into the arched stone door, they can travel to the mountains thousands of miles away in an instant.
“That’s really convenient.”
Lin Zhuyue carried the basic tool kit in her left hand and the water bottle in her right. She wore thick rubber shoes, and tucked the legs of her required trousers into them. She raised her right arm, wiped the sweat off her face with her sleeve, and said,
"It's just a little too hot."
“It’s quite convenient, but it also brings a lot of trouble.”
Shi Can stood behind Lin Zhuyue, patiently gathered Lin Zhuyue's long hair, and rolled it up as high as possible, then clipped it with a relatively light plastic shark clip.
"Thank you, it's much cooler now."
Lin Zhuyue raised his hand and touched the shark claw, then asked,
"I heard someone cycled through the Qinling Mountains and fell into the Heavenly City with their bike. Is that true? However, activating the portal requires spiritual power. That person was just an ordinary person, right?"
"The portal is an old artifact after all. Old spells are sometimes not applicable to modern times. It may fail or open due to magnetic fields, weather, and other factors."
Shi Can pulled Lin Zhuyue to sit on the rock, waiting for the classmates to be transferred over while chatting.
"Not just humans, but occasionally even mountain spirits pass through the portal. My parents said that when they were in advanced school, a large, colorful, whiskered snake entered Celestial City under cover of night, slithered through the streets, and ate two children."
Lin Zhuyue asked: "...Isn't this a story to scare children?"
"It's true."
Wen Miyan came over and said,
"It's said that it ate the human because it was too hungry. The Spiritual Master's Mansion negotiated with it and offered it a magical instrument imbued with rich spiritual power in exchange, and it vomited the child."
"So you have to be careful in Qinling. Your spiritual power is so strong, there might be monsters that want to bite you."
"……hiss."
Lin Zhuyue took a breath.
"Then you must remember to bring the magic weapon to me in exchange."
"Don't worry, I will get you back even if I lose everything I have."
Shi Can patted Lin Zhuyue's head and said,
"But redeeming you definitely won't be free. You have to pay back the debt, and then you'll..."
"I understand. I understand everything."
Lin Zhuyue gave a thumbs up and said,
"Turn on your Famicom, access your old Platinum Pokémon save file, and catch ten Psyducks for you."
Shi Can: “…”
You know shit!
Ye Yangjia laughed so hard that he fell backwards.
The students in Class 1 arrived one after another.
Lin Zhuyue asked doubtfully, "Is our class the only one coming?"
The entire third-year senior class should have been taking the same summer courses, but Lin Zhuyue didn't see any students or teachers from other classes.
"Class two will come over this weekend, and the remaining classes will come next week. But honestly, there's really no point in them taking this course."
Shi Can signed his and Lin Zhuyue's names on the sign-in sheet and explained,
"Carrying out emergency treatment on a damaged tomb is an extremely dangerous undertaking, and is typically only undertaken by highly qualified spiritualists. Class 2 aside, students of Class 3's caliber could be killed if they encountered such a situation."
A few minutes later, Duan Junheng passed through the portal and arrived at Qinling Mountains. All the students gathered and set off towards their destination together.
Duan Junheng had just taken two steps when he was stopped by Ye Yangjia.
Duan Junheng stopped and looked at Ye Yangjia.
"Teacher, there are often poisonous snakes in the mountains."
Ye Yangjia handed him his folding stick and picked up a long branch from the tree, saying,
"You have to walk by the leaves, otherwise you'll get bitten."
Duan Junheng said calmly: "Thank you."
Following behind, Shi Chan, holding an unfolded folding stick, had a thoughtful expression on his face.
Not long after, they arrived at a tomb.
Duan Junheng set up an incense table in front of the tomb door. Although the tomb had been destroyed long ago and had become harmless after being treated by spiritual masters, he still lit nine incense sticks and inserted them into the incense burner.
"When you encounter a destroyed tomb, you must communicate with the owner before entering."
Duan Junheng spread out the red paper he had prepared long ago and said,
"Write the petition, light incense, read the petition, pay respect to the gods of heaven and earth, the mountain, and the tomb's owner, then burn the petition. Only when the shape of the burned petition and the incense pattern are both auspicious can you enter the tomb and proceed to the next step."
"We are currently simulating auspicious signs. As for ominous signs, these are generally not negotiable and require suppression. However, in recent years, the suppression efforts of the Spiritual Master's Mansion have almost always ended in failure. Many of the great ghosts that have emerged are the owners of the destroyed tombs."
After reading the petition, Duan Junheng burned it.
They walked through a long corridor, and at the end of it was the resting place of the tomb's owner. In the center of this place stood a stone platform, upon which sat a replica coffin. Originally, there had been a real wooden coffin here, but it had long since been taken to the museum along with its owner. Only the fake remained, for the students of the Spiritual Master Academy to learn from and use.
The surrounding stone walls are carved with murals of auspicious clouds, which have not been eroded by time and are still intact. There are also several stone doors hanging high up, and long ladders connecting the stone doors, but no one knows where they lead to.
"Be careful here."
Duan Junheng said,
"In ancient times, people didn't cremate corpses, so they were often adorned with gold, silver, and jewelry. People seeking wealth would often pry open coffins and steal valuables. Therefore, when the spirit master arrived, the coffins would usually appear to have been opened."
"If you encounter a coffin that has been opened, you must first use the Soul Requiem technique and then seal the coffin. If you seal it directly, it may cause the tomb owner to become furious."
Duan Junheng washed his hands with rootless water, placed the four symbols around the coffin according to their directions, and chanted the incantation:
"The sky and earth are dark yellow, the universe is vast and boundless, the sun and moon alternate, and the stars are spread out in a circle. The images of the four directions avoid ominous things thousands of miles away, stay away from all inauspicious things, clear away the evil and filth, and calm the uneasy soul."
After reciting the spell, Duan Junheng lifted the coffin lid, closed the coffin, saluted, and slowly left the tomb.
For the next day and a half, the students in Class 1 continued to repeat the simulation and grading process.
Because we were in the mountains, we had to wear rubber shoes and thick pants to protect ourselves from snakes, and most of the students were so hot that their eyes were wide open.
Shi Can leaned over to allow Lin Zhuyue to place a cooling patch on his forehead and asked:
"Will this thing fade? If I peel it off later, will I turn into the Avatar?"
Lin Zhuyue said: "If it fades, I will take your last name."
Shi Can: “…It’s not impossible.”
Lin Zhuyue slapped him on the forehead, firmly patting the cold patch on Shi Can's forehead.
After applying the cooling patch to Shi Can, Lin Zhuyue squatted on the ground bored.
She found a hole in the ground, and inside it was a tiny, pink head with very cute features. Lin Zhuyue didn't know what it was, and she was so curious that she subconsciously reached out her hand.
Shi Can was startled by her, and he grabbed her hand tightly, pulled her up from the ground, and pulled her aside:
"Are you crazy? That could be a snake, and you want to get bitten?"
Lin Zhuyue's eyes widened: "Ah? Snake?"
"Snake? Where?"
Gong Yongyuan came over and looked into the cave.
"Hey, an albino? Help me get it out quickly. I want to take it home and raise it."
Lin Zhuyue didn't dare to go over there at all.
Shi Can stood beside Lin Zhuyue and warned:
"Master Gong, this might be a case of a snake being put in jail for a long time."
"Whether he'll spend the rest of his life in prison or not, we'll know once we dig him out. Are you scared, Cangou?"
On Friday afternoon, everyone in Class 1 passed the simulation course and returned to Tiancheng through the portal.
Lin Zhuyue took a shower. She was wearing a vest and shorts, sitting on a sofa covered with a mat and enjoying the air conditioning.
Xiaoyu climbed on her, but she felt too hot and pushed the cat aside several times. After so many pushes, Xiaoyu got angry and turned his butt towards her, swinging his big squirrel-like tail back and forth, and sulked on the sofa.
Lin Zhuyue could only take out freeze-dried food to coax it.
Within a few minutes, Lin Zhuyue received the task notification.
She casually put on a white cake skirt, carried a small bag, and held a parasol, heading towards the Spiritual Master Mansion. Halfway through her walk, she met Shi Chan who was driving towards her, opened the car door and got in.
Lin Zhuyue asked, "How did you get here so quickly?"
"Chen Junhao was sent to Tiancheng. I wanted to come over to say hello to him, but then the mission notice arrived."
Shi Chan turned the steering wheel and complained,
"The Spiritual Master House really treats us like donkeys. We just finished the class and they didn't even let us take a break."
"Look at it from a bright side, you can earn bonuses."
Lin Zhuyue took apart the fruit jelly that Shican had put on the car, and teased him as he did so.
"But you don't care about these little things."
Shi Can said, "Although I don't care about the little money, I do care about the little scores. I plan to graduate from the Spiritual Master Academy with the first place."
Lin Zhuyue asked, "How is Qin Sibo?"
"The spiritualists who went to Yebei City are already dealing with the altar of this unfortunate child. It will take at least until Sunday to complete it. Old Fu is still following up on the work."
Shi Can said to Lin Zhuyue,
"It's a good thing his girlfriend is a spiritualist and she's also not at home. Otherwise, with so little time together, they would have broken up a long time ago. Give me some jelly, I want some too."
It’s better to be partners. We can complete tasks together and be inseparable. There is no need to worry about emotional discord due to long-term separation.
Lin Zhuyue handed the jelly to his mouth.
Shi Chan, holding the jelly in his mouth, said vaguely:
"...Ms. Lin, could you please unpack it?"
Lin Zhuyue tore off a part of the wrapping paper and stuffed it into Shican's mouth again.
Shican got off the car while eating jelly and humming a little tune.
Lin Zhuyue followed behind, thinking:
Still complaining about being treated like a donkey, isn't this quite happy?
Feng Xincheng was already waiting for them in the principal's office. He brewed a pot of Mingqian Longjing tea, poured the tea very kindly, and invited Lin Zhuyue and Shi Can to come over and drink.
After a while, Wen Miyan and Ye Yangjia also arrived.
"Now that you're all here, I'll issue the mission."
Feng Xincheng took out the folder and said,
"The client of this mission is named Gu Qinghan, the general manager of Tianming Group. Shi Can, you should have heard of Tianming Group."
Shi Can nodded and responded:
"Yeah, I've heard of the Shi family's business partners. Their business covers a wide range."
"Gu Qinghan has a girlfriend he's been dating for half a year. Her name is Li Renzhen, and they've just started living together. Since then, Gu Qinghan has felt something is amiss."
Feng Xincheng took the folder and said,
"He often had dreams at night. He dreamed of a young man who looked very similar to Li Renzhen. He saw him saying 'I will make you regret this' and jumping out of a high-rise window."
"The boy kept jumping and jumping. Every night, Gu Qinghan would see him jump three or four times. When Gu Qinghan asked his girlfriend about it, she told him not to worry about it. That's how Gu Qinghan was sure he wasn't just dreaming. After a long time, Gu Qinghan couldn't stand it anymore, but he didn't want to break up easily. So, with the help of his father, he sought help from the Spiritual Master's House."
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