Chapter 62

Lan Xing heard Zhu Chu’s muttering and couldn’t help but smile bitterly.

Although his family had some money, they were at most nouveau riche; there was still a huge gap compared to those wealthy families who casually bought several houses without batting an eye!

An apartment within the Third Ring Road of the capital city easily cost several million yuan. Being scammed like this was indeed frustrating, especially since he had truly trusted that agent before.

Lan Xing: “How is this different from being scammed by a scumbag who cheats both your heart and money?!”

Everyone: “…”

It did seem like there really wasn’t much difference.

When Ke Xingzhou heard him mention an apartment within the Third Ring Road of the capital and a price of several million, his eyes froze, staring at Lan Xing without blinking.

Nie Chen quietly observed him, his tone unreadable: “Do you like it?”

Ke Xingzhou slowly nodded.

That was a several-million-yuan house, and inside the Third Ring Road of the capital. Who wouldn’t like it?

Lan Xing suddenly felt a chill down his spine. The disciple beside Ke Xingzhou looked at him with an unusually sharp gaze, making him feel inexplicably uneasy.

But he had no time to pay attention to such details. He sighed and continued: “I was really scared that night and went straight back to my parents’ house, thinking it would be safer with more people around. But during the day everything was fine, and then at night…”

Actually, if it were just that the house had a death, Lan Xing wouldn’t have been so broken.

That house was originally purchased below market price. At worst, he could restore that wall to its original state, compensate for renovation costs, and then sell it.

After being tossed around at the police station until early morning, he found out that the former owner had colluded with the agent to hide things from him. After being angry for a while, he finally fell asleep around evening.

He thought he was safe back at his own home, but as soon as he closed his eyes, that feeling of being watched appeared again.

When he opened his eyes, he was back in that apartment.

Only this time, he wasn’t by the floor-to-ceiling window door but beside the dining table.

On the table was a steaming hot dinner, seemingly untouched. For the first time, he was wearing an apron and carrying a bowl of boiling hot soup, heading toward the table.

Before he could wonder why he was dreaming about being a househusband, a shadow suddenly fell outside the window with a “bang,” crashing onto the terrace outside.

The horrific scene was exactly like his memory, instantly waking up his recollections. Lan Xing’s face went pale as he looked up and indeed saw that old man who had died with unclosed eyes again.

This time, there was no chair to cushion the fall. The old man’s posture wasn’t as strange, but the moment he hit the ground, his limbs twisted and went limp, leaving only a head here in Chaozhou, with cloudy eyes staring fixedly at him.Lan Xing: "............"

No matter how many times he saw this scene, the impact was always too strong for him.

Lan Xing felt a sudden tingling on his scalp, then intense burning pain on his foot. He looked down and realized he had somehow loosened his grip. The soup bowl had smashed on the ground into several pieces, and the scalding soup was poured over his calf and foot.

His mind went blank for a moment, unsure whether to be afraid first or to call for help.

Then the scene shifted suddenly, and he found himself back in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, as if it were the previous night.

The chair that the old man smashed was gone, replaced by a bloody, mangled human figure.

Lan Xing looked at the familiar pajamas on the figure and stiffened all over. Slowly, he looked down at the same clothes he was wearing, and suddenly felt a chill in his head.

This... the person who was smashed to death — was it him?!

...

Lan Xing was eventually shaken awake by his family.

Although awake, everything from the dream lingered in his mind, unable to dissipate for a long time.

He went to the psychiatry department again but was only diagnosed with mild anxiety, no other issues. But afterwards, he developed insomnia and couldn’t sleep night after night.

What was worse was that whenever he closed his eyes, day or night, he would return to the moment the old man fell.

Sometimes it was the exact moment of the old man’s death; other times, it was that night when he wasn’t tripped up by the phone or chair, but walked straight out and was crushed by the old man, turning into a bloody mess.

His family said it was due to work stress making him overthink, and even an elder said it was because he played with his phone too much. No one took the matter seriously.

Lan Xing himself grew more uneasy.

If it was truly just a hallucination, then how did he dream of holding the soup and standing by the dining table?

He had asked his assistant to investigate. At the time of the accident, the former owner really was cooking soup, and had just brought it out, not yet reached the table, when he saw the old man jump and die right in front of him.

When the ambulance arrived, the owner was taken away with burns on his lower body and had to lie in bed for several weeks before recovering.

Lan Xing wiped his face and looked at Ke Xingzhou for help: "So, could the other perspective I’ve been dreaming about these days actually be... the former owner’s perspective?"

These days he gradually understood that something had protected him mysteriously that night, so he didn’t die horribly.

If anything new appeared in his life, it was only that demon-subduing talisman from Xiaoyao Sect.

That was why he still hadn’t dared to delete the screenshot of it. He even saved the original talisman image from Xiaoyao Sect’s official social media, setting it as his screensaver and wallpaper.

The Xiaoyao Sect’s online shop hadn’t opened yet; otherwise, he would have wanted to buy ten or more of those talismans and stick them to his phone.

Ke Xingzhou was still lazily indifferent, but in Lan Xing’s eyes at this moment, that calmness had long become synonymous with a recluse master.

The recluse master calmly looked at him and slowly said, "There’s an extra charge for performing a ritual at your home. Can you accept that?"

Lan Xing: "..."

Whether he was a master or not, that was still unknown, but recluse he definitely was not.This question is way too down-to-earth!

--

Lan Xing was stunned by Ke Xingzhou’s words, feeling something was off.

But life was more important; he had already stayed up two nights in a row. If he stayed up any longer, he wouldn’t need that old man ghost who jumped off the building to do anything—he would collapse from exhaustion himself.

So he nodded with difficulty: "I can accept it, I can accept anything."

Only then did Ke Xingzhou show a bit of happiness and his attitude toward him warmed slightly. He turned to his senior apprentice and said, "Apprentice, give him the payment account!"

Zhu Chu immediately stepped forward and opened his phone to pull up the payment account but looked puzzled: "Master, how much extra do we charge for doing rituals at someone’s home?"

As he spoke, he cast a sour glance at Nie Chen.

Since this junior apprentice arrived, he stuck to the master every day, so much so that even Zhu Chu, the senior disciple, rarely saw the master. Zhu Chu had always been solely responsible for the sect’s operations, and now there was suddenly an unknown new item added—surely the junior apprentice had slandered him to the master.

This wasn’t just about taking the master’s favor; it was about taking his authority too!

Zhu Chu’s gaze grew increasingly indignant.

Nie Chen: "..."

Lan Xing: "..."

Who openly discusses how much to cut the ‘chives’ (exploitable people) in front of the ‘chives’?!

This is way too much!

Ke Xingzhou didn’t have the slightest awareness of this and, not knowing what price would be appropriate, looked toward Nie Chen.

Nie Chen’s cold gaze swept over Lan Xing, and he said calmly, "For home rituals, increase the usual ritual fee by about ten... twenty percent."

Lan Xing: "..."

He just said ten percent, right? Lan Xing heard that!

Both ears heard that!!

Lan Xing turned in shock to stare at Ke Chenyi, trying to get him to say something fair, at least to stop this blatant exploitation.

Unexpectedly, the always honest Ke Chenyi met his gaze calmly and asked back, "What’s wrong? Is there something off?"

Lan Xing: "............"

When Zhu Chu sent Lan Xing the payment account, he spoke up in time: "Mr. Lan, would you like to join our Xiaoyao Sect online store membership? You can earn points when ordering from the store. If you join now, you can start earning points immediately."

So Lan Xing spent another two thousand yuan and hazily joined the Xiaoyao Sect online store membership.

Looking at the crudely made, wholesale-feeling membership card on the page, Lan Xing fell into unprecedented self-doubt.

Two thousand yuan just for this?Was he really not deceived...?

--

Feng Shui matters can’t be explained in a few words, so Ke Xingzhou decided to go with Lan Xing to that apartment he mentioned.

This time, Ke Xingzhou left the filming base right in front of Lan Xing. Forget the cameras, he didn’t even greet the crew—a very “unprofessional” move. Lan Xing didn’t dare say a single word.

Unexpectedly, when Ke Xingzhou followed him to the site, they ran into acquaintances.

“Jiulong Temple Master, Daoist Pang?”

From afar, two Taoists stood at the entrance of Lan Xing’s apartment. When their eyes met, both were startled.

Jiulong Temple Master was surprised to see Ke Xingzhou: “Daoist Ke, you’re here to check the Feng Shui too?”

Lan Xing frowned and questioned the property manager: “What are you doing at my door?”

The property manager wiped cold sweat from his forehead and hurried to explain, “Mr. Lan, it’s like this. We received complaints saying you damaged the building’s facade, harming other owners’ legitimate rights. So we specially brought people over to discuss how to resolve this.”

Though they said this, the complaints about the facade had come long ago.

After all, it was someone else’s property, on the terrace side, and damage to the facade didn’t feel like a big deal to ordinary people.

But ever since this household started renovations—especially after the wall leading to the terrace was opened up—strange things began happening in the building.

At first, there were sporadic complaints from residents about burst water pipes, rust-colored water, and footsteps heard overhead late at night. These issues were blamed on unit 801 damaging the facade. They didn’t take it seriously and even felt sympathy for unit 801.

The previous owner had spent several million on the apartment, carrying a 20-30 year mortgage. Just moving in, a murder happened. That was unlucky enough. Now they had to take the blame for normal building issues, and neighborhood relations became tense. It was truly unfair.

But as complaints increased and grew stranger, they realized something was wrong.

Burst pipes, reddish water, strange ceiling noises could be explained by building problems. Though rare in new buildings, they aren’t impossible—just poor materials or corner-cutting by the developer.

But what happened afterward, especially the recent false alarm Lan Xing reported about the old man jumping off, spread around by neighbors with many vivid details—said the old man thought he died because of this home’s Feng Shui and came back for revenge.

This gave the property managers chills. Considering public opinion risk, they had to bring back two masters to help check.

But of course, they wouldn’t tell Lan Xing that.

Who would want to spend so much on a home and be pointed at as haunted?

The property manager explained all this carefully, avoiding the sensitive ghost issue.

Lan Xing glanced suspiciously at the two Taoists behind him. Seeing their full ritual robes and tools, his eyes paused.

Sure enough, no wonder this is a famous property management in the country—the Taoists they brought looked very professional.

Unlike his own side...

Ke Xingzhou had brought both apprentices and also Ke Chenyi—three with very different styles—and with Ke Xingzhou’s indifferent expression in the middle, they looked nothing like fortune tellers, more like a street boy band on a runway.

Lan Xing: "..."

Strangely, he felt that bringing this bunch over made his own team look inferior compared to the property’s side.So frustrating.

But he didn’t have the guts to ask Ke Xingzhou to change into a more professional outfit, fearing that Ke would just leave if displeased.

Lan Xing silently cried inside. How could he be such a pushover as a boss in any aspect…

--

The property management wanted to introduce both sides, but Daoist Pang waved his hand, saying both sides already knew each other, then stepped forward to greet Ke Xingzhou.

“By the way, Daoist Ke,” he suddenly remembered, “we’ve already registered accounts and followed each other, but this corporate blue verification somehow can’t get approved. Do you have experience with this? Can you teach us?”

After leaving Xiaoyao Sect last time, they really learned a lot, and immediately opened their Jiulong Temple official social media account. In just a few days, they gained thousands of followers.

Normally, a branch like theirs opening in a new place would rank at the bottom in the organization’s performance and be harshly criticized.

But during the monthly review a couple days ago, their four-figure follower count surpassed many older Jiulong Temple branches in Southwest China, even ranking near the top. They became the fastest and biggest growing new branch internally—not only escaping criticism but being held up as a model for other members nationwide.

These days they walked with the wind behind them, feeling extremely proud.

The only problem was they didn’t understand why their corporate blue V verification on social media kept failing, causing delays and frequent accusations of being scammers.

—Though they actually were.

But Xiaoyao Sect already had the corporate blue V, so why couldn’t they?

Between these unorthodox sects, there was natural competition. These two fake Taoists from Jiulong Temple’s Beijing branch had defeated many peers within their own organization and now couldn’t help but set their sights on Xiaoyao Sect.

If their opponent could do it, there was no reason they couldn’t. Driven by this obsession, they had been fiddling backstage for days, but all attempts failed.

That was why, with no other options, they shamelessly asked Ke Xingzhou.

Ke Xingzhou blinked in confusion: “Corporate blue verification?”

The task of revitalizing the sect had long been handed over to his disciples, and he really didn’t care about it, so hearing the term suddenly left him puzzled.

Fortunately, Zhu Chu stepped forward timely: “Corporate blue verification? You just need to fill out your business information, upload your business license and an official letter stamped with your company seal, pay the fee, and it will be approved quickly.”

Business license… company seal…

These two very formal terms, completely unrelated to metaphysics, stunned the two Jiulong Temple Taoists.

Zhu Chu pulled out his phone and helpfully reminded them, “If you really don’t know how to do it, just find some agency online that applies for you. Give them your info and account, and they’ll help with the verification.”

“...”

The two Jiulong Temple Taoists were completely dumbfounded.

They stared blankly at the Xiaoyao Sect people, unable to figure out how they had used the Xiaoyao Sect name to get a business license.

And what exactly was the business scope supposed to be?

Fraud and deception? Or feudal superstition?The two men in their early thirties who had been fighting with high spirits for several days finally realized at this moment the gap between themselves and this group of young unorthodox practitioners. Their passionate hearts felt as if a bucket of cold water had been poured over them, instantly cooling down.

Zhu Chu, receiving no response from them, thought these two Daoists were so out of touch they didn’t even know how to search for an online store, so he decided to help thoroughly and directly recommended an online shop to them.

The Jiulong Sect Master and Daoist Pang looked down—

Xiaoyao Sect Ritual Supplies Flagship Store.

“………………”