Cold sweat trickled down my back. What lay below? To expend such resources on suppressing something less than a meter wide? The Twelve Heaven Coffins faced the array's eye, restraining each other via the Five Elements. But with the bronze pillar removed, the evil qi had run amok.
"This feng shui array must stay sealed," I said gravely.
"Who are you?" Professor He eyed me. "What does a kid know? These must go to our institute for study—priceless relics."
I faced the team sternly. "I'm a feng shui master. This uses Five Elements to bind Five Ghosts, twelve seated corpses to guard the Six Clashes of Earthly Branches, and bronze carvings to balance yin-yang. The array's eye is broken—if the Five Ghosts escape, it's over."
"Fearmongering! We trust science!" Professor He insisted.
Old Wang scoffed. "Science? Then explain the handprint on your calf." Professor He turned purple. Before he could retort, Old Wang added, "I trust this kid's feng shui. He says don't touch it—remember Mawangdui's oddities? Stay out of trouble."
Closing my eyes, I pondered: resetting the bronze pillar would disturb the skulls. We needed to neutralize yin-yang and maintain the beastly suppression.
Stumped, I turned to Old Wang, who shrugged. "I know nothing about feng shui—only exorcism. Burning the corpses cured the villagers; my job's done."
I snapped, "Master Wang, if we botch this, the village's safety is temporary. As Maoshan's patriarch, have you no compassion?"
"None of my business. I'm here for money."
His callousness infuriated me. "You've lived your age in vain! I'll handle it myself."
"Fate decides all. I'm a Taoist, not a god."
"No wonder your son beats you," I muttered.
"That's fate too."
Old Wang was unmoved—except by money. As Professor He droned on about antiques, Zhou Jianguo returned with villagers. Many men, even those on stretchers, had sores that no longer itched.
Old Wang pasted talismans on each child corpse's forehead, brandishing his Seven-Star Sword and chanting: "Offerings to the boundless saints, incense spreads to the Great Luo...". When gasoline was poured, he yelled, "As urgent as the 律令 (decrees)!" Talismans ignited, flames engulfing the corpses. Their faces twitched in the fire—one opened its eyes, pearl-like irises turning pitch-black. All twelve spewed black liquid, and the smoke formed a dark cloud over Zhoujiazhuang, followed by a 凄厉 wail that made my hair stand on end.
As corpses turned to ash, villagers rejoiced, but I knew the crisis wasn't over. The Eight Trigrams stone coffin remained, and the black mist meant trouble.
Zhou Jianguo thanked me, but I focused on the coffin. "Don't move it!" I stopped him from hauling it away. "There's a great evil inside. Abandon the committee building—build a Sanqing Taoist Temple here, following this Heavenly Stems Five Harmony Chart. Three years of continuous incense will secure peace."
A Taoist temple, not a Buddhist one—Buddhism and Taoism clashed over the Eight Trigrams array.
Zhou agreed, contacting Ma Laoer. I ordered the coffin's gap sealed with a dragon-carved stone slab. Professor He protested but relented after learning about the bronze pillar.
Staying a week to see villagers recover, I left Tongliao with Old Wang once the temple construction began. After half a month of being used as his pawn, I earned nothing—but felt I'd done good. Little did I know, the Twelve Child Coffins weren't the real horror—human nature lurking beneath was far worse.