The small courtyard where Chen Xiao had moved in was, frankly speaking, the worst in terms of feng shui compared to all the houses he had inspected with the people living there.

First, its location was not ideal. It sat on a curving road, a bend in the street. The road here resembled a reverse bow, curving outward. In feng shui, roads are seen as water, a symbol of energy and fortune. A reverse-bending road passing in front of a door is considered extremely unlucky for a home, leading to loss of vitality, wealth, and prosperity—a home of misfortune.

Secondly, the courtyard’s gate was aligned directly with the front door, allowing one to see straight into the main house from the street. This alignment, in feng shui, is considered a harmful design. It drains the house of vital energy, leading to decline, illness, and financial loss.

Standing outside the courtyard, Chen Xiao could already guess what kind of misfortune had befallen the previous owners. Once inside and seeing the dilapidated furniture, his suspicions were confirmed.

Logically, knowing the feng shui was so poor, Chen Xiao shouldn’t have chosen this house. He should have looked for a place with better feng shui. But he chose this one for a reason: preparation.

When he realized that the feng shui layout might be linked to his increased appetite, he started thinking about what to do if his body ever returned to normal. He wanted to test the correlation between the two. To do so, he needed a house with bad feng shui to rearrange the energy.

He hadn't expected to find the perfect place so quickly, but this little courtyard appeared right before his eyes—like a pillow given to a person who was ready to nap. Without hesitation, he decided to rent it.

To ensure he could observe the changes more accurately, Chen Xiao chose to set up the feng shui on his second day off.

By this time, the screen wall was completely dry. Even with the front door open, passersby couldn’t see into the courtyard. The people inside were also free from disturbances from the street, no longer bothered by pedestrians. The wall had transformed the small courtyard, creating a peaceful space where life could continue undisturbed.

Adding the screen wall had solved the issue of energy being unable to accumulate. Though it was still early days, with time, the energy would build up, and the people living in the courtyard would feel much more comfortable.

However, this remedy was only a small improvement. The greatest threat still came from the road outside, which constantly carried away energy and fortune.

Unfortunately, Chen Xiao couldn’t just change the road like he could with the screen wall. After all, both sides of the curved road were lined with houses. To change the road’s path, he would have to alter someone’s property, and no one would let him demolish their gate or walls without cause.

The seasoned feng shui master from his past life had an easy solution: add a feng shui painting to the screen wall.

In his previous life, wealthy and influential people often hung feng shui paintings in their offices. In rural areas, it was common to see feng shui murals or tiles placed on the walls when entering a home. Large hotels often displayed huge feng shui artworks in their lobbies.

Chen Xiao had been fond of watching TV, and often noticed large landscape paintings hanging on the walls behind leaders during diplomatic meetings. Those were also feng shui paintings.

Sometimes, arranging feng shui didn’t require using expensive or powerful feng shui tools. Since these tools couldn’t be mass-produced, people turned to everyday items like paintings, which could also achieve the desired results if used correctly.

This was exactly the situation now.

Chen Xiao had given specific instructions to a carpenter to create a small space in the middle of the screen wall, like a Buddha’s enclosure. Although the carpenter found the request odd, he still completed the work with care.

Chen Xiao then took out a special ink painting that he had commissioned.

Good feng shui paintings were tailored to the needs of the person they were for, in order to achieve the best effect. Hanging a random painting in one’s home or office, without considering the individual's circumstances, often failed to bring any benefit, and sometimes even caused negative effects.

Chen Xiao carefully unrolled the scroll and hung the painting on the wall in the space he had set up. The small space, resembling a Buddha’s enclosure, was sheltered from sunlight, wind, and rain.

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Once the painting was hung, Chen Xiao stepped back two paces and admired it. The painting depicted a stone bridge with railings on both sides. The bridge wasn’t too wide, just enough for a carriage and a few pedestrians to cross. On either side of the bridge were willow trees and peaceful homes, creating a serene and harmonious scene. The artist's skill was evident, as the painting was vivid and lively—standing in front of it, one could almost imagine the happiness of the people in the scene.

Feng shui paintings could serve many purposes, with different themes like mountains, flowers, and auspicious animals. However, the most powerful paintings for stabilizing energy were those depicting mountains.

Unfortunately, the foundation of this house was too poor, and even a mountain painting wouldn’t be able to suppress the flow of energy in this neighborhood. It was like trying to build a dam out of cement bags in the middle of a fast-flowing river.

But a bridge was different. While the bridge did block the flow, it didn’t obstruct the rushing water. In this way, not only did it not hinder the movement of energy, but it also directed that energy towards the house, improving the fortune of the inhabitants. Of course, a painted bridge couldn’t compare to a real one, but Chen Xiao was only testing the theory. There was no need to make a grand effort—just the feng shui painting alone was enough.

With the screen wall and the painting, Chen Xiao had immediately transformed the house’s poor feng shui. The results were immediate. The combined effects of both changes caused a surge of energy to flow through the door into the courtyard, and a faint, yet steady energy field slowly took form.

With this energy field, the people who would live in this house in the future would not necessarily become rich and powerful, but they would enjoy a long and prosperous life, with their fortune and health flourishing.

Chen Xiao stood at the door, holding his breath, carefully observing. Any slight change would prompt him to investigate further. Time passed, and aside from the energy in the courtyard becoming more stable and filling with life, Chen Xiao noticed nothing unusual.

As the sun began to set, the light turned dim. After standing all day, Chen Xiao felt a bit tired and moved his stiff legs toward the house. But as soon as he took a step, he immediately noticed something unusual.

He suddenly realized that with each step he took, the energy in the courtyard seemed to ripple like water disturbed by movement. If this had been the old world, such a thing would have been impossible. Ordinary people’s movements didn’t affect the flow of energy. Only spiritual tools with their own energy field or cultivators with high levels of cultivation could influence the movement of energy. But Chen Xiao was neither of those!

His discovery made him instantly alert, and the fatigue seemed to vanish. His eyes widened as he focused on the energy around his body.

Now that he had a lead, he quickly found more clues. The energy field in the courtyard was constantly fluctuating, and Chen Xiao hadn’t noticed that when the energy moved near him, it suddenly disappeared. It wasn’t dissipating; it was being absorbed into Chen Xiao’s body!

This discovery shook him more than the first time he encountered the dragon vein energy in Xi Yun Ting. It left him stunned, unable to think clearly.

But because he had the previous example of Xi Yun Ting, Chen Xiao quickly understood what this meant. The true dragon vein, with its immense and powerful energy, constantly pulses with waves—those ripples were the manifestation of the dragon vein’s energy and its transformations.

Cultivators carry their own energy fields and fortune. Now, Chen Xiao could directly absorb this energy. As long as he maintained stability and didn’t allow it to dissipate, he would eventually form his own energy field!

Though the process was different, the end result was the same. From a certain perspective, this was almost like being on the path to the powerful cultivation of an immortal.

In other words, Chen Xiao had discovered a brand new method of cultivation that didn’t require talent or spiritual roots—it could be done through feng shui!

Although he still didn’t have any clues on how to maintain the energy or form a stable energy field, just this discovery alone had Chen Xiao ecstatic.

He immediately sat down on the ground, crossed his legs, and began to think deeply.

After a short while, he began to understand why setting up feng shui would cause him to absorb the energy generated by the feng shui formation. A feng shui master has a direct causal relationship with the feng shui formation, so once the energy field is formed, some of the energy is diverted to the feng shui master.

He had once heard his master, Fang Gu, say that the most important principle for a feng shui master was to never act against the natural order, to avoid causing harm. If they did, they would pay the price.

Feng shui could help people, but it could also harm them. A well-designed feng shui arrangement would bring peace, prosperity, and good fortune to an area. The responsible feng shui master would accumulate merit and receive blessings.

On the other hand, if a feng shui master used their skills for unethical purposes, such as destroying someone’s ancestral tomb or forcing misfortune onto others, they would lose their merit.

When Chen Xiao was younger and more impulsive, he hadn’t taken his master’s words seriously. As a result, he had forcefully changed his master’s fate, preventing the man from dying when he should have. Later, when his master found out what Chen Xiao had done, he did everything he could to help him accumulate merit by setting up feng shui for him. His master lived another ten years before dying of organ failure at the age of twenty-eight.

Merit, it seemed, was closely tied to energy. What his master had said was essentially about absorbing the different energies created by a feng shui formation and their impact on outcomes.