The Mystical Feng Shui Files

I tumbled down the slope and landed in a patch of grass. Just as I sat up, the strange procession arrived right in front of me.

It was bizarre-like a wedding procession, complete with music and a festive atmosphere. But instead of carrying a sedan chair, they were carrying a coffin.

On the side closest to me, everything was celebratory. The coffin was draped in red sashes, and the people escorting it were dressed in bright, festive clothing, their faces beaming with joy.

On the other side, however, it was a stark contrast. Everyone was dressed in white mourning garments, their faces streaked with tears. They carried paper effigies, and joss paper fluttered through the air like snowflakes. It was unmistakably a funeral procession.

A single group, simultaneously celebrating a wedding and mourning a funeral-this was the most eerie and surreal thing I had ever witnessed.

And it was happening at night.

A chill crawled up my spine, making the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.

I wasn’t afraid of malevolent ghosts or spirits. But these were people-living, breathing people from Stone Village!

During the day, they acted possessed, driven to madness. But at night, they were capable of something as horrifying as this.

My legs felt weak, trembling uncontrollably. I shrank further into the grass, hoping the procession would pass without noticing me.

But instead, they stopped-right in front of me. A figure emerged from the rear of the group.

It was none other than the village head of Stone Village!

His face was dark and foreboding. “Here,” he said coldly.

The friendly, almost obsequious demeanor he had shown earlier in the day was gone. Now, his expression was grim, even ruthless. His face truly reflected his nature-just as I had suspected when I first read his features.

I had known all along that the strange happenings in Stone Village were somehow connected to him.

The procession halted, and the coffin was lowered to the ground. But I could clearly hear a muffled “thump, thump” coming from inside.

There was someone alive in there!

Shi Zhu and the others walked past me, carrying shovels, wooden clubs, and ropes. They picked a spot and began digging.

In no time, they had excavated a pit.

“Bring it over. Lower the coffin,” the village head ordered, gesturing toward the freshly dug hole.

The men worked together, using ropes to lift the coffin and lower it into the pit.

“Wait!” the village head suddenly called out, stopping the men who were about to fill the hole. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a triangular nail. “Hammer this in!”

I recognized it immediately-it was a coffin nail, also known as a soul-suppressing nail.

Such nails were rarely used anymore. They were reserved for the most heinous of individuals, to prevent their spirits from escaping the coffin and causing harm after death.

When a soul-suppressing nail is driven into a coffin, the spirit inside is trapped, unable to reincarnate, condemned to eternal torment.

In other words, it’s a cruel and vindictive practice. Even in the field of feng shui, it’s considered an extreme measure, and most practitioners have abandoned its use. Ordinary people likely wouldn’t even know about it.

As the soul-suppressing nail was hammered into the coffin, the noises from inside grew louder and more frantic.

“All done!” Shi Zhu announced, sucking on his bleeding finger.

He had been the one to hammer in the nail, and in the process, he had accidentally injured himself.

Shi Zhu didn’t seem to care, but I knew better. The blood on the soul-suppressing nail would have dire consequences. If the spirit inside the coffin wasn’t already a malevolent ghost, the blood would force it to become one.

And if it was already a malevolent ghost, the blood would transform it into a ghost king-a being so powerful that even I might struggle to subdue it.

But what puzzled me even more was that the village head had only brought one soul-suppressing nail. After it was hammered in, he declared the task complete.

This was unusual and deeply concerning.

In our practice, we use seven soul-suppressing nails, arranged in the pattern of the Big Dipper. This formation, known as the seven star soul-suppressing nails, is the only way to ensure the spirit is fully contained.

Using just one nail wouldn’t be enough.

I had no idea who the people of Stone Village were burying, but a voice inside me kept insisting that there was a living person inside that coffin!

What terrified me even more was that after filling the grave, they didn’t even bother to build a burial mound. Instead, they flattened the ground as if trying to erase all traces.

“Alright! If she refuses to marry Shi Suo while alive, then let her accompany him in death!” the village head declared coldly before turning and walking away.

Shi Zhu and the others remained standing there, muttering among themselves.

“Is that it? I’ve heard that people who die like this often turn into malevolent ghosts seeking revenge,” one of them said hesitantly.

Shi Zhu scoffed, “Didn’t the village head have us hammer in the soul-suppressing nail? What’s there to be afraid of? If this woman turns into a female ghost and comes back, we’ll just deal with her again!”

“Exactly! Shi Zhu’s right. What’s there to fear? Weren’t you the one who seemed so eager earlier? And now you’re scared?”

“Are you kidding? Me, scared? Let’s go. It’s pitch dark out here, and it’s giving me the creeps.”

Listening to their conversation, a chill ran down my spine. A wave of fury unlike anything I’d ever felt surged through me, and I stood up.

“You despicable animals!” I shouted, “No wonder people in your village are possessed-you don’t do anything remotely decent!”

But to my astonishment, no matter how loudly I yelled, they seemed completely oblivious to me. It was as if they couldn’t hear or see me. They walked right past me and headed down the mountain trail.

I watched them leave and called out again, “Hey! Hey!”

My voice echoed emptily in the night air, but no one responded.

A sudden thought struck me-could I be experiencing soul separation?

The moment that thought crossed my mind, I heard a sound behind me.

I spun around, and a cold sweat instantly drenched me. A woman in a red wedding dress stood at the freshly filled grave, sobbing mournfully.

“Whimper… whimper…”

At her feet knelt another frail woman, burning joss paper in a small fire pit.

In the pitch-black night on this remote mountain, with the sound of her crying echoing around me, even I felt my legs weaken. Instinctively, I turned and ran.

But no matter how hard I tried to flee, my legs felt like they weren’t my own, and I found myself moving closer and closer to the woman.

When I turned back, I was face-to-face with her!

It was Shi Suo’s bride-she had been buried alive!

Thump-thump! Thump-thump!

My heart pounded so loudly I could hear it in my ears. I froze, staring at her. This was not the time to flinch-any hesitation would give the malevolent ghost the chance to attack.

Her eyes were completely white, and she stared at me unblinkingly.

The woman burning joss paper beside her muttered something under her breath, seemingly unaware of our presence.

Eventually, she stood up, lowered her head, and walked away, her figure fading into the night.

I held my breath. The breath of the living can alert spirits, and ghosts can siphon off your yang energy through it. Once they’ve drained you, you die, and they roam freely to wreak havoc.

Slowly, I raised my hand to cover my mouth and nose, trying to stifle the urge to breathe.

The distance between me and the woman was terrifyingly close-less than five centimeters.

Even if I wanted to form a finger seal, there wasn’t enough time, let alone attempt anything else.

As we stared each other down, a white mist suddenly rose, swirling and enveloping everything around us.

My vision darkened, my head grew dizzy, and I thought to myself, “I might just be the first person to suffocate themselves to death.”

Suddenly, I snapped awake, gasping for air. But then it hit me-there was still a malevolent ghost right in front of me.

Yet when I looked around, the woman was nowhere to be seen.

I turned in circles, scanning the area, but there wasn’t a trace of her.

Instead, shadowy figures began to emerge all around me, their forms shifting as they moved toward me.

“Come closer…”

“Come to me…”

“Come here…”