Grizzly drove up, heading straight for the outskirts.
He followed the mountain road all the way up. After more than an hour of driving, they finally saw a villa standing tall on a high slope.
The villa had a bit of an old-school vibe. The whole yard was ringed by a wooden fence, with a few pines and cypresses around.
Several luxury cars were parked outside the villa, and a crowd had already gathered there.
"See that guy in the floral shirt in the middle? That's Second Brother Su."
As they got out, Grizzly didn’t forget to remind Evan Lin. Evan and Stella Huang glanced over at the group.
"I'll take you over in a bit. If Second Brother Su says anything out of line, please don't take it to heart." Grizzly sounded a little nervous—he didn’t dare mess with either side.
Evan didn’t say anything and got out of the car with Stella.
Grizzly walked ahead.
"This place really is a Nine Suns Facing Heaven node, but when yin and yang intersect, even the most yang spot can turn extremely yin. Those people who got roasted into dried husks here a while back just happened to hit the exact time when yin and yang collided. Their vital blood was sucked dry by yin things, so to outsiders it looked like their water was boiled away, but actually their essence blood was drained."
Over there, a Daoist in robes was standing with a yin-yang gossip plate in hand, bobbing his head and talking a big game.
"I don't care about all that yin-yang intersection nonsense. Just tell me—can you fix this or not?" Second Brother Su, in his floral shirt and shorts, looked fierce. He was on the hefty side, his face all jowls and folds, intimidating at first glance.
Right now, Second Brother Su was gripping a cigar, taking a huge drag before grumbling, "I bought this damn villa and never dared live in it. Had it rebuilt, too—because some feng-shui guy said it was a Nine Suns Facing Heaven node. If those idiot backpackers hadn’t moved in first, I’d be the one roasted into jerky!"
Second Brother Su still looked freaked out: "Now, damn it, I just finished rebuilding and another batch of dried corpses pops up. How’s anyone supposed to live here? I was planning to gift this place to my old man for his birthday!"
His old man was, of course, Victor Su. Second Brother Su originally wanted to live here himself, but after Victor Su came back from Seacrest Prefecture, his health was so good it looked like he could easily live another decade or two. So Second Brother Su had to figure out how to win his dad’s favor.
"That’s easy! I’ll set up a formation to harmonize yin and yang and seal the yin gate. Once it’s done, the whole villa will be bathed in pure yang, totally safe—and your Su clan will thrive for generations!"
The Daoist kept bobbing his head, talking non-stop: "By the way, are the men I asked you to get ready?"
"You wanted a few tough guys, right? Guys loaded with yang energy? That’s a piece of cake! All my men are so macho it’ll scare you!" Second Brother Su rumbled, voice rough as ever.
He didn’t sound anything like some aristocratic Su family heir. The guy was over forty, but his speech was pure street thug.
As he spoke, Second Brother Su turned to Grizzly: "Did you bring the guys I asked for or not?"
"They're here," Grizzly nodded. Over a hundred tough guys piled out of the vans—the same crew that lined up outside Youth Voyage Bar earlier.
"That many guys? More than enough," Second Brother Su snorted.
The Daoist nodded nonstop: "Plenty, plenty! Quality matters more than quantity. Each guy just needs to give one drop of essence blood for the ritual."
"Mm."
Second Brother Su grunted, then his eyes landed on Evan Lin and Stella Huang standing behind Grizzly. He paused, frowning: "Who are these two supposed to be?"
"Second Brother, that's the kid I told you about before!" Grizzly quickly introduced.
"Him? Catching bullets bare-handed?"
Second Brother Su glanced at Evan, raising his eyebrows again and again: "Grizzly, did you get your brain blown up by a firecracker or something? You lost your mind?"
I thought you were bringing someone impressive! If that skinny kid can catch bullets, then I should be able to tank bombs with my bare body!
Second Brother Su was full of disbelief. Stella, standing next to Evan, was also stunned. She’d never heard Evan mention catching bullets before, and honestly, it sounded way too unbelievable.
Grizzly wanted to explain.
But Second Brother Su waved him off and turned his gaze to Stella Huang, squinting: "And you? What are you doing here? Little beauty, don’t you know tonight’s dangerous? You just came to check out the night view?"
"I’m a reporter with Capitalview City TV. I heard something strange was going on here, so I came to see if there’s a story worth reporting." Stella introduced herself.
She’d heard of Second Brother Su—he was pretty famous in the Jinnan area.
"A reporter? That works. If you write about this place, maybe my villa’s value will go up." Second Brother Su nodded, not even glancing at Evan Lin. He just waved his hand: "Let’s go! Follow the Daoist inside! Still early—let’s get moving!"
As soon as he spoke, all his underlings fell in line behind him, carrying the stuff the Daoist needed—like talisman papers and peach-wood tables.
"Second Brother Su just doesn’t know how awesome you are. Please don’t take offense!" Grizzly saw Second Brother Su totally ignore Evan and quickly apologized, looking embarrassed.
"No worries," Evan said, shaking his head. He wasn’t here for Second Brother Su—he was just interested in the Triangular House.
Right now, Evan glanced at the house. No matter how he looked, it wasn’t triangular at all—just a regular square villa.
The group passed through the wooden fence and went inside. As soon as they entered, everyone felt the temperature go up a bit.
Evan looked around. Since the house was just rebuilt, the inside hadn’t been decorated yet—there were only bare walls everywhere.
The Daoist, walking ahead with his yin-yang gossip plate, paced back and forth inside, then stopped at the northeast corner.
"Right here! Bring my ritual table over!"
At his shout, someone brought over a peach-wood table and all sorts of ritual gear, like incense burners.
The Daoist took out a three-inch peach-wood sword and a golden little pouch, opening it to reveal layers of brownish-yellow powder.
He coated the peach-wood sword with the powder, then suddenly drew a circle on the floor.