Afterwe returnedto the hotel, I told Yin Xinyue about this new case. She sounded cheerful. “Great! You guys can help the shrine capture some monsters! It’ll bemuch more interesting than sight-seeing!”

“Where’s Li Mazi?”

“Oh, Li Mazi and Ru Xue didn’t feel well afterbeingtrappedin that illusion onthe stairs. They went to their room to rest.”

Since we didn’t have much information about the enemy, I didn’t know what to prepare. I decided to visit the shrine in the morning to investigate.

Earlythe next morning,Li Mazi didn’t want to go with us no matter what. He hugged the blanketand rolled on the bed. “Even if we can earn money, I’m not going to go with you. I don’t want to encounter more trouble!”

“Look at you,youcoward!” I had toremindhim that Icould reveal the fact that he had rubbed the hostess’s rear end. Eventually, Li Mazi unwillingly left his bed.

Ru Xue was also hesitant, soI gave her the Ghost Sealing Pouch Chuyi used yesterday. “You can use this for self-defense.”

Shewas convinced and keptthe pouch with her.

After breakfast, we departed to Inari Shrine. We thought we were early,but there were many touriststherealready. They lined upand waitedto make a wish to the statue of Inari. Some wrote their wishes on a small wooden board.

“I want to write some wishes, too,” said Yin Xinyue.

“There are so many people. We should do business first. Tonight, when no one’s here, we will come again for you to make your wishes,” I told her.

While we were looking around, a man wearinga ceremonialuniform called us. He spoke inJapanese. Xiao Gao talked to him then turned to us.“This is Mr. Urashima. He’s theKannushi,the Grand Priest of this Shrine. He said that tourists are notallowedto enter this place.”

“Tourists?Tell him that Ms. Chiba invited us,” I said.

Xiao Gao translated to Urashima.Hebelieved us.

Next, Chibaarrived while carryinga bucket of water. She hurried to brief the situation to Urashima. Urashima’s attitude changed immediately. He warmly welcomed us. However,it seemed he hadsomething to do, so he asked Chiba to take us around.

Yin Xinyue pulled my sleeveand pointedat Chiba. “Is she the legendary shrine maiden?Sure enough,her aura isdifferent.”

“Thank you!” Chiba smiled gently.

“Oh, you speak Chinese?” Yin Xinyue was amazed.

“I learned Chinese,” answered Chiba.Li Mazi smiled. “Miss Chiba, you are really beautiful.”

Ru Xue shot him a fierce glance.

Aswe walked to the shrine, I saw a broken stone lantern in a corner. The other touristsdidn’t pay attention to it, but Chuyi and I noticed it. This stone lantern was different from the othersasI saw a Vermillion Bird carved on it. I smeared some soot on the broken lanternand sniffed it,smellinga wisp of Yin energy.

This stone lanternmight contain somesoilfrom the cemetery, which would havecontributed to thegeomancyof this shrine. Ingeomancy, it wasn’t always good to use only Yang attribute items. Sometimes, they needed to use Yin attribute materials. When Yin and Yang cooperated, they couldstrengthentheformation.

“If I am not wrong, there should be four stone lanterns like this in the four corners of the shrine. The carvings on themrepresentthe Four Divine Beasts of ancient China. They are theBlue Dragon, White Tiger, Vermilion Bird, and Black Tortoise,” I said.

Chiba nodded in admiration. “Mr. Zhanghaskeen eyes. We have those stone lanterns. However, we don’t know why theyweredeliberately destroyed…”magic

Ru Xue mocked her.“Miss,the way you talkis likehowJapanese devilstalk in movies.”She seemed tohave a hostileattitude toward Chiba. Perhaps,it wasbecause Li Mazi keptstealingglancesather.

“Japanese devils?Do youmean theyokai?” Chiba didn’t get it. Since shegrewup in the shrine, she didn’t have many chances to watch TV and learn new insults.

I had tochangethe topic by asking her to take us to see other places.

Alongthe way, Xiao Gao helped Chibaimproveher Chinese grammar. Although Chiba sounded a little strange when she spoke, she was an intelligentwoman. Xiao Gaojust needed to show her the correct way and she could smoothen everything by herself.

Behind the shrine was a vegetable field where theresidentsgrew vegetables.Froma distance, we saw many graves. They were lined up onenext to another. They had green grass growing on them.

I turned to Yin Xinyue. “Let’s check your knowledge.Should agrave be placed in front of or behind a structure?”

“Hm. Itshould be behind the structure. It’s not good to have a grave in front of the house, right?” Yin Xinyue frowned.

“Wrong. The graves should be put in the front! Placing graves behind the house is taboo ingeomancy,” I explained.

Chiba blinked, then said, “Mr. Zhang, in Japan, we don’t usegeomancy. It doesn’t seem toaffect us much. Please pardon me, but I think thisgeomancythingyou’re talking aboutis just nonsense.”

“Oh, you think it’s useless?” I snortedand explained,“First, shrines usually havestrongYang energy, soevilspiritsand ghostswon’t dare tobarge in easily.Next,all thepeoplewho livein shrines are usually single for the rest of their lives, so they aren’t influenced too much.And lastly, this shrine’sgeomancywasarranged with meticulous detailby a great master. But now,just becausefour stone lanternsarebroken, paranormal activities have started to happen. What do you thinkwillhappen next?”

Chibaunderstood how serious it was. “Do you haveasolution?”

“Whoisburied over there?” I asked.

“Generations ofmiko andkannushi. They were all loyal servants of Inari-sama. I guess theyhavebecome Buddhas by now.” Chiba pointed at the graves. “However, many warriors and samurais were also buried on this mountain. According to what you just told me, thegeomancyshouldn’t be good.”

Countless bamboo treesgrew and filledthe mountain. From ourposition, we saw a thick fog shrouding the mountain. It was true that this place hadstrongYin energy.“Tonight, I will mend thegeomancyof this place. There should be no paranormal activities afterward.”

“Thank you.” Chiba nodded at usand lookedgrateful.

Chuyi, who had kept silent all the time, suddenly asked, “Who built this shrine?”

Chiba answered, “I heard that it was the great Onmyoji Yasukiyo Abe.”

“Abe no Seimei’s grandson?” Chuyi furrowed his brows.

“Yes.” Chiba nodded.

I used my phone tosearchfor some information. During the Heian period in Japan, Onmyojis were famous.Abe no Seimeiwas the imperial Onmyojiappointedby the Emperor himself. He was in charge of thegeomancyofthe palace and all worshipareas.

Yasukiyo Abe wasAbe no Seimei’s grandson, who had inherited the Onmyoji profession from him.

Is therearelation between the sealed Tamamo-no-Mae and this shrine?

At thismoment, we heardacommotion from the shrine. Anothermiko came and talked to Chiba.

“What’s wrong?” I asked her.

“Two tourists suddenly fainted.”

We alsowentto take a look. The two tourists were placed in aquietroom. They were one man and one womanthat lookedlike a couple. Urashima wascallingan ambulance. When I saw the couple, I felt that something was wrong.

Chuyi walkedforwardand pulled their eyelids to check. Then, he turned to me. “Their Yang energy has beensuckeddry.”

“Can you save them?” asked Chiba.

“Their lives aren’tin danger. They need to rest for a few days, and they’llbe all right.”

Ghosts wouldn’t appear in broad daylight. The thing that had sucked their Yang energy was possibly a monster.The two fox spirits werethe mainsuspects.

I looked around andnoticedthat we were allin the same place. “Hey, thisisnot good. Perhaps wehave beentrickedinto leavingthesecret areaunguarded. I think they want to steal the fox statue!”

Urashima was frightened. He rushed to the storage to check. The others followed him closely.

When wereachedthere, Urashima had already opened the drawer, butnothing was inside. He screamed in desperation.

Chuyi suddenly reached his handintothe drawer and took something out. It was the intact box.

This looked like a magictrick. BothChiba and Urashima were amazed. Chuyi said, “Itwasjust anillusion.”

Urashima couldn’t ease his worried mind. He opened the box tocheck the content. Butas soon asthe fox statue was taken out of the box, Xiao Gao suddenly snatched it from himand ranaway!