If it wasn’t for the occasion today, Gloria would have hought an actual unity would be established this close to a burial site. Even for a civilian with no martial arts mastery whatsoever, it would take them less thay minutes for them to ehe site from where they were.

  The burial site looked pnned, but not very well: rows and rows of gravesites arranged in arcs, yered on top of each other. The ihe row the shorter the row, the more expehe sites looked and lower the rise. At the ter of the arcs was an obelisk of two stories high with two wooden pilrs on each side. Ropes and ribbons were ed around the obelisk as well as the two wooden pilrs. One bronze inse burner with the diameter of a truck tire sat at the foot of the obelisk. It was only half full.

  The tombstones located ier rows were crude and most of them didn’t even have pictures ohe ones in the inner rows, oher hand, had their own inse burners and even mini altars. But all were deserted, even the embedded pictures of the dead had faded. Standing on the opposite side of the obelisk was a tree, a pagoda tree.

  “What is this?” Tae Kuo fixed his eyes on the obelisk and the two wooden pilrs: “This is not - this is not the right way to set up a blessed graveyard. Who the fuck set this up?”

  “So this is the first thing we answer for you. ” The old man walking by Tae Kuo’s side chuckled: “What do you see, young man?”

  Gloria shook her head first and scoffed: “I gotta say, even if I’m not an expert in Fengshui practices, I know it’s a really bad idea to pnt a pagoda tree in a graveyard or burial site. It’s too Yin-attuned, and it could attra energy from the surroundings.”

  “It’s not just that.” Tae Kuo took a look at the obelisk and the two wooden pilrs: “That tree - I don’t think that tree was inally there, right? It must be one of those special trees from the unity collective. I think it’s some other kind rafted onto a peach tree - anyways, using a pagoda tree is not impossible, but you’ve gotta do something about the obelisk and prep the pagoda tree as well. But eve’s not the best substitute.”

  “Oh? Do tell.” The old woman gave Tae Kuo a look of approval: “Maybe - maybe if you knew, we our duty happy.”

  “The obelisk is a pilr - is one of those most only used pilrs. Ohat’s basically a lightning rod standing taller than most of the buildings around here. In pces of not so much sunlight. They will absorb the Yang energy from the lightning, shoot it across the entire graveyard into the tree, in order to se the energy of death from the ashes or dead bodies.” Tae Kuo pointed from the obelisk to the tree: “This pilr is the spot of trated Yang energy, while the tree over there should be roughly slightly Yin-attuned. With the dead and ashes being Yin-trated, this creates a - a circuit of energy te ive energy from all the graves ahe flow of - of Qiyun , if I may use that word.”

  “You may. No one’s listening here.” The old woman sighed: “So I take it that, sihe pagoda tree is very Yin-attuned, enough to be called ‘Tree of Ghost’, it being pnted here corrupts the flow?”

  “I’m afraid so.” Tae Kuo sighed: “But - I ’t be sure - because even so, it shouldn’t be this - this devastating. And this is a minor auspicious spot as well, so - ”

  “The first few years when this pce was newly built, they had a tree from the unity collective.” The old man shook his head: “The unity leader at the time, he pulled a lot of strings to get a good one here. But it only took five years before someo fire to it. ”

  “Someone burnt the inal tree down?” Gloria and Tae Kuo asked at the same time.

  “Yeah, along with many of the gravesites.” The old woman nodded: “It was almost thirty years ago. So not many remembered what happened. We weren't even watchers then.”

  “What is this spot called? Do you remember? The name of this minor auspicious spot?” Tae Kuo asked.

  “The spot of - Rising Green Dragon. ” The old man thought for a moment.

  “That’s a - a big name. Is it really a minor auspicious spot?” Gloria fixed her eyes on Tae Kuo.

  “True spots of Rising Green Dragoremely hard to find. This one probably just resembles its rough shape.” Tae Kuo looked around: “But heless, green dragons are wood-attuned, which means this spot itself is wood-attuned. Aroying a blessed tree like that with fire - it’s really bad.”

  “Bad enough to justify killing the guy and his entire family?” The old man asked, looking straight into Tae Kuo’s eyes.

  Tae Kuo hesitated, then with a soft tone responded: “I - I wouldn’t do that. But if I’m really into Fengshui, I’d be genuinely furious.”

  “Well, that tracks.” The old woman sighed: “What else do you see here? What about the tree over there? What should we do with it?”

  “I’ll o go in closer - ”

  “No, DON’T!” Gloria yelled and pulled Tae Kuo by his arms.

  She just took a look at the tree with her Qi focused on her eyes, purely due to the tree appearing somewhat creepy and even ominous. Her hunches were right - the surface of the tree, wheurned on her Qi vision, appeared to be covered in a yer of bck tar; what was worse, was that on what were knots oree bark, became pale twisted human faces in her vision.

  “Something’s wrong with that tree - it’s corrupted, and - it might’ve turned into some kind of monster.” Gloria warned as she pulled Tae Kuo back: “I don’t think we do anything about it now - what the fuck happeo it?”

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