"Oh, I'm heading up the mountain to gather some firewood for cooking; we're out at home," Old Man Zhao spun a lie for Youzi. Of course, he wouldn't tell the man he was scouting for a geomantic treasure spot.

"Gathering wood? At your age, Elder Zhao, why not ask one of your sons to go?"

"Heh, I can hardly summon him; the brat acts like the master of the house. You carry on, I'm leaving now. It’ll be dark soon, and we might just get a timely rain." Old Man Zhao brushed him off evasively.

"No need to rush, Elder Zhao. I know there’s a pile of branches nearby. Why don't I take you there? I can help carry some back down the mountain for you."

"Forget it, forget it, don't trouble yourself. You should hurry back!" Old Man Zhao grew increasingly anxious. This fellow clearly knew his objective and was determined not to let him go.

Youzi sneered, "You’re going to check out that geomantic treasure spot, aren't you? Don't worry, it’s covered up well beneath the branches; no one has found it."

"What? You—" Old Man Zhao was utterly stunned, his heart instantly growing cold by more than half.

"Indeed. You’re really unlucky; that treasure spot has been discovered by me, a shameless rogue." Youzi gave him a sly look, practically drooling.

"Heh, what treasure spot? I have no idea what you’re talking about. What you saw was just an ordinary piece of land." Old Man Zhao still couldn't accept the reality that the geomantic treasure site had been found by an outsider, stubbornly clinging to his concealment of the truth.

"Is that so? Ordinary? A coffin lid, looking exactly like the real thing, and brown too! I thought it was truly born from the earth’s spirit!"

"Fine. Since you say it isn't, then I might as well go smash it up." With that, Youzi turned back, displaying the fearless demeanor of a furious Li Kui.

"Wait, I have something to say." Old Man Zhao conceded. It seemed the geomantic treasure spot had indeed been found by this man. He called out to Youzi shamelessly, hoping to negotiate seriously. Moreover, judging by Youzi's tone, he clearly wanted something from him; a deal should be possible.

"Oh my, this sharp-tongued old man, you’ve finally changed your mind?" Youzi stopped obligingly, grinning smugly in a victor's stance.

"Tell me, what benefits do you seek?"

"Straightforward!" Youzi gave him a thumbs-up. "Since you’re being so candid, I won't play games. Truthfully, I just wanted to make a small fortune off this, which is why I’ve been scrambling all over the mountains today. Good fortune smiled on me, and I actually found it. As soon as I came down the mountain, I was preparing to visit your house to discuss this business... Who would have thought, speak of the devil..."

"Enough nonsense. Give me the concrete details!"

"Alright, concrete it is. A fixed price: fifty silver dollars. I will keep this secret forever, until the day you die. How about it?"

"Fifty it is, but you must keep your word!" Old Man Zhao gritted his teeth.

"Naturally. Although I’m a beggar, I still have principles. Rest assured. Actually, trading some silver dollars for several generations of prosperity for your descendants is quite a bargain. Who knows, maybe someone like Qin Shi Huang will emerge. You shouldn't hog all the good fortune, should you? You have to pay a price!"

"That settles it. You come here tomorrow to collect the money. Don't be late."

"Deal. See you then. You can go back to hauling wood now. Hahahaha…" Youzi, believing he had won a great victory, shamelessly hummed a hooligan tune in front of Old Man Zhao and swaggered down the mountain.

Old Man Zhao remained standing there, looking as if his soul had departed, unable to recover for a long time.

By the time he got home, it was deep into the night. Old Man Zhao tossed and turned, unable to sleep at all. His left eyelid kept twitching, and he felt deeply uneasy, as if foreshadowing some change tomorrow. Could that Youzi be trying to trick me?

The more Old Man Zhao thought, the more awake he became. He threw on his clothes and stepped out into the courtyard. A light breeze blew, and the stars overhead were incredibly bright, winking at him.

"Alas, it is all fate. The ancients said: the blessed wait for the blessed land, and the blessed land waits for the blessed person. If it is my destiny, Old Man Zhao, to be buried in a good geomantic spot, no one can ruin it. Back then, after Zhu Yuanzhang’s mother died from the plague, lacking money for a coffin, he had no choice but to wrap the body in some grass for burial. Unexpectedly, a sudden heavy rain on the way caused a massive mound of earth to collapse from the nearby slope, burying his mother perfectly. The size was just right. As a result, Zhu Chongba later defeated Chen Youliang, unified the realm, and actually became the Son of Heaven—the true dragon emperor. This is what is called 'Heavenly Burial'; you can’t stop it. How can mere mortals force such things?" He tried every way to comfort himself, imagining himself as Zhu Chongba reborn.

The next morning, Old Man Zhao, carrying a small bag of silver dollars, arrived at Four Saints Ridge. He hadn't told his son about this matter. He feared his son couldn't keep his mouth shut again and would tell his wife, leading to the whole world knowing. When he reached Four Saints Ridge, he found Youzi was already waiting there.

"You youngster are up early. Don't worry, I won't go back on my word. Here, take it!" Old Man Zhao pulled a small bundle from his pocket and tossed it toward Youzi.

Youzi smirked, deftly catching it in one swift motion. He weighed it in his hand and asked, "Not a single coin missing, is there?"

Old Man Zhao snapped back angrily, "Get down the mountain and enjoy yourself. I hate seeing you."

"Fine. Take the money, clear the trouble. Goodbye. May you live a long life and your descendants be happy. Hahahaha…" Youzi stuffed the money into his pocket and then happily skipped away down the mountain.

"Damn you, may you die a terrible death!" Although Old Man Zhao had driven away the plague spirit, he remained deeply displeased. He hadn't expected to spend a single cent. If he didn't curse viciously, he couldn't quell the hatred in his heart. But perhaps Old Man Zhao was simply not destined to be Zhu Chongba; his loss of money and bitter curses did not bring him the peace of mind he sought to eliminate the current disaster.

As it happened, after Youzi got the extorted money and headed down the mountain, he intended to find a place to spend it lavishly. But his inherent wickedness suddenly prompted a wicked thought: Why should I keep my promise? Am I some kind of hero or sage? Hah, I won't honor it! I absolutely have to ruin it for him.

With these unscrupulous ideas swirling, Youzi lost all interest in gambling; instead, he was stimulated by a thrilling surge of violent excitement. He grabbed a large sledgehammer, quietly climbed up the back slope of Four Saints Ridge, found Old Man Zhao’s treasure spot, dug away the soil, and brought the hammer down several times onto the brown coffin lid.

Bang, bang, bang— The sound of metal colliding with stone echoed through the mountains. It didn't break. Youzi hammered again and again, but strangely, after five minutes of strenuous work, he still couldn't break the lid. Youzi wiped the sweat from his brow and muttered to himself, "Is this really some kind of treasure? I can't break it even with a hammer. Fine, I'll use something evil to see if that works!"

He remembered hearing from old folks when he was a child that if you wanted to bring immediate misfortune upon a family, all you had to do was urinate on their ancestral grave, and it was guaranteed to work. He had also heard that the reason Hubei province never produced an emperor was because some imperial consort had urinated where she shouldn't have on Hubei’s earth vein after death. That’s why the spirit of the Dragon Vein became agitated and fled to Hunan.

"Alright, I'll do that. I’ll desecrate it first, then smash it." Without another word, Youzi dropped his trousers and directed a stream of urine onto the brown lid. Splash. It hit the mark.

Unexpectedly, this trick actually worked. Five minutes after the stone lid was touched by the urine, it suddenly made a hissing sound, as if being dissolved by a chemical. Then it turned black, followed by a 'pop' as a puff of green smoke erupted and scattered into the cosmos.

That wasn't the end of it. The bright, sunny day suddenly gave way to vast, dark clouds that materialized out of nowhere, ominously smothering the sky above Four Saints Ridge. Then fierce winds howled, lightning cracked, and a torrential downpour began. This terrified Youzi. He had never encountered such a sudden atmospheric shift, and he instinctively felt this change was deeply connected to him. The commotion was too immense; though he was a reckless demon, he still feared the Five Finger Mountain of the Buddha. Braving the rain, he frantically shoveled dirt back onto the stone coffin. After hastily reburying the site, he scrambled and crawled down the mountain, terrified of being struck dead by lightning.

In fact, as Youzi fled down the mountain in terror, the people below—the entire village of Shangxiu—were even more astonished than he was. Old Man Zhao collapsed onto the ground immediately, utterly terrified. Because that dramatic scene of lightning and thunder was confined only to the peak of Four Saints Ridge; the village of Xiushan, meanwhile, was still bathed in sunshine under a clear blue sky. Seeing this, the villagers immediately erupted in excitement.

Everyone believed a thousand-year-old demon had achieved human form on the mountain and attracted the attention of Heaven, causing the Jade Emperor to dispatch the gods to subdue the demon with thunder. But Old Man Zhao, lying on the ground, had a different worry.

He recalled the three curses spoken by the geomancer who had inspected the land for him but never received payment: "First, when the spiritual energy leaks, the earth shakes, the mountains tremble. When the coffin appears, lightning flashes and thunder roars. Second, when Heaven sends down Xiushan, the stone coffin will be exposed; when this place emerges, a flood of the sixth month will follow. Third, three months hence, a son will emerge in the lower village and drown within seven days." Now, with unprovoked thunder and rain at Four Saints Ridge, could someone have broken into his stone coffin treasure spot? But who else knew the location of the stone coffin treasure spot besides Youzi?

Could it be that Youzi went back on his word, abandoning his promise?

The more Old Man Zhao considered it, the more terrifying it became. He could ignore everything else no longer. He struggled up from the ground and rushed toward the mountain. He had to see what was happening.

"Father, where are you going? It's raining up on the mountain!" His son, fearing for his father's safety, quickly grabbed his arm, trying to stop him from ascending. His father ignored his son, shook his arm off with force, and broke free.

"Something terrible has happened; I must go see. You wait for me at home."

"No, that's too dangerous. I can't let you go up." The son grabbed his father’s clothes again, refusing to let go at all costs. The father grew furious and slapped his son across the face. With a sharp crack, the son immediately moved his hand from his father to his own cheek.

The son yelled in anger, "Dad, you old bastard, why did you hit me? I’m doing this for your own good! You need to realize that!"

The father had no patience for his son's inappropriate, harsh cursing. He kept walking toward Four Saints Ridge without looking back. The only question occupying his mind was, Do I, Zhao, truly lack the fortune to enjoy this treasure spot?

Doubtful, he climbed and climbed. Before long, he plunged into the downpour. Ouch—the path was slippery, and he fell. It didn't matter; he got back up. He hitched up his trousers, which had slipped down to his thighs, and continued climbing. The heavy rain lashed against his body, and lightning roared overhead. He looked like a homeless old beggar, swaying alone in the wind and rain, appearing utterly small and weathered.

After a while, he finally reached the summit. He was almost at his treasure spot, and a sliver of relief seemed to touch his face. But just then, another massive thunderclap sounded, crackling, and a large tree was split in two. The top section of the tree fell directly toward him.

Ah—he was pinned beneath the fallen tree, forever departing the mortal world. In death, his eyes remained wide open, staring fixedly in the direction of the "stone coffin treasure spot" he had longed for so dearly.

Two hours later, the storm finally subsided. The sky above Four Saints Ridge was no longer overcast but instead featured a beautiful rainbow.

Old Man Zhao hadn't returned, and his son inside the house grew anxious. After all, this was his own father; grudges couldn't last a lifetime. He informed his wife and retraced his steps toward Four Saints Ridge to search. He had considered a thousand possibilities—a broken leg, perhaps, or getting lost. But he never could have imagined his father would be crushed beneath a tree, unable to move.

"Dad, what happened to you? Wake up, Dad! I told you not to come, but you insisted, and now look… Dad! My disobedient father! Are you just going to leave like this? What will I do?" The son could no longer hide his grief, and tears streamed down his face.