The blind man gravely counseled the Hong Kong visitor. Once the dog's flesh was entirely consumed, with only the bones remaining, it would be the moment to settle their long-standing feud. The visitor listened, utterly convinced, and hurriedly pulled out his Hong Kong dollars to honor the blind man.

Seeing that it was past noon, I grew impatient to wait any longer. Da Jinya and I each took an arm and marched the blind man out. The blind man was startled and quickly cried out, "Two brave sirs, might I ask which stronghold you hail from? Let us talk this over calmly. Old man truly doesn't have much money on him... these old bones can’t withstand such a squeeze." But after a few steps, the blind man recognized the scent: "Could it be the Mojin Xiaowei Lord Hu?"

I laughed aloud and released the arm I held. Realizing we weren't kidnappers, the blind man instantly relaxed. However, in his delight, he took two steps forward and bumped his head squarely into a utility pole. The blind man winced in pain, clutching his forehead, and sighed, "Today I revealed heavenly secrets, stealing the mysteries of creation, hence this retribution." I led the blind man into a nearby steamed bun shop on the street and said to him, "Master Chen, please don't take offense. I have an urgent matter that requires your assistance, and I've delayed your earning a living. I will compensate you fully for any lost earnings later."

I ordered a bowl of wontons for the blind man. While sipping the broth, I said, "Not at all, not at all. Old man owes my current success entirely to Lord Hu's past patronage. Otherwise, stuck in that impoverished backwater all day, how could I ever ascend to the rank of Bo Le?"

Da Jinya originally wanted to ask the blind man to calculate a path to fortune after hearing him divine.

Da Jinya chuckled, "Speaking in front of Lord Hu, I naturally cannot speak nonsense. All that talk of divine calculation is just hogwash." With that, he swirled the bowl of wontons and drank it down to the last drop. He then casually explained the trick behind it for us.

Since antiquity, those who read fortunes and physiognomies rely solely on careful observation and quick wit—speaking what the person wants to hear, speaking what the ghost wants to hear. It is all about adaptability, and there are great techniques involved. Take that Hong Kong visitor as a prime example. Asking him if he keeps a dog—that’s a question with two edges. If he says no, then you suggest his home lacks a guardian dog. If he says yes, then it’s about the dog’s problems. The visitor abandoned the dog and fled with his whole family; he certainly wouldn't dare go home anytime soon. How could the foreign dog possibly starve to death? Even if the dog didn't starve, the visitor would believe the reading was accurate, simply because the matter involved a long-standing grudge he was unwilling to voice. He would find other ways to starve the dog. In short, the more mysterious you make it, the better—it all depends on verbal dexterity. These words are merely casual exchanges; who cares if they prove true or false later? As long as you utter one or two phrases to the person’s face that make them believe you, that’s enough. All in all, in the eyes of those common folk, I am always performing divine calculations.

Finally, the blind man said to Da Jinya and me, "Two respected sirs, how many people in this world are truly divine in their calculations? There are none, save for those who simply shift with the wind. All fortune-telling and divination do not stray from this path. If one can master this, they are divine. If they cannot, it matters not."

Da Jinya said to the blind man, "Master Chen is truly an exceptional man. If you hadn't been a fortune teller, but instead dealt in antiques and calligraphy, you would surely amass a great fortune. Your skill in bringing the dead to life with words is something I can only dream of achieving."

After hearing the blind man’s discourse, I recalled hearing him cast lots at Uncle Ming’s house and thought he might hold some secret to the Sixteen-Character Celestial Formula. Yet, looking at his theories on fortune-telling now, his entire basis was almost zero—purely guessing and bluffing. But since we found him, we might as well ask.

So I spoke, inquiring if the blind man knew the I Ching, and if he had ever heard of the long-lost "Sixteen Characters." The blind man stroked his goatee, pondering for a long time before replying, "The Yi naturally contains everything, but the profession I engaged in back then was Xieling coffin removal. I lost a pair of eyes and was forced to tell fortunes to make a living. I am very familiar with tomb raiding, but I never grasped the true essence of Yin-Yang and the Eight Trigrams. However, I heard that not far from the capital, on Baiyun Mountain, there is a very famous Yin-Yang Feng Shui master who received teachings from a True Man and possesses the ability of the Complete Formula. He is proficient in Feng Shui and Yi arts. You might do well to seek him out. Since he calls himself the Complete Formula Master, he must have abilities beyond the common man."

I asked the blind man to tell me the name of this "Complete Formula True Man" and the name of his village, writing it down. The so-called Baiyun Mountain is a spur of the Yan Mountain Range, not far from Beijing—only a few hours by car. I planned to make a trip there immediately. A one-percent chance demanded a one-hundred-percent effort. Then I asked the blind man to tell me the legend of the Faqiu Seal. Since we didn't have the ancient mirror, I figured I’d have to fabricate an identical "Faqiu Seal" to fool Uncle Ming. The key was that he had given us a clue about the Demon Kingdom Mausoleum. As for whether he could use it to guard his home, I had no time to concern myself with that.

When it came to the business of tomb robbing, the blind man was astonishingly well-informed. Over the past few decades, there has been a break in the traditional tomb-raiding skills and conventions, and the blind man could fill this gap with the knowledge he gained from his years roaming the underworld.

Since ancient times, there have been the Faqiu and Mojin traditions in grave excavation. Later came the outsiders, the "Banshan Daoists," and those who formed their own faction and acted in groups, the "Xieling Li Shi." Faqiu have seals, Mojin have talismans, Banshan have arts, and Xieling have armor. Among them, the most mysterious practitioners were the "Banshan Daoists." They all disguised themselves as Taoist priests, and this attire added to their mystique. Many people mistakenly believed their "Banshan Divided Armor Technique" for excavating tombs was some sort of sorcery akin to Maoshan Taoism.

The "Xieling Li Shi" occupied a space between the forest outlaws and tomb raiding. When there was a tomb, they dug it up. When they couldn't locate a burial site, the leader would issue the armor plaques, summon men to plunder wealth in the mountains. They always traveled in large numbers, and as long as they found a place, even a massive tomb could be excavated.

During periods of dynastic change, tomb raiding was especially rampant. It was said that the imperial mausoleums, the tombs of ancient sages, and towering monuments stretched as far as the eye could see, leading to a proliferation of bandits. A common saying went: "On Mount Mang in Luoyang, there is no place for a lying ox. Faqiu, Mojin, Banshan, Xieling—seals, talismans, arts, armor—their hoes penetrate the barren tombs."

The prototype of Mojin originated in the Warring States period, masters of the "Dragon Seeking Formula" and "Splitting Gold to Fix Position." The Faqiu General appeared during the Later Han Dynasty, also known as the Faqiu Tian Guan or Faqiu Ling Guan. In reality, the techniques of the Faqiu Tian Guan and Mojin Xiaowei were almost identical; the Faqiu merely possessed a bronze seal inscribed with the words "Heavenly Official Bestows Fortune, Nothing is Taboo." In the hands of tomb robbers, it was an irreplaceable divine artifact. This seal was destroyed during the Yongle era of the Ming Dynasty and no longer exists in the world.

Following the blind man's description, I painstakingly recorded every detail of the Faqiu Seal’s features and dimensions. Then I asked Da Jinya to find someone to make a convincing fake. It would be best to find a master craftsman in an antique restoration shop to make it look genuinely old. Don't worry about the cost; if it looks like the "Singaporean fakes" sold at the Panjiayuan flea market, it will surely fool Uncle Ming, who is an expert himself. Fortunately, he never saw the real one. I left this task to Da Jinya.

I asked Da Jinya to take the blind man back. I rushed home to prepare for the trip to Baiyun Mountain. I arrived home almost simultaneously with Shirley Yang. I eagerly asked her about the human head.

Shirley Yang shook her head helplessly. Indeed, an object the size of a real eyeball had appeared in the mouth of the Head of the Xian King. However, it had fused completely with the interior structure of the mouth, making it impossible to separate. The jade transformation of the entire head centered on the mouth and tongue; the skullcap and neck remained in their original state, having been cut away. Now, only the face and oral cavity remained, which she retrieved for me to examine.

All removable parts had been severed from the Head of the Xian King. The remaining portion was almost a jade sphere with a vaguely discernible human face, its surface textures forming a swirling pattern. Shirley Yang believed this head attracted the "Corpse Hole"—an energy existing between energy and matter—not because of the jade-transformed skull, but because of that object inside. X-ray results showed that the substance inside the head darkened gradually, resembling the layers of an eyeball. Besides the Muchen Bead, it could be nothing else.

The problem was that we had no way of knowing the information hidden within the Dragon Bone Celestial Book’s section, "Phoenix Cries on Mount Qi," meaning we couldn't decipher the ancients' descriptions of this object's nature—is it an eyeball, a vortex, a phoenix? Or something else entirely? And what is its connection to eternal life and ascending to immortality? Taking the Xian King as a cautionary tale: Did he make a mistake in one step, or did he misunderstand the contents of the Celestial Book? The ancestors of the Zagrama tribe performed a divination many years ago suggesting that the only way to eliminate the curse was to find the Muchen Bead, but no record remained of what to do after finding it.

I told Shirley Yang that I hadn't been idle either. I had just learned about a "Complete Formula True Man" on Baiyun Mountain. I remembered that my grandfather’s master studied his craft on Baiyun Mountain; perhaps that incomplete book on Yin-Yang Feng Shui also came from Baiyun Mountain. I decided to go try my luck immediately.

Upon hearing there was a chance to uncover the Sixteen-Character Complete Formula, Shirley Yang insisted on accompanying me. I told her to stay in Beijing, as there was much work to do. Once the Celestial Book could be deciphered, our next step might take us to Tibet, to find the altar that enshrines the giant eyeball totem. We lost too much equipment in Yunnan recently, so you need to arrange for the American allies to airlift a new batch over. If something can't be bought, have Da Jinya commission it.

I then recounted the matter of Uncle Ming to Shirley Yang and asked if we could utilize the clues Uncle Ming possessed. Shirley Yang asked what my plan was. I told her we would follow the term often used by the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs: "Cooperate while maintaining distance."

The next morning, I took the train from the South Station. Along the way, I inquired and found the residence of the Baiyun Mountain Complete Formula True Man, Ma Yunling. However, the Ma family told me he had gone up the mountain to perform geomancy for someone. Impatient to wait, I figured I might as well go up the mountain myself and see what skill the True Man Ma had in observing terrain. I hoped he wasn't just another charlatan like the fortune-telling blind man.

Although this Baiyun Mountain does not compare to the great mountains and rivers of the world, it possesses a degree of scenic beauty. Following the route marked at the Ma residence, I ascended a mountain peak and saw dozens of people gathered around a figure—a skeletal, dried-up old man whose eyes shone with sharp light. He was fanning himself leisurely while pointing out the contours of the mountains and rivers to the crowd.