The Nine Dragon Coffin

Chapter 4 – Five Shortcomings and Three deficiencies (1)

Chapter 4 – Five Shortcomings and Three deficiencies (1)

Grandpa Lin Gengchen was just an average village yin yang master. How could he know someone as magical as Taoist Chengfeng? And who was the “Old Blindman” that Taoist Chengfeng mentioned? 

Old Blindman had been like Grandpa’s teacher. When he was young, Grandpa’s hometown had a famine and he’d almost died of starvation. The wandering Old Blindman had saved his life with a steamed bun. After that, Grandpa had followed this Old Blindman in his journeys. You could say it was an expedition, but it was actually just wandering.

Old Blindman had been a yin yang master, but that had been a war era. Most people couldn’t even stay alive. Who would have the energy to care about supernatural matters? So, the two lived without knowing where their next meal was, but they survived anyhow. 

Grandpa stayed beside Old Blindman. He wanted to call Old Blindman “Teacher,” but the man said they weren’t fated for a student-teacher relationship, so he wasn’t allowed to say it. Old Blindman also refused to reveal his name, so Grandpa just called him “Old Blindman.”

Grandpa stayed with him for seven years. Even though Old Blindman had lived with hardship, Grandpa could see now that he’d been skilled. Only someone truly powerful could be as nonchalant as Old Blindman. In other words, he’d been indifferent to fame and fortune. Thus, Grandpa had wished deep down that the Old Blindman would teach those skills to him.

However, even after staying with him for seven years, the Old Blindman had him burn two of the three books he’d kept with him before he’d died. He only gave the remaining book and his copper pipe to Grandpa. As Grandpa said, the two books that Old Blindman had burned contained the essence of yin yang studies. The remaining book only had basic and shallow information.

Whenever Grandpa spoke of this, he would sound regretful. At first, he couldn’t figure out at all why Old Blindman would rather burn those two books than give them to him. Later, after he truly started learning, he realized that a true yin yang master would have five shortcomings and three deficiencies in their lives. Old Blindman had been extremely skilled, but he’d been disabled and without children and support. He hadn’t passed down his knowledge because he didn’t want Grandpa to follow his steps.

After Old Blindman died, Grandpa acted as his pallbearer. Then he continued wandering with the book and smoking pipe. After the environment gradually stabilized, Grandpa stopped his wandering lifestyle and made home in the small Sanlitun village at the foot of Green Dragon Mountain.

Grandpa hadn’t chosen Sanlitun by coincidence. It was because Old Blindman had rambled about Green Dragon Mountain back then. He’d said that the “nine dragons pulling the coffin” on Green Dragon Mountain was a centuries-old mystery. If he hadn’t gone blind, he definitely would’ve gone to observe the place. Unfortunately, his blindness made this an unresolved regret. The two couldn’t come to Green Dragon Mountain until Old Blindman’s death. Grandpa basically came to fulfill Old Blindman’s last wish.

This was why Grandpa and I both had special feelings toward Green Dragon Mountain and the Nine Dragon Coffin.

When I was eight years old, someone finally entered the back mountains of Green Dragon Mountain.

This was a wanted criminal. He was responsible for many murder cases and was chased by the police. He had no choice but to duck into the Woods of No Return. This man was a horrible and evil person. Before entering the woods, he even wrote a line under the ancient stele: come catch me if you can!

A ton of police officers came at once. They were angry at the criminal’s provocation, but Green Dragon Mountain’s Woods of No Return was honestly too infamous in the entire Fang City. Everyone knew that both the living and dead shouldn’t enter the Woods of No Return. The officers surrounded the woods but didn’t dare to go in and arrest the criminal.

The leader found Chen Tianpeng, village head of Sanlitun. Chen Tianpeng brought him to Grandpa. After all, Grandpa was the yin yang master of the village. Since it had something to do with this field, they had to come ask.

Captain Wu was also troubled. Everyone knew that whoever entered the back of Green Dragon Mountain wouldn’t be able to return, but they had to go capture a wanted criminal, right? It wasn’t like they could report to the higher-ups that the criminal ran into the Woods of No Return so he would definitely die and close the case, right?

Thus, he asked Grandpa if the local fengshui master could help the police go in and arrest the man safely or get the criminal out. If necessary, getting a dead body was okay too. But Grandpa obviously couldn’t help.

Someone came the third day. This man was pale and clean, wearing a pair of glasses. As soon as he arrived, he yelled at Captain Wu and the others. He said that they were policemen. How could they believe these superstitions? 

He also said that this was a case checked personally by the big official and it had to be solved immediately.