This place was carefully chosen by Li Zhonglou after some consideration.
From both a feng shui perspective and the actual air quality, this mountain was the best in the area, and the house atop it was the very center where the mountain’s spiritual energy converged.
The reason Five Peach Mountain appeared ordinary was precisely because its spiritual energy was too dense.
This might seem contradictory, but it was entirely reasonable. Excessively dense spiritual energy wasn’t necessarily beneficial for ordinary people, as it could form an extremely yin environment, easily attracting unclean entities.
As a result, the place was sparsely populated, and even legitimate feng shui masters overlooked it. This caused a spiritually rich land to appear so unremarkable.
Yet, this made it perfectly suited for Xiaobai’s recovery.
With dense spiritual energy and few visitors, Li Zhonglou had made his decision the moment he laid eyes on this place.
As for why the spiritual energy here was so abundant yet lacked any rare treasures, Li Zhonglou had no idea. After all, he wasn’t a proper feng shui master; he relied solely on his experience and sensitivity to spiritual energy.
However, as he made his way up the mountain, inside the only house at the summit, three men were carrying a human-shaped bundle upstairs.
“This time, I’m going first, no matter what!”
“Heh, always so impatient. Fine, you go first.”
“Such a rare find! How about we three brothers go at it until dawn?”
“Haha, the mission hasn’t even started, and we’ve already stumbled upon such a gem. I’m starting to love this place more and more!”
The three men laughed lewdly as they spoke, while the bundle they carried continued to struggle.
They reached a large room on the second floor. The place was covered in dust from long abandonment, except for a large bed that looked brand new, as if it had been deliberately cleaned.
After tossing the bundle onto the bed, one of the men pulled it open, revealing a pure-looking female college student, tears streaming down her face as she stared at them in terror.
With a piece of cloth stuffed in her mouth, she could only make muffled whimpers.
This only fueled the men’s desires further. The one who spoke first began stripping off his shirt and unbuckling his belt.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk, don’t worry, little beauty, I’ll take good care of you.”
Just then, the man near the window’s expression changed. He whispered to the others, “Hold on, someone’s coming!”
The man who had just undone his belt frowned and cursed under his breath, “Damn it, who the hell is ruining my fun?”
At that moment, Li Zhonglou had reached the broken window of the house.
The building was a three-and-a-half-story villa, spanning several hundred square meters. For some reason, it seemed to have been uninhabited for years. Li Zhonglou had explored it once before and found no signs of vagrants.
What he didn’t know was that this house was infamous among the locals near Five Peach Mountain, known as the “Death-Seeking House.”
Anyone who entered it would inexplicably fall ill afterward. Those with weaker constitutions might be bedridden for half a month, and anyone daring to spend the night inside would likely need to be carried out the next day.
This wasn’t just a rumor—it was a conclusion reached after countless experiments by local residents. As for the “brave soul” who had invested so much to build this villa, rumor had it they had gone bankrupt and disappeared.
Later, the villagers pooled their money to hire a feng shui master to investigate. The master declared it a place of great misfortune, had the villagers clean it thoroughly at noon, performed a ritual, and warned everyone to stay away.
This led to its current state.
Even the homeless, desperate as they were, valued their lives and avoided staying overnight. The broken window Li Zhonglou noticed had been damaged by a typhoon a few years back.
Of course, neither he nor the three men upstairs knew any of this.
Hiding behind the wooden door, the three men suddenly felt the air growing colder for no apparent reason.
“Damn, Old Cat, did you turn on the AC or something?”
“Are you out of your mind? This place has an AC?”
“Then why does it feel like it’s getting colder…”
“Damn, Old Dog, I feel it too!”
The three exchanged glances but quickly burst into laughter.
“What a bunch of idiots.”
In unison, they raised their middle fingers, as if mocking their own momentary fear.
By now, Li Zhonglou had climbed through the window and entered the villa.
To be closer to the spiritual energy, the closer to the earth’s core, the better. He had previously placed Xiaobai in the basement, so he headed downward.
The three men hiding on the second floor, planning an ambush, held their breaths.
“Forget it, let Old Dog take care of him.”
Old Donkey stood up, looking bored. Old Dog shrugged and said, “Fine, but let’s be clear—this girl is mine first. No touching until I’m done!”
Old Cat rolled his eyes. “Got it. Hurry up. I’m getting impatient. You’ve got one minute, or I’m starting without you!”
Old Cat quickly changed his tone. Old Dog flipped him off, sneered coldly, and quietly pushed the door open, heading downstairs.
At that moment, Old Dog’s demeanor shifted entirely. If he had seemed like a sleazy creep before, he now moved with the precision and caution of a high-level operative from a movie.
The two men remaining in the room underwent a similar transformation. Though they stood still, their aura shifted, exuding an unapproachable sense of danger.
The struggling girl suddenly froze, too terrified to move. The way the two men looked at her had turned ice-cold, as if they were staring at a corpse.
Her tears, driven by uncontrollable fear, continued to flow.
Due to the effects of a curse, Li Zhonglou’s awareness of his surroundings had dulled significantly. He didn’t notice someone approaching him from upstairs. Steadily, he reached the basement and opened a cabinet.
To prevent suffocation, he had left both the basement door and the cabinet slightly ajar. In the corner of the cabinet, Xiaobai lay quietly.
Still not awake?
Li Zhonglou frowned slightly, picked Xiaobai up, and shook gently, but there was no response.
“No choice, then. I’ll have to force it awake.”