“These do not go well together!” the man said. “Are you sure?”
“Yeah. So please send them my house.”
“Okay.”
There were tree saplings, but no one would come to buy them at this time. Besides, the plant species he chose varied greatly, including medicinal plants, economic plants and ornamental plants. All of these together looked like a hodgepodge without any thought gone into them.
“Ah. I think, you’ll work too hard for nothing.”
Wang Yao ignored him and still insisted on taking the saplings. He made a settlement rapidly and then the sales delivered the saplings to the foot of Nanshan hill by car.
“Are you going to plant those on the hill?!” Looking at Nanshan hill, the salesman man was shocked.
“Yes. What’s wrong?” Wang Yao asked with a smile.
“Nothing. If you can plant the saplings successfully, I will give all the saplings you need for free in the future!” the salesman said.
“Are you serious?” Wang Yao asked.
“I am not a gentleman, but I will still keep my promise!” The man pat his chest.
“Okay, it’s a deal!”
“Deal.”
The man helped Wang Yao deliver the saplings to the hill and he saw the medicine herbs growing in the field.
“What are these?” As a businessman of saplings, the man knew nothing about herbs.
“Medicinal herbs.”
“Medicinal herbs? It is almost winter, but they are still green. Are they green all year round?”
Wang Yao hesitated and said, “Yes.”
“They look good,” the man responded.
The man left when he put down the bundle of saplings on the ground but not before leaving Wang Yao his name card.
Wang Yao got busy when that man left. He walked around the cottage many times and then he took out the book, Five Lines Method from the system to read thoroughly. He made markings on the ground according to the book, then he went back to the cottage to get his shovel. He started to dig a hole in the ground and then he started to plant the trees.
It was the most basic form of embattlement that he learned from the book that he had studied for a while. It was a trick, actually. The trees and hill stones were the basis and then there would be illusion when it was laid out successfully. People could enter from the entryway, but they would see an illusion of a tree or stone that wasn’t actually there, and this would prevent them from entering.
Because it was his first time, Wang Yao was not sure of what to do. This existed in legends, so he had to follow the ancient customs done in the past. He just dug and planted according to the description of the embattlement. Arbors and bushes also worked with each other by interlacing and overlapping.
He needed to dig the holes and plant the trees, so the progress was slow. He just planted several rows of trees to the east of the cottage and the herbal field, but it became dark now. He watered them with the mixed ancient spring water and then he went back home to have dinner. Then he was back at the hill.
It was also the same the next day.
Then, there was gossip in the village since it was so strange that the trees were planted in winter.
“Did you know that the child of Fenghua has done something crazy!”
“Plant trees on the hill?”
“Yes. It is okay if the tree is planted during the right season, but he planted so many species of trees, such as jujube trees, cottonwood trees and littleleaf boxes…isn’t that foolishness!”
“Let him be foolish. That is none of our business.”
“The Nanshan hill was so good but now it has gone to waste!”
“It is so wasteful. Nanshan hill has been there for years and no crops could be planted well. So it is a good thing it was contracted. I heard that he has contracted the hill for 20 years and he has promised that he would give 20 thousand yuan to the village each year!”
“Hm. He should not jump into the river anymore!”
The gossip was heard by the parents of Wang Yao.
“Yao, you’re planting trees on the hill?” Zhang Xiuying asked at the dinner.
“Yes, what’s wrong?”
“It is almost winter, so why are you planting trees?”
“Yes. One of my college classmates does microbial fertilizer and he heard that I plant herbs at home, so he wanted me to try some of the fertilizer. He seemed to be in a hurry, so I bought some saplings to try it out.” Wang Yao had thought of the excuse to fool his parents, but he was still so casual when telling a lie.
“Oh, that’s it? That’s fine then.” Zhang Xiuying was relieved when she heard that. She had thought that her son was on the way to a dead end again.
Wang Yao breathed a sigh of relief after sneakily escaping the encounter with his parents.
After that, his parents turned a deaf ear to the gossips in the village and Wang Yao was able to deal with the fields in peace. He practiced to induce his Qi, studied embattlement and read passages from scriptures, which was a full day for him.
It took Wang Yao nine days to finish the embattlement. The sun set on the ninth day and it started to get dark.
It was done!
Wang Yao looked at the illusionary embattlement formed by the saplings and the hill stones. He had retreated and then he felt dizzy suddenly.
“Ah? What happened?” He was astonished since he clearly remembered that there was nothing in front of him but now there was a sapling in front of him. It was more than one meter in height and it was as thin as a little finger.
“So, this is the power of illusionary embattlement?”
Wang Yao walked back and then he went out of the cottage according to the road set by the embattlement. He looked from outside and he found that the cottage was surrounded by rows of saplings. There was something strange when he looked closer. There was one more row of saplings in front of him and they were stronger than the ones that he had planted just now. They were actually three times stronger. He stretched out to them but there was nothing there. The saplings were gone when he got closer. In fact, there was just a rock in front of him and trees the size of half a person on both sides.
He did use the hill’s stones in the embattlement but the largest one was just dozens of centimeters high since he could not move the larger one. However, this stone was much larger.
“Is this really the power of the embattlement?!”
Wang Yao retreated and then the stone disappeared and became a sapling again. This illusionary embattlement was so strange. The saplings now were too small, so it will take time for them to play their own role.
When the embattlement was done, Wang Yao spent less time in the Five Lines Method and more time reading and learning from Natural Classics. He bought other famous Taoist scriptures as a reference, such as Daode Jing, Zhuangzi, Huangting Jing and so on.
On this day, the sky was dark and the breeze was cold.
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