192: Chapter 192 Shocking!

After Lin's Establishment had been closed for half a day, the 'Open' sign was hung up again the next morning.

As soon as the door opened, the diners waiting at the steps surged down with the crowd.

[Remember this site's domain name, look for Taiwan Novel Website for Taiwan novels, super powerful]

The situation in the shop was worlds apart from before.

No one was getting angry for no reason.

No one was complaining about the heat.

No one felt a sudden tightness in their chest while eating and had to leave.

The eight tables were packed, and the sounds of chopsticks clinking against bowls mingled with the low hum of conversation.

The kitchen smoke, carrying the aroma of lard and Huadiao wine, drifted through the entire shop.

Lin Shuo stood before the stove, his right hand gripping the iron ladle as steadily as if it were nailed to his palm.

His color had returned, his eyes were no longer sunken, and the dry skin on his lips had cleared.

His movements with the ladle were smooth and fluid; when a high flame was needed, he pushed the heat to the limit, and when it was time to reduce the sauce, a flick of his wrist locked the temperature perfectly.

This was how the fourth-generation successor of Lin's Establishment was supposed to look.

Old Chen stood at the shop entrance, walkie-talkie in hand, keeping an eye on the queuing diners while scanning the entrances at both ends of the corridor.

He watched the bustling scene inside for a few seconds before turning to walk diagonally across the way.

Jiang Feng stood at the shop's entrance, looking around with great satisfaction.

"Boss, I don't understand your methods, but Lin Shuo's state today is like a completely different person compared to yesterday." Old Chen came to a stop beside him. "What exactly did you do to that shop yesterday?"

"Just treating an illness."

"What kind of illness?"

"A Feng Shui illness."

Old Chen smacked his lips and didn't ask further.

After following Jiang Feng for so long, he had learned not to dig too deep into certain things.

The more he asked, the more mystical the answers became; it was better not to ask at all.

He wouldn't understand if he heard it, and he couldn't learn it anyway.

As long as the outcome was good, that was enough.

"By the way, there's movement over at Prosperity." Old Chen lowered his voice. "The people I arranged to stake out the Prosperity headquarters saw the property manager leading a group around the plaza for over an hour this morning, checking the bronze statues and the trees."

"Which tree?"

"The pine tree in the southwest corner. I heard a large section of its leaves has withered."

Jiang Feng picked up his thermos and took a sip.

The southwest corner was the Kun position.

After the blocked energy and reversed baleful Qi flowed back, the weakest link among the four corners of the formation's lockdown would be the first to bear the pressure. The Podocarpus pine at the Kun position bore the brunt of it.

The withered leaves meant the backlash had already begun to take effect.

This 'Triple Ring Formation' was originally a generic setup from a street stall manual. The layout designer's skill wasn't bad, but the technique was too dogmatic. Once the energy veins were cut off and forced back, the system's tolerance for error was pitifully low.

"Keep watching them."

"Understood."

11:40 AM.

Jiang Feng was idly scrolling through public information on Dingsheng Catering Group on his phone when he caught sight of someone walking from the direction of the main underground street entrance.

The way he walked was different from ordinary people; every step was steady, heel touching first, then the forefoot slowly pressing down, his stride as uniform as if measured with a ruler.

Jiang Feng's finger stopped on his phone screen.

The man walked slowly along the main passage. He didn't look left or right but stared at the joint between the ceiling and the wall, occasionally stopping to lightly sniff the air.

He was following a scent.

The smell of rust.

Jiang Feng tucked his phone back into his pocket and watched him warily.

The man passed the hardware store, the umbrella shop, and the funeral supplies shop, his direction becoming clearer and clearer.

He was heading straight for Lin's Establishment.

He stopped at the entrance of Lin's Establishment.

His eyes were fixed on a spot at the bottom left of the door frame, where the head of a rusty iron nail was exposed. A red thread was wrapped around the nail head, extending into the shop along the baseboard.

He crouched down. He didn't touch the nail, but his palm hovered about three centimeters above the nail head for two seconds.

Then he stood up and scanned the shop, following the path of the red thread.

Jiang Feng saw the look in his eyes change.

From the investigative tone he had upon entering the underground street, it turned into a certain solemn confirmation.

This person understood.

He didn't just understand the framework of the Qi-Severing Formation; he understood the Nine Palaces positions of the nine iron nails and the trajectory of the red thread.

An expert.

The kind of expert who could deconstruct a job to its core at a single glance.

Jiang Feng let out a casual whistle.

The man in the cotton-linen shirt, Guo Xu, looked up at that same moment, following the sound.

The two of them locked eyes across the corridor.

Guo Xu breathed a sigh of relief; the person before him was indeed not *that* person.

However, the fact that the person who broke his formation was so young also caught him a bit off guard.

If his peers found out, he wouldn't know where to hide his face.

"I must not be careless," Guo Xu decided in his heart.

There was no particular change in the air, the fluorescent lights were still dim, the sound of diners entering and leaving Lin's Establishment continued, and the steamers at the bun shop were still emitting white steam.

But at the point where their gazes met, it felt as though an invisible membrane had been stretched tight.

Old Chen stood nearby, the hair on the back of his neck suddenly standing on end for no reason.

He didn't understand Feng Shui, but his battlefield instincts told him that this thin man in the cotton-linen shirt was not someone to be trifled with.

Guo Xu started walking over.

His pace wasn't fast, but every step carried a sense of pressure.

He was within three steps of reaching Jiang Feng.

But he suddenly stopped, his legs unable to move.

The two weren't secretly battling with techniques.

Guo Xu simply felt it was unbelievable.

Because now that he was close, he could finally see Jiang Feng's face clearly.

This is way too damn similar!

Impossible! Absolutely impossible!

Is it really possible to go against heaven's will?

Guo Xu's shoulders slumped slightly, his breathing rhythm broke, and even the fingers at his sides began to twitch minutely.

Jiang Feng raised an eyebrow as he watched the man's reaction.

He was certain he had never met this person before.

But the way this man looked at him was not the way one looks at a stranger.

Jiang Feng decided to be polite first.

"Hello, welcome to Lin's Establishment. Is there anything I can help you with?"

Guo Xu adjusted his breathing and then shook his head repeatedly.

He kept denying his own thoughts; it must be a coincidence, he was just scaring himself.

But he still needed to confirm something first.

"You..."

"Your surname wouldn't happen to be Jiang, would it?"