**Chapter 43: The Forbidden Art of Three Corpses Blocking Wealth (Part 5)**

**Chapter 43: The Forbidden Art of Three Corpses Blocking Wealth (Part 5)**

**Midnight Ritual**

Under the cover of darkness, Li Chengfeng and Wang Bin arrived at Sheng Hai Jewelry, folding ladder in tow. The street lay silent, save for the occasional car slicing through the humid summer night. With the shop closed and security guards inside, they crept to the storefront.

"What now?" Wang Bin whispered.

Li Chengfeng eyed the sealed roll-up door and polished floor tiles. Digging holes here was impossible. Instead, he scaled the ladder to a narrow ledge behind the store's glitzy sign. There, he pulled out his *Sanhe Luopan*—a threefold feng shui compass—and chanted:

*"Jia and Yi seek wealth in the northeast,*

*Bing and Ding trace southwest's breath.*

*Wu and Ji anchor the northern throne,*

*Geng and Xin claim the east as their own…*"

Golden light pulsed from three invisible *wealth nodes*: the **Bright Wealth Position**, **Hidden Wealth Position**, and **Annual Fortune Position**. To the untrained eye, these were mere spots of air—but to Li Chengfeng, they glowed like molten gold.

He hung the featherless crow over the Bright Wealth Position, the starved bat over the Hidden, and the diseased cat over the Annual Fortune. As he secured the last corpse, the nodes' radiance dimmed, choked by a creeping gray mist—the curse's *Great Decay Qi*.

A misstep on the ladder sent it clattering against the wall.

"Who's there?!" a guard inside barked.

Panicked, the duo froze—until a feral cat's screech pierced the night. "Damn strays!" the guard grumbled, retreating.

**The Unseen Blight**

By dawn, Sheng Hai's staff arrived to a surreal sight: a gaunt cat sprawled at the entrance, a bald crow and shriveled bat perched on the doorframe. Yet when blinked, the creatures vanished.

"Hallucinations?" Manager Han Lili snapped, brushing it off.

But the strangeness lingered. Though七夕节 (Qixi Festival—China's Valentine's Day) promotions lit up the street, customers recoiled at the threshold. Some entered, only to leave empty-handed despite hours of coaxing. By noon, not a single sale had been made.

"What's wrong with people today?" a salesgirl groaned, voice hoarse from pitching.

Han Lili stormed past, fining idle staff. Yet by closing time, the registers remained untouched—a first for the once-thriving store.