Returning from the Immortal World
Chapter 796: Sharpening the Butcher Knife

Ma Jianfeng's posture was very low, since he was the one who needed help from the other party, and more so that his wastrel son had also offended said party. So, he stood outside the window and bent over to greet Tang Xiu with a smile while concealing the solid depressed feeling inside.

Bam…

Tang Xiu got out of the car and closed the door with his backhand. He looked at Ma Jianfeng and nodded. "Yes, I'm Tang Xiu. May I know your name?"

"I'm Ma Jianfeng. Jian as in development, and Feng as in a mountain peak."

"Ah, it turns out to be the Head of Ma Family. Pleased to meet you."

Tang Xiu smiled. He was not an unbridled youth. The Head of Ma Family had been acting so humbly, and he could not return such amiable manners with arrogance, for a sane person would never slap the face of those who were smiling at him. Not to mention that the Ma Family was also one of the top families in Tianjing, so it was not easy for Ma Jianfeng to act like this either.

After shaking hands and some polite and amiable civilities, Tang Xiu slowly said, "I've learned the reason why the Head of Ma Family would spend so much time and effort to see me. However, let's say the unpleasant things first. I don't know the current condition of the old patriarch of your family, nor do I know what his illness is, so I don't dare to give a 100% guarantee on if I'm able to cure him."

Ma Jianfeng retracted back his smile and replied with all seriousness, "I understand what you said, Divine Doctor Tang. Still, I hope that you can do your best. You could say that you're the last straw of hope that my father might be cured. We will do our best to fulfill whatever requirement you may need. That I can promise you."

A gleam of surprise flashed in Tang Xiu's eyes. He waved and said, "A doctor does have a duty to treat the sick and save people, so let's put my request aside for now. I've long heard of Ma Family's good reputation, whether in Tianjing or in the country."

"You're overpraising us, Divine Doctor Tang," said Ma Jianfeng modestly. "But I myself have a guilty conscience. I'm ashamed that my son has acted hastily and offended you. In retrospect, I will make him apologize and plead for your forgiveness."

"Your son?"

Tang Xiu deliberately pretended to be oblivious and put on a quizzical look.

Ma Jianfeng was surprised and asked, "You didn't know Ma Xiaorong is my fourth son, Divine Doctor Tang?"

Cold and indifference suddenly replaced Tang Xiu's expression. He even opened the car's door and sat back under the watchful eyes of the Ma Family. He then looked through the window toward Mo Awu and spoke, "Awu, return to Shanghai."

Ma Jianfeng's heart thumped. "Dr. Tang, you are…" he hastily said with a smile, "I know it was all my son's fault. Please don't stoop to the likes of my good-for-nothing son and forgive his past wrongdoings with your magnanimous heart."

"You know, I originally thought the Ma Family was as good as the hearsays," said Tang Xiu apathetically. "Never did I expect that the juniors of your family are an utter disgrace. A friend of mine told me that Ma Xiaorong is the brutish scoundrel of Tianjing, relying on the little bit of power of the family to incite outrages. I've experienced his deeds too! Not only did he bully the waiting ladies at Mingyuan Resort last night, but he also ordered his bodyguards to surround me. If it weren't for my kung fu, I'd have been sent to the hospital by now."

Ma Jianfeng was deeply shocked. Although he knew his fourth son was usually ignorant and incompetent, little did he think that he would be such a sissy to stoop down to this degree that he even bullied girls, and ordered his bodyguards to surround and beat up others.

All of a sudden, Ma Jinfeng felt that his punishment for his wastrel son was too light. Had he learned earlier about it, he would have used his whip to flog him dozens of times, forcing him to clearly memorize the disciplining lesson of his family's ancestors. His thoughts were similarly shared with the rest of the Ma Family's core members, who came together. All of them could hear every single word Tang Xiu said perfectly. For a while, every one of them looked angry, and their evaluation of Ma Xiaorong dropped in the extreme.

In actuality, they too had done some shady and shameful business, but it was all for a reason: be it because of personal enmity or for some benefit, and also they produced good results. Yet, provoking trouble everywhere without any cause or reason, nor running amok to act against the law and reason like a tyrant, was something they had never done.

Ma Jianfeng took a deep breath and solemnly said, "Dr. Tang, I admit that I've been so busy developing the Ma Family that I neglected my responsibility to discipline my own son as a father. You can rest assured that I'll definitely have him under my control and make sure that he won't carry on his misdeeds ever again. Although I already punished him, it's still not enough, so I'll make him taste the consequences of his misdeeds later."

Tang Xiu was silent for half a minute, pulled out a cigarette and took a puff after igniting it. As the smoke puffed out of his mouth, he said, "I may be able to cure and save your father, but the visiting fee will be indispensable. I hope you can accept my request."

"That's only natural, and we accept."

Yet, Ma Jianfeng was quite depressed! He was naturally a shrewd and astute person acting as the Head of Ma Family. How could he not sense Tang Xiu's vexed feeling and was preparing his butcher knife to chop down the meat of Ma Family's?

And yet, he knew perfectly well that he couldn't blame him either! If it wasn't for his wastrel son offending him, Tang Xiu wouldn't have demanded such a ridiculous request since he was, after all, a Divine Doctor! And those who aspired and had become such miracle-working doctors were not only required to have excellent medical expertise to turn the foul and rotten into the rare and ethereal, but they also had the most important medical ethics.

The lips of the Ma Family's core members behind him twitched, along with the secretly growing resentment in their heart toward Ma Xiaorong. If it wasn't for this good-for-nothing bastard, Tang Xiu wouldn't have thought to butcher them, would he? If… in the case that Tang Xiu's request was too much, they would definitely ask the family head to break that bastard's leg.

They then left the highway service area in convoy and spent nearly an hour on the road before arriving at Ma Family manor. As the ten-plus cars entered the interior of the manor fast, they directly stopped in front of the northernmost antique pavilion where the old patriarch Ma lived.

"Hmm?"

Just as Tang Xiu got out of the car, his expression slightly changed. He could easily discern the pattern diagram of Feng Shui in the Ma Family manor, particularly the antique pavilion in front of him, which seemingly featured an added finishing touch to activate and revitalize the entire Feng Shui of the Ma Family manor.

Attracting wealth and fortune.

Thriving family with many prosperous members.

Lifetime prosperity of the family.

Tang Xiu finally understood why the Ma Family had been able to drift with the wind and the current and developed to such large extent so smoothly all these years. A family whose land had such Feng Shui structure arranged would never fail, even if the one at the helm was a fool. It was no wonder that just Ma Jianfeng alone had four sons.

"Well, it seems that the ancestor of your family once met a very respectable noble!" Tang Xiu turned to look at Ma Jianfeng and said apathetically.

"What do you mean by that, Dr. Tang?" asked Ma Jianfeng, looking puzzled.

"It's nothing. It's just I can't help but exclaim after seeing the characteristics of the Feng Shui structure of your family manor," replied Tang Xiu indifferently.

"You also understand Feng Shui?" asked Ma Jianfeng, surprised and amazed.

"If acting with modesty is not necessary, I can say that my achievement in Feng Shui is much better than my medical expertise," answered Tang Xiu with a pale smile. "The Feng Shui pattern of your family manor consisted of the East Gate that attracts the Purple Qi of the rising sun; the North Gate that is closed to contain the movement of fortune and wealth inside; the South Gate that is directly connected to vast and brilliant future prospects; and the circuitry West Gate, which will bring about thousands of offspring. Lastly, this pavilion in front of us as the center crux, which likely has a small spiritual vein underground that is continuously accumulating good fortune. If your father has been living here for years, I think I've figured out the cause of his illness."

Ma Jianfeng gasped for cold air as he stared at Tang Xiu in shock. The Feng Shui structure of Ma Family's manor was arranged more than 100 years ago by a Feng Shui grandmaster who had a debt of favor to his family's ancestor. That Feng Shui grandmaster spent half a year of painstaking efforts to help complete the arrangement of this pattern.

For nearly 100 years, no one had ever seen through the mystery of their family's land, yet Tang Xiu was unexpectedly able to completely discern the entirety of their Feng Shui structure the moment he arrived.

"You're right, Dr. Tang," said Ma Jianfeng hurriedly. "My father has been living in this attic for many years. His physical condition was originally very good, and he was as strong as a young man even though he was already 70-years-old back then. But I don't know why his body keeps aging at a frightening speed since the end of this year. He is nearly in a continuous comatose state and occasionally wakes up now."

"Your Ma Family has been blessed with good fortune and has been prosperous for 100 years. The accumulated good fortune is eventually condensed on one person, which is your father. So he was naturally very healthy back then. To think that he has once had a life free from disease and remained healthy even for so many years is really amazing in and of itself. It's really a pity…"

As he spoke up to there, Tang Xiu sighed deeply and strode into the pavilion.

'Huh? The power of fate and destiny?'

Right as Tang Xiu stepped into the door of the attic, he felt an intense power of fate and destiny inside, and it was a rather special power of fate and destiny, no less. Even though the richness was inferior to the enormous power of fate and destiny contained in the treasures inside his interspatial ring, this particular one fully obstructed his perception to sense it.

He must absorb it!

Tang Xiu silently circulated his Heavenly Art of Cosmic Genesis and absorbed this power of fate and destiny in this place. Without guidance from Ma Jianfeng, he paced forward step by step and went to the door on the second floor. He then pushed the door and directly entered the room as his eyes landed on an elderly man lying flat on the bed.

The others were unable to see that the old man lying on the bed was being shrouded by the multicolored energy of the power of fate and destiny, but Tang Xiu could see it clearly. This power of fate and destiny was so strong that it extracted the old man's soul and life force. If this extraction speed were to be maintained for half a month, the elderly man on the bed would have his life force and soul completely extracted, and he would die.

Tang Xiu turned to look at Ma Jianfeng and several of the most powerful members of the Ma Family, and then lightly asked, "You are now faced with two choices: The first one is you can save his life but you will have the roots of Ma Family ruined; the second is that he will die, but the Ma Family is guaranteed to continue flourishing for nearly 100 years."

The complexions of Ma Jianfeng and the rest of Ma Family members changed drastically, along with a horrified, dumbstruck expression.

Ma Jianfeng's second uncle, Ma Chengye, an old man with very high authority in the Ma Family paced forward two steps at this moment. He stared deeply at Tang Xiu and asked with anxiousness all over his face, "Divine Doctor Tang, is there any probability that we can have both?"

Tang Xiu shot a deep look at his eyes before he nodded and said, "The elderlies of your Ma Family are very admirable, at least. You don't have the thought to fight and scheme against each other. There's another way indeed, but the price you have to pay will be quite great."