Thus, after repeated use, there was this black nail that had gone through seven or eight coffin owners.
The nail appeared pitch-black, exuding an aura of haunting eeriness.
Lu Xiaoshi eyed an inconspicuous mortise on the beam, exerted force with his wrist, and amidst the sound of firecrackers, drove the nail in fiercely!
This trick was called "Nailing Heart Curse", ensuring the family would perish and the lineage extinguished!
Apart from the beam, during the earlier excavation of the foundation, Lu Xiaoshi seized the opportunity and, when no one was watching, buried a small wooden effigy three feet deep beneath the center of the main room.
The effigy was carved from ghostly locust wood, with eyebrows, eyes, and a figure bearing seven or eight parts resemblance to a distant court official, the son of the Lu family.
The effigy had a red dot at the heart marked with Vermillion, and its body was wrapped in ink chalk lines, the birth date and eight characters of both the Lu family's son and Lu Xiaoshi's childhood companion carved on the back.
This trick was called "Settling Effigy", bringing disasters, nightmares, and misfortunes, specifically targeting someone with the art of affliction.
When it came time to set up the new bed, while installing the bed board layers, Lu Xiaoshi took out from his bosom a wooden turtle bound with Red String at all four corners, and embedded it within the layers.
This trick called "Turtle Beset Bed" aimed for marital discord, adultery, intending to put a turtle cap on Landlord Lu, a psychological assault.
The house was completed, and the well was drilled.
On the last day of work, while cleansing his hands, a slick wooden rat slipped out of Lu Xiaoshi's sleeve and plunged into the well.
That rat too was made of ghostly locust wood, repeatedly soaked in tung oil, and quickly sank.
This trick was also known as "Wood Rat Sinks in the Pool", leading to financial depletion, much like a rat boring holes, the family estate would eventually be nibbled away.
Once everything was done, Lu Xiaoshi took his wages, carried his wooden box, and left the village without looking back.
As for Landlord Lu, he joyously moved into the new house.
Soon afterward, strange occurrences began in the household.
First, his only son, a court official elsewhere, fell suddenly ill again with his illness from seven years ago, forcing him to resign and return home.
Later, the son developed hysteria, mumbling nonsense in the middle of the night, shouting: "Nail! There's a nail piercing me, it hurts!"
Landlord Lu consulted various famous physicians, administering countless medicinal decoctions, all to no avail.
In under three months, the Lu family's son hemorrhaged from his mouth and nose, leaving this world!
Next was Lu's wife.
Since the son's passing, she went mad, constantly claiming to hear things crawling under the bed, biting her feet.
Later, people noticed Lu's wife wandering at night, disheveled and naked, in the courtyard, laughing and saying, "Husband, come, let's enjoy together!"
In less than half a year, the confined Lu wife hanged herself in the house.
Landlord Lu, the head of the family, faced his own misfortunes.
His once lucrative business was ravaged by fire, attacked by water bandits, and even larger cargo ships inexplicably sank to the riverbed, with crew claiming they were bitten by rats.
In short, within half a year, land and property were sold, the family wealth flowing away like water, unable to plug the increasing holes.
Landlord Lu suffered sleepless nights, perpetually feeling a crushing weight on his chest, as if something was nailing him down, making it hard to breathe.
Despite having a fine bed, closing his eyes felt like lying in a sealed coffin.
In merely two years, the grand Lu family, towering like a vast mansion, had collapsed! Not only were all family members dead, but its immense fortune was also entirely dissipated.
The once bustling Lu mansion became ghostly and desolate, even stray dogs avoided it.
One night, the completely deranged Landlord Lu set fire to his own estate!
Villagers watched the blaze rise sky-high, faintly hearing wails from within the fire, unable to discern whether they were of wind or human.
The once splendid mansion turned to white ash overnight.
When the authorities and fire brigade came to clear the ruins, they found a shiny black coffin nail amidst the charred beams.
Deep in the foundation, they dug out a half-charred locust wood effigy wrapped in ink lines.
At the main room, a twisted, deformed little wooden turtle with an intact Red String rolled out...
Those knowledgeable in the occult recognized the items as illustrating a family-extinguishing curse, an evil technique damaging to one's de's virtue, the long-lost art of the Ban Shu technique.
In the carpenter's shop, Xu Qing shook his head.
An artisan shouldn't be deceived, an honest person shouldn't be mocked.
Such affliction techniques are as toxic as poison, the oppression of the deaf and mute, once nailed down, resonate louder than might, and spread like wildfire!
Lu Xiaoshi moved to Jin Sect, became a coffin supplier for Funeral Shop, a trade he practiced for over twenty years.
Xu Qing realized why lying in his coffins felt more comfortable than others', the root was in the old carpenter.
The Sutra of Salvation stopped turning pages, Xu Qing glanced at the rewards.
A Lu Ban Scripture and an Immortal Art Diagram, both under the earth category.
The Lu Ban Scripture was divided into two volumes, the top contained legitimate construction techniques, while the bottom featured offbeat methods for sinister afflictions, driving away evil and summoning ghosts.
The latter, the Immortal Art Diagram, was a technique of transforming decay into wonder, surpassing mundane limits, reaching a spiritual realm.
Xu Qing used local materials, without an axe or saw, with a sweep of his corpse's claw, wood chips flew, and before long, he repaired the house and restored the wings of the bird placed in the corner.
Upon exiting the main hall, Shi Buque immediately came forward to greet.
Xu Qing looked at Shi Buque, and a sudden realization struck.
This child hadn't obtained the true teachings of the Lu Ban Scripture, nor mastered the art of the Immortal, but it wasn't that the old carpenter was unwilling to teach him, rather he didn't want him to also 'miss one art' like himself.
Shi Buque peeked into the house, only to see his master already adorned in burial clothes, severed limbs stitched back intact, and the master's face radiating an expression of satisfaction.
Instructing Shi Buque to go to the Funeral House to arrange the ensuing funeral, Xu Qing, with other matters, left the carpenter's shop.
Returning to the Funeral Shop, Xu Qing suddenly pulled a wooden carving from his sleeve and handed it to Xuan Yu.
"This is a mechanical wooden mouse, a gift for the Profound Jade Immortal Family."
Xuan Yu's eyes brightened at the lifelike wooden mouse.
Xu Qing jokingly said: "This wooden mouse is fragile, don't let it die on you."
Xuan Yu solemnly promised: "Xu Immortal Family, rest assured, I will treat it well!"
Taking care of it eight hundred times a day.