Chapter 1

　　I don't know many historical figures, but Liu Bowen is one of them.

　　After all, as the saying goes, "Zhuge Liang divided the world into three, and Liu Bowen unified the country." Even a social idler like me who didn't graduate from high school knows Liu Bowen's great name.

　　I finally found a familiar name in these books, and the title of the book was quite attractive to me: *Liu Bowen斩天下龙脉 (Liu Bowen Zhan Tianxia Longmai)* [Liu Bowen Slays the Dragon Veins of the World]. Good heavens, what an imposing name!

　　I couldn't resist taking the book off the shelf and sitting down opposite Xiao Liang to read it carefully.

　　The book began by introducing Liu Bowen's life, saying that he was a child prodigy since he was a child. In today's terms, he was a top student who always ranked among the best in exams.

　　But because he was born in the Yuan Dynasty, which was a dynasty of foreign races after all, the Han people were not valued. So no matter how good his exam results were, he could only become an official the size of a county magistrate.

　　Later, when the people of the world began to revolt, Liu Bowen met Zhu Yuanzhang by chance. The two worked together and finally overthrew the rule of the Yuan Dynasty and established the Great Ming Dynasty.

　　Liu Bowen became one of the founding heroes of the Great Ming Dynasty.

　　However, Zhu Yuanzhang was naturally suspicious. After unifying the world, he always felt uneasy. He always felt that his Great Ming Dynasty would one day be overthrown by rebels, just like the Yuan Dynasty.

　　Over time, this became a knot in his heart. Finally, Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't bear it anymore, so he called Liu Bowen and sincerely asked, "Bowen, I want the Great Ming Dynasty to last forever without being overthrown. Do you have any way to do it?"

　　It was just a casual question, but Liu Bowen really had a way.

　　He immediately cupped his hands and said, "Your Majesty, I do have a plan!"

　　When Zhu Yuanzhang heard this, his eyes lit up and he urged, "Tell me quickly!"

　　Liu Bowen then told him his plan.

　　It turned out that Liu Bowen was not only a politician and military strategist, but also a master of feng shui and geomancy!

　　It is estimated that his attainments in feng shui were a hundred times stronger than the current Master Gao.

　　Liu Bowen said that the reason why Zhu Yuanzhang was able to overthrow the Yuan Dynasty and establish the Great Ming Dynasty was not only because he was wise and martial, but also because of the blessing of the Zhu family's dragon vein. This was a sign in feng shui, so he resolutely chose to join Zhu Yuanzhang in the first place.

　　But this vast China has countless dragon veins. There is more than one dragon vein on Chinese soil.

　　Since the Lao Zhu family's dragon vein can rise today, it will be difficult to guarantee that other dragon veins will not catch up later and defeat the Lao Zhu family in the future.

　　After listening, Zhu Yuanzhang slammed the table and said fiercely, "If that's the case, cut off all the other dragon veins for me, leaving only my Great Ming's dragon vein, wouldn't that be the end of it?"

　　Liu Bowen said with a smile, "Your Majesty is right, this is exactly my plan. I am willing to travel all over the country for Your Majesty, cut off the dragon veins of the world, and leave only the Great Ming line, to protect my Great Ming's eternal foundation!"

　　From then on, Liu Bowen left the palace and began to travel around, cutting off the dragon veins of the world.

　　It is said that he cut off all the dragon veins in China, severing ninety-nine dragon veins in one go.

　　But in the northeast outside the customs, there was still a vibrant dragon vein on Changbai Mountain, which was the dragon vein of the Jurchen tribe that later rose—the Great Qing dragon vein.

　　Liu Bowen had consumed too much energy at that time, and because this dragon vein was far away outside the customs, it was a bitterly cold place at the time. He made a mistake due to excessive caution, and ultimately left behind a hidden danger.

　　More than two hundred years later, the Jurchen tribe really invaded the customs and overthrew the rule of the Ming Dynasty in one fell swoop, establishing the Great Qing.

　　This was the biggest mistake in Liu Bowen's life.

　　I watched this story with relish, almost forgetting that this book was classified as "Folk奇谈 (minjian qitan)" [folk legends], because the story was so realistic that you can even find information about it now.

　　One of the stories tells that Liu Bowen came to the Wuxi area. At that time, there was a mountain near Wuxi, which happened to form a dragon vein, which had to be cut off.

　　The so-called "斩龙脉 (zhan longmai)" [slaying the dragon vein] is not really using knives and swords to slay the dragon, but a term in feng shui.

　　Slaying the dragon vein actually refers to destroying the feng shui.

　　For example, moving mountains away, changing the course of rivers, filling lakes, and so on.

　　Some crustal movements, such as earthquakes and floods, will also change the feng shui, thereby playing the role of "slaying the dragon vein."

　　Liu Bowen needed to move this mountain away to slay the dragon vein in Wuxi.

　　But what is the scale of a mountain? How could it be moved away so easily?

　　Liu Bowen had a clever idea. He deliberately claimed that the soil on this mountain was soft and delicate, especially suitable for making handicrafts, such as sculpting clay figures and making pottery pots. He encouraged the entire Wuxi people to dig soil on the mountain to make handicrafts.

　　When these people heard this, the news given by Liu Bowen, the prime minister of the dignified Great Ming Dynasty, was definitely insider information and a great business opportunity!

　　As a result, the people flocked to the mountain to dig soil together, instantly forming a trend in the local area. Incredibly, it didn't take long to really flatten the mountain.

　　The feng shui was thus destroyed, and this dragon vein was cut off by Liu Bowen.

　　This story is still circulating in Wuxi today, and friends who travel there should have heard of it.

　　I was also amazed by what I saw, and couldn't help but sigh that Liu Bowen deserved to have divine and ghostly strategies.

　　At this time, Xiao Liang, who was sitting opposite me, couldn't help but glance at me and asked curiously, "Chen Rongsheng, what kind of idle books are you reading? Are you really looking for clues to the ancient Shu tomb?"

　　I was guilty for a moment, but stubbornly said, "Of course I'm looking. My book talks about a lot of knowledge about feng shui, geomancy, and finding dragon veins."

　　Xiao Liang looked at the book in my hand and said with a wry smile, "*Liu Bowen斩天下龙脉 (Liu Bowen Zhan Tianxia Longmai)* [Liu Bowen Slays the Dragon Veins of the World]? Please, this is just unofficial history, right? Liu Bowen has never done such a thing in official history. Besides, if Liu Bowen really cut off all the dragon veins in the world, why would the Ming Dynasty be replaced by the Qing Dynasty?"

　　"That's because Liu Bowen didn't cut off the Jurchen dragon vein in Changbai Mountain." I said quickly, just as I had finished reading this paragraph. "So the Ming Dynasty was destroyed by the Qing Dynasty. And have you noticed that after the Qing Dynasty, the feudal dynasty also came to a complete end, which also indirectly shows that the dragon veins of the world were indeed cut off by Liu Bowen."

　　"This..."

　　The high-achieving student Xiao Liang was actually speechless by me and didn't know how to answer me for a while.

　　She hesitated for a while before compromising, "Okay, okay, then you continue to read your Liu Bowen, I'm going to read my history books."

　　After speaking, she lowered her head and continued to pore over the *Guanghan County Gazetteer* in her hand.

　　After being said that by her, I was embarrassed to continue reading this kind of unofficial history. After all, I also knew in my heart that the story of Liu Bowen slaying the dragon vein was three parts true and seven parts false, and most of it should be fictitious.

　　But at this time, I suddenly had an idea, thinking: "Did the ancient Shu Kingdom have dragon veins? Did Liu Bowen cut off this dragon vein? It is said that finding a tomb is about finding the dragon and locating the acupuncture point. Liu Bowen's slaying of the dragon vein is actually a process of finding the dragon. Isn't this the same thing?"

　　Thinking of this, I quickly flipped through the unofficial history in my hand and began to look for the story of Liu Bowen coming to Sichuan.