Brian Cooper turned his head, glanced at the spot where the well was being dug, then looked around at the surrounding hilly terrain, and couldn’t help but give a faint smile: “Absurd. It’s just that this so-called shaman doesn’t know how to choose a well site, yet he blames it on the Dragon King.”

“What? What did you say?” Hearing Brian Cooper mention the well site, Jason Brooks looked a bit embarrassed. As a feng shui master, he certainly knew the importance of choosing a well site. The distribution of groundwater isn’t uniform; in the same area, some places have water, some don’t, so picking a well site is a technical skill. The problem was, neither he nor any of his predecessors over dozens of generations had ever been able to clearly explain the matter of well placement.

Relying on some yin-yang theories, Jason Brooks had managed to pick a few good well sites in the past, but this time in Longkou Village, he had made mistake after mistake. He had planned to use the matter of Lu Xiu’er as an excuse, claiming there was no water within ten li, and thus get away with it. Who would have thought that this troublemaking scholar in front of him would dare to point the finger at him?

“I’m well-versed in the Book of Changes and the Eight Trigrams, and I’ve even received personal instruction from Daoist Matthew Bolton on Mount Longhu. How dare you say I can’t pick a well site?” Jason Brooks retorted anxiously, his face flushed.

“Matthew Bolton?” Brian Cooper smiled slightly. “Use the innate Eight Trigrams to determine the form, the acquired Eight Trigrams to guide the function; momentum as the warp, time as the weft; in the fusion, seek harmony; in peace... how many lines can you recite?”

Matthew Bolton was a famous feng shui master from Jiangxi during the Jiajing era. As a geology expert, Brian Cooper had some knowledge of feng shui theories as well. The passage he recited was precisely the core of Matthew Bolton’s theory, and he was willing to bet that this second-rate feng shui master in front of him couldn’t recite it so fluently.

“This...” Sure enough, Jason Brooks was instantly speechless. In fact, his claims about having studied on Mount Longhu were just boasting. He had heard that Matthew Bolton was a master, but as for the specifics of his methods, he knew nothing at all. If he were to say Brian Cooper was making things up, this speech actually seemed to fit the principles of geomancy, and didn’t sound fabricated at all.

Brian Cooper’s words left Jason Brooks speechless, and even William Carter was a bit surprised. He reined in his arrogance and asked, “Scholar, you say Mr. Brooks can’t pick a well site—do you have any proof?”

Brian Cooper replied, “Find water at synclines, find oil at anticlines—this is basic knowledge. Look at the well sites he picked: all are on anticline structures. In this severe drought, getting water from them would be a miracle.”

Don’t bully our ancestors like this! If Jason Brooks understood what Brian Cooper was talking about, he’d probably be so aggrieved he’d bang his head against a wall. Syncline and anticline are terms from modern geology, referring to the direction of rock folds. A syncline is like a basin, good for storing water; an anticline is like a turtle shell, not good for storing water, but there might be oil underneath. The well sites Jason Brooks picked happened to be on an anticline structure, just as Brian Cooper said—getting water from them would indeed be a miracle.

Synclines and anticlines refer to the structure of rock layers beneath the surface, but as an experienced geologist, Brian Cooper could roughly determine the direction of the underground strata from the surrounding landforms. In modern times, he wouldn’t dare draw such a hasty conclusion—he’d have to use instruments for spectrum or resistance analysis and the like. But now, without those tools, he could only rely on his own eyes. Fortunately, this was just a matter of digging a well, and Brian Cooper was confident in his judgment.

“Mr. Brooks, does what he said about synclines and anticlines make sense?” Although William Carter was uneducated, he had a keen eye from his time in officialdom. He could clearly see the uncertainty on Jason Brooks’s face, and guessed that this shaman had definitely been shaken by the scholar.

“Well...” Jason Brooks stammered, “His geomancy is not the same lineage as my master’s, so whether it makes sense or not, it’s hard to say. My master’s teachings are the orthodox way; his at best are just unorthodox side paths...”

“What’s orthodox or unorthodox,” Brian Cooper said, “If you can dig a well and get water, that’s the right way. Just now you said there’s no water within ten li of here—is that so?”

Jason Brooks forced himself to say, “That’s right, I already calculated it with my fingers just now.”

“Calculated with your fingers? Fine. If I can get water by picking another well site, are you going to break your own fingers?”

“You know how to pick a well site?” Jason Brooks was startled. He had been invited from another village and had stayed here for over ten days, but had never heard that there was such a person in the village.

“Your scholar knows how to pick a well site?” William Carter quietly asked the village head, Mark Cooper.

Mark Cooper shook his head vigorously. “This Brian Cooper is just a bookworm, never heard of him having any skills. His father died young, there’s only his old mother and a younger sister at home, they farm a few mu of land, and the family barely scrapes by. He’s a grown man who doesn’t do any farm work, just dreams of passing the imperial exams. Bah! Could his family’s ancestral tomb produce someone like that?”

If it were anything else, Mark Cooper would still have some kinship for Brian Cooper and wouldn’t speak so harshly. But when it came to matters of scholarship, Mark Cooper had no patience for Brian Cooper, for a simple reason: there were only two people in Longkou Village with the title of scholar—one was the 17-year-old Brian Cooper, and the other was the scholar from the Jiajing era, the 70-year-old Samuel Cooper, who happened to be Mark Cooper’s own father.