Chapter 114: The Other Lowest-Fortune Stick

"But since yesterday morning, my connection with the Water Spirit has been severed. No matter how I call, there is no response!" "I am powerless to help." The old man handed the sticks back to He Lingchuan. "Besides, these two sticks are designated as 'closed-mouth sticks,' which must have its reasons. The Water Spirit often said that some heavenly secrets can only be seen, not spoken."

He Lingchuan shook the two sticks and asked: "The old turtle specifically made two new sticks for me, did it not ask anything of me?"

"The Water Spirit said, everything follows fate."

Everyone let out a long breath. He Yue patted his older brother's shoulder and said: "Don't be discouraged. According to what the Water Spirit said, although you drew the lowest-fortune sticks, it might not necessarily be a bad thing."

"No, no, the Water Spirit's fortunes are very accurate, right eight times out of ten." Old Man Liu, as a former interpreter, was overly honest. "There are very few lowest-fortune sticks in this tube; only five have been issued in the past ten years. However, they always portend great disaster! Excluding the two in your hand, the people who drew the first two both died—one was beheaded by bandits, the other drowned in a great flood. It is said they suffered greatly before they died!"

The shrine suddenly became as quiet as a graveyard.

"Giving me lowest-fortune sticks, and two at once, yet refusing to interpret them!" He Lingchuan's eyes were burning with fire. "What is the meaning of this!"

He squinted at Old Man Liu and sneered: "Could it be that this old turtle isn't dead at all, and is hiding in some corner making fun of us?"

Old Man Liu said dryly: "I don't know about that. This old man is just a shrine keeper; I don't know what's happening in the lake."

He was a human, not a fish; how would he know what happened to the Water Spirit?

"However, the Water Spirit did say that those who draw the lowest-fortune stick should be careful, take precautions, and perhaps there is still a glimmer of hope."

He Lingchuan only felt it was ridiculous: "If it were so accurate, why couldn't it divine its own final end?"

Someone outside interrupted: "What final end?"

Everyone turned back; He Chunhua had arrived, followed by two guards.

He Yue asked in surprise: "Why did you come out too?" Outside, the wind was howling and fierce bandits were surrounding them; how was the whole family treating this like an outing?

"This is the liveliest place in the entire east village; how can I not come and see?" He walked out and asked, and the guards said all his family members were here. "What happened?"

"Big brother asked for a fortune here twice, and both were lowest-fortune sticks." He Yue was articulate and explained the situation in a few words. "The others drew fortunes that weren't nearly as unlucky. The interpreter said these were left specifically for big brother by the Water Spirit."

"Lowest-fortune sticks? Let me see."

He Chunhua took the two sticks and looked at them, his brows locked, but then he laughed out loud: "Can this be taken seriously?"

Old Man Liu immediately said: "My lord, you don't know..."

He Chunhua waved his hand, unconcerned: "You don't understand. My son was watched over by the Great Shaman Zhaoman Du since he was a child. He long ago concluded that Chuan'er is blessed with both fortune and wealth, has the momentum to reach the clouds, and is a great lucky general. Your lowest-fortune stick is wrong, wrong!"

He stared at He Lingchuan: "Do you believe the Great Shaman Zhaoman Du, or the words of a mountain demon?"

He Lingchuan always felt that his father's gaze was unusually sharp.

"The Great Shaman." As if.

"That's my good son!" He Chunhua patted his shoulder. "Besides, the Water Spirit's tablet has already been broken. That turtle demon is dead; can the fortune oracle still count?"

Lady Ying heard this and looked at the fortune stick in her hand: "Ah, it's rare that I drew a supreme fortune." So it didn't count? He Chunhua took her fortune stick, looked at it, and smiled: "No need to draw lots, I know your fortune will surely be blooming with flowers."

"Oh my, master!" Lady Ying smiled like a flower. "Do you want to draw one and try?"

These words came out naturally, and she immediately felt she had spoken out of turn.

He Chunhua wasn't angry, but refused firmly: "Not drawing! It doesn't count anyway."

Mao Tao asked Old Man Liu at this time: "By the way, you said five lowest-fortune sticks were issued in total, four have been accounted for, what about the other one?"

He Lingchuan held two, and the recipients of the other two were already dead.

"That was an outsider who left the day after drawing the fortune; I don't know what happened to him in the end." Old Man Liu scratched the back of his head. "Months ago, two outsiders came, one old and one young, saying they wanted to see the place where the ancestor started his uprising. The young one came to the Water Spirit Shrine to draw a fortune, but the old one said it was useless, the original words seemed to be 'Your fate is not determined by heaven.' But the youth secretly came the next day, and brought many offerings to push into the lake. I told him the Water Spirit had already sealed the fortune sticks, but he didn't believe it. Later, no matter how he shook it, no sticks fell out of the tube."

"The youth muttered to himself, 'So it is not determined by heaven,' and left very disappointed. Who knew that after he left, just as I was about to put the tube back in a high place, a red stick suddenly fell out, so I assumed he had drawn it."

He Lingchuan turned and asked: "Where is that stick?" The old man had said earlier that every lowest-fortune stick drawn had to be removed and kept separately.

"It's here, it's here." Old Man Liu went to the low room on the west side and rummaged around.

Soon, he walked back with a red stick.

Everyone looked, and this lowest-fortune stick had a line of small characters: "Yellow sand is far away, ambition is hard to fulfill, body first..."

Mao Tao was anxious and asked the question on everyone's mind: "What about the last character?"

What the hell, why was the stick burned off at the end? The last character was burned away.

Old Man Liu looked ashamed: "Oh my, last time I was burning firewood, it fell into the pile and was nearly burned up."

"Do you remember what the burned character was?"

"No, I don't remember." Old Man Liu was between laughter and tears. "There are one or two hundred sticks here, how could I remember them all?"

He Lingchuan suddenly asked: "What was the young guest's surname?"

"This, this..." Old Man Liu thought for a long time. "It's been several months. But that surname isn't very common."

"Is it Nian?"

"Ah, yes, yes, yes!" Old Man Liu was suddenly enlightened. "It is Nian! Nian as in Nian Gao!"

Lady Ying saw her husband's bad expression and quickly gave the old man a few copper coins: "Alright, alright, that's enough for today, you go back and rest first."

He Lingchuan walked out of the Water Spirit Shrine silently and suddenly punched a small tree heavily.

"Crack," the small tree snapped in response.

He Chunhua followed him out and said solemnly to his eldest son: "Stay calm! Chuan'er, sometimes things are coincidences, but they are just coincidences!"

He Lingchuan didn't speak, his expression ugly.

The one who drew the lowest-fortune stick was undoubtedly Nian Songyu. So that kid had been here too! Yellow sand is far away, corresponding to the Panlong Desert.

Ambition is hard to fulfill, hmm, the father and son of the Nian family indeed had a heart for rebellion.

As for the last three characters, He Lingchuan remembered the "Heavenly God" that descended on Nian Songyu, which seemed quite fitting.

It seemed that, at least in this divination, the old turtle demon hadn't made a mistake!

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 115 =====