Chapter 114: Another Lowest-Grade Stick

"However, since yesterday morning, my connection with Lord Water Spirit has been severed. No matter how I call out, it does not respond!" "I am afraid I cannot help you." The old man handed the divination sticks back to He Lingchuan. "Besides, these two sticks are designated as 'Closed-Mouth Sticks,' which must have its reason. Lord 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 created two new sticks for me; did it not have any requests for me?"

"Lord Water Spirit said, everything follows fate."

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

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

The ancestral hall suddenly became as quiet as a graveyard.

"Giving me the lowest-grade sticks, and two at once, yet refusing to interpret them!" He Lingchuan's eyes blazed 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 to make fools of us?"

Old Man Liu said dryly, "That, I do not know. This old man is just a shrine keeper; I know nothing of the situation inside the lake."

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

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

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

Someone outside interjected, "What final end?"

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

He Yue asked in surprise, "Why have you come out too?" With the wind howling and evil bandits lurking outside, how could the whole family treat this like an outing?

"The east side of the village is the liveliest place; how could I not come and see?" He walked out and asked, and the patrol guards said all his family members were here. "What happened?"

"Big brother asked for a divination here twice, and both were the lowest-grade sticks." He Yue was articulate and explained the situation in a few words. "None of the rest of us drew anything so unlucky. The interpreter said these were specifically left by the Water Spirit for big brother."

"Lowest-grade sticks? Let me see."

He Chunhua took the two sticks and looked at them, his brows locked in a frown, but then he laughed heartily: "And you take this seriously?"

Old Man Liu immediately said, "My lord, you do not know..."

He Chunhua waved his hand, indifferent: "You are the one who doesn't understand. My son was watched over by the Great Shaman Zhaomandu since he was a child. He long ago concluded that Chuan'er would be blessed with both fortune and wealth, possess the momentum to reach the clouds, and be a heaven-sent lucky general. Your lowest-grade sticks are wrong, completely wrong!"

He stared at He Lingchuan: "Do you believe the Great Shaman Zhaomandu, or the words of some mountain demon or wild monster?"

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

"The Great Shaman." As if.

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

Lady Ying heard this and looked at the stick in her hand: "Ah, it is rare that I drew the highest-grade stick." So it doesn't count? He Chunhua took her stick, looked at it, and smiled: "I don't need to draw a stick to know that your fortune will surely be flourishing."

"Oh my, Master!" Lady Ying smiled like a flower. "Would you like to draw one and try?"

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

He Chunhua was not angry, but he refused firmly: "I will not draw! It doesn't count anyway."

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

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

"That was a stranger; he left the day after he sought the divination, and I don't know what happened to him in the end." Old Man Liu scratched the back of his head. "Several months ago, two strangers came, one old and one young, saying they wanted to see the place where the High Ancestor started his uprising. The young one even came to the Water Spirit Shrine to seek a divination; the old one said it was useless, the exact words seemed to be 'Your fate is not determined by Heaven.' But the youth came secretly by himself the next day, and even brought many offerings to push into the lake. I told him the Water Spirit had already sealed the divination, but he didn't believe it. Later, no matter how he shook it, no sticks fell out of the bucket."

"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 bucket back on the high shelf, a red stick suddenly fell out of it. I just assumed he had drawn it."

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

"It's here, it's here." Old Man Liu went into the small room on the west side, rummaging around.

Soon, he walked back holding a red stick.

Everyone looked, and this lowest-grade stick had a line of small characters written on it: Long are the yellow sands, ambitions hard to fulfill, the body first...

Mao Tao was anxious and asked what everyone was thinking: "What is the last character?"

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

Old Man Liu was embarrassed: "Oh my, the last time I burned firewood, it fell into the woodpile and was almost burned up."

"Do you remember what the burned character was?"

"I, I don't remember." Old Man Liu was caught between laughter and tears. "There are one or two hundred sticks here, how could I remember them all?"

He Lingchuan suddenly said: "What was that young guest's surname?"

"Th-this..." Old Man Liu thought for a long time. "It's been several months. But that surname was not very common."

"Was it the surname Nian?"

"Ah, yes, yes!" Old Man Liu was suddenly enlightened. "That's it, the surname Nian! Like in Nian-gao (rice cake)!"

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

He Lingchuan walked out of the Water Spirit Shrine silently, then suddenly struck a small tree heavily with his fist.

"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 coincidental, but they are just coincidences!"

He Lingchuan did not speak, his expression grim.

The one who drew the lowest-grade stick was undoubtedly Nian Songyu. So that kid had also been here! Long are the yellow sands, corresponding to the Panlong Desert.

Ambitions hard to fulfill—yes, the Nian father and son indeed had a heart for rebellion.

As for the last three characters, He Lingchuan recalled the "Heavenly God" that had descended upon Nian Songyu, which also seemed quite fitting.

It seemed that, at least regarding this divination, the old turtle demon had not been wrong!

(End of chapter)