Chapter 493: Calculated

"I've already issued orders: within one month, all disciples and elders of the sect must sever ties with the Lu family. What happens after that will depend on how events unfold…"

Master Zhao's expression grew slightly solemn, then he glanced at Elder Su.

"You should also avoid too much contact with Lu Chengyun—he's too cunning, you can't outwit him…"

After speaking, Master Zhao picked up his tea cup, signaling the guest's departure.

Elder Su left the tea room and let out a faint sigh.

He had once held Lu Chengyun in high regard; both were array masters, got along well, drank tea together, discussed the Dao, and even frequented brothels together.

Yet he never expected that beneath Lu Chengyun's refined and elegant exterior lay such a deeply treacherous heart…

Truly, it's easy to know a man's face, but hard to know his heart.

Elder Su sighed inwardly, then remembered Mo Hua, and felt a pang of regret.

Had I known this, I never should've told Lu Chengyun everything about Mo Hua—now he's been manipulated by him…

The more Elder Su thought about it, the more he regretted it; he looked up toward the mine, his face filled with worry, murmuring:

"I wonder if Young Master Mo will be alright…"

"I wonder if we'll ever be able to drink tea together again…"

Elder Su sighed.

…

"Do you think Little Brother won't be alright…?"

Bai Zisheng sat beneath the big tree in the courtyard, frowning with concern.

"He hasn't come back in ages—I've been so worried lately, I've lost my appetite."

Bai Zi Xi glanced at him helplessly.

"You just think the food's bad and want him back to cook for you…"

Bai Zisheng, guilty, said: "I'm worried about his safety! Cooking is just secondary!"

Bai Zi Xi gave him a cool look and ignored him.

Bai Zisheng thought for a moment, then added:

"What if we storm in and rescue Little Brother?"

"We don't have enough people," Bai Zi Xi shook her head.

"How many do we have now?" Bai Zisheng asked curiously.

Bai Zi Xi paused briefly, her beautiful eyes blinking slightly, then said:

"Excluding the Situ family and the Dao Court, we have only five Foundation Establishment cultivators and sixty Qi Condensation cultivators."

Bai Zisheng looked disappointed. "Only this many…? Are they from our Bai family?"

"No," Bai Zi Xi said. "They were hired by Snow Auntie with spirit stones."

"Where are our Bai family people?"

Bai Zi Xi gave him an exasperated look. "Where are there any Bai family people? This is Li Province—our family is so far away, and there's been so little time, how could they possibly arrive?"

Bai Zisheng frowned.

"With so few people, we're no match for the Lu family—how are we going to rescue Mo Hua?"

Bai Zi Xi's gaze turned cold; she thought for a moment, then said:

"We don't need to rescue him directly. Once fighting breaks out, Little Brother will find his own chance to escape."

Bai Zisheng thought it over, then nodded. "That's true."

His little brother was clever, full of tricks—his cultivation was weak, but he had countless strange methods.

He knew concealment techniques and the Step of Fading Water.

His spiritual sense was extremely strong, and he was skilled in array arts.

Ordinary cultivators couldn't detect him; ordinary arrays couldn't stop him.

If he got the chance, he'd definitely slip away…

Bai Zisheng exhaled slightly, muttering:

"He should be fine…"

Bai Zi Xi nodded lightly, her brow slightly furrowed.

Mo Hua's smiling face appeared in her mind.

She suddenly felt uneasy, her pale, slender fingers unconsciously fiddling with the little tiger in her hand.

…

Inside the bamboo chamber, the Puppet Elder spoke in a flat tone:

"We don't have enough people."

Mr. Zhuang nodded. "Not enough."

The Puppet Elder asked curiously: "Aren't you worried?"

"Worried about what?"

The Puppet Elder's voice was dry and rough:

"With so few people, how can we fight the Lu family? How can we resist the corpse tide? You don't seriously expect that boy Mo Hua to solve this whole thing alone, do you?"

Mr. Zhuang said: "That's impossible."

Mr. Zhuang lifted his head, gazing into the distance, and spoke slowly:

"Human strength has its limits; great deeds in this world are never accomplished by one person alone—many things cannot be resolved by a single individual…"

"Behind every hero stand many nameless people."

Mr. Zhuang's expression was filled with emotion.

Old Kui frowned, "Say something useful."

Mr. Zhuang made a "tsk" sound, speechless.

"Can't you wait till I finish these reflections?"

Old Kui said, "You've said it too many times. My ears are calloused."

Mr. Zhuang was thoroughly deflated, and "criticized" again:

"Why don't you learn from Mo Hua? When I say these things to him, he listens with utmost seriousness!"

Old Kui replied silently, "He's your disciple—he owes you respect. I don't."

"Fine," Mr. Zhuang sighed helplessly.

Old Kui's expression was blank. "What exactly do you plan to do?"

This time, Mr. Zhuang spoke directly:

"We're short on hands. I'll call in some people to help."

Old Kui looked surprised. "You'll call?"

Mr. Zhuang nodded.

Old Kui's expression turned complex. He murmured, "You're a lone man. Who would help you?"

Mr. Zhuang frowned. "How am I a lone man? I now have three disciples!"

Old Kui ignored him, frowning instead:

"Who are you going to call?"

Mr. Zhuang smiled mysteriously.

He pulled out an ancient copper coin, tossed it lightly—it spun in midair, stirring the qi, then slowly fell back into his pale, slender hand.

The coin flipped, altering the cosmic pattern.

A faint, almost imperceptible qi current tugged at cause and effect, rippling outward.

Old Kui froze, then his gaze slowly cleared with understanding…

…

Meanwhile, west of the Xiao Huang Continent's border.

In a remote Xiancheng, three cultivators were resting at an inn.

A withered old man, a middle-aged cultivator, and a white-robed youth.

Before them sat simple wine and dishes.

But none of them had much appetite.

The white-robed youth ate his tasteless meal in silence; the middle-aged cultivator drank to dull his hunger; the withered old man sat with closed eyes, resting.

After three rounds of wine, the withered old man suddenly opened his eyes.

His heart trembled. He quickly pulled out the "Three Talents Yi Shu" copper coin, shook it for divination, and after one calculation, his eyes widened in shock.

The white-robed youth, seeing this, was puzzled.

The middle-aged cultivator asked, "What's wrong?"

The withered old man, dazed, muttered, "I… I just calculated his location…"

The middle-aged cultivator, startled, crushed his wine cup and stared, demanding:

"Really?"

The withered old man still found it hard to believe, but nodded:

"Yes! The Three Talents Yi Shu coin… the hexagram is clear. No mistake."

"But…" the withered old man still puzzled, murmured, "How could I calculate it? How could I possibly calculate it? How did I even calculate it… I… I don't have this ability…"

The middle-aged cultivator said matter-of-factly:

"Even the wise make mistakes once in a thousand thoughts. We've been thieves for a thousand days; he's guarded against us for a thousand days. No matter how Zhou Mi he is, he'll slip up eventually. You caught him once—that's normal…"

The middle-aged cultivator's eyes flashed with sharp light. "We must seize this chance!"

He tossed two spirit stones onto the table and immediately rose. "No time to waste. Let's go now."

The withered old man nodded, though still doubting himself.

The white-robed youth, however, perked up, his eyes gleaming with anticipation at the thought of meeting the person soon.

The three immediately set out, following the hexagram's guidance, heading eastward across the Xiao Huang Continent's border.

Only days later, they arrived before Nanyue City.

The middle-aged cultivator asked, "Is this the place?"

The withered old man nodded. "The hexagram says so."

The middle-aged cultivator fell silent a moment, then asked, "What's your take?"

The withered old man thought, then said, "Let's enter the city first. See what's going on."

"Won't that alarm him?" the middle-aged cultivator worried.

The withered old man snorted. "What are you thinking? The moment you thought of coming here, he probably already knew. We arriving now is just luck—seeing if there's any clue, seeing if he wants to meet us…"

The middle-aged cultivator looked stunned, muttering under his breath:

"Is it really that mystical?"

The withered old man shook his head, expression as if speaking to a summer insect about ice, then turned to the white-robed youth and warned:

"Young Master, remember what I told you: observe, but speak little, act less. The karmic threads here are too great—we can't afford to provoke them."

The white-robed youth's expression tightened slightly, and he nodded.

The three entered Nanyue City, checked into an inn, and made quiet inquiries.

The three of them entered Nanyue City, settled in an inn, and did a little inquiring around.

After making inquiries, the three gathered again, all wearing puzzled expressions.

"Why are there so many familiar faces?"

"The Xie clan of Kunzhou, the Tu clan of Lizhou, the Yuan clan of Qianzhou…"

"Hidden Dao Sect, Return Sword Gate, Ten Thousand Arrays Mountain…"

"They all calculated it out?" The middle-aged cultivator frowned.

The wizened old man thought for a moment, then said with sudden realization:

"So it wasn't that I calculated it out, but that everyone calculated it out—or perhaps, it's that person who made us all calculate it out…"

The wizened old man suddenly felt much more at ease.

When it came to divining the workings of Heaven, what you feared wasn't being bad at it—what you feared was something unexpected.

If your ability was lacking, at worst you just couldn't calculate anything, and that was no big deal.

What you truly feared was something going wrong.

Things you could originally calculate suddenly became impossible to calculate; or things you couldn't calculate, you suddenly managed to.

Then the trouble might be serious…

Either someone was interfering with the workings of Heaven, or some astonishing upheaval had occurred.

The wizened old man knew his own measure. Seeing everyone here now, everyone having calculated it out, meant his own level was still the same as before, unchanged—"bad" enough to feel reassured.

The wizened old man's suspended heart finally settled down.

Then he grew puzzled once more:

"That person is like a divine dragon showing its head but never its tail, yet suddenly revealed this trace, drawing everyone here—what for, exactly?"

It wasn't only the wizened old man who was puzzled; the cultivators from all sides gathered in Nanyue City all shared this question.

But after investigating for a long time, they still found nothing.

Failing to understand, the wizened old man released his divine sense and swept it across Nanyue City.

There was nothing unusual about Nanyue City.

He looked again at the mines outside the city.

Still found nothing.

"Impossible…"

Unwilling to give up, the wizened old man set up his Three Powers Yi Number copper coins and cast a hex. With this divination, he indeed sensed something fishy.

The old man pondered for a moment, then performed a spell. Blue light gathered in his eyes, stripping away the outer appearance, and he cast another glance toward the mines outside the city.

That single glance drained the color from his face; his heart hammered with terror, and he cried out:

"Corpse Qi soaring to the heavens!"

"Bloody hell, how many corpses are there?!"

(End of this chapter)