Chapter 201: Asking for a Fortune (5K)

Deep beneath the 98th City, the ley line fluctuations were chaotic and disorderly. Now, they had formed a sentence, making them extremely conspicuous.

The information transmitted by the ley line fluctuations was quickly captured by Zhao Xing.

He opened his eyes and looked up.

"Old Chen is summoning the Earth Deity," Zhao Xing said with a light smile.

Stomping his feet to make himself go up—wasn't that just like summoning the Earth Deity to ask a question?

Not to mention, in the interior of the Great Zhou, there really were Earth Deity and Mountain God temples. It was just that this method was impolite; generally, only high-ranking officials used it.

If a low-ranking official dared to use it, they would be beaten.

"Stop shouting, I'm coming." Zhao Xing looked at the golden ripples radiating from above and immediately manipulated the ley lines to send a reply.

Afterward, he tidied up everything in the underground cavern, burned it, and cast the Divine Travel Protection to ascend.

"What's the rush? I've only been asleep for a few hours."

Chen Shijie said, "The scouts sent out by Wen Shaoyang's division are returning one after another. After gathering the intelligence, Commandant Liao intends to summon everyone to discuss how to fight next."

Zhao Xing asked as he walked, "Which places did Wen Shaoyang's scout troops go to?"

Chen Shijie said, "The furthest northeast they reached was 'Qu City' in the Xixian Territory, and the furthest southeast was the Soul-Sacrifice Pass."

"Pass?" Zhao Xing's eyes narrowed. He had been to this place in the illusion, and it was precisely where Wen Shaoyang's division had been trapped. "Did the scout teams run into any problems?"

"No, why do you ask?" Chen Shijie noticed Zhao Xing's strangeness and immediately asked.

"It's nothing, just asking," Zhao Xing said. "Doesn't the Soul-Sacrifice Pass have an elite force from the Holy Spirit Royal Court guarding it?"

"Yes," Chen Shijie nodded. "That's why Wen Shaoyang's men didn't get too close. That place has too much yin energy, and with rampaging vengeful spirits, it's very difficult to sneak in to gather intelligence."

"However, judging by Commandant Liao's intent, he wants to attack the Soul-Sacrifice Pass first," Chen Shijie said.

"What do you think?" Zhao Xing asked.

"I don't have any ancestors worth missing," Chen Shijie said indifferently. "So I think attacking any division is fine."

Zhao Xing nodded slightly. He knew Chen Shijie was an orphan; his parents had died long ago, and while he had an uncle and aunt, they were malicious relatives, and he had long since cut ties with them.

Zhao Xing asked this mainly because the soldiers of the Great Zhou had a natural hatred for the Holy Spirit Royal Court!

This was because among the Four Great Royal Courts, the Holy Spirit Royal Court was adept at controlling ghosts.

They often tore open weak points in the Underworld to release large numbers of vengeful spirits, turning them into the Holy Spirit Royal Court's ghost soldiers and ghost generals.

The Underworld was quite special: entering the Underworld from the Great Zhou and entering it from the Southern Barbarians might lead to the same place.

This resulted in the Holy Spirit Royal Court sometimes capturing the souls of those who had died on the Great Zhou side.

This dealt a massive blow to the Great Zhou's ritual and music system and the system of yin deities.

From a simple emotional perspective, the Holy Spirit Royal Court's actions were equivalent to "controlling your ancestors."

How could anyone endure that?

Of course it was hateful!

"Among the Four Great Royal Courts, the Golden Feather Royal Court has the most tribes. Insect shamans, blood shamans, warlocks, power-warriors—all kinds of professions are relatively complete, and the gap in equipment compared to the Great Zhou is smaller."

"The Purple Dragon Royal Court is adept at controlling beasts. The exotic beasts they raise are very fierce because large-scale 'climate changes' often occur in the Southern Barbarian region, making it a natural beast arena. They don't even need to raise them specially; they just need to subdue them."

"The Flame Light Royal Court is the hardest to fight. The land is vast and sparsely populated, and they have natural exotic beasts like the Baboke insects to assist them. Fighting them is like playing whack-a-mole."

"The Holy Spirit Royal Court is the most disgusting. After a battle, their combat power hardly suffers any loss because their main combat troops are ghosts, which can be replenished endlessly. You might even find that in the second battle, the comrades who died in the first have crawled back up to become your opponents."

Zhao Xing said, "Now that the Eastern Front is moving west, we will encounter support troops sent by different Royal Courts because the Golden Feather Royal Court intends to guard this land of the Fire Demon tribe... mainly to guard this treasure land, the Qinggang Mining Area."

"Personally, I don't want to attack the Soul-Sacrifice Pass either, because we don't have that many priests."

Liao Ruolong's division and Wen Shaoyang's division didn't have many priests in their ranks.

The vast majority of the main commanders were martial artists, and the martial artists under their command were in the majority; priests were relatively few. This was the current situation in the army.

The priest profession was relatively difficult to cultivate, even harder than the Si Nong. When they were at the Ten Suns Cave Heaven, there were over ten thousand Si Nong reserves in training.

But priests? There were only a little over two thousand.

When they were at Gu City, there were over five hundred Si Nong petty officials, but only forty or fifty priest petty officials.

That was how divine professions were; it wasn't a matter of being able to cultivate them on a large scale just because you wanted to.

So, was there an army capable of fighting the Holy Spirit Royal Court?

Of course there was. Among the Five Great Cave Heavens, the Phantom Nether Cave Heaven was the exclusive garrison of the Phantom Nether Army. This cave heaven only had this one army, and the main commander, the Phantom Nether Marquis, was a Fourth-Rank Ghost God Priest.

The vast majority of the Phantom Nether Army's members were combat-type priests.

After Zhao Xing arrived at the council hall and stated his thoughts, Xia Jing chimed in:

"It's not a question of whether we want to or not, but that we must fight."

"This defensive line at the Soul-Sacrifice Pass has been stretched much longer than before. The loss of the Fire Dragon Pass enraged the Golden Feather Royal Court, which placed the support troops sent by the Holy Spirit Royal Court on the Eastern Front for defense."

"It is now October 13th. The Holy Spirit Royal Court's army has already gained a firm foothold, and the defensive line is much tighter than before."

Zhao Xing shook his head inwardly. Originally, the three armies at the Fire Dragon Pass would have set out after resting, and the defenses along the Soul-Sacrifice Pass wouldn't have been so strong.

But the Qian Shougang incident had delayed them for ten days or so, which gave the Golden Feather Royal Court the opportunity to mobilize troops.

However, such were the variables on the battlefield; no one could say for sure. How could everything go exactly as one wished?

Of course, ultimately, it was because they had too few people; after taking the Fire Dragon Pass, they had to rest and expand the army.

"Can we cooperate with the Phantom Nether Army?" Wen Shaoyang put forward his own view. "If we have the Phantom Nether Army, our chances of breaking through the Soul-Sacrifice Pass defensive line will be greater."

Liao Ruolong hesitated, "The Phantom Nether Army is a strong army ranked in the top two hundred. Moreover, their main force is on the Northern Front together with the Zhaoyuan Army, Danxia Army, and Yuanhua Army. They may not be willing to abandon a strong army cooperation to come find us."

Xia Jing smiled, "The main force is impossible, but it might be feasible to transfer twenty or thirty thousand people over."

"Oh?" Liao Ruolong was puzzled. "How so?"

Xia Jing pointed at Zhao Xing: "Didn't Zhao Xing kill Qian Shougang near the Xixian Territory earlier?"

"What does that have to do with me?" Zhao Xing was puzzled.

"We were in a standoff with the Black Dragon Army, which scared the main commander of the Xixian Pass quite a bit," Xia Jing said. "The Zhaoyuan Army's 'Qi Yuan Army', the Yuanhua Army's 'Yi Yue', the Phantom Nether Army's 'Nangong Ye', and the Zhaoyuan Army's 'Pang Zheng'—these four people originally intended to attack the Xixian Pass."

"They had feigned defeat several times before, just to lure the main commander of the Xixian Pass out. This matter had been going on for more than a month and there was some hope, but it was ruined by the unexpected incident of Qian Shougang."

After hearing Xia Jing's words, Zhao Xing couldn't help but be speechless.

Misfortune might be a blessing in disguise; blessing might be a misfortune in disguise.

Killing Qian Shougang delayed time, leading to the Soul-Sacrifice Pass defensive line becoming difficult to fight, but now it was possible to cooperate with the Phantom Nether Army. It was truly hard to say whether it was good luck or bad luck.

"Are they willing to cooperate?" Liao Ruolong hesitated.

It wasn't that he was self-deprecating, but the Phantom Nether Army was indeed ranked much higher than the Divine Might Army, even higher than the Tiger Flood Army.

In the last military exercise of the Soldier Realm, the Divine Might Army's ranking was over five hundred, while the Phantom Nether Army was over two hundred.

They could occupy a cave heaven alone as a garrison; both in terms of numbers and strength, they far exceeded the Divine Might Army.

"Let's try," Xia Jing said. "If it doesn't work, forget it. We'll fight it ourselves. If everyone agrees, I will send a letter to ask."

"Agreed," Wen Shaoyang stated.

"Agreed," Liao Ruolong also nodded.

"Agreed." Zhao Xing had nothing to object to either. Now it was a case of more meat and fewer wolves; having a few more strong armies cooperate wasn't a bad thing.

Xia Jing and Liao Ruolong invited Nangong Ye of the Phantom Nether Army to bring people to the Fire Dragon Pass war zone.

Upon receiving the invitation, Nangong Ye was immediately tempted.

Because they had originally had the idea of borrowing a path from the Fire Dragon Pass, but it hadn't been easy to bring it up.

However, even so, negotiating the cooperation was not all smooth sailing.

Because the Phantom Nether Army led by Nangong Ye had already been fighting in cooperation with the Yuanhua Army's Yi Yue and the Zhaoyuan Army's Qi Yuan Army for a long time.

But the Divine Might Army side had only invited his partial army.

How to put it? If only he, Nangong Ye, went over, it would inevitably be a supporting role. Even if he was a strong army's team, the number of people was not as large as the combined three teams of the Divine Might Army, Black Armor Army, and Town Sea Army.

Thus, Nangong Ye requested that his allies, the Zhaoyuan Army and Yuanhua Army's two units, also be included.

But in this way, their number of people would not be much less than the combined three armies of the Divine Might Army, Black Armor Army, and Town Sea Army, and in terms of strength, they would be even stronger than the combined three armies.

Liao Ruolong, Xia Jing, Wen Shaoyang, and others were not happy either.

Although it was called cooperation, if you brought people over, the subsequent combat would inevitably be affected.

So, if the relationship was generally average, this kind of cooperation was really not easy to handle.

Zhao Xing didn't care about these things; he didn't participate in the communication at all. Time was precious; by March next year, he would probably have to return to the Ten Suns Cave Heaven.

He had to practice the secret techniques he had learned from the Heavenly Mystery Pavilion as soon as possible.

As for military merit, it would be the same to earn it later.

"Commandant Jiang, do me a favor."

"Brother Zhao, don't be so distant, just call me Brother Jiang," Jiang Ming said with a chuckle. "What favor, tell me."

"The Town Sea Army is on the Canglan River; you should catch quite a few exotic beasts like river turtles and tortoises, right?" Zhao Xing asked.

"Yes, of course!" Jiang Ming spread his hands. "And they are very big ones too."

"Are they delicious?" Zhao Xing asked.

"It depends on how you cook them," Jiang Ming said. "Turtle meat is tougher than old meat. We in the Town Sea Army generally don't eat the meat; we only use it to stew soup."

"Why, Brother, do you want to try something fresh?"

Zhao Xing smiled, "Yes, I've never eaten that kind of spirit turtle. I don't know if Brother Jiang can get some over here?"

Jiang Ming clapped his hands and said, "That's easy to say. Do you want other river or sea food? If you want it, I'll get it for you. There are quite a few delicious things in this sea..."

Zhao Xing asked Jiang Ming, and the other party immediately agreed.

Even for ranked spirit turtles, it was not a difficult task for the Town Sea Army.

To curry favor with Zhao Xing, Jiang Ming even specifically dispatched the fastest ship to go directly to the Canglan River to drag a boatload of turtle exotic beasts for Zhao Xing, totaling one or two thousand.

Zhao Xing boarded the ship and took a look—good heavens.

There were very few Grade 9s; they were basically all Grade 8 turtle-type exotic beasts, and there were even Grade 7 spirit turtles!

"Is it enough?" Jiang Ming said. "If it's not enough, just say so; I'll have the brothers on the river catch some more."

"It's enough, it's enough." Zhao Xing nodded hurriedly. He only wanted to use the spirit turtles to practice spells; he didn't actually like eating them.

"Alright, then if you need anything, call me. This ship will just stay here with you." Jiang Ming was very generous.

"Many thanks."

After Jiang Ming left, Zhao Xing cast a wind spell to pull a Grade 8 river turtle out of the hold, placed it on the deck, and secured it under the guillotine.

"Puchi~"

The guillotine fell, instantly severing the turtle's head.

"Go!"

Zhao Xing struck the turtle shell with golden light, and then the turtle meat and bones below withered rapidly.

All the blood within was concentrated onto the shell, absorbed by it.

This was the "Refining the Hexagram" method from the Turtle Coin Divination Art.

Extracting the spirit turtle's blood and marrow, all used to nourish the shell.

Once the divination object is refined, it can be used as a base to perform divination.

"The blood refining method is the simplest and crudest refining method, but the deduction carrier refined by this method generally doesn't last long."

"A more advanced one is the soul refining method, extracting the spirit turtle's blood, marrow, and soul."

"There is also the spirit refining method, where you don't have to kill the spirit turtle."

"But since I'm just practicing now, I can't handle anything too complicated."

Following the instructions in the Turtle Hexagram Art, Zhao Xing poured the blood and marrow into the shell.

Soon, the shell of this Grade 8 spirit turtle began to emit a dark red glow.

"Now that the hexagram carrier is formed, I can use various methods to divine."

"The first is a simple test of fortune—good or bad luck—by carving characters onto the shell." Zhao Xing carved "Great Good," "Medium Good," and "Small Good" on one side of the turtle plate.

On the other side, he carved "Great Bad," "Medium Bad," and "Small Bad."

"Afterward, burn the shell with fire. Whichever side has more cracks represents one's personal fortune, and the length of the cracks represents the duration of this divination."

Zhao Xing reached out a finger, and the Heavenly Fire Art was activated.

A wisp of flame immediately enveloped the turtle plate, calcining it.

After burning for a quarter of an hour.

A faint sound came from the turtle plate.

"Ka ka ka~"

When no more cracks appeared, Zhao Xing stopped the calcination and looked closely.

"The cracks on the 'Small Good' side are the most numerous, spreading across four scutes, with a depth of one inch, meaning the duration is four days."

"There is one crack on the 'Medium Good' side, less than an inch deep, spreading across one scute; the Medium Good will occur within four hours."

"Although there are many cracks on the 'Small Bad' side, there isn't a single large crack, and there are no cracks for Medium Bad or Great Bad."

"This means there is no danger in my fortune in the near future. The cracks are long because I am on the battlefield, so a long duration is normal."

Zhao Xing interpreted the hexagram.

Asking about good or bad luck is relatively simple, but asking about his own is even harder to make sense of—is the fortune of the Third Derivative really just a hollow reputation?

Zhao Xing slaughtered ten Grade 8 spirit turtles and asked a hundred times; it was basically all the same.

Good outweighed bad.

As Zhao Xing practiced, the good and bad luck displayed on the shell became increasingly accurate.

After he had practiced for several hours, as the results were produced, he would also have some intuition in his heart.

Zhao Xing looked at the panel.

[Fire Refining Turtle Divination · Good/Bad Luck: Mid-stage, Seventh Turn.]

[Effect: Burn turtle patterns to divine good or bad luck, knowing the fortune of the morning or evening.]

The Turtle Coin Divination Art is a complete set of spells.

What he had now was just the simplest way to ask about good or bad luck, which was relatively general.

But it was still better than the [Almanac] issued by the Great Zhou.

Because the Great Zhou's almanac was only for avoiding bad luck; you couldn't ask for good luck, only avoid the bad.

Moreover, it was all passively triggered and could not be used actively.

"What are you doing?" Long Xiao carried a mountain cat onto the ship. "Aotian has been looking for you for a while."

"Why is Aotian looking for me? Didn't we just eat this morning?" Zhao Xing asked.

Long Xiao was speechless: "Look at what time it is now?"

Zhao Xing introspected his Five Elements biological clock, then gave an embarrassed smile.

"Sorry, I got too absorbed in practicing."

Without realizing it, six hours had passed.

No wonder the mountain cat's eyes looked a bit resentful.

"Practicing?" Long Xiao looked at the turtle shell suspiciously. "What kind of practice are you doing with a turtle?"

"Spirit turtle divination, ever heard of it?" Zhao Xing said. He wasn't afraid of people knowing.

The Founding Emperor only struck one blow; he didn't kill off the profession of fortune-telling. This meant that whether official or civilian, you were allowed to tinker with it yourself.

However, the authorities didn't provide cultivation manuals, and the Founding Emperor's "Grand Vow of Establishing the Dao" locked the path of advancement. No matter how much you practiced, you wouldn't achieve anything significant.

This type of method was not even as strictly audited as the Soul-Detaining Straw Man.

The Soul-Detaining Straw Man was forbidden within the Great Zhou; it could only be practiced on the battlefield, and it had to be reported.

"Yo? You can do this too?" Long Xiao immediately became interested. "How is your practice going?"

"It's alright, I can ask about good or bad luck in the short term," Zhao Xing said. "But it's not necessarily accurate. Do you want to try?"

"Sure," Long Xiao said. "Ask for a 'Good' for me."

"?"

It always felt like he was cursing someone.

Muttering in his heart, Zhao Xing said to Long Xiao, "Give me a drop of blood."

Long Xiao drew a line across his palm with his fingertip, and blood seeped out.

Zhao Xing used a gust of wind to roll it up and found that this drop of Long Xiao's blood was quite heavy.

His Qi and blood were like mercury; he was worthy of being a sword cultivator among martial artists—his physique was truly strong.

"Chi chi~"

Zhao Xing used Long Xiao's blood to smear the turtle plate, drawing the good and bad luck on both sides.

Then he calcined it with heavenly fire.

"Ka ka ka ka~"

Cracks sounded, and a crackling noise emerged.

Zhao Xing's expression changed slightly.

Why was the commotion so loud?

Could it be that...

"Why the long face?" Long Xiao said. "Don't scare me."

When the flames dissipated.

Zhao Xing looked closely, and his solemn face immediately turned into a smile.

He saw that the cracks were densely distributed in the [Great Good] area, and the cracks were deep and short.

On the side of the bad omen, there were very few cracks, about the same as when Zhao Xing measured his own.

Good heavens, it turned out to be a Great Good!

But where did Long Xiao's Great Good come from?