Chapter 6: Emperor and Judgment

Dali was slightly startled.

The girl before him wore something quite peculiar.

A black long dress with many bulging pockets, a tall purple pointed hat, deep blue eyes, and decorations rich with Romani flair.

"Fortune-telling?" Dali replied instinctively.

"Yes, are you interested?" the Romani girl continued in a hoarse voice.

Dali felt a bit dazed, almost thinking he had returned to that weird world.

"Since you're my first customer today, I can give you a free reading," the Romani girl said, blinking her blue eyes.

She seemed quite interested in this chubby little boy before her.

"Free?" Dali smiled slightly and asked, "What do you use for divination?"

"Tarot cards."

The Romani girl replied.

"Alright then."

Dali nodded, feeling a bit interested.

"Please follow me."

The Romani girl led Dali to a nearby tent, a makeshift divination hut.

Dali hesitated not, following the girl inside.

He wasn't afraid she might pull some trick.

Inside the tent the light was very dim, only a burning candle illuminating a limited area.

Dali looked around; the place was filled with various divination items: crystal balls, tarot cards, divination books, and so on…

"What would you like to ask?" the Romani girl asked.

Dali thought for a moment and said, "Past, present, future."

Hearing Dali's words, the Romani girl's blue eyes narrowed slightly, and in a low, hoarse voice she said, "Oh, I thought you'd ask something else, like what job I'll have in the future, or how to get a beloved game console."

Dali shrugged, noncommittal.

If he were truly an ordinary little boy, he might really have asked that.

"Well then… let's begin."

As the Romani girl finished speaking, she drew a tarot deck from the pocket of her black dress and began shuffling and cutting.

Watching her practiced movements, Dali inhaled slightly, recalling the scene when he first drew cards at that gathering.

"Now you may draw the cards: the first represents the past, the second the present, the third the future."

As the Romani girl's words fell, Dali raised his hand, drew a card from the cut deck, placed it on the left, then drew another for the middle, and finally a third for the right.

"Oh, then which would you like to see first?" the Romani girl's blue eyes gazed at Dali, as if filled with some mysterious power.

"Let's look at the past first."

Dali said.

"As you wish."

As the Romani girl's words fell, she flipped over the leftmost tarot card.

"Emperor."

Seeing the card, Dali almost spat it out.

"That's right, it seems you know a bit about tarot; this is the Emperor, a Major Arcana card."

Dali stared at the familiar card, dazed, as if seeing a bronze long table.

That time, the card he flipped was also the Emperor.

Therefore, his codename was also Emperor.

"Oh, but this Emperor card is reversed, interesting…" the Romani girl said, looking at the card, about to begin explaining.

Dali reached out and directly flipped the rightmost card, the one representing the future.

"Judgment!"

Looking at the card, Dali spoke softly.

"Oh, another Major Arcana card."

The Romani girl spoke.

"Emperor, Judgment, interesting…"

Dali murmured softly to himself.

Aren't these exactly the two tarot cards corresponding to his current path?

Bang!

Just then, a loud bang came as someone burst into the divination tent.

"Oh, Dada little treasure, are you alright?"

Penny's panicked voice came quickly.

"What are you doing? Stay away from my son!"

"You bunch of lunatics, monsters."

Fonu roared, grabbing Dali and pulling him away while also knocking over the divination table.

Tarot cards scattered everywhere; Dali glanced and could no longer tell which card represented the present.

"I'm fine, Dad; she just gave me a reading, pretty interesting."

Spiritual energy spread with Dali's words, and the originally furious Vernon's expression eased considerably.

At the same time, Dali blinked and activated his Spiritual Sight.

The gypsy fortune-teller before him became much clearer, many colors began to show on her, no different from an ordinary person.

But soon, Dali noticed that deep in the gypsy fortune-teller's soul, a strange energy seemed to be surging.

He had seen this kind of energy before on Harry.

"What is that..."

Dali was filled with doubt.

"Oh, you're fine... it's good that you're fine, it's good that you're fine, I thought..." Vernon said hurriedly.

"Sir, I just feel a connection with this little friend, I'm giving him a free fortune-telling, I have no other intentions."

The gypsy fortune-teller looked at the knocked-over fortune-telling table, frowned, and said.

"Sorry, we were reckless."

Dali retracted his Spiritual Sight and spoke up.

"It's fine, you can go."

The gypsy fortune-teller seemed unwilling to say more, waved her hand, signaling Dali and the others to leave quickly.

Dali nodded, took his parents' hands, and left the fortune-telling hut together.

"Dali, are you alright? I saw that strange woman take you to that hut, and I thought you'd been kidnapped." Pi Er said upon seeing Dali.

"It's fine, just a fortune-telling."

Dali said casually.

Not far away, Harry saw Dali return safely, his eyes showing a hint of disappointment.

The fortune-telling incident was merely a small episode in the zoo trip, and everyone else quickly forgot about it.

Soon, everyone entered the zoo together to view various strange animals.

Dali followed his family with interest, though he tried hard to appear excited, the two tarot cards, the Emperor and Judgment, kept flashing in his mind.

At the same time, he pondered what the strange energy surging deep in the gypsy fortune-teller's soul actually was.

Such energy seemed not to be possessed by everyone; at least he had not seen it in his parents and others.

Thinking of this, he involuntarily looked toward Harry.

Deep in Harry's soul, a similar energy seemed to be surging, though it was much smaller than that of the gypsy fortune-teller.

Dali's gaze quickly found Harry, who stood before a huge glass curtain wall, behind which a giant python was slowly writhing.

And Harry seemed to be saying something to that python.