Chapter 88: Isn

“Still thinking about that beggar earlier?” During lunch, Liu Yunxi brought out dish after dish of her newly learned Peiyuan cuisine, and seeing Feng Xue lost in thought while eating, she asked casually.

“Mm, something feels off.”

Feng Xue nodded lightly but offered no detailed explanation; while seeing residual lifespan wasn’t a secret worth taking to the grave, since only he could see it, telling anyone would be useless.

He picked up a piece of eggplant faintly fragrant with herbs and placed it in his mouth; as the effects of his Consumption Technique spread, he couldn’t help asking:

“Are you certain he was alive? Not a corpse, paper doll, or puppet?”

“At least by my perception, yes,” Liu Yunxi sighed, pinching her delicate nose as she leaned closer, pointing to the bridge of it.

“I don’t know the mechanism, but I sense heat and temperature through here—in my perception, living things and dead things have different temperatures, and even different body parts vary in warmth. That man’s temperature distribution and overall state matched an ordinary person perfectly—even his breath carried the same warmth as anyone else’s. If you ask whether he’s a master, human, or disguised, I can’t say for sure—but by every sensory indicator, he’s alive in my eyes.”

“That’s insane!”

Feng Xue sighed, rubbing his temples in frustration, then ventured:

“Do you know of any living thing without the concept of lifespan? Like something born dead—or one that can never die?”

“If you count zombies and ghosts, then yes—but living beings? Only the legendary Immortals who’ve attained Yangshen, perhaps?”

At this, Liu Yunxi froze mid-bite, her eyes wide with disbelief:

“You mean that beggar just now… is a Yangshen-level Earth Immortal? But he… ah! Could he be one of those immortals who disguise themselves as beggars to test people’s character and take disciples, like the Immortal Fox Grandma told stories about?”

"What fantasies are you dreaming up!" Feng Xue rolled his eyes. He’d considered that possibility too—but wouldn’t such an Immortal be asking for wine? Why settle for a bowl of thin porridge and leave without even leaving a hint like “Meet me at Shili Slope tomorrow night”?

Though Feng Xue wanted to ignore the feeling, his intuition kept popping up—maybe this was what they called a sudden impulse?

After much thought, he knew continuing like this would ruin his evening meditation; he forced himself to focus on finishing lunch.

After the meal, Liu Yunxi washed the dishes, and Feng Xue completed his Fitness Technique; without a word, she sat across from him, waiting expectantly.

“...” Feng Xue wanted to ask, “What are you doing?” but since he’d planned to do this anyway, he spoke:

“You look like a ring.”

He reached into the mist, plucked the White Snake Ring, and slipped it onto his finger, then headed toward the Bird Market.

“Mr. Feng!”

“Immortal Feng!”

“Comrade Feng!”

He’d clearly become famous—every passerby stopped to bow as he walked out. Though he lived in a wealthy district and word spread easily, he still couldn’t fathom how they recognized him—

He wasn’t even wearing his windbreaker today!

“You should look in a mirror...”

As if sensing his confusion, Mo Ying’s cold voice suddenly surfaced in his mind; seeing he still didn’t understand, she bluntly said:

“Don’t you notice how different you look from these people? Even the rich ones? Look at your face! Even Bai Li isn’t as pale as you!”

“Who’s Bai Li?” Feng Xue had heard the name from Mo Ying before, and now he was curious.

“My original body—the daughter of the former dynasty’s chancellor, never stepped beyond the inner gates... What’s that look for? I’ve been trapped in this painting for over a hundred years—if I still couldn’t tell her apart from me, I’d be the ghost!”

Feng Xue almost retorted, “But you are a ghost,” but held it back; yet Mo Ying clearly sensed his emotion, huffed in annoyance, then returned to the topic:

“Your face is too pale—not the kind from powder... how to put it? As if you’ve never known wind or frost since birth. Even your fingernail crevices are white!”

“Is that true?” Feng Xue had never noticed these details before—he’d never interacted with many people—but now, hearing it, he realized.

He hadn’t thought much of it before, but after the event known as the Cyber Ledger, he finally understood he’d been raised as a state-raised giant baby—even by modern developed-nation standards—and compared to these people of the old society, he might as well be a celestial exile.

This also explained why, despite all his flaws, the Xuan cultivators insisted he was a master: simply put, no non-master could have such a face!

Solving one mystery lifted a weight from Feng Xue’s heart; though the biggest one remained unsolved, at least he now knew the cultivators’ flattery wasn’t just ignorance.

As he left the wealthy district, the number of passersby increased; streams of numbers flashed before his eyes, yet he had no intention of shutting off his ability.

That lifeless man had truly shaken him—he dared not be careless now. Even with numbers everywhere, he’d keep it active...

“Damn!”

“Damn, he really saw through me! But why?”

At the exact moment Feng Xue froze, the demonic cultivator nearby, dressed as a wealthy merchant, went pale—this time, he felt no sensation of being scanned by an unseen gaze!

In other words, this young man hadn’t used any technique like Tianmu to detect his anomaly.

But this didn’t reassure the demon cultivator—it only made him more uneasy. If it were Tianmu, he could avoid exposure by blocking or disrupting Qi-reading techniques, or even set a trap to counterattack.

But now the result was—

The man had identified him with nothing but his eyes, without even activating any Qi, simply glancing through the crowd and locking onto him with perfect accuracy!

Don’t ask how he knew—if he couldn’t tell where someone’s gaze was fixed, he’d have been dead centuries ago!

“Bah! I don’t believe it!” The demon cultivator’s stubborn streak flared up. His prized technique being broken wasn’t the worst—he’d never been invincible as a Grand Master; he could always flee.

But the problem was—this young man might be his human tribulation. That was terrifying.

The demon cultivator gritted his teeth, scanned the crowd, and decisively abandoned direct action; he twisted his body and slipped into a nearby brothel.

Feng Xue watched the lifeless man vanish into the brothel, unsure if it was the same beggar from earlier—clothing and appearance differed, though the build was similar. His eyes weren’t a ruler; how accurate could his judgment be? But if it was the same person, the beggar had clearly been disguised.

After a moment of internal conflict, Feng Xue ultimately chose not to disturb this lifeless man who’d entered a teahouse at noon to appreciate tea artistry, and continued toward the Bird Market...

Someone asks, isn’t fate astrology always just mysticism? Then let’s talk about the most “mystical” aspect of fate astrology.

First, let’s set aside those frauds and focus only on genuine skill: why can examining a person’s birth chart predict their destiny?

It’s actually quite simple: years of disaster or bountiful harvests are documented; based on your age, clothing, and skin condition, one can roughly determine your occupation and living standards, and by comparing these, one can infer whether you were poor or wealthy in childhood, or whether your family’s fortunes declined over time.

Similarly, being born in winter, spring, summer, or autumn brings different circumstances—for example, those born in winter, during the agricultural off-season when work is scarce and the weather is freezing, would likely not survive if it were a year of famine.

But if you were born in autumn, farmers would still harvest some grain regardless, greatly increasing your chances of survival.

For instance, if you’re a merchant traveling far away and asking about your fortune, an astrologer can use celestial patterns and the calendar to predict the weather over the next few days, determine whether you’ll encounter storms or clear skies along your route, and estimate the harvest conditions at your destination—thus roughly gauging whether your journey will go smoothly.

Once explained, these things aren’t mysterious at all—but if I were to say that outright, I’d be destroying my livelihood, so I have to wrap it in mystery.

Look at those who claim to divine fate with a mere flick of the fingers—it’s essentially just using the twelve finger joints to represent the Earthly Branches, combining them with the Ten Heavenly Stems to calculate years, months, and seasons; give them an abacus and they might calculate even faster!

Of course, this is just the broad overview—detailed explanations would go on forever. If you’re interested, pick up a book on traditional fate astrology yourself; don’t read mystical interpretations, but instead cross-reference it with historical calendars—you’ll discover something entirely different.

[64] (End of Chapter)

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