Chapter 241: Casting a Fortune

"How could you know about the Lotus Burners?" Luo Qi looked at his father in surprise, or rather, his Yajian was sensing his father's Yajian.

Another bolt of Lightning Technique drew near; Luo Ruian was somewhat distracted and turned his head to look out the window once more.

"Dad," Luo Qi used the maximum power of his Yajian to reach out to his father, equivalent to shouting at the top of his lungs. Luo Ruian raised his head to look at him. "What on earth have you done?"

"Son," Luo Ruian said wearily, "everything I have done from beginning to end was only for you."

Luo Qi suddenly realized he should have believed what his father said long ago, only he hadn't been able to fully understand the complexity of the situation at the time. "You know Clownfish, don't you?"

Luo Ruian looked warily at the Lightning Technique outside the window; now the Lightning Technique seemed to have taken on a physical form, with conscious energy constantly clashing in the void.

"Luo Qi, it's too dangerous; they have started using the Magic Array to dismantle your Yajian," Luo Ruian said. "Do you know the Secret Language of Xuehui Zhen? How many agreements have you reached with the souls of Xuehui Zhen?"

Luo Qi seemed not to take his father's words to heart at all; his mind was still on the previous matter. "You said the Lotus Burners know who I am, and you said they wouldn't kill me. Why would you know that? I saw Clownfish today."

"He won't kill you easily," Luo Ruian said worriedly. His Yajian was imprisoned in a limited space, feeling uncomfortable and severely anxious. At this moment, he couldn't even feel his own body.

"Why?" Luo Qi asked. "He has many reasons to let me go, but he has just as many reasons to kill me."

"You silly child!" Luo Ruian said as if he couldn't bear it any longer. "Do you think making a decision is that easy? Have you ever thought that every decision will wind out a new branch for the future? Do you know that a complex variable like you—to put it bluntly—is a mutant in our world? Your very existence will lead to a series of consequences. If I were a Calculator, I would be working overtime like a madman right now."

Luo Qi was stunned. A sentence, a sentence from Du Zhengyi in his memory, flowed through his Yajian, and he inadvertently repeated it: "The future is unpredictable, and we don't study Magic just to tell fortunes."

Luo Ruian was not interested in his statement at all. "Listen, child, the future is unpredictable; that is a law—since it is written that way in the textbooks, then I will believe it."

Luo Qi felt a series of new data; it was his body's data, telling his Yajian that in the real world, his heartbeat was accelerating and his breathing was too fast. "Who recommended me to Liu Li?"

The answer was as he expected; his father's reply carried a trace of annoyance, though that annoyance was not directed at him. "Chu Jin."

"She knew I..." Luo Qi asked in surprise. She was Mama's youngest sister; in his memory, she had been quite fond of him, but he hadn't seen her for several years.

"She must have guessed," Luo Ruian said. "She is your mother's sister. Although she is a Calculator, she is also an intermediate Telepath. She took care of you when you were little, and she suspected you had Telepathy back then. She was seconded to the Qionglin for a few years, and when she finished a project and came home, you showed no signs of any Telepathy ability. That was when she became suspicious."

Luo Qi asked in astonishment, "Then the reason I didn't see her for several years after that was because..."

"Because we broke off relations," Luo Ruian said calmly. "Your mother and I had already made up our minds: even if the future could be predicted, we would change it."

"Wait, you are a Mind Mage; even if the future could be predicted, how would you know?" Luo Qi asked, puzzled and panicked.

The thunder made the windows hum; Luo Ruian could no longer hold back, and his Yajian began to expand, preparing to shatter the space that imprisoned him.