Chapter 76: Calamity in Fate Must Be Crossed Alone

Xu Jia originally intended to keep the old couple for a meal and let them rest at the Fox Immortal Hall.

Even Hu Jinhua was filled with awe, sighing, "My brood of foxes, though crooked melons and split dates, each has their own Calamity, yet they have now managed to struggle through to some success. When will this old man manage to struggle through to his?"

Xu Jia asked, "What is meant by 'struggling through'? If one thinks only in such terms, everywhere is a sea of fire, scorching human life; where can one find a good life?"

Hu Jinhua could not answer for a moment.

Xia Laohan said, "Where can one struggle through to? Can one change their fate just by sitting there doing nothing? That is too unrealistic. Success is always fought for. I originally thought I could risk my life to fight for it, but later I thought, this plain and simple life is not bad either. You think I am having a hard time, but I actually think I am doing quite well right now."

Xia Laohan coughed once: "So many years have passed, and I have just lived through them like this."

"Sigh, we have chatted enough. Young master, I see you are not of mortal seed; you seem to have descended from the heavens to undergo a Tribulation. Thank you for listening to me for so long. This skill of the Blind School of Divination and Horse-Front Divination, I shall pass it on to you. If you do not care for it, one day when you meet someone who is blind and cannot see, just give it to him..."

Xia Laohan fished a piece of soft leather cloth from his clothes. There were no characters on it, only dots one by one; this was the "Blind Book."

"I will recite it for you to hear." Xia Laohan found a stone and sat down wherever he was.

He acted on a whim and did not test people much.

"Earth is the central Wu-Ji Earth; the Earth position in the center observes worldly affairs. The six relations can be determined by this; how many of the six relations there are is decided in the plate. Fire is parents, Earth is brothers, Water is wife, Metal is children. This is the innate original six relations; however many are in the fate, that is how many you judge..."

Although Xu Jia was well-versed in arts of calculation, he had truly never come into contact with the theories of the Blind School. Because blind people relied on this to eat, the theories were crude—basically reciting one section after another—yet they were miraculously effective for everything.

There was no need to learn any theory; one just had to prescribe the medicine according to the formula, requiring no education.

Xu Jia felt a flash of inspiration and immediately cast a hexagram for them: "Although I cannot calculate all the ups and downs of a person's life, since you are willing to pass a branch of learning to me, I cannot be without a return. Let me calculate where your daughter is."

Xia Laohan propped up his staff, as if he had seen light: "I ask the master to use his golden mouth and silver teeth to judge the matter! This old man thanks you!"

Having said this, he prepared to kneel.

Xu Jia dared not accept it and helped him up: "Why bow to me? I have neither bestowed favor nor affection."

"A bit of affinity is the hardest to come by," Xia Laohan sighed. "Although I cannot see, I know you are a noble person. Having the help of a noble person is a blessing I have cultivated over several lifetimes."

Xu Jia borrowed three copper coins from him, placed the Gui Linggao on the ground, shook the coins, and cast them onto the turtle's back. It was a pity the Gui Linggao was still alive; if it were dead, he would have used the turtle shell directly as a tool for shaking the hexagram.

The copper coins landed on the turtle's back, bounced off, and fell to form the hexagram.

Xu Jia shook them six times in succession, recorded the hexagram image, calculated the matter, the direction, the conflict of good and evil, and finally reached a conclusion.

"Your daughter is safe for the time being, hidden in a place of green lamps and ancient Buddhas, but the future is not necessarily auspicious; there is a danger to her life..."

"Then I know where she is." Xia Laohan sighed. "This child has an affinity with the Buddha; we raised her for the Buddha... This disciple begs the Bodhisattva to protect my daughter's safety and smoothness. If my wish is granted, this disciple is willing to give up all worldly possessions as an offering..."

Immediately, the two began to set off again, walking firmly in one direction—a Living Buddha in front, happy and joyful, and a blind old man behind, bitter and deep in hatred.

Xu Jia stopped and stood still. The further these two walked toward their destination, the more obvious their deathly aura became.

Should he persuade them to turn back? They knew it themselves; if they were going to turn back, they would have done so long ago.

Forcibly interfering in the Cause and Effect of others is an obstacle.

Living in the world, there are endless Tribulations to undergo and endless fates to struggle against.

The masses of living beings, the vast sea of suffering.

Buddhism says that scriptures can ferry the masses, but he had never seen one that could truly ferry the masses. Seeing Xu Jia stop, Hu Jinhua asked, "Are we not going to help him?"

"In fate there is a Calamity that must be crossed by oneself. When you foxes cross a Tribulation, does anyone help you?"

"That, there is not. Who knows which one is the true Calamity?"

Xu Jia hummed: "However, I have already entered the game."

He then turned around and headed back toward the Xu Fu. Hu Jinhua went toward the Fox Cave. Today, this couple gave her an inexplicable touch; she seemed to have learned some very precious qualities of "humanity" from them.

But as for what specific qualities they were, he could not say, and could only savor them carefully.

Xu Jia returned home and asked the father of the Xu family for money: "I want one hundred taels of silver to spend."

The father of the Xu family spat out his tea: "One hundred taels? Do you think it is one hundred copper coins? Can you earn these one hundred coins in one trip out?"

Xu Jia took out the Ink Pill: "This thing, can it be worth one hundred taels?"

The father of the Xu family had mortal eyes and could not recognize the treasure: "What is this thing? Black and mushy, a booger bean?"

Xu Jia smiled: "It is your fault for not knowing the allusion. There is a poem that says: 'The tree by my family's ink-washing pond, each flower blooms with a faint ink trace. It does not need others to praise its good color, only to leave a pure Qi to fill the universe.'"

"This pill is an Ink Plum Bud, combined with Literary Luck and Literary Energy. Dissolve it in yellow wine and swallow it into the belly, and you can instantly experience the literary thoughts and insights of a Metropolitan Graduate's entire life. Even if it fades later, the lingering charm will be long."

The father of the Xu family looked suspiciously at the thing in Xu Jia's hand: "Is it really that mysterious?"

"Would I lie to you?"

The father of the Xu family gritted his teeth: "Fine! One hundred taels it is! Where is there a son who schemes against his own father!"

Xu Jia gave the Ink Pill to the father of the Xu family. The father of the Xu family took it and looked at it again and again, smelled it again and again, and reached a conclusion: "It is actually quite fragrant."

Xu Jia called Xiao Hong to bring yellow wine to serve to the father of the Xu family.

The father of the Xu family said: "Such a good thing, naturally it should be eaten the moment before entering the examination hall!"

Xu Jia laughed: "You really are a little clever ghost! In the examination hall, can the power of Ghost Gods really play a role?"

"Only by taking it now and slowly digesting it into your own thing can you be steady and secure, so as to avoid any accidents. If this Ink Pill can help Father sense the Vast Righteous Energy between heaven and earth and store it in your heart, that would be even more worth it."

The father of the Xu family thought it was so: "It was my shortsightedness."

He put the Ink Pill into the yellow wine, it turned into an ink-colored liquid, and he downed it in one gulp. His mouth was full of black teeth and a black tongue, and even his speech carried a scent of ink and Wine Qi.

The father of the Xu family felt nothing yet, so he washed the bottom of the cup with yellow wine and swallowed the rest together.

"You are selling fake medicine! Why is there no feeling at all?" The father of the Xu family opened his mouth, but bubbles came out one by one.

The next moment, his stomach rumbled, his legs tightened: "Oh no! I believed your evil!"

He walked with small, quick steps toward the latrine.

Xu Jia was also puzzled: "Could it be that the medicine the River Deity gave me was fake? That is impossible! I calculated it; this is a real Ink Water Literary Pill!"

(End of chapter)