Chapter 93

The fortune-teller was a cultivator about the same age as Lu Yang. Noticing Lu Yang's gaze, he explained with a hint of complaint: "There's no helping it. People nowadays don't really believe in fortune-telling. They go around shouting things like 'My fate is determined by me, not by Heaven,' so it's not easy to make a living."

"Some people like using the Eight Trigrams to tell fortunes, so I prepared an Eight Trigrams plate."

"Some people want to calculate their gambling luck, so I prepared dice."

"Some people think character analysis is accurate, so I prepared the Four Treasures of the Study."

"Some people think tossing coins is most effective, so I prepared nine large coins."

"And there's this crystal ball. It's a trend that has risen in the East Sea in recent years. People like using crystal balls for fortune-telling, so I even went to the East Sea to learn the craft."

"Plus, this crystal ball can tell fortunes on the surface, but secretly, it can also play little videos. One tool, two sources of income."

"How about it? Do you want to pick one and have a reading? No charge if it doesn't come true." The fortune-teller enthusiastically promoted himself.

Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou looked at the fortune-teller with suspicion, feeling wary. He always felt this fortune-teller wasn't simple, as if he had seen through something.

Man Gu was meeting a fortune-teller for the first time and found it quite interesting: "Can you tell mine?"

The fortune-teller’s mouth curled into a smile: "Certainly. May I ask which method the guest would like to use, and what you wish to have calculated?"

Man Gu thought for a moment, considering himself a Confucian cultivator, and said: "Let's do character analysis. I will write a character, and you tell me if I can become a Great Confucian."

"Please." The fortune-teller skillfully set out the Four Treasures of the Study and invited Man Gu to write.

Man Gu’s brush flew across the paper, writing a single character.

The fortune-teller tapped it, letting out a long hiss: "This character of yours..."

"Is there a problem?" Man Gu asked hurriedly.

"Your character is written so ugly. What character is this?"

"Confucian."

"..." The fortune-teller composed himself and analyzed: "A Confucian is soft, a term for a scholar. It is composed of 'person' and the phonetic 'need'."

"Your body is strong, seemingly indestructible, but in reality, you have a soft heart. You lack your own opinions; you believe whatever you hear and imitate whatever you learn."

"Looking at the character 'need' (xu), it has 'rain' on top and 'while' (er) on the bottom."

"The so-called clouds above the sky mean that you will be needed when the time comes."

"This 'person' character standing to the side means that not only can you become a Great Confucian, but you can also become a new form of Great Confucian."

Upon hearing that he could become a Great Confucian, Man Gu was overjoyed.

His level of Confucian studies was at the bottom under the Fourth Elder. Although the Fourth Elder didn't care—advocating that education should be for all—he said Man Gu just hadn't achieved enlightenment yet. As long as he could achieve enlightenment, he could enter the Confucian Dao in a single day, and his future would be immeasurable.

But Man Gu was always insecure. Now that the fortune-teller had analyzed it and said he could become a Great Confucian, he regained his confidence.

He still had a lot of potential!

"By the way, there is one more thing."

"What is it?"

"Practice your handwriting more when you go back."

"Oh."

"Do you need a calligraphy copybook? I happen to have one here. Take one; it's a necessary expense on your path to becoming a Great Confucian."

Man Gu felt the other party made sense, so he bought one.

Seeing Man Gu finish his reading, Lan Ting found it quite interesting and wanted to try it herself, so she sat down and asked: "I want to know if my future achievements will be higher in formation arrays or talismans? Let's use the crystal ball."

She hadn't been studying formation arrays recently, but she discovered that her interest in them seemed to exceed that of talismans.

Lan Ting was considering whether to change her area of specialization.

The fortune-teller held up the crystal ball toward Lan Ting, rubbing his hands together repeatedly, chanting: "Heavenly spirits, earthly spirits, crystal ball, show your power! Heavenly spirits, earthly spirits, crystal ball, show your power!"

The fortune-teller saw the result displayed on the crystal ball and was dumbfounded: "Uh, in the future, you write formation arrays onto talismans, merging them into one?"

The fortune-teller looked at Lan Ting with a strange expression. What kind of bizarre way of thinking was this? This female cultivator was stunningly beautiful, so why was her way of thinking so different from ordinary people?

Lan Ting tilted her head and thought about it, feeling that what the fortune-teller said wasn't impossible, so she paid the money quite readily.

It was Meng Jingzhou's turn. Meng Jingzhou raised an eyebrow: "You wouldn't happen to be a disciple of the Heaven Strategy Sect, would you?"

The Heaven Strategy Sect, the number one sect for fortune-telling in the Central Continent, once calculated the time for the reappearance of the ancient Great Era.

The Heaven Strategy Sect valued causality above all else; ordinary methods of concealing one's identity were useless in front of them.

A disciple of the Heaven Strategy Sect only needed a glance to see the other party's background and origins.

Perhaps this fortune-teller had seen that the four of them came from the Dao Seeking Sect and the Laurel Immortal Palace.

"Haha, this Junior Brother, you must be mistaken. I am a free spirit, a mere idler; how could I possibly be a disciple of the Heaven Strategy Sect?"

Meng Jingzhou was silent for a moment, then took a blood contract out from his identity jade pendant: "Three hundred years ago, a Supreme Elder of the Heaven Strategy Sect borrowed a massive amount of top-grade spirit stones from our Meng family. Later, he couldn't pay it back, so he hid in his cave dwelling and announced to the outside world that he was in closed-door cultivation."

"When our Meng family went to your Heaven Strategy Sect to collect the debt, your Sect Master signed a blood contract, saying it would definitely be repaid, and that any direct descendant of the Meng family who encountered a Heaven Strategy Sect disciple could demand repayment based on the blood contract."

"Do you want to test the power of the blood contract?"

Lu Yang had heard that the Meng family were the creditors of the world, and it seemed this was no lie.

The fortune-teller fell to his knees with a thud, hugging Meng Jingzhou's thigh and wailing: "Big Brother Meng, show some mercy! Let's meet again in the future!"

"Our Heaven Strategy Sect is so poor we can't even afford to feed our disciples, forcing us to come down the mountain to fend for ourselves. If I, Luo Bu, had money, I wouldn't be reduced to swindling people here!"

"Setting up a stall here requires a stall fee, and I can't even afford that!"

The fortune-teller Luo Bu cried poverty: "Look at this gown of mine, mended and patched for years; I don't even have the money to buy a new one!"

Meng Jingzhou rolled his eyes. This gown was clearly refined and worth a fortune.

"I don't expect you to pay me back. Get up first." Meng Jingzhou pulled his leg away with force. "Give us two a free reading, and I won't give you any more trouble. Remember, no lying!"

"Hahaha, that is not difficult."

"Come, come, come. Read my fate. What will my future achievements be?" Lu Yang held out his hand, letting the Heaven Strategy Sect disciple Luo Bu read his palm.

Luo Bu laughed, as confident as ever in his home field: "A common question. Let me take a look."

Who would have thought that Luo Bu would widen his eyes, jump up, look at him in disbelief, and stumble back several steps until he hit the wall.

"You, you, you—what is going on with this fate of yours? It's all hazy, and in the future, you will form karmic ties with several immortals!"

Luo Bu discovered that even with karmic ties to immortals, Lu Yang could still move freely, as if unaffected.

But that wasn't the most terrifying part.

The most terrifying thing was that Luo Bu also discovered that in the future, Lu Yang would be a major scourge of the cultivation world, spreading the atmosphere of the Dao Seeking Sect to the entire cultivation world!

The atmosphere of the Dao Seeking Sect was already outrageous enough. If the entire cultivation world were assimilated by the Dao Seeking Sect, how could anyone live!

He absolutely must not have any karmic entanglement with such a person!

Luo Bu groaned inwardly. He had seen that the four of them came from the five great immortal sects and were four fat sheep, so he had planned to scam them for some money. He never expected that Lu Yang, an existence he absolutely could not touch, would be among them!

No, looking at the palm, it wasn't just Lu Yang alone spreading the bad atmosphere throughout the cultivation world; there was someone else assisting him.

The other person was...

Luo Bu looked at the big creditor, Meng Jingzhou.

Run!

Without another word, Luo Bu performed an escape technique, not even bothering to pack up his table, and ran for his life: "I, I, I haven't seen you today!"

He worried that if he looked for even a second longer, his life would end right here.

Before the four of them could react, Luo Bu had already fled.

Lu Yang blamed Meng Jingzhou: "It must be because you were collecting debts that you scared him away."