Xu Jing and Emperor Chonghua were also filled with admiration for him. This unaffiliated immortal traveled the vast desert alone, his cultivation profound and immense, likely not inferior to Xiao Xixian's.
Although Xiao Xixian was only a Heavenly Immortal, she had cultivated the Xu family's ancestral method; her cultivation was not inferior to an Immortal King's, making her one of the most formidable figures in the border wilderness. Otherwise, she would never have been able to monopolize the Heavenly River ferry trade for so long.
For this giant to stand on par with Xiao Xixian was already extraordinary.
Seeing them standing there, the Master of Mud Pill Palace knew the trio had lost their way. He smiled and said, "Could it be that you three have also come looking for the Divine Diviner, Tian Chouchou? If so, we might as well travel together."
"The Divine Diviner, Tian Chouchou?" Xu Jing and Emperor Chonghua both paused in surprise.
Xiao Xixian asked in astonishment, "Tian Chouchou the Divine Diviner is in the northern reaches of the desert? Hasn't he always lived in the Immortal Capital? He ought to hold an official immortal post."
The Master of Mud Pill Palace said, "He used to have an immortal post, but no longer. I heard he read the fortune of Heavenly Venerable Yang, one of the Dou Department's Three Perfected. Heavenly Venerable Yang suffered a disastrous defeat, beaten so badly he fled in utter disgrace, his dignity dragged through the mud. Tian Chouchou feared Yang would settle scores with him afterward, so he fled here."
The Heavenly Venerable Yang he spoke of was Yang Yanlong, who had plotted to ambush Xu Ying, only to be blocked by Xu Jing and pinned down in the ancient Helingdu Heavenly Palace for a brutal thrashing.
The fault had not truly lain with Tian Chouchou the Divine Diviner; Yang Yanlong had simply been outmatched. Yet Yang Yanlong's face was worth far more than Tian Chouchou's life, so to save his neck, Tian Chouchou had no choice but to abandon his office and flee.
Xu Jing was stunned, never imagining that his beating of Yang Yanlong would end up embroiling this divine diviner.
Imperial Monarch Chonghua's mind stirred, and he said to Xu Jing and Xiao Xixian, "Let us go meet this divine diviner as well."
Xu Jing gripped the hairpin and nodded.
He also wanted to seek out this divine diviner to divine the whereabouts of the hairpin's owner. Shenpo of Penglai could also read fortunes, but she charged extortionate rates, was always vague and cryptic, and had all manner of reservations.
Moreover, they were now too far from Penglai; it was much more convenient to seek out Tian Chouchou the Divine Diviner.
Together with the Master of Mud Pill Palace, they advanced, sailing deeper into the desert.
This desert of the Immortal Realm was utterly desolate, plagued by sandstorms and bandits, stretching for millions of li without a trace of mortal habitation. Whenever they did encounter people, it was usually dozens of immortals slaughtering one another over a single stalk of immortal herb.
"'Better to be the head of a chicken than the tail of a phoenix.' How glorious these immortals were before ascending, yet after ascension, how wretched they have become," everyone could not help but lament.
Eventually, they reached a border city. It appeared to be the ruins left from an exceedingly ancient era, utterly dilapidated. Anything of value had long since been stripped bare, leaving only ancient, broken walls and crumbling ramparts.
The immortals who eked out a living here were mostly desperate outlaws.
Dressed as they were, Xu Jing, Chonghua, and Xiao Xixian looked like the scions of wealthy families, making them easy targets for covetous eyes.
Without a word, Xiao Xixian unleashed her six great cave-heavens, radiating an overwhelming aura. The rapacious gazes around them instantly drew back.
Though only a Heavenly Immortal, her might rivaled that of an Immortal King—more than enough to run rampant through the border wilderness.
The Master of Mud Pill Palace located Tian Chouchou the Divine Diviner. Even in his down-and-out state, Tian Chouchou lived quite comfortably, with many unaffiliated immortals coming to have their fortunes read. For every reading, he charged neither more nor less than a single bottle of immortal spirit fluid.
Hearing this price, Xiao Xixian muttered under her breath, "He might as well be robbing people!"
Emperor Chonghua glanced at her upon hearing that, thinking to himself, *You two are in the exact same business.*
When their turn finally arrived, the Master of Mud Pill Palace stepped forward, presented a bottle of immortal spirit fluid, and said, "I have come to ask whether my journey bodes well or ill."
Tian Chouchou accepted the immortal spirit fluid and appraised the Master of Mud Pill Palace over and over.
After a moment, Tian Chouchou said, "You rank in the top three on the wanted list, yet you dare come to me to divine good or ill fortune. What audacity!"
The Master of Mud Pill Palace replied calmly, "I bear countless lives on my hands, and exhausted every shred of cunning to scheme against the world just to ascend to the upper realm. I ask the Divine Diviner to point out a clear path, and divine whether my journey brings good fortune or disaster."
Tian Chouchou quietly made his deductions, his heart leaping into his throat. He realized this man had schemed against the fishermen and leek farmers of the Yuanshou world for over forty thousand years, all for the sake of ascension.
He was ruthless and cruel, with countless lives claimed by his hand. Since ascending to the Immortal Realm, he had committed crime after crime, and was now posted high on the wanted list.
If Tian Chouchou failed to show him a clear path, this man would likely butcher him on the spot!
He had no choice but to divine with utmost focus for a moment before saying with deep meaning, "Riches and honor are sought only in peril; upon the shore of the Dao Sea rests a lone raft. This journey is of supreme fortune."
The Master of Mud Pill Palace smiled and cupped his fists toward Xu Jing, Emperor Chonghua, and Xiao Xixian. "I go to the Dao Sea to seize my fortune, so I cannot share wine and merry talk with you three Dao friends. Should the opportunity arise in the future, we shall meet again."
Xu Jing and the other two watched him depart.
Xiao Xixian suddenly said, "This man carries major crimes on his back—he must be a ruthless figure drenched in slaughter!"
Tian Chouchou said, "That man has been rising swiftly in infamy on the wanted list lately, climbing up the ranks at a rapid pace. This time, he intends to pull off a massive venture, but worried about his safety, he sought me out for a reading. Having taken his immortal spirit fluid—heh heh, I fear even the fluid is steeped in blood."
Emperor Chonghua borrowed a bottle of immortal spirit fluid from Xu Jing, stepped forward, and said, "Sir, please divine where my former subordinates lie buried. I wish to pay my respects to them."
Tian Chouchou focused on his calculations, his heart pounding violently. He stole a glance at Emperor Chonghua and nearly leaped out of his skin. *This man is the truly great rebel! The bastard who ascended from the Yuanshou world, the overlord who revolted in the border wilderness! Once upon a time, he too was a permanent fixture on the wanted list!*
Emperor Chonghua said, "I ask you to divine it, sir."
Cold sweat poured down Tian Chouchou's forehead. He knew he had run into terrible luck today. He was tempted to divine whether an ill star hung high over his own head, but when fortune-tellers tried to divine their own fates, their calculations were never accurate.
He had no choice but to cast a hexagram for Emperor Chonghua. After pondering a moment, his expression turned peculiar. "Your former subordinates should not be dead; they are still among the living."
Emperor Chonghua's heart trembled, his voice raspy. "Is this truly so?"
Tian Chouchou snorted and said proudly, "My sect specializes in divine divination. In this world today, only my Senior Sister can surpass me. Though I fall short of her, I am not so inept as to make a mistake."
"Where are they now?" Emperor Chonghua pressed.
Tian Chouchou glanced at him. "That is another reading."
Helpless, Emperor Chonghua looked toward Xu Jing, who produced yet another bottle of immortal spirit fluid.
Tian Chouchou accepted the bottle and resumed his divination, only to cry out in alarm, "No, this is wrong! This is a death hexagram! Your subordinates are dead! Strange, they were clearly alive just moments ago... Wait, someone is blinding my vision!"
His expression grew grim. Suddenly flipping his stall aside, he sat cross-legged in midair. Behind him, an immense Primordial Spirit abruptly manifested, thousands upon thousands of times larger than his physical body!
Tian Chouchou sat within his own Primordial Spirit's palm. Around the Primordial Spirit behind him, a bodhimanda suddenly formed, within which strange Dao runes aligned vertically like counting rods standing in midair.
Those counting rods were tens of zhang long, standing perfectly erect, inscribed with all manner of prophetic commentaries.
One counting rod read: "Fortune across fleeting years is judged auspicious fore and aft; a calamity year between bears no true ill. When grim years link in close succession, hidden good fortune brings no glory."
Another rod bore the words: "Ten thousand red clouds link to the royal palace; a single bright moon shines upon the river ahead."
The inscriptions on the other rods were mostly such divinatory verses as well, their characters shifting incessantly across thousands of rods, which revolved endlessly around Tian Chouchou and his Primordial Spirit.
Tian Chouchou channeled his mind with full strength, calculating at blistering speed. Suddenly, the counting rods burst one after another with sharp cracks. Tian Chouchou let out a muffled groan and tumbled from the palm of his Primordial Spirit, thoroughly disheveled.
"The one obfuscating me is no ordinary figure; their divining power surpasses mine! The person acting must be my Senior Sister."
Tian Chouchou scrambled to his feet, his face flickering between dark and pale. He returned the bottle of immortal spirit fluid to Emperor Chonghua and shook his head. "My Senior Sister is petty. If I break through her obfuscation, she will surely shatter my calculation methods. I will not divine this hexagram for you, lest it ruin our fellow-disciple bond."
Emperor Chonghua asked in puzzlement, "Where is this senior sister of yours now?"
Tian Chouchou said, "Her divine divination was peerless under heaven. Long ago, she made a wager with an extraordinarily formidable rebel and ended up losing, whereupon that rebel abducted her down to the lower realm. Right now, she should be in..."
He pinched his fingers in quick deduction and said, "...in the demonic realm acting as a rebel."
Emperor Chonghua and Xu Jing exchanged a glance. Clearly, Tian Chouchou's Senior Sister was none other than Shenpo of Penglai!
*I wonder how that rebellious son of mine won the wager against Shenpo back then and hauled her down to the lower realm?*
Thinking this, Xu Jing stepped forward, set down a bottle of immortal spirit fluid, and said, "I would like a reading as well."
When Tian Chouchou saw him, he secretly calculated his origins. His face instantly drained of color, and he nearly fled for his life. Inwardly, he cried out in anguish, *What is going on today? Three clients in a row, each more terrifying than the last! The giant fellow is preparing to head to the Dao Sea to intercept and slaughter an Immortal King, seizing tens of thousands of years of wealth to raise his realm. This Chonghua is a rebel of yesteryear. And this scholar has an even more terrifying background—he's the father of the most formidable rebel of them all!*
He was eager to pack up and refuse the reading, but Xu Jing sat there with no intention of letting him leave.
Hardening his resolve, Tian Chouchou asked, "What does Sir wish to divine?"
Xu Jing set down an ancient hairpin. Xiao Xixian let out a soft exclamation of surprise; that hairpin was the very one Xu Ying had handed to her back when she attempted to assassinate him.
"I seek the owner of this hairpin," Xu Jing said.
Tian Chouchou pinched the hairpin and divined with deep concentration. "The owner of the hairpin is still alive, residing in the Immortal Court. The place where she lives is..."
Suddenly, he let out a piercing shriek as black blood streamed from both his eyes!
Tian Chouchou collapsed to the ground, howling in agony. Clutching his eyes, he writhed and rolled across the dirt, screaming, "I dare not look, I dare not pry!"
With that, he scrambled up and kowtowed frantically against the ground with loud thuds, crying, "Spare my life! I dare not peek again!"
Xu Jing, Emperor Chonghua, and Xiao Xixian were utterly horrified. In just this brief span of breaths, both of Tian Chouchou's eyes had vanished from their sockets. In their place, his upper and lower eyelids had fused completely together!
It was as though his eyes had never existed at all!
Xu Jing rushed forward to support him, attempting to activate his Mud Pill secret realm to treat his eyes with his own burgeoning vitality. Yet Tian Chouchou's eyes seemed fundamentally erased—as though nonexistent from the moment of his birth—and could not be restored by Mud Pill vigor!
Xu Jing frowned and pressed his fingers against the area of Tian Chouchou's eyes. What met his touch was solid bone; there were no eye sockets whatsoever.
He looked toward Tian Chouchou's Primordial Spirit and saw that it too lacked eyes. A tremor of shock ran through Xu Jing's heart. *Who could trace back along a divination to find Tian Chouchou, and fundamentally alter the very structure of his physical body and soul?*
Tian Chouchou's eyes had been erased at the most fundamental level. The absence of eyes in his Primordial Spirit signified that even his soul had no eyes!
Tian Chouchou continued to scream, "Spare my life! Senior, spare my life!" His cries were so wretched and agonized they were unbearable to hear.
Xu Jing took out most of the immortal spirit fluid he possessed and pressed it into his hands. "Implicating you, Dao friend, and costing you your eyes leaves me without words or adequate repayment. I can only offer these to you..."
Tian Chouchou grabbed his sleeve and shouted, "Do not go to the Immortal Court! Absolutely do not go! The perils within are beyond reckoning! Look at my eyes and you will understand!"
Xu Jing gently pulled free and said, "No matter what, I must make the journey there."
Tian Chouchou laughed maniacally, looking on the verge of madness as he yelled, "If you go, your end will only be far more wretched than mine!"
He pushed Xu Jing aside, stumbling forward with difficulty, his voice hoarse and ragged. "Master once said that divine divination can reckon all things under heaven—save for one! Heh heh, forbidden to reckon, yet I had to pry! Fortunately, I didn't dig too deep, and paid with merely a pair of eyes."
*Thud.*
He collapsed to the ground, scrambling on hands and knees as he crawled outward.
It would take him some time to adapt to a life without eyes.
Xu Jing watched Tian Chouchou's wretched figure, his brow furrowing slightly.
Emperor Chonghua's expression was grave. "Fellow Daoist Xu, you would do well to heed his warning and not head to the Immortal Court. The Divine Diviner merely scraped the surface and lost both eyes. If you embroil yourself in this, I fear you will lose your life!"
Xu Jing's expression shifted uncertainly.
Emperor Chonghua said, "I intend to return to the Ancestral Court to ask Shenpo about the whereabouts of my old subordinates. Shenpo should be this Divine Diviner's Senior Sister; she will surely know the events of those years much more clearly. Come with me..."
Suddenly, Xu Jing smiled. "Your Majesty, let us part ways here."
Emperor Chonghua froze.
Xu Jing took out several bottles of immortal spirit fluid, shoved them into Chonghua's hands, and said, "To the Immortal Court, I must go, no matter what. Brother Dao, when you return to the Ancestral Court, if you cross paths with that rebellious son of mine, tell him I have gone to seek his mother."
Emperor Chonghua hesitated a moment before saying, "Take care of yourself."
Xu Jing waved a hand, turned, and walked away.
Emperor Chonghua boarded the immortal raft, following Xiao Xixian back to the Heavenly River. This round trip took another several months. Standing upon the immortal raft, weighed down with heavy thoughts, Emperor Chonghua remained silent for a long time before suddenly speaking: "Could it be that I truly misunderstood Xu Ying?"
Xiao Xixian's hands trembled slightly. Clearly troubled by her own thoughts, she asked, "If we misunderstood him, how can we make amends?"
Emperor Chonghua clasped his hands behind his back. "A misunderstanding is a misunderstanding. Do you expect me to apologize to him? Back then, when I rose in revolt in the border wilderness, raising a righteous army to defy the Immortal Court, it was he who led the troops to encircle and suppress us, capturing and sealing me away! That suppression lasted nearly fifty thousand years! Even if he spared my officers and soldiers, having to hide their names and identities for over forty thousand years means their lives have hardly been easy. I have never owed him anything."
Xiao Xixian said, "Yet he never owed you anything either. He could just as easily have killed you, and slaughtered all your soldiers. There was no need for him to risk saving your lives. Is that not a debt of grace?"
Emperor Chonghua was struck dumb, lapsing into silence.
Xiao Xixian was lost in thought as well. Remembering how all her misunderstandings about Xu Ying had stemmed from his suppression of Emperor Chonghua's rebel army, she too fell silent.
Just then, the mist dispersed. The Heavenly River had already revived, its waters flowing beneath the immortal raft.
Both figures on the immortal raft showed shock as they looked downward: the myriad worlds of the heavens came into view. And when they looked up, the Immortal Realm was also clearly visible before their eyes!
The distance between the Immortal and mortal realms had grown unimaginably close!
"The distance between the Immortal Realm and the mortal world is separated only by the Realm of the Great Void!"
Emperor Chonghua gazed toward the Realm of the Great Void. The Immortal Realm was already very close to it now; once it crossed the Realm of the Great Void, it would likely appear directly in the sight of the people across all the heavens and myriad worlds!
When that time came, what immense shock would it bring to mortals?
And that day was no longer far away.
Chapter 485