The fortune-teller was a cultivator around the same age as Lu Yang. Noticing Lu Yang's gaze, he explained with a tinge of complaint, "What can I do? People nowadays don't really buy into fortune-telling anymore. They go around shouting 'My fate is determined by me, not heaven' and all that. It's hard to scrape a living!
"Some like divination with the Eight Trigrams, so I prepared an Eight Trigrams plate.
"Some want to divine their gambling luck, so I prepared dice.
"Some think glyphomancy is accurate, so I prepared the Four Treasures of the Study.
"Some think tossing copper coins works best, so I prepared nine large coins.
"And then there's this crystal ball. It's a trend that sprang up in the East Sea in recent years. People love using crystal balls for fortune-telling, so I even went all the way to the East Sea to learn a trick or two.
"What's more, on the surface this crystal ball can tell fortunes, but secretly it can also play naughty videos. One tool makes two kinds of money.
"Well? Care to pick one and give it a try? No charge if it doesn't work!" The fortune-teller pitched himself enthusiastically.
Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou eyed the fortune-teller suspiciously, growing wary. Lu Yang could not shake the feeling that this fortune-teller was no ordinary fellow, as if he had seen through something.
This was Man Gu's first time encountering a fortune-teller, and he found it quite fascinating. "Could you divine mine?"
A faint smile curled at the corner of the fortune-teller's mouth. "Certainly! Which method would the honored guest prefer, and what would you like to divine?"
Man Gu thought it over. Considering himself a Confucian cultivator, he said, "Glyphomancy, then. I'll write a character, and you divine whether I can become a Great Confucian."
"Please." The fortune-teller deftly laid out the Four Treasures of the Study and invited Man Gu to put brush to paper.
Man Gu's brush flew across the paper, writing down a character.
The fortune-teller tapped the desk and drew in a long hiss of air through his teeth. "This character of yours..."
"Is there a problem?" Man Gu asked anxiously.
"Your handwriting is so ugly. What character is this?"
"*Ru* (儒)."
"..." Composing himself, the fortune-teller analyzed: "The character *ru* signifies yielding and softness, an appellation for men of arts and scholarship. It is composed of the radical for *person* (亻) alongside the phonetic *xu* (需).
"Your body is sturdy and seemingly invulnerable, but inside you possess a gentle heart. You lack strong opinions of your own; you accept whatever you are told, and whatever you study, you absorb faithfully.
"Look at the component *xu* (需) again: rain (雨) above, and 'and' (而) below.
"As the saying goes, 'clouds above the heavens; it rains when needed.' This signifies that in the future, you will be needed by others.
"And this *person* (亻) stands beside it. That means you can not only become a Great Confucian, but a Great Confucian of an entirely new form."
Hearing that he could become a Great Confucian, Man Gu beamed with delight.
His level of Confucian scholarship was at the very bottom among the Fourth Elder's disciples. Although the Fourth Elder did not mind—advocating that education should make no distinctions, saying Man Gu simply had not achieved enlightenment, and that once he attained enlightenment, he could enter the Confucian path overnight with boundless prospects—Man Gu had always felt insecure. Now, with the fortune-teller's analysis claiming he could become a Great Confucian, his confidence was rekindled.
He truly was full of potential!
"Oh, right, one more thing."
"What is it?"
"Practice your handwriting more when you get back."
"Oh."
"Do you need a calligraphy copybook? I happen to have one right here. Take one—it's a necessary expense on your path to becoming a Great Confucian."
Man Gu felt the man had a point, so he bought a copy.
Seeing Man Gu finish his reading, Lan Ting found it quite entertaining and wanted to try one herself. She sat down and asked, "I would like to know whether my future achievements will be higher in arrays or in talismans. Let's use the crystal ball to divine it."
Lately she had been studying arrays without pause, and she had discovered that her interest in arrays seemed to surpass that in talismans.
Lan Ting was considering whether to change her area of specialization.
The fortune-teller raised the crystal ball toward Lan Ting and rubbed it vigorously with both hands, chanting under his breath: "Spirits of heaven, spirits of earth, crystal ball, reveal your worth! Spirits of heaven, spirits of earth, crystal ball, reveal your worth!"
When the fortune-teller saw the result displayed in the crystal ball, he was dumbfounded. "Uh... In the future, you write arrays onto talismans, merging arrays and talismans into one?"
The fortune-teller gave Lan Ting a strange look. What kind of bizarre way of thinking was this? This female cultivator was peerlessly beautiful, so why was her line of thought so wildly different from ordinary people?
Lan Ting tilted her head in thought. Feeling that what the fortune-teller said was not impossible, she cheerfully paid the fee.
Next was Meng Jingzhou's turn. Meng Jingzhou raised an eyebrow. "You wouldn't happen to be a disciple of the Heavenly Strategy Sect, would you?"
The Heavenly Strategy Sect was the foremost divination sect in the Central Continent, having once deduced the exact time the ancient Golden Age would re-emerge.
The Heavenly Strategy Sect laid the greatest emphasis on karma; ordinary methods of concealing one's identity were practically useless before them.
A disciple of the Heavenly Strategy Sect needed only a single glance to discern an individual's origins and background.
Perhaps this fortune-teller had already seen that the four of them hailed from the Dao Seeking Sect and the Moon Laurel Immortal Palace.
"Haha, junior brother, you must be mistaken! I am but an idle wanderer, a carefree solitary soul—how could I possibly be a disciple of the Heavenly Strategy Sect?"
Meng Jingzhou fell silent for a moment, then retrieved a scroll of a blood contract from his identity jade pendant. "Three hundred years ago, the Supreme Elder of your Heavenly Strategy Sect borrowed an enormous sum of top-grade spirit stones from our Meng Family. Later, unable to pay it back, he hid in his cave abode and announced to the world that he was entering death seclusion.
"When our Meng Family came knocking on the Heavenly Strategy Sect's door to collect the debt, your Sect Master drew up a blood contract, guaranteeing that it would be repaid in full, and that any direct descendant of the Meng Family who encountered a Heavenly Strategy Sect disciple could demand repayment from them according to the blood contract.
"Would you like to test the power of this blood contract?"
Lu Yang had heard that the Meng Family was the creditor of the entire world; it seemed the rumors were not exaggerated.
With a thud, the fortune-teller dropped to his knees, clutching Meng Jingzhou's leg in floods of tears. "Brother Meng! Leave a line of retreat today so we can face each other with ease tomorrow!
"Our Heavenly Strategy Sect is so dirt-poor we can't even afford to feed our disciples! They made us go down the mountain to fend for ourselves! If I, Luo Bo, had any money, would I have fallen so low as to run scams here?
"Setting up a stall here costs a stall fee, and I can't even afford the stall fee!"
The fortune-teller, Luo Bo, cried poverty. "Look at this jacket of mine—mended and patched for years, without a cent to buy a new one!"
Meng Jingzhou rolled his eyes. Anyone could see at a glance that the jacket had been refined and enchanted; it was worth a small fortune.
"I wasn't counting on you to pay the debt. Get up first." Meng Jingzhou yanked his leg free with effort. "Give the two of us a free divination, and I won't cause you trouble. Remember, no lying!"
"Hahaha, that's easy enough!"
"Come, come, examine my fate and see what my future achievements will be." Lu Yang spread his palm, letting the Heavenly Strategy Sect disciple Luo Bo read his palm.
Luo Bo laughed, regaining his customary confidence in his home turf. "A common enough question. Let me take a look."
Unexpectedly, Luo Bo's eyes went wide. He shot to his feet in utter disbelief, stumbling several steps backward until his back hit the base of the wall.
"Y-Y-You... what kind of fate is this?! A total blur! In the future, you will form karmic ties with multiple Immortals!"
Luo Bo discovered that despite being entangled in the karma of Immortals, Lu Yang could still move about freely, as if completely unaffected.
And that wasn't even the most terrifying part.
The most terrifying part was that Luo Bo also foresaw that Lu Yang would become a massive scourge upon the cultivation world in the future, spreading the Dao Seeking Sect's culture across the entire realm!
The Dao Seeking Sect's culture was already outrageous enough. If the entire cultivation world were assimilated by the Dao Seeking Sect, how could anyone survive?!
*I must never become entangled with someone like this!*
Luo Bo lamented inwardly. Seeing that all four hailed from the Five Great Immortal Sects, he had pegged them as four fat sheep ripe for fleecing to make some quick cash. Who could have known that one of them was Lu Yang—someone he absolutely could not afford to touch!
Wait, looking at the palm lines, Lu Yang wasn't the only one spreading that toxic atmosphere across the cultivation world—there was another person collaborating with him.
The other person was...
Luo Bo looked toward the big creditor, Meng Jingzhou.
*Run!*
Without a second word, Luo Bo unleashed an escape art, not even bothering to pack up his table, and bolted as fast as his legs could carry him: "I—I—I never saw you people today!"
He worried that if he looked a moment longer, he would forfeit his life right here and now.
Before the four could even react, Luo Bo had already vanished into thin air.
Lu Yang blamed Meng Jingzhou: "It must have been you demanding debts that scared him off."
Chapter 93