Chapter 409: Three Encounters

“That woman… is definitely no ordinary person.”

Fang Rui subconsciously wanted to perform a Divination on her, but he stopped. He changed the target of his Divination to himself. ‘No danger? That’s good enough. What do others have to do with me?!’

“Uncle?”

“It’s nothing. Let’s go.”

Fang Rui took Xin Xue’Er’s hand and walked forward at a leisurely pace. But miraculously, the people and scenery around them flew backward.

“I feel like I’ve forgotten something…”

He muttered to himself. Since he couldn’t remember it right away, he didn’t dwell on it. He took Xin Xue’Er and left.

…

“Sir! Sir!”

Liu Yun watched Fang Rui disappear, his face slack with disbelief. “I was trying to say, sir, you haven’t paid your bill!”

“Young Master Liu, you’re a person of some repute here in Changxing City. You wouldn’t want…”

Money was a small matter; a ruined reputation was a big one.

Liu Yun naturally understood the stakes. He looked at the waiter, on the verge of tears, and painfully took out his newly-received salary from his robes. “I… I’ll pay!”

「A moment later.」

“Sigh!”

He paid for the drinks and snacks, and clutching his now-empty coin purse, he walked out sighing.

He hadn’t gone far when he suddenly encountered a young man.

The man was as handsome as polished jade, his eyes like dabs of lacquer. He had a fine appearance, but he was holding a blood-stained long halberd and his face was pale.

“Brother, are you…”

Liu Yun boldly greeted him, but before he could finish his sentence, the man collapsed.

Anyone else might not have dared to get involved, but he had always enjoyed making friends.

Especially…

‘I just met that god-like master and received his guidance. Maybe my luck is finally turning today? This man could become my right hand in the future…’

Thinking this, Liu Yun didn’t hesitate to help the young man up, using his remaining salary to find a doctor for him.

When the young man awoke, Liu Yun struck up a conversation. Being a little cunning, he casually mentioned that he had met a great expert who said he was destined for great things.

The young man immediately expressed his desire to serve him. “I have drifted for half my life, only regretting that I have not found a worthy lord. If you will not cast me aside, I wish to take you as my adoptive father…”

“Adoptive father?!”

Even with Liu Yun’s shamelessness, he was stunned for a moment. “But I’m not even forty! If you don’t mind, young brother, just call me ‘Brother Liu’. By the way, what’s your name, young brother?”

“My surname is Yan, and my given name is Zhong.”

“Yan Zhong. A fine name!”

As the two were talking, someone suddenly rushed over, grabbed Liu Yun by the wrist, and started pulling him outside. “Brother Liu, hurry, come with me!”

“Brother Xiao, what happened?”

“We have orders from above! We’re to escort prisoners to Jinshui Prefecture, to the front lines against the Yuwen Thief… If we’re delayed, it’ll be a disaster!”

…

“SCREECH!”

Under a vast, clear sky, a Purple Feathered Crane carried Fang Rui and Xin Xue’Er, soaring through the gentle breeze and white clouds.

“I’ll have to pay a visit to that Rebel King, Yuwen An, as well. But before that, I’ll perform a Divination for myself.”

Spiritual Light flashed in Fang Rui’s hands as he formed a seal and began his Divination.

「A short while later.」

“Hmm?!”

His expression turned ugly. “The fortune of this trip… the result of the Divination is… complete chaos! I can’t divine it?”

Generally speaking, Flood Dragons like Cao Meng and Liu Yun, who are variables born from the convergence of Tribulation Qi and changing fortunes, are blessed with great Qi Fortune and naturally shield themselves from Divination.

Ordinary Source Masters, and even Great Powers of the Profound Domain, cannot divine them. Only Fang Rui, relying on a sliver of borrowed status from his ‘panel’, could vaguely calculate their fates.

But the Destiny Chart of a Rebel King is, strictly speaking, a tier below that of a Celestial Determined Flood Dragon. It should be even less likely to shield against his Divination.

And yet, that was exactly what had just happened.

“There must be a great external force interfering! This also explains why Yin and Yang are reversed in Rao State, why the Flood Dragon is trapped, and why a Rebel King has risen…”

Fang Rui’s eyes flickered. ‘The only ones who could exert such a great external force are either the Great Yu Court, or… the Great Black Heaven!’

‘The former, needless to say, possesses various Innate Supreme Treasures. If one were truly activated to bless someone, blocking my Divination would not be difficult. As for the latter, that goes without saying. It is a world-ending Tribulation, its methods bizarre, unfathomable, and unpredictable.’

‘Which one is it?’

He stroked his chin. ‘If it’s the Great Yu Court, there seems to be no reason for them to do this. They haven’t shown much concern for the Celestial Determined Flood Dragons of Yuanzhou and Rao State, let alone a mere Rebel King’s Destiny Chart.’

‘So, the greater possibility is the Great Black Heaven?!’

“If that’s the case, then this is big trouble! It means the Great Black Heaven is trying to speed up the ‘opening of the gate’.”

Back then, Fang Rui had used the Four Symbols Order to perform a Divination on the world with the Innate Supreme Treasure, the Chaos Four Symbols Banner. The result indicated there were still five to eight hundred years left.

But that was based on the situation at the time. How could the Celestial Secret ever be fully calculated? The future is never set in stone.

‘I can find ways to reduce the generation of the world’s negative aura and delay the arrival of the Great Black Heaven. Naturally, the Great Black Heaven isn’t just sitting idle; it’s looking for weaknesses to accelerate its infiltration of the Hongyu Realm.’

‘Is this Yuwen An a move made by the Great Black Heaven?’

“What a troubled time!”

Fang Rui suddenly let out a sigh. “To be able to manipulate even a Rebel King… the Great Black Heaven’s infiltration of this world has probably reached a very deep level.”

He secretly guessed that perhaps it was because the world’s will was dormant that the Great Black Heaven could be so brazen.

“I originally didn’t want to get involved in this. But if I don’t, I’m afraid it will cause a huge mess… I’m afraid I’ll wake up one day and find the world has turned into some kind of bizarre horror story.”

“Forget it. If the skin is gone, what can the hair attach to? When I must act, I must act!”

“Besides, this matter is both a crisis and an opportunity. The Tribulation Points I gathered from stirring up trouble in Yuan and Liang states have all been used to transform into Tribulation Demon Black Eagles and hidden away. If I can thwart the Great Black Heaven’s plot this time, it might significantly shorten the process of breaking through to the Profound Domain Realm.”