In the Eastern Divine Mountain’s Four Directions Pavilion.
“Your Majesty, I already sent the character.” A turtle-shelled, hunchbacked old man bowed before a towering waterfall. The man he faced was turned away from him, and wore golden imperial robes.
The man in question just stood there, but he seemed as if he’d fused with heaven and earth.
There was no trace of his presence whatsoever. It was as if he were a rock born of heaven and earth itself. Even birds would happily land on his shoulders and rest without fear.
“Good.” After a while, the golden-robed man nodded slightly.
The subtle movement of his shoulders startled the birds resting there. They unfurled their wings and hurriedly took to the skies.
As the birds fled, the man turned towards the waterfall, and up at its distant origin. His face was angular, as if it had been carved with a knife, but there was a hint of worry in his brows. “Is this really the right thing to do?”
“Your Majesty, didn’t you say that Xuan Ji proposed this marriage alliance?” asked the aged turtle.
“I divined Little Seventeen’s destiny. She is destined to marry someday, but to the master of the North Star, the Emperor Star himself. I didn’t let her marry earlier, for the hope that… maybe….” the golden-robed man had more to say, but he stopped and sighed inexplicably.
“But three years ago, Little Seventeen’s fate suddenly changed. Even though I waited thousands of years for the Emperor Star’s approval, I wasn’t the chosen one. Little Seventeen is my favorite of all my Highnesses. She has trials in her future, but I can’t divine their nature. Xuan Ji’s divinations are without fault; in terms of divinations, not even I can compare with her. Since she decided on this marriage alliance, let’s just go through it.”
“But why did you make me….”
“It’s because I can’t predict everything!” The golden-robed man let out a long side. “I don’t know what’s going to happen, but don’t want to influence their karmic ties. In a bit, Little Seventeen is sure to come here and ask me about this. When she does, tell her I’m in seclusion. As for my intentions with that character, tell her to let nature take its course!”
“I understand.”
The golden-robed man’s gaze was a little melancholy, but he nevertheless continued watching that endless waterfall.
“North Star, Emperor Star, this emperor waited for you for tens of thousands of years. In terms of technique, I am unparalleled throughout the world! In terms of the Heavenly Dao, my Dao of the Peerless King is the closest to that of the Emperor Star! Yet you didn’t choose me!”
“Zhou Wu was fortunate enough to enter the Time Corridor and seize Five Element’s divine fate for himself. I went to the Time Corridor too, but found it empty and abandoned. Could it be that I truly lack that destiny? Why, then? Why did you give me the former God Emperor’s godhead and fill me with false hope?”
…..
Ye Zichen heard Lady Providence’s sigh. It had profound implications.
All cultivators could perform divinations to an extent. Naturally, Ye Zichen could too. However, his cultivation was low and his reserves shallow. He hadn’t invested too much effort in developing that skill, so his divination ability wasn’t much.
Xuan Ji, on the other hand, had founded the Profound Pavilion. She was the top divination expert in millennia.
According to rumor, even the God Emperor himself sought her out to perform divinations. That alone proved how transcendent her skills were.
Yet just now, even see said she couldn’t see their destiny in full. Ye Zichen didn’t understand. Was there really anything in this world she couldn’t understand?
“What is it you can’t see through, Lady Providence?”
When she heard Ye Zichen’s question, a smile flashed across Xuan Ji’s face. She reached out and patted him on the shoulder. “You don’t need to worry about that. Knowing too much will taint you with too much karma. All you need to do is worm your way into that Liu Qing girl’s good graces as fast as possible. Then, you gotta get the others, like that Zuo Mo, Xue Yang’s daughter Xue Honghong, the two treasures of the nine-tailed fox clan, and the dragon….”
Xuan Ji suddenly fell silent. Ye Zichen, meanwhile, was utterly bewildered.
Wasn’t she telling him to pick up chicks?
And she’d even used the phrase “worm his way into her good graces.”
Also, what did she mean by “the two treasures of the Nine-tailed Fox Clan?”
Su Yan had to be one of them. Ye Zichen was already keenly aware of this. But who was the other? The only foxes he was familiar with were the Su Sisters. Su Zhu was with Yin Shang, so….
Big Sister Liu’er?
“Lady Providence, are the foxes you’re talking about Su Liu’er and Su Yan?” asked Ye Zichen tentatively.
“Su Liu’er?” When Xuan Ji heard that, her eyes widened. “You’re awfully ambitious, aren’t you, kid? You want both sisters at once!”
“But didn’t you say the two treasures of the nine-tailed foxes?”
“Did I say Su Liu’er?” Xuan Ji glared at him. “It seems you have wicked intentions towards that Su Liu’er girl, too!”
Ye Zichen lowered his head. He didn’t want to explain, and knew that even if he did, it would be useless.
But at least now he was certain that Xuan Ji wasn’t talking about Su Yan and Su Liu’er. Su Yan was naturally one of the two, but then, who was the other fox?
Little did he know, but deep within fox clan territory, a young woman sneezed out of the blue. “Why am I sneezing all of a sudden? Could it be that my sweetie misses me? It seems I’ll have to go looking for him when I have some free time. It’s been so long, I miss him! I’m his Fated Star, after all! I have to stay by his side and look after him!”
After everyone gave them a respectful send-off, Xuan Ji led Ye Zichen and her divine generals away.
En route, Xuan Ji lectured him practically non-stop.
Ye Zichen listened until his ears practically fell off, but he didn’t argue with her. If he even so much as opened his mouth, she’d slap him upside the head.
“If you’d just opened the door and gone inside, we never would have run into such trouble, would we?” when they returned to the door to her residence, Xuan Ji glared at him. “Hurry on inside. There’s someone waiting for you inside, and she can’t take this much longer.”
“Waiting for me?” Ye Zichen blinked in confusion. On his way here, he’d been curious. It was Xuan Ji who’d summoned him here. If she had something to say, why didn’t she just say so en route? Why did she have to bring him back to her residence first?
Now it turned out there was someone waiting for him inside.
So it seemed that the person who wanted to see him wasn’t Xuan Ji after all?”
“Don’t look at me like that. Once you go in, you’ll understand. Try not to cry like a baby.”
Xuan Ji pressed him on once more, so Ye Zichen did as he was told. Despite his confusion, he pushed open the door.
“How is he?” Meanwhile, in the courtyard, Ye Rong’s fists were tightly clenched. She paced frantically back and forth. More than once, she felt the urge to rush outside, but when she recalled what Xuan Ji had told her, she forced the impulse back down.
Her emotions were truly turbulent.
She couldn’t blame Xuan Ji for what she’d said. Shortly after becoming the Lord of Seven Stars, she was cold as could be, even when Ye Zichen was undergoing divine tribulation. That was because she had no possible way of seeing Ye Zichen. Freaking out wouldn’t help.
But now they were about to reunite. She couldn’t calm down no matter how much she tried.
“Why aren’t they back yet!” Ye Rong clenched her jade slip and looked inside. She’d long since lost track of how many messages she’d sent Xuan Ji, yet she hadn’t gotten so much a word back in response. “This can’t go on. I have to go look for myself.”
Who cared if this was the capital of the Divine Mountains? Who cared about some God Emperor, some Zhou Wu? Heaven and earth were vast, but none of it mattered to her as much as her son.
Lately, the relationship between the three Upper Realms was tense and ambiguous. Because of the upcoming Battle of Geniuses, there were even quite a few unbridled yao and demons wandering through the city.
If something happened to Ye Zichen, she’d blame herself for the rest of her life.
She steeled herself and no longer hesitated. She walked right up to the door, but just as she was about to push it open….
It opened from the outside.
