Ji Yuan had originally heard from Qi Wen that Huang Xingye’s matter had been resolved. This time, it originally seemed that he had come to express his gratitude, so Ji Yuan decided to listen in on a whim.

However, after hearing about what happened to the Land God, Ji Yuan knew that this matter was extraordinary, shifting from a simple man-made disaster to something more sinister.

At this moment, Ji Yuan’s widened his supernatural eyes three-quarters of the way open. He observed Huang Xingye and the people accompanying him closely. The aura and vitality of the group, which originally appeared rather vague in his eyes, suddenly became more solid, and the colors became richer.

Ji Yuan discovered that Huang Xingye himself was fine, but, although the scale of the vitality and aura of the servants had not changed, there was an aura of blood and death hidden within the rising vital Qi.

After hearing Ji Yuan’s sudden words, Huang Xingye calmed down, and turned to Taoist Qingsong to ask:

“Master Qingsong, who is this?”

“This is Mr. Ji, a great benefactor of ours…”

Qi Wen hurriedly went to answer, but Ji Yuan immediately interrupted him. There was no need laud his actions so much in front of outsiders.¹

“I’m a friend of Taoist Master Qingsong. I met him a few years ago while traveling in other provinces. I am currently temporarily staying in Cloud Mountain Temple.”

“Yes, yes, Mr. Ji is an honored guest of my temple. His question just now was exactly what I wanted to ask. Has Mr. Huang gone to the City God Temple in Dongle County to pray for aid?”

In this era, even if people had never personally seen ghosts or gods, they generally believed in them, and were even quite superstitious about certain things. Huang Xingye followed this trend, so he would likely have some answer for them.

Huang Xingye’s emotions had stabilized a lot by this time, and his breathing had slowed from its previous excited state. He calmed himself further before answering.

“Of course, I went to the City God Temple in Dongle County, and it was there that I learned that you, Taoist Qingsong, were a Taoist priest from Yun Mountain. I paid for the repair of the Land God statue in my hometown, and brought sufficient offerings for the Lord City God, then I came all the way to the foot of Yun Mountain…”

Ji Yuan took another look at Huang Xingye. This person was quite smart, he was able to consider various paths of action. Then, Ji Yuan turned to Taoist Qingsong and spoke very casually.

“Taoist Qingsong, I heard you say that Lord Land God has not had a temple built for him yet, so his own spiritual levels should not be too high. At the very least, he has not received incense power or ascended to become a true god yet.”

Ji Yuan additionally thought to himself that the Land God had likely not cultivated and practiced connecting to the earth’s veins enough to “become a god through power,” otherwise he wouldn’t have responded personally so many times purely due to Huang Xingye’s significant contributions to the temple. However, the Land God obviously did not anticipate what might happen afterwards.²

Daoist Qingsong was stunned for a moment. Did he say such a thing?

However, seeing Ji Yuan asking him so seriously, Qi Xuan immediately reacted.

“Er… That’s true, what Mr. Ji said is correct.”

Ji Yuan nodded.

“It seems that I remembered correctly. From my perspective, if the Land God’s statue was destroyed by humans, then we would naturally increase the investigation efforts. If there truly were an evil being nearby, Maoqian Town is also under the jurisdiction of Dongle County. Even if Mr. Huang did not offer tribute, as long as he knew about this matter, the City God would not sit idly by. Am I right, Taoist priest?”

Taoist Qingsong nodded repeatedly.

“Yes, yes, Mr. Ji is right!”

“How wonderful, truly good to hear.”

Huang Xingye felt relieved at his words. Although ordinary people believed in entities like the City God and Land God, almost no one had ever seen them. Some so-called miraculous rumors were just word-of-mouth. It was impossible to be sure whether something had really happened. It was more reassuring to have a master like Taoist Qingsong, who could be physically sensed.

“By the way, Mr. Huang, about what you just said… The dangers in the first half of your story are almost all man-made. After you discovered the truth and reported the evidence to the police, nothing unusual happened. Was it only after you received the divination response from the Land God that you realized something was wrong?”

Huang Xingye bowed to Ji Yuan before answering.

“As Mr. Ji said, I thought that the disaster was over, and sent offerings to thank the Lord Land God.”

To be able to be friends with a master like Taoist Qingsong, this Mr. Ji must have some special qualities. At the very least, his calm and composure were already extraordinary.

Ji Yuan looked at Taoist Qingsong, who subconsciously looked back at him.

“Taoist master, don’t you also think this is quite strange?”

“Yes, as Mr. Ji said, I also think so. It’s quite fortunate that Mr. Huang was able to arrive here unharmed!”

Taoist Qingsong not only echoed Ji Yuan, but also began to take a closer look at Huang Xingye’s current face and expression. Based on some of the things he had heard described before, the Taoist noticed some odd points in his divination.

“Mr. Huang, could you please tell me your birth date?”

With Ji Yuan by his side, Taoist Qingsong became more courageous.

When Huang Xingye heard that Taoist Qingsong was going to tell his fortune, he naturally did not refuse further, and hurriedly whispered his birth date and birth hour to the master.

After hearing the man’s eight characters, the latter pondered over it carefully in his mind, pinching his fingers together from time to time to assist in calculating based on the Heavenly Stems,³ Earthly Branches,⁴ and the movement of the stars.⁵

Ji Yuan watched curiously, while Huang Xingye and others waited nervously.

In fact, Huang Xingye came from a wealthy family, and thus had experienced his fortune being read multiple times since he was a child. The results were basically the same each time: nothing more than a good life and good fortune.

After a long while, Taoist Qingsong finally examined Huang Xingye’s current expression and spoke.

“Boss Huang was blessed with profound fortune in his destiny, along with the blessings of his ancestors. As long as you dared to forge ahead and were not lazy, the first half of your life would be smooth sailing, and the second half of your life should be free of worry… However…”

“The Star of Ketu now shines upon Mr. Huang.⁶ Originally, with such profound blessings, nothing major would have happened. But now that you have encountered this matter, the man-made disaster has turned into a demonic one, and it is a fatal calamity!”

Huang Xingye’s expression darkened as he waited for Taoist Qingsong to continue.

“Although you have a good destiny, people’s fate is not fixed. Your knowledge, experience, good deeds and evil deeds, and all other kinds of external factors can impact it. Now, it seems that there is a strange energy hidden in your fate, almost like a living being. The last time I observed your face, it was different. Only now, when I could combine your eight characters to calculate your fortune…”

The others in the group were anxious, and could not understand Taoist Qingsong’s words, but Ji Yuan listened carefully, all the while observing Huang Xingye carefully with his supernatural eyes.

Combined with the emotions Huang Xingye expressed upon hearing Taoist Qingsong’s words, his aura had begun to change. There was actually a strange feeling, like a loach swimming in the air in his aura, very easy to overlook of one didn’t observe carefully.

Taoist Qingsong was just a fortune teller, so naturally he finished what he had to say.

“As long as Mr. Huang survives this year’s calamity, you will be blessed by the Moon next year. This year’s crisis will create a recoil. As long as your enterprising spirit remains unchanged, you will have good luck, and be able to accomplish anything.”

A smile appeared on Huang Xingye’s face.

“But you must first surpass this obstacle!”

Ji Yuan heard his words and once more pretended to ask.

“Taoist Qingsong, you once told me about strange things like demons and evil spirits. You said that some demons and evil spirits prey on the special fated Qi of people with good fortune. They are afraid that the Qi of destiny will dissipate, so they guide these people into traps. Doesn’t it seem a bit like that situation now?”

Hearing Ji Yuan’s words, Taoist Qingsong just nodded.

“Mr. Ji is right. It definitely resembles that, it looks quite similar!”

Ji Yuan nodded and continued.

“I estimate that the evil being probably didn’t really want to burn Mr. Huang to death. It just wished to severely harm you to a state of near death, then pursue some other avenue. Otherwise, its goals could not be achieved if you died and it lost all of that luck, right, Taoist priest?”

“Yes, as Mr. Ji said. But being in a state of near-death is even worse…”

Taoist Qingsong echoed, and did not forget to express his own ideas, while Ji Yuan continued to add on more sentences.

“There are some evil demons and lurking in this world. They are indeed quite strange. Those who are more cunning and powerful can take advantage of loopholes in the gods’ domains. It seems that they will not let Mr. Huang go.”

Seeing Huang Xingye shrink his neck and look even worse, Ji Yuan also comforted him.

“But, Mr. Huang, please rest assured. Even if the Lord City God cannot do anything to control the outcome. Taoist Qingsong will definitely not sit idly by. Right, Daoist?”

“That’s right, let’s first… uh…”

Qi Xuan suddenly reacted halfway through nodding his head. He stared blankly at Ji Yuan. Seeing the latter nod to reassure him, he grit his teeth and continued to speak.

“Yes, although I am not very experienced, since Mr. Huang has come all this way to ask for my aid, I cannot ignore it!”

Huang Xingye was pleasantly surprised. He had come up the mountain to beg for his outcome, so he quickly stood up and bowed to express his gratitude. His servants and his friend Li Mian bowed together with him.

“Thank you, Taoist Qingsong, for your help! Thank you, Taoist Qingsong, for your help! If I can survive this calamity, I will definitely reward you handsomely!”

T/n: Introducing Ji Yuan, gaslighter extraordinaire, and Taoist Qingsong, BS-er extraordinaire. Truly a top 10 anime team-up

1. Lit: “add too much color to his own affairs”
2. Several vague statements here. 1) The Land God here hasn’t yet achieved a high enough cultivation level to become a “True Deity.” 2) JY knows this because, if he were a True Deity, he wouldn’t bother with acknowledging HXY’s contributions. 3) JY also knows because (as stated in the prev. paragraph) the Land God didn’t have a temple until HXY built one for him. 4) Finally, something happened that even the Land God did not expect as a result of him responding to HXY.
3. We have encountered Heavenly Stems before, but it’s essentially a system of ordered symbols with a variety of uses. Used in conjunction with the Earthly Branches, it forms a sexagenary cycle, a cycle of 60 years used for recording time in Ancient China.
4. The Earthly Branches are a set of 12 ordered symbols used in cosmology. You can think of it in its most basic form kind of like the 4 cardinal directions, except there are 12 of them. Used in conjunction with the Heavenly Stems, it forms a sexagenary cycle, a cycle of 60 years used for recording time in Ancient China.
5. Here, Taoist Qingsong is quite literally calculating the guy’s future based on the exact position of the stars at his birth, which he can tell based on the date and time of the man’s birth.
6. 计都 (jìdū): Ketu in Sanskrit, refers to the farthest point on the moon, or the last point in the moon’s orbit, later changed to the intersection of the moon and the ecliptic. Has spiritual implications, including enlightenment and liberation, but more often associated with presaging disaster/loss on the material plane

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay Read