At dusk, as the sky gradually darkened, most of the street vendors had already packed up their stalls. Only the night markets were still preparing to welcome the evening's business.
Inside Huai Pawnshop.
After Zhao Huai cleaned the bloodstains from the floor, he carried the two corpses into the rear courtyard.
Then, with practiced ease, he took out the Golden Coin at his waist, tossed it into the air, caught it in his palm, and examined the result.
Misfortune and fortune depended on each other. For now, let it be seen.
Divination Sign One: Dispose of the corpses and erase the traces; depart from the world forever; bury them beneath a tree, and all matters will cease. The guidance you received was "fortune."
Divination Sign Two: See clearly and understand thoroughly; investigate the corpses and trace the beginning and end of the matter. The guidance you received was "misfortune."
Divination Sign Three: Killing must draw blood; to cut the grass, one must pull out the roots. Report it to the authorities. The guidance you received was "misfortune."
This time, even the result marked "fortune" failed to satisfy Zhao Huai.
The men in black surely had people above them who would investigate this matter. He had to find the most reliable way to handle it.
So he tossed the Golden Coin again and again, hoping for more results.
Once, twice, three times. Zhao Huai did not know how many times he tossed it, but most of the results were much the same.
Either they told him to deal with the corpses in secret, or they told him to seek help from other forces.
But in the midst of this, a streak of white light suddenly appeared.
Yet Zhao Huai's expression did not change much.
He was far too familiar with that light.
It belonged to a Human-Grade Fate, the lowest rank of Fate—and over the past three years, it was the kind he had seen most often.
So he did not hold out much hope.
Immortal's Finger (Human-Grade Superior): A clumsy martial world swindle. You have initially grasped the art of divination and can fluently recite the Book of Changes.
Just as expected, Human-Grade Fates never disappointed people. As always, they were disappointing.
If it could truly reveal what would happen in the future, that would have been one thing. Unfortunately, it was merely the trickery of some old bachelor fraud in the martial world. How was it any different from those swindlers teaching Hunyuan Xingyi Fist?
Yet Zhao Huai began pondering Immortal's Finger.
Logically speaking, since this Fate could be drawn, it must have some use. Even if Human-Grade was jokingly called the absolute giveaway tier, perhaps it would become useful once upgraded to Yellow-Grade?
Thinking this, Zhao Huai could not resist giving it a try.
The only way to raise a Fate's rank was to fuse it with other Fates. Using low-grade Fates to raise high-grade ones was exceedingly slow, but using high-grade Fates to raise low-grade ones produced immediate results.
Zhao Huai immediately found the idle Yellow-Grade Dragon Seeking and Wilderness Exploration Fate in his mind.
Keeping this Fate was truly as useless as chicken ribs; he might as well use it for an experiment.
Disassemble Fate?
"Disassemble it."
Zhao Huai directly disassembled the Dragon Seeking and Wilderness Exploration Fate, turning it into countless specks of starlight within his mind.
Then he had Immortal's Finger absorb every last one of those specks.
The white light immediately dimmed, replaced by a ball of yellow radiance blooming from its center.
Root Tracing (Yellow-Grade Middle): Trace the root of how things came to pass. You can trace part of the outcome of fortune and misfortune.
"Trace part of the outcome of fortune and misfortune? What does that mean?"
Zhao Huai muttered, then said with resolute eyes, "Never mind. I'll know once I try it."
Misfortune and fortune depended on each other. For now, let it be seen.
Divination Sign One: Dispose of the corpses and erase the traces; depart from the world forever; bury them beneath a tree, and all matters will cease. The guidance you received was "fortune."
Trace Guidance: The assassins acted on their own; bury them beneath a tree, and all matters will cease.
Divination Sign Two: See clearly and understand thoroughly; investigate the corpses and trace the beginning and end of the matter. The guidance you received was "misfortune."
Trace Guidance: Investigating will bring disaster upon yourself.
Divination Sign Three: Killing must draw blood; to cut the grass, one must pull out the roots. Report it to the authorities. The guidance you received was "misfortune."
Trace Guidance: Officialdom is like a chessboard.
"Looks like these two assassins acted on their own before the operation. No wonder burying them meant no one could find them."
After reading the latest results, Zhao Huai was quite satisfied. This Root Tracing Fate was practically an upgrade to the Golden Coin.
Great Luck Overhead had previously increased the probability of Fates and allowed him to change fortune or misfortune once a day, while Root Tracing made his judgments far more substantiated.
The two combined perfectly.
It also made his goal of becoming immortal grow ever firmer.
This world was filled with all manner of dangers. Great Xia's interior was far from tranquil; demons and monsters could be seen everywhere among the common folk. While Great Xia recuperated, the foreign tribes at its borders had annexed many surrounding small kingdoms and continued to eye it like tigers eyeing prey. No one knew when a crisis would erupt.
When chaos descended, human lives would be no more than grass and weeds. Only by becoming immortal could one preserve oneself.
As long as he upgraded his Fate to Immortal-Grade and gained the blessing of an invincible Fate, he would be invincible beneath the heavens.
After Zhao Huai buried the two corpses beneath the tree, he finally let out a sigh of relief.
Returning to the shop, he poured himself a cup of clear tea and took a small sip.
Then he took out a token.
He had found this token on one of the men in black.
A large character for "Pass" had been branded upon it in gold.
It seemed to be a travel token for passing through cities. As long as one carried it, one could travel unhindered and freely cross cities great and small, with no one able to stop them.
It was much like an imperial envoy's credential.
This thing was still quite useful to him.
But from this, one could also see that the force behind the men in black was immensely powerful. They could even carry something like this on them.
Zhao Huai had not been without guesses about the men in black's purpose.
From what he had heard them say, it seemed they wanted to use him to threaten someone.
Who was that person? The next instant, Yu Qinghan's face flashed through Zhao Huai's mind.
She was the only person he had interacted with recently.
Perhaps Yu Qinghan's enemies had learned of her whereabouts and come to assassinate her.
But after discovering they were no match for her, they had come to trouble him instead, setting their sights on him.
In the end, he had killed them in return.
Thinking it through, the logic was quite sound.
To be honest, Zhao Huai had another consideration in marrying Yu Qinghan.
He could use the information from Yu Qinghan's side to learn in advance about outside intelligence and news from the imperial court.
Her Household was an Aristocratic Clan of military generals, so they surely had no shortage of such information.
He might even gain some benefits from it.
But they would be husband and wife from now on. Would it be improper to play such little tricks? After thinking for a long time, Zhao Huai decided not to dwell on it anymore.
After all, as long as he was strong enough, he would fear nothing.
Once he reached Foundation Establishment, he would have officially stepped through the gates of immortal cultivation.
By then, there would be very few people capable of trading a few blows with him.
Reclining in his grandmaster's chair with nothing to do, Zhao Huai took out the Mysterious Ring on his person and began studying it.
He took out a thick stack of Sheepskin Scrolls, along with a bottle of pills, and examined them carefully.
Zhao Huai spread open the Sheepskin Scroll and swept his gaze over it. The Heavenly Heart Wisdom Eye Fate in his mind slowly began to operate, and the obscure ancient characters on the scroll transformed into lines of symbols, rearranging and recombining.
At last, they appeared before Zhao Huai.
Before you continue