Run Off with the Bucket

Before any cultivators came to have their fortunes told, Fan Jianqiang had looked shifty-eyed, his tiny eyes constantly darting about. But now, he wore an honest, guileless expression, solemn and unsmiling.

"This customer is no ordinary person."

He spoke seriously. "May I ask what you wish to divine?"

"Something simple."

Wu Xingyun replied blandly, "Divine what I am thinking right now."

Lin Fan watched quietly from the side.

The people waiting in line behind them were somewhat displeased.

"Are you here to make trouble?"

"Miss, aren't you making things difficult for him?"

"A woman's heart is like a needle at the bottom of the sea. If you wanted your past or future divined, perhaps the master could find some clue to follow. But asking him to divine your thoughts—how could anyone calculate that?"

"Not even a parasite in your stomach could do that, right?"

Having been here for quite some time, they had already learned that this man's divinations were astonishingly accurate. Naturally, they did not want Wu Xingyun to ruin his business.

"Too noisy."

Wu Xingyun could not be bothered to waste words on them. She merely let a trace of a Cave Heaven Realm cultivator's aura leak out, and their pupils contracted as they repeatedly backed away, no longer daring to utter a sound.

"Divine it."

She stared straight at Fan Jianqiang and spoke again.

Fan Jianqiang looked deeply into her eyes twice. Then he cast a hexagram with six copper coins. Yet after finishing, he did not say a single word. He simply grabbed the bucket and ran.

He hoisted the cloth banner bearing the words Iron Mouth Divination and left at a rapid pace, as though fleeing for his life.

"Why are you running?"

Wu Xingyun was surprised. She called for him to stop, but he only ran faster.

Lin Fan was secretly astonished. "This guy... has some skill."

"Stop!"

In a flash, Wu Xingyun blocked Fan Jianqiang's path.

"You still haven't said what I'm thinking."

"Do I need to say it?" Fan Jianqiang replied helplessly. "Wasn't what I did obvious enough?"

"You want to beat me up. If I don't run, should I stand around and wait for you to hit me?"

He had really divined it!

Wu Xingyun was astonished.

She was a Cave Heaven Realm cultivator, while he was an ordinary person...

Setting aside the gap in their strength and the matter of "karma," he had actually calculated what she was thinking. There was something wrong with this man! Something seriously wrong!

He was absolutely not as simple as he appeared on the surface.

Lin Fan slowly walked over as well, even more startled inwardly.

This guy had actually divined what someone else was thinking?!

Could he see through my thoughts too?

After a brief moment of contemplation, he stepped forward. "Sir, please do not take offense. The two of us are looking for someone, but this person is extraordinary, so we first posed a difficult question. The facts have proven that you truly possess real skill."

"We would also like to ask you to cast another divination. Once it is done, we will pay all the divination fees together. What do you say?"

As he spoke, Lin Fan's thoughts were extremely active.

He even cursed inwardly, Your mother's servant!

At the same time, he stared intently at the other man's face.

Yet seeing no reaction whatsoever from him, Lin Fan could not help but relax slightly.

At least this proved that he did not possess some kind of mind-reading technique. Even if he could know what others were thinking, he still had to set up an altar and cast a hexagram. Since that was the case, there was no need to worry too much.

"Looking for someone?"

Fan Jianqiang's expression improved somewhat, though this was not his original appearance at the moment.

"Then I want double the divination fee."

"Fine."

Lin Fan nodded.

"Then let's begin."

"Write a character."

Fan Jianqiang said, "Character divination."

"Character divination?"

It wasn't unfamiliar.

After a brief moment of thought, Lin Fan wrote down the character "Caution."

The "Caution" in "cautious."

Fan Jianqiang's eyes flashed. He then gave Lin Fan a long, deep look before musing, "This person is easy to find, yet also not easy to find."

"Oh?"

Lin Fan's mind turned. "Why is that?"

Fan Jianqiang did not answer. Instead, he said, "There are too few clues. I need to calculate again."

"What do you seek this person for?"

"We want to take him as a disciple."

Lin Fan did not hide it.

"...Why?" This time, it was Fan Jianqiang's turn to be surprised.

What shocked him even more was that, using his physiognomic arts, he could not divine even the slightest trace of Lin Fan's origins! It was as though Lin Fan were a patch of primordial chaos, or as though he simply did not belong to this ancient history at all—there was not half a trace connected to him to be found!

Yet he concealed his shock perfectly.

"This child has an affinity with our sect."

"But whether he takes a master depends on both sides being willing. How can you be certain he will agree?"

"I'm not certain. I can only do my utmost and strive for it with all my heart."

"If he agrees, then all will rejoice. If he refuses... then it can only be said that we are fated to meet, but not fated to be together."

They were all true words!

Although, in Fan Jianqiang's eyes, there was nothing but void behind Lin Fan and he could divine nothing at all, he could still distinguish sincerity from falsehood.

Thus, he continued the conversation.

"Oh? Then may I ask which sect you belong to?"

"Moon Embracing Sect."

Lin Fan still did not conceal anything. In fact, he had vaguely begun to suspect something.

Given that this master had just displayed the means to see straight into one's heart, he should not need so much information merely to locate someone.

Clearly, the person before them either knew Fan Jianqiang and wished to vet them on his behalf.

Or...

Could it really be such a coincidence?

"Moon Embracing Sect?"

Fan Jianqiang smiled faintly and shook his head. "One must know that a fine bird chooses the tree on which to roost. If my calculations are correct, the person you seek has rather decent talent. If he wishes to enter an Immortal Gate, then even if he cannot enter a holy land or a first-rate renowned sect, joining one of the better-ranked second-rate sects would not be difficult."

"So why would he choose the... Moon Embracing Sect, at the very bottom of the third rate?"

"If you ask me, you should give up."

"If your Moon Embracing Sect were at its peak, there might still be some possibility."

"But alas~~~"

"Or rather, what makes you think you can succeed?"

Lin Fan smiled as well.

"If the summit cannot hold us, then we shall walk the road we came by once more."

"Those words may sound arrogant, perhaps even laughable to you, but we have always been striding forward along this road with our heads held high, and we have already traveled some distance."

"As for what we have? At present, we have no particular strengths—only this sincere heart."

"Besides, as you said, if he wished to join a sect, he should have entered one long ago. Why is he still a Rogue Cultivator even now?"

"Clearly, he too is waiting. Perhaps for an opportunity, perhaps for a suitable sect. Of course, it may also be that he does not wish to join a sect and be bound by one."

"But... I want to try."

"Trying may not bring success, but if you do not try, failure is certain. Isn't that so?"

Fan Jianqiang was moved.

Especially by that line—if the summit cannot hold us, then we shall walk the road we came by once more. His expression changed again and again, and the way he looked at Lin Fan became extraordinarily complicated.

Melancholy, shock, disbelief, and even... a faint trace of delight.

Countless times, he seemed about to speak, only to stop himself. In the end, he still held it back.

He merely took a deep breath and said, "I've calculated it."

"Oh?"

Wu Xingyun's face lit up. "Where is this person?"

Though she did not know what background such a person possessed, if he matched one of the conditions in the sect rules, then he was surely no ordinary figure.

"Far away at the edge of the sky, yet right before our eyes."

Fan Jianqiang murmured.

Wu Xingyun froze.

Lin Fan, however, smiled. "So it really was you."

"How did you find me?" Fan Jianqiang asked, puzzled. "My art of disguise should be fairly good."

"Fate."

"You are fated with our sect~!"