The magic array lit up, and the gold coins on the raised platform began to melt rapidly.
Countless lights and images appeared, looking like scenes of Alchemy City filmed from various angles. Many blurry figures constantly coalesced and faded away.
Harvey said excitedly, "It worked! I've connected to destiny!"
Harvey had indeed improved greatly, but controlling such a powerful magic array was still a bit beyond him.
After all those images appeared, he felt as if a great mountain had come crashing down on him. Enormous pressure bore down on him, making his heart race and his body tremble as if he were shaking.
Amber Xiu immediately reminded him, "Don't resist. You're capturing fragments of the future, not resisting destiny. Don't you believe in destiny? Death will come sooner or later, so does it really matter if it comes now?"
Harvey gave a bitter smile. No matter how much one accepted destiny, it was impossible to remain indifferent to death. It was easy to say, but hard to do.
Harvey could only try his best to concentrate, searching for something he wanted in those constantly shifting images.
"The secrets of the sewers..."
Harvey silently repeated those words, and the flickering images began to slow down. The city scenes gradually diminished, while the dark, damp sewers occupied more and more of the images.
"Not bad!" Amber Xiu praised him.
This kid really did have quite a talent. Who knew who his teacher was? It was extremely difficult to enter the School of Prophecy. To have such a clever student and not keep him close for proper instruction, but instead release him to serve as an advisor to a fallen little lord, was truly a waste of talent.
With Harvey's efforts, the images changed more and more slowly. The lights and shadows began to freeze, turning into a fragment that flashed with blue radiance.
Harvey said excitedly, "It worked! This is destiny!"
The fragment seemed to have been secretly excavated from the river of time, endlessly replaying the same scene.
A blurry figure appeared inside the sewers, holding a glowing divine artifact. A powerful force descended from the heavens, pierced through the surface, and entered the figure's body. A divine spark began to condense, while the phantoms of countless gods appeared. Amid their blessings and curses, a mortal ascended into godhood.
The scene was extremely detailed. Aside from the person who became a god being blurry and the properties of the divine spark being impossible to make out, every other detail was incredibly realistic, as if it were truly going to happen.
Harvey was about to disperse his magic and end the ritual when Amber Xiu said, "Don't relax. This is a false destiny."
"False destiny?" Harvey asked in surprise.
Amber Xiu explained, "That's right. Those lunatics in Alchemy City created a false destiny to mislead every living being with prophetic abilities. Earlier, I encountered a group of Druids and a hag in the sewers. They had all been lured into the sewers by the prophecy."
"Prophecy is merely a glimpse into destiny. You can't expect every peeper to see the same scene through the same peephole unless someone deliberately faked it."
Harvey had never imagined there could be such a thing: creating a false future and deceiving every prophet. What kind of magic could do that? It had probably already surpassed the legendary tier, hadn't it?
"What do we do now?" Harvey asked. He could not even distinguish whether the prophecy was real or false, much less find the truth hidden within it.
"Use your power! The power of the School of Prophecy! Don't tell me you haven't prepared anything these past few days. Whether it was for escaping prison or killing me, you should have prepared plenty of futures!" Amber Xiu said.
Harvey immediately felt awkward. It turned out that all his little schemes had been under Amber Xiu's observation.
Preparing a future was a rather mysterious concept. In reality, it was indeed quite mysterious.
A Mage from the School of Prophecy could use meditation to give destiny physical form, such as turning it into a twenty-sided die.
Before the future arrived, they could throw the die and fix the result.
Then, they could use the number rolled by the die to replace the outcome of the future. A die with a high number could replace an unfavorable future and turn it into something good, while a die with a low number could replace a fortunate future and turn it into something bad.
Even more absurdly, the Dice of Destiny could replace not only one's own future, but someone else's as well.
When Amber Xiu had encountered the hag in the sewers earlier, he had used this method to replace the future in which she teleported randomly, making her teleport forever to nearby locations and ensuring that she could never escape.
This was the power of the School of Prophecy: modifying outcomes, just like a god.
No one could say for certain whether replacing a future counted as altering destiny, or whether the act of replacement itself had been predestined.
Amber Xiu had conducted many tests in the past. The only result was that he had lost his sense of direction without obtaining any answer.
And now, Amber Xiu wanted Harvey to use his own dice to replace this future.
If this was a false prophecy, then the Dice of Destiny could smash it apart.
Harvey took a deep breath and began to gather his power.
Dice radiating starlight appeared one after another, circling and dancing around Harvey. This was the physical manifestation of his prophetic power.
Seeing this, Amber Xiu was not particularly pleased. He thought unhappily, Tsk, only five dice... According to my plan, he needs at least seven dice to smash this false destiny safely.
Harvey had no idea that Amber Xiu's evaluation of him had dropped. He was now concentrating completely on controlling his Dice of Destiny, trying to use their power to alter the prophetic fragment before him.
A die flew out and fell into the fragment, stirring up nothing more than ripples.
The scene inside the fragment remained unchanged. The blurry figure still became a god, as if nothing had happened.
When Harvey saw this, he steeled himself and hurled the remaining four Dice of Destiny at it.
This time, the false prophetic fragment finally changed. Countless cracks appeared, and then it exploded completely.
Amber Xiu sighed. Dozens of Dice of Destiny appeared around him, blasting all the shattered futures into even smaller fragments. The entire laboratory was soon filled with a rain of light.
After the endless shards of light scattered, they gathered once more, becoming seven tiny crystals that reflected different futures.
Amber Xiu sighed. In the end, he still had to make a move.
But he had already given up on the path of prophecy. Every time he used the power of the School of Prophecy, it became more difficult for him to embark on a new path. He would forever remain a watered-down legend.
But now that he had used it, there was no time for lamentation. Amber Xiu hurriedly examined the new futures.
On the first fragment, Amber Xiu saw a small mountain of gold. More than a million gold coins had appeared inside his laboratory.
Excellent. Wonderful. Heaven's will had decreed it—he was destined to become fabulously wealthy!
But what did this have to do with the sewers?
On the second fragment appeared a strange beauty with an air of nobility, but skin as white as paper. She was holding Amber Xiu's head in her arms... only his head.
The thing Amber Xiu feared most had happened.
If a future that benefited him was heaven's will, then for a future that harmed him, was he supposed to say, "My fate is mine to command, not heaven's"?
(The End of This Chapter)
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