"Fairy He, have mercy and tell my son what his future holds!"
"I was here first!"
"Move aside! Lord Chen entered the Fairy Temple first. Who dares block his way?"
When Huang Shang and the other two arrived at the Fairy Temple, they found chaos everywhere. The government's patrol soldiers were trying to maintain order, but they couldn't stop the fervor.
People packed the grounds, all waving their arms and shouting themselves hoarse.
A full-blown cult gathering.
"Have they gone mad?"
Nightingale was dumbfounded.
Western fortune-tellers traveled from place to place with circuses, but even the most famous ones never received treatment this outrageous.
In fact, divine physiognomists had held high status throughout China's dynasties.
In the distant Han dynasty, there was Xu Fu; in the Tang dynasty, Yuan Tiangang and Li Chunfeng; and more recently, Mai Daoist, the foremost master of physiognomy.
He was just a common woman, yet thanks to her reputation for miraculous divination, even great men of letters like Ouyang Xiu had taken an interest in her. He had even made a special note of her in the Collection of Ancient Records.
"Silence!"
As the crowd swelled and threatened to get out of hand, a rich, gentle voice suddenly rang out from within the temple, carrying clearly to every ear.
"We thank Fairy He!"
The people, who had been snarling at one another and pleading desperately, froze for a moment, then dropped to their knees as one.
The disorderly scene snapped into perfect order, making it all the more stirring.
Huang Shang and Wu Que exchanged a glance.
That voice wasn't some immortal art or divine miracle. It was a use of sound waves much like the Buddhist Lion's Roar.
Her mastery of true qi was consummate—far beyond what an ordinary martial artist could manage.
Could this Fairy He actually be a martial-world expert?
Wu Que reacted at once, his eyes turning. "Brother, this woman is pretending to be a fairy and spreading heretical nonsense. If anything goes wrong, it could bring disaster upon Uncle and Aunt. We have to take precautions before it's too late!"
Reincarnators loved nothing more than conflict. If the characters in a story all got along, they had no way to profit from the situation.
Now that they'd discovered Fairy He was concealing her true abilities, it didn't matter whether she was good or bad. They could slap a damning accusation on her first and see what happened.
Since Huang Shang's family was involved, Nightingale didn't dare argue either. She nodded in agreement.
This was exactly what Huang Shang wanted. He nodded immediately. "Good. Let's find out what this fairy is really up to!"
Once Fairy He's voice had calmed the crowd, a maid in a green robe came out and began arranging the order of those who would enter the temple for a divination.
Huang Shang and the other two watched coldly and saw that Fairy He had arranged everything with great care.
She gave one reading every quarter-hour, and the number of places was limited, but they weren't allocated solely according to how much money people paid.
She looked after the wealthy gentry while still giving the common folk hope.
With such a well-rounded approach, it was no wonder she enjoyed such an enormous reputation.
"There are too many people here. Let's come back tonight."
Seeing the fervor on their faces, Wu Que backed away.
Even a star-ranked expert wouldn't dare make trouble in a place like this.
The three returned to the county town, found a respectable inn, washed away the fatigue of their journey, and rested.
When night fell, they looked out the window and saw that the streets were deserted. Only the distant crowing of roosters and barking of dogs could be heard, a stark contrast to the night markets of Kaifeng Prefecture.
Only at this hour did Lingling County return to its proper state.
"Let's go!"
Wu Que took the lead. Nightingale produced a flying broom and looked at Huang Shang with a playful smile, hoping for a chance to share a close ride with him. But he took out the Zhuge Pen and swiftly wrote two characters—
Heaven!
Mountain!
Heaven above the mountain!
The Retreat Hexagram!
Heaven represented the noble-minded; the mountain, the petty. As the petty grew in power, the noble withdrew. One preserved oneself by seeing the truth and keeping out of harm's way. Thus, the hexagram was called Retreat.
Look at that. A man of culture could make even running away sound so grand.
The Retreat Hexagram ranked thirty-third among the sixty-four hexagrams, and the Great Power Hexagram ranked thirty-fourth. Lately, Huang Shang had been practicing those two hexagrams: one for attack, the other for evasion. He had made them his main techniques.
As the Retreat Hexagram took effect, Literary Qi flowed outward. Huang Shang felt his body grow light, as though he could ride the wind and race along with it.
Wu Que's lightness skills, learned from the Moving Flower Palace, were already graceful and carefree. Compared with the Retreat Hexagram, though, they seemed rather conventional.
But Huang Shang knew his own limits. He was still exploring the technique and couldn't yet match top-tier lightness skills refined through countless trials.
Fortunately, he didn't need to take the lead himself.
Reincarnators might not be skilled at much else, but when it came to probing a situation, they were absolute experts.
Wu Que made his way to the Fairy Temple. He took out a white-backed item card, swept it across his right eye, and sent an invisible beam of light shooting out to scan the temple from top to bottom.
In his field of vision, the earth and stone vanished, replaced by lines connecting points and a thermal image.
The secrets were instantly laid bare.
"There are two people inside the temple, and a long secret passage beneath it!"
Wu Que had figured it out. He led the way to a small hill several li away and soon found a concealed entrance—the exit of the secret passage.
Huang Shang feigned surprise. "Brother Hua, how did you know there was a secret passage here?"
Wu Que wore a modest expression. "A trivial skill. I hope I haven't made a fool of myself, little brother."
Nightingale held back her reply. Only after the three had filed inside did she raise her hand. A soft, gentle light spread ahead of them.
As a mage, she had to be good at lighting spells, whatever else she lacked. Though she was a witch, she had kept up that tradition.
Now she was not only lighting the way, but also disabling the mechanisms throughout the passage.
When Nightingale noticed Huang Shang looking over, a modest smile appeared on her face too. "A trivial skill. I hope I haven't made a fool of myself, young master."
Wu Que rolled his eyes.
The three hurried forward and reached the secret chamber in just a quarter of an hour.
The Fairy Temple stood directly above them.
Huang Shang was secretly alarmed.
Even a story character like the Sweeping Monk couldn't simply glance at the ground outside, discover a secret passage, enter it, and turn the tables by spying on his enemies' secrets.
Reincarnators had an endless array of methods. Their advantage wasn't limited to combat; their various support abilities were even harder to guard against.
He absolutely couldn't let a little gain make him careless during his years in hiding.
Once they were in the secret chamber, Wu Que gestured to the other two, then leaped up and clung to the ceiling like a gecko, pressing his ear to it to listen closely.
The entrance to the passage was directly overhead, very close. He could hear two people breathing.
One person's breath was long and faint, almost imperceptible—clearly a first-rate martial-world expert with profound inner power. The other's skill was far weaker, but the rhythm of her breathing showed that her training was no ordinary inheritance.
The first was clearly Fairy He, and the second was her maid.
It was the dead of night, with no outsiders around. Only now would they reveal their true faces.
The maid was tallying the accounts. "Today's proceeds came to two thousand eight hundred strings of cash. As usual, two thousand strings will be handed over to the cult..."
There was no reply. Fairy He must have nodded.
The maid continued, "This month, we acquired fifteen mu of farmland in Lingling County, Yong Prefecture; twenty-two mu in Qiyang County; and thirty mu in Dong'an County. The transfers have all been completed. In Tan Prefecture..."
As he listened, Wu Que's eyes flickered.
If they were only after money, that would be one thing. But Fairy He was also acquiring land throughout the prefectures of Jinghu South Circuit.
What the maid said next was even more shocking: the expenses for cultivating ties with local men of influence, itemized clearly, one by one.
Once the report was complete, Fairy He spoke. "You've worked hard. I pity the people of this world; their woes are many."
The maid replied reverently, "I pity the people of this world; their woes are many."
The familiar scripture reached Wu Que's ears, and he nearly laughed aloud. "So it's the Ming Cult, devoted to rebellion for a thousand years. Talk about a pillow being delivered just when you're sleepy!"
Thanks to the reader "Baby Rain Butterfly" for the 10,000-coin reward, and thanks to the readers "Tianjing Huntian Baojian," "Blood Refining Heavenly Law," "Blood Snow Weeping," and "Perfect 0 Future" for their tips.
Before you continue