Proving Heavenly Fate

Time rewound to ten breaths earlier, deep in Cangmang Mountain near Jiaqing County.

This was a world of Demonic Beasts, a forbidden zone for humankind.

Suddenly, a massive shadow, nearly several dozen zhang long, swept over the dense forest.

Looking up,

high in the sky, a gigantic Demonic Beast, nearly several dozen zhang from head to tail, soared and circled through the air. It had a dragon's head and an eagle's body.

All at once, the beast seemed to sense something. A dread from deep within its bloodline made its heart sink.

It let out a long, sudden cry, nearly a wail of grief.

Its bloodline had died.

Its bloodline was too powerful and ancient. Among all the birds in the mountain forest, there was no creature that could mate with it and pass on its bloodline.

So for a long time, it had adopted a cast-the-net-wide strategy, mating with as many female birds as possible.

Most of its offspring could not inherit its full bloodline, but at least some traces would remain. Perhaps one day a genius might be born among them, capable of perfectly inheriting its bloodline in full.

As a result, nearly every bird in the mountain forest carried some trace of its bloodline.

Just now, it had sensed that one of its descendants, whose blood carried a relatively high concentration of its own, had died.

Though this sort of thing happened all the time,

for some reason, today it felt inexplicably sorrowful, and let out a long cry.

"Damn it! Shut up!"

A furious scolding rang out from beneath the largest peak deep in Cangmang Mountain, instantly echoing across the sky.

A flicker of fear flashed through the dragon-headed eagle-bodied Demonic Beast's eyes. It promptly clamped its beak shut and raced away, but not before glancing at the peak from which the voice had come.

Beneath the peak, inside a vast cavern,

a pair of molten-gold eyes suddenly opened. Their strange, vertical pupils brimmed with weariness, yet somehow radiated a majesty like Majestic Heavenly Might.

Not long after opening, the eyes closed again.

In the darkness, a colossal figure, nearly as large as the mountain itself, could just barely be seen turning over.

In an instant, the earth shook and the mountains swayed.

Violent tremors spread out from the peak, rolling farther and farther into the distance.

Jiaqing County's inner city, West Market.

After the aftershocks passed, the three pebbles that had been inside the circle on the ground were nowhere to be seen.

Only a deep crack remained in the earth.

Lin Yi grinned at Master Wu. "Master, looks like I won."

At the same time, he quickly deactivated the Destiny talent, Strong Luck, from [Know Heavenly Fate].

[Destiny Points: 17000]

In just thirty seconds,

Lin Yi had lost a full three thousand Destiny Points.

His heart ached.

Master Wu: "..."

Master Wu took a good while to react. Then he turned around, his face dark, and asked with a rare seriousness,

"How did you do it?"

It was too strange. Far too strange.

He was a dignified Seventh-grade martial artist,

a Seventh-grade Corpse Puppet Path Qi-cultivation cultivator.

He had given it everything he had, yet still could not stop three pebbles from landing inside a circle five meters away.

"Just luck, that's all." Lin Yi smiled. "The workings of fate are beyond us. I suppose the Treasure Artifact and I were meant to meet."

Luck?

How could Master Wu possibly believe in such a thing?

In a mere ten breaths,

a hunting eagle, a coincidental master and servant, exploding firecrackers... even that final earthquake.

A string of accidents aimed at him had come out of nowhere in those brief ten breaths.

How could it possibly be coincidence or luck?

There was something strange about this kid!

Master Wu narrowed his eyes, his expression shifting between light and dark. As he pondered, his True Qi unconsciously surged, forming a pressure around them that made one's heart quail.

After a few moments' thought, he flicked his sleeve, and the Firewood Staff-like Long Saber slid out.

Lin Yi did not step forward to take it. The pressure that made one's heart quail still hung over the entire stall.

"Give me one reason. Why do you need this saber so badly?"

Lin Yi thought for three seconds, then smiled. "Because I think this is the best thing on the stall. After all, even you were willing to keep it for yourself, Master."

It was a perfectly plain and simple reason.

Master Wu said nothing, but neither accepted nor refused.

Lin Yi did not say anything more.

By now, Lin Yi had fully understood Master Wu's strength.

But he still had not figured out what kind of person Master Wu was.

If the man had no shame, couldn't take a loss, and decided to go back on his word, Lin Yi really would have no way to deal with him.

The tension between the two of them grew taut.

Tap, tap, tap...

The soft, rustling sound of footsteps suddenly came from the mouth of the alley.

Lin Yi assumed it was just a passerby and paid it no mind.

Only when the footsteps sounded behind him and then abruptly stopped did he react. A moment later, a rather flippant voice called out,

"Stall owner! How much for that saber? I'll take it."

Lin Yi glanced over. He couldn't help freezing, his pupils contracting.

The boy looked a few years older than him, around sixteen or seventeen. He wore plain, coarse clothes, and his features were clean and handsome. His eyes, however, were exceptionally clear and bright, fixed intently on the saber on the stall.

The boy's qi and blood surged like a rainbow, no weaker than Lin Yi's. He seemed to be a Martial Artist too.

But what truly caught Lin Yi's attention was

the boy's rich Aura of Fortune.

Its strength was on par with Jiang Er's, the man who had sold Lin Yi the Treasure Fish earlier.

At the sight of the newcomer,

Master Wu, who had still been hesitating, couldn't help brightening.

He had an idea.

"Sure... But this young man wants to buy the saber too. Why don't you two discuss it between yourselves?" Master Wu said.

Having lived in Jiaqing County for years,

Master Wu knew two kinds of people in the city very well.

One kind was those with formidable strength, at least at the Seventh-grade Qi Entry Realm.

The other was those gifted geniuses brimming with talent.

Lin Yi's strange luck today had been one he'd overlooked.

But the other boy who had just arrived was no stranger to him.

He was also the sole personal disciple of a Seventh-grade Qi Entry Realm expert in the city.

His name was Liu Qingnu, and his talent and ability ranked among the top five in the city.

In fact, the Treasure Artifact Master Wu was selling today had been meant specifically for Liu Qingnu.

But Master Wu narrowed his eyes and kept his attention fixed mainly on Lin Yi.

In Master Wu's eyes, Lin Yi's talent and ability were surely inferior to Liu Qingnu's.

But there was something else, something stranger, about Lin Yi.

That thing was so mysterious and hard to grasp that people called it—Fate and Fortune.

At the thought, Master Wu's lips curled slightly.

This saber had no ordinary origins.

If you represent Heavenly Fate, then prove it to me!