[Gathering Spirit Stones, Redeeming [Know Fortune and Misfortune], Reading Your Own Fortune]

[[Age 21]: With your Heaven-grade Qi Refining cultivation and memories of the previous simulations, you began accumulating wealth efficiently.]

[The minor, unclaimed opportunities that had nowhere to hide beneath the [Eye of Illusion] were no longer beyond your reach.]

[Your [Middle Qi Refining] Rank was enough to "hold down" these opportunities and secure them firmly in your pocket.]

[Coupled with the [Twice the Results with Half the Effort] Talent, which always let you find the optimal solution and avoid detours, your rate of Spirit Stones accumulation reached a new peak.]

[After all, a hundred thousand Spirit Stones was a fortune to someone in the Embryonic Breath Realm, but to a Qi Refining cultivator, it was merely starting capital.]

[By the end of the year, you had amassed nearly a hundred million Spirit Stones!]

[Occasionally, you felt a sense of déjà vu, as though you were working and saving to buy a house in your previous life, and could not help remarking:]

["Why does this Cultivation World also make you work yourself to the bone, completing tasks and saving resources like a wage worker? How strange."]

[[Age 23]: Over three years, you had not slackened in the slightest.]

[While frantically taking on tasks and plotting to seize opportunities, you also opened up an entirely new source of income.]

[—using the [Eye of Illusion] to offer "fate-reading" services.]

[For you, this was merely the effortless act of checking other people's profiles, but you claimed to have cultivated Spellcraft similar to [Fate Sight].]

[Business was sparse at first, but after you successfully helped several Embryonic Breath Realm cultivators avoid certain death (with your [Qi Refining] Rank, interfering with the destinies of those in the [Embryonic Breath Realm] was relatively easy),]

[your reputation quickly spread among low-level cultivators.]

[The name "Fate-Seer Layman" spread like wildfire, your bookings filled up, and spirit stones poured in like a rolling snowball.]

[Even [Early Qi Refining] cultivators began coming to seek you out, and you offered them guidance as you saw fit.]

[Under this highly efficient money-making model, your wealth swelled rapidly, and the Spirit Stones in your Storage Ring reached an astonishing total of five hundred and forty million!]

[With your goal achieved, you immediately set out for the [Treasure Pavilion] once more.]

[At the front desk, you did not see the Foundation Establishment steward from three years ago.]

[The new steward informed you that, shortly after your departure, the previous steward had hurriedly applied to resign,]

[and supposedly became somewhat deranged afterward, often muttering things like "By the True Lord above."]

[You found this utterly baffling and guessed that something might have gone wrong with the steward's cultivation. You did not investigate further, nor did you connect the matter to yourself.]

[You went straight to the second floor, paid five hundred million Spirit Stones, and successfully redeemed the Spellcraft Blueprints recording [Know Fortune and Misfortune].]

[With the jade slip in hand, you eagerly found a quiet room and began cultivating.]

[The [Twice the Results with Half the Effort] Talent once again worked its miraculous effect!]

[Your profound foundation in [Heaven-grade Qi Refining] also provided an excellent base.]

[An ordinary person might have needed years, or even decades, to gain an initial grasp of this mysterious Spellcraft derived from the embryonic form of a Divine Ability, but you managed it in just one day!]

[In an instant, you felt as though another layer had been added to your vision.]

[The world before your eyes seemed to have been veiled in a layer.]

[The world before your eyes seemed to have been veiled in a faint layer of flowing "qi," and you could vaguely "see" the weak radiance representing fortune entwined around other people.]

[At the same time, you gained a deeper understanding of [Know Fortune and Misfortune].]

[This spell had three stages:]

[Stage one: reading others' fortune—allowed you to observe the direction of other people's fortune in the near future.]

[Stage two: reading your own fortune—allowed you to look within and understand your own fortune, misfortune, calamities, and blessings.]

[Stage three: reading the fortune of all things—allowed you to discern the potential fortune and risks of objects, regions, and even particular actions!]

[You had successfully entered the first stage.]

[Having gained an initial grasp of the first stage of [Know Fortune and Misfortune], you could not wait to test its effects.]

[Just then, a regular client—an Embryonic Breath Realm cultivator—came to visit, hoping to receive guidance from the "Fate-Seer Layman."]

[Instead of using the [Eye of Illusion], you quietly activated your newly cultivated [Know Fortune and Misfortune] Spellcraft and turned your gaze toward this cultivator.]

[In your "vision," the cultivator was shrouded in a dim, gray-black current of qi, like black clouds bearing down overhead, giving off an oppressive, ominous feeling.]

[Bad luck clings to him. He may face disaster soon, you immediately concluded.]

[To verify this, you discreetly activated the [Eye of Illusion] and checked his profile.]

[The profile showed that he would indeed encounter a "death trap" in the near future, but it could not convey the aura of imminent "bad luck" as directly as [Know Fortune and Misfortune].]

[You were quite satisfied with the effects of [Know Fortune and Misfortune]. Outwardly, you followed your usual practice and offered him an inscrutable warning:]

["In the coming days, stillness is preferable to action. Keep to your place, and you may yet avoid this calamity."]

[Then you sent him on his way.]

[You knew that if you could cultivate [Know Fortune and Misfortune] to the second stage,]

[you might be able to "see" more clearly the specific form his bad luck would take. Unfortunately, you could not do so yet.]

["Easy to begin, difficult to master," you sighed, estimating that at your current pace,]

[with the help of the [Twice the Results with Half the Effort] Talent, you should be able to break through to the second stage within half a year at most.]

[[Age 24]: Your estimate proved remarkably accurate. With the support of [Twice the Results with Half the Effort],]

[you devoted yourself to cultivating [Know Fortune and Misfortune] and, sure enough, successfully broke through after half a year, entering the second stage—reading your own fortune!]

[The instant you entered this stage, you felt a qualitative change in your perception.]

[Not only could you observe other people's fortune more clearly, but from those currents of fortune, you could even]

[vaguely "read" fragments of specific events that might occur within the next three days (such as arguments, loss of property, ambushes, and so on).]

[More importantly, you could clearly feel that your own "[Rank]" seemed to have been nourished by this Spellcraft derived from the embryonic form of a Divine Ability, receiving a subtle improvement.]

[Though the improvement was slight, you believed that once your cultivation broke through to [Late Qi Refining], this small advantage in Rank would be amplified and become significant.]

[With a little anticipation, you turned the gaze of [Know Fortune and Misfortune] upon yourself for the first time.]

[—Death qi permeated everything. Your days were numbered!]

["???"] ```