Preparation, Meeting Chen Qingyan, and a Decision

[To add even the slightest weight to the scales of success, you took out everything you had left.]

[You entered the Treasure Pavilion once more and purchased a Heaven-tier Spellcraft called Wind-Listening Ears.]

[Its main effect was to greatly enhance perception, significantly improving both your hearing and the range and precision of your divine sense.]

[The price was as painfully steep as ever—one hundred million low-grade Spirit Stones.]

[With Twice the Results with Half the Effort and your Heaven-grade Qi Refining foundation, you spent a month bringing it to minor attainment. Though you had yet to reach major attainment, it was enough for the next stage of your plan]

[—to pinpoint Chen Qingyan's arrival before the Secret Realm in the Myriad Beasts Mountain Range opened.]

[[Age 25]: This year was an ordeal for you.]

[The "pervading aura of death" in the Fortune above your head had not diminished in the slightest. Instead, like endlessly gathering storm clouds, it grew heavier and darker, pressing down until you could barely breathe.]

[Strangely, however, the fatal calamity you expected still did not arrive. This deathly stillness before the storm only left you trembling with fear all day, as though treading on thin ice.]

[At last, you endured until the day the Secret Realm in the Myriad Beasts Mountain Range was due to open.]

[Carrying the "entrance fee" of one hundred thousand low-grade Spirit Stones, you arrived early and staked out the area near the registration point.]

[For several days, you hid among the crowd like the most patient of hunters, keeping Wind-Listening Ears Spellcraft active at all times as you sifted through every surrounding sound and aura.]

[On the final day of registration, a familiar figure finally entered the range of your perception—Chen Qingyan!]

[With Wind-Listening Ears enhancing your senses, you could clearly perceive the full, surging aura around him. He had unmistakably reached the peak of the Embryonic Breath Realm.]

[You had only one chance!]

[You hesitated no longer. Without caring whether hidden eyes were watching, you pushed straight through the crowd and called out loudly:]

["Chen Qingyan!"]

[Hearing your voice, he turned around. An unmistakable flicker of astonishment crossed his face when he saw you.]

["Someone from the Chen Family?" He frowned slightly, looking puzzled.]

[Members of the same lineage shared a subtle resonance of bloodline and Fortune, especially in a lineage whose fortunes were linked under the protection of a Foundation Establishment Ancestor.]

[He confirmed that you belonged to the Chen Family, so he felt little wariness, only greater confusion.]

[You hurried to his side. Before he could ask anything, you immediately transmitted your voice through divine sense, delivering the words you had prepared—the words most likely to move him:]

["Have you ever heard of Hidden Dragon in the Abyss?"]

[You no longer cared whether the Blazing Fire Sect's Golden Core Powerhouse might detect those words.]

[With certain death before you, too many misgivings would only hasten your end!]

[Having spoken, you turned and walked away without hesitation or the slightest lingering attachment.]

[You were certain that those words alone would be enough to make him follow.]

[Sure enough, Chen Qingyan remained outwardly calm, but a ripple passed through the depths of his eyes.]

[After a brief moment of thought, he quietly followed you to the secluded room you had prepared.]

[As soon as he set up soundproofing Restrictive Wards, he went straight to the point, his gaze seeming to pierce the deathly aura swirling around you:]

["You carry 'Death Luck,' and it grows stronger by the day. Is that why you want my help?" His tone was frighteningly calm.]

[You were surprised that he could see your Fortune too, but remembering that he was a True Lord Reincarnation, you understood. Struggling to remain composed, you nodded.]

[Chen Qingyan studied you, his gaze growing sharper and more searching:]

["I can consider helping you. But before that, you must tell me your true identity and purpose."]

[You had prepared your explanation long ago. "I can briefly glimpse the Future. I once saw you in the Future..."]

["Stop making things up." Before you could finish, he coldly interrupted you. "I don't believe you."]

[You tried to argue, but impatience crossed his face. "There's no need to keep inventing stories.]

[I'll assume for now that you know something of my origins. But the moment you claim to 'see the Future,' I know what level you're at."]

[He paused, his tone carrying a trace of mockery and gravity. "Is the Future so easily glimpsed?"]

[The True Lord who governs that path and achieved Dao Unification with the Future is still alive. Unless that being deliberately allowed you to see it..."]

[His gaze swept over you with a hint of pity. "It seems some being is setting a trap for you... but that no longer matters.]

[The fact that you came to me means both of us are already pieces in the game."]

[Suddenly, as though sensing something, he carefully examined your foundation. For the first time, clear surprise appeared on his face:]

["Heaven-grade Qi Refining?" Then his confusion deepened. "Yet I can't sense the Heaven and Earth Wonder you refined? How strange!"]

[His eyes became complicated and unreadable. Finally, he seemed to reach a decision and sighed softly:]

[“Very well. Since you are a [Chen Family descendant], I'll lend you a hand while I'm at it. Consider it the forging of a karmic bond.”]

[You understood the gist of his words.]

[Your plea for help, your very appearance—might they too be part of some being's calculations?]

[But that no longer mattered.]

[What mattered was that Chen Qingyan was willing to pull you out!]

[At last, a faint flame of hope rekindled in your despairing heart.]

[“If you want my help, enter the [Myriad Beasts Mountain Range] with me.”]

[Leaving you with those final words, Chen Qingyan turned and departed, giving you no room to bargain or ask for details.]

[Without the slightest hesitation, you immediately agreed.]

[Going meant nine chances of death and one of survival; staying meant ten chances of death and none of survival! The choice required no thought at all.]

[Truthfully, deep down, you felt a peculiar trust in Chen Qingyan.]

[It was not merely because he was your only remaining hope. It also came from the Eye of Illusion's assessment of him—"unrivaled talent" and "accepting his fate only to repay karmic debts."]

[Those words made you feel that he was no mere schemer, but a complicated man caught in immense tragedy and destiny who still tried to uphold certain boundaries.]

[Now, you only had to wait three days. In three days, the secret realm would open, and the moment that decided Life and Death would arrive.]

[For a moment, you had the urge to tell him everything you knew]

[—that the Myriad Beasts Mountain Range was a death trap laid by the Blazing Fire Sect's Golden Core Powerhouse, that his identity from his previous life might have been exposed, and all the rest.]

[But with the words on the tip of your tongue, you forcibly swallowed them back down.]

[You considered it calmly:]

[First, he might already have noticed. With the knowledge and intellect of a True Lord Reincarnation, he could not possibly be wholly unprepared for such an obvious trap.]

[If he chose to enter it, he must have his own reasons and arrangements.]

[Second, you feared unforeseen changes. If you rashly exposed the truth, you might disrupt his plans, or...]

[Anger the Golden Core Powerhouse behind the scenes, prompting him to act early and eliminate unpredictable elements. That would truly be seeking your own death.]

[Before absolute power, information was not necessarily an advantage. It might instead become a summons to your grave.]

[Remaining silent and following his lead might be the "safest" choice available.]

[These three days would be the longest, most agonizing wait of your life.]

[The deathly Fortune above your head hung like the sword of Damocles, while the secret realm ahead was a known dragon's pool and tiger's den.]

[But you had no other choice. You could only place Everything your hopes in that reincarnated True Lord who bore the [Hidden Dragon in the Abyss] Fate Pattern, and embark on this journey with your life as the stake.]