"Brother Xie, how much of a chance do you think this man has?"
Above the Gray Pool, the two stood in the shadows, gazing toward the horizon as the question drifted out.
Hearing this, the black-robed man checked the conversation rather than answering at once, asking doubtfully:
"Did His Lordship leave any word?"
"No, he did not."
A shrill voice came from beneath the Cone Hat as he shook his head:
"But though the Bureau Lord passed down no immortal edict, sometimes silence is the best answer. Let him struggle away."
The white-robed Impermanence official shook his head without hesitation, clearly having no confidence whatsoever in Kui Guanzhi.
"His divine powers look pure and refined to me. He has cultivated painstakingly for centuries, and he knows to draw upon the imagery of the Southern Peak to prove his Dao. I imagine he has some wisdom in the Dao, so his chances of refining golden nature are hardly low..."
"As for attaining the Dao and ascending to its seat, even granting him half a chance in ten would be generous."
Though the two Impermanence officials did not walk the mortal world, they were constantly at His Lordship's side. What they had absorbed through constant exposure had given them a truly peerless eye.
"The path of Tribulation Qi takes ill fortune and decline as its substance, and disaster as its application. Bearing, accumulating, answering, descending—each corresponds to a calamity."
"'Heavenly calamity qi is deficient.' Why is it called deficient? At its root, it was affected by what happened to fortune qi back then. The two are opposite faces of the same whole, so it, too, was left incomplete."
"The Tribulation Qi that exists now seeks a station its virtue cannot sustain, and remains incomplete. It neither coerces nor seizes, nor can it