Seeking fortune and avoiding calamity... seeking fortune brought calamity, avoiding calamity lost fortune!
Within the Clear River Commandery.
Inside an empty courtyard.
Two ragged boys sat blankly in the courtyard.
One of them was like a puppet, his body stiff.
Apart from faint breathing, which proved that the other person was still alive, there was no other movement.
"Whoosh!"
Sudden.
A soft whooshing sound rang out.
Lu Li's figure appeared out of thin air.
"An immortal... an immortal!"
"You're back..."
The boy called Goudan was startled when he saw Lu Li suddenly appear, and quickly sat up straight.
Seeing this, Lu Li smiled slightly.
Suppressing his inner joy, he put on a kind smile.
"Foolish child, yet you call yourself an immortal?"
"Uh... Dog... Goudan greets Master!"
Goudan called out awkwardly, imitating the mannerisms of the storyteller at the alley entrance, and clumsily clasped his hands in a fist and bow.
He seemed to feel uneasy about giving up, and then knelt down with a thud.
He kowtowed three times to Lu Li.
"Hehe... Good disciple, get up quickly."
Lu Li waved his sleeve and helped him up.
He took some food out of his Storage Bag and tossed it to the other person.
"My disciple, you are frail, please eat something first."
"Let me clear your brother's meridians, then we can have a proper chat."
After saying that, Lu Li handed over some beef jerky and protein bars.
They stroked the boy, who looked like a puppet, and lifted him up.
The boy's gaze was vacant, but Lu Li knew that the boy could clearly perceive everything happening around him at this moment.
He simply cannot speak, see, or move.
"Don't panic, your brother has already agreed to become my disciple."
"I'll first clear your meridians and help you recover. Afterwards, if you wish, you can become my disciple."
"You don't want to... I'll give you some money and food myself, go back and take care of your godmother."
She whispered some words of comfort to the boy.
Lu Li circulated his Spiritual Power and placed his hand on the acupoints on the back of the neck.
"Buzz~!"
"Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!"
As his Spiritual Power circulated, the boy's body trembled slightly.
The stiff joints were slowly opened up.
Even his eyelids began to tremble.
Seeing the boy's reaction, Lu Li breathed a sigh of relief.
If he had met this boy a few days later, given the boy's condition, a few more such incidents would have left him either dead or paralyzed.
It's alright for now; with a little rest and recuperation, it should recover somewhat.
"I never imagined... that such an amazing person existed in the world."
"They're brothers... Amazing, absolutely amazing!"
While circulating his internal energy, Lu Li suppressed the joy in his heart.
He looked at his precious apprentice.
"Dog... Goudan?"
"Master! Is there anything you need me to do?"
After eating some jerky and protein bars, Goudan clearly felt more energetic.
Hearing Lu Li call him, he quickly responded.
"It's nothing, I just wanted to ask you..."
"According to you, you and your brother have had special abilities since you were ten years old."
"Then... why haven't you relied on your own abilities to make a living all these years?"
"This..."
Goudan's tone was timid, yet filled with deep helplessness.
"Master, my brother and I always fall seriously ill or suffer some undeserved disaster after using our abilities."
"Over the years, let alone using it extensively, even casual use has made it almost unbearable..."
"Oh?"
Lu Li's eyes flickered, and he couldn't help but ask again.
"Is that so... Then tell your master in detail about your and your brother's abilities, how you acquired them, and how to use them."
"As your teacher, I'd also like to think of a way to cure you."
"This... okay, okay... Master..."
"My brother and I were abandoned children. We don't know our parents or relatives. We were adopted by beggars when we were young."
"I ran into my godmother again a few years ago..."
"Then... around the age of ten, we both gained this ability."
Goudan recounted his past and background in detail.
And the specific function of this special ability...
"It seems like my brother can sense danger beforehand... not just his own, but also that of others..."
"However, every time I use it, it ends up like this, and the situation is getting worse..."
"My abilities are the opposite of my brother's..."
Goudan paused, thought carefully for a moment, and then continued.
"I don't sense any danger... but I always seem to know that something good is going to happen..."
"But whenever I go to get this good thing, something else always happens to me, either I fall or bump into something..."
"Then my brother would use his abilities, and after a while... it all turned out like this..."
Listen carefully to what Goudan says.
Lu Li suppressed his shock once again.
I couldn't help but take a deep breath.
"What's this?"
"These two brothers... one seeks good fortune, the other avoids misfortune!"
"This... this..."
Lu Li was speechless. Logically speaking, the two brothers' abilities were completely complementary.
Combining all of this, describing it as perverted is no exaggeration.
But now...
"This one who seeks good fortune will bring disaster after using up his abilities..."
"The one that averts disaster, once its power is used, will itself bring disaster..."
"No wonder they're in such a predicament... It's truly remarkable that they've survived until now..."
With a thought flashing through his mind, Lu Li did not find the abilities of these two people to be useless.
As a cultivator, he knew more than ordinary people.
The reason why Gousheng, who was trying to avoid disaster, ended up in this state after using his abilities is because he was originally just a mortal.
Being physically weak and frail, one naturally cannot withstand this backlash.
However, if one can cultivate, even if the side effects cannot be completely eliminated, they will certainly be within a controllable range.
As for Goudan, who is obsessed with good fortune, this is even more true.
It's normal for an ordinary mortal, without the protection of Daoist magic or the blessing of Spiritual Power, to encounter misfortune through fortuitous opportunity.
If one becomes a cultivator and obtains fortuitous opportunity, one can simply repel the calamity that comes with it...
"Furthermore, once one becomes a cultivator, their destiny changes, and these side effects will naturally weaken."
"However... the side effects of Gousheng's attempt to avoid trouble are probably not limited to these..."
Lu Li came to his senses.
He felt the Spiritual Power flowing through Gousheng's meridians.
A strange feeling welled up inside me.
He vaguely sensed that something more important had been lost from this child, not like vitality, but rather something beyond the reach of the Unseen...
"Etc!"
"Those who seek good fortune will invite misfortune, so those who avoid misfortune... could they be losing good fortune?!"
A bold guess popped into Lu Li's mind.
He felt that this was most likely the case.
Before he could think it through, a weak, hoarse voice suddenly came from in front of him.
"Master... Master..."
"Um?"
The speaker wasn't Goudan, but Gousheng, who was being treated by Lu Li!
"You..."
" Gousheng wishes to become Master's disciple and serve Master from now on!"
Gousheng is older, at fifteen he knows more.
They knew that the two brothers had encountered an extraordinary fortuitous opportunity.
It's also clear that Lu Li doesn't seem like a bad person.
There was naturally no reason to refuse; having just recovered somewhat, he immediately asked to become an apprentice.
"Okay, okay!"
"Good disciple."
Upon seeing this, Lu Li responded and then tested the Spirit Root of the two individuals.
The two brothers were of average talent, both possessing Four Spirit Root, making them slightly stronger than him.
However... with special abilities at his disposal, his future achievements will surely be remarkable.
I couldn't help but ask the question that had been on my mind.
"My disciple, tell your master the truth."
"After you sense danger, do you have any other reactions?"