Although there was a blurry “barrier” separating them, Xu Qi’an could imagine the white-robed cultivator’s face gradually becoming serious, unpleasant, and gloomy…
“Or perhaps I should call you ‘Xu Pingfeng,’ if that’s your real name.”
The white-robed cultivator didn’t answer. The valley fell silent as father and son gazed at each other in silence.
One in snow-white robes, the other covered in blood stains.
The wind lifted the hem of the white-robed cultivator’s garment. He sighed wistfully and slowly said:
“How did you figure it out?”
Xu Qi’an grinned, his gaze contemptuous: “Guess.”
His face was pale and haggard, sweat and blood soaking his tattered clothes, but after revealing their true relationship, the arrogance in his eyes grew more intense.
The white-robed cultivator pondered for a moment, then said: “Through divination…”
Xu Qi’an sneered:
“Whatever has happened will leave traces. For me, as long as there’s a flaw in the technique of concealing fate, it’s not invincible.”
The white-robed cultivator remained silent, manipulating the stone disc to refine the fate within Xu Qi’an’s body using the grand formation composed of one hundred and eight smaller arrays.
Facing this crisis, Xu Qi’an remained calm and said:
“How does one truly conceal fate? By completely erasing a person from the world? Not, otherwise no one would know about the first Divine Ordained’s affairs, and the current Divine Ordained would be seen as the first in the eyes of the world.
“When I learned the truth behind the silver tax case and realized there was a formidable enemy like you lurking in the shadows, I began contemplating how to deal with cultivators, especially the mysterious art of concealing fate. I had considered the situation of you concealing me today.
“Gradually, I concluded that there are two limitations to the art of concealing fate.
“First: Concealing fate has a certain limit. This limit is divided into two aspects, which I categorize as influence and causal relationship.
“Regarding influence, if you were to conceal a roadside stone, no one would notice its disappearance. It would be as if it were completely erased from the world because its inherent influence is almost non-existent—it’s just an ignored stone.
“But you can’t conceal the Golden Hall in the Imperial Palace because it’s too important. It’s so crucial that without it, people’s understanding would be problematic, logic would be inconsistent, and the effect of concealing fate would be minimal.
“It’s like how the current Divine Ordained concealed the first one and everything from five hundred years ago, but people still know about Emperor Wuzong’s rebellion and usurpation because this event was too significant, far beyond comparison to a roadside pebble.
“The same principle applies when changing objects to people. If you conceal a person, those who have a general or no relationship with him will completely forget him. This is because whether this person exists or not doesn’t affect people’s lives.
“But for his closest relatives, his best friends, his beloved, logic becomes inconsistent. The reason is simple: you may conceal my parents, but I still won’t forget them because everyone has parents—no one can spring from a stone.
“So, to ‘convince’ oneself, to make logic consistent, one would self-deceive, telling oneself that the parents died right after one’s birth. This is the causal relationship—the deeper the cause and effect, the harder it is to be concealed by the art of fate.”
This was actually what the wild cultivator Gongyang Su, whom Xu Qi’an had met in the underground palace of Yongzhou, had told him.
That wild cultivator, who inherited from the first Divine Ordained, had already explained the art of concealing fate.
The white-robed cultivator sighed: “Impressive. What’s the second limitation?”
Xu Qi’an said solemnly: “The second limitation is that for high-level martial artists, the concealment is temporary.”
Wei Yuan could recall the existence of the first Divine Ordained, but only when deliberately thinking about such information would he suddenly realize from the sense of historical discontinuity that there was indeed a first Divine Ordained of the Astronomical Bureau.
The white-robed cultivator nodded: “It also depends on the causal relationship. High-level martial artists who don’t have a deep connection with you won’t remember you at all. But those with extremely deep causal ties will quickly recall you. Then quickly forget again. This cycle repeats.
“Unsurprisingly, Luo Yuheng and Zhao Shou have probably remembered you by now, but they can’t find this place. Originally, concealing your fate was just to buy time.”
That’s already terrifying enough… Xu Qi’an marveled inwardly, then continued:
“I guess a third limitation, but I can’t be certain. Why don’t you enlighten me?”
He paused, then, regardless of the white-robed cultivator’s attitude, he continued:
“If I were to appear before my relatives or the citizens of the capital now, would they remember me? Would the art of concealing fate automatically become ineffective?”
“Is that important?”
The white-robed cultivator spoke while carving arrays in the air. A series of characters composed of clear light condensed and entered Xu Qi’an’s body, accelerating the refinement of fate.
“It’s very important. If my guess is correct, then when you appeared in the sky above the capital, visible to everyone, the art of concealing fate would have already become ineffective on its own. My Second Uncle would have remembered you, his elder brother.”
The white-robed cultivator remained silent for a while, then smiled: “Anything else?”
Xu Qi’an curled his lips: “The Divine Ordained has six disciples in total, but in all my dealings with the cultivators of the Astronomical Bureau, I’ve never heard any information about the eldest disciple. This is very unusual.
“Thinking about it later, the only explanation is that he concealed himself.
“But at the time, I didn’t realize that the Divine Ordained’s eldest disciple was the high-level cultivator who appeared in Yunzhou, who was the mastermind behind everything. Because I didn’t know about the profound connection between first-rank and second-rank cultivators.”
If he had known that for a second-rank cultivator to advance to the first rank, they must betray their teacher, he would have uncovered the truth of everything earlier and wouldn’t have been so thoroughly manipulated by this Xu family’s Wenqu Star.
Xu Qi’an spoke eloquently, like a seasoned criminal investigator. The situation seemed to have reversed, with the previously calm white-robed cultivator now silently listening.
Reduced to a helpless victim, Xu Qi’an spoke unhurriedly and calmly.
Since he had long known about the existence of the white-robed cultivator and understood that his fate came from his bestowal, how could Xu Qi’an possibly be careless?
No one would take their own life and safety lightly.
“Originally, following this situation, I would have eventually understood that the enemy I was facing was the Divine Ordained’s eldest disciple. But later, I encountered Ji Qian in Jianzhou and obtained crucial information from this royal bloodline. I learned about the existence of that lineage from five hundred years ago and that the first Divine Ordained was still alive.
“Everything made sense, without any logical flaws. You used the information gap to make me fully believe that the first Divine Ordained wasn’t dead. Your goal was to drive a wedge between the Divine Ordained and me, to make me wary of him, because Ji Qian told me that extracting fate might kill me.
“So, I would naturally be on guard against the Divine Ordained forcibly taking my fate—anyone would become cautious. But in fact, everything Ji Qian said at that time was what you wanted me to know. Most likely, you were in Jianzhou at that time.”
The white-robed cultivator didn’t stop carving array patterns and nodded: “This is also true. I didn’t lie to you.”
Xu Qi’an squinted his eyes, nodded, acknowledging his statement, and said:
“You deliberately sent Ji Qian for me to kill. Driving a wedge between the Divine Ordained and me was only one of the goals. The main purpose was to deliver the Dragon Tooth into my hands, using me to destroy the Dragon Vein Spirit.”
The white-robed cultivator tacitly agreed. After a pause, he sighed: “There’s another reason. Dying at the hands of the first Divine Ordained is better than dying at the hands of one’s birth father. I didn’t want you to know this truth. But you eventually uncovered my true identity.”
Xu Qi’an scoffed: “Should I be grateful for your fatherly love?”
He took a deep breath and said:
“Come to think of it, I only realized your existence while investigating Zhende. The court diaries of the 10th and 11th years of the Yuanjing era didn’t mark the names of the court diarists, which is almost impossible in the meticulous Hanlin Academy.
“At the time, I thought this was Emperor Yuanjing’s flaw. Following this clue, I discovered that the problem lay with the court diarist himself. So I investigated the imperial examination of the 10th year of Yuanjing and found that the name of the third-place scholar had been erased.
“That third-place scholar later formed a faction in the court with immense power. Su Hang, who was executed for corruption, was a core member of this faction. The superstition of Duke Cao mentions a faction whose name has been erased. Undoubtedly, the erased word should be: the Xu faction!”
He glanced at the white-robed cultivator, and seeing no rebuttal, he continued:
“I once thought it was the Divine Ordained who erased the existence of that third-place scholar, but later rejected this guess due to insufficient motive. The Divine Ordained wouldn’t involve himself in court struggles; to him, factional strife is just child’s play.
“So I changed my perspective. What if the one who erased the existence of that court diarist was himself? Wouldn’t everything then make sense? But this was just a hypothesis, without evidence. Moreover, why would a court diarist erase his existence, and where is he now?”
“I never fully understood until I received a letter from a close female friend.”
Xu Qi’an paused, not continuing, but instead changed the subject:
“Why is Yunzhou called Xuzhou?”
The white-robed cultivator replied calmly:
“The royal lineage I supported promised to ennoble my descendants as princes of a different surname. Once the grand plan succeeded, Yunzhou would be renamed Xuzhou, belonging to the Xu family. Of course, I don’t care about this single province. Heh, you’re not my only descendant.
“It’s not surprising that you could guess my identity as the Divine Ordained’s eldest disciple, but how did you deduce that I’m your father?”
Xu Qi’an sneered:
“I mentioned earlier that concealing fate causes logical confusion for close relatives. They’ll self-repair this confused logic, finding a reasonable explanation for themselves. For instance, Second Uncle always believed the person who took a blade for him in the Shanhai Pass battle was his elder brother.
“For example, the mentally unclear Xu family elder who kept thinking about the Xu family’s Wenqu Star—the Xu family’s eldest son. But the Xu family’s Wenqu Star is Cixiu, and I’m just a warrior, so there’s a logical problem here. The confused elder wasn’t referring to me as the Xu family’s eldest son, but to you.
“What made me realize your identity was the news Second Young Master sent back from the Northern Border. He met Second Uncle’s former comrade-in-arms, who angrily berated Second Uncle for being an unfilial ingrate.
“Because the person who took the blade for Second Uncle that day wasn’t you at all, but an old soldier surnamed Zhou. At that moment, all the clues connected, and I finally knew who my enemy was.”
At that time, Xu Qi’an had sat in his study for a long while, filled with sorrow for his Second Uncle and the original host.
“However, there are still some things I can’t figure out. You’re a cultivator, why did you become a third-place scholar in the imperial exams?”
Xu Qi’an asked, unable to hide his curiosity.
The white-robed cultivator sighed lightly:
“It was an attempt. If not forced, I didn’t want to be enemies with my teacher. My thinking then was similar to yours, trying to support one of the existing princes to ascend the throne. But I thought more comprehensively than you. I not only wanted to support a prince’s ascension but also enter the cabinet as a minister, become the prime minister, and control the dynasty’s core.
“A two-pronged approach to condense fate, which might help me reach the first rank and become Heaven’s Chosen. Thus, the Xu faction was born.”
Xu Qi’an sneered: “But you failed. Did the Divine Ordained disagree?”
The white-robed cultivator shook his head:
“He agreed, making three rules with me: not to use cultivator methods as tools in factional struggles, to keep faction struggles as they were, and whether I could become a minister depended entirely on my abilities.”
Xu Qi’an gloated: “So, in the court struggles, you lost, and thus withdrew from the court, turning to support the lineage from five hundred years ago?”
The white-robed cultivator nodded, then shook his head:
“It’s not as simple as you think. At that time, the Xu faction was extremely powerful, just like today’s Wei faction. All factions rose to attack it. And the enemies I faced weren’t just these, but also Yuanjing and the previous Human Sect Leader.”
How to put this… Xu Qi’an frowned.
But soon, he understood.
The white-robed cultivator sneered:
“The Human Sect Leader then knew he had no hope of transcending, but he had to pave the way for his daughter, Luo Yuheng. A country’s fate is limited, and it was unknown whether two Heaven’s Chosen could be achieved simultaneously. Even if possible, there wouldn’t be enough fate left for Luo Yuheng to quell her karmic fire.
“Therefore, the previous Human Sect Leader saw me as an enemy. As for Yuanjing, no, Zhende, you know what he was secretly planning. He wanted to scatter fate, how could he tolerate the birth of another Heaven’s Chosen?
“In such a situation, how could I have any chance of winning? At that time, I was almost in a desperate situation, with my teacher always watching coldly, neither intervening nor supporting.”
Xu Qi’an couldn’t help but think of the story in Fuxiang’s letter, where a young eagle was bullied, but the old eagle watched coldly. In anger, the young eagle spread its wings and flew towards the blue sky, never to return.
So that’s how it was…
“In that predicament, I suddenly thought, why not emulate my teacher’s past actions, supporting a collateral branch to power, just as Emperor Wuzong had cleared the court in the past? Once this idea arose, it became impossible to suppress.
“All my subsequent arrangements and plans were efforts towards this goal. Why do you think Zhende would cooperate with the Shaman God Cult, why would I send the Dragon Tooth to you? Why would I know he wanted to extract the Dragon Vein Spirit?”
The white-robed cultivator said with a meaningful smile.
All of this stemmed from a casual conversation years ago with ulterior motives.
He had played a role in promoting all of Zhende’s current plans.
Damn… Xu Qi’an’s expression changed slightly. Thinking back now, sacrificing the Dragon Vein Spirit, turning the Central Plains into a vassal state of the Shaman God Cult, emulating Saren Agu to become an endless-lived first-rank cultivator and dominate the Central Plains—such fate-related operations, how could Zhende have thought of them? At least the Zhende of that time couldn’t have possibly conceived this.
But if it were a professional cultivator, it would be entirely reasonable.
The Great Feng reaching this point today, the Earth Sect Leader and the Xu family’s eldest son were the culprits, both successively leading to today’s situation forty years later.
“Later, I resigned and left the court, conspiring with the Tianchong Elder to orchestrate the Shanhai Pass battle. During this process, I concealed myself, making the Xu family’s eldest son disappear from the capital. Of course, this involved some manual operations, like adding the missing name to the clan genealogy, like building a tombstone for myself.
“The Xu family members’ memories were equally confused and couldn’t withstand scrutiny, but as long as no one deliberately pointed it out, they would deceive themselves. If you had carefully inquired about past events, you would have found that Second Young Master had gone mad for a period. Of course, these things aren’t glorious, so no one would mention them voluntarily.
“Past political enemies wouldn’t remember me. In their eyes, I was just a thing of the past. According to the principle of concealing fate, when I left the court, the karmic ties between us were already cleared. Without deep entanglements, they wouldn’t care about me.”
Xu Qi’an fell silent, then after a few seconds, said:
“No wonder you wanted to use the silver tax case to get me out of the capital in a reasonable way. Although the fate in me was hidden by some means of the Tianchong Elder before it awakened, I was still your son and the Divine Ordained’s gaze was more or less on me.
“If you had forcibly abducted me by unreasonable means, the Divine Ordained would have reacted quickly. But why didn’t you take me away directly, instead of leaving me in the capital?”
The white-robed cultivator’s voice changed slightly, revealing a tone of disappointment:
“You only guessed half right. The silver tax case was indeed to make you leave the capital reasonably, but the reason you stayed in the capital and were raised by Second Young Master wasn’t a game of wits under the lamp, but purely an accident back then.”
“An accident?”
Xu Qi’an frowned and asked.
The white-robed cultivator nodded, his tone returning to calmness, and smiled:
“There’s one thing I haven’t told you. Fate isn’t something everyone can bear. You are the best vessel, not only because you’re of my bloodline, but also because you’re of the Great Feng royal bloodline.”
???
Although he had already opened up today and learned many hardcore secrets, Xu Qi’an was still stunned by this revelation, completely dumbfounded.