“National Preceptor? National Preceptor?” The veiled woman called out several times, finding Luo Yuheng’s face frozen, her gaze unfocused, like a beautiful jade statue – beautiful, but lifeless.
The veiled woman reached out to nudge her but was blocked by an invisible wall of energy.
…
In a small courtyard in the outer city, a ghostly light imperceptible to ordinary people descended, landing in the yard and transforming into a beautiful woman wearing a dark Daoist robe and a lotus crown.
She had apricot eyes and peach-blossom cheeks, exquisite features, and lustrous black hair. Even the loose Daoist robe couldn’t conceal the proud swell of her chest.
Luo Yuheng pushed open the door and saw an old Daoist with graying hair lying on the bed, his face serene.
She concentrated for a moment, then reached out her delicate hand from within the loose robe, suddenly grasping.
A few breaths later, a slightly ethereal human shadow returned from afar, captured in her palm. With a wave of her sleeve, she sent it back into the old Daoist’s physical body.
Daoist Jinlian opened his eyes, sat up cross-legged, and said resignedly: “I was already on my way back.”
As he spoke, Daoist Jinlian examined Luo Yuheng’s tall, curvy figure and said: “Junior Sister, you’ve even sent out your Yang Spirit. What’s so urgent that you couldn’t wait?”
Luo Yuheng didn’t waste words, asking directly: “Did you watch today’s battle of wits?”
Daoist Jinlian nodded.
“The Confucian engraving knife appeared.”
… Daoist Jinlian hesitated slightly, then nodded faintly.
“Let me ask you, who exactly is Xu Qi An?” Luo Yuheng stepped forward, her beautiful eyes blazing.
“An ordinary person.” Daoist Jinlian’s answer was surprisingly hesitant.
“Can an ordinary person use the Confucian engraving knife?” Luo Yuheng sneered.
Daoist Jinlian frowned in silence.
After a long while, he slowly said: “When I first met him, I saw that he was a person with great fortune, so I gave him the fragment of the Earth Book, using his fortune to avoid Purple Lotus’s tracking.”
“Afterwards, I investigated his background and found it strange. Whether it was Li Miaozhen, Chu Yuanzhen, or others, when I gave them fragments of the Earth Book, they had all pretty much started rising to prominence.”
“Only Xu Qi An was in the Refining Essence realm, and his family background was utterly ordinary. Where did his fortune come from? Heh, fortune comes either from accumulating good deeds or ancestral blessings. He had neither.”
Luo Yuheng listened patiently without interrupting.
“Later, something happened that made me realize his situation was unusual… Once, this guy revealed in the Earth Book fragment that he was picking up silver every day and wanted to know why.”
Hearing this, Luo Yuheng couldn’t help but interject: “That’s not just fortune, is it?”
Daoist Jinlian stared at her, his gaze deep and bright, enunciating each word: “This is destiny, overwhelming destiny.”
Although she had some suspicions, getting confirmation from Daoist Jinlian made Luo Yuheng’s pupils suddenly contract.
…
Xu Qi An slowly regained consciousness, his whole body aching, especially his neck, which burned with pain.
He turned his eyes, scanning his surroundings – white bed curtains, a brocade quilt embroidered with lotus leaves, simple yet elegant furnishings… An elderly man in Confucian robes sat at a round table in the outer room.
The old man’s graying hair hung down messily, his robe loose, his graying beard untrimmed for a long time. The whole person exuded an air of “dejection.”
Who is this cynical scholar? Xu Qi An wondered inwardly.
“You’re awake,” the cynical old scholar stood up, smiling as he said: “I am Zhao Shou, the Chancellor of Yunlu Academy.”
The Chancellor of Yunlu Academy… Ci Jiu had mentioned that the academy’s chancellor was a Third-rank Established Fate realm Confucian! Xu Qi An immediately sat up straight and cupped his hands, saying:
“So it’s Chancellor Zhao. Chancellor, your extraordinary demeanor, refined and modest, truly befits a highly respected elder.”
After a pause, he asked: “Why is the Chancellor in my room?”
Chancellor Zhao Shou didn’t answer, his gaze falling on Xu Qi An’s right hand. Only then did Xu Qi An realize he had been gripping the engraving knife the whole time?
He was stunned for a moment, then had a guess: Was this engraving knife from Yunlu Academy? It made sense; besides Yunlu Academy, what other system could wield such overwhelming righteousness?
“This engraving knife is a supreme treasure of our academy. You’ve been holding it tightly, and no one could take it away. So I had to wait here for you to wake up, and also to ask you some things.”
After Zhao Shou finished speaking, he glanced at the ancient engraving knife again, his expression seeming to say: Still holding it? This young man has no manners at all.
Xu Qi An offered it with both hands.
Zhao Shou didn’t take it but looked at the table instead.
Understanding, Xu Qi An tossed the engraving knife onto the table with a clang.
Zhao Shou’s eyebrows twitched. He hurriedly bowed, making three bows towards the engraving knife, before taking out a wooden box from his sleeve and putting the knife away.
“Does Lord Xu know the origins of this engraving knife?” Zhao Shou smiled.
Xu Qi An’s heart stirred, and he ventured a bold guess: “The Sub-sage’s engraving knife?”
Zhao Shou shook his head: “This is the Sage’s engraving knife.”
The Sage’s engraving knife… Is it that Sage? The Sage beyond all ranks?… Um, can I hold the knife again for a bit? I haven’t taken a photo for my social media yet… Xu Qi An’s mouth hung open, his throat seemingly losing its voice, unable to speak.
“Since the Sub-sage passed away, this engraving knife has been dormant for over a thousand years. Even if later generations could use it, they couldn’t awaken it. I never expected it to break out of its box today to assist Lord Xu.”
Zhao Shou gazed intently at Xu Qi An and said solemnly: “There are some things I must explain to Lord Xu in person.”
Xu Qi An’s heart sank, sensing what was coming. He got up from the bed, bowed deeply, and said: “Please enlighten me, Chancellor.”
…
“Impossible, impossible…” Luo Yuheng kept shaking her head, her two delicate, long eyebrows furrowed tightly as she argued:
“I’ve interacted with him many times. If he possessed such destiny, how could I not have sensed it? How could our Human Sect not have sensed it?”
Daoist Jinlian countered: “What if the heavenly secrets were concealed? Even now, if you were to look at Xu Qi An again, you still wouldn’t sense anything unusual about him.”
“You mean the Supervisor?” Luo Yuheng took a deep breath, her frowning expression still breathtakingly beautiful. As her brow furrowed, her gaze became sharp as a knife:
“Didn’t you investigate Xu Qi An? He’s just a lowly Silver Gong, with no remarkable figures in his ancestry. How could he bear such an overwhelming destiny?”
“I’m sorry, I haven’t figured that out,” Daoist Jinlian rose from the bed, walked to the table, and sat down, pouring two cups of tea, and gesturing for Luo Yuheng to sit.
The female National Preceptor ignored him.
She was in no mood for tea right now.
After pondering for a long time, Luo Yuheng suddenly said: “If a Master of Rituals concealed the heavenly secrets, logically, you shouldn’t have been able to see his fortune at all. When the Supervisor lays out his plans, if he doesn’t want others to know, they will never know. That’s the power of a First-rank Master of Rituals.”
“What you can think of, I’ve naturally thought of as well,” Daoist Jinlian sipped his tea, his tone calm: “Some time ago, I noticed his fortune had disappeared, so I went to take a look.”
“I found that the Supervisor had concealed the heavenly secrets, covering up his special nature. I knew then that this matter was extraordinary, that there was a huge secret behind Xu Qi An.”
“That day when I left the Xu residence, as I was walking, I found myself at the Eight Trigrams Platform of the Star-Observing Tower, where I met the Supervisor.”
“What did he say?” Luo Yuheng’s beautiful eyes narrowed.
“To mind my own business,” Daoist Jinlian said gravely.
The curvaceous beauty Luo remained silent for a long time, then bit her silver teeth and said angrily: “The dynasty’s fortune has plummeted, and it’s indeed inseparable from the Imperial Astronomical Bureau.”
Daoist Jinlian frowned: “What do you mean?”
Luo Yuheng finally sat down at the table, picked up the teacup, her luscious red lips touching the rim as she took a sip, then said: “A few years ago, Wei Yuan came to Lingbao Temple, pointing at my nose and berating me as a femme fatale.”
“He said that in the twenty years since His Majesty began practicing Daoism, Great Feng’s national power had been declining daily. The taxes and granaries from various states often couldn’t be collected, the people were suffering, and corrupt officials were running rampant.”
“He said all this was because I had bewitched His Majesty into practicing Daoism for my cultivation, causing His Majesty to neglect state affairs.”
Isn’t that the case? Daoist Jinlian inwardly grumbled.
“From that moment, I suddenly realized that the dynasty’s fortune had begun to drain away, like a dull knife cutting flesh, hard to detect. If not for Wei Yuan’s talent in governance and familiarity with civil affairs, allowing him to notice first and give me a wake-up call, I might have taken a few more years to discover the problem.”
After listening, Daoist Jinlian nodded and reminded her: “Don’t say too much. This is the Supervisor’s territory. Who knows if he’s been listening to our conversation all along.”
“He wouldn’t,” Luo Yuheng pouted, quite confidently saying: “He can’t hear us.”
It’s not a question of whether he can hear us or not, it’s that I don’t want to get involved in this mess… Daoist Jinlian wisely changed the subject:
“If, and I mean if, Xu Qi An has destiny bestowed upon him, would you dual cultivate with him?”
Luo Yuheng’s expression froze once again.
…
“Do you know why the Sage’s engraving knife broke out of its box? Why, except for the Sub-sage, later generations could only use it but not awaken it?” Zhao Shou asked two questions in succession.
I’m just a crude martial artist, Chancellor… Xu Qi An shook his head, indicating he didn’t know.
The Chancellor didn’t keep him in suspense and said solemnly: “Insufficient destiny. This engraving knife was used by the Sage. The Sage used it to carve out the ‘Spring and Autumn Annals,’ the ‘Book of Rites,’ the ‘Book of Music,’ the ‘Book of Changes,’ and so on.”
“Only one who has condensed the great destiny of the mortal realm can use it.”
The Chancellor’s words finally resolved the confusion that had been troubling Xu Qi An for so long. His strange luck was destiny.
Picking up silver every day, isn’t that just being a child of destiny?… One coin a day, slowly becoming three coins a day, five coins a day… It’s even a destiny that can level up.
No, rather than leveling up, it’s more like it’s slowly awakening within me… Xu Qi An felt a heavy weight in his heart.
He thought this way for a reason. As his rank increased, his luck got better and better. At first glance, it seemed like his luck was leveling up, but how could such a thing level up?
The only explanation was that the destiny within him was slowly awakening.
But I’m just a child from an ordinary family in the capital. The Xu family is just an ordinary family. My second Uncle and my birth father were crude soldiers by origin, just common foot soldiers.
Unless I’m not a Xu family child.
He had this suspicion before because there was a dragon in the palace… scratch that, there was a spirit dragon that was very fond of him. Daoist Jinlian had said that spirit dragons only like people with purple qi.
At the time, Xu Qi An thought, oh no, I’ve been eyeing Princess Huaiqing’s beauty, I hope I’m not some prince’s illegitimate child from among the common people.
But Xu Qi An’s face before his “plastic surgery” was quite similar to Second Uncle Xu’s. From a genetic perspective, the two were blood-related.
He, Xu Qi An, was indeed a child of the Xu family, the offspring of Xu Pingzhi’s elder brother. Even if he were Xu Pingzhi’s illegitimate child from outside, he would still be a Xu family child.
The essence remained unchanged.
So where did this destiny come from?
Chancellor Zhao Shou said gently: “This destiny is profound and mysterious, yet it truly exists. In the Nine Provinces, there are three things related to destiny: First, the Confucian school; second, the Masters of Rituals; third, the mortal emperors.”
“The third is not limited to Great Feng; it applies to the Witch-God Cult and the Western Region’s Buddhist sects as well. As for the southern and northern barbarian tribes, the former are scattered and have never unified. The latter has too few people to condense destiny.”
The Confucian school is probably unrelated to me, otherwise the Chancellor wouldn’t be telling me all this… So, there are only two reasons for my destiny: the royal family and the Imperial Astronomical Bureau.
If I were a royal descendant, that would be terrible. Lin’an and Huaiqing would be my sisters or cousins. But the spirit dragon’s attitude suggests I’m unlikely to be a royal descendant. Wouldn’t it fawn more over a proper prince or princess than a lost illegitimate child?
Besides, I haven’t seen Biaobiao or Huaiqing picking up silver every day.
My relationship with Lin’an is steadily growing, and I’m on good terms with Huaiqing. I’ve become a viscount, and if I can raise that to an earl in the future, I might have a chance to marry a princess.
I absolutely can’t have any blood ties with the royal family.
Combining the Supervisor’s past attitudes and behavior, Xu Qi An suspected this matter was mostly related to the Imperial Astronomical Bureau, not, related to the Supervisor.
Seeing that he seemed to have understood something, Chancellor Zhao Shou smiled and said: “Anything else you want to ask?”
Is there anything else I want to ask… Well, Chancellor, Xu Qi An’s spear will never fall… Do you think this sentence works? If it does, please give me one. Xu Qi An thought to himself.
On the surface, he shook his head: “No, thank you for enlightening me, Chancellor.”
Zhao Shou nodded: “The palace eunuch has been waiting outside for a long time. Please ask him to come in. His Majesty has something to ask you.”
A palace eunuch?
Xu Qi An pondered briefly and understood the eunuch’s purpose in seeking him out.
During the battle of wits, he had twice displayed great power, breaking through the “Eight Sufferings Array” and the “Vajra Array,” both of which were beyond his power limit.
Although some “clever people” might guess it was the Supervisor’s secret assistance, the routine inquiry was unavoidable.
Moreover… Xu Qi An glanced at Zhao Shou. The first two strikes could still be attributed to the Supervisor, but the appearance of the academy’s engraving knife, shattering the Buddhist realm, was not something the Supervisor could control.
Emperor Yuanjing was a ruler with a strong desire for control. He wouldn’t overlook these details… If I handled things poorly, I could find myself in trouble, exposing things that should remain hidden, such as… the carving knife was summoned by me.
Xu Qi An dressed himself properly, donned his sable hat, and accompanied Dean Zhao Shou to the main hall.