Chapter 245
Chapter 245
It was morning when Seventh Master called.
I spent the whole day worrying. Before getting off work, I called him again and changed my mind at the last minute.
I decided to go to Lincheng with him.
The Ancestral Master had already hinted to me that my tribulation this time would come from the trip to Lincheng. This journey was going to be extremely dangerous.
I was scared, sure, but I couldn’t just abandon loyalty.
I might not have much ability, but I still had to accompany Seventh Master on this trip.
Whenever we had been in danger before, Seventh Master had always come to save us. Now that Seventh Master was facing danger, useless or not, even if I couldn’t help much, at least I could look out for him.
After work, I drove Song Xiaotian’s car and went to Seventh Master’s place first.
Seventh Master was waiting for me. When I arrived, he was packing his luggage.
Once he finished, he asked me why I had suddenly changed my mind again.
I told him about the Ancestral Master giving me an Initiation in my dream, then told him about that ominous divination.
After hearing it, he found it rather unbelievable too. “An Initiation in a dream… That’s pretty rare. I’ve heard people mention it before, but I always thought they were making it up.”
“Could your Ancestral Master really have become an immortal…?”
“Is there a possibility that my Ancestral Master became a Wandering Ghost instead…?”
Seventh Master rubbed his chin and looked at me. “I advise you to show your Ancestral Master a little respect, or he’ll spank you. Why do you think I still don’t dare say anything bad about my Master?”
I quickly apologized to the empty air around me.
“Ancestral Master, I was wrong. Please don’t take offense.”
Seventh Master fell silent again, as if he was also somewhat worried about the ominous divination I had mentioned.
I tried to persuade him. “Why don’t you just turn it down? The Ancestral Master specially sent me this divination, so it definitely isn’t ordinary. Since we know there’s danger, why don’t you tell that big boss to find someone more capable, so we don’t have to wade into this muddy water?”
Seventh Master thought for a moment, then asked me, “Do you know Lin Jinhua?”
I froze. Lin Jinhua… That sounded like the name of an entrepreneur.
The reason I knew the name was because I had seen it in the news.
This Lin Jinhua liked doing charity. He had sponsored many children from poor families. There had been a news interview about him funding underprivileged children, and I had happened to watch it.
“That old client of yours is Lin Jinhua?” I asked Seventh Master.
Seventh Master nodded. “Many years ago, his father was gravely ill. At the time, I invited a Daoist Healer to treat him. Since his father had a terminal illness, there was no cure, but that Daoist Healer helped ease his suffering and let his father live a few more years. The year before last, when his father passed away, I helped examine the Feng Shui and chose a place in the world of the dead for his burial, so I have some personal ties with Lin Jinhua.”
“This man accumulates virtue and does good deeds. He’s a good person. Whether out of sentiment or reason, I’ve already agreed, so it wouldn’t be right to break my word.”
“Besides, my Master taught me again and again that it’s fine to choose not to help with something, but you can’t refuse to help just because there’s danger. This is the line of work I’m in. If I refuse because it’s dangerous, my conscience won’t let me rest, and it would violate my professional ethics too.”
I glanced at him. “You could’ve just said you have to go. Why pile on so many reasons?”
He nodded. “I do have to go, but those aren’t the real reasons. The tribulation you mentioned is actually yours. It may not be mine. To you, it might be a grave danger. To me, it might only be ordinary risk. This is what I do. What kind of danger haven’t I encountered before?”
Seventh Master was definitely set on going this time. Still, I couldn’t shake the feeling that this trip to Lincheng was dangerous-and that danger wasn’t only aimed at me. It was aimed at Seventh Master too.
Maybe it was my sixth sense. Or maybe people who read fortunes all have that kind of intuition.
After thinking it over, I said, “Why don’t you cast a reading for yourself and see whether this trip will go smoothly or not?”
Seventh Master shook his head. “I can’t read for myself. The more accurate you are, the less accurate it becomes when you read your own fate. Your subjective judgment weighs too heavily. If you’re off by even a little, the whole reading is wrong.”
I took out three copper coins I’d bought from a certain online marketplace and handed them to him. “You toss them. I’ll do the reading.”
I used Six yao.
If the hexagram Seventh Master tossed was not too different from the one the Ancestral Master had given me, then it meant our trip to Lincheng was definitely dangerous.
Seventh Master did not refuse. He took the three copper coins and tossed them six times in a row.
I wrote the six results down on paper, converted them into a hexagram, and then began to interpret it.
This hexagram was not complicated, but it was almost no different from the one the Ancestral Master had given me. It was also an ominous hexagram.
Within a hexagram, there are the Self and Other Yao. The Self Yao represents the person asking the question, while the Other Yao represents the outside world, and can also represent an opponent.
The Self Yao was afflicted by Month Break. In other words, it was clashed and restrained by the Month Builder. That was already an ill omen. At a time like this, even if other Earthly Branches came to support the Self Yao, they would not be able to lift it back up at all, because once clashed, it scattered. It was like flowers and grass without roots. No matter how fertile the soil was, rootless plants could not absorb any nutrients, and would soon wither and die.
At a time like this, unless the Day Builder came to generate the Self Yao, the Self Yao would have a chance of being saved, because Day and Month Share Equal Function and Authority.
But what unsettled me was that the Self Yao representing Seventh Master had not only been clashed and restrained by the Month Builder, but also by the Day Builder.
In Six Yao terminology, it had been clashed to death…
So this hexagram was also one of great misfortune.
I looked back at Seventh Master and said in a trembling voice, “Seventh Master, you’re even worse off than I am…”
Seventh Master froze where he stood. Cold sweat gradually seeped out on his forehead, and he stayed silent for a long time.
He looked at me, his heart clearly resisting the result. “Did you calculate it wrong?”
His reaction was perfectly normal. That was also why most fortune-tellers considered it taboo to read their own fortune. Precisely because they knew their readings were accurate, once they saw something bad, their subjective thoughts would start interfering. They would try every possible way to add their own interpretation, to turn the bad into the good, and in the end, that would lead to a wrong conclusion.
I did not answer him. Instead, I drew out my own hexagram as well and said to him, “The level of danger in both hexagrams is about the same. That means we are going together, and our fates are about the same too. It proves I didn’t calculate it wrong.”
“There is also another piece of supporting evidence. Both hexagrams show Four Appearances of Brother Yao.”
Four Appearances of Brother Yao means that within the primary hexagram and the resultant hexagram, there are a total of four Brother Yao.
And the Self Yao representing both me and Seventh Master were completely surrounded by Brother Yao.
If Divination is a revelation from the gods, then this truly was the gods giving us a sign.
Explained in terms of probability, the chance of the Self Yao being surrounded by four Brother Yao was one in ten thousand. Yet Seventh Master and I had both hit that one-in-ten-thousand chance at the same time.
No matter how much Seventh Master resisted my conclusion, he had no choice but to believe this result.
After a long while, he sat down and drew in a breath. “Predestined Calamity is divided into Major Calamity and Minor Calamity. A Minor Calamity can be avoided, but a Major Calamity is often a calamity written into one’s fate. It cannot be avoided. If I insist on avoiding it, this calamity will still come true in the near future, and I may have to pay an even heavier price.”
“So I can only go and Undergo the Calamity.”