"I will become Fu Xuan's master, and one day in the future, she will bring an end to my fate..."
Jingtian spoke calmly, stood up, and patted the dust off his clothes.
"I've divined it countless times, and every time it's the same result, unchangeable... until you appeared..."
As these words fell, Jingtian turned around, and in that instant, Fu Xuan finally saw the face of the famous Master Diviner.
Since childhood, she had often heard Jingtian's name, but she had never met him before, so today was the first time she saw him in person.
It was hard to believe that this Master Diviner—worshiped like a god by her family—was actually as laid-back as Lucian, with not a trace of the grandeur expected from some almighty figure.
Of course, his appearance didn't reflect his true age.
Even though he looked like he was thirty, in truth, he was already several centuries old.
As for his face, in her eyes, it could only be called average.
It couldn't be helped.
Fu Xuan, after seeing Lucian every day, had grown picky with appearances, so any man less handsome than him could only be considered average.
As for anyone more handsome than him, she had never met a single one.
"What good is divination?" Lucian said with a teasing tone. "Things that are bound to happen will still happen."
"Exactly." Jingtian chuckled and nodded. "Sometimes fate only has one road, but after you appeared, Fu Xuan became your disciple instead of mine. Why do you think that is?"
"Doesn't matter why." Lucian shrugged casually. "Right now, my disciple wants to read the books in the Divination Commission's Grand Library. Give her access."
"You steal my disciple and then want to use the Divination Commission's resources to raise her?" Jingtian said with narrowed eyes. "Do you think that's well-mannered?"
It really wasn't well-mannered—even Fu Xuan felt a bit embarrassed.
Nonetheless, Lucian couldn't care less about those shallow formalities.
"I stole your disciple, but it also saved your life, no?" Lucian said with a smile. "You're not even gonna show a little gratitude for that?"
"Hahaha, it's only temporary."
Jingtian couldn't help but laugh.
"As a diviner, you must know that fate will find ways to fulfill itself. Who knows, maybe tomorrow you'll drop dead, and Fu Xuan will still become my disciple, and she'll still bring about my doom."
"They say you can defy the heavens and rewrite fate, but even you must have limits."
"When something exceeds the bounds of causality, how can you change it then?"
Hearing Jingtian's nonsense, Lucian rolled his eyes and instead turned to Fu Xuan.
"See that, Little Xuan?" Lucian asked casually. "The stronger someone is, the more convinced they are that they can't possibly be wrong."
In his ear, Jingtian's words were utter nonsense, since with a conceptual ability like Sham Diviner, once it was triggered, fate would definitely change.
Needless to say, anyone who didn't possess this kind of ability couldn't possibly understand.
"Yes." Fu Xuan giggled softly. "I don't like just obediently accepting fate either. What's the point of divination if not to change fate? What if my divination told me I'd die tomorrow? Am I supposed to just obediently wait for my death? If so, then what's the difference between divining and not divining at all?"
Upon hearing this, Jingtian laughed again.
He was truly gentle and calm—even when the two of them were openly refuting him, he never got angry.
"Well, the difference is that we know we walk above fate itself, which is the supreme path pursued by the founder who established the Divination Commission."
Jingtian explained patiently, looking like a wise elder.
"Do you know that when I divined using the Deca-Light Reflection Barrier Matrix, I read the hexagrams and confirmed that my fate would be severed by your hand?"
"Yet, I still chose to take you as my disciple, to wait for the day you replace me as the Master Diviner of the Yuque."
"Why? Because all of this is fated."
Jingtian's words made Fu Xuan grit her teeth in anger.
Fated?
Did he mean his fate was to be cut off by her hand?
He made it sound as though they were in some story, as if she were some scheming disciple lusting after the Master Diviner's position, ready to commit regicide and patricide alike just to climb higher.
"As you can see, Master Diviner, now, I'm Guest Elder Lucian's disciple." Fu Xuan said solemnly, her gaze sharp. "I've got nothing to do with you, and I'm not going to sever your fate either. As for the Master Diviner's position, I'll fight for it and push you down myself."
Because she was still fuming, her words sounded somewhat sharp and rude.
"Well, since you claim everything's fated, then how about a bet?" Lucian suddenly stepped in front of Fu Xuan, cutting off her temper. "If I can change your so-called unchanging fate, my disciple will have free access to the Divination Commission's Grand Library. If I can't, we'll leave and never mention it again."
"Hmm, interesting..."
Jingtian nodded calmly, feeling intrigued instead of afraid since he was very confident in his own ability.
"In that case, you must've heard that the Yuque's Ebonpearl Fleet is currently stationed on Thalassa to support the Yaoqing's Heroncrest Fleet in their campaign against the abominations?"
"I divined their fate and found that they were fated to lose the war today."
He pointed at the hexagrams on the Cloudpeer Telescope.
"Lose? Don't the Yaoqing's Heroncrest Fleet have a reputation for unmatched valor?" Fu Xuan jumped into the debate, eager to argue with the Master Diviner. "Besides, according to reports, our numbers and ships are several times greater than the abominations. How could such strength fail to break through?"
Jingtian was always annoying her, so she wasn't going to let it slide.
"Good question."
Jingtian's smile faded, his face turning serious.
"A diviner knows fate yet refuses to accept it, always searching for the best possible choice among many, which is admirable, but sometimes, no matter what you choose, fate leaves only one road ahead."
"When your divinations show only misfortune or great misfortune, what will you choose then?"
Upon hearing this, Fu Xuan glanced at Lucian and smiled proudly.
"Of course I'd turn misfortune into fortune—rewrite fate!" Fu Xuan said confidently. "You can't do it, but my master can."
At this, Jingtian sighed and shook his head.
"Child, over these past few weeks, I went to Thalassa myself, fought abominations, and earned the trust of the aquatic civilizations there. I uncovered shocking news: disturbed by their moon, a great tide the Thalassans call the 'Devil's Tide' will arrive today."
"You know that without the Fanghu's cloudhymn magi, no one can fight abominations under such extreme conditions for long. Because this knowledge is not recorded in any compendium or in our military intelligence, I paid the price by losing this hand to prove it."
Jingtian raised his wooden prosthetic hand with a bitter smile and shook it.
"You must understand that sometimes the road of fate really is only one—everything is fated, with no escape."
Hearing Jingtian's words, Lucian frowned, running out of patience for this back-and-forth debate.
Clearly, no matter what they said, this stubborn Master Diviner would never concede, because reasoning meant nothing compared to cold, hard facts.
"Fine... In that case, just watch me flip the entire battlefield."
Lucian stated calmly, then activated Sham Diviner to divine the same event Jingtian had.
In the next moment, the result came—the fleets of the Xianzhou Yaoqing and Xianzhou Yuque would be defeated today, suffering heavy losses.
However, since the result was wrong, that meant the truth was simple—either the two fleets would not be defeated, and their losses would not be too great, or the battle would turn into a great victory or a stalemate.
In any case, only time would tell.
"Good." Jingtian smiled again and casually sat back down. "Let's see how you flip the entire battlefield."
At this, Lucian didn't respond and instead led Fu Xuan to the nearby couch to wait for the outcome of the war.
===
Half a day later, news finally arrived from Thalassa.
[Victory! We've won the war on Thalassa!]
When Jingtian received this message, he was stunned, frozen in place as he stared at the words 'Victory.'
"Victory...? How..."
Clearly, he had divined the war countless times, and every time it had ended the same way—defeat.
In a rush, Jingtian contacted the front lines directly to ask what had happened.
It turned out that the Antimatter Legion had been drawn in by the Devil's Tide, so the Abominations of Abundance, disoriented by the Tide, mistook them for the Xianzhou army and opened fire.
In the end, the two sides blasted each other from afar, raining fire everywhere, while the fleets of the Xianzhou Yaoqing and the Xianzhou Yuque did nothing at all, merely watching from a distance, yet reaping all the benefits like fishermen at sea.
When Jingtian heard such an absurd report, his worldview was instantly shattered.
"How can... How small are the chances of that happening?" Jingtian muttered in disbelief. "Nonsense... this makes no sense at all..."
===
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