"Hm? You have met that kid Qingzhao?"
Feng Fen was instantly led astray by Yunxi's words and asked without thinking.
Yunxi lifted her cup, took a light sip, and smiled. "Did Feng Fen Daoyou not cast a hexagram for your beloved disciple and tell him to wait for a benefactor in Qianling City?"
Feng Fen's eyes bulged. He blurted, "So the kid Qingzhao came to you?"
Yunxi set down her cup, amused. "What else could it be?"
Feng Fen rubbed the black compass jade at his waist with one hand while his other hand began to calculate swiftly. Before long, blood seeped from the corner of his lips and his face went ghastly pale.
Yunxi shook her head helplessly. "Open your mouth."
Obediently, Feng Fen opened up. Yunxi flicked a pill between his lips.
The pill melted instantly. Gentle wood-aspected power calmed the backlash that had twisted his five viscera.
"Whew."
Feng Fen let out a long breath, then cupped his hands in thanks. "Many thanks, Ran Xi Zhēnjūn. I was presumptuous."
Yunxi waved it off. "You people of Tianyun Gate love to divine others' fates. Why not divine your own sect's fate?"
Feng Fen gave a wry smile. "They say a healer cannot heal himself. Tianyun Gate is the same. We can read others, but not ourselves. Besides, Tianyun Gate is a chess piece of the Heavenly Dao, already written into the fate chart. If it could be calculated, we would not have come to this."
Yunxi spoke evenly. "Then stop calculating. Rather than handing your life to heaven, take hold of it yourself. We cultivators step onto the immortal path to seek longevity, going against the heavens from the start. Once we cut free from the mundane, we fight to carve out our own lives."
That was how she understood it and how she acted, which was why she had reached this day.
Feng Fen's eyes brightened. Only now did he grasp the meaning of the Ancestor's prophecy. The young woman before him might truly lead them out of the mire.
Seeing his breathing steady, Yunxi continued, "Feng Fen Daoyou, tell me what you mean by 'Heaven's Chosen Girl.'"
Feng Fen nodded, took a sip of spirit wine to settle his thoughts, then slowly said, "You must have heard of Tianyun Gate. Our decline did not happen overnight. Rumor says our disciples study fate, reveal too many secrets of heaven, suffer backlash, and thus bring about the sect's end.
Unfortunately, what outsiders say is not the truth. Tianyun Gate's collapse was the will of heaven and the work of men."
Yunxi nodded. She had suspected as much while combing through jade slips about Tianyun Gate. Hearing it now from one of the sect's two remaining inheritors only confirmed her guess. She took up the thread: "It is true you reveal the secrets of heaven and suffer backlash, but what is harmed is your own cultivation and lifespan. That should not doom the entire sect.
When cultivators tread this thorny road, they falter and lose their way. Tianyun Gate stands behind them and gives a push. Under heaven's warnings you help Weiyu Realm avoid calamity.
By helping the cultivation world out of crises, you naturally offended those who set the board. In time you became a thorn in their side.
The most recent case should be five hundred years ago. The evil cultivators planned to seize Weiyu Realm. Tianyun Gate must have calculated it and warned the world in advance. That is why the righteous side eked out a narrow victory.
Given how tenacious evil cultivators are, they would never give up. They spent five centuries preparing and have returned. You and Su Qingzhao remain their top targets.
You are at least a Yuányīng Zhēnjūn and are always drifting about. They could not find you, so they turned their eyes to Tianyun Gate's only descendant, Su Qingzhao.
To strip him of support, they framed the Su clan and dragged the entire family into the muck. Once the Su clan falls, dealing with Su Qingzhao becomes easy.
If Su Qingzhao gets into trouble, you as his master will certainly show yourself. One plan, two kills.
From what this Zhēnjūn knows of evil cultivators, they will not only kill you but also foul the names of Tianyun Gate and the Su clan beyond redemption."
Feng Fen could no longer hold his air of mystery. His eyes went wide with shock. Some of these things he had not even told his only disciple. How did someone he had just met know them? Was this the special quality of the so-called "Heaven's Chosen Girl"?
One look at his face told Yunxi her deductions were likely correct, so she went on, "You foresaw a calamity in Su Qingzhao's fate and could not crack it. So you took the backlash upon yourself to open a path for him, sending him to wait for me in Qianling City.
Fortunately, he waited and I met him. I have already given him pointers. As for how far the Su clan can investigate, that depends on their ability and resolve."
Threads Yunxi had puzzled over now tied neatly together with Feng Fen's appearance.
The reason evil cultivators set their lair inside a secret realm under the Su clan's control was that once exposed they could dump the blame onto the Su clan.
If the Su clan could be proven entangled with evil cultivators, they would become targets of public scorn. The difficulties they would face were easy to imagine, and plenty would be waiting to kick them while they were down.
If the Su clan toppled, what waves could Su Qingzhao still make? Yet thinking of his cultivation of the "Eye that Pierces Illusion," she sighed. If events unfold as she deduced and Su Qingzhao learns that the root of the Su clan's misfortune lies with himself and his master Feng Fen, what will he do?
Yunxi felt there was a high chance Su Qingzhao would turn dark. That was exactly what the evil cultivators wanted. Su Qingzhao did not need to serve them, but he must not become a helper of the righteous path in Weiyu Realm. If he could add trouble for the righteous, even better.
What Yunxi did not know was that her deductions matched Su Qingzhao's fate in the previous life.
After Feng Fen fell to save him, Su Qingzhao turned completely black. Using all he had learned, he stoked conflicts between sects and clans, between the righteous and evil, plunging Weiyu Realm into chaos until the original male and female leads joined forces to execute him.
But in this life, her appearance as the Variable had changed the board. She saved Wei Lingkai, which led to the siblings of the Xiao family being controlled by evil cultivators. Xiao He, trying to save his sister, was discovered by her. The Su clan's secret realm happened to be exposed. She used rescuing Xiao Lei as the price to force Xiao He to defect.
During the rescue, the secret realm under the Su clan's control vanished, and with it the traces laid by the evil cultivators. The Su clan was safe for the moment.
However, for evil cultivators to refine evil puppets inside a secret realm managed by the Su clan, someone within had to be covering for them. So when Su Qingzhao found her, Yunxi pushed him to ferret out the Su clan's traitor.
At the time, she was not sure the Su clan truly had ties to evil cultivators. She was, however, certain there was an insider. Her intervention bent events toward another path.