Chapter 27: Who Are You?
Chen Yan departed in haste, driven by two pressing reasons.
First, after once again rescuing Lu Si Si, he had secretly channeled his Vital Energy Circulation Method while tending to his wounds at the hospital. As expected, the familiar sensation of cultivation progress surged within him!
Vital Energy (Karmic Merit) +1 +1 +1 +1…
Indeed, Lu Si Si was nothing less than a walking human-shaped experience bag!
The second reason was an ever-growing curiosity about her fate. He wished to return home swiftly and consult his tomes on the Heaven-Defying Fate-Changing Method, as well as calculate her birth characters and fate alignment.
Back at his villa, Chen Yan brewed a pot of tea and carried it into his sunroom. A reclining chair awaited him there. Despite the bitter chill of winter, the afternoon sunlight filtered through the glass, making the space as warm as spring.
Seated, he habitually slipped his emerald thumb ring onto his finger, absentmindedly rubbing it as he perused his treasured sect’s secret manual.
Among the recorded fates within Cycles of Qi Fortune, he found mention of the Seven Absolutes Destiny Pattern—a rare and ominous fate.
The description alone sent shivers through his spine.
Those born under this destiny were seemingly cursed by the heavens, forever shackled by calamity. Worse still, their misfortune was contagious, spreading to those closest to them.
Thus, the “Seven Absolutes”—
Severance from kin, severance from friends, severance from descendants.
Family, companions, lovers—none would remain. Naturally, no offspring could be born. And as for wealth, fortune, and longevity? Such aspirations were but illusions to those afflicted by this fate.
However—
“Something is off…”
Chen Yan furrowed his brows.
The Seven Absolutes Destiny Pattern was notoriously short-lived. Those burdened by its weight rarely survived a full zodiac cycle—twelve years at most. The accumulated ill fortune would only intensify from birth, snowballing year by year. Without external intervention, they would perish before adolescence.
Yet, Lu Si Si had already passed her eighteenth year.
Chen Yan, puzzled, recalculated her birth characters using the principles of Cycles of Qi Fortune.
Moments later, his expression grew even more bewildered.
“Completely wrong!”
Lu Si Si’s fate, though not one of supreme nobility, was by no means ill-starred. Her destiny suggested a life of smooth sailing. If she were to meet a man whose birth characters complemented hers, she would flourish—like a fish finding its way into a vast river. Even without such a match, her troubles would be minor at best, perhaps merely attracting some unwanted romantic entanglements.
In fact, her fate indicated double blessings of fortune and prosperity.
“This doesn’t make sense! How can one person possess two entirely different fates?”
Chen Yan rubbed his temples, deep in thought.
That so-called esteemed adept from Harbor City who had given Lu Si Si a reading—was he nothing but a charlatan?
Springing to his feet, he paced the sunroom before slapping his forehead.
“Why not test it myself?”
Chen Yan descended into the villa’s basement, where he had converted a room into a ritual chamber. Tools lined the workbench: chisels, carving knives, and an assortment of talismans, cinnabar ink, and yellow talisman paper.
First, he calculated the precise directional alignment. Then, he lit two red candles and retrieved a sheet of yellow talisman paper. With a pure silver pair of scissors, he swiftly cut out a palm-sized paper effigy.
Dipping his brush into cinnabar ink, he inscribed Lu Si Si’s birth characters upon it.
“According to the tomes, writing her birth characters here should create a direct resonance with her essence…”
Chen Yan had never attempted this Paper Man Guiding Method before—his cultivation had been too low.
But now, after gaining three advancements from his human-shaped experience bag, his abilities had likely reached the required level. The only question was—
Would it work?
Taking a deep breath, he channeled his vital energy, forming a hand seal as he recited an incantation. After cycling the spell twice, he tapped the paper effigy with his fingertip.
“Rise!”
The paper effigy trembled, then suddenly floated upright on the table.
Chen Yan’s eyes gleamed.
It worked!
He felt his vital energy rapidly depleting—clearly, this technique was still beyond his current mastery. But he had no time to hesitate. He grabbed a strand of hair he had taken from Lu Si Si earlier and snipped off a small section, swiftly passing it through the flame of a red candle.
The moment the hair was ignited, it turned to a wisp of blue-gray smoke.
Chen Yan seized the chance, exhaling a breath of vital energy over the smoke.
“Essence to form—return to the original spirit!”
The vital energy-infused smoke drifted toward the paper effigy. By all accounts, it should have seamlessly merged with it.
Yet—
The moment the smoke neared the effigy, an invisible force repelled it, scattering the smoke before it could fuse.
“Huh?”
Something was very wrong.
The hair was unquestionably Lu Si Si’s—he had cut it himself.
By all known principles, the smoke should have linked her essence to the effigy. Yet, inexplicably—
There was no resonance with her primordial spirit.
“Did I misperform the spell?”
Chen Yan frowned, swiftly cutting out another paper effigy. This time, he omitted the birth characters, instead retrieving the bloodstained gauze he had taken from her wounded scalp.
Dipping his brush in clear water, he gently stroked the bloodstains, preparing to invoke an even more revealing technique…
With a swift stroke, Chen Yan lifted his brush and inscribed a sigil upon the newly crafted paper effigy.
“Blood and flesh as the guide, let the Primordial Spirit awaken…”
Bah! Wrong!
“Blood and flesh as the guide, swiftly return to the Origin Spirit!”
As his vital energy surged into the talisman, the paper effigy suddenly stood upright upon the table!
Chen Yan plucked a tuft of hair and let the candle’s flame consume it. Then, with a breath of vital energy, he blew upon the lingering smoke. This time, a wisp of blue-gray mist smoothly merged into the paper effigy before him.
Chen Yan’s heart trembled—
Success!
Narrowing his eyes, he gazed at the two paper effigies on the table.
His focus first landed on the one to the left—this one bore traces of Lu Si Si’s blood, its ashes mingling with the burnt strands of her hair.
“This one is Lu Si Si,” he murmured, his voice low yet certain.
Shifting his gaze to the right, his expression grew colder, more calculating. This paper effigy carried Lu Si Si’s birth date and celestial signs, yet…
“Then tell me, who are you?”
A chilling light flickered in Chen Yan’s eyes.
He had some suspicions now, but the key lay before him—this paper effigy bore Lu Si Si’s birth chart, yet it lacked the guiding elements of blood and flesh. Without such an anchor, would the Origin Spirit refuse to return?
Chen Yan arched an eyebrow.
[Hah! You think I can’t find you just because I lack a physical guide?]
[Have you even heard of my family’s Old Madam?]
[Even the Black and White Lords would kneel before her, knocking their heads to the ground in respect!]
The secret manual left behind by the Old Madam contained arts far beyond mundane spells. Who said he couldn’t locate a spirit without blood and hair?
Chen Yan narrowed his eyes, his fingers swiftly flipping through the tome. Soon, he found the page he sought.
“Let’s see the Old Madam’s Secret Legacy—the Seven Arrows Nail-Head Tome!”
With a flick of his finger, he traced a sigil in the air.
Yet—
Two seconds later, he sighed and slowly lowered his hand.
[Ah, if only the Old Madam had truly left behind the real Seven Arrows Nail-Head Tome.]
[If I had mastered it, I’d be slaughtering gods and demons alike by now!]
Unfortunately, it wasn’t that.
What he had was a spell similar to the legendary tome, but it could not harm—it functioned more like a Curse-Tracking Technique.
With merely a person’s birth chart, the spell could craft a paper effigy and use it to trace the original host’s whereabouts.
A few days ago, Chen Yan wouldn’t have been capable of such a feat. But today, after gaining another surge of power from the Lu Si Si Experience Pack, he was ready to attempt it.
Chen Yan sat cross-legged on the ground, placing the paper effigy inscribed with Lu Si Si’s birth chart before him.
His hands formed intricate seals in rapid succession before he dipped his brush, marking the effigy’s head and legs with three decisive strokes.
“Seek!”
The paper effigy trembled, then suddenly sprang to life. It twirled in place before pivoting to face a precise direction.
Chen Yan’s eyes gleamed.
The paper effigy had locked onto its target—pointing straight toward the true body’s location!
Without hesitation, Chen Yan surged his vital energy into the paper effigy.
Under the torrent of power, the tiny figure lifted into the air, floating ever so slowly in a singular direction.
Chen Yan committed the bearing to memory—
Southwest.
Yet as the paper effigy took a step forward, Chen Yan felt his vital energy drain like a tidal wave.
This technique demanded far more than expected!
One step of the Paper Effigy’s Pathfinding covered a hundred miles!
“A hundred miles… still not enough!”
“Two hundred miles… still nothing!”
“Four hundred miles—damn! This spell is draining me dry!”
[Just how far has this bastard hidden himself?!]
The further the search, the more the energy cost multiplied.
Chen Yan’s current cultivation limited his tracking range to a maximum of three hundred kilometers before exhaustion would force him to halt.
He felt his vital energy nearly depleted. Reluctantly, he prepared to withdraw—
But at that precise moment, the jade thumb ring on his left hand pulsed with a brilliant emerald light.
A surge of pure, unparalleled vital energy flooded into his body!
Caught off guard, Chen Yan’s mind went blank for a moment before he gasped in shock.
The paper effigy, now empowered beyond its previous limits, lurched forward, stepping again and again.
One step covered a hundred miles.
Ten steps—a thousand miles!
“Go! Keep going! Don’t stop!”
Harbor City, Halfway Up Mount Tai Ping.
A luxurious mansion lay nestled in the lush greenery of the mountainside. Within its courtyard, a grand three-story villa overlooked the verdant expanse.
Atop the villa’s highest terrace, an elderly geomancer clad in archaic Daoist robes held a compass, stepping meticulously, calculating with each motion of his fingers.
His face bore the glow of prosperity, his white hair lending him the air of an immortal sage.
“Chairman Lu, I have pinpointed the fortune-bearing position. It lies just over there.”
The elder folded his compass, smiling serenely. “If you construct a feng shui fish pond at that precise spot and nurture forty-nine koi, the waters shall invite wealth to your home. As a businessman, you will surely prosper.”
Standing beside him was a middle-aged man in a finely tailored suit. His aura was one of power and status. Laughing heartily, he clapped his hands. “Then I must thank Elder Zhong for his wise counsel! Having you personally bless my new residence ensures boundless fortune!”
Elder Zhong chuckled. Strolling toward the terrace’s edge, he admired the grand landscape below.
“This mansion, embraced by mountain winds and within sight of flowing water, is already an auspicious dwelling. Rest assured, Chairman Lu, your future shall be most prosperous.”
“Haha! Please, Elder Zhong, let’s go inside for further discussion.”
“Ah, very well.”
“Mind the steps, Elder Zhong.”
“Hah! Chairman Lu, you jest. My legs are still sturdy! I may be aged, but I am far from frail—ha-ha-ha—eh?”
“Eh? EH?!”
Elder Zhong’s legs suddenly moved of their own accord.
His body lurched forward—
And in the next instant, he stumbled off the terrace!
Chairman Lu froze for a full second.
Then he roared, “SOMEONE! Elder Zhong has fallen!”
Rushing to the staircase, he peered down—
There, sprawled upon the ground two and a half stories below, lay Elder Zhong. His forehead and face were streaked with blood, groaning in pain, unable to rise.
Chairman Lu blinked.
Then, realizing the severity of the situation, he shouted, “CALL AN AMBULANCE! Elder Zhong is injured!”
Meanwhile, back in his chamber, Chen Yan exhaled deeply, the turbulence of his vital energy gradually subsiding. His body sagged onto the floor, drained beyond measure.
His limbs felt like lead, his entire being exhausted.
But his lips curled into a faint smile.
“Found him… Harbor City it is.”
This novel is translated and hosted on Bcatranslation