Ascending to Immortality by Slaying Spirits

Chapter 73: The Art of Divination
In order to find the murderer, the Xiang family acted very quickly and soon found what Hei Muzi needed.

Inside a closed room, an ancient stone table was polished to a shine, and a series of divination tools were placed on it.

Hei Muzi washed her hands and face, preparing for divination, while four young Taoist boys stood around the room, all dressed in plain Taoist robes and holding incense and candles.

After preparing, Hei Muzi first lit an incense stick to pay homage to the four directions, and then began to work on the yarrow stalks on the stone platform.

However, as soon as he removed a yarrow stalk, he felt an invisible pressure coming from the shadows.

Lin Le, who was refining medicinal herbs in the alchemy room, suddenly frowned, sensing that he was being watched.

However, before he could investigate where this feeling of being spied on came from, the golden light representing the Golden Light Divine Mantra in the Yellow Court Secret Realm suddenly burst forth.

Lin Le looked at the faint golden light emanating from his body, his mind racing, and he immediately understood what was going on.

'External evil? Does that mean someone is divining or cursing me?'

Lin Le narrowed his eyes.

Meanwhile, on Hei Muzi's side, the divination continued, proceeding in two stages: hanging one, divining four, and returning to the origin. The pressure Hei Muzi felt increased as the divination progressed.

Suddenly, the incense and candles in the hands of one of the Taoist boys went out, and the boy also coughed up a mouthful of blood and collapsed limply.

Upon seeing this, Hei Muzi's expression changed drastically. He hadn't expected the murderer to be so powerful; even the four toughest men he had found couldn't withstand him.

But now he can only grit his teeth and persevere, otherwise he will waste so many of the Xiang family's resources. If he can't even get a little information out of them, the outcome will definitely not be good.

One after another, the Taoist disciples collapsed to the ground, and all the pressure fell on Hei Muzi.

Click!

Suddenly, a cracking sound came from Hei Muzi's body, which made Hei Muzi's face turn bitter. This time, he had really suffered a huge loss, even his life-saving artifact had been destroyed.

However, the life-saving artifact was still effective, so Hei Muzi quickly finished the divination.

Even so, Hei Muzi couldn't help but cough up blood, cursing under her breath, "What a huge loss! What a huge loss! This time, I've really suffered a damn huge loss!"

Looking at the divination symbols on the wooden board, Hei Muzi left the room, leaning on her cane.

Outside the room, Xiang Zhiwu and Xiang Zhiwen saw Hei Muzi come out and quickly went up to her. Xiang Zhiwu asked, "Hei Muzi, how did it go?"

"This isn't good," Kuroko said, shaking her head.

Xiang Zhiwen frowned: "What do you mean?"

“The murderer has a deep karmic burden and is no ordinary person.” Hei Muzi took out a wooden board with divination symbols. “I’ve shortened my lifespan by three years, and I still can’t figure out his background.”

"Tell me what the divination revealed first," Xiang Zhiwu said calmly.

"The murderer is male, born in the year of Mao and the month of Hai." Hei Muzi slowly recounted, "According to the last divination, he is in the south."

Xiang Zhiwen and Xiang Zhiwu frowned. The information Hei Muzi provided was detailed in some ways, including his age, height, and even his birthplace, but it wasn't detailed in others either, as it lacked information about his strength, name, and distinctive features.

"Is that all?" Xiang Zhiwen looked at Hei Muzi with a somewhat unfriendly expression, sensing that the old man was hiding something.

Hei Muzi nodded: "That's all. If the Second Young Master is not satisfied, he can ask other fortune tellers to do divination and see if their divination is as complete as mine."

"Then thank you very much, Daoist Heimuzi," Xiang Zhiwu said, cupping his hands in thanks, before pulling Xiang Zhiwen away.

In the alchemy room, Lin Le looked at the fading golden light on his body and couldn't help but tap his knee with his fingers.

'Is the divination finished? I wonder how much information the other person received?'

Although the Golden Light Divine Incantation provided cover, the sense of being spied on was not completely eliminated; rather, it remained elusive.

'I must find a way to learn a secret method, one that can be used for self-defense and also to eliminate any potential threats at the outset.'

After handing the refined pills to Zhou Ziyang, Lin Le returned to the Lin residence. "The art of divination?" Qing Li was somewhat surprised by Lin Le's request. "What do you want to learn this for?"

Lin Le recounted how he had been told a fortune about today.

After listening, Qingli looked at Lin Le as if he were a monster: "You can actually sense the secrets of heaven?"

"Is there a problem with this?" Lin Le asked curiously.

“You have a rather serious problem.” Qingli tapped Lin Le’s forehead with her finger. “You need to know that the secrets of heaven are unpredictable. The reason why divination is so feared is that people don’t feel like they are being divined.”

"If you can be sensed, many divinations can be rendered useless. In that respect, you are quite suitable to be a fortune teller."

"So do you have it on your end?" Lin Le was still more concerned about the question from earlier.

"Hmm, let me think," Qingli pondered for a moment and said, "There is one method, but it's very basic and can only predict good or bad fortune in a simple way."

"That's fine." Lin Le nodded.

"I can pass it on," Qingli said seriously, pinching Lin Le's cheek. "But you have to promise me that you won't go too far as a fortune teller in the future!"

"Why? Didn't you say I was suited to be a fortune teller?" Lin Le asked, puzzled.

"Because the path of divination is subject to divine punishment!" Qingli said solemnly. "The five deficiencies and three lacks are just the basics. The more you divine, the more calamities you will face, and you may die or perish at any time."

"With your talent, you could go very far. There's no need to walk on this narrow path on the precipice of a fortune teller."

"I understand," Lin Le nodded. "I promise you."

"Hmm." Qingli began to explain the method of divination to Lin Le.

Meanwhile, inside the county magistrate's office, a large group of people were flipping through files, searching for the target candidate.

Wei Zhenshan and Xiang Lingchen stood at the door, watching the constables flip through the files.

Kuroko said the murderer was a local and mentioned the year and month, although it was vague, this clue was enough to narrow down the suspects to a few dozen people.

Soon, the bailiff handed the copied list to Wei Zhenshan and Xiang Lingchen.

Wei Zhenshan and Xiang Lingchen glanced at the list and frowned, because there were no familiar names on it.

"Is it him?" Wei Zhenshan pointed to a name and said, "Liang Xiaoyu, I remember he's from the Liang family, Huangting Sanchonglou."

"I don't care," Xiang Lingchen said expressionlessly. "Arrest everyone on this list who isn't dead. I refuse to believe that not a single one of them is innocent!"

"Won't this cause trouble? The county can't afford any unrest," Wei Zhenshan said hesitantly.

Xiang Lingchen turned his head, his eyes bloodshot: "Anyone who dares to stop me, I'll kill them, including you!"

Wei Zhenshan fell silent. He could sense that Xiang Lingchen was like boiling oil; any drop of water would cause him to explode.

But if it were him, he would have blown it up too.

After all, who can accept the death of their children one after another?

"Go!" Xiang Lingchen shouted coldly, leading the constables and officers away, clearly intending to arrest someone that very night.

"Hey, it didn't cause any major trouble." Wei Zhenshan shook his head and sighed.

Behind him, Liu Yonghuai glanced at the document in his hand, then quickly looked away.

Lin Le's name was near the top of that list.

(End of this chapter)