They've all become top scholars in the imperial examinations, and you're telling me this i

Chapter 20 Death's Bane, No Solution

What exactly did they see...?

The room was deathly silent. Yuan Shoucheng's pupils suddenly contracted, as if he had been burned by the question that went straight to the heart of the matter.

His chapped lips moved, and his Adam's apple bobbed laboriously, but no sound came out.

"Chen An".

Chen Guangrui suddenly spoke, but his gaze remained fixed on Yuan Shoucheng.

"Brother?" Chen An responded subconsciously.

"Get out." The voice was calm, but brooked no argument.

Chen An was taken aback, his thick eyebrows immediately furrowed, and his grip tightened unconsciously.

"No way! Brother, that old guy is too slippery. He can disappear and throw sand around. Who knows what he might do..."

"go out!"

Chen Guangrui's voice suddenly turned sharp, like a cold dagger severing Chen An's worries.

His sharp gaze swept over Chen An's face, which was filled with resentment. Chen An nodded, then stormed out of the house.
"You old liar, I'm right outside the door! Trying to pull any tricks..."

He released his grip, made an extremely forceful fist clenching motion, let out a heavy groan, and reluctantly retreated, slamming the heavy wooden door shut with a clang.

The lingering sound of the door hinges scraping echoed in the small room, adding to the oppressive silence. Under the dim light, only the two of them remained facing each other.

Yuan Shoucheng seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, but his body remained tense, like a frightened bird. He dragged his heavy, wet clothes to the chair opposite Chen Guangrui, but did not sit down. Instead, he supported his limp body by holding onto the back of the chair, panting heavily.

Chen Guangrui stopped urging him and just looked at him quietly. His gaze was calm and deep, making Yuan Shoucheng feel exposed.

Finally, the old Taoist priest seemed to have made up his mind.

He raised his ashen face, looking at Chen Guangrui with a complex expression. He neither admitted nor denied it, but spoke in a low, bitter, and utterly weary tone,

"You...you already knew, didn't you?"

He was panting, each word seeming to be squeezed out from a broken bellows.
"Blood flows into the heavens... resentment entangles the soul... the gates of the Netherworld open... ten deaths without hope!"

His withered fingers trembled as he pointed at Chen Guangrui's forehead, chest, and soles of his feet. His voice grew sharper and more urgent as he spoke, finally culminating in a tearing growl.
"I've walked this earth for sixty years, dispelling the evil spirits of headless corpses and appeasing the grudges of drowned ghosts! But this sword hanging over your head..."

His voice suddenly choked, as if fear had blocked his throat. After a long pause, he shook his head dejectedly. All that charlatan's slickness had vanished, leaving only naked despair crushed by reality.

“I have never seen... such ruthlessness! Such thoroughness! Such an inescapable omen of death! Inescapable! Do you understand? There is no cure! Even immortals and Buddhas cannot save you! This is an iron curtain woven by the Heavenly Dao; even gods would suffer greatly if they entered! You…”

His throat bobbed, and he uttered the last few words.

"You're doomed! Sooner or later... that's it!"

Chen Guangrui's hands, resting on his knees, tightened almost imperceptibly. His expression, however, remained frighteningly calm. He even nodded slightly, as if Yuan Shoucheng were merely stating a fact unrelated to him.

"understood."

He spoke, but his voice was completely devoid of emotion.
"Then, let's talk about the Dragon King."

The topic abruptly shifted, its sharp edge cleaving through the previous heaviness like a knife.

Caught off guard, Yuan Shoucheng was momentarily stunned.
"Wha...what?"

“The Dragon King of the Jing River.” Chen Guangrui leaned forward slightly, the light from the oil lamp illuminating half of his face, his eyes sharp as lightning.

"The calamity that led to his death... wasn't a miscounting of the Jade Emperor's decree to bring rain, right?"

His tone wasn't a question, but a firm statement. Yuan Shoucheng trembled violently, staring at Chen Guangrui as if he were a monster.
"You...you can't even do this..."

The wrinkles on his face deepened, as if he had aged ten years in an instant, and his voice carried an incredulous fear and an undisguised helplessness.

"It's the 'Official of the Human Bureau'! I secretly did some calculations for that old dragon of the Jing River today, and his death is related to the 'Official of the Human Bureau'! But..."

Yuan Shoucheng's voice sounded somewhat helpless.

"I can't figure it out! I don't know who that Cao Guan is! Is he old or young? Is he a man or a ghost? Does he hold a high position in the imperial court or hide in the wilderness? There's not a single clue! If we can't find him, we can't ask him to show mercy, and the old dragon's calamity can't be averted. If the old dragon dies, according to you, I'll also be in big trouble."

Yuan Shoucheng's voice suddenly became tearful.
"I'm going to be chased to the heavens and the earth by those old, scaled creatures underwater! I'll be ground to dust, leaving not even a bone fragment!"

Just as Yuan Shoucheng was weeping uncontrollably and almost collapsed to the ground,

A soft, tearing sound, like cloth being ripped, suddenly rang out.

Chen Guangrui suddenly pulled something from his sleeve. It wasn't a token or talisman, but just a palm-sized piece of yellowed, brittle hemp paper, its edges stained with water. On the paper, a few crooked characters stubbornly shone in the dim light:

A golden carp brings a new fortune.

It was the very paper on which Yuan Shoucheng wrote his divination rules at his stall!

Yuan Shoucheng's wailing caught in his throat, like a duck being choked. His cloudy eyes were fixed on the yellow paper, as if he had seen the most unbelievable demon in the world, filled with extreme shock and an indescribable...absurdity!
Chen Guangrui didn't ask Yuan Shoucheng why he wanted golden carp every day, or what his purpose was. Instead, he steadily and unequivocally stuffed the old paper, which carried countless calculations and causes and effects, into Yuan Shoucheng's still trembling, withered hands.

“I can get Cao Guan to give his approval.”

Chen Guangrui spoke calmly, after all, others might not know the identity of this "official in charge of personnel," but he could deduce it.

He knew that Wei Zheng had beheaded the Dragon King in his dream, so this "official in charge of human affairs" was most likely Wei Zheng.

Yuan Shoucheng didn't know why he couldn't figure out it was Wei Zheng, nor was he interested in finding out. As for whether he could get Wei Zheng's approval, that depended on whether he could gain Wei Zheng's trust. That's a story for another time.

Chen Guangrui's words, though not loud, were like a massive boulder thrown into stagnant water!
Yuan Shoucheng shuddered violently. He raised his head, and the look in his eyes as he looked at Chen Guangrui was no longer that of a "dead man" or "prey," but rather that of a monster that had overturned all his understanding of the world.

"No...impossible!" he screamed, his voice shrill and piercing. "I've exhausted all my efforts and even lost much of my cultivation, yet I couldn't calculate a single thing! You...you're just a mortal, how could you..."

His words were silenced by Chen Guangrui's indifferent gaze.

He didn't believe Chen Guangrui could figure out who this "official in charge of personnel" was, but Chen Guangrui must have had some basis for his confidence to say so.

However, Yuan Shoucheng felt it was a dream. Even though his lineage was able to glimpse the secrets of heaven, they didn't know who this official was. How did Chen Guangrui know?

Moreover, judging from his appearance, he not only knew about it but also had the means to persuade Cao Guan, which made him even more curious.

Chen Guangrui didn't explain, but simply patted Yuan Shoucheng's hand, which was clenched tightly around the yellow hemp paper. The gesture carried an air of indifferent control.

“Now, it’s your turn, Mr. Yuan.”

Chen Guangrui leaned back in his chair, the dim light casting shadow over half his face, leaving only his eyes shining brightly in the darkness.
"tell me……"

His voice deepened, carrying a penetrating power that seemed to seek out the most fundamental secrets.

"With your ability to foresee the life and death of others, and even to calculate the fate of the Dragon King, what path do you cultivate?"

"You can divine the secrets of heaven and seek good fortune while avoiding misfortune. You can predict the future of others, but you cannot predict the future of yourself. This is why you are unwilling to provoke me, and why you could not foresee that the Dragon King of the Jing River would come looking for you... Is this how your lineage works?"

As soon as he finished speaking, in the dim light, Yuan Shoucheng gripped the crumpled and damp piece of yellow hemp paper tightly in his hand, the edge of the paper almost piercing into his dry palm.

He stood frozen beside the chair, like a clay statue, his pale face and cloudy eyes filled with unprecedented horror.
I couldn't help but ask, "How did you know?"

(End of this chapter)