I loaded the Mysticism panel.

Chapter 125 The Fortune Teller is a Detective

At 2 p.m. on Sunday afternoon, Richard went to the branch office as usual.

There's a new person behind the duty desk today, he looks to be in his early thirties, and he's copying a form.

When Richard walked in, the man didn't even look up, but simply stretched out his hand.

Richard handed over the letter of appointment.

The newcomer glanced at the seal and returned the document.

"Old Big is on the third floor."

"Thanks."

As Richard walked up the stairs, he mentally reviewed the results of his week's practice.

He used the copper dish and gray wax stick every night before bed.

In the "Spiritual Vision Fixation" test, he initially could only hold the position for three seconds, but gradually increased it to twelve seconds.

Further on, it started to slip, and the ether dripped from the surface of the crystal like water droplets that couldn't be held in place, and would slide down if you weren't careful.

He would drip a small piece of wax onto the candle every day for divination.

Initially, the wax was in a completely random shape, with no discernible pattern.

After his perception was activated, he gradually noticed that certain shapes appeared repeatedly.

One is an oblique "S" shape, another is a forked "Y" shape, and yet another is an ellipse that resembles a water droplet.

He drew these shapes in his notebook and ticked them off each time they appeared.

By Saturday night, the "S" shape appeared seven times, the "Y" shape appeared five times, and the "water droplet" shape appeared four times.

There are a dozen or so other scattered shapes, all of which have very low frequency.

According to old Big, this is how his personal wax language came to be.

When I got to the third floor, the office door was already open.

Old Big was squatting in the corner tidying up a wooden box filled with all sorts of strange objects.

"You're here?" Old Big didn't even look up.

"Um."

"Pour yourself some tea, and clear your head while you're at it."

Richard sat down in the chair and placed his schoolbag at his feet.

The teapot was on the table, and Richard poured himself half a cup.

Old Big finished packing the wooden crate and pushed it to the corner.

"Did you do your homework every day this week?"

"Yes, I practice every day."

"Then let's test it first."

Richard sat in a chair with twenty items laid out on the table in front of him.

This inspiration test is getting more difficult.

Because he has learned to "fixate," which is completely different from the kind of approach that relies entirely on basic inspiration to push things outward.

Twenty items, ten ordinary and ten processed with ether, are shuffled and must be identified and sorted within five minutes.

Richard began with the first item, his right hand hovering about two inches above it as he slowly swept it across.

The first item is a brass button, ordinary.

The second item is glass marbles, yes.

The third item is a belt buckle, which is ordinary.

The fourth item… His hand paused above the fourth item.

This is an old coin with the Queen's portrait on it, and the edges are badly worn.

In the past, when he encountered such worn-out old coins, he needed to feel them several times to determine if there was any ether residue.

Wear and tear can damage the surface structure of an object, causing the residual ether to become thin and diffuse, which can easily be confused with background noise.

He only went through it once today and confirmed it.

Yes, faintly, but definitely.

A small amount of salt dissolved in a basin of water may not show much color change to the naked eye, but the taste can be detected by the tongue.

He continued walking down.

The speed is much faster than before.

"alright."

Old Big stood up from the rocking chair in the corner and walked to the table.

He picked up the answer sheet that Richard had written and compared it with the standard answers in his hand one by one.

During the comparison, the old man's eyebrows moved twice.

The first time was with the fourth item, that badly worn old coin.

The second one was the seventeenth item, a small pencil stub, less than two inches long, with the paint on the wooden pencil shaft completely peeled off.

"The correct answer rate for the twenty questions is about 80%."

Old Big put the answer sheet on the table and glanced at Richard.

"What about the sorting?"

"The sorting is correct."

The old man turned the standard answer sheet over; on the back were written the correct order of ten ether items from highest to lowest residual amount.

He put both papers down and placed his hands, folded, on the edge of the table.

"In two weeks, there has been no regression, but continuous progress, and the rate of progress has been relatively stable."

He paused.

Do you know what this means?

Richard shook his head.

He certainly knew what this meant, but in front of old Big, appropriate humility was safer than honesty.

"That means your inspiration curve might be linear," Bige said.

"The inspiration growth curve for most apprentices is logarithmic."

It was alright in the early stages, but it got slower and slower in the later stages, and I hit a bottleneck, unable to improve no matter how much I practiced.

"A very small number of highly talented apprentices are exponentially gifted. They are fine in the early stages, but even faster in the later stages. Once they break through the critical point, they will experience explosive growth."

"Linear is the least common."

The man scrutinized the innocent-looking boy before him.

"Linear means that your progress is roughly the same each time, not much, but not little either."

It won't suddenly erupt, nor will it suddenly stop.

"Keep moving, keep moving forward, at the same speed."

He took out his pocket watch from his vest pocket, glanced at it, and then put it back.

"I apprenticed for five years and got to know a total of thirty-one apprentices, including members of other folk guilds outside of my own school."

Of these apprentices, twenty-nine were logarithmic, one was exponential, and one was linear.

"That linear apprentice is my senior sister."

Richard's heart skipped a beat.

"When Senior Sister McNeil first started out, her aptitude was mediocre, and her inspiration test score was even lower than yours."

Old Bige felt a bit nostalgic.

"When the teacher accepted her, none of her classmates thought highly of her, believing that she lacked talent and would eventually be dismissed like me."

"But the teacher said one thing."

Old Big's gaze shifted from Richard's face to the twenty items on the table.

The teacher said: "Talent determines how fast you can go, but character determines how far you can go."

Those who can steadily and patiently move forward day after day are far fewer than those with exceptional talent.

"My senior sister has already reached the minor proficiency level. Apart from one certain person, she has gone further than all of us in the same sect."

Old Big turned his gaze back to Richard.

"You have her shadow in you."

As soon as he finished speaking, the coal in the fireplace collapsed, and sparks flew out, landing on the iron bars with a sizzling sound.

Richard.

"What's wrong?"

I'll ask you one more time.

Old Big's expression and tone were very serious, completely different from his casual question last time.

"Would you be willing to formally become my disciple?"

Richard remained silent for a moment.

"Old Big, I'm very grateful that you value me."

"But my current situation makes it unsuitable for me to make this promise."

He carefully considered his words, trying to speak sincerely and without hurting anyone.

"I want to take the college entrance exam. Our family's financial situation has just started to improve, and my younger sister will also be preparing to go to college next year."

I need to divide my energy among many things, so I can't devote myself fully to my spiritual practice.

"If I agree but fail to deliver, it would be disrespectful to you and your sect."

After listening, the man shook his head.

"pity."

"It's such a pity," he said again.

"I see my senior sister's shadow in you, and even... a bit of my teacher's shadow."

"The teacher was like that back then, never in a hurry or flustered, taking it one step at a time, each step firmly planted."

Old Big stood up, walked to the fireplace, and poked at the coals with the tongs.

"Fine, I won't force you."

He said it without turning his head.

"The door is always open. You can come in whenever you've made up your mind."

"Thank you."

"Don't thank me." Old Big used the tongs to flip a piece of red-hot coal over.

"If you want to thank someone, thank yourself. Talent is a gift from God, but the drive to hone that talent bit by bit is your own."

He put the fire tongs back on the shelf and turned around.

"Alright, let's continue the lesson. We haven't covered what we were supposed to teach you today yet."

Old Big switched his tone quickly, jumping directly from his earlier reflections back to lecturing mode.

But Richard noticed that the other party's explanation was more in-depth and detailed than the one last week.

Last week he said that he was mostly teaching how to do it, the steps, procedures, and precautions.

Now he begins to explain why, the principles behind each step, the risks associated with each precaution, and the trade-off logic between different options.

This shows that they consider Richard as one of their own.

"Let's start with the wax figures. Tell me about your practice this week."

Richard took out the gray wax sticks and notebook, and turned to the pages that recorded the shapes of the wax.

Old Big leaned over and watched for a while.

"Seven times in an S-shape, five times in a Y-shape, four times in a teardrop shape..."

He flipped through a few pages of his notebook and pondered over the notes for a while.

"An S-shape usually represents a 'detour' or 'winding path'."

"The Y shape represents a 'fork' or a 'choice'."

"The teardrop shape represents 'unresolved matters' or 'the matter is still unresolved'."

Old Big returned the notebook to Richard.

"You've been thinking about three things repeatedly this week."

A matter that requires taking a detour, a matter that requires making a choice, a matter for which there is still no result.

Richard mentally compared it to the comparison.

The issue that requires a detour: the armor covering of the Stone Armor has always been somewhat difficult, and I've been pondering this recently.

A hesitant choice: Mr. Hutton said that a basic fighting foundation is needed to work with armor plating. Richard hesitated. Going to learn fighting now seemed a bit like neglecting his studies.

For those who haven't found out yet: the specific details of where they will be doing their winter break internship and what they will be doing are still unknown.

Three things, three shapes, they match up.

"Pretty accurate," Richard said.

"Of course," old Big said frankly. "What's accurate is actually yourself; the wax is just a way of drawing out what's in your heart."

"To understand oneself is to truly understand oneself."

"But understanding yourself is also the first step in divination."

Old Big took out an apple and took a bite.

"In the field of divination, the biggest taboo is to believe whatever the divination reveals."

"You must verify all the information that divination gives you through other means."

"My teacher once said that everyone thought fortune tellers were charlatans, but fortune tellers are actually detectives."

"A detective may not know the truth of a case at first, but he can deduce it step by step based on the evidence;

Similarly, a diviner uses the imagery obtained from divination to infer the outcome you desire.

"That sounds quite pragmatic," Richard said.

"The reason our line of work has been able to be passed down is because of our pragmatism."

Old Big broke the serious atmosphere and started grinning:

"If we could really know everything through divination, the teacher would have already dethroned the king and taken the throne himself."

Upon hearing this, Richard quickly looked around.

Is this being said in an official branch office?

"Could she really be thinking that?"

"Of course she doesn't now." Old Big waved his hand.

"But whether one had similar dangerous thoughts when they were young is another matter."

Those small eyes glanced at Richard: "Young people, they're all eager to do big things when they have some ability. Everyone's been young once."

"And what about you, old Bigger? You were young once too, weren't you?" Richard countered.

"Me?" Old Big patted his belly. "When I was young, all I wanted to do was eat more."

Richard couldn't help but laugh out loud.

At that very moment, Old Big's stomach made a very amusing "groove" sound.

"Look, even my belly agrees with me."

He reached out and drank half of the tea in the cup on the table to moisten his throat.

"Alright, let's not get off topic. You've made great progress with your wax story this week."

"You've got the hang of reading the wax tracing method; now I'm going to add something new for you."

Richard was asked to retrieve the bag of runes he had brought back last time, and Old Big took the bag and poured it onto the table.

More than twenty flat, round pebbles were scattered around, each one polished smooth and decorated with different symbols painted in red.

Hammer, ears of wheat, crescent moon, sword, water droplet, flame, cross...

"I told you about this last week, right? This is the method of reading stones."

Old Big picked up a pebble with a hammer drawn on it: "An advanced level of wax reading."

"When you read the wax verse, you're reading yourself, right?"

"Um."

"Read the stone's laws, and read yourself." Old Big tossed a stone onto the table. "But read it more carefully."

"Wax is a paste-like substance, and the shape it solidifies depends entirely on the strongest emotion you have at that moment."

So, the wax figure gives you a general direction; you see smoke coming from a great distance and know something is burning, but you don't know exactly what's burning.

He arranged the pebbles one by one.

"The method of reading stones is different. The stones are pre-carved, and each stone has a specific meaning."

If you grab a handful and scatter them on a plate, the arrangement and placement of the pebbles will create a visual image, much finer than wax.

"What exactly are the rules?" Richard knew it couldn't be as simple as just grabbing a handful of pebbles and tossing them around.

"Take a handful from your pocket, usually three to nine stones, depending on the complexity of the problem, and then scatter the stones onto the copper dish."

After the stones fall, first look at which one is closest to the center of the plate; that's the core of the problem.

Secondly, examine the relative positions of each pebble to see if they represent conflicting or irrelevant factors.

"Check if any of them have rolled off the plate. The ones that have rolled off represent the parts of your problem that are no longer important and can be ignored."

Old Big picked up a pebble from the table.

"You must remember the meaning of each pebble: the ear of wheat represents harvest, the hammer represents action, the crescent moon represents change or growth, the water droplet represents unfinished business, the double circle represents relationships, the spiral represents repetition..."

He counted the symbols one by one on his fingers.

Richard quickly pulled out his notebook and started taking notes.

"These meanings aren't made up," Old Big added.

"Each symbol is a consensus reached by dozens of generations. You don't need to invent new meanings; just use the old rules."

"OK."

"But there's one thing I need to make clear." Old Big put the pebble back into his pocket:

"The divination methods I can teach only go up to the stone reading method."

"That's all?"

"Yes, that's all. After all, I'm only a half-baked amateur myself."

Old Big grinned; he was quite carefree.

"The teacher taught five divination methods back then: candle reading, stone reading, horoscope, crystal ball, and tarot cards."

Further back in history, there are even more unorthodox methods, such as divination using bones, blood, and wind whispers; older generations tend to believe more in these primitive practices.

He shrugged.

"But for me, after I finished learning how to read stones, the teacher shook his head and sighed as he sent me away."

I can't even understand the coordinate system of an astrological chart, I've been fiddling with the crystal ball for ages and still can't figure anything out, and I've memorized the meanings of all 78 tarot cards countless times but still can't remember them all.

Old Big scratched his head.

"You see, I've almost finished teaching you. For anything beyond that, you'll have to find another way on your own."

"And your senior sister, she..."

"My senior sister is still traveling to several cities in the north, and she's busy all year round."

Old Big waved his hand: "I did mention you to her, and she said we could meet sometime."

"If it's inconvenient, then so be it. You can't force these things."

Richard was somewhat surprised.

This was different from what he had imagined; he thought the introduction would be a very formal one.

"Anyway," Old Big steered the conversation back on track:

"Let's talk about it next year. You said before that your mentor would arrange an internship for you during the winter break, right? That's your main job."

If you have time this semester, practice reading stones until you're proficient. When you go back this week, pick out five of the most commonly used stones.

"You can practice with these five: wheat ear, hammer, crescent moon, teardrop, and double circle."

"After finishing your fixation and candle reading before bed each night, take these five pebbles and scatter them on a plate."

Think about the question you most want to figure out that day, and then look at where the pebble landed.

Once you're familiar with these five stones, then go and collect other stones.

"Remember to take notes every time, write down the location, the combination, and your interpretation."

Looking back after some time, you'll discover some patterns.

"What pattern?"

"Your own habitual preference for picking up pebbles, the approximate distribution of where the pebbles fall, and the direction you tend to interpret them."

Old Big pushed the cloth bag towards him.

"The more times you memorize, the clearer your understanding of yourself, and the more accurate your reading of the stone will be."

"Just like reading wax."