I discovered a world bug.

Lin Shu was stunned when she saw Xu Feng's "diary".

I knew you were hiding your true intentions, but I never imagined you were hiding them this well!

You were already studying rituals back in 2010?

How old were you back then?

15? 16?

Holy crap, this is really the rebellious phase!

But... from age 16 to 32, a full 16 years, your dad didn't find out?

Or did he actually discover it all along, but simply chose not to say it?

But none of that matters anymore.

Regardless of what Xu Feng stole from Xu Changshun, or what he learned and researched on his own, at least what he imparted to himself was real and tangible.

Throughout the journey, Lin Shu studied Xu Feng's diary. It took her more than an hour to finish reading the entire diary after returning to the heavily guarded guesthouse.

In this diary, Xu Feng did indeed record his important breakthrough in the study of "yarrow stalk and tortoise shell divination".

But more than that, there are other things.

......

"October 12, 2010, sunny. My ritual was successful today. The father couldn't do it, so the son has to step in. I knew long ago that my dad's methods wouldn't work. The younger generation surpasses the older, and the older generation is left stranded on the beach..."

"December 5, 2010, cloudy. Is this ritual only supposed to show one image? Why is it that no matter what I do, I always end up dying in a coffin? No, why am I dying in a coffin?! Buried alive? If I find out who did this, I'll tear you apart!"

"April 5, 2011, sunny. The controlled experiment method is very useful. I never thought that what I was taught in school could be used here. The scene I saw became clearer, but it seems that it only became clearer. I still died in the coffin. From now on, I will carry some croquettes with me so that I don't starve to death."

"September 1, 2014, rain. My dad seems to have read my diary. That old man is really... He's locked everything up and won't let me into my room. I need to think of a way..."

"November 2, 2017, cloudy. The experiment made a major breakthrough. This time I didn't die in a coffin. Someone saved me, but couldn't bring me back to life. I couldn't see his face clearly. I don't know who he is. He's a complete stranger."

"February 16, 2018, cloudy. I still don't understand who the person I saw was, but at least today I finally identified the core process that triggered this change. It seems that yarrow stalk divination is indeed not just about seeing death; it is consistent with the descriptions in ancient books and should be able to divine any specific event. However, I don't know how to express the specific event that needs to be divined in the ritual."

"October 12, 2020, sunny. My research on rituals has lasted for a full ten years, and today marks the tenth anniversary. I thought my diary would be filled with notebooks, but as I get older, I don't like writing in it as much anymore. I've been organizing my old records these past few days and realized that ten years have been wasted with little to show for it. It seems that I'm ahead of my father in terms of rituals like yarrow stalk and tortoise shell divination. But ultimately, I'm still standing on his shoulders."

"October 12, 2024, sunny. The yarrow stalk divination technique has been pushed to its limit. Not the limit of the ritual, but my limit. Human strength has its limits, and I may need to seek other help from the outside. After actually seeing those images, I realized why my father didn't allow me to access the ritual, but now, it seems too late."

"January 6, 2026, cloudy. Divination has become more flexible, but I still don't understand who the person I saw was. I'm considering whether to be honest with my father. I'm thirty now, shouldn't I be able to make my own choices?"

"March 16, 2026, sunny. Today I confessed to my father—only a small part. I roughly described what that person looked like—ordinary, there's really not much to say. My father doesn't know him either, but his expression was very strange."

"April 12, 2026. Dad died."

......

This is where the diary ends.

Lin Shu's feelings were hard to express in words—in a sense, he was seeing Xu Feng's entire life from his teenage years to the present.

In his youth, his writing was frivolous and impetuous, and it also clearly revealed his dissatisfaction with his father, Xu Changshun.

Gradually, he began to understand his father and the dangerous world associated with "rituals".

He confessed what he had done to his father, although it was still a "selective" confession. But it was clear that at this point, the concealment was actually to protect his father.

Unfortunately, he ultimately couldn't prevent the inevitable end.

Xu Changshun is dead; in Xu Feng's diary, it's just three simple words.

He seemed very calm, and there was no emotional fluctuation in his writing—just like when I saw him at the funeral.

There were no tear stains on the paper, and the handwriting wasn't trembling.

He was extremely restrained, but the sadness he suppressed was really hard to hide.

Lin Shu let out a soft breath and slowly closed the diary.

He understood why Xu Feng had left him this thing—its contents explained many of his doubts.

This includes why Xu Changshun chose him, why Xu Feng recognized him at a glance, and why he saved him...

and many more.

He had already seen his own face in the results of divination using yarrow stalks and tortoise shells, and had described his appearance to Xu Changshun.

In his divination, he believed he was the one who would try to save him in the future.

So that's why Xu Changshun said to himself in the letter, "You'll know later"?

Was it because he had a chance to save his son?

It seems it's not that simple...

However, these problems are not urgent to solve.

Xu Feng went to get treatment for his injuries, he didn't die.

This operation has fully proven his credibility, and my contact with him will no longer be restricted.

If you want to ask him any questions, just call him directly...

He should still be in surgery right now. During this time, my main task is to fully digest and understand the content of the "Optimized Procedure of Divination by Yarrow Stalks and Tortoise Shells" that he extracted.

That way, when you call, you can casually ask about anything you don't understand...

Lin Shu looked at her notes again.

According to Xu Feng's description, this set of rituals was not only used to predict death.

After he used the scientific method of "controlled experiment," he did indeed develop other uses for this ritual.

For example, it can be used to predict "major milestones".

This is still a rather vague statement—what is a major milestone? What are the criteria for determining a major milestone?

Xu Feng himself couldn't explain it; he wrote in his diary:

"...I tried to use the improved ritual to predict certain events in my life, and I am convinced that by adjusting the ritual process, I have achieved my goal."

"By incorporating the 'spirit-like' theory from Da Liu Ren divination into yarrow stalk and tortoise shell divination, I can selectively predict certain major categories of events."

"Although the prediction results still have an uncontrollable randomness, it has been verified that every 'event' I have seen has been of great significance in my life."

"For example, I saw what my future wife would look like in the 'marriage chart'—unfortunately, I haven't met her yet."

"But my future wife is indeed quite beautiful..."

"...The core of this theory is to integrate the Twelve Heavenly Generals and the Twelve Monthly Generals into the yarrow stalk and tortoise shell divination process."

"Of course, the Twelve Heavenly Generals and the Twelve Monthly Generals are just abstract concepts. I can't exactly pluck stars from the sky and put them into the ritual.

"But in fact, in the theory of Da Liu Ren, we already have a complete system of correspondences, and we can easily find items that are compatible with it."

"And these items are the key to 'directional divination'..."