There are five people and three costs. Jing Yuan, you are not one of them.
Jing Yuan watched as his former friend was escorted away, feeling utterly exhausted.
A Stellaron had erupted within the Xianzhou Luofu, causing a large number of residents to become Mara-Struck. An unknown Vidyadhara newborn had appeared, and a former friend had returned to the Xianzhou in a different guise, while the Stellaron Hunters, a faction belonging to The Finality, were involved behind the scenes.
Chaos. It was all too chaotic. The entire Xianzhou Luofu had fallen into absolute disorder, and it was clear that even more trouble would likely come knocking soon.
Meanwhile, inside the Divination Commission, the child lay flat upon the Matrix of Prescience. If it were not to ensure the precision of the calculation, the group of Vidyadhara elders, who now valued this child above all else, would never have agreed to it.
Even so, these elders were currently surrounding the Matrix of Prescience one by one, each of them looking guarded, terrified that some danger might suddenly emerge and harm what was potentially the only hope for the Vidyadhara.
Fu Xuan could understand their unease and said nothing. Instead, she activated the Matrix of Prescience and began examining the karma surrounding the child.
At first, everything before her eyes was pure darkness, with no information whatsoever to be found. This confirmed Fu Xuan's suspicions. The child's origins were absolutely extraordinary, and it was likely that the Matrix of Prescience could not discern them clearly.
Suddenly, the darkness before her began to ripple slightly. Fu Xuan's field of vision started to rise, and her consciousness and body gradually separated. The darkness before her was slowly writhing, slowly breathing.
An unknown song began to play, as if praising a kingdom that would eventually arrive. An unknown prayer was chanted, as if begging the gods to grant mercy.
That pitch-black expanse was no longer a pure obstruction symbolizing an inability to see. It had become filled with all sorts of anomalous information.
That information, that knowledge, was chaotic and grotesque. Some of it taught how to hunt one's own kind to construct bizarre rituals. Some taught how to cook one's own kind to gain power through consumption. Others taught how to embrace reality and see through the illusory world.
Before Fu Xuan's eyes appeared a scene filled with the grotesque and the depraved. She saw a father and son killing each other just to drink the other's blood. She saw the deceased being dismembered and eaten. She saw a mother and child locked in an embrace that resembled a brawl, driven by a frenzied spirit.
Just as Fu Xuan was on the verge of collapse, her mind completely shattered and on the brink of becoming Mara-Struck, a pure white flower bloomed within that incredibly chaotic and depraved scene.
The flower possessed a faint, delicate fragrance, yet this very fragrance was enough to restore sanity to anyone in a state of chaotic madness. It allowed them to break free from that bizarre illusion, letting lost morality and common sense gradually return, turning beasts back into humans, and restoring what had been lost.
The scenes faded away. Fu Xuan snapped her eyes open, feeling pain a hundred times worse than before in the area where the third eye was embedded in her forehead. Blood streamed from her eyes, ears, and nostrils, and she appeared completely unsteady, on the verge of collapse.
"Master Diviner!!!"
The assisting diviner nearby saw this and turned pale with fright. She hurriedly picked up the unconscious Fu Xuan and rushed toward the Alchemy Commission.
Just before losing consciousness, Fu Xuan said with unfocused eyes, "Do not look, do not listen, do not seek..."
...
Caelus paused, his hand toying with the Holy Grail, then looked up into the distance. "Who is tracking my karmic fate?"
Caelus's own karmic fate was extremely difficult to observe, so any entity attempting to observe his fate would, if their own rank was not high enough, basically end up detecting the karmic fate of beings deeply connected to him.
And the things most closely connected to his karmic fate were the Path powers he possessed.
In other words, those who looked at Caelus's karmic fate would either see IX, the Aeon of Nihility, representing the Path of Nihility, or Fuli, the Aeon of Remembrance, representing the Path of Remembrance, or Azathoth, representing the special Path of The Finality, or Nyarlathotep, who had bestowed this Path, or The Achiever, representing the special Path of Abundance, or God, the One True God, who had bestowed this Path.
Among these entities, it was fine to see Fuli, The Achiever, or God. After all, while these beings were powerful, they held no malice toward those who observed them. If the latter two found someone favorable, they might even bestow some gifts.
But if one saw the other three, one had better pray for good luck.
One would either become a Self-Annihilator and fall into Nihility, see The Finality where all things return to one and then dissolve into everything, or face the insane and chaotic knowledge that violated all common sense and human ethics, becoming completely deranged.
Six possibilities. Half good, half bad, entirely dependent on one's luck.
"Which means that child's fate was observed. Since I personally molded that child and even cared for it for a few days, and it still carries some of my power characteristics within its body, observing that child is basically the same as starting to observe me."
Caelus could only hope that the person observing his fate was lucky. Even among those three worst possibilities, seeing Nyarlathotep was actually a good thing, as he had gifted a pure white flower that could remain standing amid the void and chaotic distortion.
As long as that person could hold on until the pure white flower appeared, the previous distortion and mental confusion would only cause a certain amount of damage, not prove fatal.
As for the two absolute worst possibilities, Caelus had no solution. After all, the reason the latter could be cured was purely because Nyarlathotep was willing to preserve that flower, causing it to become something like a vow in fate.
Caelus continued to look at the Holy Grail in his hand, already pondering whether to dismantle it and allow the incomplete Third Magic to fully integrate into himself. This would make his application and understanding of the Third Magic more convenient, allowing him to forge a seed of fire faster, and enabling Mem to break through the first stage and proceed to the second stage of Spirit Origin Ascension.
Inside the Alchemy Commission, Dan Shu, the Chief Alchemist, finished examining the patient's condition and then said to the General and the Vidyadhara elders, "Master Diviner has suffered some agitation and damage to her mind. Although there is no major issue and she will wake up before long, she will need to rest for a while. Otherwise, it may leave behind hidden illnesses."
"Thank you for your hard work."
Jing Yuan nodded, then looked with a heavy expression at the pale Fu Xuan on the hospital bed. He said to the Vidyadhara, "Everyone, Master Diviner suffered such damage while investigating the karma of that child for your sake. I believe you know what kind of danger lies behind this. The Xianzhou Luofu is currently in a troubled time, and I believe the matter of that child should be set aside for now. Furthermore, with such significant karma, even the Matrix of Prescience and the Master Diviner, with her third eye, could barely withstand it. Are you truly at ease with this?"
Although the Vidyadhara elders were unwilling, there was no other way now. Some were even silently cursing themselves in their hearts, wondering why they had cooperated with the Disciples of Sanctus Medicus at such a critical moment. It was completely holding them back. If they had known, they should have just taken care of all those people.
But they could not do that now. If they stood up and reported all those people, their own cooperation with the Disciples of Sanctus Medicus would be exposed. If Jing Yuan were to interfere, the child would be in danger.
This was their only hope, the only hope for their entire race to continue existing in this universe and to continue thriving.
Jing Yuan looked at Fu Xuan, who was frowning even in her sleep as if enduring great pain. Finally, he sighed, appearing to age a little more, and said to the Cloud Knights standing by, "Go and invite Mr. Caelus over."
(To be continued.)