Chapter 153: Jing Yuan: Who Told You to Plant a Space Anchor on My Chair?
"Rekka."
"Here, I'm here."
"Um, it's just that..." Jing Yuan cleared his throat, a rare hint of hesitation in his voice.
"General, there's no need to beat around the bush," Rekka said with a grin. "Just say it. Feel free to speak your mind."
"Very well, I'll be direct then." Jing Yuan clasped his hands behind his back, assuming his usual stately posture. "It's just... can you... tell a fortune for someone?"
"Fortune-telling?" Rekka waved his hands back and forth in frantic denial. "I don't know how to tell fortunes."
"General, is your memory getting a little hazy? I mean, I might do some things that are a bit out of line from time to time, but I really don't know anything about metaphysical stuff like divination."
Jing Yuan's eyelid twitched.
'You don't know how?'he thought, a deep sigh building in his chest.'You don't know how, my foot! That's not what you said when you told my fortune eight hundred years ago! And when you ran off back then, you even had the nerve to give me a cheerful Ciallo～ ( ∠ ・ ω ＜ ) ⌒ ★!'
"Oh?" Jing Yuan's voice was dangerously smooth. "You really don't know how?"
"That's right, that's right, I don't know the first thing about it," Rekka said, nodding vigorously.
"It's fine if you don't," Jing Yuan said, his placid smile not quite reaching his eyes. He took Rekka by the arm. "Come with me for a trip. Just think of it as taking a walk with an old man over eight hundred years old."
With that, Rekka was unceremoniously dragged away.
The others, left behind, watched him go. "Rekka's gone. What should we play now?"
"I'm tired of playing for today. Let's go back and rest. We can continue tomorrow."
"Understood."
"Rekka, look. What are these?" Jing Yuan gestured to an object he'd placed on the table in his private study.
"...A fortune stick tube?"
"Correct. And what about this?" Jing Yuan set another item down beside it.
"A fortune stick?"
"Correct," Jing Yuan said, his voice dropping. "And you still say you don't know how to tell fortunes?"
Rekka finally understood. He was cornered. There was no way out of this without some kind of explanation. After all the absurd things he'd done, getting caught was only a matter of time.
"Sigh... General, there's something you don't know," Rekka began, trying a different tactic. "Fortune-telling isn't something you can just do casually. And what if—what if I get struck by divine retribution?"
"There is no 'what if'," Jing Yuan stated flatly. "There is no 'what if'."
Rekka heaved a long, dramatic sigh. "Fine. I'll tell your fortune then."
He closed his eyes, grasping the fortune stick tube in both hands.
"Hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm—"
Rekka began to shake the tube, emitting a low, continuous buzzing sound like a trapped mosquito.
Ten minutes passed.
"Are you done yet?" Jing Yuan asked, his patience wearing thin.
Rekka had been "hmm-ing" for the entire ten minutes.
"Done," he declared, wiping imaginary sweat from his brow. "That was exhausting."
"Oh? Tell me about it."
"I see—" Rekka took a deep, theatrical breath. "The year of the dove carrying a branch..."
He paused, then waved his hands frantically. "No, no, no, I read the wrong one, I read the wrong one. Sorry, let me start over. I see the Xianzhou Alliance will drift away from the Trailblaze, and the ending is... witnessing the ascension of the eighth Lord Ravager, sounding the prelude to a divine war with the sound of flapping wings—as for the Glasslight Belt, and in the end... black holes and white holes devouring each other, tearing the galaxy apart."
Jing Yuan stared at him. "Are you sure you didn't miscalculate this fortune?"
"I'm sure."
The general was silent for a moment. "Can you... calculate it again?"
"I can."
Rekka once again held the fortune stick tube, closing his eyes with an expression of utmost seriousness.
"Hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm—"
Another ten minutes of mosquito-like buzzing filled the room. Jing Yuan held his teacup, patiently watching the performance, feeling as though he were observing a hamster running in frantic circles on his table.
"What does it say this time?"
Rekka's eyes snapped open, his expression grave. "I see—the reappearance of the Emperor of Destruction III..."
Emperor of Destruction III.
Jing Yuan drew a sharp breath. The entire universe knew how terrifying the first two Emperors of Destruction had been.
"Then," Jing Yuan said, his voice tight, "can you calculate it one more time?"
Rekka resumed his buzzing ritual.
"I see— □ □ manifesting once again in the universe, in the name of [Love], treasuring everything that has passed away, until the end of time."
Jing Yuan was silent for a long time. He placed his teacup on the table, the porcelain making a soft, sharp clink against the wood.
"Rekka."
"You aren't just making up nonsense to fool me, are you?"
Rekka's eyes widened in mock outrage. "What? You think I'm playing with you? I'm not playing with you at all, but you think I am, so you're the one playing with me!" 'How dare you play me!' he thought indignantly.
Jing Yuan picked up his teacup again and took a slow sip. "Then can you calculate something good?"
"Something good? What kind of good are you looking for?"
"Help me calculate for my apprentice," Jing Yuan said after careful consideration. "I'm asking for a lucky fortune, thank you. It's for my apprentice, Cloud Knights Lieutenant Yanqing."
"Now you're even trying to special-order a lucky fortune," Rekka grumbled, but he picked up the tube and started shaking it again, continuing his mosquito-like buzzing.
"It's calculated," he announced a moment later. "He... he is a good seed, but..."
"But what?" Jing Yuan leaned forward.
"But he gets beaten up very easily."
"Beaten up..." Jing Yuan frowned. "Is there any danger to his life?"
"That, there is not."
A beat of silence passed. "You said earlier that you didn't know how to tell fortunes."
"I don't know how," Rekka insisted. "I was just making things up."
"You can come up with so many details just by 'making things up'?"
"The intuition of us Trailblazers has always been very accurate."
"Fine, intuition." Jing Yuan nodded, though it was unclear if he actually believed it or was just too tired to argue. "Then can you 'intuit' what will happen to my apprentice after getting beaten up so many times?"
Rekka closed his eyes, putting on a look of deep concentration. "Hmm, hmm, hmm—I've intuited it."
He opened his eyes. "He will fight a dangerous criminal locked up in the Shackling Prison. The kind of fight that will trigger that criminal's psychological trauma."
What psychological trauma was Rekka talking about? Why, the kind that happens when you gang up on a poisoned and weakened Blade, forcing him to relive the trauma of facing his former master, Jingliu. Jingliu, Blade's harshest teacher.
But obviously, this was not how Jing Yuan interpreted it.
His understanding was that Yanqing was so formidable he would give a dangerous criminal in the Shackling Prison psychological trauma.
"This fortune is actually calculated quite well," Jing Yuan mused, a hint of pride in his voice.
"Where is it good?" Rekka asked, baffled.
But the Xianzhou people have always been like this. Divination might lay the situation bare, but for them, it was mainly for reference only. If the fortune didn't suit their wishes, then the solution was simple—rebel against fate. For example, if a fortune said that doing something would lead to certain disaster, they would insist on doing it anyway... and then suffer heavy losses. But this mentality, it could be said, had both its pros and cons.
"Young people should show their sharp edges," Jing Yuan continued, stroking his chin. "Having the opportunity to fight against the strong and hone themselves, isn't this a good thing? If jade is not polished, it cannot become a useful object..."
Rekka placed the fortune stick tube on the table and stood up. "The fortune is told. If the General has nothing else, I'll head back first."
"Don't rush, don't rush."
"I'm in a huge hurry, General, so please speak quickly."
"Ahem—it's just, I wonder if the Astral Express is interested in taking on some tasks that the Seat of Divine Foresight needs to outsource."
"Oh~ that's great!" Rekka's eyes lit up. "We were just planning on earning some funds anyway. This works, this works. After all, the Astral Express has bills to pay."
Doing volunteer work was part of the Trailblaze, and it could also promote the reputation of the Astral Express. Spreading the word that Trailblazers were helpful people was never a bad thing.
"Then let me make a request?" Rekka asked, a mischievous glint in his eye. "Can I plant some Space Anchors?"
"Planting Space Anchors... Oh, you mean the Astral Express's teleport points?" Jing Yuan considered it. "Of course. As long as they aren't planted in the barracks, it doesn't matter."
"The General said that," Rekka chirped. "You'll remember."
"Of course."
Soon, Jing Yuan regretted it.
He stared at the shimmering, newly materialized Space Anchor planted firmly on the seat of his command chair and fell into deep, weary thought.
'Who told you to plant a Space Anchor on my chair?!'
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