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Chapter 21 Peach Blossom Tribulation

Upon hearing Chen Guangrui's words, Yuan Shoucheng recoiled as if stung by a scorpion, and the crumpled, soaked yellow paper he had been clutching fell to the ground.

His face was congealed with horror, his cloudy eyes fixed on Chen Guangrui, his voice dry and trembling.

"How...how did you know?! To pry into the secrets of heaven...is inherently against the will of heaven...It's easy to calculate others, but difficult to calculate oneself...This is an ironclad law! This is the shackle of the way of heaven! You..."

Chen Guangrui calmly watched Yuan Shoucheng's violent reaction, the knowing smile on his lips deepening.

He stopped asking about specific teachers; Yuan Shoucheng's loss of composure, having his Achilles' heel exposed, was the clearest answer in itself. He bent down, calmly picked up the fallen hemp paper, gently shook off the dust, and pushed it back onto the table in front of Yuan Shoucheng.

"It's easy to calculate others, but difficult to calculate oneself... What a 'shackle'!"

Chen Guangrui repeated, his voice soft, yet carrying a subtle hint of amusement.

"So, does your sect... still accept students?"

"what?"

Yuan Shoucheng froze, his fear instantly replaced by a bewildered astonishment, as if he couldn't believe his ears.

"You? You want to learn this?!"

He shook his head violently, with an almost instinctive urge to dissuade him.

"Chen Guangrui! You have a death knell hanging over your head, and your own life hangs by a thread. How dare you dabble in such heaven-gazing techniques? That's like drinking poison to quench your thirst! Do you want to die even faster?!"

He was panting heavily, trying to dispel the absurd idea of ​​the "monster" in front of him with more straightforward advantages and disadvantages.

"Furthermore, you simply don't understand! Entering this gate and glimpsing a few superficial traces of the Great Dao's operation comes at the cost of being limited and abandoned by the Great Dao's rules! Have you ever seen any legitimate sect of immortal cultivation want people like us? The path to immortality emphasizes refining essence into qi, sensing heaven and earth, and absorbing spiritual energy. But glimpsing heaven and knowing fate... seemingly allowing one to anticipate the enemy's moves, is actually contrary to true cultivation! It... it locks away the very foundation of your own spiritual energy's ability to sense the Heavenly Dao and absorb the essence of heaven and earth! It severs the path to immortality!"

Yuan Shoucheng's voice carried a sense of cursed destiny, his withered face reflecting weariness and gloom.
"Once you've entered the Gate of Heavenly Insight, forget about any more serious cultivation of immortality. Your 'path' is now just this narrow, winding path—sitting idly in the mortal realm, manipulating fate, and trembling in fear to avoid divine punishment. And you..."

He then pointed at Chen Guangrui, "You're already an ant under the millstone. If you jump in again, you probably won't even withstand the first blow before your soul is scattered!"

Chen Guangrui tapped his fingers lightly on the edge of the table, his eyes calm and undisturbed.

Yuan Shoucheng's description confirmed his understanding.

In this Journey to the West world, an ordinary mortal has no way to rise above his circumstances; the only way is to continuously improve his own strength.

The question I asked earlier was more like a probing bait, used to ascertain the hidden cost of this approach. Now, the cost is clear.

He felt that he still needed to slowly find the path to immortality.

Could that "official in charge of human affairs," who can slay dragons in dreams, also be a cultivator?
"I see……"

Chen Guangrui nodded slightly, his tone revealing little disappointment, but rather a resolute sense of relief.

"It seems this fortune-telling business is indeed hopeless. Even its 'future' is locked in. Oh well."

He looked up at Yuan Shoucheng, his gaze sharp as a knife, "Sometimes your lineage isn't even as accurate as my calculations. If you don't want to learn, then don't."

Ignoring Yuan Shoucheng's thoughts, Chen Guangrui changed the subject again, his gaze now carrying a hint of scrutiny.
"Old Yuan, we're practically in the same boat now. Let's put aside my 'blood-soaked heavenly spirit' predicament for now. Since you know your fate, why don't you take a look for me and see what disaster will be triggered before this predicament unfolds? What will trigger the millstone?"

Yuan Shoucheng was eager to change the subject and avoid the taboo of his sect. Upon hearing this, he immediately grabbed a few half-wet yarrow stalks used for divination from the ground and, disregarding his manners, began to haphazardly arrange them on the table.

His movements no longer possessed the affected composure of Xishikou, but instead appeared hurried and tense, as if he were afraid that if he calculated too slowly or inaccurately, it would arouse Chen Guangrui's suspicion.

After a moment, his cloudy pupils stared at the blurry image of water stains spreading across the table, his already deep wrinkles tightening, a strange look appearing on his face, "This..."

"Speak." Chen Guangrui's voice was calm but carried an invisible pressure.

"The Red Phoenix Strikes... Accompanied by evil... It's a Peach Blossom Killing Formation!"

Yuan Shoucheng raised his head, his face showing a mixture of confusion and a strong warning.
"Strange! You bear the calamity of ten deaths and no way out, yet you can still attract a marriage... No! It's the evil energy within the calamity that has transformed into a peach blossom curse! This peach blossom... is not a blessing, but a fuse! It's the trigger that, before the millstone crushes your three souls and seven spirits, uses the red silk hand to blind you, confuse your mind, and break your spine! It's dangerous! You must never get close!"

He added hastily,
"The divination results are vague and unclear, but the source... I cannot say. If you have any entanglements with women, you must stay far away! That is a sign of impending calamity! As for more detailed information, that is a secret of heaven, which I cannot reveal."

Having said this much, Yuan Shoucheng felt he had done all he could, and that continuing might implicate him, so he remained silent.

Chen Guangrui listened quietly, his face showing no surprise, but a knowing glint of understanding flashed in his eyes. He tapped his finger lightly on the table and spoke softly.
Nine days later, the daughter of Prime Minister Yin will choose a husband by throwing a ball from her boudoir.

"boom!"

Yuan Shoucheng felt as if a thunderbolt had exploded in his mind! He sprang halfway up his chair as if his tail had been stepped on, his eyes wide, and he gasped in shock.

"How...how did you know?! Who...who are you?!"

His expression of utter disbelief was several times more horrified than when Chen Guangrui had just exposed his sect's "calculation of others but not of oneself"!
Such heavenly secrets are absolutely beyond the calculation of ordinary people; even he had to expend a great deal of effort to see through them just now.

This Chen Guangrui… does he also possess the ability to see into the heavens?! And see things more deeply, more accurately, and more outrageously than I have?!
Yuan Shoucheng felt a chill run from the soles of his feet straight to the top of his head. He no longer looked at Chen Guangrui as a "monster," but as the old monster hidden in his own lineage!

Ignoring Yuan Shoucheng's almost splitting expression, Chen Guangrui leaned back slightly in his chair, his face appearing inscrutable in the flickering candlelight. He poured himself a cup of cold tea and took a small sip.

"I know a little more than you think."

He set down his teacup, his gaze passing over the rim to land on the still-shaken Yuan Shoucheng's face. His eyes were calm and expressionless, yet carried an air of unwavering confidence, as if he were in complete control.
"As for the peach blossoms bringing about this calamity..."

Chen Guangrui's voice was unhurried, carrying a peculiar confidence, as if he were stating something that had already been planned.

"Hide? I'm afraid that's no longer necessary."

He looked up and stared directly into Yuan Shoucheng's eyes, which were filled with incomprehension and extreme horror.

"Let me think of a solution."

(End of this chapter)