He was invincible from the beginning of the Heaven-Covering Era.

People come and go at the city gate, including both cultivators and mortals, yet there is no friction between them.

Linghu City is different. This difference is not only in the people, but also in the atmosphere of cultivation.

Outside, the cultivation world is mostly indifferent. For a single source stone, a cultivator might slaughter an entire family of mortals who are gathering herbs. Everyone is wary of each other. If a cultivator has a quarrel, it could escalate into a major battle, affecting countless mortals.

However, the atmosphere in Linghu City was quite different. This atmosphere was forcibly imposed by the current city lord. If you wanted to fight, you could only fight outside the city, and you had to be dozens of miles away. Anyone who fought a big fight inside the city was dealt with by the city lord.

At first, some people were unconvinced and complained, but the city lord's surname was Zhou, and he was a member of the Zhou family, who held a high position in this oasis. No one dared to disrespect him.

As time went by, people realized the benefits of this, as it provided them with a peaceful place and greatly enhanced their safety.

The streets in the city were wide enough for a dozen or so savage beasts to ride side by side, and there were many stalls along the streets.

Fruits, jewelry, snacks, kites, and even sugar figurines.

Cultivators don't just blindly pursue cultivation; they also travel, relax, and buy things from mortals that are unrelated to cultivation.

Several burly men from the secret realm of Lunhai sat at a noodle stall, eating hot noodles and laughing as they discussed their fishing catch for the day.

There were also couples from the Secret Realm of Wheel Sea, holding hands on the street, their faces full of sweetness.

A middle-aged cultivator from the Dao Palace Secret Realm, accompanied by a five- or six-year-old child and a gentle woman, stood in front of a sugar figurine stall, patiently waiting for a mortal to finish shaping the sugar figurine.

Zhou Qing's calm and unwavering heart was suddenly stirred.

Thinking back to more than a year ago, he was meditating alone in the Tai Xuan Sect, having no grudges against anyone.

However, those people interfered with his cultivation because of a possibility they themselves were not even sure about. If he hadn't had the Mountain and River Map protecting him, he would have inevitably coughed up blood.

Peace, harmony

For a cultivator, this is such a luxurious word.

If a conflict arises from chance encounters, that's perfectly normal. But in many sects, those who see someone with a rare talent...

The act of trying to kill someone who is more powerful than oneself is truly despicable.

All I can say is that Linghu City is indeed a great place; no wonder so many cultivators like to live in this city.

Zhou Qing walked around the city for a while and eventually reached the inner city, where most of the stalls were set up by cultivators.

There were vendors selling spirit fish, vendors selling magical artifacts, and even a few fortune tellers who interpreted divination slips.

Zhou Qing glanced at them and saw that these people did indeed possess varying degrees of Heavenly Secret Power. Moreover, this power carried a hint of destiny, but it was very faint and superficial, far from being as vast as the power of destiny, which seemed to encompass everything.

"Young man, would you like to draw a fortune stick? I am the best fortune teller here, especially skilled in marriage and destiny divination. Everyone calls me 'Liu the Half-Immortal.' I get nine out of ten fortune sticks right, and the price is cheap. Half a catty of pure essence is enough to interpret one fortune stick."

An elderly man dressed in a Taoist robe, seeing Zhou Qing's gaze sweep over him, immediately began to promote himself, his face beaming with smiles.

“Old Liu, you can interpret the divination slips however you want, but you can’t say whatever you want. Among us, you have the worst reputation. Nobody usually asks you to interpret their divination slips. Young man, come to me. I’m the one with the best business on this street.”

Another white-bearded old man glared angrily at the Taoist-robed elder, but his expression quickly changed when he looked at Zhou Qing, and he immediately put on a smile.

"Old Lu, don't try to twist the truth. It's not that I interpreted the divination incorrectly. It's clearly their own divination that's bad, all of them are very bad. Do you think I can interpret such bad divination in a fancy way?" The Taoist-robed old man glared angrily at the white-bearded old man.

Zhou Qing now has some understanding of the power of destiny, so he can barely tell that among these people, the power of heavenly secrets around the old man in the Taoist robe is indeed stronger.

Although this person's appearance is somewhat sleazy, he is indeed very capable, and his cultivation level is at the Life Spring Realm. Moreover, half a jin of Origin is not expensive.

So Zhou Qing walked up to the old man in the Taoist robe’s stall and casually took out a pound of source material. He really couldn’t afford half a pound, as he didn’t have any source material blocks that small on him.

After accepting the money, the old man in the Taoist robe smiled so much that his eyes narrowed. He handed the divination stick container on the stall to Zhou Qing and said with a smile, "Young friend, I will interpret two divination sticks for you. The first one is about marriage. Please draw a stick first, and then I will interpret it for you."

The old man in the Taoist robe didn't care about Zhou Qing's identity or cultivation level; to him, Zhou Qing was just his customer.

Zhou Qing nodded, closed his eyes, and shook the divination tube. He didn't use any divine sense or cultivation; he shook the tube normally, like an ordinary person.

A few breaths later, Zhou Qing drew a lot.

The old man in the Taoist robe stretched out his calloused hand and picked up the bamboo stick. Unlike ordinary people's sticks, it had no words on it, only a line of strange patterns that he couldn't understand.

The old man glanced at the patterns, then closed his eyes, calculated with his fingers, picked up a vermilion brush beside him, and began to draw on a piece of yellow paper.

Zhou Qing clearly sensed that the power of heavenly secrets surrounding the old man instantly became active.

However, the old man was now immersed in a mysterious power, and his hand was not writing according to his own will, but moving with the help of a mysterious force.

After opening his eyes, the old man in the Taoist robe glanced at what he had drawn on the yellow paper, and his face immediately darkened.

On the yellow paper, there were extremely abstract patterns drawn crookedly, with no normal objects visible at all.

"How should this divination be interpreted?" Zhou Qing stared at him and said calmly.

Chapter 40 Those Pairs of Eyes

"This fortune slip...this fortune slip..." The old man in the Taoist robe frowned as he looked at the abstract pattern on the yellow paper, and the power of heavenly secrets around him surged even more violently.

"What? Is this a very bad omen?" Zhou Qing asked in surprise.

"No, it's just that this divination slip has no distinguishing features, making it impossible to interpret," the old man said with a wry smile.

"This draw is my fault. Although I am known for getting nine out of ten draws right, I sometimes make mistakes. This may be my mistake. I hope you will forgive me, young friend."

"The next divination is a fortune divination, which is my specialty. Before people in this city go out to explore, they always come to me to draw a divination to predict their fortune. I will never be wrong with this divination!"

Worried that Zhou Qing might be unhappy about this, the old man in the Taoist robe quickly made a promise for the next divination stick and handed the second divination stick container to Zhou Qing.

A few breaths later, Zhou Qing drew another lot.

The old man in the Taoist robe looked solemn. He calculated with his fingers, closed his eyes, and began to draw on the yellow paper with a vermilion brush.

This time, he used all his strength to try and solve this problem.

Suddenly, a strange wind swept through the world, without a fixed direction, as if it were blowing from all directions. Moreover, this wind only covered a few feet of the stall, and some yellow paper was blown around and made a rustling sound.

The old man put down the vermilion brush, opened his eyes, and was immediately terrified, breaking out in a cold sweat.

On the yellow paper, a pair of blurry eyes were faintly drawn. These eyes were extremely cold and majestic, like a high and mighty god.

dong dong dong.

The old man's heart pounded violently, as if it were about to leap out of his chest. He felt tense, trembling, and insignificant. At that moment, he felt an indescribable terror.

However, just a moment later, the yellow paper burst into flames and instantly turned to ashes, as if it had never existed.

"Hmm?" Zhou Qing frowned slightly, not understanding what had happened, and asked, "Can this divination slip still be interpreted?"

"This, this..." The old man in the Taoist robe was so frightened that his face turned pale and his body trembled.

"Just tell me the truth, I won't do anything to you," Zhou Qing said calmly.

"I can't decipher this divination slip, nor can I try to. If I do, I'm finished; I'll surely be punished by heaven." The old man gritted his teeth and finally told the truth.

"Never mind, if that's the case, then I won't bother with it."

Zhou Qing waved his hand, then turned and left.

Although he was very curious as to why he couldn't interpret his own fortune slip, he couldn't figure it out or guess what it meant.

Fortunately, from the old man's actions, he roughly understood how this kind of Taoist art could predict the future.

In this world, all people, things, and events have their own trajectories, moving in constant change. Occasionally, someone has a flash of inspiration and captures these trajectories, which means they foresee the future.

Just as a yellow leaf, the instant it detaches from the branch, can be foreseen to fall to the ground. Just as a great river bursts its banks, people know in terror that it will destroy villages downstream. Just as a wild goose, wounded by an arrow, cries out in agony, people can foresee that it will fall to the earth.

These are very simple things, and people won't think much of them or consider them prophecies. But they can actually be explored more deeply. If these processes are complicated, then they become so-called deductions of heavenly secrets.

Like this kind of withering

A bare leaf and a bursting river are a kind of "cause," while the predicted future is a kind of "effect."

However, in reality, everything is in flux, and sometimes the next trajectory is unpredictable.

For example, someone might have a sudden inspiration and choose to grab the leaf to prevent it from falling to the ground; this is an unpredictable variable.

However, this is only the most superficial description. In reality, the so-called prediction of heavenly secrets requires using the power of heavenly secrets to transcend a person's thinking, to rise above the trajectory, to see the road ahead, and only then can one gain insight into a part of the so-called "future".

In Zhou Qing's view, fate also has some similarities, such as unpredictable variables and the most likely future that will occur if one follows the trajectory.

Zhou Qing bought a residence in the outer city and lived there.

The next day, a new stall appeared next to the fortune-telling stalls in the inner city.

The stall owner was Zhou Qing. He didn't know anything about marriage or fortune; he only interpreted one kind of fortune stick.

A life-or-death contract!

At his stall, there was no red ink pen or yellow paper, only a table with a divination stick container on it.

That day, no one came to him for fortune telling, but the white-bearded old man next to him took several orders. He was most skilled at fortune telling based on destiny, and most people who came to him wanted to find out what their destiny was like.

No one's fate was bad, and the truth of the fortune slip was no longer important, because everyone left satisfied with the old man's explanation.

On the third day, a middle-aged man came to Zhou Qing's drawing seat.

"A life-or-death contract? What arrogance!" the man sneered.

"I'd like to test your skills. What's the price here?"

"One jin of source material for one fortune slip," Zhou Qing said calmly, sitting at his stall.

"So expensive? Fine, I'll give it a try. Can you interpret my fortune slip?" The middle-aged man was taken aback, but still took out a pound of ginseng.

Then the big man naturally picked up the divination tube and shook out a divination stick.

"Clap."

The bamboo skewer landed on the table. The big man looked at it and saw that there was nothing on it, neither writing nor any special patterns.

At this point, he began to doubt whether he had been scammed.

Zhou Qing glanced at the bamboo skewer but didn't touch it. Then, Zhou Qing shifted his gaze to the middle-aged man.

In Zhou Qing's eyes, a very complex line connected the middle-aged man's body, extending infinitely from the top of his head and then disappearing into the void, its destination unknown.

This line contains all the fates of this person's life, with countless images flashing on it, making it extremely complex.

Zhou Qing stared intently at all the possibilities this person might have in the last few months. He could only see the next few months; he couldn't yet know what his fate would be like afterward.

Images flashed by rapidly, all imprinted in Zhou Qing's mind, and he quickly finished reviewing the person's activities over the past few months.

"Five days from now, you will die in Spirit Lake, the cause of death being drowning," Zhou Qing said calmly.

This is the most frequent scene in all the scenes. Although Zhou Qing was very regretful, this scene of death accounted for more than 90%. The middle-aged man only had a 10% chance of escaping this calamity, and only then would his fate continue to unfold.

"Haha, your words are rather laughable. As a cultivator from the Other Shore, do you think I can't fly? How could I possibly drown?"