Chapter 142 The Price of Divination

The car stopped in front of Qingzhong Cemetery.

At the same time, Gu Shen slowly disconnected from "001's" mental link.

He had taken a nap.

The fatigue from the real world had dissipated considerably.

"I've shielded the Feng Tong (Wind Eyes) along the way for you," Gao Shu said. "Do you need me to pick you up on the way back?"

"Thank you, Uncle Gao."

Gu Shen smiled. "I won't trouble you with the rest."

"You're being quite polite," Qing Sui teased with a laugh. "Be careful that the Bai family doesn't catch you red-handed."

The Bai family?

Gu Shen raised his eyebrows.

"Bai Lu hasn't forgotten you."

Li Qing Sui reminded him, "Ever since Bai Chen suffered a loss at Uncle Gao's hands, that crazy woman has seemed much more subdued... but in reality, she's not one to give up easily. The fact that she hasn't made a move these past few days likely means she's 'waiting for the opportune moment.'"

"I know." Gu Shen nodded slowly.

He knew Bai Lu well enough to expect that.

The fact that he was able to have a good week at Chun Yu Temple was probably because Bai Lu hadn't acted rashly out of consideration for the "Gu family's" reputation.

However... knowing that witch's personality, she would come looking for him again sooner or later.

"Also... can you give me another hint?"

Qing Sui blinked her big eyes. "What were you meeting Master Qianye for?"

The gravekeeper was an "existence" that the five great families wanted to meet but couldn't.

She guarded Qingzhong, in charge of controlling the cemetery's array patterns and condensing the transcendent source matter of the Nagano district.

No one ever "met" the gravekeeper.

On the contrary, it was the gravekeeper who summoned people.

If Master Qianye didn't want to see someone, then no one could enter the inner mausoleum.

Gu Shen's return to Qingzhong would probably cause another round of speculation among the five great families...

"You're wrong."

Gu Shen raised a finger and smiled. "It's not that I wanted to see Master Qianye, but that Master Qianye wanted to see me. As for the purpose of this trip, would you believe me if I said I don't know?"

Li Qing Sui puffed out her cheeks and glared at the box in Gu Shen's hand.

"See, you don't believe me, so there's nothing I can do." Gu Shen shrugged and added with a smile, "And even if I did know, I wouldn't tell you!"

He then got out of the car.

Gu Shen didn't look at Li Qing Sui's expression, but he guessed that the young head of the Li family must be gnashing her teeth in anger.

This time...

Gu Shen was wrong.

"Uncle Gao... you should be able to see what's in that box, right?"

After Gu Shen got out of the car...

Li Qing Sui sat in the back seat, rubbing her cheeks. She looked at Qingzhong Cemetery, shrouded in mist and clouds in the distance, and spoke softly.

"..."

Gao Shu said gently, "Miss, everyone is entitled to some secrets."

"Of course."

Li Qing Sui leaned against the car window, looked up at the sky, and said quietly, "It's just that Nagano doesn't like people with secrets... or rather, the five great families don't like the existence of secrets."

In the sky above the clouds...

There were densely packed Feng Tong (Wind Eyes).

"Can the Li family head's authority erase this trip?" Li Qing Sui suddenly asked.

Gao Shu was taken aback.

"It can... but..."

Gao Shu wanted to say...

But Miss, you're not the family head yet.

Using the authority in advance would be inappropriate and might cause some dissatisfaction among the elders.

"Being able to is enough. Connect me to the Deep Sea now. I want to use the future family head's authority." Li Qing Sui said calmly, "I don't want anyone to know that Gu Shen went to Highway 447, nor do I want anyone to know that he came to Qingzhong. I want to erase this entire journey and make Gu Shen's past twelve hours completely blank."

Gao Shu was silent for a moment, then said, "Judging from the car at the Shrine Mountain... Gu Shen will probably come to Qingzhong many more times."

Would she have to use the family head's authority every time?

"The scepter was created for people to use, wasn't it?"

Li Qing Sui turned her gaze back to Gao Shu.

She smiled. "Besides, I don't like Nagano's 'bright' world, where there are eyes everywhere and no secrets to be found."

...

...

"Someone with extremely high 'authority' has entered the deep-water area and is searching the database for your recent twelve-hour travel records."

Gu Shen had not been in the cemetery for long.

Chu Ling's voice rang in his mind.

"...?"

He frowned. "So fast? Can you find out who it is?"

"The Source Code's access to advanced searches is restricted, and I can't identify the other party... but based on logical defenses, it's not difficult to determine that the other party's authority is very high." Chu Ling said gravely, "At the same time, I can confirm that this person is not Bai Lu, as she doesn't have that level of authority at all. This is at least the authority that the heads of the five great families of Nagano possess."

"Wait... the heads of the five great families?"

Gu Shen had just realized something.

Chu Ling's report sounded again, "This authority is deleting your travel records... this isn't an investigation, but someone is helping you clean up the mess."

"It's Li Qing Sui!"

Gu Shen immediately understood who the owner of this authority was...

He had just gotten out of Gao Shu's car and arrived at Qingzhong, and the travel records were destroyed.

Clearly...

Li Qing Sui was helping him "clean up the mess!"

"It seems I don't need to do anything." Chu Ling said, "Your records from leaving Chun Yu Temple to Highway 447 and then to Qingzhong have been completely erased... no one knows where you've been or who you've met in the past half-day."

"No..."

Chu Ling said slowly, "To be precise, no Feng Tong (Wind Eyes) knows what happened during this time."

Those emotionless eyes that never rest.

They were only responsible for capturing everything that happened on the ground.

"As far as the five great families who are closely monitoring your movements are concerned, your movements aren't difficult to guess. It's just that these things have moved from above ground to underground." Chu Ling seemed to understand something and said with emotion, "Li Qing Sui's purpose in doing this..."

"Is to divert attention."

Gu Shen said slowly, "She's helping me by attracting the attention of the five great families."

The Li family head had erased some of his travel records.

Making Gu Shen's actions in the past half-day a secret... but for the five great families, anything that had happened would not be a secret. They would speculate about what kind of deal Gu Shen and the Li family had made.

"When a magician misleads the audience, they always have to deceive the audience's 'eyes' and divert their attention away from what's truly important." Gu Shen's voice was somewhat complicated, "Li Qing Sui is no simple girl..."

Especially since she had done all of this without even saying hello to him.

Doing good deeds without leaving a name.

She wanted to sell him a favor silently.

"The data has been deleted... I estimate that the guys in the real-time monitoring room are already dumbfounded." Chu Ling found it somewhat amusing. "They can't track your whereabouts and aren't sure whether 'Qingzhong' is the final stop or just a smokescreen. Because there are no 'eyes,' everything that happens afterward can only be guessed."

The most unreliable thing in the world is guesswork.

Gu Shen raised his head.

He looked at the clouds in the distance and suddenly understood why Li Qing Sui always had Gao Shu release his domain to shield the Feng Tong (Wind Eyes) whenever she traveled.

"Because she doesn't like those eyes staring at her... so she blinds them?"

In public, her every move and word under the Feng Tong (Wind Eyes) was a performance by the Li family head.

And after Gao Shu opened his domain...

She was the innocent Li Qing Sui.

Gu Shen sighed. "What a temperamental little girl."

"You owe her a favor."

Chu Ling said seriously, "I'll help you remember it."

"Then I'll have to trouble you, dear Ms. Chu."

Gu Shen smiled and bowed to the air. "Next... I'm going to enter the inner mausoleum of Qingzhong. The mental link will be interrupted. Do you have any other instructions?"

The young woman in the car blushed slightly.

What dear!

How corny!

She spat and said, "Nothing, dismissed!"

A slight crackling sound of electricity swept through his mind.

Chu Ling took the initiative to disconnect before Gu Shen entered the inner mausoleum.

...

...

Master Qianye slowly opened her eyes.

The cat mask seemed to have two completely different colors flowing on it.

One black, one white.

One life, one death.

As she opened her eyes, the two colors on the mask re-merged.

"You're faster than I thought."

The gravekeeper looked at Gu Shen, who was carrying the box, and said gently, "It shouldn't have been easy to collect these materials... and it's even harder to send them into Qingzhong silently."

As far as she knew, some of the materials on that list could only be mobilized from North Continent.

"It's all been taken care of."

Gu Shen came to the tree and slowly put down the box. "However, it's indeed not easy to send these materials into Qingzhong. This box is only part of it... there's still a whole truckload of materials left, and it may take many times to send them all in."

"Repairing Qingzhong was never a small task, nor can it be done in a single day."

The gravekeeper said seriously, "Next, I'm afraid I'll have to trouble you to come a few more times..."

Gu Shen rubbed his brow. "Coming is no problem, it's just that those guys outside aren't easy to fool..."

He would have to have a reason for coming to Qingzhong so many times.

The gravekeeper just smiled.

She just looked at Gu Shen quietly.

They had only met once, but she knew Gu Shen very well... His opening his mouth like this clearly meant he had something to ask.

"Master Qianye, please don't look at me like that."

Gu Shen smiled bitterly.

That cat mask made him shiver.

He said sincerely, "You don't know how many eyes are staring at me outside... I was only able to get in this time thanks to Li Qing Sui erasing the travel records with her authority, otherwise, I would have been exposed. If I come a few more times, they'll suspect something sooner or later."

These were words from the bottom of his heart.

"If the name is right, then the words will be justified." Gu Shen said slowly.

"What kind of name do you want?" The gravekeeper got straight to the point.

Gu Shen coughed softly.

He smiled shyly, "I want to learn from you... divination."

Then there was silence.

A long silence.

The wind in the wilderness of the inner mausoleum stirred the clouds, and the grass leaves fluttered. The gravekeeper, sitting upside down, seemed to have turned into a stone statue. She didn't speak or move, she was just silent.

It was as if... her soul had left her body.

Gu Shen scratched his head and said, "Even if I can't learn the true essence, a little bit of the basics will do..."

Another dozen seconds of silence.

"It's not that I won't teach you."

The gravekeeper finally spoke, the gaze under the cat mask regained its agility. She shook her head and said, "I just 'looked' at your aptitude... you can't practice my divination."

So the silence just now wasn't hesitation, but using a special way to "see" him.

Gu Shen noticed Master Qianye's wording.

Not that he wasn't suitable.

But... that he couldn't practice it.

"What does that mean?" He was a little confused.

"If divination were so simple... then would there only be two people in the entire Five Continents who could use it?" The gravekeeper raised a finger, shook it slowly, and said, "You must know that the world is always fair. The more you get, the more you give... the two sides of the scale are always equal. That's the case for me, and it's also the case for the 'Seer' of the Source Tower in Central Continent."

She paused slightly.

"...The same goes for those who guard the God Mountain of the Li family."

Gu Shen's pupils contracted.

"Divination requires giving up a lot..." The gravekeeper hesitated for a moment and weighed her words, "Many 'precious items' that we should have. The more you give, the more you see."

"For example? What do you need to give up?" Gu Shen asked cautiously.

The gravekeeper didn't hide anything.

"This is a 'foresight art' belonging to the wise. If you want to be an absolute 'sage,' you must preserve your spirit to the greatest extent and sever your physical body." She slowly lifted a corner of her black patterned cloud robe, her voice very low, and asked word by word, "Are you willing to give up your physical body? Truly... give up your physical body."

A terrifying scene appeared.

The corner of the black robe was lifted.

Then it was blown up by the wind.

The gravekeeper revealed one of her arms.

It was a withered forearm, only bones remained, with some residual flesh, sinews, and traces of scraping with a knife.

"???"

Gu Shen was shocked.

"This is the sacrifice I put on the 'scale,' and it's also the price of divination." Master Qianye slowly retracted her sleeve. The wind blew, and her graceful body under the black robe was blown into a tight outline, but at the moment it made his scalp tingle.

The price of divination was... giving up the physical body!

Cutting off flesh!

The forearm just now was very likely not the most shocking part.

How many intact parts were left on Master Qianye's body now...?

Or... was this just a skeleton?

"Do you still want to learn now?" The gravekeeper said calmly, "If you want to learn... I can teach you. But the premise is that you have to cut off some flesh first. Cutting off a finger might allow you to see what will happen tomorrow."

"No... no, I'm good..."

Gu Shen's expression was a little pale.

He was truly shocked.

Cutting off flesh to cultivate divination, how long could he live? Even if he survived... not to mention meeting Bai Xiu, if he fought Shen Li again, his whole skeleton would probably be shattered.

This technique was indeed not suitable for him.

"Alright... let's go back to the previous matter."

The gravekeeper was very satisfied to see Gu Shen's current expression.

"I have an idea about entering Qingzhong."

She smiled. "You want a 'name'... I can give you a name, a legitimate name."

...

...

(1500 monthly tickets, there will be another update tonight, those who can't wait can sleep first.)