"Great Diviner, please speak."
As a native of the Luofu, Yanqing naturally wouldn't embarrass Fu Xuan, playing along with her words perfectly.
Fu Xuan nodded slightly and turned her back to the group to face the Divination Matrix. Complemented by the thin mist rising from the floor, she exuded the very air of a lofty master.
Qingque glanced up at the Divination Matrix and was surprised to see that it had actually been activated. It was clearly something Fu Xuan had just done.
A strange look flickered across her little face. What is the Great Diviner doing, activating the Divination Matrix now?
Could it be that her earlier claim to Fu Zhu's group about already having divined the future was just a bluff? Is she only starting the divination now?
Great Diviner, aren't you just taking advantage of the fact that this is their first time on the Luofu and they've never seen the Divination Matrix before!
But Qingque didn't dare say any of this out loud. She wasn't an idiot. Fu Xuan was her direct superior; if she exposed her little act in front of outsiders, she would surely be made to suffer for it later!
At a time like this, it was best to lower her head and play ostrich, pretending she knew nothing at all!
However, another local didn't think the same way.
Yanqing noticed the Divination Matrix had suddenly activated and reminded her with some surprise, "Great Diviner, the Divination Matrix has suddenly activated!"
Fu Xuan, who was secretly performing a divination at that very moment, shuddered. She hastily turned around, her face a mask of forced composure.
"It is of no concern. I was the one who activated it."
March 7th asked in confusion, "Great Diviner, didn't you say you'd already divined it? Why do you need to activate the Divination Matrix again?"
"This is what you fail to understand." Fu Xuan said, feigning profoundness. Then, with a turn of her head, she looked at Qingque, who was still playing ostrich with her head down.
"Qingque, you will explain my intentions to them!"
"Huh? Me?"
Qingque looked up in disbelief, pointing a finger at her own nose, feeling her heart grow weary.
How was she supposed to know what Fu Xuan's intentions were!
But, after years of working, she had long ago perfected the art of telling lies with a straight face. Her eyes darted around, and she quickly began to explain.
"The results of a divination can be influenced by all sorts of minor things, leading to slight variations in the卦象 (guàxiàng - divinatory trigrams). As the matter of the Stellaron Hunter is of great importance, the most precise result is required. The Great Diviner has always pursued perfection, which is why she performs multiple divinations to ensure accuracy."
Fu Xuan nodded, satisfied. Qingque's explanation was so convincing that even she almost believed that was her true intention.
"And what of the divination's results, Fu Xuan?"
Fu Zhu was curious about what Fu Xuan had managed to divine. If she could pinpoint the Stellaron's location, they or the Luofu could just go and seal it, which would be for the best.
Their trailblazing journey on the Luofu could then be declared over ahead of schedule.
Fu Xuan held her chin with one hand, carefully recalling the vision she had just seen in her divination.
"The divination shows that today, you will encounter that Stellaron Hunter at the Dragon Lady's medical center. However, you need not act personally. A white giant who walks the Path of [Preservation] will appear and help you capture this person."
"A white giant? Do I know one?"
Fu Xuan shook her head. "It is unclear. The divination does not provide me with such detailed information, but it seems to be here to protect you. You two must at least know each other."
Fu Zhu looked perplexed. To be honest, he couldn't think of any white giant he knew. He had only just arrived in this world; none of the people he knew could be called a "giant."
Who could this white giant be? An Iron Golem? But wasn't it left behind with Nous in the Path's interstice?
Fu Zhu pondered for a good while but couldn't figure it out. He decided to stop thinking about it. Since Fu Xuan said it was here to help him, there was no need to worry about it so much now.
Since the other party harbored no ill will, he would just ask them directly when they met.
"Then let's go now, to that... Dragon Lady's medical center."
Fu Zhu was ready to leave the Divination Commission immediately, to first capture the Stellaron Hunter, which would also make it easier to investigate the Stellaron itself.
"Wait a moment."
Fu Xuan called out to Fu Zhu, who was about to leave. He turned back and asked, puzzled, "Is there something else, Fu Xuan?"
Fu Xuan pursed her lips, hesitated for a moment, then turned her gaze to Qingque.
"Qingque, you will act as Fu Zhu's guide."
"Huh? Me?" Qingque pointed at herself with a look of utter confusion and said plaintively, "Great Diviner, I'm a Diviner of the Divination Commission... not a member of the Department of Balance. This kind of work..."
"Hmm? What about this kind of work?"
Fu Xuan's expression turned unfriendly as she arched an eyebrow, her voice rising a few notches.
Qingque's face immediately changed, and she put on a broad smile. "This kind of work is perfect for me! Great Diviner, your insight is truly brilliant! You knew I'm the type who can't sit still, so you specially found a suitable job for me. I will definitely complete it well!"
Fu Xuan nodded, very pleased with Qingque's response. "Good, that's more like it. I will send some other important details to your phone later. Remember to check it."
Yanqing looked back and forth between the two, somewhat confused. "Great Diviner, a small task like guiding them isn't something Lady Qingque needs to handle, is it? I can do it as well."
He wanted to use this opportunity to build a better relationship with Fu Zhu, hoping to have a friendly duel with him to hone his own swordsmanship.
When Fu Xuan heard Yanqing speak up, her eyes narrowed, and her tone became cool.
"Yanqing, my boy, a word of advice. It would be best if you did not seek a duel with Fu Zhu. It will be detrimental to your Sword Heart."
Fu Xuan's words, however, made Yanqing frown in defiance, and his tone grew a bit more impudent.
"Perhaps in other aspects, you are far superior to me, Great Diviner. But in the art of the sword, I know my own capabilities. I am not so fragile that a single loss would damage my Sword Heart!"
Seeing Yanqing's persistence, Fu Xuan didn't say anything more. After all, she had already seen dozens of visions of Yanqing being utterly thrashed by Fu Zhu with a single wooden sword.
As the saying goes, good advice is lost on a fool hell-bent on his own demise.
Since Yanqing was so confident, she would let him hit that brick wall. Once he felt the pain, he would understand that she was right.
"As you wish. I have said what I needed to. You may all leave."
Fu Xuan flicked her sleeve and turned away, adopting a posture that said she had no more words for them.
Fu Zhu's group offered a quiet farewell and, led by Qingque, followed the path they came from to leave.
They had not gone far before Qingque felt her phone vibrate in her skirt pocket. She took it out and saw a message from Fu Xuan.
[Great Diviner: Help me record a video of all of Fu Zhu's actions. I will want to review it thoroughly later!]
Seeing this message, Qingque was so shocked she didn't know what expression to make.
The Great Diviner, who was normally so stoic and serious, actually wanted her to secretly record a video of a man?!
And it was the very man she had been muttering about in private, her so-called "fated person"!
Had the world gone mad, or had the Great Diviner's iron heart finally blossomed into love?
Either possibility seemed outrageous to Qingque, but an order from a superior was an order, no matter how absurd.
She let out a deep sigh and put her phone back in her pocket, her heart already set on a new resolution. After this job was done, she would definitely take a long vacation!
On the way to the medical center, March 7th still asked Fu Zhu with some concern, "Fu Zhu, is it really okay for the Great Diviner to just let us go to the medical center and capture the Stellaron Hunter like this?"
Fu Zhu, not understanding, asked back, "Why not?"
March 7th pouted and scratched her head. "Logically speaking, in a situation like this, official powers wouldn't be too happy about an outside force arresting people on their turf, right? Even if it's a wanted criminal, they'd want their own people to do it, wouldn't they? It's a matter of face."
Fu Zhu had thought March 7th was going to ask some difficult question, but it was just this?
He couldn't help but smile, pointing a finger at Yanqing and Qingque beside him.
"That's where you're mistaken. With Yanqing and Qingque here, after we capture the Stellaron Hunter, the news headlines can read: [With the assistance of the Nameless, the Luofu officially succeeds in capturing a Stellaron Hunter]. There's no need to worry about losing face at all."
"So that's how it is..."
March 7th clapped her small hands in admiration, while Xing asked with a look of surprise, "Old Bro, I didn't know you understood journalism."
"It's nothing. You learn these things from surfing the web a lot."
After some idle chat, the group arrived at a bustling area where a long queue could be seen in front of a medical center.
"So many people... Are they all here to see a doctor? With so many people, how are we supposed to find the Stellaron Hunter?"
March 7th stood on her tiptoes to look at the long line stretching from the medical center's door. And that was just the queue; there were many more pedestrians on the street, making the scene even more chaotic. Finding one specific person would be incredibly difficult.
Xing immediately turned her gaze to Fu Zhu. "Old Bro, do you have an Upper, Middle, and Lower Strategy for today? It doesn't matter if it's physical or not."
"I do, little sister, I do. For a situation like this, I have several Upper, Middle, and Lower Strategies to share."
Yanqing and Qingque both looked at Fu Zhu in surprise. The situation was extremely complicated; even they couldn't think of a particularly good solution. The latter was even preparing to perform a direct divination for Fu Zhu to see if she could pinpoint the target's location, but unexpectedly, Fu Zhu already had his own methods.
Fu Zhu casually scanned the crowd, then looked at the number of wooden planks in his inventory. With a quick calculation, he knew what to do. He held up his fingers and explained the Upper, Middle, and Lower Strategies he had conceived.
"Lower Strategy: Remember those wooden boats I gave you? I'll mass-produce a batch on the spot. We'll capture everyone and identify them one by one afterward."
"Middle Strategy: Little sis, you put this black stocking over your head, hold your baseball bat, and shout 'This is a robbery!' The calmest person in the crowd will be the Stellaron Hunter. After all, they're an interstellar criminal. A crime of your level would only make them scoff; they wouldn't feel the least bit afraid."
"Upper Strategy..."
Fu Zhu leaned in and whispered into Xing and March 7th's ears, "Help me look up the names of the Stellaron Hunters. I was about to fall asleep when Himeko was explaining them to me earlier, so I've forgotten them all."
Because Fu Zhu's voice was so low, Yanqing and Qingque couldn't hear his so-called "Upper Strategy" at all.
"Teacher Fu Zhu, what is your upper strategy?"
Before Fu Zhu could answer Yanqing's question, Xing had already taken out her phone and started searching.
A second later, Fu Zhu's and March 7th's phones vibrated simultaneously. They both took them out and saw a new message in the Express crew's group chat.
[Xing: Family, what are the Stellaron Hunters' names? Waiting online, it's urgent.]
[Dan Heng: There are five known Stellaron Hunters: Elio, Kafka, Blade, Silver Wolf, and Sam. Have you encountered one?]
[Xing: Not yet, but soon.]
After replying to Dan Heng, Xing copied and pasted his message into a private chat with Fu Zhu.
Fu Zhu glanced at the private message from Xing with a deadpan expression.
"I'm also in the group chat. You don't have to send it to me privately."
Xing pouted defensively. "Weren't you the one who asked me to look it up? I got the answer from our little think-tank helper, so of course, I had to forward it to you."
Fu Zhu rolled his eyes but didn't argue with her further. Instead, he opened his minimap and expanded its range to the maximum.
With their names, he could now pick them out from the various markers on the minimap.
When he had first arrived at the medical center, Fu Zhu had tried using the minimap's name and faction display to find the Stellaron Hunter.
But when he opened it, he found a screen full of green and yellow markers, representing friendly and neutral targets, without a single red marker for a hostile target in sight.
For a moment, Fu Zhu had suspected whether the Astral Express and the Stellaron Hunters were truly mortal enemies, or perhaps Fu Xuan's divination was wrong and the hunter wasn't here at all.
But now, Fu Zhu had the names of all the Stellaron Hunters, allowing him to confirm if they were truly present.
Moreover, the minimap mod he had installed came with a very useful filtering function. He just needed to input the content he wanted to search for, and all other markers on the map would fade out, leaving only the highlighted markers that matched the filter.
As Fu Zhu entered the names of each Stellaron Hunter one by one, in an instant, the screen full of markers was reduced to just one single, yellow marker.
[Blade]
"Found you."
Fu Zhu followed the minimap's directions, walking towards the entrance of the medical center until he found Blade, who was leaning against the side of the door, peering inside.
"Hey."
Without any courtesy, Fu Zhu drew his Demon Blade "Hiruko" and pointed it right at him.
"Stellaron Hunter. Your business is done. How about you come with me?"
Hearing someone call out his identity, Blade couldn't help but frown, wondering which idiot had come looking for trouble while he was checking on an old friend.
But as he turned his head, he saw Fu Zhu's vaguely familiar face. He searched his memory for a moment before recalling that this man was the very same Fu Zhu who had been giving Elio and Kafka such a headache.
"Hmph..."
Blade let out a cold snort, completely unfazed by the Demon Blade "Hiruko" in Fu Zhu's hand. He pushed off the wall and stood up straight.
"The script doesn't mention you capturing me. Kid, while I'm not in the mood to deal with you, you'd best get lost."
Hearing this, Fu Zhu's brow twitched. He swung the Demon Blade "Hiruko" directly at Blade without another wasted word.
Blade swiftly raised his sword to parry, but the sword qi from Fu Zhu's blade flew past his own and slashed a cut across his chest, sending fresh blood spraying into the air.
Feeling the pain from his chest, Blade's eyes gradually turned red, and a crazed smile crept onto his lips.
"Since this is outside the script... then I'll play as I please!"
Blade put force into his arms, intending to push Fu Zhu's sword away. But as he strained, he realized that no matter how hard he pushed, he couldn't move Fu Zhu's blade at all, as if he were trying to contend with a great mountain.
Frustrated, he could only lift his right leg and aim a kick at Fu Zhu, trying to create some space.
However, in the next second, Blade felt his foot slam into something hard. Between himself and Fu Zhu, a tall, white figure had appeared out of nowhere.
"An Iron Golem?"
Fu Zhu was also surprised to see the Iron Golem that had been teleported in front of him by a ray of light.
The Iron Golem slowly lowered its head to glance at the leg that had just kicked it, then its arms swung violently upward, delivering a vicious uppercut to Blade!
Completely defenseless, Blade was sent flying into the sky, a shower of blood scattering through the air.