Jintian's eyes narrowed at her question as he, faster than she could react, blurred with motion and drew his sword from his bag of holding. She yelped, immediately raising her hands into the air as he leveled the tip of the blade towards her.
"Have you lost your mind!?" She shouted, her face paling, but Jintian only snorted. He heard the guard running towards the room, and pointed his finger at the door behind him, slamming it shut and holding it firmly with Qi.
"How do you know my name? No, not even my name, how do you know that name." He snarled, his voice as cold as the fear he had just been beset by, and the rage that filled him. His teacher had warned him that his father most likely had enemies, and they could have been seeded throughout the world to slay him after Heaven's failure to do so.
What were the chances that he would encounter a Beast Core in the mortal world? And even further, that the Beast Core would be so close to his home, in a city he regularly came to visit?
Furthermore, she had referred to him not as Shen, but as Zhao, his father's name. These two things together made him sure that he was dealing with an enemy of some kind. In truth, he had been on guard ever since he first sensed the Beast Core.
Shen Jintian's rage had never left him. It smoldered low, and was fiercely contained, but it was never erased completely. Jintian's steel will had faltered due to the shock he had just been hit with, and so the vile hatred in his heart was borne fully toward this young woman.
"Answer." He growled, raising the tip of his sword higher, and Cao Huixian looked to be on the verge of tears. The guard was thumping at the door powerfully, each blow rattling the wood in its frame, but it would still be some time before he could break it down it would seem.
Finally she gritted her teeth. "My sister!" She yelled. "My sister read your fortune once! She said you would come back!"
This shocked Jintian so thoroughly that his Qi control faltered, and the door burst open as the guard charged into the room. He then moved to tackle Jintian to the ground, and the youth leapt over him out of pure instinct, lightly kicking his shoulders and sending the guard crashing to the ground instead.
He landed at the entrance of the doorway, and the guard scrambled to his feet, drawing his sword. Jintian moved to flee, before Cao Huixian hurriedly ran to stand between them.
"Wait! Everyone calm down, okay!?" She shouted, and the guard looked at her wildly.
"Miss, he just-" The guard began, and she stopped him with a raised hand, turning her focus on Jintian.
"It was a misunderstanding! Zhao Jintian, please don't run! My sister would very much like to talk to you. We will even give you that Beast Core. Please." She pleaded, and he hesitated, his heart thumping painfully in his chest. Too many shocking things had happened in too short of a time, but his months of meditation and focus weren't for nothing, preventing him from immediately fleeing.
Finally, he took a deep breath, stowed his sword into his bag, and nodded. Though he pulled out his walking stick just in case.
"Alright." He said, and Cao Huixian breathed a sigh of relief. The guard reluctantly sheathed his own sword, though continued to watch him warily.
Cao Huixian looked at the guard, and patted his shoulder. "Thank you Yang Hengfu. I'll be closing early, but I'll still pay the guild for the full day." She said, and he frowned, but nodded.
After escorting the guard out, she closed the door and shuttered the windows, before turning to glare at Jintian. The youth in question was standing in the center of the room, his hands curled around his staff as he leaned on it.
"So, is that what you do? Go around threatening poor women with your sword?" She snapped, and he shrugged. He felt a little bad, but that was it.
"I thought you were an assassin or something." He reasoned, and she rolled her eyes, and walked past him. No longer was her gait one of gliding grace, but rather angry and stomping.
"If I were an assassin, I wouldn't have asked for your name, idiot. Geez, some Immortal you are." She huffed. "Follow me. My sister's upstairs."
Jintian blinked. So Huixian… or rather, her sister, had known that he'd become a cultivator. He sighed, but followed after her. "I'm not an Immortal… yet. I'm just a Qi Condensation disciple." He rebuffed, and she threw her hands into the air.
"I don't even know what that means!" She grumbled, leading him further into the shop. He realized that it served as a residential abode as well, as she began to climb the steps that led to a floor above the shop.
She opened the door, and he was just about to walk through it with her when she suddenly froze, running through the door and slamming it shut behind her before Jintian could peer through it.
He was dumbfounded. However, only a moment later he learned the cause for her action.
"Idiot! Why are you naked" He heard Huixian hiss. Immediately he felt his face flush as he realized he was listening to things he most certainly shouldn't.
"Well good afternoon to you too, little sister. I am in fact not naked. I'm wearing underwear, as you can plainly see." He heard another voice retort, and he crouched down to his knees, desperately attempting to cover his ears.
But alas… his perception as a Third Circle cultivator was too sharp. Even muffled behind his palms, he could still hear them. He ensured that he kept a tight reign on his spiritual sense as well, lest he accidentally see something he was not meant to either.
"That's still practically naked, and still not something I want to see when I get off work! How many times… no, that's not what's important. He's here, so get dressed!" Huixian said hurriedly.
"What? Who's here?"
"That boy you've been talking about! Zhao Jin-"
He immediately heard a wail from the room, almost full of heartbreak.
"I'm finished! Ruined! Oh gods lesser and greater, he's a cultivator, he can hear everything we're saying! You stupid sister of mine, why didn't you lead with that!?" The voice cried in anguish. Jintian tilted his head when he heard the distinction she used, cultivator rather than Immortal.
"Okay, how was I supposed to know that!? And also he doesn't need to have super ears to hear you now, you're yelling at me!"
"Ack! Dear Zhao Jintian, please erase everything from the past few minutes from your mind!" The voice shouted through the door, and Jintian couldn't decide if he should laugh, or cry.
He decided to do neither, instead sighing and looking up at the ceiling blankly, regretting ever entering this store.
He heard more ruffling and banging, as well as what sounded like dragging furniture, before finally the door opened. He looked up to see a tired looking Cao Huixian standing there, sweat beading on her forehead as she then stepped to the side.
"Please come in, Zhao Jintian." She said quietly, and the youth awkwardly coughed, before standing and walking past the threshold.
When he entered the residential portion of the shop, he saw a woman sitting at a small table, clothed in a dark purple robe that had sleeves so wide they hung down to the floor, her face obscured by a veil.
Just as he had been led to believe, in front of him was the same fortune teller that he had met with once before, nearly a year ago.
"Please sit, Zhao Jintian." The woman murmured, her voice just as wondrous and filled with mystique as he remembered it. Seeing that she was clearly trying to save her mysterious image from before, he smiled wryly and did not comment on what he had heard earlier, sitting down across from her.
"It's Shen Jintian." He said when he was fully settled, and she tilted her head to the side.
"I'm sorry?"
"You both keep calling me Zhao." He said, matter-of-factly. He glanced to the side, where Cao Huixian had sat down to watch their conversation without intruding upon it, and turned his attention back to the woman in front of him. "But I did not know my blood father. My stepfather, my real father, his name was Shen. So, I am Shen Jintian."
She shook her head slowly. "But Shen cannot shoulder the burden of the grand destiny that awaits you. Only Zhao can." She said, and he shrugged.
"Even so… I am Shen." He said, his tone clearly brooking no argument, and she relented with a nod.
"Very well, Shen Jintian." She said, before taking a deep breath. "I would first like to say this. The Beast Core downstairs is yours, no matter the outcome of our conversation here."
Jintian frowned, clearly about to ask how she knew what it was, or that he needed it, before she held up a hand. "I know that you have many questions. And your demand for their answers is valid. But please, allow me to do a divination first. I need to confirm something."
He hesitated for a few moments, before relenting. "Fine, then. But when you're finished, I have a lot of questions for you." He said, and she nodded.
"Only fair." She supposed. "Huixian, would you mind getting my things?"
Cao Huixian stood, and disappeared into a side room. While they waited for her to return, he took the time to examine the home he had been led into. If his host cared that he did not speak to her, she didn't make it known.
The abode was surprisingly small, though given that they were above the shop, he thought it made sense. Still, the space was used well. Well crafted furniture hugged the walls, with a nook in the wall it seemed dedicated to ledgers and scrolls. The room they were in was connected to two side rooms, as well as a kitchen and a bathroom. He even saw a small balcony that had a chair and table laid upon it, looking out into the city street.
When Huixian returned, it was with her arms full of various items, some familiar to him, some less so. She set up four sticks of incense along the corners of the table that Jintian and the seer were seated at, meticulously aligning them. She placed a tortoise shell between them, and when the seer outstretched her hands, she pushed a small pouch into them.
Huixian walked around the room, drawing blinds closed on the windows and placing candles down, lighting them as she went. The seer, on the other hand, rose from her seat and walked around the table with her back stooped, and Jintian realized that the pouch she had been given carried some kind of white powder that she was pouring out onto the floor.
He at first didn't think too much of it, but when she finished her circle and began pouring the powder into strange symbols, his eyes went wide with shock. They were the very same characters that cultivators used for spell formations!
Frowning, he sent out his spiritual sense, and was surprised to feel the barest trace of spiritual energy held within the incense sticks and the white powder. It was such a miniscule amount that it was no wonder he had not felt it earlier, covered by the energy of the Beast Core, but it was now unmistakable.
With a start he realized that she was creating a spiritual array. It was something that his master had touched on briefly, as they were related to spell formation and forging, but different in composition and purpose, and he had very scant knowledge of them. It was a field of study entirely unto its own. Behind Alchemy and Spirit Forging, Array specialists were well respected in their profession.
"Where did you learn how to do that?" He asked when the seer settled across from him once again, lighting the four incense sticks.
"My dreams." She answered vaguely, and Jintian frowned. Although he could not see her expression past her veil, he was sure he heard a smile in her tone. "Relax, Shen Jintian. I will answer any other questions you have after this. For now, I must concentrate."
When the preparations were finally finished, the abode had become dark, lit only by the small candles that Cao Huixian had placed earlier. The tang of incense grew stronger as the smoke filled the room, almost impossibly thick for there only being four of them. Huixian took her leave from the room, sliding the door closed behind her.
Jintian observed the room with his spiritual sense, and realized that the array was gathering energy from the smoke, concentrating it and condensing it within the holds of the runic circle, focused around the seer.
The veiled woman, for her part, was humming, her voice flowing and ebbing like the tide with every breath she took. He thought it sounded similar to his own breathing exercises, and he observed the spiritual energy pulse into the array with her inhale, and then glow swirl into the center of the array with her exhale.
It had long since been clear to Jintian that this woman was no mere mortal, despite the lack of spiritual energy he sensed from her. Kang Shanxi had told him there were many strange paths to Immortality, ones that did not necessarily require cultivation. A fish could become a dragon, a rock could become a mountain, and a monkey could become a god. All things were possible, all Daos were mighty, and through enlightenment, all could become one or one could become all.
The words had seemed grandiose and far-fetched to Jintian then, but seeing this strange ritual brought those words into clarity. Anyone he came across could be walking a path completely unknown to him, and everyone had their secrets. Even in the mortal realm.
"Shen Jintian." The seer said quietly, and he straightened his back. She held out her hand, and he smiled bitterly as he remembered the last time he took it.
"Will you even be able to pierce my skin with your needle, now?" He asked, and she only beckoned her fingers to him in answer. He hesitantly placed his hand in hers, and this time, did not resist her as she held it firmly.
She did not surprise him either, slowly drawing the needle out of her sleeve and placing the tip against the bud of his forefinger. Although he did not bolster his defenses with Qi, his skin was still far tougher than a mortal's would be. And yet, to his surprise, the tip of the needle pierced him just as easily as it had before.
Once again she squeezed a drop of his blood onto the tortoise shell, and released his hand. She quickly began to chant, her hands held above the tortoise shell as her head tilted back. Her voice grew feverish, her back arching. Jintian watched in shocked reverence as he felt all of the spiritual energy within the array swirling into the tortoise shell, bright red characters burning themselves onto the bone.
With a final cry, the incense sticks burned to ashes, and the smoke in the room formed a whirlpool as it was pulled into the array. With a deafening crack, the tortoise shell shattered into slivers of bone, and the seer hurriedly hunched over them as her fingers splayed over them wildly.
As she sorted through the remnants of the shell, she began to laugh. After a few moments more, her laughter grew louder, until she was cackling wildly as her shoulders danced. "I can't see it!" She exclaimed, causing unease to crawl along Jintian's shoulders and down his spine. "I can't see it at all! There are too many possibilities, too boundless of a future!"
Jintian swallowed thickly, as he was once again the seventeen year old boy in the tent, the mystery of his fortune filling him with dread. "What do you mean? What can't you see?"
Her head snapped upward, the veil over her face as impenetrable as it had been almost a year ago. "Your future, Shen Jintian! I can no longer see it at all! Someone, something, has tampered with your fate!"
Frowning, Jintian was beset by confusion. Something had tampered with his fate? What could she-
And all too sudden, he felt like he was doused with cold water. His hand flinched toward his chest, before he forced the impulse away. Underneath his robes, his mother's heirloom necklace felt hot against his skin.
She continued to giggle, shaking her head as she swept the shell away. "Huixian, we are finished!" She called, and the door that had been closed slid open as Huixian entered, looking at the two of them expectantly. The seer seemed to feel her gaze, as she turned her head to her sister.
"It is just as I said." She murmured, and Jintian frowned as he saw Huixian look… almost relieved. The young woman strode around the room, blowing out the candles and collecting them one by one.
Finally, he could hold his impatience no longer. "What did you see!? What is going on!?" He snapped, and both women jumped at his tone. Huixian frowned, about to say something before the seer shook her head slowly.
"No, no, it is okay. I have been dancing around the subject on purpose, after all, so you have a right to be angry." She said quietly, before settling across from him once more. Huixian pursed her lips, but continued to silently clean up after the ritual.
The seer took a deep breath, before slowly reaching her hands upwards. She undid the veil that covered her face, and pulled it away, her head raising for Jintian to see her.
Shen Jintian felt the air leave him, then. The seer was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen, yes, but that was not what made him lose his breath.
Her eyes… were completely black. Not just the iris, but the sclera as well. Furthermore, within the inescapable darkness of her eyes, he felt like he could faintly see… small stars, glistening against the abyss.
She smiled, full lips curving upward as she bowed her head low. "Allow me to finally greet you, Shen Jintian." She whispered. "I am Cao Xingyue. And I am your… or rather, I was, your future wife."