The next day, one large and one small flying boat moved out of the Xuantian Dao Sect, going directly to the eastern sea.

Long Chen stood alone at the prow of the boat. The barrier had already been activated. Seeing the mountains rapidly going past him down below, he had a strange feeling.

Yesterday, he had been called over by the Xuan Master to discuss a few things. Only after the two of them had chatted did Long Chen realize he had misjudged the Xuan Master.

In Long Chen’s heart, the Xuan Master had been a completely unrivaled hero, someone who was upright and virtuous. He hadn’t expected that he was wrong.

When they had talked about the huge gamble he had made against the Heaven Suppressing Magic Sect, Long Chen had asked the Xuan Master whether or not he had been worried about losing.

The Xuan Master’s reply was that he hadn’t been the slightest bit worried. Even if he had lost, it would have been fine. A problem had occurred in the spirit stone mine he had gambled. They had suddenly found an extremely thick rock stratum.

That layer was hundreds of miles thick, and it covered far too much land. It was impossible to avoid. If they wanted to continue mining, they would have to break through it.

But breaking through such a thick layer of rock stratum would require a huge amount of manpower. Most importantly, no one knew whether or not there were more spirit stones down below. Even if there were, if there weren’t enough, it wouldn’t make up for the loss of breaking through the rock stratum.

Right now, the spirit stone mine had already ceased production. All the workers were studying the probability of there being more spirit stones below and in what quantities. The results of their study were not encouraging.

The chance there were still spirit stones below was only fifty percent. And if there were, then based on the current state of the mine, the amount below wouldn’t be very great. It was likely it wouldn’t make up for the cost of breaking through the rock.

So this huge spirit stone mine had become an annoying point for the Xuantian Dao Sect. Just whether or not they should continue excavating was a problem.

And so the Xuan Master hadn’t even frowned upon taking it out to bet. He had already abandoned this mine, because he had no money to risk on it.

As for the Life Star Bead, that made Long Chen even more flabbergasted. The Xuan Master said that his Life Star Bead was garbage.

When Life Star experts broke through to their realm, they left behind their lifetime comprehension of cultivation. It was an extremely precious cultivation inheritance.

But when the Xuan Master had advanced to the Life Star realm, his lightning tribulation had been too powerful, and his Life Star Bead had lost the majority of its spirituality to the tribulation.

The inheritance the Xuan Master had left behind was incomplete. It was basically trash.

When Long Chen heard this, he couldn’t help being completely dumbstruck. That was far too evil. He had actually taken out two pieces of garbage to gamble with another person’s businesses. If Ma Xingkong learned of this, wouldn’t he directly die of anger?

However, the Xuan Master told Long Chen that the process wasn’t important. The only important thing was the result. He couldn’t limit himself.

In the cultivation world, all rules were nothing more than the playing of rogues. The winner was the more shameless one. If you wholeheartedly wanted to act as a man of honor to the end, your end would truly come quickly, and miserably to boot.

The previous Xuan Master had conformed with the rules very well. He was upright, acting openly and candidly. But what had that resulted in? The current plight of the Xuantian Dao Sect.

He had been considering things from his own standpoint, instead of thinking of the Dao Sect’s millions of disciples. This was a mediocre way of leading. When the Xuan Master said this, he intentionally looked at Long Chen profoundly.

His meaning was clear. To survive in the cultivation world, he had to be willing to use any means necessary. He shouldn’t blindly try to be a hero and thus have his hands tied. That would cause many more people to die.

“It seems I really am too immature.” Long Chen couldn’t help but sigh. As expected, the Xuan Master’s wisdom was not something a little rookie like him could compare to.

The Xuan Master had his own special kind of charisma. It was as though no matter what happened, everything would be within his control. With his strategies, he was able to win victories from thousands of miles away. It was like with him present, there would be no problems.

As for Long Chen, what he lacked was control. But he had no way around it. He was well aware of his own weaknesses. The Xuan Master himself had even said that Long Chen was no less intelligent than him. It was just that once his anger flared, all that intelligence would vanish.

“Whatever. Everyone has their own paths, and I can just walk my own path. Some things can’t be obtained just through wanting them.” Long Chen sighed deeply and stretched.

“Long Chen, why have you run over here? We were looking all over.” He turned back to see Meng Qi, Tang Wan-er, Hua Shiyu, and Zhao Ziyan come over.

“Oh, are these the legendary four great beauties of the Xuantian Dao Sect? I am honored that you would be looking for me,” laughed Long Chen.

Tang Wan-er rolled her eyes and said, “Have some propriety. You are now a commander, so have some respect.”

“You’re right. For you to honor my humble self with your presence, I should have come to get you. I can’t believe I was lacking such manners. Please, come sit, and let me pour you some tea.” Long Chen hastily put on a respectful appearance.

“When I said to have some respect, I didn’t mean this kind of nonsense.” Tang Wan-er laughingly pushed Long Chen, bringing him inside where they could all sit around a stone table.

“Long Chen, I hear you know how to read fortunes. Can you read mine?” said Hua Shiyu out of nowhere.

Long Chen waved his hand. “What fortune-telling? That’s all just nonsense used to trick fools…”

As soon as he said this, he realized Zhao Ziyan was staring closely at him. He immediately realized he had been conned.

“Hahaha, do you see, sister Ziyan? I told you he was just a swindler. He couldn’t possibly have any heaven-peering abilities, but you refused to believe it,” laughed Hua Shiyu. Zhao Ziyan’s expression was a bit unnatural now.

Long Chen swore inside. But did they think they could truly beat him like this? When it came to conning people, he had never encountered anyone greater than himself.

“Fate contains the mysteries of the innate world and the consequences of the will. With the two of them merged, with the five spirits of heaven, earth, man, god, and ghost as the foundation, with the five elements of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth as the transformation, there are innumerable possibilities. Even immortals and gods have no way to grasp the form of fate.

“This is an explanation I found in an ancient ruin within the Immemorial Path pertaining to reading the future. The future is constantly changing, and it involves all things within heaven and earth. The fundamental movement of the cosmos can change things. Even gods and immortals are helpless when it comes to this, so how could I, an ordinary mortal, possibly see the future?” Long Chen shook his head while sighing.

The four women stared blankly at him. Even Hua Shiyu stopped laughing. His words were too profound for them to understand.

“Senior apprentice-brother Long Chen, these principles of yours are amazing, but they’re hard to understand. Can you explain it to us in more detail?” asked Hua Shiyu respectfully, putting away her mocking smile.

Long Chen laughed inside. Even he didn’t know what he was saying. But it seemed it had worked.

He shook his head. “The so-called laws and fortunes of heaven and earth are split into Yin and Yang. On their own, Yin cannot live, and Yang cannot grow. The reason you are confused is because you only see one side of things, while you are blind to the other side. That’s why the things you see are always the things you want to see, but are not necessarily the true essence of things.

“As for the heaven-peering art you speak of, it is nothing more than some people peeking at the slightest thread of the will of the Heavenly Daos. All they do is generalize from that tiny little bit. Calculating the future is the opposite of looking into the past. Looking into the past is easier, because you use the consequences to calculate the reasons. Of course, such a thing is useless. But when it comes to predicting the future, even just making a prediction will cause a slight change. By using the present to calculate the future, you have created a new future, one that will be different from the old future.

“That’s why I said that fortune-tellers are all swindlers. No one can accurately tell a person’s future. That’s also why people often say man proposes, but god disposes.

“When it comes to fortune-telling, nothing anyone says is reliable. But when it comes to reading faces, I’m actually quite skilled. So rather than telling you your fortune, why don’t I read your face? Fairy Shiyu, do you want to try?” Long Chen spouted nonsense with complete seriousness.

The four women felt like they half understood and half didn’t. Even those familiar with Long Chen like Meng Qi and Tang Wan-er were fooled, because Long Chen’s words truly sounded reasonable. Listening closely, they seemed to contain boundless profundities.

“How do you read my face?” Hua Shiyu was moved. She wanted to increase her knowledge of this face-reading, because what Long Chen had said before was very profound.

“My face-reading is actually a special, all-encompassing version. Not only do I read the face, but I also read the palms and the bones. In accordance with the saying that the appearance is born from the heart, the face is the most important part. Even people without face-reading abilities can guess a person’s general character and morality by looking at their face. However, there are countless transformations and changes that are not innate, and so reading just the face is destined to just be a basic examination. It cannot be fully trusted.

“But the palms are shaped at birth, and the palm lines are essentially set. They do not change in life. But the faint changes in their color and the slight trends within it can allow one to see the possibilities for the future. So let’s first do a palm reading,” said Long Chen.

Seeing Long Chen extend his hand, Hua Shiyu unconsciously placed her hand in his.

Her hand was soft and satiny, making it feel excellent. Long Chen’s expression was calm, but he involuntarily felt a wave of emotion. It seemed fortune-tellers were truly blessed with luck with women.

Hua Shiyu acted calm with Long Chen holding her hand, but she began to blush. As far as she recalled, ever since she had stopped being a child, she had never held hands with a man.

Furthermore, she felt a strange feeling from Long Chen’s hand that made her heartbeat quicken. She was like a deer noticed in the wild, but she also couldn’t express that. She forcibly acted like she didn’t mind.

“Long Chen, are you going to look? What are you doing, just touching? You scoundrel, you wouldn’t be taking advantage of sister Shiyu, right?!” Tang Wan-er started to get suspicious upon seeing Long Chen simply sitting there, feeling Hua Shiyu’s hand.

“What do you know? When palm reading, the first thing to do is to warm the hand and increase the blood flow by ten percent. That’s to make the palm lines clearer so they’re easier to read.”

Long Chen gave an unashamed explanation as he felt just one hand wasn’t enough. He also pulled in Hua Shiyu’s other hand.

Hua Shiyu turned even redder, but she refused to express her nervousness. She still pretended she didn’t care.

Long Chen chortled to himself. She had put him on the spot just before, and after spending so much saliva spouting such nonsense, it was time to get a return.

“Um, is that enough? It’s been two hours. If you keep going, my hands are going to get swollen.” Hua Shiyu finally couldn’t endure it any longer.

“Oh, I suppose this is good enough.” Long Chen immediately became embarrassed. The feeling was just too good, and he had gotten addicted to the soft and supple feeling.

“Tell me,” said Hua Shiyu. She wanted to see what kind of evaluation he had.

“Alright. This hand is not bad!”

As soon as Long Chen’s words rang out, he felt a bad change in the air.