The Natives of This World Are Fierce

Clear your mind. Let your spirit grow as still as the Crystal Ball.

Her maternal grandmother once said that fortune-telling is an act that relies heavily on ritual. It wasn’t that the rituals themselves had any significant impact on the outcome, but rather that they helped the Fortune-Teller or Spirit Medium adjust their own state of being.

Of course, charlatans who were only out to scam people of their money also used rituals to create a dazzling, mysterious atmosphere.

From playing at it as a child, to dabbling in it for fun as an adult, to now relying on it for her livelihood.

Su Su had performed divination many times, but never had she entered the right state of mind as quickly as she did today.

The moment she fell silent, the Magic Power within her began to suffuse the surface of her body.

It quickly formed a connection with the Crystal Ball.

The power of the Secret Realm had already blessed Su Su, granting her the temporary Ability to use it as a medium to exchange information with the world.

The slip of paper from her Mentor lay beside her.

Su Su’s right hand gently traced the information on the paper. The Magic Power from her fingertips, like dancing musical notes, flowed over each name and location.

As her fingers brushed over a name, she would sometimes hear a strange voice, as if in her ear. Sometimes it was a conversation, sometimes a sorrowful cry, and other times, hearty laughter.

Other names produced a chaotic jumble of sounds, while only a rare few yielded no response at all.

These must be the owners of the names.

Whenever her fingertips brushed across a place name, illusory scenes would appear in the Crystal Ball like a mirage. Some were as clear as a painting, while others were hazy and indistinct.

’This is incredible! I’ve never had such a direct, clear sensation before!’

Su Su suppressed her excitement and calmly continued her work.

Her control over her Magic Power grew more adept. Su Su’s pale golden hair floated up, strand by strand, as if caught in an invisible wind. The Magic Power suffusing it tinted it a crystalline blue.

’Since most of the people on the list aren’t giving a strong response, I’ll just focus on the clearest ones.’

First, she would check on the Gold Ore locations.

Of the twelve Gold Ore locations, the owners of only five were known. Through her divination with the Crystal Ball, a series of scenes—some clear, some blurry—unfolded before her.

Though Su Su was only gazing into the Crystal Ball, she felt as if her entire being had merged with it, experiencing those scenes, both mundane and extraordinary, as if she were there herself.

Sometimes she saw their youth; other times, the very beginning of their rise to fortune.

The scenes were chaotic and ever-changing, causing Su Su’s Magic Power to fluctuate wildly. The power of the Secret Realm intervened, helping her suppress the turbulent energy.

These men might have once had bright, beautiful dreams, but now they were driven solely by profit. It wasn’t a matter of right or wrong, and they weren’t without their moments of humanity, but greed had taken up too much space in their souls. They clearly weren’t the person her Mentor was looking for.

Qin Xiaoxia watched the mists swirl within the Crystal Ball, then glanced at Su Su. Her face, beaded with sweat from the strain of using her Magic Power, was creased in a frown, as if she’d seen something unpleasant.

Just five people had taken half an hour, consuming a considerable portion of Su Su’s Magic Power, but she showed no sign of stopping.

She switched to a new sheet of paper. This one was a list from Forbes, and thanks to its public nature, each name was followed by a short biography. The information was far more detailed than what she’d had for the Gold Ore locations.

But there were too many names. Scrying them one by one would be too time-consuming, and she couldn’t afford the drain on her Magic Power.

Even though she had only recently awakened her powers, Su Su was not oblivious to the drain on her Magic Power. The marked decline in her mental state and physical stamina was the clearest proof.

But with Qin Xiaoxia by her side, Su Su, trusting completely in his strength, slapped her entire palm down on the page.

SWOOSH~

Qin Xiaoxia saw the girl’s Magic Power erupt in an instant. It surged from her body at an incredible rate, quickly filling the attic and threatening to spill out.

’What is this silly girl doing?!’

Without a moment’s hesitation, he muttered an incantation in the Magic Language. He and the newly emerged Shadow of the Red Demoness worked together, compressing Su Su’s Magic Power back into a half-meter space before her.

Su Su’s head was throbbing.

Countless voices and events swirled chaotically in the Crystal Ball. Since her mind was linked to it, it was as if it were all happening inside her own head.

A life of luxury and dissipation... mutual deception... corporate warfare... investments... charity... debauchery... the death of a loved one... families torn apart... the pinnacle of success... insatiable greed... selfless aid... ruthless exploitation...

Tears, laughter, numbness, pleasure, sorrow, desperation, helplessness... Money, drugs, gunshots in the dark...

Beyond the moments of ordinary life, what she saw were the most profound scenes from these people’s lives, all charged with intense emotion.

"Su Su, stop! Stop it! Your Magic Power can’t handle this! Stop, now!"

Qin Xiaoxia’s voice seemed to come from a great distance, and her consciousness reeled.

Su Su’s Magic Power had grown incredibly thin; it was on the verge of being completely depleted.

Qin Xiaoxia vividly remembered what had happened to him when he’d faced the Nightmare Swamp—the consequences of having his Magic Power depleted and his Life Force forcibly drained.

For a young woman, especially one who was beautiful and cared about her appearance, becoming emaciated with a head of white hair was not a pleasant experience.

Moreover, her current situation was frighteningly similar to when Qin Xiaoxia, in his ignorance, had used the Statue of Comir to glimpse the Side of Truth. The only difference was the sheer scale and intensity.

’This silly girl’s brain can’t process this much information!’

But Su Su didn’t break free from the divination. Left with no other choice, Qin Xiaoxia used the power of the Secret Realm to forcibly sever her connection to the Crystal Ball and force her remaining Magic Power back into her body.

"Haaah... haah..."

The moment she was freed from the divination, Su Su gasped for air like someone rescued from drowning. She flopped onto the table like a dead fish, not wanting to move a muscle. Still, she was in much better shape than Qin Xiaoxia had been back then.

Her expression, however, was joyful. She gave Qin Xiaoxia a goofy grin and even flashed a V-for-victory sign at Doudou, who had been muttering, "Hopeless, hopeless."

...

At dusk, the afterglow of the setting sun gilded the surrounding skyscrapers.

Inside a spacious, brightly-lit office, Sun Tian set down a file, lowered his head, closed his eyes, and rubbed his temples.

"Heh. These guys... all they know how to do is ask for a budget."

He glanced at his watch. It was dinnertime, but he still had a lot to handle. He decided to work a little longer and just order takeout.

He stood up, took off his suit jacket, and tossed it onto the desk. Then he walked over to the large open space in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows.

After stretching his limbs and loosening his joints, Sun Tian’s body tensed, and he threw a punch into the air.

He then began to practice a boxing form in his office with practiced, deliberate movements.

As a forty-two-year-old who had made it into the top 1,500 on the Forbes list, he wasn’t being eccentric; this was a habit he had maintained for over two decades.

It was a Shaolin Long Fist routine.

It wasn’t something you could use to fight off ten men—not that his status required it—but it was excellent for staying fit.

When Sun Tian was a boy, his father had sent him to Mount Song Shaolin for several years of disciplinary boarding. He wasn’t there to become a monk at the Shaolin Temple, but to attend a school it had founded.

Unlike the heavily commercialized martial arts schools of today, that school had only just been established. Many master monks came to serve as instructors, making it tantamount to a training program for lay disciples.

Although his parents later took him to live abroad for many years, his time at Shaolin left a profound impact on his entire life, and he held onto some of the good habits he’d formed there.

By the time he finished the routine, his forehead was beaded with sweat and he was slightly out of breath.

"I’m really not what I used to be!"

He sighed to himself, returned to his desk, and prepared to get back to work.

But his computer, which had been in standby mode, silently woke itself up.

’Did I bump it when I stood up?’

The thought had barely passed when a sentence popped up on the screen, just like a screensaver.

"Mr. Sun, in accordance with an agreement made three hundred years ago, we require you to repay that debt of gratitude."

Sun Tian froze for a full two seconds.

’What kind of idiot hacked my computer?’

He tried moving the mouse, but it was useless. His antivirus software was unresponsive. Without a second thought, he hit the restart button.

Fortunately, he wasn’t in the high-tech industry, and this computer held no major trade secrets.

He figured a restart wouldn’t do much. Sun Tian had already decided to have the company’s IT department take a look at it in the morning. He’d just have to do without the computer for tonight; he could read the physical files anyway.

PS: Chapter 2/3.

A cameo for my reader, Yan Xuan 2. I had to make a few adjustments. The other readers’ cameos are either mutated beings, Otherworld Elves, or superhumans, which are hard to place at the moment.