Chapter 143: Divination by the Plain-Robe Three Purities

Although I had already guessed some of it, hearing Qin Tian say it out loud still came as quite a shock! They had all gone missing—Murong Xue, Linger, Yujing, every single one of them had vanished!

I asked Qin Tian, "Have you looked for them?" Qin Tian replied that the World Alliance had searched everywhere, but they seemed to have completely evaporated into thin air, leaving no trace alive or dead. This also included the Wind God and his younger sister, Yanyan.

"Did Chu Jun give you a hard time? How did you manage to find me?"

"Not at all. I used the art of divination to figure out that you were here, so I came looking for you." Qin Tian did not look like he was lying, but I could not wrap my head around it. Why would Chu Jun spare Qin Tian? Their disappearance must have been connected to Chu Jun; it was impossible for everyone to mysteriously vanish right after Chu Jun had visited them. Could what Qin Tian said about not being at the scene that night be true? Having spent a few years as a police officer, I still possessed that basic level of investigative instinct. I could not rule out the possibility that Qin Tian was lying. You have to understand that behind the truth, there often lie many hidden secrets. If Qin Tian was lying, there could only be one explanation: a woman.

The gaze I cast toward Qin Tian grew complicated. If he really had betrayed everyone, what would I do? Kill him? Forget it; after all, it was just my suspicion. I hoped I was just overthinking things. It was better to get to the bottom of the whole story before making any judgments!

"The art of divination?" I remembered Qin Tian mentioning it to me once, when he predicted a catastrophe in the alternate realm that would affect the twenty-first century. Back then, I simply hadn't asked for details.

"Yes. My late father had a handwritten manual passed down from our ancestors called *Sanqing Commoner Divination*. My father taught me the contents when I was very young, but unfortunately, I am too dull-witted and only grasped a tiny fraction. Ever since my abilities improved, this divination art has also become much more effective than before, which is how I was able to figure out your location in such a short time."

*Sanqing Commoner Divination*—I had seen this name in ancient books. Could such a miraculous book really exist in this world? It was said that mastering the Sanqing divination allowed one to communicate with heaven and earth and foresee the future. Qin Tian had actually studied the Sanqing manual; you truly cannot judge a book by its cover!

"Hasn't the Sanqing manual been lost for a long time? How does your family have a copy?" Hearing about the Sanqing manual piqued my interest.

"My family really does have a copy. It's still kept at home. My father said it was given to us by an outsider surnamed Mo, who apparently gave it to our ancestor after being saved by him by chance," Qin Tian said as he lit a cigarette.

"What kind of person has such a huge background that they just hand out divine books left and right?" I took the cigarette and lit it with my fingertip. If Qin Tian knew the *Sanqing Commoner Divination*, couldn't he just use it to figure out where Murong Xue and the others had gone? What was the use of figuring out I was here?

Qin Tian exhaled a plume of smoke and said, "I don't know. I only heard from my father that the person who gave us the book was surnamed Mo, and there was also an ancestral rule: anyone surnamed Mo had shown kindness to the Qin family, and if we ever encountered one in the future, we must treat them well."

Surnamed Mo? Old Man Mo was also surnamed Mo. I remembered when Old Man Mo was impersonating my master, he had claimed that he used divination to figure out that I would come to the alternate realm and find the Heavenly Demon Technique. Could that Sanqing manual have been given to Qin Tian's ancestors by Old Man Mo's ancestors? However, now was not the time to discuss this. Since Qin Tian possessed the art of *Sanqing Commoner Divination*, why not let him use it to calculate the current whereabouts of Murong Xue and the others?

I flicked away the remaining cigarette butt and said to Qin Tian, "Since you know the Sanqing divination, calculate where they are right now." To be honest, I was also quite eager to see how this kid performed divination—whether it was like what was shown on TV, using tortoise shells or chanting spells. Never did I expect this kid to flat-out refuse.

Hearing that, I instantly grew displeased. I asked you to do a single task and you were already putting on airs. Looking at his punchable face, I really wanted to slap him. My anger flared up instantly: "Damn it! Screw you, if you're not going to calculate, forget it. I'm not going back to the World Alliance either. Here, I eat well, dress well, and am revered by thousands. If they're missing, let them be missing; what does it have to do with me?" Though I said that out loud, deep down I was extremely worried about them; I just wanted to piss this kid off!

Qin Tian hurriedly handed me a cigarette and said ingratiatingly, "Don't be like that, Brother Li. My bad, alright? I'll calculate, I'll calculate! So what if it shortens my life by two years? I'm going all out!"

"Shortens your life by two years? What do you mean? Does this divination art actually shave off your lifespan?" I was puzzled; ancient books never mentioned that divination shortened one's life.

Qin Tian helped me light the cigarette. I took a drag, raised an eyebrow, and said, "What, you kid have even learned how to suck up to people? Where did that imposing aura you had when killing zombies go?"

Qin Tian chuckled sheepishly, "Well, it's a long story. Anyway, if I unintentionally hurt you, that was never my intention! Alright, I'll explain it to you slowly when I have time later. Let me tell you about this Sanqing divination first."

This kid seemed to be speaking in code. I temporarily filed away what he said; once I resolved the immediate problem, I would properly interrogate him. The fact that this kid's strength had improved was no coincidence!

I sat down on a rock, nodded, and took a deep breath of smoke. Qin Tian paced back and forth in front of me a few times before finally starting to talk about the *Sanqing Commoner Divination*.

The Sanqing manual was originally divided into three parts, and the *Sanqing Commoner Divination* was just one of them. Outsiders all knew that the Sanqing manual was a good thing; mastering any single volume would benefit you for a lifetime. However, people often imagined things too idealistically, only seeing the thief eating meat without seeing the thief taking a beating! Although the *Sanqing Commoner Divination* allowed one to foresee the future once mastered, every matter has its pros and cons. It was like a double-edged sword: while the *Sanqing Commoner Divination* was undeniably profound—with some people exhausting their entire lives without grasping even a sliver of it—others could comprehend its profound mysteries in a very short span of time.

The Qin family had possessed the *Sanqing Commoner Divination* for thousands of years. Passed down from ancestor to ancestor, the book had always been kept in an exquisite iron box hidden in a secret compartment within the wall. The ancestral instructions explicitly stated that no one other than members of the Qin family was permitted to pry into the Sanqing manual. The family precept said that one day, a person destined to be connected with the *Sanqing Commoner Divination* would appear in the Qin family. Yet, for thousands of years, not a single person in the Qin family had been able to understand the *Sanqing Commoner Divination*. Gradually, the Qin family seemed to have forgotten the strict ancestral rule. Starting from the generation of Qin Tian's grandfather, the *Sanqing Commoner Divination* was relegated to a dusty corner, covered in a thick layer of grime. If young Qin Tian had not been playful and dug out this ancient book, it probably would have weathered away completely. At the time, Qin Tian only recognized a few major characters, but strangely enough, he was able to read every single word in the *Sanqing Commoner Divination* without missing a single one.

Ever since then, Qin Tian's father had constantly forced him to study the contents of the book until he could recite it backward. That was what Qin Tian told me. Although my phrasing changed slightly when retelling it, the general meaning remained the same.