Chapter 1258 Unexpected First Meeting
"Your fate line is intertwined with so many others," w.a.n.g Wei commented. Old Man Tianji"s fate line was similar to the future he had just seen. It was fascinating.
"Is this a method to protect yourself from Divination Backlash? I have to say, it"s quite an ingenious one. I can probably learn a thing or two from it," w.a.n.g Wei continued. "But who are those other fate lines? Are they from different people with the name [Old Man Tianji]?"
He frowned as he observed clearly.
"No, these are people you"ve helped, and in return, you borrow their fate to hide yours. More importantly, you can borrow the luck of these people to help your cultivation. Your school has an interesting way of cultivating fate or destiny," w.a.n.g Wei said. "However, if you have such a protective method, why did you go blind? What did you see that permanently closed your eyes?"
"That is not something for you to know," Old Man Tianji replied calmly, making w.a.n.g Wei shake his head. It would be a pain to get any information from this man as he tried to decipher all these fate lines, and he knew this man would not just stand there and let him.
w.a.n.g Wei sighed," This is my second time meeting one of you people. Can you at least tell me a bit about your sect?"
"Well, the thing is—"
"If you say any nonsense riddle and do not answer my question, I"ll directly ignore the rules and attack you."
Old Man Tianji almost choked on his words. He looked at this handsome man before him, and he could tell he would really attack him if he did not say a word. He sighed, thinking answering a few questions should be fine.
"We are called the Star-Gazing Pavilion. We pursue the mysteries of fate and the secrets of Heaven and Earth."
"You guys are not native to this world, are you?"
"No," Old Man Tianji replied truthfully. "We"ve spread to many Chaos Worlds."
"So, you"re a large faction?"
"We don"t have any direct connection, but I"m sure we"ve interacted somehow," Old Man Tianji replied. "However, such knowledge is above my level."
"Is that so?" w.a.n.g Wei muttered. "Yes and no." Old Man Tianji"s body trembled when he saw the killing intent in w.a.n.g Wei"s eyes, so he swiftly answered. "We have many outer members, but only the one who meets the requirements can inherit the name [Old Man Tianji] and officially become an inner member."
"This system reminded me of the Desire Heart Palace. Are they connected somehow?" w.a.n.g Wei asked this question.
"We don"t have any direct connection, but I"m sure we"ve interacted somehow," Old Man Tianji replied. "However, such knowledge is above my level."
"Is that so?" w.a.n.g Wei muttered. "For such a large faction, why have I only met two of you?"
"Our requirements are strict, and in this era, only I was born in the Eternal Ascension World. Well, if you don"t count the little junior in the lower dimension," Old Man Tianji replied. "However, there is a high chance you"ve met our outer members.
w.a.n.g Wei suddenly felt a little paranoid. Could it be that most divination/secret base factions he"s met or learned about are related to the Star-Gazing Pavilion in some way or form? He quickly removed that thought from his mind — that would be terrible.
"So, why the name?" he asked. This question was the one he most wanted to know.
Old Man Tianji hesitated momentarily before replying: "It was how our founder wanted things to be."
"You understand that this is fishy, right?" w.a.n.g Wei asked. "Names have power, and for so many influential people to share the same one…." He shook his head. "Just like your practice involves borrowing the fate of others, it"s apparent that your founder is using all of you by lending you his name. I"m sure you"ve figured as much."
Old Man Tianji was momentarily quiet: "We all have our destiny."
"Have you accepted your fate?" w.a.n.g Wei nodded. "Well, at least I know how you lost your sight. Your founder must be something else for your vision loss to remain permanent even after becoming an Empyrean. I reckon nothing will change even if you become a Paragon."
"This meeting has officially gone for too long," Old Man Tianji declared as he looked directly at w.a.n.g Wei with his somewhat intimidating eyes. "Meeting you might be a positive twist in my destiny or my greatest misfortune." The old man then disappeared.
"Already gone? It seems I hit a nerve," w.a.n.g Wei. "It"s a shame; I wanted to ask him if his sect was connected to the All-Seeing Temple in any way."
He shook his head before his mind focused on something more substantial.
"The founder of the Star-Gazing Pavilion is definitely a Half-Step Transcendent, and he"s likely the kind that achieved it before the Ultimate Taboo. If he had partic.i.p.ated in that event, he might have found a way to walk further down the Transcendent Path."
w.a.n.g Wei looked at the sky. "Foreigners are invading this place. Why? Is it merely because the Eternal Ascension World is weakened, and they want revenge? That is possible, especially if someone detected the Maitreya and Supreme Unity battle.
"However, from the information I know, these parasites left for the frontier before Maitreya decided to initiate the fight, meaning these people became interested in the Eternal Ascension World before learning of the internal conflict between our transcendents.
"Something must have riled them up."
w.a.n.g Wei did not have to think long to make the connection.
"The Eternal Ascension World is the same as the Myriad Emperor World, but on a much larger scale. As the destiny center, or very close to it, of the entire Chaos Universe, it is the place to most likely start a significant event that affects everyone.
"From Wu Hong"s note and the information the sect provided, they mentioned the All Seeing Temple and how these people — despite their greedy practices — usually predict major events affecting the Chaos Universe, including Qiyuan"s Second Origin War.
"Could they have predicted the [Third Origin War]? Could they have foreseen the havoc I will bring to the Chaos Universe?"
w.a.n.g Wei was not being narcissistic or self-absorbed with that last statement. Many signs have shown that he"s done or is doing something that affects the entire world.
Many of the events in his life have proven that his future self is in a war with Grand Dao. However, the most apparent confirmation of his suspicions was the hooded figure that killed him during Gu Xuan"s Trial. It"s evident that someone sent him from the future to prevent him from growing up and wreaking havoc on the universe.
w.a.n.g Wei sighed.
"If whatever is happening in the frontier is the prelude to the upcoming chaos, then my meeting with this Old Man Tianji was not accidental," he thought. "He"s either a p.a.w.n sent by his sect"s founder to contact the young version of my future self and plan something. Or, my future self sent him on my path to prepare to contact or deal with the Star-Gazing Pavilion."
w.a.n.g Wei grunted softly as he flew away in a bad mood. Given how little control he had over the entire situation, he hated all these time shenanigans. He also needed to warn himself not to let the motion of his future achievement dull him into thinking he was invincible and destined to survive any trouble or difficult situation. With all these transcendent players involved in this ultimate game of chess, rewriting the past becomes a common thing — no, a necessity.
"Let"s enjoy the hot springs as a way to destress," w.a.n.g Wei thought. The Ubiquitous Hotspring World was divided into six areas related to the elements: Flame, Water, Gold, Wood, Earth, and the central area. Each location had a large hot spring containing the power of the Five Elements, and after bathing in all five, people would head into the center for a combination.
Each area provided immense benefit to all cultivators under Tier 10, and after completing the five sets at the center, even Great Emperors will receive a cultivation acceleration blessing. However, this thing"s effect on Empyreans and above was minimal. There are hidden dimensions with hot springs that are even beneficial to Paragons, but those are rare.
"This place is full of destiny, so it should be relatively easier to find one that benefits my cultivation," w.a.n.g Wei thought as he searched the surroundings. In the process, he encountered two acquaintances — Xu s.h.i.+ and Lin Fan. They had just found a hidden dimension and were about to enter.
w.a.n.g Wei did not want to meet them now, so he sent a greeting and set a meeting for a later date before the celebration. He continued his search, and his Qi Luck Dragon trembled in one of the dimensions. w.a.n.g Wei did not hesitate and entered. A strong mist covered the spring, but w.a.n.g Wei did not care about that.
He placed his hand on the water.
"Nouris.h.i.+ng the body and accelerating the Body-Will Fusion — excellent."
His clothes disappeared, and he entered, exhaling deeply as the sensation was pleasurable.
"You seem distraught instead of being excited."
"Who?" w.a.n.g Wei yelled as he stood up for any trouble. He was shocked that he never noticed someone so close to him. The mist dispersed, revealing a beautiful woman with gray hair on the opposite side.
"Hong"er?" w.a.n.g Wei said instinctively.
"This is our first meeting, so don"t you think calling me so intimately inappropriate?" Wu Hong calmly stated.