Chapter 346: (1): Scholar Explaining Sequential Order, Water Goddess Forming Golden Core
Milling people during the first watch of the night, flickering flames on the second; wandering ghosts on the third, and sneaking thieves on the fourth. Roosters call on the fifth, and a new day begins.[1]
It was midnight, and Burial River was thick with yin energy.
Perhaps due to the killing intent radiating from the cavalrymen of the Yao Clan and their weapons, this menacing yin energy was blocked from entering the relay station, as if there was an invisible wall holding it back.
Yao Jinzhi was in her room, practicing a divination technique commonly known as the Fire Pearl Forest Technique. This was a secret technique from the mountains, yet it couldn't be regarded as a legitimate or orthodox technique. Yao Jinzhi had coincidentally learned this technique from a scripture library during her childhood, and she had simply treated it as a pastime for the past few years.
She could either toss three copper coins onto the floor to answer a single question, or she could place six copper coins into a bamboo tube before tossing them out and observing which side they landed on to predict one's future and estimate one's luck. However, this was hit-and-miss, so even Yao Jinzhi didn't believe the results too much.
Tonight, she performed divination with three copper coins to determine whether her trip to the capital of the Great Quan Empire would be a smooth sailing one. The result was great fortune.
She then used six copper coins to predict the fortune of the Great Quan Empire's Imperial Liu Clan.
Afterward, Yao Jinzhi was perplexed as she looked at the copper coins one by one. She couldn't make sense of the results no matter how she wracked her brain. In the end, she could only chuckle in self-ridicule and remark that it was innately wrong to ask these questions to ghosts and deities instead of the common people.
Yao Jinzhi didn't dwell on the results of the two divinations any more, and stood up and walked to the window, where she saw Yao Lingzhi practicing saber techniques outside. Further into the distance, she could still see candlelight illuminating that room. There was no need to guess; she knew that it was Yao Xianzhi burning the midnight oil to study military texts.