Chapter 1302: Liu Xuanji
The ancient divination texts say: The sages must react to great signs in heaven.[1]
It was spring in the year Heavenly Restoration in the imperial palace of the capital city of the Great Posterity Dynasty.[2]
A spring rain fell in a cobblestone alley in the southwestern part of the imperial capital.[3]
A middle-aged man named Liu Xuanji sat underneath a dark canopy just outside the alley, running his finger along the bronze divination plate in front of him.[4][5]
“Well, what’s it say, Mr. Liu?” The person who had just spoken was a young man in fancy embroidered clothing, also standing under the dark canopy, flanked by some burly attendants. He was looking eagerly at the middle-aged man in the green jerkin in front of him.
Liu Xuanji didn’t look up. His eyes were fixed on the divination needle, which was vibrating a bit but pointing directly at the Kan trigram.
This was his third divination job today. The first was for a commoner seeking real estate advice. The second was an old man whose grandson had gone missing. And now he was dealing with a young nobleman who had a jade pendant hanging from his waist, covered in dragon designs. As one might expect, the young nobleman wanted to know about his future prospects as a government official.
After a long moment passed, Liu Xuanji looked up at the young man. “Young Sir,” he said in a raspy voice, “you will end up in charge of the Crapemyrtle Palace, and—”
Before he could finish speaking, the divination needle suddenly jerked in the direction of the Li trigram. The sudden development caused Liu Xuanji to frown. The divination was indicating that this customer’s fate involved the Kan hexagram, which meant fortune, but also the Li hexagram, which meant loss.
Normally speaking, this divination result would indicate an early death. But this young nobleman was past the age when a death could be considered premature. His aura seemed more like that of a forty-year old rich person, and the dragon on his jade pendant had four claws. It was all typical of the heir apparent to an imperial prince.
Liu Xuanji was quiet. The rain fell harder. As he watched, the divination needle spun back and forth between Li and Kan.[6]
That was when he finally started to understand what he was seeing. The strange phenomenon caused his frown to deepen. The fingers of his left hand, hidden within his sleeve, began to move as he made some calculations about the heavenly stems and earthly branches. However, his calculations only caused a cold sweat to break out on his back.