𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟑: 𝐀 𝐁𝐨𝐥𝐭 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐥𝐮𝐞 𝐒𝐤𝐲
The original bright and charming personality of the young girl, imbued with a touch of arrogance, had indeed disappeared. However, it was not replaced by the rumored decadence and gloom, but rather a kind of. . . . . .restrained confidence.
But it was an untimely confidence. . . . . .
Carpenter Liu silently sighed.
“The carving on the top is a bit blurry; carve it deeper, making it as clear as possible without piercing the wooden stick,” Jiang Chu instructed after examining it. “Everything else is fine, but make sure to smooth the edges when you finish.”
“Okay.”
The carpenter bowed and took it.
“Thank you; please hurry.”
“Yes, miss.”
Jiang Chu hummed in acknowledgment and returned to her room.
Half an hour later, Hua Lan delivered 18 finished wooden sticks to Jiang Chu’s room.
Closing the door, Jiang Chu washed her hands and sat devoutly at the table, where she laid out the 18 two-finger-wide sticks in a specific pattern.
People have always exhibited great disparities in their natural talents.
Just as in martial arts, where individuals may have vastly different aptitudes, the same is true in divination.
A Divination Master is not a god; the divination symbols don’t appear out of thin air. A Divination Master merely serves as a messenger of fate.
They can employ various means to sense the mysterious intentions of destiny, using it to avert certain events, assist others, or enhance themselves.
However, not everyone can probe destiny at will. To be the intermediary between heaven and people, certain conditions must be met.
The standard for judging the quality of a Divination Master is the strength or weakness of their spiritual sense.
A Divination Master with strong spiritual sense has an extreme perception of “destiny.” With such innate ability, combined with specialized divination practices and extensive experience, they can easily bypass some complex steps in addressing ordinary questions.
It’s akin to wanting to become a mighty warrior: you must have a natural aptitude for martial arts, receive proper training from a young age, and regularly spar with others to gain practical experience.
Jiang Chu had already reached the level of a heavenly-tier Divination Master in the Mysterious Realm Continent, able to predict weather and personal fortunes with just a glance, with astonishing accuracy, and without any tools.
If she used tools, the accuracy would be near 100%.
But such talents are rare. If someone has weak spiritual sense, slow progress in training, and insufficient experience, their divination will be much more laborious.
The main problem is—
It doesn’t work!
Divining for a while and getting nothing but loneliness.
At that point, not harming others would be an achievement.
For the great Divination Master Jiang Chu, she scores full marks for experience, zero for the divination techniques of this current body (a hindrance that she can overcome with effort), but her innate spiritual sense remains her greatest curiosity.
Only the spiritual sense, a trait determined by nature, is what Jiang Chu is most curious about.
Unfortunately, the Jiang Mansion doesn’t have specialized testing tools; otherwise, the testing would be even more intuitive.
Without tools, then try to practice hands-on. Now, the divination has already been performed. Jiang Chu is about to use it to test whether the spiritual sense of this body is strong or weak.
Jiang Chu plans to attempt to measure the weather conditions in Yuxiao City ten days later. If the results can be obtained smoothly, then the aptitude is above average. At that time, the difficulty can be increased for further testing.
If the final result is excellent, then nothing could be better.
Jiang Chu arranges these 18 divination sticks according to a certain mysterious pattern and sequentially brushes his fingers over the edges of the divination sticks—
From the first stick to the last, Jiang Chu’s complexion gradually worsens.
No results.
She stubbornly tried again—
“I can’t feel anything!”
The first test had been obstructed. Clearly, Jiang Chu’s expectations for this body were too high.
The spiritual sense did not reach an above-average level.
Jiang Chu pursed her lips, changing the prediction from ten-day weather to five-day.
Still nothing.
She couldn’t feel any vibrations from the divination sticks.
Jiang Chu’s face darkened further.
Not even considered average!
Looking at the 18 divination sticks on the table, Jiang Chu gritted her teeth and removed nine.
Divination sticks have specific arrangements, in multiples of nine. Nine sticks are the most basic divination array, 18 are intermediate, and 27 are advanced.
In her previous life, Jiang Chu used a divination array of 36 pieces most often.
The more pieces there are, the higher the ability required from the diviner, and of course, the more accurate the results will be.
Since Jiang Chu currently has no cultivation techniques at her disposal, she never even considered using 36 or 27 pieces; she felt that 18 would suffice. However, after two tests, she realized she was mistaken.
Her spiritual insight in this body was much lower than she expected, and she couldn’t even handle 18 pieces.
After removing 9 pieces, only 9 remained on the table.
This time, Jiang Chu narrowed her divination to the weather in Yuxiao City for the next 3 days.
A moment later, after her finger slid across the last piece and still found nothing, Jiang Chu’s body nearly swayed—
Thunder on a clear day!
Damn the heavens, I’m through with you!
Jiang Chu was on the verge of tears. Did the original host’s spiritual sense deteriorate to such an extent?
Trembling hands, Jiang Chu set up the formation once again.
This time she would attempt to predict tomorrow’s weather.
She had made up her mind: if she couldn’t figure it out this time, she would let this body go where it should.
Destroy it, she was tired.
Holding her breath, she slid her hand over the edge of the divination sticks, and by the 7th piece, Jiang Chu’s heart finally settled.
She pulled out the 7th piece, looking at the face of the divination stick.
There were some irregular dot patterns on it, something that anyone who wasn’t a Divination Master would be completely baffled by, not even knowing its purpose.
“Cloudy, strong wind.”
Jiang Chu read out the divination result.
She now knew the test results, but she couldn’t be happy at all.
Too worthless, truly too worthless!
Not even one-tenth as good as her previous life’s talents!
This was terrible news indeed!
But the good news is, this is not a completely “spiritless” physique after all. Although there is very little spiritual sense, there is still a trace of it, which can be considered a small reason for Jiang Chu to survive.
The meager amount of spiritual sense would likely render other Divination Masters incapable of discerning anything. Even if they could discern something, it would be inaccurate. Only Jiang Chu’s exceptional strength allows her to compensate with her vast experiential knowledge.
Having extremely poor innate talent is a factor that is nearly unchangeable. However, Jiang Chu has the advantage of possessing ample experience. Furthermore, the cultivation technique is not an issue either; the techniques from the previous life exist in her mind, requiring only time to re-cultivate.
By calculating in this manner, after diligently refining his cultivation technique, the strength of this body would probably reach around 20% of his previous life’s strength.
Indeed, one-fifth of the strength is attributed to innate talent. Even if Jiang Chu’s experience and cultivation technique are both outstanding, there is only room for an additional one-fifth improvement.
(End of this chapter)