1686 The Future
Long Tiankong looked at the young man who sat in front of him, wearing simple robes that wouldn't even belong to the lowest servant back in the Palace. The young man had jet-black hair and a rather tired posture.
He had every reason to just stand up and walk away, but something about the man made him want to sit and continue. Now that he was looking at the man, he looked middle-aged too.
No, he somehow looked ageless.
'How is he doing that?' the Crown Prince was very intrigued by the situation. 'Formation? Talisman?' He discreetly looked around the room but found nothing.
"Can you really tell my future?" the Crown Prince asked the future teller. If the Crown Prince was to be fair to himself, he thought he was wasting his time. But this was fun enough that he was fine with wasting it.
"I can tell what I can tell," the young man said. "It is your choice to believe if you want to or not."
Long Tiankong couldn't help but nod. "How do you do this then?" he asked. "Should I give you my hands? Or will you need to grab my head?"
The young man closed his eyes for a moment and opened them, his gaze seemingly looking into the distance rather than at the Crown Prince.
The Crown Prince felt so very naked under that gaze and started feeling awkward. But he didn't move from where he sat and waited for the man to start speaking.
"It is done," he said. "I have seen what I can."
"Oh," the Crown Prince got closer. "What did you see?"
The black-haired man leaned back and put his hands forth. "Pay me first and I'll tell you," he said.
The Crown Prince was a little taken aback. "Pay you first? I want to hear what you have to say before I pay you," he said.
"No, I need to get paid first," the man demanded.
"But what if you speak nonsense? Can I get what I paid back then?" the Crown Prince asked.
"You cannot," the man replied. "As I said, I will tell what I can tell. It is your decision to believe it or not. Now, pay me or leave."
The Crown Prince thought he was being robbed in a rather elaborate way and pulled out a few spirit stones. He dropped them on the man's hands and waited.
The future teller looked at the spirit stones with his deep black eyes. There were exactly 7 Saint Spirit Stones. "Is this all you will pay me?" he asked.
The Crown Prince frowned. He wanted more? Like hell, he was going to get more for this sham. "Yes, that is all," he said.
The man nodded and pocketed the spirit stones and then spoke. "When the sun is swallowed in the middle of the day, while you are on the island where the Dancing Lily blooms, you will find the one you will call your wife."
The young prince was dazed for a few seconds. "Sun is swallowed?" he couldn't help but utter the words back. "What does that mean?"
"I cannot tell you the meaning," the man replied.
"What about where the dancing lily blooms? Where is that island?" the prince asked.
"I do not know," the man answered.
"But you said that is where I'll find my wife. Then do you know who my wife will be?" the prince asked.
"I do," the man said.
"Who?" the Crown Prince asked.
"I cannot tell you," the man said. "Your payment doesn't cover it."
"Just tell me," the Crown Prince said, "here, I'll give you more if you need." He brought out hundreds of Saint Spirit stones.
The man looked at the spirit stones in front of him and shook his head. "You can only have your future told once from me. If you were fated to learn more, you would've paid more at the start. Take your money and leave. Our exchange is now complete."
"Complete?" the Crown Prince gritted his teeth in anger. "What do you mean complete? You told me nothing of importance."
"I told you all I had to," the man said. "Now, will you leave or should I call the guards."
The Crown Prince grumbled something under his breath and quickly got up to leave. He wanted to hear more, but he wasn't going to throw away his dignity to learn more.
Unhappy, he left the building.
Long Tiankong didn't want to go around the town anymore, so he went back to where he had been staying to calm down. He had been just about to forget about it when Xue Kuangren came to talk to him and asked him about his visit to the city.
"Oh right, there was this one shop I went to. One that said it would tell me the future," the Crown Prince said. "Is it real? I feel like I was ripped off or something."
"Future telling? Oh that shop, yes. It probably was a rip-off, but there is a chance of it being true too," the man said.
"Don't you ban such shops? How can you even know if it is true?" the crown Prince asked.
The man sighed. "That man gives all his earnings to the poor and helpless, so we don't really go for him," he said. "If he took a lot from you though, I can send someone to—"
"No, no. It wasn't about the money," the Crown Prince said quickly. "Don't worry about that. I was just concerned regarding whether what I heard was the truth or not."
"Maybe it was, maybe it was not." Xua Kuangren shrugged. "If you really want to know about your future, you should visit a location to the west. A place called the Nine Wells of Time. It can tell you your near future and your distant future."
"Are you being serious?" the Crown Prince asked. "Have you done it before?"
"I have," Xue Kuangren said. "It was what told me I was going to be a Sect Leader of the Snow Immortal sect in just 2 thousand years. And it also tells me that I will face the Immortal tribulation lightning in another thousand years."
"What? How long have you been alive?" the Crown Prince couldn't help but ask.
"If the prophecy is true, I will have broken through to the Immortal realm in less than 3500 years," the man said with a wide smile.
"And… does it tell you if you succeed or not?" the Crown Prince asked. Curiosity was getting the better of him.
"Of course I will," Xue Kuangren said. "I will survive and go on to become so strong that everyone will consider me a threat."
"What else?" Long Tiankong couldn't help but ask.
"Well, the prophecies are vague, so you cannot tell for certain. But there is one that talks about an alchemist of two worlds and two names, who will solve my greatest plight and send me off to a better place," Xue Kuangren said. "I think that means I have to look for good alchemists."
Xue Kuangren laughed and said his farewells for the day, leaving the Crown Prince alone.
Lost in his thoughts, Long Tiankong decided for the next day. He would go visit the Nine Wells of Time.
