Chapter 85: Chapter 85: Within 3 Days, Great Peril

Within the quiet room.

An eerie and tense atmosphere filled the air.

Qi Yun formed a Spell, and wisps of faint, blood-red light coiled around his fingertips.

His eyes took on a faint, bloody sheen.

The scenery before him began to blur and distort. The world seemed to be stripped of its vivid colors, leaving only shades of black, white, and gray.

Upon that bleak canvas, a few extremely blurry, constantly twisting and morphing lines and shapes began to emerge.

These outlines seemed to represent the hidden karmic ties and omens of fortune and misfortune.

However, the vision was too hazy, as if viewed through a thick, constantly shifting layer of murky fog.

’Is this... the secrets of fate and karma?’ Gazing at the strange vision before him, Qi Yun tried to focus his mind and divine his fortune for the next three days.

As he focused his thoughts, the blurry lines and patches of color began to converge on him, barely sketching out a rough, constantly shifting outline.

But this so-called "secret of fate" was like a carelessly crumpled and balled-up piece of scrap paper.

It was a chaotic mass, with rough edges and a tangled, unclear interior.

It was impossible to decipher any useful information from it.

Just as he tried to channel more True Qi to forcibly "smooth out" that blurry secret of fate and see it more clearly...

HISS—!

A sudden, tearing pain shot through his right arm.

Qi Yun let out a muffled groan, frowning as he rolled up his right sleeve.

On his previously unblemished forearm, several gruesome gashes had appeared out of thin air, so deep the bone was visible, the flesh curling back from the wounds.

Fresh blood gushed from them, instantly staining his sleeve red.

The next moment!

A Secret Power descended, and the vision of fate, once a blurry tangle like a crumpled ball of paper, gradually grew clearer and more orderly.

The edges of the vision remained somewhat blurry, but its core message had now appeared.

[Great misfortune will befall you within three days!]

"Huh?"

Staring in disbelief at the fortune he had divined, Qi Yun’s brow furrowed.

’Great misfortune within three days?’

’I can’t believe a casual attempt actually revealed an omen of great misfortune for myself.’

’Could I have gotten it wrong?’

After staring at the result of his divination for a long moment, Qi Yun changed his Spell. His body abruptly dispersed into countless currents of air, becoming invisible and intangible.

In this state, shimmering green wisps of light emerged from some unseen place and clung to the wounds on his arm.

The bleeding stopped, flesh began to granulate, and the wounds started to close... A powerful regenerative ability was at work.

About an hour later, the gashes on Qi Yun’s arm from casting the Blood-Drawn Profound Mechanism had completely healed.

Flexing his wrist slightly, Qi Yun once again formed the hand seals to cast this Demon Dao Divination Skill.

The same vision appeared once more.

As crimson blood trickled down his wrist, a familiar line of text about his fate appeared before him once more.

[Great misfortune will befall you within three days!]

Gazing at the nearly identical result, Qi Yun pressed his lips together and narrowed his eyes.

’Getting it wrong once could be a mistake.’

’But to be wrong in the exact same way twice? That’s highly unlikely.’

He flicked his sleeve, dispersing the eerie blood mist and swirling fog. He looked around the meditation chamber—a room within the Holy Sect that should have been perfectly safe—and rubbed his brow in confusion, his mind racing.

’In terms of my surroundings, I’m inside the Holy Sect. The Sect’s rules are strict, and personal duels are forbidden. Even if a Foundation Establishment Master has it out for me, they would never dare to openly attack and kill an Outer Mansion Champion Scholar.’

’In terms of my Cultivation, I’m the Outer Mansion Champion Scholar, at Qi Refining Fifth Layer Perfection. Even if Yue Rong were to return, I could still suppress him.’

’There are no obvious threats, internal or external... so where exactly will this omen of great misfortune manifest?’

’What kind of disaster could possibly put me in such peril?’ He racked his brain, running through every possibility, but Qi Yun still had no idea.

He thought for a long time but still couldn’t figure it out.

Qi Yun’s gaze shifted. With blood-red light coiling around his fingertips, he prepared to use the Blood-Drawn Profound Mechanism again, this time to divine the specific details of this great misfortune.

But the instant that thought crossed his mind,

every inch of his skin and every muscle in his body instantly tensed, sending waves of warning pain like a thousand needles!

It was as if countless invisible, ice-cold blades were already pressed against his skin.

The moment he formed the Spell,

those blades would descend as one, slicing him to ribbons, tearing him limb from limb.

’This is beyond the limits of my divination!’

Realizing that what he wanted to divine was clearly beyond his ability—and that forcing it would surely trigger a backlash from fate itself—Qi Yun frowned and released the Spell.

’What in the world could it be...?’

...

「Three days passed in the blink of an eye.」

Qi Yun sat ramrod straight in his courtyard, having set up several simple yet practical Protective Arrays around him.

His expression was incredibly grave. He occasionally glanced up at the sun hanging high in the sky, every muscle in his body tensed.

He was like a fully drawn bow, ready to face any sudden event.

’In another fifteen minutes, it will have been exactly three days.’

’I’d like to see just what kind of great misfortune is going to befall me.’

’It’s not like a bolt of heavenly lightning is going to strike me dead...’

KRA-KOOM—

The thought had barely crossed Qi Yun’s mind when an indescribable, earth-shattering roar suddenly exploded without warning.

Even the Taixu Mirror Heaven, where the Nine Great Outer Mansions were located, was shaken, trembling as if it were about to be overturned.

’Holy shit, it’s for real?’

Greatly alarmed, in the same instant the roar exploded, Qi Yun frantically commanded with his mind.

The massive amount of Abyssal Iron Sand lying in wait around the courtyard instantly surged forward like a black tide.

Layer upon layer, it enveloped him completely in the blink of an eye.

It formed a thick, heavy, pitch-black cocoon that shimmered with a dark metallic luster, sealing him inside impenetrably!

At the same time, three white bone skulls flew up from his waist, hovering above the cocoon.

Ghastly green Soul Fire danced wildly within their empty eye sockets, emitting an eerie ripple of power.

The ability, [Death Replacement], was poised and ready.

This was his greatest trump card for dealing with a catastrophe.

However, Qi Yun held his breath, fully prepared, and waited nervously for a long, long time.

But the terrifying attack he anticipated never came.

Besides the initial, terrifying boom that nearly shattered his Divine Soul and the violent tremor, there seemed to be... no follow-up?

The next moment.

A razor-thin slit silently opened on the front of the pitch-black cocoon.

A pair of wary, curious, and scrutinizing eyes peered cautiously through the slit to survey the situation outside.

One look, and Qi Yun’s gaze froze.

With a CLATTER, the heavy Iron Sand wrapped tightly around him rapidly receded, falling away and merging back into the ground.

In the distant sky was not the Thunder Tribulation or an enemy he had expected, but...

’Is that... a peach tree?’

...