Daomu Biji: Restart

Interpreting divinatory diagrams was a very abstract concept since they wouldn’t directly give you a readable answer like search engines would. As a result, there were many possible interpretations for the results you’d end up getting.

But because the abstract interpretation here was related to the things we had experienced before, it may seem abstract to Xia Wen but very specific to Xiao Hua.

The divinatory diagram’s meaning was very clear: something came out of the door, but this thing was neither dead nor alive. Something extremely bad was going to happen.

I didn’t think it was necessary to guess too much about what kind of door this divinatory diagram was talking about; I’d bet my life it was the bronze door. Legend had it that King Wannu came out of the bronze door, but we had already killed one Wannu so I figured it wouldn't be that big of a deal if another monster had come out.

In fact, there could have been another interpretation of what this “thing” the divinatory diagram was referring to was. Divination didn’t only focus on real things, so it was possible for anything to show up while you were doing your calculations. This even included things like pieces of information or secrets, which were all things that could be classified as neither living nor dead.

I asked Xiao Hua for more details about this point.

The so-called Qimen Dunjia that Xia Wen used wasn’t the traditional divination method. I only realized now that the Qimen Dunjia they had been talking about was actually a special divination method of the Qi family called the Qimen Eight Calculations Method.

Qi Tiezui had been living in seclusion in the mountains after experiencing all those events at that time. When he was feeling down, he decided to calculate the future, but what he saw must have been terrible. Reeling with the shock of it, he broke the rules set by his ancestors and passed on all of his crafts to a child who wasn’t related to him by blood.

It was impossible to determine what exactly he saw, but on that day, Qi Tiezui had already seen the whole thing clearly.

Although Er Yuehong didn’t have any divination skills, he had also foreseen a certain possibility. Those two people, together with the Xie family, came up with a plan, a large part of which was said to have been determined using the Qimen Eight Calculations Method.

This plan accurately pointed out that the world’s second most valuable tomb was the key. Xiao Hua believed that the "thing" that came out of the bronze door was probably a monster, a piece of information, or a secret, any of which would be found in the world’s second most valuable tomb. Otherwise, the plan those three came up with at that time wouldn’t point to this tomb.

There was also a very precise rule stipulated in the plan at that time: when implementing the plan, all three families—the Qi, Hong, and Xie families—had to be present. Such a strange rule was probably also set by the divinatory diagram.

Xiao Hua put Xia Wen under house arrest and brought Qi Yu with him on this adventure, but he didn't know if he counted as a Hong family member. The relationship between the Hong and Xie families was actually very strange. The Hong family’s elders still had a good relationship with Xiao Hua, and they could even be seen as equals if we wanted to get specific—after all, Xiao Hua was Er Ye’s last disciple—but there was almost no communication with the younger generation.

It was said that the Hong family member in our generation was a girl, but no other information could be found. Xiao Hua passed the news on to the Hong family, but they didn't respond so he figured that they no longer cared about these kinds of things.

Now that I finally understood the whole story, there was only one question lingering in my mind. Jin Wantang had shown me a gesture before he died. I didn’t know whether he had been a member of Shigou Diao, whether he had been bewitched by Xia Wen, or whether this gesture was to make his communication with me seem more meaningful.

Whatever the case, I didn’t want to delve into these details now; Xiao Hua's purpose was very clear. Back in those days, Ba Ye’s divination was considered nothing more than feudal superstition and Er Ye’s worries were regarded as an event with a very small probability of happening. But all of these things seemed to have come true, so now I was really curious as to what the Qimen Eight Calculations Method came up with back then. Was it completely accurate or was it just a mere coincidence or even a hoax?

Black Glasses started having problems after they came in to this place, but I told Xiao Hua to give me the details later. Right now, I wanted to discuss with him what to do next.

"Let me tell you what’s going on with this cliff first," Xiao Hua said.

****

Oh sweet baby Jesus. At last! Something finally makes sense! If I've calculated it right, we've got about 31 chapters to go til we're caught up (unless the author comes back from his break and starts whipping out chapters again)