Chapter 27. Final Preparations
Fulan arrived at the entrance of the Night Sky Book Club, a place she had not visited again since her first time there.
She pushed the door open and immediately saw Laiyi sitting at the front desk. Fulan walked over slowly and greeted her.
“Hey, Laiyi.”
Laiyi had noticed her long ago and looked somewhat puzzled about why she had come here.
“Fulan, hello… Why are you here?”
Fulan smiled.
“I am a member of the Night Sky Book Club. What is wrong with coming to the club?”
Laiyi’s mouth twitched slightly as she replied helplessly,
“All right. Just tell me directly—are you here to find someone or to withdraw from the club?”
In Laiyi’s view, those were the only two possible reasons for Fulan to come here.
“I am here to exchange for some spells.”
“…?”
Laiyi’s face filled with confusion. She did not quite understand what Fulan meant.
“Wait, you are someone from the Sword Chant School. Why would you come here to exchange for spells?”
“When did I become someone from the Sword Chant School? Who said that?”
Laiyi’s expression grew even more puzzled as she slowly explained,
“Your story has already spread everywhere. They are saying that a first-year apprentice named Fulan defeated John in the Swordsmanship Class—a man who has been teaching the class for six years.”
“People outside are now saying that you are preparing to cut in line and participate in this year’s apprentice examination…”
“Uh… that is all nonsense. Did Bella not tell you?”
“Has Bella not already joined the Sword Chant School? She has been extremely busy these past few days. No one can find her at all. I assumed you were the same.”
Fulan had no choice but to clarify,
“I did not take John’s recommendation slot. I want to look at other schools first and see what their spells are like, so I came here to check out the spells.”
“Oh!”
Laiyi’s interest was immediately piqued, her eyes lighting up.
“Are you planning to join the Astrology School? That is perfect. I have had some new inspiration recently. When the time comes, we can join together.”
“No. I just want to look at the spells first. Show me the spells that can be exchanged.”
Only then did Laiyi hand the list of spells to Fulan.
Fulan glanced at the paper. There were only three spells listed.
The first was called Star Orb. It was quite unusual. Depending on the current astral alignment, the spell would summon one out of dozens of variations.
If the alignment matched correctly, the damage would be high. If it did not match, it might deal no damage at all.
The second spell was called Adjustment Method. If someone who frequently observed the stars suddenly lost the ability to sense them, this spell could recalibrate their perception and allow them to feel the astral alignment again.
Neither of these seemed useful to Fulan.
She felt that her sensitivity to astral alignment was already at its maximum. Although that moment of foreseeing the future had never happened again, whenever she used divination calculations, she did not even need to perform the calculations—the answer would appear directly.
Then she looked at the third spell.
The moment she saw it, she could no longer contain herself and immediately pointed to it.
“I want this one!”
Laiyi glanced at it and smiled.
“Are you sure about that? Most people here curse that spell after exchanging for it.”
Fulan looked puzzled.
“Divination? What is wrong with it? Does it not say that it can foretell upcoming events?”
“It does foretell events. That description is not wrong. The problem is that its predictions are… somewhat abstract.”
“According to Sister Haya, the spell actually requires you to imagine how the upcoming event will occur. The more specific and accurate your imagination is, the more the spell will automatically extend and develop from that imagined scenario.”
“But if your imagination is incorrect, the spell will simply fail. No matter how hard you try, it will not work.”
Fulan understood part of the explanation but still felt confused.
“Explain it again. I do not quite understand.”
“Let me give you an example.”
“Suppose you notice that every time I enter a doorway, I step in with my left foot. You decide to use Divination to predict what will happen next.”
“After casting the spell, you see a scene where I fall down. Later, when I enter the doorway, I actually do fall. Naturally, you would feel pleased and want to keep using the spell.”
“However, the spell will not succeed every time. Sometimes someone walks through the doorway together with me, or we pass each other in opposite directions. These variables can cause the spell to fail.”
“But then one time I fall again, and there are no outside disturbances—yet you still fail to predict it.”
“That is probably because you did not imagine whether my left foot stepped on the threshold or crossed over it. You also might not have imagined the correct distance between where my foot landed and the threshold.”
“Do you understand now? In theory, as long as you know what is about to happen, Divination can continue extrapolating what will happen next.”
“In reality, we can usually only see a short moment into the future. Predicting events far ahead like true prophecy is impossible, because it is extremely difficult to imagine events that far into the future.”
Fulan gradually understood.
She raised her hand, took out a gold coin, and handed it to Laiyi.
“I will buy it. Give me the change for this coin.”
Laiyi swallowed nervously.
For an apprentice like her, a single large gold coin was an enormous sum. She almost wished the coin belonged to her.
At that moment, the president of the Night Sky Book Club, Haya, walked downstairs.
She glanced at the silver sheet of the Divination spell that Laiyi had taken out from beneath the desk and immediately understood what had happened.
“You want to buy Divination?”
Fulan nodded.
“This is actually a prerequisite for Prophecy. If you can truly master it, you could join the Astrology School.”
“I will consider it. I am still deciding which school to join.”
***
Fulan returned to her dormitory.
She imagined the future scene she had once seen, gazed out at the night sky beyond the window, and soon a vision appeared before her eyes.
It showed the events after she killed Richter.
She buried the bodies at the scene and even carried a shovel with her.
After burying them all, she left with a relaxed and cheerful expression, showing no trace of anxiety or fear.
Just bury them and leave? That casually?
The vision had not ended yet.
It continued until the scene followed Fulan’s perspective to the entrance of a building within Cuilan Academy.
Now she knew exactly where she would ultimately kill Richter.
Then everything suddenly went dark, and she returned to reality.
A wave of fatigue swept over her, and her head throbbed with intense pain.
It seemed that predicting events too far into the future had side effects, Fulan thought as she held her head.
But why was it enough to simply bury the bodies there?
The future version of herself looked extremely relaxed, as though she already knew that nothing would go wrong afterward.
Did she join a school and receive protection?
Fulan shook her head.
She did not really want to join a school right now. Although every school had its own spells, joining one would limit her to those spells alone.
With her game-like panel, she would not be able to fully utilize her potential.
Returning to her earlier thoughts—
Why had she simply buried the bodies and left?
A bold guess suddenly appeared in her mind.
Could it be that she had already foreseen the future where she calmly buried the bodies? Even though she did not know the reason, she simply followed that future vision and carried it out, which was why she looked so pleased…
No.
Perhaps there was something special about that patch of land.
She did not think she was the kind of person who would act so blindly.