8: Once the compass turns, my destiny is in my own hands?

The night was as black as ink, and the hour of Zi had arrived.

In the cold woodshed, only a single candle flame flickered precariously in the breeze, distorting Xuanyi's shadow on the wall.

Before him, on the tattered cloth stall that had accompanied him for many years, three ancient copper coins were arranged in a subtle triangular formation.

These were no ordinary objects, but the array eyes he relied on for survival—"Xuan," "Guan," and "Xin."

When the last "Xin" character coin settled, the entire cloth stall seemed to come alive; the patterns on it suddenly lit up, micro-light circulated, and an invisible aura instantly enveloped the entire woodshed.

"Buzz—!"

In Xuanyi's mind, the system interface vibrated violently.

Immediately after, a giant phantom of a bronze compass appeared out of thin air above the three copper coins.

The compass was ancient and weathered, with the eight trigram directions of Qian, Kan, Gen, Zhen, Xun, Li, Kun, and Dui clearly visible on its face, but the slender needle in the center slowly rotated counter-clockwise in a manner that defied logic.

As the needle turned, lines of cold, ancient inscriptions appeared and lit up on the edge of the compass, finally converging into a single line of text:

【reverse fate altering compass (damaged) — Can adjust three days of fortune; blessings and misfortunes are intertwined, use with caution.】

Blessings and misfortunes are intertwined... Xuanyi's brows furrowed; these four words carried an ominous meaning.

Just as he was about to concentrate and carefully study the mysteries of the compass, the broken door of the woodshed was violently slammed open from the outside with a "bang"!

A stumbling figure rolled in; it was Crippled Chen, the man who had asked for a talisman for his daughter earlier in the day.

At this moment, his face no longer held any of its usual worldly smoothness, replaced instead by a deep-seated terror.

He trembled all over, his lips pale, and he practically crawled to Xuanyi on all fours, his voice choked with sobs: "Daoist priest! Help me, Daoist priest! My daughter... my daughter, she's awake!"

Xuanyi's heart sank, and he asked in a low voice, "It's a good thing she's awake, why are you panicking?"

"She... she said..." Crippled Chen's eyes widened in terror, every word seemingly squeezed from between his teeth, "She said she saw it! She saw that in three days, I... I will die!"

Xuanyi's mind felt as if struck by lightning.

Fate backlash!

This was absolutely a sign of fate backlash!

Someone was using an extremely sinister evil art to forcibly alter the fates of the father and daughter, and the girl, as a close relative with a linked destiny, had, under the influence of the spell, unexpectedly glimpsed a twisted future!

"Don't move!"

Xuanyi exclaimed, his fingertip picking up a faintly glowing mung bean, his unique "heavenly eye mung beans."

He pressed the mung bean to his glabella, silently recited an incantation, and the world before his eyes instantly changed.

Time seemed to slow infinitely, and countless invisible air currents flowed through the air.

And on Crippled Chen's body, a fate line that should have been light red was now tightly entangled by a hideous black talisman!

Above the black talisman, death qi steamed, like a venomous snake, constantly tightening, eroding the luster of the fate line itself.

What shocked Xuanyi even more was that an almost imperceptible black line extended from the black talisman, piercing through the wall, through the night, directly pointing to a certain gloomy mansion outside the mountain!

His gaze fell on Crippled Chen again, then seemed to pierce through him, seeing his daughter at home.

Sure enough, at the girl's forehead between her brows, a faint golden talisman pattern flickered in and out of view.

It was "photocopy yellow paper"!

Xuanyi understood instantly.

The talisman qi from the yellow paper he had given earlier, while resisting the evil art, had a trace of feedback to the girl's body; this pure Yang talisman qi clashed with the Yin evil force of the evil art, unexpectedly allowing her to briefly open the legendary "fate eye"!

No wonder she could see the future!

Xuanyi withdrew his gaze, and the mung bean on his forehead turned to dust. His heart was in turmoil.

The situation was already crystal clear.

If he did nothing, that black talisman would completely crush Crippled Chen's fate line within three days, at which point he would surely die a violent death, with no chance of escape!

But if he intervened... he would have to use this newly appeared "reverse fate altering compass."

Blessings and misfortunes are intertwined; these four words hung like a sword over his head. No one knew what terrible chain reaction would be triggered once the compass was turned.

To save, or not to save?

Just as he was in this internal struggle, the cold system prompt sounded again:

【Ding! Special customer request detected!】

【Mission target: Crippled Chen (Resolve his fated calamity, correct his altered fate line)】

【Mission reward: 100 spirit coins, unlock new item 'Pseudo-Three Caverns True Qi Liquid (trial)' x 1】

Seeing the reward, Xuanyi's pupils contracted.

spirit coins were hard currency, but this "Pseudo-Three Caverns True Qi Liquid"... Legend had it that the Three Caverns True Qi was the supreme spiritual liquid for refining the physical body in orthodox Daoism. Even a "pseudo" trial version would be an invaluable treasure, difficult to obtain even for a thousand gold!

The temptation was immense, but the risks were equally unknown.

Crippled Chen watched Xuanyi's changing expression, thinking that the Daoist priest was also helpless. His face instantly turned ashen, and he slumped to the ground, muttering, "It's over... it's all over... retribution..."

Looking at his despairing appearance, Xuanyi's tightly clenched fist slowly relaxed.

He remembered his original intention for inheriting these abilities, and his master's teachings.

He suddenly gritted his teeth,

"Damn it! If I don't save people, what the hell kind of Daoist priest am I?!"

Before his words finished, with a thought, the phantom of the bronze compass hovering in mid-air suddenly burst into brilliant light!

"In my name, I command the compass! Lock on — Crippled Chen!"

His thought was like an invisible giant hand, firmly locking onto the fate line on Crippled Chen's body, which was entangled by the black talisman.

"Reverse the universe, set things right!"

"Turn!"

Xuanyi roared, his mind urging the counter-rotating needle in the center of the compass to suddenly accelerate and turn one notch!

In an instant, an indescribable profound power swept out from the compass, crossing the barrier of space, precisely striking the black talisman!

"Crack!"

A crisp sound, as if of shattering glass, echoed in the ethereal realm.

The black talisman wrapped around Crippled Chen's fate line shattered in response, turning into wisps of black smoke and dissipating into nothingness.

The originally dim fate line instantly re-emitted a healthy red glow, even more resilient than before.

Crippled Chen felt his whole body lighten; the shadow of death that had weighed on his heart instantly vanished, and he felt much more relaxed.

He looked up in surprise: "Daoist priest, I..."

"Boom—!!!"

A deafening roar suddenly came from down the mountain, interrupting his words.

The entire woodshed shook, and dust sifted down from the roof.

Immediately after, a dazzling blaze lit up outside the window, painting half the night sky orange-red!

"This is bad!" Su Qingzhu's delicate figure rushed in, her pretty face pale, pointing towards the direction of the mountain, her voice trembling, "Zhang Xuanyi! What... what did you do to him? Crippled Chen's ancestral home... was struck by lightning! Flames are reaching the sky! The neighbors all say that lightning... that lightning seemed to have eyes, striking only his house!"

What?!

Xuanyi's heart was greatly shaken, and he rushed to the window in one stride.

He saw that in the direction of the Chen family's ancestral home, raging fires shot into the sky, and amidst the churning flames and thick smoke, a giant phantom made of lightning flashed and disappeared—it was a counter-rotating Bagua symbol!

It was Li Wujiu!

Xuanyi's mind went "buzz" and instantly blank.

Blessings and misfortunes are intertwined... Blessings and misfortunes are intertwined!

He suddenly realized!

I used the compass to reverse his death calamity, this is "blessing."

But this disaster did not disappear; it was transferred!

I blocked the calamity for him, and the calamity fell upon his ancestral home!

Li Wujiu's sorcery was meant to destroy his family and home!

"I have to go!" Xuanyi turned to rush out to save people.

"Stop!"

A cold, iron-like shout caused the temperature in the woodshed to drop sharply.

Li Songyang, leading a team of enforcement disciples in green Daoist robes, blocked the doorway. His face was ashen, his eyes sharp as knives, staring fixedly at Xuanyi: "Zhang Xuanyi, how dare you use forbidden fate-altering techniques? Don't you know, 'those who defy heaven perish'?!"

Xuanyi looked at Li Songyang's rigid and righteous face, and at the enforcement disciples behind him who looked as if facing a formidable enemy, and the anger in his heart flared up instantly.

He laughed in extreme anger, his laughter filled with endless sarcasm: "Those who defy heaven perish? What a 'those who defy heaven perish'!"

He suddenly pointed at the sea of fire down the mountain, and questioned in a stern voice: "I altered fate to save people, and you come to block me, saying I defy heaven! But Li Wujiu set up an altar and drew talismans in Qing Tian Guan, drawing lightning to kill people, why don't you do anything about that?!"

"Li Songyang, I ask you! Are you upholding the laws and justice of this world, or the peace and stability of those powerful and wealthy?!"

This question, like a clap of thunder, exploded in everyone's ears.

Li Songyang's pupils suddenly contracted, his lips moved, but he couldn't utter a single word.

He subconsciously waved his hand, stopping the restless disciples behind him.

Just at this tense moment, a small figure, like a ghost, silently appeared behind Xuanyi.

It was the mute Daoist boy who had always followed Li Songyang.

He quickly stuffed a tattered handbook, even missing half its cover, into Xuanyi's hand, then swiftly retreated behind Li Songyang, as if nothing had happened.

Xuanyi looked down and saw several large characters written in ancient cinnabar on the cover of the handbook—"Myriad Laws for the People · Incomplete Scroll."

His heart skipped a beat, and by some strange impulse, he opened the handbook.

The handwriting on the inner pages was already blurred, but the first line of text was crystal clear, as if containing some strange power, deeply imprinted into his mind:

"Altering fate is not defying heaven, but taking responsibility. Blessings and misfortunes intertwined are not heavenly retribution, but the sharing of fate."

Sharing... Xuanyi clutched the incomplete scroll in his hand, as if holding a ray of light.

He suddenly saw clearly; the last trace of confusion and fear in his heart was completely dispelled by these dozen or so words.

So that's how it is, not retribution, but sharing.

He looked up, once again facing Li Songyang's fluctuating expression, his eyes now incredibly firm.

"Senior Brother, you are right, perhaps this is defying heaven."

"But if the Heavenly Dao is unjust, and it is my destiny to bear it, then I, Zhang Xuanyi, will bear it alone!"

As his words fell, he ignored everyone, turned and transformed into an afterimage, directly smashing through the window, and rushed into the deep night without hesitation!

The tattered cloth stall behind him automatically rolled up and followed, while the phantom of the bronze compass floated steadily before his chest, emitting a faint green light.

Just as he rushed out of the woodshed, the system prompt sounded again:

【Ding! First completion of 'Fate Alteration' mission, mission reward has been issued!】

【Obtained: Pseudo-Three Caverns True Qi Liquid (trial) x 1】

Xuanyi felt the cool small bottle that had appeared out of nowhere in his embrace, looked up at the night sky dyed red by the flames, and murmured to himself, his voice filled with resolute determination:

"This fate... I'm changing it."

The mountain wind from afar seemed to bring faint laughter, Li Wujiu's voice, wild and with a hint of approval:

"Good! This is getting interesting! This is more like a pioneer of my 'Myriad Laws for the People' lineage!"

The night wind howled, blowing over the lingering warmth of the ruins.

The darkness before dawn was the thickest; the Chen family's ancestral home had already turned into a pile of broken walls and rubble.

Charred wooden beams lay scattered and collapsed, the air filled with the pungent smell of burning and moisture, and a few wisps of smoke curled up from corners still smoldering, like the last sighs of that family.

Xuanyi stood quietly outside the ruins, covered in ashes and water stains from fighting the fire, looking somewhat disheveled, but his eyes shone astonishingly bright, like cold stars in the dark night.

In his tightly clenched right hand lay a small, crystal-clear jade bottle.

Inside the bottle, a drop of golden liquid slowly flowed, emitting a faint, strange fragrance and boundless vitality.

This was the "Pseudo-Three Caverns True Qi Liquid."

His gaze passed through the broken courtyard wall, falling on the girl in the center of the ruins, who, protected by her family, was unharmed but had fallen into a coma from excessive fright.

The night was deep, dawn had not yet arrived, and he would be the only lamp-bearer tonight.