Chapter 1323: Weal and woe

TN: Weal and woe are both old English, meaning “Fortune” and “Misfortune” respectively. Sometimes also translated as “fortune” and “ominous”.

———-

Staring at the Card UI, Gu Qing Shan quickly understood how to examine the abilities of living beings.

But what should I do next?

“In truth——- I think perhaps the Void Library doesn’t really understand evil creatures well enough”

Gu Qing Shan commented.

Yu Juan didn’t agree to this statement, so he refuted it right away: “Evil creatures are prone to lying and love to lure people towards depravity, so such races are certainly not the main topic of study for us——– but comparatively, no one understands evil creatures as well as we do at the Void Library, not even the Secret Insight Association”

“What’s the Secret Insight Association? That doesn’t sound like the name of an organization in Void City” Gu Qing Shan asked.

“Ah, it’s an infamous underground organization whose main goal is the study of autonomy and physical power, each of them an expert surgeon” Crow chimed in.

Gu Qing Shan replied: “That’s fine, regardless of how much the Void Library understands the secrets of evil creatures, I bet that you don’t know about this: we Fear Fiends would occasionally awaken abilities that others cannot grasp”

“What do you mean to say?” Yu Juan asked.

“I’m saying that——- we evil creatures also have certain examination techniques, but we very rarely use them”

Saying that, Gu Qing Shan placed his hand on Crow’s back and sincerely said:

“I need you to focus your mind. Try your best to visualize and think back to how you performed your precognitions the previous times”

Crow hesitantly asked: “Can this really work?”

Yu Juan also asked doubtfully: “Is this your personal ability, or a common ability for all Fear Fiends?”

“Let’s give it a try first and see” Gu Qing Shan replied.

Crow closed his eyes, then began to recall how he managed to correctly profess what would occur in the past.

Gu Qing Shan kept his hand on his back, occasionally glancing towards the Card UI.

A few moments later.

Lines of glowing text appeared on the Card UI:

[Extremely rare prophetic-type ability detected: Tombstone]

[Only those with extreme sensitivity to misfortune have a one in ten million chance to awaken this ability]

[Tombstone: Whenever you verbally predict a potential unfortunate future, it shall be supported by the Law of Fate, turning your predictive words into reality]

[Attention: To activate Tombstone, one must first sense the signs of oncoming misfortune]

[Attention: This is an extremely rare unique prophetic-type ability with intense exclusivity, capable of selecting one possible misfortune among countless others and force it to descend upon reality]

Gu Qing Shan read over it all a few times.

I really have to say… this ability… is the definition of a jinx.

Crow looked at Gu Qing Shan nervously and asked: “How is it? Did your evil creature race examination ability find something?”

Gu Qing Shan looked at him and stayed silent.

How do I say this, Crow is a good person, but he has quite a bit of trauma towards this ability…

If I really wanted to help Crow…

Gu Qing Shan glanced through the Card UI again.

Intense exclusivity…

Selecting one misfortune to descend upon reality…

For some reason, Gu Qing Shan recalled how Xie Dao Ling once taught him, Xiao Lou, and Xiu Xiu about Divination.

…

“Among the six arts, Divination is number one, because it is a technique specifically devised to measure and calculate weal and woe” Xie Dao Ling explained.

“Then, does that weal and woe confirms one’s future?” Xiu Xiu asked.

“That’s not it, Xiu Xiu. You must always keep this in mind: Weal and woe are both improbable, unless when summoned. It’s highly scholarly, so much that normal people wouldn’t even know where to begin grasping at it” Xiao Lou explained with a smug look.

“Xiao Lou is correct. Because sometimes, woe can be the beginning of weal, and weal could also hide woe. The so-called concept of ‘unless when summoned’ points to the fact that the most important thing whether your results are weal or woe is the action of the people. A person’s good or bad will, their virtues and karma, everything can decide the trend by which weal or woe turns out” Xie Dao Ling casually explained.

…

Gu Qing Shan retracted his thought, having decided on something.

He suddenly appeared excited and told Crow: “I’ve finally understood what your ability is”

“That’s great!”

“That’s impossible!”

Crow and Yu Juan respectively exclaimed.

Gu Qing Shan said: “Remember well, your ability is called ‘Weal in – woe out'[1]”

“”‘Weal in – woe out’!”” Crow and Yu Juan both exclaimed in unison again.

“That’s right, ‘Weal in – woe out’——- the activation condition is that you must sense the inevitable advent of some sort of misfortune” Gu Qing Shan continued.

“Go on” Crow held his rapier tightly, trying to maintain his calm.

“Normally, by the time people sense an inevitable advent of misfortune, it would have already been too late——– but you can then verbally predict a less severe misfortune, selecting it as truth, at which point all other misfortune will be excluded” Gu Qing Shan said.

“For example, if a fight between two individuals would end up in mutual death, and you recognize this outcome, you can predict that ‘both of them will be beaten black and blue by the other party'”

“From then on, the outcome will be that both of them are beaten black and blue, but not to the point where both of them are dead”

Crow slowly retracted his gaze, pondering what he had just heard.

Gu Qing Shan then added another flame: “Have you always been cautious of there being casualties during missions, so you always avoid talking about ‘death’?”

Crow nodded.

Gu Qing Shan continued: “That’s why, for the past few years, no matter what kind of situation you’ve run into, you’ve always managed to complete them well?”

Crow thought for a bit, then nodded.

“That’s not true!” Yu Juan called out, “Since he didn’t know about this ability before, he should have always subconsciously said nothing but relatively dangerous situations”

Gu Qing Shan frowned a bit, then continued: “That’s a good thing, from now on, Crow will be able to help us reduce the danger of any situation to a minimum”

Crack!

Crack!

The sound of something shattering could be heard.

All three of them turned back.

Only to see numerous runes cracking away on the wall.

An intense storm seemed to be raging outside, this wind contained terrifying power that not even the tower which had been isolated from the world managed to hold off!

“This is the misfortune that he predicted before, the entire tower is going to collapse!” Yu Juan exclaimed in despair.

“No problem, I’ll fix it”

Gu Qing Shan walked up to a corner of the tower and took out a set of repair tools.

——to counteract abrupt dangers, the tools used for emergency repairs of the tower were always kept inside.

Gu Qing Shan took out a set of rune carving pens, flew up, and hovered next to the wall.

He was quickly repairing the runes according to the knowledge he learnt before.

“You know how to do this as well?” Crow was surprised.

“It’s what I learnt for a few days, think of it as some minor tricks”

Gu Qing Shan landed, put the tools down at his foot, and curtly replied.

Crow abruptly realized something and began speaking: “The teleport tower is a highly intricate structure, so even the minor issue just now would have caused some chaotic fluctuations, leading to——–”

At this point, he realized something.

The ability.

My ability is activating again!

“Remember well, your ability is called ‘Weal in – woe out'”

Everything Gu Qing Shan said earlier quickly flashed through his mind.

In an instant, Crow twisted his words and continued: “–the weakest plague monsters to arrive and scout the situation”

The prediction was made.

Gu Qing Shan and Yu Juan both looked at him.

“Did you just activate your ability again?” Yu Juan asked.

“That’s right, this feeling is exactly like before… but at the very last moment, I changed ‘the strongest plague monsters’ into ‘the weakest plague monsters'” Crow admitted.

The three of them stayed silent.

“Let’s wait, we’ll see soon enough” Gu Qing Shan whispered

He looked at the Card UI again, staring at the very last line of text:

[Attention: This is an extremely rare unique prophetic-type ability with intense exclusivity, capable of selecting one possible misfortune among countless others and force it to descend upon reality]

——intense exclusivity.

Let’s hope that means what I think it means…

Time slowly passed.

The storm outside slowly subsided, ultimately calming down.

A series of small noises then resounded.

Clak! Clak! Clak! Clak! Clak!

Someone was slowly approaching the tower.

Gu Qing Shan released his inner sight to check.

There were a few Man Eater Fiends with tattered bodies.

They were indeed the weakest monsters within the Plague Apocalypse.

Success!

Gu Qing Shan turned to Crow and grinned: “I can see them; they are indeed the weakest Apocalypse monsters”

Crow could sense it.

And so could Yu Juan.

“How unbelievable… it can decide the severity of an unfortunate event…” Yu Juan muttered.

Crow drew this rapier and lightly flicked it towards the wall of the tower.

The footsteps outside disappeared.

Flames abruptly manifested, burning the few Man Eater Fiends to ashes.

“‘Weal in – woe out’?” Crow brandished his sword, then chuckled and sighed: “It turns out I’ve always possessed such a powerful Fate-type predictive ability… if it had been found out earlier, I wouldn’t have needed to feel so conscious of it”

He appeared completely spirited, like a shining sharp sword that had finally been unsheathed.

Gu Qing Shan raised his thumb, agreeing:

“That’s right, you’re the one in ten million Prophetic Crow”

[1] the original phrase in Chinese means “chase misfortune away, call luck in”