Looking at the righteously confident Su Fu, Zhou Yu could only shake his head helplessly.
What else could he do?
Of course, he chose to give it.
After all, she was the one he’d personally invited.
“You really know how to fleece people.” Zhou Yu sighed, tapped a few times on his light-brain and said, “I’ve given you the permissions, but remember, this time it’s an inspection mission, don’t go overboard.”
Su Fu blinked innocently, “What are you saying, I’m absolutely a good member diligently fulfilling my inspection duties.”
Zhou Yu: “……”
‘I believe your nonsense.’
Su Fu headed straight for the Shen Yan space.
The notification sounded: [“Welcome, Lingshan Society member Su Fu.”]
[“Detected: you have been granted Society President-level inspection permissions.”]
[“Permission confirmed…………… Access to the Ling Mountain Series maps permitted.”]
[“This mission’s objective: conduct a routine map inspection.”]
[“Please remember the following task reminders:”]
[“1. Do not break the rules to clear maps.”]
[“2. Do not disturb others’ normal assessments.”]
[“3. If you discover anomalies during inspection, handle them according to regulations.”]
[……]
Su Fu quickly interrupted, “Alright, I know, it’s not my first time, just start already.”
[“Connecting to Ling Mountain map………………”]
[“Connection successful”]
[“This inspection session: three hours”]
[“Countdown: 02:59:59”]
The scene before her gradually warped and shifted, a fresh, mountain-forest scent rushing over.
The sky was clear and blue, clouds wreathed in mist.
Beneath her feet were strange peaks and bizarre rocks; in the distance, pine and cypress stood verdant as the mountain breeze drifted by.
Lingshan Society’s initial landing spot: Huaguo Mountain.
The calls of monkeys rang in her ears; a few young monkeys were swinging on the nearby trees, glancing at her curiously, then quickly hiding away.
“The weather’s not bad at all.” Su Fu took a deep breath of air.
“Today’s target: Wanshou Mountain’s Wuzhuang Temple.”
She planned to grab a few Ginseng Fruits to take back.
This divine fruit that could prolong life was always in hot demand in the Shen Yan Marketplace.
The Peaches of Immortality she’d snatched last time had already sold out, and she’d blown up the Jade Pool Map beyond recognition, so this time, her sights were set on Ginseng Fruits.
She summoned Firefire and set off toward Wanshou Mountain, activating her divine skill, Hundred Birds’ Eyes, spreading her vision outward.
She called it an inspection, and it really was—there was work to be done.
If she spotted any serious anomalies, she’d have to deal with them in a timely manner, or else there was no way Zhou the taskmaster would have granted her permissions so readily.
In short, she’d come to fully realize that low-tier anomaly maps were, at their core, resources.
From above, she overlooked a stretch of continuous mountains, streams winding like ribbons.
Luck was on her side today.
As her craft sped along, everything was as usual, with barely any issues cropping up.
With no real work to do, those three hours would be more than enough.
Before long, the towering Wanshou Mountain came into view.
Su Fu lowered her flight altitude, finally landing at the foot of the mountain, then turned into a flying insect and darted upward.
Wuzhuang Temple was not hard to find.
She swaggered right in, slipped through the corridors, circled the rockeries, dodged the two Daoist acolytes, and finally arrived at the rear courtyard.
In the center of the courtyard stood a tall Ginseng Fruit tree, lush and flourishing, with many fruits hanging from its branches, their shapes almost human.
The Shen Yan notification appeared in sync with her expectations:
[“Divine Object: Ginseng Fruit”]
[“Effect: prolongs life, enhances constitution”]
[“Grade: B-class”]
“Just as expected.” Su Fu’s eyes lit up.
Any divine object connected to extending lifespan fetched a hefty price—she’d come to the right place.
She addressed Shen Yan, “Same as always, seventy-thirty split?”
Shen Yan replied with restraint, [“Agreed.”]
Then, with admirable cooperation, it marked the positions of all ripe fruits in her field of view, even thoughtfully using different colors to distinguish their ages.
Su Fu rubbed her hands together in satisfaction, “Let’s get to work!”
With her prior experience picking Peaches of Immortality, this was a breeze.
In less than three minutes, all the ripe Ginseng Fruits were in her bag.
“Struck it rich! This batch of Ginseng Fruits, if I use them right and find the right buyers, their value will definitely double…”
Normally, after gathering her loot, Su Fu would prepare to leave but today, she stared thoughtfully at the Ginseng Fruit tree.
A bold idea formed in her mind: ‘Why not… just take the tree as well?’
This was a tree that laid golden eggs—leaving it behind would be such a waste.
Moreover, she remembered that in Journey to the West, after the Great Sage knocked down this Ginseng Fruit tree, Guanyin Bodhisattva later revived it with a few drops from her Pure Vase.
What did that mean?
It meant the nectar could sustain the tree, and since she had nectar, she could totally plant it on Kunlun Mountain.
She pondered—this could work!
Good things should be brought home.
But as Shen Yan watched Su Fu huffing and puffing as she dug up the tree, it was stunned: [“You……………… you’re stealing the tree?”]
[“Really? You’re taking everything—eating and carrying it all away?”]
“This isn’t stealing,” Su Fu argued righteously, “I’m removing a potential threat discovered during inspection. This is a big problem.”
“As an inspector, I have a duty, a responsibility, to nip threats in the bud!”
Shen Yan: [“?”]
[“Say that again? You say the Ginseng Fruit tree is a major problem? I think you’re the real problem.”]
Su Fu patiently persuaded, “Think about it—if I remove the tree, those anomalies looking to eat the fruit to gain power, won’t they have nothing to eat?”
“No fruit, no strengthening—so no trouble, right?”
“This is called preventative action—get it?”
Shen Yan: [“…..”]
Isn’t this just sophistry?
Su Fu looked utterly sincere, “Shen Yan, trust me, we’ve worked together for so long.”
“Just record that I eliminated a major hidden danger today. Otherwise, if something happens, you’ll regret it, won’t you?”
She lamented, “But there’s no medicine for regret in this world.”
“Let me tell you, your whole way of working is off. And you call yourself a Heaven’s Calculation Simulator? The core of divination is what? Prevention, right?”
Shen Yan was silent for a long moment, then gave in: [“Fine… take it.”]
“That’s more like it!” Su Fu was satisfied.
It turned out that maintaining good relations with Shen Yan was truly worthwhile—they really could negotiate, not to mention she always left thirty percent for it.
Su Fu pulled up the Ginseng Fruit tree, roots and all, then set up an illusion on the spot.
Once everything was done, she transformed back into a flying insect and soared away with her spoils.
Back aboard the craft, Su Fu mused that with more than half her three hours left, she might as well take a stroll—ahem, that is, “inspect” the map.
It was the perfect chance to scout out her next destination and make plans in advance.
Firefire carried her leisurely above the Ling Mountain map, the weather fine, passing now and then through a patch of white clouds.
From this altitude, the full beauty of the Journey to the West map spread out below: sunlight filtering through wispy clouds, casting dappled shadows across the mountains.
Verdant hills, clear rivers, ancient temples, and flocks of birds gliding across the sky.
So relaxing.
Honestly, there was little danger in this low-A-ranked map.
Amid the engine’s hum, Su Fu instead felt a sense of calm, mind at ease.
Her thoughts wandered—last time, after dealing with the Bull Demon King, the bounty payers had given her fifty million contribution points, which, in some ways, was the same value as a Central Inspector’s head.
With two such huge payments in her account, she’d reached a nice little goal.
Su Fu felt that, without S-class anomalies, where could she find such lucrative work?
Naturally, she wanted to score another big one, but unfortunately, high-level maps were outside her inspection jurisdiction.
If she wanted to take on bounties, she’d need at least A3-class or above high-level maps.
Su Fu thought, ‘Once I become Society President, I’ll definitely apply for more high-tier map resources from the Academy.’
The sunlight was a bit warm on her body.
She opened the cabin window and stretched out her hand, letting the cool wind blow through, hair streaming.
Thinking of the Central Star System, Su Fu naturally recalled the transfer student.
“No one has discovered who the transfer student is till now—are they hiding a bit too well?!”
Honestly, if the transfer student was ostentatious, swaggering about like a typical scion, she wouldn’t be so concerned.
But clearly, that wasn’t the case—if someone could remain undetected despite so many people searching on the Path to Heaven, that was no simple matter.
At the very least, it showed this person was shrewd, always thinking things through, not someone reckless.
More importantly, since they weren’t foolish, it couldn’t be that they were transferred from the Central Star System because of some mistake—so all those theories about expulsion didn’t add up.
That made the issue much trickier.
Either forced down, or came of their own volition.
So—what was their goal?
Actually, she’d quietly asked her master if there were any inside tips.
But at the mention of the Central Star System, her master’s face immediately darkened—his whole demeanor screamed “refuse.”
“Wait a second!” Su Fu suddenly sat up, “Right, why didn’t Master go to the Central Star System?”
Given her master’s ability to crush Karisto, there was no way that loser could get in while her master couldn’t.
“Was it that he didn’t apply…………… or…………?”
And what about that “one year” her master asked her to pass on—what exactly did it mean?
She felt like something was shifting subtly; her master’s one-year countdown, Shen Yan’s version update, and now, the transfer student suddenly arriving from the Central Star System.
Not only that, but Jiang Jiang and Xiao Lin had told her recently that Four Rings had seen a surge of anomalies, several disasters erupting already.
Her pupils lost focus, only the sound of the wind rushing in her ears.
Distant mountains snaked like dragons, shrouded in clouds and mist, their true forms unclear.
She had the feeling that something had reached a critical juncture, yet she knew nothing of it.
Su Fu decided—no, she couldn’t keep waiting passively.
Instead of sitting around waiting for doom, it was better to take the initiative.
If she didn’t know what was coming, how could she stay undefeated amid the brewing storm?
She needed to think of something.
Though Merlin had tricked her last time, she had to admit that the Prophet’s powers were really useful.
If she could predict, see changes in the future in advance, she could pave the way, even set up plans ahead of time.
And both the Mayan Pantheon and Greek Pantheon had gods specializing in prophecy, not to mention that Shen Yan itself was a colossal fate-divination engine.
Why did everyone else have it, but not her?
Su Fu figured she should get herself a prophecy divine skill—or artifact.
In truth, Chinese civilization excelled at fate divination.
For instance, Fuxi, closely linked to Nuwa, created the original Bagua, using the combination of yin and yang lines to deduce the transformations of all things.
It could mirror everything in reality and thereby divine the trends of fate and law.
It was like a supercomputer: input the state, and it could calculate all possible futures.
Then there were his treasures, Hetu and Luoshu, said to be able to compute the will of heaven.
Hetu was a black-and-white diagram, representing yin, yang, five elements, and four symbols, revealing the order of creation.
Luoshu, with its nine-grid arrangement, contained the numerical and philosophical principles of heaven and earth.
Combined, they could predict the trajectory of any event.
When it came to fate divination, Fuxi was the pinnacle.
After him, Zhou Wenwang expanded the Bagua to the sixty-four hexagrams, creating the Zhouyi System, which became the foundation of all Chinese prediction and calculation studies.
The most famous saying from it: “Dayan Number is fifty, but use forty-nine.”
It means that the number of heaven and earth is fifty, but the divination uses only forty-nine.
That missing one is “the Hidden One”—even if the calculations are complete, there’s still a sliver of fate that can’t be known, a variable beyond human reach.
That was the key difference from previous theories—it acknowledged the uncertainty of fate, that even the most accurate prediction could be overturned by a single unforeseen twist.
Or from another angle, it always left fate a last sliver of hope.
Then there was Jiang Ziya, who could calculate destiny, foretell rise and fall, and created the Investiture of the Gods.
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