Chapter 1234: Ye Ruozai’s New Ability

Chapter 1234: Chapter 1234: Ye Ruozai’s New Ability

After conversing for a long time with everyone about the experiences during this period, the bustling hall returned to silence in the deep of night. Some went back to rest while those responsible for the night watch began to perform their duties. It was only then that Pei Yan, now free, had the opportunity to stretch his somewhat stiffened body. Taking a bowl of specially made Zhajiangmian from his sister’s hand, he walked out of the hall with the bowl in hand.

In the courtyard, under the moonlight, Ye Ruozai’s slender figure slowly appeared from behind the colonnade. Previously, Ye Ruozai was also among those conversing in the hall, but he left midway after listening to Pei Yan’s experiences. Pei Yan knew he had something to say privately and did not inquire further. Now, he took advantage of the solitude to meet with him.

Pei Yan gave Hu Jiu behind him a look, to which Hu Jiu immediately understood. Holding the bowl of meat noodles prepared by Pei Jin, he went to the stairs outside the corridor, chatting with the two tribe girls who were somewhat unaccustomed to this kind of food for the first time, while cautiously observing the surroundings.

"Stop looking! Stop listening! Eat more! If it’s not enough, go find second sister to give you some more!" Hati, holding chopsticks, pushed the noodles in Hu Jiu’s bowl, but his eyes secretly glanced towards Pei Yan, who was walking deeper into the corridor. Just as he was about to perk up his ears to listen in on the conversation using his innate advantage, Hu Jiu tugged his furry ears and warned him,

"Ow~! It hurts! It hurts! Okay, okay, I won’t listen anymore." Not showing any tender affection, Hu Jiu twisted Hati’s ears painfully, and Hati quickly pleaded for mercy, folding his ears and lowering his head in grievance while eating his noodles amidst Tushan Suisui’s laughter.

On the other hand, Pei Yan ignored this little drama here. After walking to Ye Ruozai’s side, he casually set up a Source Qi Silence Array. Then he sat on the corridor bench, crossed his legs, picked up a bunch of noodles with chopsticks, and asked indistinctly between hearty bites, "Come on, Old Ye! We’re all in the same boat here, like it’s an undercover rendezvous in a movie. Just say what you have to say."

"Our family might be in danger!"

"Cough! Cough! Cough!"

Ye Ruozai was indeed astonishing in his speech. If there was still anything that was a clear weakness for Pei Yan now, it was his family, who practically had no resistance ability. Hearing Ye Ruozai say this, Pei Yan was shocked. Amid a dry cough, he swallowed the noodles in his mouth clean. This time, he put away his nonchalant attitude, looked up at Ye Ruozai, and found the other looking pale, haggard yet serious—this was no joke.

Placing the bowl and chopsticks onto the bench, Pei Yan leaned over, stared at Ye Ruozai, and after a moment of thinking, lowered his voice, "Is it the hall?"

"Hehehe, you’re overthinking it! Not to mention the investment the hall has in you and your current importance to it, judging by the situation alone, we haven’t reached the point of burning the bridge after crossing or killing the mule after using it." Ye Ruozai sat beside Pei Yan and teased him about his tense demeanor.

"Then who is it?" If it wasn’t insiders wanting to hurt his family, then who was it? All the elite squad’s families were secretly protected, and their location was a hall secret—who could find them?

"Got a cigarette?" Ye Ruozai asked irrelevant to the question, leaning tiredly against the column and asking Pei Yan.

"When did you start smoking?" Pei Yan said this but still pulled out a pack of cigarettes, took one out, handed it to Ye Ruozai, and lit it for his old friend who never smoked before.

"Ahh!" Ye Ruozai inhaled the smoke and slowly exhaled a cloud of smoke, his fatigued state eased a bit before he began speaking, "You know I inherited divination powers from Elder Cen, right?"

"Mhm!" Pei Yan nodded; he was the first to be aware of this. Initially, he was the supposed heir to these powers, but ultimately Elder Cen changed his mind and passed them to Ye Ruozai, whom he thought was more suitable.

"Not until I accepted this power did I realize the pain Elder Cen typically endured. I possess six path sources and soul power augmentation, feeling like risking half my life each time I divine major events. I really don’t know how Elder Cen made it through so many years." Ye Ruozai flicked the cigarette ash, shaking his head and sighing.

Pei Yan at this moment guessed Ye Ruozai’s meaning and tentatively asked, "Did you predict our family would be in danger?"

Ye Ruozai nodded wearily upon hearing that, "After acquiring this ability, the first thing I naturally did was predict my younger brother’s future safety. I know doing this was somewhat selfish, but my parents have had some premonition about my brother’s situation. They are very uneasy! Pei Yan, you can understand why I did this, right?"

"Of course! If it were me, I’d do the same." Pei Yan replied without hesitation. He felt deeply for the investigation hall, but not to the extent of surpassing his feelings for his family. In choosing between his family’s safety and the hall’s interests, if unable to maintain both, Pei Yan could only choose the former. After expressing understanding for Ye Ruozai’s actions, he was curious about Ye Ruozai’s predictions and couldn’t help but ask keenly, "Did it succeed then? I mean, did we successfully rescue Jiumu?"

"I don’t know."

"Ah?" Ye Ruozai’s answer left Pei Yan startled and confused.

Seeing him like that, Ye Ruozai smiled bitterly, "Divination powers are not as straightforward as you think. It’s okay for general matters, but once it involves us abilities holders, the difficulty of divining results increases. The higher the strength of abilities holders involved, the greater the stakes, and the difficulty rises. I think you should know this, right?"

"Mhmm, my big sister talked about this. Go ahead and tell me the outcome."

"So the result of Jiumu’s safety was a rather ambiguous answer displayed before me. Yet from the hexagram, three parts are showing success, but seven parts are showing failure." As he spoke to this point, Ye Ruozai’s brow furrowed painfully. "Pei Yan, I am unwilling! That’s my brother! We did so much effort and preparation, yet the possibility of failure is seventy percent. I can’t accept this."

"Mhm! I understand! I understand!" Hearing the seventy percent failure probability, Pei Yan felt like being hit by a hammer. Though comforting Ye Ruozai verbally, his mind was equally disturbed. He didn’t understand where things went wrong after so much preparation. Is their group’s effort really going to flow down the drain?

"Then have you asked about when exactly we might fail? Is there any saving measure?" Pei Yan, in his panic, asked urgently, seeking the result.

Hearing this question, Ye Ruozai chuckled, pointed at his head, and then at Pei Yan’s, resignedly saying, "My divination doesn’t work like the supercomputer in your brain; it doesn’t simply offer answers to specific questions. Just like if I want to know why this is failing, I need to investigate many related matters, uncovering causal relationships to potentially get a relatively accurate answer. This process is tedious and spirit-consuming, yet it’s precisely during this investigation I found our family might face a crisis."