Chapter 152 The Crucible of Heaven (1/2)

I was no nearer to understanding what he was trying to say. But unlike his usual proclivity of speaking in riddles, he began to explain everything patiently.

”You may know that some people will leave their physical bodies when they achieve immortality. By shedding off their physical chrysalis, they do not have to endure a hit by a stroke of lightning, the Crucible of Heaven. But beasts are different. They can assume human form once they achieve higher powers. But to climb even further, they would need to suffer the Crucible of Heaven, with or without their physical bodies.” Father paused to light himself another cigarette. ”There are five different Elements to the Crucible of Heaven: the Elements of Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth. We'll not delve into that for today. But simply put, the Crucible of Heaven is one's final test; a test of righteousness. If one has committed sacrilege or sin during one's lifetime, the person would be judged and the Crucible of Heaven shall fall upon him like a guillotine. Just like how I achieved immortality while retaining my physical body, beasts that wish this too would have to prepare themselves to withstand the final Crucible.”

With Father's explanation, all of those questions were instantly answered! Unlike Master Six and most other immortals, Father became an immortal by retaining his physical body as a human. This would require him to pass through the Crucible of Heaven! The demons were all flocking to Wu Zhong because they knew that Father was the primary target of the Crucible of Heaven, and they were hoping that they could qualify with more relative ease once the Crucible has been weakened because of Father. This was why the demons were fighting for the best spot to study magic, to get themselves ready as soon as possible!

I now understood why Father blamed himself: the next Crucible of Heaven was for Father. Not knowing that Father had no intention of ascending so soon, the beasts and demons had been fighting amongst themselves and Father believed that the ruckus all began from him.

”Well, in that case, you might want to appear and mediate matters,” I uttered, shrugging, but father just shook his head and said, ”The matter might have begun because of me. But still, it is hardly appropriate for me to show myself. I'm afraid that it is your shoulders that this responsibility will still have to fall upon.” He got up and moved to his room, ending our conversation for the night.

I chuckled at myself helplessly and retreated to my own room.

With nothing much to do, Edelweiss has been spending much time with Mother shopping. I entered our bedroom and found the top of our bed scattered with the bounties of her exploits with her mother-in-law as she went through the clothing one-by-one. As I walked in, she asked me if any of them looked nice. I shuddered. ”Can I seriously say no? One simple wrong answer; that's all it takes, and I'll be spending the night on the cushions of the living hall!” That left me with only a Hobson's choice. ”Every one of them seems nice on you, dear. All of them looks good,” I piped quickly with feigned interest. ”Can I seriously criticize any of them when everything you've spent here is as much as the Center's mid-year expenditure?!”

Three days passed uneventfully. I was upstairs at the Center, reading the booklet Father gave me, when an audible knock came from the door. I heard the door being opened and knew that that could only be Lin Feng. It was confirmed with his voice, asking, ”Hi there, and how can I help you?”, followed by some muffled voices before Lin Feng's voice barked up the staircase, ”Hey, we have clients! Come down!”

We came down immediately. The client was a young lad. But he wore a sullen look on his face that I thought something was wrong with him on first glance. But there was nothing I could detect even with my Spirit Sight. I turned to Chongxi to see if he had noticed anything. But he merely shook his head. There was nothing wrong with him too, even with his divination magic based on the lad's facial features. ”What could be the problem then,” I wondered. We ushered him to the sitting area and made him tea. Finally, came the customary greeting, ”How can we help you?”

But our client seemed to show no signs of loosening up. Rather, I noticed a hint of doubt forming on the edge of his eyes. Was he too shy to ask for fortune-telling on romances? ”Are you here to seek advice on fortune-telling, or do you have other problems you need our help in solving?” I asked quickly, hoping to break the proverbial ice that was hanging over us uneasily. But I had subtly refrained from asking if the young lad was seeking services in handling marriage or funeral proceedings, especially after I found no suggestions of happiness or sadness from him.

There was a brief beat of pause before he asked skeptically, ”Are you the real deal?” His question almost made me laughed. How did he expect us to answer this?!