World Occult Usage Guide

Chapter 38 The Way Is Not Far From Man
After saying this, Kim Ji-eun wiped the cold sweat from her forehead and gripped the stone slab tightly with both hands.

Besides waiting for the golem to awaken, he felt he had to confirm Lin An's death date before he could take action!

I always felt this guy was too calm!

"These cobbled-together divination methods are not qualified to predict my fate," Lin An replied.

"Hmph, it proves that those outdated traditions of the Dragon Kingdom are completely obsolete." Jin Zhien suppressed her anger and said coldly, "If you dare to refuse, believe me, I'll immediately activate the golem and kill those two women! You can't stop me now!"

In the surveillance video, the golem moved its clumsy body, while the mother and daughter hiding under the desk were one unconscious and the other sobbing, unable to move.

After a long silence, Lin An sighed.

Are you really sure you want it?

He had just taken a step when Jin Zhien felt goosebumps on the back of her head and quickly stopped him.

"Let's talk this out, don't come near me!"

"With such little courage, I wonder what the 'aristocratic family' sees in you. Is it your unwavering loyalty?" Lin An stretched out his hand. "Good dog, good dog, throw me the paper and pen."

"Write down your birth date and time for me! No tricks allowed, do you hear me!" Jin Zhien grabbed a pen and paper, crumpled it into a ball, and threw it at the other person, shouting angrily, "Otherwise, these two women's lives will be in danger!"

With his back to Jin Zhien, Lin An held a calligraphy brush, spread out a sheet of Xuan paper on the ground, and wrote down his birthday in a flowing and elegant style.

"Jin Zhien, I can agree to your request, but on two conditions."

"……you say."

"First, I also need your birth date and time."

Kim Ji-eun paused for a moment, her thoughts racing as she weighed the pros and cons in her mind, before her expression returned to normal.

Although he didn't know what Lin An's mystery was, he was certain that the other party was not a "prophet" medium, otherwise he would have already activated his ability and changed the fate during the divination dispute just now.

Since that's the case, he has absolutely no means to fight against my "fate".

The so-called "fortune telling" was probably just a bluff to buy the mother and daughter time to escape.

Moreover, as long as I can predict his death, no matter how much trouble Lin An causes afterward, he will never be able to escape the fate set by the "prophet".

Calming her breathing, Kim Ji-eun said resentfully, "Okay, what's the second one?"

“Your fancy bamboo sticks are just tourist souvenirs.” Lin An folded the white paper with his birth date written on it. “After you’ve calculated your fortune, I’ll shake my own stick; similarly, after I’ve calculated my fortune, you can shake your own low-class stuff.”

Veins bulged on Kim Ji-eun's forehead as he clenched his fists, his words squeezed out slowly and deliberately from between his teeth.

"OK!"

"What are you waiting for? Hurry up and write down your birth date and time for me."

"Why should I go first? How do I know you won't go back on your word and take the things without admitting they're yours!"

Lin An shrugged: "First of all, based on your recent behavior, this is entirely a self-introduction; secondly, you were the one who practically begged me to tell your fortune, weren't you?"

"I begged you... huh?"

Kim Ji-eun was caught off guard and hesitated for a long time before finally writing down her birth date and time.

"Is this alright now? We'll toss them to each other at the same time." He impatiently waved the Xuan paper. "Hurry up, you Chinese!"

“The Xuan paper is too light, and your sincerity isn’t heavy enough.” Lin An pulled out a thick electronic card from his pocket. “We’ll roll up our ID cards in there, otherwise I won’t trust what you’ve written.”

"Fine!" Kim Ji-eun gritted her teeth.

Two parabolas streaked across the air as they simultaneously unwrapped the crumpled paper, tossed it aside, picked up the ID cards to verify their authenticity, glanced at their birth dates, and silently calculated the lunar calendar dates.

"...Lin An?" Jin Zhien exclaimed in surprise, "You're Lin An?"

"how?"

Hesitant to speak, Kim Ji-eun thought of that woman's figure, and a thousand thoughts raced through her mind—doubt, hesitation, jealousy, and other emotions—ultimately transforming into an even more resolute killing intent.

That was just the young lady joking; it's nothing!
As long as it's done cleanly and efficiently enough, Miss won't know who killed Lin An!
Besides, I am one of Miss's most capable subordinates, she wouldn't blame me for an outsider!

After writing down each other's birth dates and times, the two stood facing each other. Jin Zhien crossed her legs and sat steadily on the bright red anodized surface, while Lin An held a cheap yellow wooden bucket, stood upright on a dark blue anodized cushion, and his clothes fluttered in the wind.

A cold wind blew across the golems' fingers, and their pure black eye sockets glowed with a ghostly blue light.

"Please come, Lin of the Dragon Kingdom!"

Jin Zhien gestured to Lin An to draw a divination stick from the divination box.

"Crash..."

The bamboo skewers clinked together, making a crisp sound. Lin An picked up one of them and slowly moved it to his eyes.

The double yin position is reversed, and the southwest of the Kun direction is an ominous sign.

A gloomy aura instantly crept up his back, and Lin An felt as if his body had become incredibly heavy. His keen senses felt as if they were covered by a veil, leaving him in a daze.

His arms and legs felt as heavy as lead, every muscle trembling uncontrollably. "Hahaha, a death divination! You're doomed, Lin An!" Jin Zhien, seeing the divination slip he'd drawn from afar, immediately jumped up from his chair excitedly. "Golem, kill him!"

"Uh uh..."

Heavy footsteps echoed across the dojo, shaking the ground. A dozen dormant golems awoke and, under Jin Zhien's control, formed a semi-circle, spaced far apart. Their invulnerable bodies blocked every escape route for Lin An.

Unlike their previous mindless charge, the golems now formed a formation with considerable order.

“Even if I use area-of-effect hypnosis again, you won’t be able to escape!” Kim Ji-eun stood on the Chinese zodiac symbol, her face contorted with rage. “Your hypnosis takes time, and during that time, will you have the strength to dodge the golem’s attacks?”

Lin An lifted his heavy eyelids.

"Jin Zhien, why don't you take a look at the fortune I've told you?"

"You stubborn mule! Lin An, my mystery has brought my luck to its peak. In just a few seconds, these golems will smash you into a pile of minced meat!"

"As expected, your ability is to improve your own luck while reducing the luck of the other party."

Lin An seemed completely unsurprised, the corners of his mouth widening in a smile that even Kim Ji-eun could feel from a distance.

Wait, pleasure?
Shouldn't it be fear?!
“So, I had the ‘Ouroboros’ connect our destinies in a cycle,” Lin An said. “Once you’ve correctly predicted my death, it means you’re not far from dying yourself.”

Ouroboros?

"I've already said it—see your fate for yourself, Kim Ji-eun!"

"You're about to die, why don't you kneel down and beg for mercy! Are those your last words, Lin An?!"

Jin Zhien wanted to laugh out loud, but Lin Anfeng's nonchalant appearance made him feel uneasy. He shivered, his knees buckled, and he knocked over the fortune-telling container on the table.

A bright red, glaring "death" appeared, and Kim Ji-eun's pupils suddenly shrank to their smallest size.

"This is...my signature?"

He stared at the result with bloodshot eyes, his voice trembling uncontrollably.

As the medium of "prophet", he understands the importance of divination better than anyone else!
Especially one's own destiny!

"Prophets" are given the ability to foresee the future, and the mystics' predictions of the future are correct. Once they change their fate through foresight, it means that all their previous predictions were wrong, proving that their abilities are ineffective.

In this paradox, once they foresee death, they have no choice but to accept it willingly!

"How can it be a death divination! Today is clearly my auspicious day!" Kim Ji-eun was nearly having a mental breakdown, frantically scratching her hair with both hands. "I should have received the best divination! Be blessed with the strongest luck! No, I can't foresee my own death!"

Ouroboros... are they connected by fate?
No wonder the more I used my abilities, the worse my divination results became!
But if we do that, we're all doomed!
"Damn it, you idiot! You bastard! You madman! What good will you get out of this?!" Having lost her mind, Jin Zhien kicked over the square table, raised the stone slab high, and the golem roared fiercely, lunging at Lin An from all directions. "Then let's fight to the death!"

"No, Kim Ji-eun, the only one who died was you."

"what?!"

"All things carry yin and embrace yang, but the way of heaven diminishes the excess and replenishes the deficiency, thus retreating to the one. It is precisely because the one retreats that yin and yang flow and are endlessly generated, which is the foundation of the evolution of all things in the universe, and also the great way of heaven and earth in the Dragon Kingdom for thousands of years."

Lin An held the bamboo skewer between two fingers and pointed it directly at the other person's brow.

"Heaven is merciless, yet there is always a glimmer of hope. Therefore, the Eight Trigrams emphasize that nothing is absolute. However, your Four Pillars of Destiny have blinded you, causing you to willingly become a stagnant pool."

Cold, floating energy descended from the sky. Kim Ji-eun looked up in astonishment as the Hittite ritual conjured up the ghostly light of the underworld, enveloping him like a cage.

Normally, at this time, Canaan's magic would shine brightly, and holy light would dispel all dangerous mysteries.

However, at this moment, Kim Ji-eun's luck has hit rock bottom!

"Miss, of all times!" he cried out in despair.

The protective shield is broken!

Extreme pain surged through her limbs and bones. Kim Ji-eun let out a sharp scream, fell to the ground, curled up in a ball on the bright red carpet, convulsing and rolling around, tears and snot streaming down her face.

"Ugh... Ugh..." He clutched his dry throat in pain, but couldn't make a sound at all.

With a distorted vision and stark black and white, Kim Ji-eun suddenly noticed that an eye had appeared on the cathode beneath Lin An's feet, a dent created by the golem. Meanwhile, there was a spot on his anode, a projection from the monitoring equipment.

The finishing touch brought the entire yin-yang fish to life in an instant.

It turns out that Tai Chi is always about life within death, and death within life—

He's the only one who's stubbornly refusing to see the truth!

"Jin Zhien, you falsely claim that destiny is predetermined, yet you do not know that the Great Dao is fifty, the Heavenly Evolution is forty-nine, and man escapes one!"

Bang!

A clear whistle seemed to shatter Kim Ji-eun's soul, and the stone slab in his hand fell heavily to the ground.

"Your divination result is a self-inflicted trap!"

Thank you to Little Lonely Mountain Gorilla King for the monthly pass, and to all the readers for your support and comments. I will try to come up with a more reasonable and interesting plot, and I hope you will enjoy it.
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(End of this chapter)