The conflict between both sides arose simply because the foreign sorcerers hadn’t expected their casual remarks to be understood. This led to Chu Qianli and Joe exchanging sharp words, while Tan Muxing and the other mages tried to mediate.
Two small vehicles slowly pulled up at the hotel entrance to transport the people waiting in the lobby to the villas.
Mei Rujing, who couldn’t understand the language, quickly lost interest in the argument after observing for a while. She urged, “Stop bickering with them and get in the car to rest. Why waste time with these people when there’s no money to be made?”
“I won’t stoop to your level!” Chu Qianli grabbed her suitcase, striding towards the car like a victorious little rooster, head held high and chest puffed out. She tried to lift the suitcase onto the car in a suave manner, but on the first attempt, she couldn’t even pick it up.
Tan Muxing quickly came to her rescue. “…Let me do it.”
Joe was still brooding over how Chu Qianli had bested him in Chinese and grumbled, “Your constitution makes you prone to trouble. In the end, the one who suffers will be you.”
Joe couldn’t see other people’s lifespans, but he could sense that her physique was unique.
Mei Rujing didn’t understand his words, but Tan Muxing was momentarily stunned.
Chu Qianli glanced at the car transporting the foreign sorcerers. Suddenly, she caught sight of the numbers on the license plate and shot back, “I think you guys are the ones in for some real bad luck.”
Neither side was willing to back down. They each boarded their respective tour buses and, luggage in tow, drove off in opposite directions—one heading west, the other east. The buses would take them to different mountain villas.
Mei Rujing sat in the front row, sighing, “Traveling with kids is such a hassle. So this is what life is like after marriage? A strange new experience to add to my collection.”
“…”
The tour bus had only a rain canopy on top. As it climbed the mountain, the wind howled past, offering a clear view of the villa district’s landscape. Chu Qianli curiously looked around, seizing the opportunity to get a bird’s-eye view of the layout from the higher vantage point.
Before long, the three of them arrived at their residence. They weren’t staying at the highest point, but they could faintly see the grandest villa in the distance. The examinees were all assigned scattered standalone villas, while the largest one, slightly above the central area, stood apart in its grandeur.
Chu Qianli: “Is that the grand villa?”
“I just received a notice in the lobby saying we’ll be gathering there the night after tomorrow. For now, we should rest and adjust—some people still need to deal with jet lag,” Mei Rujing said, holding the letter in her hand. She gazed at the nearby grand villa and added, “That place seems to be called Ting Feng Xi Yu (Listening to the Wind and Fine Rain).”
Tan Muxing remarked, “What an elegant name.”
“Our place has a name too.” Chu Qianli glanced at the plaque above their entrance, which read Xin He Ju (New Lotus Residence). She pondered aloud, “I really can’t tell if this place follows feng shui principles or completely ignores them.”
After thanking the staff who had driven them, Tan Muxing had already unloaded their luggage from the car. He said gently, “Then you can just leave your things at the second-floor entrance.”
Tan Muxing stayed on the first floor, while Chu Qianli and Mei Rujing lived on the second. After a long and tiring journey, the three of them could finally rest. They skipped dinner at the hotel lobby and instead had a simple meal in their private villa, not encountering any other examinees that evening.
A cool night breeze swept through the area.
Inside the villa, Chu Qianli tossed and turned on her bed. She eventually sat up in frustration, unable to ignore the faint noises in the room. She sneakily glanced toward Mei Rujing, who was fast asleep with a steam eye mask on.
Chu Qianli scratched her head in distress. “…How can such a beautiful woman snore?”
Mei Rujing had the sleep routine of an elderly person—she went to bed early, following a perfectly healthy biological clock.
Chu Qianli had boldly agreed to her roommate’s plan to sleep and wake up early, but now she tiptoed out of bed, planning to find someone her age to hang out with downstairs.
Moments later, fully dressed, she arrived on the first floor and knocked on the door in a rhythmic pattern. “Xingxing, Xingxing, open up! Let’s go have some fun!”
Hearing the noise, Tan Muxing slowly opened the door just a crack and hesitantly reminded her, “It’s already ten at night?”
“This is just the beginning of the night for young people! Some folks haven’t even finished work yet!”
“…”
Tan Muxing had no choice but to change his shoes and step outside with her. Puzzled, he asked, “But where are we even going? The exam isn’t until the day after tomorrow.”
The Mondsen Group had given the diviners time to adjust, but after checking in, they weren’t allowed to leave the villa complex freely. Right now, they didn’t really have anywhere to wander.
“This place is supposedly a haunted house! The second-round selection must be related to a murder case. I bet some people are already getting impatient and want to check out Ting Feng Xi Yu tonight. We can—” Chu Qianli suddenly switched her phrasing, “—No, we’re just familiarizing ourselves with the environment so we don’t fall behind!”
Tan Muxing hadn’t expected her to be bold enough to plan a nighttime raid on the main building. Normally, he would have agreed immediately, but recalling what Joe had said earlier, he hesitated. “…Are you sure we should go?”
Chu Qianli was taken aback. “You don’t want to?”
“It’s not that… but that foreigner said your constitution is special…” Tan Muxing wasn’t someone who believed in supernatural matters, but when it came to her safety, he couldn’t help but waver.
“Don’t believe in that ‘guardian spirit’ nonsense. That’s obviously made up. If such things were real, who could possibly be important enough to deserve a god’s 24/7 personal protection? What an absurd sense of entitlement!” Chu Qianli reassured him. “That sounds even more exploitative than working 9-9-6! If you were a god, would you put up with that?”
“But what if…”
“Alright, alright, fine! You have divine nature. You’re a guardian deity, okay?” Chu Qianli grabbed Tan Muxing’s arm and excitedly pulled him along. “Let’s go, let’s go, charge!”
Unable to refuse her, Tan Muxing could only lock the main door behind them.
Chu Qianli left a message for Mei Rujing, afraid she might wake up in the middle of the night and worry. Only then did she drag Tan Muxing outside.
Since the tour buses weren’t running at night, they had to walk uphill. Following the main road toward the grand villa, they passed several lit-up independent villas along the way—each one occupied by other diviners participating in the second-round selection.
“Who’s staying in these places?” Chu Qianli tiptoed curiously, craning her neck to peer inside, trying to gather intel on her competitors.
Tan Muxing hurriedly stopped her from snooping, afraid someone inside might come out and confront her. Panicked, he whispered, “You shouldn’t be doing this…”
—
On the second floor of Xian He Ju (Immortal Crane Residence), Liu Jun sat upright across from Xu Zaiyuan, discussing matters seriously. “Right now, all kinds of forces are mixed in here. We don’t even know who’s infiltrated this place. There might be people like us, but we won’t know for sure who can be trusted and recruited until later…”
“Hold on a moment.” Xu Zaiyuan’s expression shifted slightly. His brows furrowed as he murmured in surprise, “There’s someone downstairs?”
Liu Jun was startled. He swiftly stood up, pulled open the balcony door, and scanned the area below with a stern gaze. The night was dark, the trees dense—nothing was visible.
“I don’t see anything.” Liu Jun turned back in confusion. “Xu Zaiyuan, are you actually mistaken for once?”
Xu Zaiyuan was known for his infallible intuition. His sudden insights had never been wrong before.
“…It might’ve been a cat.”
—
Behind a tree, Chu Qianli and Tan Muxing had already hidden out of sight of Xian He Ju. They watched from afar as someone checked the balcony, then eventually went back inside.
Chu Qianli grinned mischievously. “Hehe, this is what you call predicting your opponent’s prediction!”
“No, this is what you call recklessly testing the limits of danger,” Tan Muxing sighed. If she didn’t have the ability to avoid misfortune, she would have stirred up a lot of trouble by now.
“But I didn’t expect the people in that villa to have such sharp intuition. Almost as keen as Rujing. We were this close to getting caught.” Chu Qianli glanced at the entrance plaque and murmured, “Xian He Ju, huh?”
They continued heading uphill, but unfortunately, they couldn’t enter Ting Feng Xi Yu. A barricade and security tape had been set up outside, blocking their path.
The massive villa’s windows were pitch black, not a single light shining through. Occasionally, a strange gust of wind could be heard from somewhere inside.
Sensing something unusual in the villa, Tan Muxing asked, “Is there a sound coming from inside?”
“This place shouldn’t be called Listening to the Wind and Fine Rain—it’s more like A Storm of Blood and Gore.” Chu Qianli shivered in the cold night air and instinctively rubbed her arms.
Noticing her movement, Tan Muxing said warmly, “If you’re cold, let’s head back. We can’t get inside anyway.”
The two of them didn’t manage to enter the main building. As they slowly walked back downhill, they unexpectedly spotted a familiar face.
“Isn’t that the foreigner from earlier?” Tan Muxing recognized Joe, the deep-haired, blue-eyed man, watching as the foreign sorcerers stepped out of their residence.
“It really is.” Chu Qianli glanced at the place they were staying. The nameplate at the door seemed to say “Fire Feather Residence.” She touched her chin and commented, “Ah, their place isn’t great. Their luck really isn’t looking too good.”
Although each team was randomly assigned a villa, fortune-telling was all about finding patterns within randomness. When countless coincidences aligned, they could lead to an inevitable trend.
“Where are they going in the middle of the night?”
Chu Qianli saw that Joe and the others were heading up the mountain and answered, “They must want to get an early peek at the exam questions too. Everyone knows there was a murder case here. Since nothing happened in the other small villas, it must have been at ‘Listening to Wind and Rain Tower’.”
The two of them didn’t bother with the foreign mages obsessed with guardian deities. They returned to Xinhe Residence together, bid each other goodnight, and went to rest.
The Next Morning
The next morning, Chu Qianli and the others went to the main hall for the buffet breakfast. Mei Rujing checked her phone and finally saw the message from last night. “You two went out exploring? You’re really brave. Didn’t they say that place was haunted?”
Chu Qianli: “We didn’t even make it to the door of the haunted house.”
“Mei Mei is right; you two are bold. Two foreigners actually got injured last night and just got carried away by the people from that group!” Huang Jue gloated as he grabbed a tray from the buffet and sat next to Mei Rujing. “Mei Mei, did you sleep well last night?”
“I’m full,” Mei Rujing wiped her mouth with a napkin. Seeing Chu Qianli idly doodling with jam on her plate without even glancing at Huang Jue, she suggested, “How about we leave?”
Huang Jue, who was sitting at the same table as the three of them, quickly said, “Let’s at least chat for a bit. We’re all from the China team, right?”
Chu Qianli asked curiously, “How did they get injured?”
Huang Jue sneered, “Isn’t it normal to get hurt in a haunted house? Those foreigners were just unskilled!”
Tan Muxing: “…Ghosts?”
Mei Rujing said indifferently, “This is an atheists’ table. Believers should leave as soon as possible.”
Huang Jue was stunned. “There’s such a thing as table segregation? But you all came here, didn’t you?”
He couldn’t understand. These people had come all this way to compete, yet they didn’t even believe in ghosts. Ordinary people might avoid such topics, but Chu Qianli and the others had some level of expertise, making them seem rather out of place.
Chu Qianli nodded in agreement, “Of course! Some places have designated non-smoking areas. Why can’t we have an atheist zone?”
Huang Jue: “?”
Mei Rujing didn’t want to waste more time with Huang Jue, so she got up first. Chu Qianli and Tan Muxing quickly followed her.
Injuries Continue
After finishing their meal and stepping out of the main hall, the three of them unexpectedly encountered another group of injured people. This time, however, they were local sorcerers.
A man with a broken arm looked exhausted. After being checked by medical staff, he packed up his luggage, withdrew from the second round of screening, and took a car out of the haunted villa area.
“What happened to Lao Li? He always acts so tough, but now he looks like a withered eggplant!”
“Don’t even bring it up. Last night, he insisted on going to ‘Listening to Wind and Rain Tower’ and even came to my place to ask me to join him. But when he got back, he was completely out of it, groaning about how he mysteriously fell from a high place and heard strange noises inside the building…”
Chu Qianli overheard their conversation and asked in surprise, “He actually made it inside? Wasn’t there a fence?”
“You can climb fences. We climbed walls when we were kids. A little fence is nothing.”
Chu Qianli clicked her tongue in dissatisfaction. “So we were actually too well-behaved.”
Tan Muxing reminded her, “He got hurt because he wasn’t well-behaved.”
Someone analyzed, “I think the feng shui here is off. It’s deliberately gathering yin energy. Maybe they’re raising some powerful evil spirit. The exam might actually be about exorcising it…”
Hearing this, Chu Qianli nodded in agreement, “The feng shui here is definitely strange.”
Many people in the crowd turned pale with fear. “No way, exorcising demons and spirits is too much. We wouldn’t be able to handle that. They can’t just throw us into the fire pit, can they?”
“Ha, you probably didn’t read the contract, did you? Besides the confidentiality agreement, they also gave us accident insurance.”
“T-Then I quit! I’ve never dealt with real ghosts that can actually hurt people before. The worst I’ve seen is sleep paralysis…”
“The worst part is that they aren’t even taking responsibility. They refuse to stay here themselves and just locked us up in this place!” Someone expressed their dissatisfaction with the Mondsen Group, believing that the organizers weren’t capable of handling the situation.
A commotion broke out at the entrance of the main hall. Some people started considering dropping out, especially since the injuries were real, and not just one or two people had been affected. This clearly exceeded the understanding of many participants.
Some theistic sorcerers claimed that illnesses should be categorized as either “real” or “illusory.” Real illnesses required medical treatment at a hospital, while illusory illnesses—what outsiders referred to as mental disorders—were believed by these sorcerers to be caused by unclean entities clinging to a person.
However, now that something “illusory” was causing real physical injuries, the issue had become far more complicated. No wonder some examinees felt powerless.
One after another, participants went to the main hall to withdraw from the competition, most of them unwilling to stay in this place any longer.
Seeing them quit, Tan Muxing asked, “So, people can’t divine things related to ghosts?”
“Divination is about interpreting the patterns of objective reality. Since everyone has a different subjective understanding of ghosts, and there’s no unified standard or specific characteristics, ghosts can’t be analyzed through divination. More importantly, there’s no reliable accumulation of cases to study.” Chu Qianli smiled and said, “Fortune-telling is just big data, after all.”
Mei Rujing said coldly, “These people can’t open their mouths without talking about hauntings. If ghosts really existed, I’d catch one and sell it for money. Proving that ghosts are real would be way more valuable than their so-called infant spirit mines.”
Chu Qianli seemed thoughtful. “I think the ghost story is fake, but the chaos is real. Someone probably wants to muddy the waters and stir up panic so that more people will drop out of the competition.”
Tan Muxing: “……”
Why did that sound oddly familiar? He couldn’t shake the feeling that they had done something similar during the preliminary exam.
As night fell, the villa district’s staff finished their shifts, and the place returned to an eerily terrifying silence.
Because there had been injured participants withdrawing from the competition during the day, the night felt even more desolate. Some people who hadn’t gone to the buffet were still unaware of the news, while others stayed obediently inside their hillside villas, not daring to take any risks before the exam.
In the pitch-black bushes, Chu Qianli awkwardly climbed over the fence and then made space for Mei Rujing. After successfully sneaking in, she patted the dust off her clothes and straightened the messy corners of her outfit.
“This place is such a hassle, we even have to climb over ourselves!” Mei Rujing, far more agile, leaped over with ease, nothing like Chu Qianli’s clumsy movements.
Tan Muxing hesitated. “…Are we really just going to boldly check the exam questions in advance?”
“Don’t worry, Xingxing! It’s nighttime—there’s no such thing as ‘boldly’ now!” Chu Qianli declared. “There’s definitely someone lurking in this building. If they get to check the exam questions ahead of time, and we don’t, wouldn’t that put us at a disadvantage?”
Chu Qianli was certain that someone had stirred up trouble, probably to scare off the other participants and make them fearful of the Ting Feng Xi Yu Tower, preventing them from sneaking in before the exam.
“Let’s split up. This place is pretty big,” Mei Rujing suggested, standing outside the main building. After scanning the surroundings, she decisively said, “You two go one way, I’ll go this way. We’ll meet back later and compare notes.”
“Rujing-jie, will you be okay on your own?” Chu Qianli asked.
“Before I met you guys, I always explored places like this alone. I’m used to it.”
Since Tan Muxing didn’t understand metaphysics, it was indeed faster for Chu Qianli and Mei Rujing to split up. The three agreed to meet back at the fence they had climbed over.
With Tan Muxing’s help, Chu Qianli climbed in through a side window. Using the faint glow of her phone, she began inspecting the area and noticed some fresh marks on the ground. “Looks like the old man at the entrance was right—someone really did come to clean recently.”
“Are there no lights here?” Tan Muxing was struggling to get his bearings, still adjusting to the darkness.
Chu Qianli fumbled around. “Guess we’ll just have to use our phone flashlights.”
Just as the two were about to turn on their flashlights, they suddenly noticed a dark figure. They froze simultaneously.
In the pitch-black hallway, they couldn’t even make out the silhouette, let alone determine whether it was a person or a ghost. Everything was blurred in the darkness.
Chu Qianli was momentarily stunned and hesitated. “Are we seriously about to catch a ghost and get rich? That would just make Xingxing’s already super-rich family even richer.”
Tan Muxing: “?”
I am just a novice translator and Chinese is not my native language. I try my best to translate the chapters as accurate as possible.
If there are any mistakes then kindly comment and remind me. Your support means a lot.
![Dissatisfied [e-sports]](https://www.freenovels.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/4997572.jpg "Dissatisfied [e-sports]")
