969 Divination
Once he drank the water, Alex found himself in another trance that showed him more visions.
He saw the vague silhouette of a girl, which changed to another girl, and then another one.
He saw lightning crackle all around him, some came from heaven and some from somewhere else.
He saw a circle, one that shocked him to his core.
He saw himself losing a power that someone else gained.
He saw the truth behind his existence.
Alex woke back up. “What was that?” he thought. Compared to the other two visions, this one had more visions for him to see and was more sporadic. He didn’t understand what those visions represented.
What were the girls about? Were they real? Did this well know who he was going to meet? What about the lightning? What was that lightning for?
The feelings of the vision, rather than the vision itself were what remained with him after he was out of the trance so he didn’t know what he had actually seen.
Alex mulled over his feelings for a while before standing up to go to the next well.
The man working at the 7th well did not fill his cup, instead, he explained what he was to do there.
“You will have to submerge here. The prophecies do not work by just drinking from here forth,” the young man said.
‘Prophecies huh?’ Alex thought. The wells were big and could fit about 10 people at once, but there were already people in there, so Alex had to get into a line once again.
After a while, his turn came and so he jumped into the water. He slowly sank to the bottom of the well, waiting to fall into some sort of trance but nothing happened.
Instead, he heard a loud and archaic voice that filled his mind.
“You hold the key to a fallen power. You shall help restore that power, and that shall bring your death.”
The single sentence was all Alex got to hear in the well, and that was all he needed to hear. The deep archaic voice rang in his ears and his mind for a long time before he flew back out of the well.
Alex sat by the grass once again, thinking back to what he had just heard.
“I hold a key to a fallen power?” he thought to himself. What was that power? The problem in his mind with the prophecy wasn’t that it didn’t make sense, but it made way too much sense to understand what it was talking about.
He had many things that could be considered key to some sort of power. He had the Nine Heaven’s Yang tree’s seeds and leaves, which could be used to restore a power that had fallen.
He had the seed of the world tree, which could be used to restore another power that had fallen.
He had Pearl, who was the key to restoring the White Tiger’s legacy that had fallen as well.
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Maybe Alchemy God was considered a power that had fallen since Godslayer had supposedly killed him. Or maybe the Undying God was a power that had fallen, which he was restoring.
There were so many options, and as such, if he were to believe that prophecy, then each one of them was going to signal his death.
‘Fuck, what do I do now?’ Alex started to worry. This was going to make him feel unnerved regarding every little action that went to help people.
“What is going on?” a voice boomed in Alex’s head as it stirred around in anger. “Kid are you okay? Whose intent was that?”
“Intent?” Alex asked with a surprised look on his face. He hadn’t even realized there was some sort of intent in those prophecies. He closed his eyes and went into his spiritual sea to speak with Godslayer.
“It’s fine, or at least I think it’s fine,” Alex said as he looked around the spiritual sea to see if the Intent had gone anything to him.
“What was that?” Godslayer asked.
“I’m at a place called the Nine Wells of Time. That just now was a prophecy from one of the wells,” Alex said.
“Prophecy? From a well? What sort of sham is this? Do you think divination is such an easy task that one can do it without even being present?” the spirit asked.
“I… don’t really know anything about Divination,” Alex said truthfully.
“Do you know how well someone’s understanding of the Dao of Time has to be for them to even begin to hope to see an image of the future?” the spirit asked.
“So… what I heard was not true?” Alex asked.
The spirit paused for a moment. “More likely than not, yes,” it said. “Even if the divination isn’t a sham and someone did divine something from the future, more times than not, it is a wrong future that can be easily changed.”
“So I don’t have to worry about what I hear?” Alex asked.
“Are you planning to sit in a cave and meditate for the rest of your life, without making any actions for the rest of your life?” the spirit asked.
“No,” Alex said, obviously.
“Then any little action you take will have an impact on your future. With that, it is very easy for even the best of divinations to turn out to be wrong,” Godslayer said.
“I see,” Alex said. “So I shouldn’t really trust them, huh?” He felt a sense of relief that would’ve likely never come had Godslayer not talked to him.
‘I would’ve stopped trying to help everyone in fear of my own death,’ he thought.
“Thank you for telling me all this,” Alex said. “Man, I really would’ve trusted these prophecies otherwise. I can’t believe they let these shams make prophecies too. They should totally be banned.”
“Not all divinations are wrong,” Godslayer said.
“Oh,” Alex replied.
“Usually the ones done by people with a high understanding of the Dao of Time is quite accurate, especially when done for a small time frame. It is easier to get things right when one only needs to divine a few days forward,” Godslayer said. “The further in the future one divines, the more chances of it being wrong exist.”
“However, there used to be one that never failed,” Godslayer said. “He used to be known as the Divination god, but he hated that name. One of the reasons I don’t hate the man. Every divination he made came out true, every word something from the future.”
“Unfortunately, he’s no more,” Godslayer said.
“What happened to him?” Alex asked.
“Who knows? He went missing one day, never to be seen again. Many believe he’s dead, I do too,” Godslayer said.
Alex paused for a moment. “What if he’s the one that made these wells?” he asked.
“Why would someone that wants to hide from the world make some wells in the middle of nowhere? It is impossible for it to be him,” Godslayer said.
“But there is a possibility,” Alex said.
“It’s almost as possible as finding two people finding the same grain of sand from an entire realm. I would suggest not thinking much about what you hear from these wells,” Godslayer said.
“Got it,” Alex said. “But that also means I can hear it, right? The Intent won’t hurt me, right?”
“I suppose not,” Godslayer said. “You can go.”
Alex quickly left, leaving Godslayer all alone who fell into thought, thinking about the Divination god. “Surely not,” he thought and went back to resting again.
Alex lined up for the queue to the 8th well and jumped into it when it was his turn.
As soon as he plunged in, the voice returned once again.
“When two unworthy hands meet a stone, the truth shall reveal itself.”
Alex got back out and wondered what that could possibly mean. Sure he wasn’t going to overthink these things as they were most likely false futures, but still, he wondered what sort of future there would be for when that prophecy came true.
“My hands are unworthy?” Alex wondered if that was what they meant. “And what truth is this that was going to be revealed?”
Whether this prophecy was true or not, it was a much better scenario than the previous one where he would have to die.
There wasn’t much to think about this one given how vague it was, so Alex went to the final well and jumped into it when it was his turn.
The voice spoke once again.
“When the 2 becomes 1, All shall become One as well.”
Alex waited for a bit more. ‘That’s it?’ he thought. He flew out of the well, all confused. ‘What was it so short?’
He couldn’t make sense of the prophecy at all with how short it was. Worse of all, it was just numbers in the end. 2? 1? All? What did it mean?
“Godslayer was right,” Alex thought. “I shouldn’t give much thought to these things.”
He shook his head and left the mountain. With that, he had done visiting the 8th wonder of the continent.
The only one remaining for him to visit was the Lightning Peninsula, and there was no way he was ever going to go there.
Alex then returned back to the home he had rented for 3 months and rested for a day. Once he was fully rested, he brought out his cauldron and some other materials.
It was about time he improved some Saint-ranked recipes.