“...That’s not entirely wrong,” said the Taoist in blue robes, smiling and accepting his friend’s praise with a squint.
While he might have been unremarkable in other forms of divination, when it came to predicting calamities, Qi Jiu was undoubtedly the strongest in this world.
He silently stared at the skill column that emerged in the void.
Spoken Prophecy Lv???:
[Note: Halo skill, limited to curse-type divination. Paired with Spell Lv10 to create misfortune, efficiency will be higher. Originally Lv10, the skill broke through conventional limits by precisely predicting disasters across the entire world for the next week.]
“This is a horse river that can generate calamities even without existing ones! Disaster prediction is absolutely 100% accurate,” Bai Yi muttered inside his vest, “...though this time I didn’t actually use my ability to manufacture misfortune.”
—All of this was the real, imminent natural disaster this world would face.
Of course, divination was ultimately just a prediction and had its limits. The precision Qi Jiu demonstrated—predicting exactly what would happen at a specific time and place—had already transcended prediction’s boundaries, approaching something close to “glimpsing the future”.
Even Qi Jiu, with his “Spoken Prophecy” skill, couldn’t normally achieve such a degree. He was able to do so primarily because this world had opened a cheat mode for him.
An invisible panel hung in mid-air.
Title: Pseudo • Child of the World
[Passive Halo: Lucky Buff]
[Note: Before you betray your current stance, you will always carry this title’s halo bonus, like the world’s spokesperson, receiving the world’s entire momentum of fortune.]
[—At this moment, the world watches over you.]
In the way of divination, no one could completely comprehend heavenly secrets. Even if such a person existed, they couldn’t reveal everything they saw. The more significant the heavenly secret, the less it could be easily disclosed.
Otherwise, the more impact on human fate and worldlines, the heavier the karmic consequences for those revealing heavenly secrets—dying on the spot would be considered a light punishment. This was the backlash of changing worldlines.
But “Qi Jiu” didn’t need to worry about the consequences of revealing heavenly secrets. Because behind him stood an infinite world.
—Letting heavenly secrets be revealed, letting fate be changed, letting worldlines escape destruction was precisely what the world desired.
Therefore, he wouldn’t bear karmic consequences for revealing secrets. Even if karmic consequences did attach to him, for someone born already bearing the infinite world’s karma, they were completely insignificant.
So when he used his skill to predict calamities, this world almost entirely unveiled its future to him. If the worldline locked by Return to the Void weren’t so difficult to pry open, and if Bai Yi’s current abilities weren’t limited, what he would see now wouldn’t be just a week, but an infinite future.
This was why Bai Yi could predict the next week’s disasters with such precise, cheat-like accuracy.
In a certain sense, these compact and dense natural disasters were the world’s reminder to all things before Return to the Void arrived. Just like how snakes, insects, rats, and ants flee in panic before a major earthquake, making people belatedly realize a disaster is imminent—these abnormally dense calamities erupting worldwide were precisely those “snakes, insects, rats, and ants fleeing in advance”! �
Qi Jiu’s role was to discover the fleeing creatures and predict the impending disaster, becoming the first to notify others.
But he was merely a prophetic messenger.
—The fate of others would have to be saved by themselves.
—After all, this was just the world’s warning before Return to the Void, no more than a small prelude and test.
If they couldn’t even pass through this stage and instead required Bai Yi to deploy his vests everywhere to help, what would they do when Return to the Void truly arrived? Bai Yi never had the idea of protecting all of humanity under his wings or saving the world alone.
Moreover, he didn’t believe he possessed the ability to save all of humanity. So many failed timelines reminded him that his capabilities were limited. Even saving one person besides himself would be a victory amidst countless failures.
Therefore, it was destined that many would remain unsaved.
So, between ordinary people who could only save themselves and special subjects like Li Fufeng who could not only save themselves but also save more people, if a choice had to be made, Bai Yi would certainly choose to preserve the latter’s life.
And between trash and humans, the choice was even easier.
—Humans in this world were not equal. At least in Bai Yi’s eyes, there were extremely obvious priorities.
“...So, this is what you’ll do,” he said, smiling and handing the Puppet Master’s diary to Adams, his current sole laborer. “I’ve opened part of the diary’s permissions for you. It will randomly display the actions of people with causal connections to me. The deeper the causality, the higher the frequency of appearance. Mundane activities like eating or sleeping won’t show up. Only actions involving outcomes influenced by me will be displayed.”
Seeing Adams looking confused, Bai Yi explained simply, “In short, this time’s natural disaster could be predicted in advance because I imposed a powerful cause. So anyone affected by this causality might appear in the log.”
“...Especially those who were supposed to die but survived due to knowing their fate in advance. The outcomes in the cause will naturally be their various choices during this natural disaster.”
—Those whose predetermined fatal fate was changed by advance prediction, and who then made choices affecting more people’s destinies in this natural disaster, were most likely to appear in the log. Others who were neither of these could also appear, but with lower probability.
In this world, where the imminent natural disaster would affect everywhere, and Bai Yi’s prophecy genuinely faced the entire world, perhaps there was no one who wouldn’t be entangled in causality?
Bai Yi spoke in the most casual tone what even the most heartless capitalist wouldn’t dare say, attempting to exploit a minor through massive and arduous work.
“...Like sifting gold from sand, selecting the most worthy people to save in this world. If there’s surplus, even categorizing different trash into recyclable and non-recyclable labels. Then submit the screening results to me.”
At this point, his smile gradually became radiant.
“Decided! It’ll be called the ‘Human Screening Project’!” Bai Yi tapped his hands together. “This is version 1.0.”
He tilted his head to look at Adams, “You can do this, right?”
Adams’ eyes suddenly lit up.
“Of course, no problem!”
He didn’t comprehend the capitalist exploitation and instead was happy to receive another task—this was proof of the White King’s trust. After recently learning about this external identity from Bai Yi, Adams had already felt this weighty trust and was excited beyond measure.
He solemnly received the black diary with both hands, holding it high, and promised with a tone as if he were about to rush and blow up the Chenxing Empire’s imperial palace:
“White King, leave everything to me! I’ll complete this mission even if it costs my life and never disappoint your expectations!”
Bai Yi: “...”
“Ah, there’s no need to risk your life... at most, you’ll just work non-stop for seven days. It’s not like there’s any life-threatening danger. After all, I’m not some devil.”
“You’re not a villain from some fictional story! You’re the only real god in this world! Even White King can’t say such things about himself!” Adams shouted loudly.
Bai Yi felt a rare twinge of conscience.
But he quickly dispelled this illusion. After all, he wasn’t deliberately exploiting child labor; there were more important things that needed his attention.
“Anyway, I’ll trouble you for the next seven days,” the youth’s lips curved into a brilliant smile, using his passive bewitching skill to bewitch his irrational, fanatical follower. “I, ah, have more important things to do.”
He lightly tapped his toes on the ground, instantly approaching the windowsill, and suddenly reached out, scooping up Bai Xiaoxi who was crouching there.
“The world in the depths of nightmares is still waiting for me to save it.”
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