劍問蒼天 - 第87章 看相 - 翰墨軒

The old man clearly doted on this granddaughter and did not mind her scolding. He laughed and said, "Do not look down on those few books on faces I gave you. The Nine Calculations of Destiny and The Jade Pillar Physiognomy were both handed down from our ancestor Canglanzi. You are simply gifted by nature and have a flair for this art. Take an ordinary man—heh, take me, for instance: a lifetime of reading and I still cannot make head or tail of it!"

Xiaowan spat at him and turned her head, only to see that Zhang Qingyue had long since disappeared from sight. She turned back and said, "Then what was that about danger and hardship on his road? What was that?"

The old man gave a sly laugh. "Naturally I made it up. But you saw his color and his prospects—is there truly disaster in them?"

Xiaowan shook her head. "I only read as far as the Phase of the Past. Of the Phase of Things to Come I have only touched the surface. I cannot say for certain."

The old man nodded. "True enough. The Phase of the Past is all fixed numbers, unalterable, so it is easy to read. The Phase of Things to Come concerns what is yet unknown and undetermined—the highest realm of our art. How could it be so easy?"

Xiaowan shrugged her shoulders and walked on with her grandfather. "But from what I could see of that man, his color and his lines of fate seemed very strange—the sort the books record as the hardest of all destinies to calculate, the Chaotic Demon Fate. That is rarely seen."

"Never mind him. The silver is in hand, and that is what counts. Come, Grandfather will take you to a good meal..."

"Tch... Oh, Grandfather, you were speaking of our founder Canglanzi just now. You always say that we and the Canglan Sect are of the same root but a different branch. Why not go and claim kinship? With the Canglan Sect's standing today, and with your seniority, would we not have rich fare and fine wine at our pick?"

"Shh..." The old man started in fright, looked around, and only relaxed when he saw no one was paying attention. Then he said in a low voice, "What does a little girl know? The Canglan Sect today is a great sect of cultivators famed throughout the world, while all we know is a bit of the physiognomy our founder Canglanzi left behind. Claim kinship rashly, and I fear they would take us for swindlers and lock us up on Canglan Mountain for a hundred or two hundred years. And besides—"

He smiled faintly, and once more there appeared in his manner that air of a crane-boned immortal, the same he had worn when speaking with Zhang Qingyue. "Am I, Zhou Yixuan, the sort to cling to the powerful?"

Xiaowan was taken aback, then delighted. "Grandfather, I never thought you had such backbone. That is truly rare—"

"Ah!"

Before she could finish, Zhou Yixuan's eyes suddenly lit up. He strode forward and planted himself in front of a plump, prosperous-looking matron draped in gold and silver who was coming down the street, and said with a solemn face, "Madam, I see black clouds over your crown, darkness between your brows, and the breath of death on your face—grave matters indeed! Let me read your fortune, if you please?"

Xiaowan was speechless. But her grandfather kept shooting her looks, so she followed and, putting on a cute and innocent manner, studied the face of the wealthy matron.

Zhang Qingyue walked down the street and before he knew it had left the little town behind. He had tarried there a while, and his own thoughts had occupied him; only now did he notice that the sky was already turning to dusk.

The setting sun slanted low, painting the clouds at the horizon like fire and stretching his shadow long behind him. It was suppertime now, and every household was heading home. Beyond the town there was not a soul to be seen but him, alone and very lonely.

He looked at his own shadow, and another wave of bewilderment washed over him.