Wang Buku returned, shaking his head. "I can’t do it. At first, I thought I could remember the feel of the red nose, but after touching one nose after another, I got completely mixed up. It even started messing with my mind. That feeling..."
Songg Baige chimed in, "It was like trying to identify an acquaintance by feeling for their nose in a pile of corpses."
"Yes, that’s exactly it. And the people are dead, but the noses are alive. Add in the complete darkness, and that feeling is just..."
The whole group felt their skin crawl.
"Let me. Since Literary Qi and True Essence can be used, so can Fate Skills. Barring any surprises, I should be able to find the nose. The ’moon stomp’ part shouldn’t be too difficult either," Li Qingxian said.
"What about the spinning part?" Wang Buku asked.
"I can enter my Spirit Platform, separating my mind from my body. That won’t be hard either," Li Qingxian said.
"Be careful!"
"Shouldn’t we have someone else try first?"
"That’s enough."
As he spoke, Li Qingxian stepped forward and let one of the children blindfold him with a white cloth.
He activated his Spiritual Eye.
The white cloth contained a mysterious power that blocked the Spiritual Eye. Li Qingxian blinked, and his vision changed.
Ahead in the gloom, a simple, dark yellow stick-figure-like head squirmed gently, as if formed from yellow smoke in the wind, swaying unsteadily.
On the walls to either side, one nose-shaped wisp of dark yellow smoke after another twisted gently.
’I have Hao Yunsheng and the Deceitful Mother to thank for this,’ Li Qingxian thought.
’If Hao Yunsheng hadn’t schemed against me, leading to the Deceitful Mother stabbing my eyes, my Spiritual Eye would never have evolved into a Deceitful Dragon’s. I wouldn’t be able to see through this blindfold or perceive Deceitful Power.’
’Now, even this Deceitful cloth can’t block my Spiritual Eye.’
Li Qingxian glanced down at the nose in his hand, memorizing its shape and aura. It was completely different from the auras of the other Deceitful Noses.
The Deceitful Noses on the wall seemed alive.
The red nose in his hand seemed dead.
A tremor went through Li Qingxian’s heart, and he couldn’t stop himself from staring at the dense clouds of nose-shaped, dark yellow smoke.
Then, Li Qingxian channeled his Magical Power. The Life Disc and Celestial Gazing Mirror flew into the air and, under the influence of his power, began their inference.
Suddenly, there was the CRACK of a whip.
Li Qingxian felt his body shoved by an immense force, spinning at high speed. He grew dizzy and disoriented, his stomach churned, and he felt a wave of nausea. He hurriedly channeled his Magical Power to stabilize his body.
After ten breaths, Li Qingxian’s head was pounding. His mind was in such a daze that he found he couldn’t enter his Spirit Platform.
Li Qingxian then silently recited the Heart Purification Curse and other Daoist Magic, quickly quelling the discomfort.
His legs felt weak, and his body was not entirely under his control.
Li Qingxian stared at the Deceitful Face ahead and shuffled forward step by step. He swayed unsteadily but, unlike Guanzhou, did not collapse.
The others sighed in relief at this sight. Fate Masters possessed neither powerful bodies nor the Vast Righteous Qi to maintain clarity. For Li Qingxian to have made it this far was already enough.
After Li Qingxian had taken a few steps, the red nose was snatched away from him, and the children began to sing the moon stomp song.
Li Qingxian turned and looked at the six humanoid clumps of dark yellow Deceitful Qi.
Li Qingxian watched and memorized, and in the end, he answered their questions one by one, successfully passing.
The candidates breathed another sigh of relief.
Next, the red nose vanished, and the thousands upon thousands of noses on the walls began to squirm rapidly.
Li Qingxian glanced over and froze for a moment.
There were a full ten Deceitful Noses that possessed the aura of the red nose.
To his eyes, all the Deceitful Noses were constantly changing form. He couldn’t distinguish the real one by relying on his Spiritual Eye alone.
’These Deceitful bastards really are something else... Good thing I came prepared.’
As he thought this, Magical Power surged into his Life Disc and Celestial Gazing Mirror, weaving together countless streams of information.
Finally, the Life Disc produced a result: two of the noses on the left wall were genuine.
Li Qingxian hadn’t expected the game to be this difficult.
With a thought, a Qi Fortune Fish flew out of his Life Mansion, leaped into the air, and dove into the Life Disc.
As a Life Artifact most adept at inference, the Life Disc spun rapidly, weaving together innumerable Life Lines, powers, and pieces of information.
After several dozen breaths, Li Qingxian finally pinpointed the red nose’s location. He walked over, leaped lightly, and snatched it with one hand.
"Wow! He got the nose! He got the nose!"
All the children cheered in unison, and Fangfang screamed with excitement.
Li Qingxian turned, walked steadily to the Deceitful Face, and placed the nose precisely in the middle of it.
The Deceitful Face’s previously closed eyes snapped open. It glared at Li Qingxian, then reluctantly began to fade away until it vanished completely.
A flicker of unease went through Li Qingxian’s heart. ’Don’t tell me this Deceitful Face has it in for me now?’ he thought.
"It’s got a nose now!"
All the children shouted even louder, and Fangfang shrieked.
"Amazing!"
The six noseless children rushed to Li Qingxian’s side, took off his blindfold, and clung to him, refusing to let go. They tilted their faces up at him, their eyes sparkling like little stars.
"So amazing!" the other children exclaimed, staring at Li Qingxian in disbelief.
Li Qingxian looked up and saw that the charcoal-black face on the wall had vanished. The vast majority of the noses on the side walls were gone too, leaving only ten behind.
"As expected of a Fate Master!" The candidates gave him a thumbs-up.
"A peerless talent!" Guanzhou’s face was flushed red as he cupped his fists and bowed deeply to Li Qingxian.
The six noseless children were the first to rush forward and retrieve their own noses.
One of the children grinned and said, "Now that the game is over, you can punch out a square. But you have to choose between punching a square and taking back your nose, okay?"
He pointed to a table that had appeared in the corner.
On the table sat a large, yellowish-brown wooden box, even bigger than the table itself. The box’s surface was wrapped in kraft paper, upon which the outlines of thirty-six squares were clearly visible.
"I want my nose!" Fangfang declared, and with a PATTER PATTER PATTER of her short little legs, she ran to the left wall. She grabbed her nose, put it on her face, rubbed it a bit, and ran back, grinning.
"It’s a perfect match!" Fangfang said, planting her hands on her hips and tilting her head back with a laugh.
Songg Baige and Wang Buku exchanged a glance, looked at the kraft paper box, then walked over to the left wall together to retrieve their noses and press them back on.
Li Qingxian smiled and nodded. ’This was the best choice.’
Guanzhou walked over, gave a fist-and-palm salute to Li Qingxian, and said with a blush, "Brother Ye, I hope you’ll honor your promise and help me choose a square with a good prize."
The others watched Guanzhou, their expressions varied.
Li Qingxian nodded. "I can."
Li Qingxian walked up to the kraft paper box. With a glance from his Spiritual Eye, he saw that six of the squares were emitting Deceitful Qi, while the other thirty had nothing.
Li Qingxian stared at the six squares seeping Deceitful Qi and mulled it over.
’If I were just trying to get this over with, I could pick any one of them. But if I want this team to go on, I have to pick the two best ones...’
After a moment’s thought, Li Qingxian consumed two more Qi Fortune Fish and used his Inference Technique, prompting the Life Disc to slowly turn.
Two beams of white light shot out and struck two of the squares. The Deceitful Qi seeping from those squares abruptly intensified tenfold, resembling dark yellow flames.
The two plumes of Deceitful Qi were of the same size and height; their Deceitful Power was indistinguishable.
Li Qingxian pointed out the two squares. "Pick either of these two."
"Thank you, Ye Han! I will surely repay this kindness one day!" Guanzhou bowed deeply again. After a moment’s thought, he chose the higher of the two squares and plunged his hand through.
With a soft POP, Guanzhou broke through the kraft paper. He pulled out the prize and held it in his hand.
Everyone looked over. It was a palm-sized shard of a broken Glazed Tile. Its surface gleamed with a faint, jade-like light and emitted an inscrutable aura.
"Wow! How lucky! That’s a tile for playing hopscotch! It’s a good item, you know!" the six children praised, clapping their hands.
Guanzhou let out a long sigh of relief. He carefully tucked the tile into his clothes, then gently patted the spot through the fabric.