"Me!" a young prisoner couldn’t help but raise his hand and say.
Where there was a first, there was a second. Soon, more than half of the men had raised their hands.
"Still some who haven’t raised their hands? I get it." Fann Xing glared fiercely at Pang Mingjing, Tao Zhi, and the few others.
Li Qingxian said amiably, "Old Fann, even if the deal falls through, goodwill remains. There’s no need for that. I, Li Qingxian, don’t force people into deals, and besides, fate isn’t something you can force a sale on. If you really don’t want to sell, everything will stay as it is. If you are willing, not only will you move into Room A, but if you’ve truly been wronged, I can’t guarantee I’ll get you out, but I will definitely find a way to help."
In the dim prison cells, the prisoners’ gazes grew fervent.
"Lord Li is truly a man of benevolence and righteousness! Listen, Lord Li is surely a reliable Fate Master with a boundless future. Your fates are already rotten. What’s the difference between staying in prison and how things were before? Only by selling to Lord Li do you have a chance of getting out." Fann Xing fanned the flames with all his might.
An old man looked at Li Qingxian, then lowered his head.
Li Qingxian said, "To each their own. If you don’t sincerely want to sell your fate, I can’t take it anyway. I won’t force it. Those who are truly willing, follow me to the hall by the entrance. Those who aren’t, go back to your cells. Fann Xing, treat them the same as you did before. Don’t act rashly. If they decide to sell their fates later but you’ve tormented them to death, I’ll hold you responsible."
"As you command," Fann Xing said hurriedly.
"Everyone, please follow me." Li Qingxian turned and walked back to the prison’s main hall, found a chair, and sat down at a table.
"What are you standing around for? Go to the Prisoner’s Room and get some tea!" Fann Xing yelled at a Prison Guard.
"Also, bring some paper and brushes. We need to prepare to sign the Life Contracts," Li Qingxian said.
"Right, right! Send another person to get paper and brushes for Lord Li," Fann Xing said.
One by one, prisoners slowly emerged from the corridor and stood in the hall. There were twelve in total; not all of those who had raised their hands came out.
"Get them some benches or chairs. We can’t have them getting tired," said Li Qingxian.
"Right. You few, bring some benches. Quickly," Fann Xing ordered hastily.
Before long, the prisoners were sitting in a line, looking nervously at Li Qingxian.
Li Qingxian took a sip of tea and said to Han Anbo, "Brother Han, you’ve written a Life Contract before, haven’t you?"
"I have."
"Could I trouble you to write a few? We’ll need them in a bit."
"Alright. Yur Ping, help me grind the ink," Han Anbo said.
Li Qingxian looked at the twelve prisoners in their ochre-colored coarse linen clothes. Each was disheveled and filthy, their backs bent and stooped.
There were old and young among them; the oldest looked to be in his seventies or eighties, while the youngest was not yet twenty.
Pang Mingjing and the other two were not among them.
"You’ve all heard about buying fate, right?" Li Qingxian asked.
The twelve men nodded hurriedly.
Li Qingxian put on a sincere expression and said, "As long as you cooperate, I guarantee you’ll at least get into Room A. Even if there aren’t enough rooms, I’ll immediately have the Ministry of Works build a new batch. You don’t have to be afraid. If I were to harm you and violate the Life Contract, I’d be the first to suffer misfortune."
A few prisoners nodded lightly.
"However, let me say this upfront. I’m not forcing you; this is a fair trade. But if you violate the Life Contract, harbor ulterior motives, and ruin my Fate Skill, then I, Li Qingxian, will retaliate a hundredfold," Li Qingxian said.
"We wouldn’t dare, we wouldn’t dare..." the prisoners said one after another.
"Good. Now, all of you swear an oath that you are willing to sell your fate to me and will allow me to perform Observing Fate and Qi on you. If you harbor any ill intentions, may you be struck by lightning," Li Qingxian said.
The twelve prisoners swore their oaths one after another.
Li Qingxian nodded. "Fann Xing, introduce them."
Fann Xing immediately introduced them one by one, from left to right.
Li Qingxian listened carefully, analyzing.
After the introductions, Li Qingxian looked at the youngest one, the same person who was first to raise his hand to sell his fate. He was sallow and emaciated, with deep-set eye sockets, tormented to the point of looking barely human.
According to Fann Xing, this person was seventeen, with ordinary looks and from a poor family. He worked in a restaurant and had been brought to the Imperial Prison over a year ago because something had happened with a table of guests he was serving.
The case was already closed, but it involved sensitive figures and wasn’t handled cleanly, so no one bothered with the young man. The restaurant owner was unwilling to pull strings for him, either. Barring any surprises, this person’s life was over; he would never get out.
Li Qingxian didn’t take Fann Xing’s word for it. He first silently recited the incantation for the Observing Fate Skill, Seeing the Dragon and Gazing at Qi.
Light emanated from the young man’s body, and a graveyard appeared above his head.
The graveyard was sealed with bluestone, with not a blade of green grass around it, giving it a gloomy, eerie feel.
In front of this graveyard, a few withered bones were laid out.
Li Qingxian frowned. ’This person is truly unlucky,’ he thought. ’This is a classic "Dead Tomb".’
The Four Malevolences are Defeat, Death, Tomb, and Severance.
The image for Tomb is a graveyard, and those withered bones represent Death.
A Fate Technique says: With the twin malevolences of Death and Tomb, one is knocking on death’s door.
This was one of the worst kinds of Qi Fortune.
Above the man’s head, one Destiny Image after another appeared—even more than there had been for Instructor Dong Ying.
He was born at the end of the fourth of the Four Calamities of Tiankang—the struggle for power in the Martial Arts World. At the same time, Emperor Tiankang was critically ill, and All Kings were fighting for the throne. The world was in chaos, and the people suffered immensely.
Three days after he was born, his mother starved to death.
At age three, his father died, and he was taken in by relatives.
At age seven, his relatives sold him to a landlord, and he began to work the fields.
At age twelve, a great famine struck. Bandits roamed the land, and he was forced to become a wanderer.
...
Last year, while working as a waiter in a restaurant, he was implicated in a case.
For more than a year, he had been living in this prison.
There was only one future image: a year later, not long after turning eighteen, he would die of illness in the Imperial Prison.
The Destiny Image showed that this person had no history of wrongdoing. He was just an ordinary person—hardworking but occasionally lazy, honest but sometimes complained, helped others when he could, and never harmed anyone.
Li Qingxian sighed internally. He entered the man’s Life Mansion and was stunned for a moment.
It was very familiar.
A thatched hut with a roof of wild grass and thin wooden walls, even more miserable than his own wooden hut.
Li Qingxian walked to the door, and the wooden door opened on its own.
There was only one juvenile Life Land and two Celestial Destiny Stars.
Within the Destiny Star of the Year Pillar, on a patch of cracked, arid land, a shriveled seed lay in a dry fissure.
Celestial Destiny Star: Withered Land, Shrivelled Seed. Greatly Inauspicious.
A Fate Technique says: Withered land, mother dies; shriveled seed, father perishes. Withered land and shriveled seed, a short life and early demise.
Within the Destiny Star of the Moon Pillar, rain poured down in torrents. In a pool of black water, waves churned, and a small, half-yellow, half-green duckweed rose and fell with them.
Celestial Destiny Star: Chaotic World Floating Duckweed. Greatly Inauspicious.
A Fate Technique says: In a chaotic world, a man is worse off than a dog; sorrow in life, sorrow in death. A duckweed on the water is battered by the rain; worry if it stops, worry if it drifts.
’If the Four Malevolences formed a set, he might have had a chance to live. But this double-conflicting, greatly inauspicious Fate Grid... Withered land cannot grow duckweed, and black water cannot nurture wheat seeds. Sigh...’
Li Qingxian withdrew from the man’s Life Mansion and looked at him.
His hair was a tangled mess, his face covered in grime. His eyes were dim and lightless. He was so thin he was just skin and bones, huddled on the bench with his head drawn in.
"What’s your name?"
"This humble one is called... called Shenn Goudan." Shenn Goudan was cautious.
"No proper name?"
"No."
"Are you willing to sell your fate?"
An expression of misery, far beyond his years, appeared on Shenn Goudan’s face. He said, "If I sell my worthless life, maybe I can live a few more years."
"You’ve tried to sell your fate before?"
Shenn Goudan sighed. "I wanted to, but the Fate Master wouldn’t take it. He looked at me like I was a stray dog and told me to get lost with my worthless fate. If you want to buy it, you don’t have to give me anything. This wretched fate only brings me harm. I’d be better off without one."
"Are you willing to sign the Life Contract?" Li Qingxian asked.
"A thousand times yes!" Shenn Goudan stared at Li Qingxian.