The pouring rain that has suddenly come still has absolutely no signs of ceasing. The moment Shi Wuduan touched the constellation tablet, his body becomes still.

Ever since he was very young, Shi Wuduan has had a terrible att.i.tude. The moment he learned how to turn sideways, he started rolling off his cribs. The moment he learned how to crawl, all the things in his rooms started having accidents. After he learned how to run, everything got worse, he was truly a little calamity on legs. To control him, the only way is to have somebody follow and stare at him every moment of the day, who can immediately burst any naughty ideas the moment they start to form.

Until that one day, the Taoist master discovered his interest with the constellation tablet.

Whether he was on a surplus of energy to create ruckus around or not, as long as there is a constellation tablet, even though it is only as small as a person"s palm, it is enough to him to still and docilely sit there and mess around with it for a whole morning or afternoon - even when the tablet is just a dead piece of stone without any stars and star threads.

In the cave, the only sounds remain are those of the rainfall, the sound of burning wood crackling, and the sound of a young man using his small stick to draw all over the mud.

Shi Wuduan squats on the ground, his body still soaked, his wet hair hanging on his back. There are a few strands of hair lying on his forehead, docilely lying on his soft side profile. The mud on his face is still not cleared, after drying, it makes him look like a wild kitten, but his expression is very serene.

So serene that it somehow does not look like a child.

The shining star threads that seem to have a life of their own hang on his hands, forming an intricate and inseparable arrangement. On the constellation tablet that is no bigger than half a meter (=1/3 current meter) squared, the stars that are as large as one piece of sand slowly move. It looks like there is a hand that puppeteer the tablet of stars, yet there seems to exist an even bigger, almost unimaginable hand, forever pushing behind the stars so no one can stop its motion, and have been for billions of years.

Unsure of the reason why, Bai Li suddenly feels this young man lies very far away from him, as far as between the ground and the stars, that no matter how far his hands reach he could not touch him, so he cannot resist saying: "You don"t have to calculate it, it"s wasteful of your energy. In our fox spirit clan, who can cultivate without going through tianjie? It"s fine if I can just tolerate until it pa.s.ses."

Shi Wuduan made a replying sound, but the small stick in his hand has not stopped, who knows if he even heard.

The calculation that he draws, though outsiders would think it is complicated, it is actually only the introductory "San Lian Suan Shi"(*), it is not that advanced. Shi Wuduan obviously thinks that Bai Li is a child like himself, thus having such few years on this earth, so what karma could he have possible acc.u.mulated. That is why he decided on such a simple calculation.

(*) lit. formula to calculate the three connections

Unexpectedly after a moment, he frowns and makes an "oh" sound. The mud on his face has dried so it feels a bit itchy. Using the wooden stick to scratch his face, he says like in a monologue: "Why can"t I calculate it? How strange."

Bai Li repeats what he said: "So don"t calculate anymore."

If he never said that it would have been less bad, but Shi Wuduan has a child-like nature. Normally the constellation tablet on Jiulu mountain cannot be brought down from the mountain at will, it was not easy Shi Wuduan can bring out this small one, he whole-heartedly wants to show off to Bai Li, so how can he just quit? So he pretends to be mature and waves his hand away: "Don"t be anxious, "San Lian Shi" is only for the children who just entered cultivation to practice their calculation, even pointing randomly on it can generally tell you something so it"s often not that accurate. Let me change another calculation then you"ll see."

Bai Li just opens his mouth but before he can stop him, Shi Wuduan has waved his mud-spotted hand to wipe away the bunch of calculations he just wrote down, then uses incredible speed to write down an even more jumbled up, tiny bunch of calculations. Bai Li is only able to see the number of star threads on that constellation tablet inexplicably grows exponentially, from the few docilely wrapped around Shi Wuduan"s hand they grew to be a bunch of threads that weigh down on the young man"s fingers. Not moments later, Shi Wuduan"s arm is not visible from his wrist and below.

The stars lying on the constellation tablet shine with a witchy light, even the glow of the fire next to them is suppressed. Bai Li gives a quick glance and realized that even with his cultivation power his mental state can still be shaken by those chaotic stars, so he quickly averts his eyes, not daring to look any longer.

Shi Wuduan is still young. Only half of the calculation has been written down when sweats soak his temples and the hand raising above the tablet was wrapped by the continuous outpour of star threads so much that it started to shake a little. The star threads slowly glow under his fingers, but his face beneath the glowing, flickering lights starts to show a dark aura.

Bai Li stares in horror, he feels like that thing is sucking something from Shi Wuduan"s body, so he quickly grabs the fingers that are tightly bound by the star threads.

The moment he touches the star threads, some source of power immediately repels him, his fingertips burning. Bai Li looks down and discovers that the finger that touches the star thread has swollen red.

He cannot resist but call out: "Wuduan!"

Yet Shi Wuduan does not seem to hear. He is swiftly drawing on the ground, like his entire body has been submerged in the immeasurable sea of stars.

The star calculation technique even though may sound very deep and hard to understand, or very grand, to the common person, but among cultivators, it is not that rare, not even to mention in large and reputable sects like Jiulu mountain, the small and ordinary sects also practice this technique. However, on Yin Sheng lands cultivators tend to orientate more toward "kungfu cultivation" or "Taoist spells". When building foundations people would learn a little about star calculation like when children would read San Zi scripts in order to learn how to write, so their knowledge is merely in pa.s.sing. Not everyone has the perseverance and natural talent in this discipline.

The absolute majority of "dao" cultivators at most can only reluctantly understand "San Lian shi", or hear of the "Wu Lian Suan Shi" (*), even the especially talented can only use the method "Xiao Tou Shi"(**) to do little things like scout the mountains or find somebody.

(*) lit. formula to calculate the five connections

(**) little stone head

Shi Wuduan feels it is not easy to get this opportunity, so he whole-heartedly wants to show off in front of Bai Li. Just now when the "San Lian Shu" could not be done, he pretends to brush it off but in the depths of his heart he felt a little disappointed, so he immediately arranges the most advanced star calculation technique of the Mi sect that he knows of "Jiu Xing Ceng Di Shi"(*).

(*) lit. formula of the ninth star level

Legend has it this calculation technique has thousands upon thousands of variations, all of them capable of revealing heaven"s secrets. Even though in this discipline Shi Wuduan can be called an outstanding talent, he is still young and just learns of the technique as well. Right now, in front of the little girl that he likes, he has long thrown away the caution words "This arrangement is very dangerous, you would be looking directly at the heaven"s secrets, under normal circ.u.mstance you cannot use it at will" to the winds.

Bai Li does not understand star calculation technique, but seeing the strange behaviour of that constellation table, and looking up to see that the rain has since eased up and should have stopped already, but the sky is becoming increasingly dark. Thunders rumble across from afar, seemingly carrying a warning from the nine layers of heaven, so he cannot be ignorant of the gravity of this situation.

The jade sparrow flares out its wings and flaps them with all its strength to call Shi Wuduan"s attention, loud noises screeching from its throat.

Once that fearless, stupid nature of him arises, Shi Wuduan has never paid attention to anything else, he seems blind and deaf to the weather-changing thunders outside. The closer he is to calculating the critical point, the more he frowns. He feels like he has never touched on a destiny so complex and tumultuous. Normal mortals only have one destiny star, but somehow Bai Li has two, their orbits tangling in each other, drawing an eerie line in the middle, making him sink deeper into it the more he calculates.

The stars on the constellation tablet swirl at higher and higher speed, the star threads almost wrapping around his entire arm.

Observing that the thunder is sounding more and more aggressive, one lightning strike almost blowing off the entrance, and blinding him in white light, Bai Li does not dare to wait anymore. At this moment, from the fingers from the little, lanky lady such as "her" grows a metallic glint. With one flip of his hand, in a blink of an eye all the star threads that are as tough as metal immediately are slashed. He throws forward with his whole body to embrace Shi Wuduan and roll away.

Right at this instant, a lightning strike shatters Bai Li"s boundary and aims accurately at the place by the fire that the two of them have been sitting previously. The star threads on the constellation tablet are all lit up by that lightning; they suddenly withdraw to the tablet, where the stars glow intensely, and for one moment they are on equal footing with that lightning bolt.

Only then does Shi Wuduan realizes he messes up, dazedly allowing Bai Li to grab onto his shoulders. Once his eyesight recovers from the glare of the white light, he sees now that the lightning bolt has struck a very long hole into the stone cave, the ground cracking right up to near his ankle, the ground all still shaking.

The star threads on his hand fell down to the ground, dried and without any life force, the calculations on the ground have been wiped more than half away by the wind and rain. The jade sparrow jumps on his shoulders and violently pecks him on the forehead. Shi Wuduan uses one hand to cover his forehead, while the other he unconsciously use to pat Bai Li on the back, his mouth saying "don"t be afraid don"t be afraid" while the expression on his face still looks dazed, like he has not yet recovered mentally.

Bai Li pushes his hand away, formally kneels down and bows to the northern skies, saying: "The little one is full of ignorance, has offended heaven, star G.o.ds please quell your anger."

Then he pushes Shi Wuduan"s head with force. Shi Wuduan yelps "ow", but he does not dare to resist, so he follows: "G.o.ds grandpas I"m wrong, please don"t strike lightning anymore, you"re making my wifey scared ..."

At that, he feels Bai Li"s hand behind his head use even more force, pressing down on the head Shi Wuduan plans to lift up, so the rest of his sentence is stuck in his throat.

It takes a long while later before the thunders weaken, flatten out, the black clouds also dispersing. Only then does Bai Li breathe a sigh of relief, let Shi Wuduan go, glaring at him only to see this little devil fearfully looks up at him with a flattering look. The little bit of anger in his heart that makes Bai Li wants to strangle him suddenly cannot help but fades away in half.

Shi Wuduan sees that his expression is not happy, so he embarra.s.sedly moves forward, tugging on Bai Li"s sleeves: "Xiao Li Zi, I"m wrong, don"t ignore me ..."

Bai Li coldly side-eyes him, then looks down, his face mad, not wanting to look at him anymore.

"Aiya," Shi Wuduan scratches his head, sighing like an adult, then says: "When shifu taught me this he also helped me set up a barrier. He told me to use the rare birds he raised in the backyard to practice, but there has never been such a huge commotion. Xiao Li Zi, I saw that the two stars in your fate is so rare, there"s even a thread puncturing through the Heaven Gate. Just then I got stuck calculating that part, I had zero ideas on how to solve it. Just when I found out some clues, the thunder already came, it"s obviously warning me to not see ..."

Bai Li is startled, lifting his head to look at him. Shi Wuduan is frowning, a finger supporting his chin, on this stubborn child"s face there is currently an unspeakable sense of formality.

But then, he sees the contemplating Shi Wuduan shake his head, then with very open thinking, taps on his own chest and says: "It"s ok, you don"t have to be afraid. I"m here, I"ll protect you."

He just finished his sentence when he suddenly turns his head to sneezes really loudly. Somewhat embarra.s.sed, he turns away to wipe his nose, putting effort into making a clown-ish face. He puts up that "once I"ll clean up my snot I"ll be a man again" aura and lifts his chin so he can seem a bit taller and broader.

Bai Li sighs, feeling that last bit of anger in his chest all dissipating, and does not know what to do. He inwardly thinks, when can this little idiot grow up?

Pondering, he looks again at that little body of Shi Wuduan, seeming to feel some sorrow from this current pleasure.

The sky finally becomes clear again. Shi Wuduan then shoulders his luggage, holds the struggling jade sparrow under his arm, and says goodbye to Bai Li who led him to the exit of Cangyun valley. He excitedly skips away among the hoa.r.s.e yelling of the jade sparrow.

Bai Li leans on a stone, staring at the skipping back that refuses to walk like a decent person for a long while, all the way until it can no longer be seen, before turning back into his original male teenage form. He dazedly looks at the golden, glimmering maiden"s ribbon on his hand for a while before turning back.