"A strange little girl? From the Mordan Clan? Really interesting, let me have a look..."
Gladys opened the door with curiosity upon hearing Feng Yuan’s knock and was indeed interested in the Mordan girl. However, her expression changed to one of surprise when she saw the girl clinging to Teacher Yan’s clothes and spoke to her in Mordanese. When the little girl heard Gladys’s words, she lifted her head and looked at Gladys with confusion.
Seeing this, Feng Yuan said,
"It seems you know each other, so I’ll leave her with you~"
"Hold on, everyone, come in first."
Gladys stepped aside to make way while speaking something to the little girl in Mordanese. Agunas spoke with a hint of confusion,
"It looks like you know her?"
Gladys gave a wry smile and said with an inexplicable expression,
"Of course... I didn’t expect..."
Gladys kept sizing up Feng Yuan as she spoke. The guy was dressed casually today, in a collarless red shirt printed with a black eagle, which was Xiao Ji. She wasn’t sure when he got that, and right now, he was hugging Xiao Ji and muttering something.
"Such a cruel truth..."
Shaking her head, Gladys was at a loss for words. Seeing Feng Yuan lifting Xiao Ji with both hands, Qi Chen said somewhat speechlessly,
"Won’t it feel uncomfortable if you do that?"
Xiao Ji shook its head at Qi Chen, and as soon as Feng Yuan loosened his grip, it slid down from his embrace. Looking at Xiao Ji, Feng Yuan said helplessly,
"What can I do if it doesn’t want to turn into the Eggshell Chicken form? With its current size, that’s the only way to hold it."
"Speaking of which, are Diviners really that rich?"
Feng Yuan asked somewhat astonished, having always thought that Gladys was renting somewhere to live. He hadn’t expected that she would actually book a long-term room in a star-rated hotel.
"After all, she’s quite strong. If it wasn’t for that, she couldn’t have traveled through so many regions."
Dou Yanlan stated calmly, and Chen Xin nodded in agreement,
"Right, everyone tends to overlook her strength due to her identity as a Diviner, but in fact, her strength isn’t bad at all among ordinary people."
Dou Yanlan smiled but did not elaborate on Gladys’s somewhat special strength. Qi Chen asked, puzzled,
"Isn’t her strength more than just ’not bad’ among ordinary people?"
"Her Beast Tamed Prophecy Doll only has Elite Level strength, which is decent among ordinary people, but among Beastmasters..."
Chen Xin explained with a smile, to which Qi Chen said curiously,
"Then, back at Lake Bai Dao, how did her strength seem..."
"Anna’s power is quite special; she can convert Mogu’s power into cards of fate for use, and Mogu has genuine Rare Level strength."
Gladys seemed to overhear their conversation and explained. Realizing that it probably wasn’t a good habit to talk about others behind their backs, Qi Chen and the others promptly apologized. Looking at the little girl, Gladys said wearily,
"I’ve figured it out, it really is her... Don’t worry, she’s just here seeking a solution."
Feng Yuan asked, puzzled. Gladys nodded and said,
"Can’t you feel it? She came here to take someone back for help."
"But, how can she ask for help when there’s a language barrier?"
Everyone felt something was off. Gladys smiled and said,
"Maybe this is just the cycle of fate. Her Tribe has encountered a very special snowstorm, so they hope to get insight from the future to survive this crisis."
"Mordan’s special blizzard? Wasn’t that an incident from over a decade ago, or maybe twenty years ago? It seems it was caused by the Divine Beast Veludante, right?"
"Yes, back then someone had targeted the Veludante-protected Snowy Tribe, and even after Veludante’s warning, they showed no repentance. The other tribes didn’t support Veludante for various reasons, so..."
Gladys said somewhat helplessly, having once looked into the events of that time. Though the Mordan region was deeply taboo about this matter, other regions had no intention of helping them conceal it. After all, it involved a Divine Beast, making it difficult for other areas not to know.
Feng Yuan thought it over and shook his head, not really wanting to deal with this. The blizzard-stricken Mordan region? Just the thought left him cold. Xiao Ji looked at Feng Yuan curiously, as normally he would get excited and want to get involved in matters —why the lack of reaction today?
"Do you have any memory of the person who saved them that year?"
Teacher Yan asked Gladys, thinking the best approach would be to handle the matter according to what had already occurred in history. Gladys glanced at Teacher Yan and chuckled while shaking her head, saying,
"You can’t use the present to change the past. As long as nothing unexpected happens, she will find the right person with the intervention of time."
Agunas nodded and said,
"Her arrival is part of history, which makes the correcting force within her quite terrifying. Definitely, without us putting forth our full effort, she should be able to find someone able to help them based on the predefined history."
As for failure? The possibility was not nil, but Agunas didn’t think it necessary to say so. Regardless of the process, the outcome was already predetermined.
Chen Xin said with a sense of lamentation. Was it impossible to escape a predetermined outcome, no matter the effort made? She was somewhat inclined to try and see if the restraint could be broken, but she didn’t know where to begin in confronting fate.
"There is nothing cruel or not cruel..."
Dou Yanlan sighed and spoke helplessly. She didn’t think the outcome was unchangeable, but the altered ending might not be something everyone wished to see. Unlike Chen Xin, who had witnessed too many altered histories, she knew that no destiny was irreversible. It’s just that different destinies had different imperfections.
The Poison Mush, which vanished from history, survived to modern times, but even so, they lived cautiously, fearing the day they might tread the same old historical path.
The Royal Court of Nanyu Kingdom changed from a wholesale slaughter in the retreat incident to the survival of a sole descendant, who also preemptively dealt with the six great families that would have led to the disintegration of Nanyu, erasing the scattered city-states in the Black Sea that only existed because of the division. The city-states that were founded by Nanyu refugees scattered throughout the Black Sea, each with its own cultural characteristics, no longer existed.
The end of the Aquatic People was averted by Feng Yuan, which led to the demise of the terrestrial nations in the Divine Land region. The nations that had risen through maritime trade had no chance to develop under the suppression of the Aquatic People. The pirates who flourished in the middle-to-late Dynasty Era of the Black Sea also ceased because of the existence of the Aquatic People.
No one was certain whether those changes were good or bad, but at least, there was no destiny that couldn’t be altered.
"To know one’s future, yet be unable to change anything... isn’t that cruel?"
Chen Xin murmured, and Dou Yanlan glanced at her with a smile, without explanation. Gladys looked at Chen Xin in surprise and said,
"That’s not necessarily the case. Whether we’re aware or not, the future isn’t set in stone. For us, perhaps leaving everything to fate is more appropriate."
"Is it so pessimistic?"
Chen Xin, puzzled, received a smile from Gladys in lieu of an explanation. Agunas then looked at Chen Xin and said,
"For you, who cannot see the future, it’s natural to think that way. But for us, who can, it’s truly tormenting to select the path we’re willing to accept from countless possibilities time and time again."
"It’s not like there haven’t been people who defied fate, though their outcomes don’t seem too good."
Feng Yuan mentioned, recalling something. Gladys laughed and said,
"Chasing absolute perfection? Does such a good thing really exist in this world..."
"So, what do you plan on doing with her? Are you leaving her here?"
Teacher Yan asked dubiously. He didn’t understand matters related to time and had no intention of contemplating them, but the little girl currently seemed especially clingy, which was giving him a headache.
"It seems she feels secure with you, why not let her stay with you for now?"
Teacher Yan exclaimed angrily, and Gladys chuckled, saying,
"Can’t you help out?"