Chapter 863: Chapter 861: Ignition (35) Chapter 863: Chapter 861: Ignition (35) “Welcome.”
The room was still arranged as familiarly as ever, but Yuan Fang, seated on the large reclining chair, was much more reticent than before facing the entering Fu Qian.
He greeted him with his back turned, and only after a moment did he shift his gaze back and size up the newcomer.
In terms of flamboyance, Fu Qian’s appearance was in no way inferior compared to the last time.
Facing the Prophet’s scrutiny, Fu Qian walked forward on his own accord.
This time, however, he did not sit down; instead, he went straight to the balcony and joined Yuan Fang in observing the world outside the window.
It’s important to be considerate of others; sitting down with his body covered in sticky spiderwebs would surely ruin the sofa.
“What shall I call you?”
This behavior was excessively natural, and it was nearly half a minute before Yuan Fang stared deeply into Fu Qian’s face and finally asked.
“Yuan Fang, or you may call me the Prophet.”
Prophet Yuan nodded and not only introduced himself next but also solemnly apologized.
“I’m sorry for the nervousness they might have shown due to my request for a private meeting.”
Fu Qian stood without sitting, seeming to understand the subtlety of the action, his face filled with guilt as he looked at his own cloudy attire.
“To ask you to come in this way was also a last resort; please forgive me.”
“Aren’t you being a bit too friendly?”
Prophet Yuan’s sudden change in demeanor piqued Fu Qian’s curiosity.
“Let’s not mention the mystery of my origins; I seem to be involved with some sort of major chaos, am I not?”
He pointed outside the window while speaking.
At that moment, the flame in the center of the lake was even more dazzling than before and had spread to the entire grand hall.
Paired with the circular lake surface, at first glance, it looked like a giant candle that had been lit.
It was hard to imagine what state Old Master Xiumeng and his companions were now in.
“Indeed, you are, in any case, a character that should be dealt with, which is also why Ballard and the others don’t understand.”
Yuan Fang sighed deeply, his eyes fixed on the giant candle outside.
“But what I want to say is… thank you very much!”
“With your help, I have finally seen the truth and the future, the real future!”
Presented with such a classic charlatan-style assertion, Fu Qian’s brow furrowed slightly.
“Are you implying that the flame outside represents this place’s future?”
Yuan Fang nodded crisply.
“For reasons I cannot understand myself, I have a special connection with this world–or let’s call it the world for now.”
“This allows me to glimpse at certain moments what are called visions of the future.”
“Some call it fate, but I know it’s not; in fact, it shouldn’t even be called the future, just the last ripples before a drowning death, almost smelling of decay, yet today–”
He looked most earnestly at Fu Qian.
“A miraculous trajectory of fate made me truly believe that this world would come to life.”
So now he really could see his own destiny.
Although Yuan Fang’s words were overly charlatan-like, Fu Qian still understood what he meant, reaffirming why he had been pinpointed so accurately.
“Did you see us going to the lake just now?”
“And then you sent people to wait there without telling them specifically why?”
“One must take precautions, right? I didn’t know how you found the place, but when I realized they were outsiders, I understood their purpose.”
Yuan Fang’s tone was very certain.
“In fact, I’ve always known about the potential spread of the flames there, considering it a pollution and a hazard, wondering how to deal with it. If the outsiders could take the pollution away, that would be the best outcome.”
As expected, consistent with his previous prediction, this guy didn’t really mean to use them to kill someone.
Fu Qian silently nodded.
“So, you glimpsed my destiny just now, realized the true meaning of the flames, then conveyed some information to Ballard and Crystal, and that resulted in them waiting perfectly for me there?”
“Yes, sorry it was all rather hasty, they might be a bit impolite.”
Yuan Fang confirmed Fu Qian’s deduction and apologized again.
“Even without haste, given those two’s style, they wouldn’t be too polite anyway.”
Fu Qian waved his hand dismissively.
His earlier intuition had been correct; after being embraced by the ghosts, his integration deepened, and Yuan Fang had clearly started being aware of his existence from that moment on.
“What I’m more concerned about is what you call the ‘real future.'”
Fu Qian asked, controlling his tone.
The shift in Yuan Fang’s attitude was too drastic between the two times.
The posture he had shown last time seemed to be an attempt to use Fu Qian to set a trap, to lure Xiumeng and his companions into it, to be eliminated by the Saint’s hand.
But further analysis, along with his recent frankness, could almost confirm his real intention, which was for the Hunting Team to take their earnings, the flame, and leave quickly, even to help Unseen Hillock remove “pollution,” killing two birds with one stone.
But this time, his demeanor took a 180-degree turn; he sincerely wished for the flame to spread, creating a brand new future.
The catalyst for this change was the act of Fu Qian intentionally becoming infected by the ghosts, deeply integrating into this world, letting him see the “future”.
“This place is a cage.”
Faced with Fu Qian’s question, Yuan Fang’s expression suddenly grew solemn.
“It is not only a physical inescapability but also a binding destiny.”
“Ballard, Akasha, even Crystal and everyone else here, the only ending I could see from their arrival, was the complete dissolution in the cycles of reincarnation, becoming unconscious ashes, with every cycle determined in advance, which once bored me immensely.”
“But just now, I saw under the blessing of the flames, a completely different future, full of unknowns and boundless vitality, that is real fate.”
“And the initial flame was sparked by you bringing in the outsiders.”
“You are the true savior, all will truly ‘live’ because of you.”
“One day, they might even be able to leave this place and reach where the outsiders live!”
That might just be my purpose here.
Seeing the exhilaration on Yuan Fang’s face, Fu Qian mused internally.
The purpose of this mission was very clear: to Extinguish the Flame.
Now, it seemed very likely that the mission existed because, for some reason, the flame had appeared, creating a potential escape for the prisoners.
This fit neatly with Yuan Fang’s statement.
The problem lay in the most crucial aspect–his purpose, which undoubtedly completely contradicted the future Yuan Fang had seen.
Previously, step-by-step deduction had seemed to conclude that actively integrating into the world was a chance to complete the mission.
However, the future after integration now appeared to involve the flames spreading throughout Unseen Hillock–a clear failure.
Could it be that he even had to go against destiny to complete the mission?