The village was a modest one, comprising only a few dozen families.

Night had fallen by the time they finished circling the perimeter of the village. The men working in the fields had returned home, and joyous laughter could be heard from within some of the residences. Of course, several unfortunate dwellings seemed filled with shouting, or despairing sighs.

In any case, it was indeed a typical historical village.

Zu An and Qiao Xueying snuck into the village and listened in to the conversations from various households, hoping to gather some clues.

“Hm? There are some weird noises coming from there.” Tugging at Zu An’s sleeves, Qiao Xueying pulled him towards one of the residences.

Only when they were right by the residence were they finally able to figure out what those weird noises were—there was the unmistakable sound of heavy breathing, coupled with the creaking of a bedframe. They even overheard a few flirtatious whispers between a man and a woman… 

Qiao Xueying’s face reddened. She clicked her tongue and said awkwardly, “How lewd of them to do this at such an early hour.”

“You’re too accustomed to the extravagant lifestyles of rich clans, and don’t understand the hardships faced by commoners. Most of them are too poor to afford oil lamps. What else do you expect them to do after sunset?” replied Zu An.

Qiao Xueying covered her ears and scoffed, “Spoken like a true expert in the topic. Enough, let’s check out the other residences.”

“Ah, this reminds me of a riddle. Do you want to give it a try?” asked Zu An.

“What riddle? Tell me about it.” Qiao Xueying refused to believe that she was any less intelligent than him, and the sounds of lovemaking had created a rather awkward atmosphere. Thus, she decided to give it a try.

“Divine Physician Ji invented a medicine where the woman will succumb if the man ate it, and the man will succumb if the woman ate it. If both the man and the woman took the medicine, who do you think will succumb first?” asked Zu An.

Qiao Xueying’s face reddened. She cursed softly, “That old man really is a darned pervert! To think that he’s actually respected as a divine physician! Instead of bringing solace to the suffering, he wastes his time coming up with this sort of weird stuff!”

Zu An burst into laughter. “You can criticize Ji Dengtu all you want once you return to Brightmoon City. So, what’s your answer to that question?”

“How could I possibly know the answer to a question like this?!” Qiao Xueying turned her reddened face away.

“Heh, I knew that there’s no way you can figure out with that small brain of yours. Alright, I’ll give you the answer. Of course, it’s the bed that succumbs first!” Zu An laughed heartily.

Qiao Xueying glared at Zu An and sneered, “If you dare make such crude jokes in front of Chu Chuyan, she’ll definitely chase you out of the Chu clan.”

“Heh. She might chase anyone away from the Chu clan, but definitely not me,” replied Zu An.

“I sure do wonder where your confidence comes from.” Qiao Xueying snorted dismissively before stomping away to look for more clues.

Zu An shrugged leisurely and followed, quickly catching up with her.

A moment later, they arrived at the village chief’s residence, which happened to be the home of the brawny man, Chen Wei. His father was the village chief.

As the village chief, it went without saying that their family was much better off. At the very least, they could afford oil lamps. The two of them left distinct shadows on the walls of their residence as they chatted by the windows.

With a fearful voice, the village chief said, “Antares Occupying the Heart; that’s the omen of an impending crisis!”

However, Chen Wei thought nothing of it. “Father, ‘Antares Occupying the Heart’ is nothing more than an ancient legend exploited by those in power to achieve their goals. How could something like this foretell disaster?”

“You don’t understand because you’re too young… If the whole world believes in it, then even something that’s false can become true. A crisis can be brought to pass by the efforts of human will,” replied the village chief with a shake of his head.

“Even if ‘Antares Occupying the Heart’ does happen, as the legends foretell, the emperor would be the only one to suffer. What does this have to do with ordinary civilians like us? In fact, it’ll be a day of celebration for us all if that tyrant dies!”

“Shush! Are you tired of living?!” The horrified village chief immediately covered his son’s mouth with his hand. “That’s a crime that warrants the eradication of nine generations of our clan! If someone hears your words and reports it, we’d all be goners!”

Chen Wei sniffed in response. “It’s not as if there’s anything wrong with what I just said. The phenomenon of ‘Antares Occupying the Heart’ is something for the emperor and the nobles to worry about. It has nothing to do with us.”

“I hope so…” The village chief’s voice was filled with worry.

The two of them lost their mood to continue the conversation, and soon retired for the night.

“What does ‘Antares Occupying the Heart’ mean?” Zu An was perplexed by the conversation. He was just about to ask Qiao Xueying when he noticed that she was staring at the sky in a daze.

“What’s wrong?” Zu An also turned to look at the sky, only to see stars scattered about the cloak of darkness. He couldn’t see anything amiss.

Thinking back, it had been many years since he’d seen such a starry sky, thanks to all the light pollution in the city.

Wearing a worried look, Qiao Xueying pointed to a certain part of the sky and said, “Do you see the two brightest stars over there?”

Zu An looked in the direction where she was pointing toward and noticed two stars that were visibly brighter than the others.

“The one on the upper left side is Antares, an ominous star thought to be the omen of disaster and death. There are three stars on the lower right side of it; they form the Heart Mansion of the Twenty-Eight Mansions[1]. The brightest one in the center represents the Son of Heaven, the emperor, while the two beside it represent the crown prince and the common populace. Right now, the Antares star has halted inside the Heart Mansion, positioned right beside the star representing the emperor. This is one of the most ominous celestial events known as Antares Occupying the Heart.”

“Celestial event?” scoffed Zu An. “Do you believe in such superstition as well?”

Having been brought up in a world of science and logic, there was no way he would believe in such things. On second thought, though, his Keyboard system, the existence of cultivation, and all the supernatural elements in this world weren’t things that could be explained scientifically.

“How can you dismiss this as superstition? Every time this phenomenon occurs, it results in the sudden death of an emperor or a prominent official. Sometimes, it even results in great bloodshed!” Qiao Xueying was appalled by Zu An’s nonchalant attitude. 

This is common knowledge! Why does this fellow think nothing of it at all?

A thought suddenly surfaced in Zu An’s mind. “Say, could the trial of the Heaven Seal be related to this Antares Occupying the Heart?”

Qiao Xueying’s eyes widened in astonishment. “I hope not. If it does, we’ll be in grave danger.”

As she spoke, she suddenly realized that Zu An’s face was inexplicably getting brighter. She quickly turned to the sky and saw that the night sky had brightened suddenly. A ball of flames was descending from the sky.

“A meteor!” exclaimed Qiao Xueying.

“You actually know of meteors too?” asked Zu An in surprise.

“Of course! Don’t you know that powerful fire-element and earth-element cultivators have a forbidden art where they can summon meteors?” Qiao Xueying was unsure why Zu An was making a huge fuss out of nothing.

The fireball grew larger and larger, until they could make out the layer of flames shrouding its surface. Zu An murmured, “Where do you think the meteor will land? Surely we can’t be so unlucky for it to land right where we are, can we?”

Barely after he said those words, the meteor suddenly exploded, fragmenting into multiple smaller fireballs. The impact of the explosion seemed to have affected the trajectory, sending the fragments hurtling directly towards them.

“You and your wretched mouth!” roared Qiao Xueying angrily. She grabbed his arm and immediately began to flee.

The balls of fire seemed rather far away, but the speed of their descent was incredible. In the space of a few breaths, the fragments were falling right before their eyes. 

Qiao Xueying’s face turned pale with horror. Such a naturally-occuring meteor shower was far more powerful than any produced by a cultivator’s forbidden art. It had appeared to be no more than a speck of light in the sky earlier on, but at such close proximity, the flames covered such a vast area that there was no way for them to escape the impact zone in time.

Qiao Xueying had been the one pulling Zu An away at first, but it soon became Zu An pulling her away instead.

Using Sunflower Phantasm, Zu An wove around the raining inferno to escape. While it was easy for him to avoid getting hit by the meteor shower, it was difficult for him to cope with the shockwave produced whenever each fragment struck the ground. Each of these falling spears of flame were as powerful as a modern-day missile!

On top of that, the heat swiftly engulfing the area was threatening as well, swiftly devouring the oxygen in the area. 

If Zu An had been a normal person, just a single spear of flame falling in his vicinity would have been able to kill him. Fortunately, his body was far more resilient than it used to be, allowing him to withstand the shockwaves ravaging the surrounding area for a few moments.

Unfortunately, the meteor shower seemed endless. Flames constantly pelted the area in an unceasing barrage. Zu An’s entire body was aching, and the air that filled his lungs was so hot that he felt as though it was going to sear them.

Qiao Xueying flicked her arms, and countless green leaves swiftly wrapped around them, forming a barrier that shielded them from the impact of the shockwaves.

“I feel like the wisest decision I made today was to bring you in here with me. I didn’t know that you had so many skills,” remarked Zu An.

“And the dumbest decision I’ve made today was coming in here with you. I feel like I’ve suffered a huge loss,” grumbled Qiao Xueying.

Another loud explosion occurred, and Qiao Xueying let out a groan from the impact. She staggered into his arms, and the leaf barrier she produced almost scattered. However, she quickly rechanneled her ki to stabilize the barrier.

Noticing the blood dripping from her lips, Zu An quickly said, “Stay closer to me and make your barrier smaller. You’ll be able to better conserve your energy this way.”

“No way in hell!” Qiao Xueying took a step back and intentionally made the barrier even larger.

“What the hell! Are women all that unreasonable and irrational?” Zu An couldn’t understand why she was doing this at all. Instead, he reached forward to wrap his arm around her waist and pulled her in toward him. By staying as close to each other as possible, they could reduce the surface area of the barrier significantly, and reduce the impact that the shockwave had on it.

Qiao Xueying struggled fiercely. “What are you doing?!” 

Unfazed, Zu An gripped her arm tightly and snorted impatiently, “Why are you kicking up such a huge fuss? It’s not the first time we’re hugging and kissing anyway. There’s bound to be more dangers further on in the Heaven Seal. Don’t you think you should save up some energy to deal with the threats that’ll be coming our way later on?”

Qiao Xueying knew that he was making sense, so after a moment of hesitation, she decided to follow his instructions and decrease the size of her leaf barrier.

It took a while for the explosions to finally subside. Qiao Xueying finally dispelled the leaf barrier, and the two of them emerged from their hiding spot to take a look around. The surroundings had been utterly ravaged. The village had been set ablaze, and human figures could be seen rushing about, rescuing the injured and putting out the flames. Cries echoed from around the village.

Zu An fell silent.

The meteor shower was terrifying, but it’s not enough to be considered as the trial of the Heaven Seal. Could there be more to this?

----

In the historical record ‘Annals of Qin Shihuang’, it’s said that the phenomenon of Antares Occupying the Heart occurred, a foreboding omen that something is going to happen to the emperor. A meteor fell on the Dong Commandery and turned into a stone. Carved on it were the following words: ‘Upon the death of the Founding Sovereign Emperor, his land shall be divided’. 

When Qin Shihuang heard about it, he ordered an investigation to determine the culprit who had carved those words out, but no one admitted to it. As a result, he slaughtered everyone living in the vicinity of the stone, before destroying the stone itself.