Wedge

  As night falls, the mountains and fields become quiet, with occasional insect chirps and bird calls, but they do not disturb the tranquility of the scene. The stars in the sky are dense and bright, making them seem high and distant. Occasionally, a shooting star flashes by, making the sky even more magnificent and mysterious.

  In the mountains, in front of a house, an old and young woman were sitting, using the bright starlight and the oil lamp in the house to read and do chores. The little boy seemed not to be reading attentively, from time to time looking out at the distant road in front of the door, and after a while asked: "Mother, why hasn't Father come back yet? I'm getting sleepy."

  Her mother's hands didn't stop moving as she said: "Soon, look at you, you've only been reading for a bit and you're already saying you're sleepy, just read for half an hour more and then go to sleep."

  The little boy was scolded and, with a busy tone, stopped talking and focused on reading his book. But today, for some reason, he couldn't concentrate on the book and soon became distracted again. This time, he started gazing at the dark night sky and twinkling stars, lost in thought, unsure of what was on his mind. After a while, he opened his mouth to ask: "Mother, do you think there are really gods living in heaven? Why can't I see them?"

  This time, the mother was obviously a bit angry. She put down her work and was about to scold loudly, but when she saw the boy's bright eyes shining like stars in the night sky, she couldn't bear to be harsh. The words on her lips changed as she said: "Of course, there are immortals living in heaven, but those immortals are extraordinary people. People without great abilities can't see them. If Feng'er wants to see them, he must read more books, learn many skills, and only when he has great abilities can he see them."

  "Really?" The boy's eyes lit up, his spirit was shocked, and he suddenly became interested.

  "Of course it's true, there are immortals practicing in the city. When your father signs you up, you can go learn magic later. But they only want people who know how to read and have skills, so you must study hard, got it?"

  "Alright, mom. I'll study hard then." The boy said and started focusing on his book, no longer looking around or asking questions, apparently his longing for the immortal had temporarily overcome all difficulties. His mother saw that he was finally studying diligently and picked up her needlework again.

  The mother and son chatted casually, unaware that at the same time, in the depths of the vast starry sky, amidst a misty veil surrounding pavilions and intricately carved buildings, two other people were also engaged in conversation.

  The man who was asking the question was a middle-aged man with skin as white as jade and a handsome appearance. He wore a golden long shirt, embroidered with colorful flower patterns, which occasionally flashed like ripples on water, even in this magnificent hall, it could show its extraordinary, but when worn by the man, it didn't steal his style at all, instead, it set off the elegant and majestic demeanor of the white-skinned man.

  "Still can't find a suitable candidate?" The middle-aged man sat cross-legged on a circular platform, his tone calm yet with an intangible aura of authority.

  Below the round platform, a golden armored guard stood not far away, his armor shining brightly, with an exaggerated shape, but more majestic, showing that this attire was not so simple. Seeing the middle-aged man ask questions, the golden armored guard hurriedly saluted and replied: "The news from below is that there isn't even one suitable candidate for the fetal period, let alone the combined body period or the calamity period."

  "How could this be?" The middle-aged man with a pale face showed no change in expression, but only muttered to himself for a moment before speaking: "You go down first, I have other arrangements for this matter."

  The golden-armored guard bowed and said, "I bid you farewell." After finishing speaking, he turned around and took a step forward, and immediately disappeared from sight, as if the person who had just been standing there was only an illusion.

  If this scene were seen by ordinary people, they would be shocked and stunned. However, the middle-aged man didn't even glance at it, his eyes slightly closed, motionless as if he had fallen asleep. But if you looked closely, you would discover that the middle-aged man's right hand fingers moved swiftly like lightning, as if calculating something. After a while, he stopped the movement and muttered to himself: "It can't be helped, only Pu Shang has one more hexagram."

  As soon as he finished speaking, his right hand stretched out and pinched a seal. Then, around him on the round platform, numerous rod-shaped objects of varying lengths and thicknesses, like the heavenly maiden scattering flowers, shot out in all directions. In just one blink of an eye, all the rods were embedded into the round platform, forming a precise eight trigrams diagram around him, with each trigram and each line in their exact positions, as if carved there.

  Then, the middle-aged man raised his left hand, and a handful of golden sand, like sesame seeds, suddenly scattered above his head, slowly falling down like flower petals in the wind. At this moment, although the middle-aged man was still sitting motionless, his whole body began to rotate, and as he spun faster and faster, it became impossible to see his figure clearly. Meanwhile, his hands flew up and down, striking out strange seals one after another, which were emitted more and more quickly and in greater numbers as the rotation speed increased.

  Very soon, the rapidly rotating middle-aged man turned into a virtual shadow, like a whirlwind spinning in the Bagua array. What's strange is that such high-speed rotation didn't cause even a sesame-sized grain of sand to move with the wind. Except for a small number of grains of sand flashing various colored lights as they changed with the印诀 (seal or imprint), the vast majority of the sand continued to fall freely along their original trajectory.

  As the last grain of sand fell into the Bagua array, the middle-aged man suddenly stopped in his tracks, his position exactly where he had originally sat, as if he had never moved at all. And all the sand grains fell onto the trigrams of the Bagua array, each trigram and each line having a different amount of sand, some more, some less, some dense, some sparse, all unique.

  He didn't even look at the divination, but it seemed clear in his mind. He casually made another hand seal and muttered to himself after a while: "So that's how it is, really foolish and laughable." Then he furrowed his brow and muttered again: "No good, I have to think of something."

  After a moment of contemplation, the middle-aged man flipped his wrist, and a palm-sized jade appeared in his hand. The jade was round and disk-like, and after being taken out, it flashed with five colors and six colors, constantly changing, looking like a colorful lantern. However, the four ancient seal characters on its surface indicated that it was not ordinary: Xuan Tian Ling Jade. The middle-aged man seemed reluctant to part with it, gazing at it for a long time before using his hand to press a series of seals into the jade. As the seals were pressed in, the jade's luster dimmed, and the frequency of its flashes slowed down, soon becoming an ordinary white jade disk.

  The middle-aged man holding the jade plate looked at it and said, "It's barely usable like this. Well, I can only trouble you for now." This remark seemed to be directed at the Xuantian Lingyu.

  Then, a middle-aged man made a casual gesture, and a sesame-sized grain of sand floated in front of his eyes. He stretched out his hand to wipe it, and the sand rippled with a wave-like disturbance. After the ripples passed, mountains, rivers, and even human-built cities of all sizes appeared on the surface of the sand, although extremely small, they were meticulously detailed and realistic, almost indistinguishable from a real planet.

  The scene on the sand continued to move, and soon a human city appeared. The scene stopped rolling and began to zoom in. This small point was constantly enlarged. The target was not this city, but a small village next to it. The scene continued to zoom in, and soon a boy about ten years old appeared in the picture. A middle-aged man facing the image cast a spell, and then suddenly shot out the Xuantian Lingyu in his hand. That Xuantian Lingyu instantly turned into a stream of light, disappearing into thin air in an instant.