Lady Oracle was a title people naturally called her. In the past, that title had felt deeply embarrassing. After all, she was no oracle. She could not see the threads of fate and discern the future. What she had was merely a gut feeling that was almost always correct. It was useful, of course, but it was nothing compared to a real oracle. As far as she knew, there was only one true oracle in this world, a saint who could make even the true great sects wary. Still, within Blue Emerald Island, and perhaps even in the entirety of the Wild Tide Region, no one else was lucky enough to have abilities and a bloodline similar to hers. Hence, whether she wanted it or not, that title would be attached to her life forever, at least within the Wild Tide Region.

And so, to make use of her talent, she trained. Since there was no one she could learn from, she needed to discover the full extent of her ability alone. Over the years, while not perfect, she began to understand her power better. In the end, while her power touched upon the fate that heaven had dictated, she interacted with it merely through gut feelings.

Everyone in this world had experienced it multiple times in their lifetimes and knew the feeling of a bad premonition that twisted one's gut. Some people had grand illusions about her, but fundamentally, how her ability worked was simple. She only needed to be aware of the bad feelings that came to her heart, try to discern the source of these bad feelings, and then, using the knowledge she possessed, built a narrative that she was sure would happen in the future.

That was why she could sometimes be wrong—not because her ability was wrong, but because she lacked the information to interpret her gut feelings correctly. And so, even though she had bad feelings, as if she had just gulped hundreds of nails into her stomach, when her gut feelings told her they could win against the elders of Nether Lotus Sect, she tried to make sense of how it was possible, and according to her knowledge and narrative, it was possible because each person who entered the base of Nether Lotus Sect with here was strong and formidable.

Cangxuan Wutian was the strongest cultivator on the entire island at that moment—even including the elders of Nether Lotus Sect—according to her gut feelings. Lan Haishen, the former young master of one of the three great sects, already had six cores and was famous for his ruthless martial arts. Then, there was Mu Yeling, a cultivator famous for being able to heal hundreds of people at the same time; Jing Shuyan, a fearsome cultivator who could attack people's minds directly; and Feng Tianrui, who was famous for winning the Grand Tournament with his superb battle ability and could discern the battlefield easily. And then, there was her, a great boon in almost every situation.

Each of them came from different factions in the past, and by joining forces, she believed the sum of their prowess could make this fight winnable.

But then, Cangxuan Wutian suddenly let out a blood-curdling scream, the air trembled, and fire flickered out from his body. A gut feeling came and twisted her stomach, and she realized that… there's no way for them to win this fight.

A beautiful laugh reverberated throughout the entire room. "Got you, you old fool! You thought that brute force could win you this fight? Did you not use your brain since you have that little oracle on your side?"

Elder Cangxuan Wutian continued screaming. Then, blood began coming out from his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth, as if he had internal injuries. The elder, while clutching his head, glanced at her, and that glance made her stomach twist. She understood that the elder was asking her what was happening to him, and she began to process her gut feelings, trying to find a narrative that satisfied them.

But, as she was still thinking, Blood Moon came out from the elder's shadow and tried to stab the back of his neck. Luckily, the man with blue eyes and blue hair—Lan Haishen—was right behind Blood Moon, and with his body glowing with blue light and face twisted into an expression of wrath, he lunged and kicked Blood Moon to the side. Blood Moon rolled on the ground, growled, and began melting again into shadow. But Lan Haishen shouted and began attacking, not letting her melt away.

At the same time, Graceful Phoenix materialized atop the elder from a dot fire. He wielded a thin silver sword, and he swung it as if trying to behead him. Mu Yeling created a tree to stop the sword, Feng Tianrui swung his sword from behind Graceful Phoenix, while Jing Shuyan's eyes shone, a sign that he tried to attack Graceful Phoenix's mind.

From there, a fierce battle continued, descending into utter chaos. Her companions furiously tried to kill their enemies while at the same time protecting the elder. They moved around the room so fast their movement was blurry. The only one who didn't move was her, but it didn't mean she did nothing. No, her mind worked as hard as it could, trying to discern what Bewitching Princess had done to the elder.

After a while, a conclusion that felt right in her stomach suddenly formed in her mind. "Elder! It's a poison accompanied by a mental attack!"

The Elder answered with gritted teeth, "How do I counter them?"

"You… need to kill Bewitching Princess," she said hesitantly. This statement was not helpful at all, as she only stated the obvious. Still, it was the only answer she could get in such a short amount of time. She then looked around the room. Her gut feeling told her that Lan Haishen had no chance of winning against Blood Moon. The trio also could not win against Graceful Phoenix either, nor could she or the elder win against Bewitching Princess.

Holding her temples, she thought about switching opponents. Perhaps all of this eventual failure was a matter of the wrong opponent handled by the wrong person, but when she felt her stomach twist painfully, she realized that was not correct either.

Even if they switched opponents, they could not win this fight.

It seemed after she saw the three elders of Nether Lotus Sect, she finally had enough information to discern that they could not win against them no matter what they did. Yet, she hadn't lied either when she had said that this fight was winnable; that feeling still persisted, even though another part of her feeling told her that it was impossible.

It was so, so confusing.

"Focus!" she told herself. She was sure that these conflicting feelings were not because heaven itself had made a mistake. Rather, it was just that she lacked crucial information to make sense of these conflicting feelings.

As the fight raged around her, the white mist slowly yet surely gathered around the elder. She rapidly thought about what that missing piece was, but then, her mind pivoted to the possible scenarios that would happen to the elder, ranging from the elder being killed, captured, or even possessed. Each thought didn't resonate enough with her hunches, but she knew that she was getting closer and closer to the correct conclusion.

Then, a thought struck her mind, and she mouthed it slowly. "Bewitching Princess is trying to control the elder."

When she said it, it felt as if a gong reverberated through her body, and she knew, without a doubt, that that was what was actually happening.

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As Lan Haishen shouted and unleashed a terrifying fist that shattered half of the palace, and the trio tried to contend with the murderous Graceful Phoenix who tried to kill Cangxuan Wutian, she gritted her teeth. Times like this made her realize that her bloodline was nothing and she was not competent enough to wield it. If she could control her power better, look into the future, and use it effectively, then they would have already won. Yet, she realized thoughts like that were useless. She needed to come a strategy, a weak point of these three elders of Nether Lotus Sect, something!

"Focus all firepower on Bewitching Princess," she said, waiting for her gut feelings about the result if they did that. When her stomach twisted, she realized that it was not the correct thing to do.

"Focus all firepower on Graceful Phoenix." Similarly, it was not the correct thing to do, either.

"Blood Moon." Her stomach churned, making her feel nauseated. Then, she gritted her teeth. "Regroup with the others and fight together with them."

Her gut feeling gave her a resounding yes, but there was a weird feeling that made her think that there was something she was still missing. Yet, it was the only path that promised her comfort, and so, she signaled Jing Shuyan that they needed to retreat and regroup with the others. When Jing Shuyan transmitted her message to the others with his mental technique, Lan Haishen shouted and let out another punch that made the wall crumble, as if he was displeased with this course of action.

Jing Shuyan then transmitted his thoughts directly to her mind. "How about Elder Cangxuan Wutian?"

She glanced at the elder. Her gut feeling told her that there was no way to help him. And yet, she knew that she could not say it. There were many situations where she knew what the outcome of something would be, and to do something about it was a futile endeavor, yet, she needed to do it anyway, just to make sure that her gut feelings were not wrong.

"We need to save--"

"Go!" Cangxuan Wutian suddenly shouted. Tongues of flames began to form around him. "My body," he said with gritted teeth, veins bulging around his face, his eyes fearsome. "My body began to move on its own!"

The mist began to laugh, its voice echoing around the raging battlefield, as if confirming the elder's thought.

Upon hearing this, Graceful Phoenix stopped, his eyes narrowed. "You bitch, what are you doing? Didn't we have a deal?!"

The mist once again began to laugh. "You talk as if you didn't plan to betray me either. Did you forget? The essence of our path is to use other people to advance!"

Cangxuan Wutian began to shout. With his old yet burly arms, he tried to hold his head, as if both of his hands were trying to make his forehead touch the ground to subdue his own body. Yet, the fire around him began to burn more brightly. The elder was trying to stand, and his hands twitched, as if two minds were trying to control the same hands.

"Go!" Cangxuan Wutian shouted once again.

"We need to go!" she shouted to her companions. "Bewitching Princess has successfully taken control of the elder! We will die if we stay here!"

The last part came out naturally from her mouth, as if her mouth had its own mind. She looked at the elder once again; a fire tornado now swirled around him, and he shouted so loudly that his voice sounded hoarse, as if he was trying to take back his body from the control of Bewitching Princess with his sheer willpower alone. She wanted to lunge and try to attack the mist, thinking that if she succeeded, the elder would be out of her control. But when her stomach twisted so painfully that her mind felt momentarily blank, she knew without a doubt that she would die if she did that.

Lady Oracle bit her lips, before finally turning around and running as fast as her feet could carry her. She activated her modest movement technique, and her body lightened. Each step she took carried her dozens of meters away, with the world moving swiftly around her.

"Lady Oracle!" Lan Haishen's shout came from behind her. When she turned her head, she could see his expression scrunched with displeasure, as if he too was an enemy trying to kill her. A moment later, he kicked the ground, and in an instant, he arrived right beside her, his speed comparable to hers. "Didn't you say that this fight could be won? Why the hell then do we need to retreat? And what the fuck happened with the elder?"

Soon, the other three arrived, and the five of them ran down the hallway of the red palace, which quaked and shook with each passing second.

She bit her lips. "Even now, I am still certain that we can win this fight. There's no doubt about it, but there are also conflicting feelings inside my heart, like the feeling that no matter what we do, we would fail in freeing the elder from the grasp of Bewitching Princess."

"How is that even possible?" Jing Shuyan said. "Does that mean that we still could win this fight even if Elder Cangxuan Wutian is on the enemy side, albeit controlled?"

"That's… hard to believe. Even three against one, we couldn't even scratch Graceful Phoenix," the healer said. "Let alone fighting three elders of Nether Lotus Sect with Elder Cangxuan Wutian on top of it."

Lan Haishen gritted his teeth. "What are we gonna do? Just run?"

It seemed that with the absence of Elder Cangxuan Wutian, the position of leader had fallen to her, which was kind of absurd. After all, she was the weakest of them all. What she had was merely a bloodline that she could not control effectively, yet, even that was enough to put her in the position of leader.

A moment later, a giant rumble suddenly shook the entire palace. A wall crumbled in front of them, closing the way. They stopped, and then, a blood-curdling shout reverberated from behind. They turned in unison. That shout was not from Elder Cangxuan Wutian, but from Graceful Phoenix. It seemed that Bewitching Princess had truly betrayed him. A bad premonition began to spread inside her body like tar leaking into her bloodstream. She didn't know what would happen next, but she knew it was bad.

A moment later, the quaking stopped, as did the shouts from Graceful Phoenix. For a moment, there was silence. But then, a moment later, walls all around them began to crumble. The upper floors began to fall, raining debris down on them. Lady Oracle and her companions began to move again. They dodged the falling walls and floors as they moved. Sometimes they dodged to the side; sometimes Lan Haishen struck the debris to create a path.

"Faster!" she shouted.

The crumbling palace itself was not a problem. The problem was the ominous, vast, and oppressive qi that emanated from behind. It felt so heavy, so foul, and so strong that Lady Oracle felt her feet would give up if she bathed within this qi for too long.

A moment later, they finally came out of the red palace. Behind them, the red palace was crumbling entirely. Loud rumbles reverberated, a cloud of red dust billowed into the sky, and parts of the palace slid down into the lake.

The fighting that occurred around them began to slow. Cultivators, whether from the Nether Lotus Sect or not, focused their eyes toward the palace. Then, a giant being came out from the crumbling palace, its body momentarily covered by the cloud of dust, but the strong flaps of its wings soon dispersed the red cloud, revealing a terrifying creature.

Its body was akin to a giant lizard but made entirely of fire. It had four strong, muscular feet, two mighty bat-like wings on its back, two bird-like wings, as well as a fiery tail with a bluish hue trailing behind it. It had two heads. One was a ferocious, giant lizard head made of fire. Its tongue was made of flames; its eyes were smoldering red fire. The other head was human, its scalp bald, its eyes shining with golden fire, and though made of fire, she knew it was the head of Graceful Phoenix.

Lan Haishen, with a trembling voice, pointed at the creature. "T-that's Elder Wutian as well as Graceful Phoenix. They fused into one!"

"This is really bad!" the healer exclaimed. "There's a rumor that sounded exaggerated. They say the elder had a technique that allowed him to turn into a flying, fire-breathing lizard. Who would have thought that rumor was true?"

"I've heard those rumors too," Feng Tianrui, the silent cultivator who excelled at finding an enemy's weak points, pointed at the creature. "It's said that when the elder activates his ultimate technique, his body will turn into a fire capable of burning even the toughest metal, and every human close to him will turn into ash! Moreover, some rumors state that once turned into a being made of pure fire, his fire becomes eternal!"

As if hearing their words, the giant creature made of fire roared so loud that even a deaf man standing on the edge of the island could feel the roar.

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