Gu Shi Yi thought for a moment, then turned back to the cabin, took out the three ancient coins from the bundle on the bed, and said to the ship owner,
"Owner Yu, shake the coins for a divination..."
The ship owner responded and took the three ancient coins, cupped them in both hands, and shook them a few times. Afterward, the coins fell to the ground. Gu Shi Yi looked at them, nodded, and said,
"Shake them again..."
Following his instructions, the ship owner picked up the coins and shook them again. He continued to shake them six times in total, and Gu Shi Yi noted down the results of each divination,
"Just wait outside for me for a while, I need to calculate this carefully!"
As he said this, he closed the cabin door in front of Owner Yu and turned to ask,
"Yanyan, what do you make of these divinatory trigrams?"
Li Yaner poked her head out from the bedding, thought for a moment, and said,
"I've only read the book of divination left by Master for two days, but looking at these divinatory trigrams, four times in a row there's no script... Take out Master's Book of divination..."
Gu Shi Yi took out the book of divination, Li Yaner climbed onto his lap, and the two of them flipped through the pages together. After a long while, Gu Shi Yi grinned,
"Yanyan, I can't seem to figure anything out, did you see anything?"
Li Yaner thought again and said,
"This is a Yin divinatory trigram, and we are currently traveling above water, which is also Yin. Maybe we should look in the water..."
She hesitated and then continued,
"I'm just guessing wildly... you..."
Before she could finish her sentence, Gu Shi Yi's eyebrows raised,
"Alright then!"
He turned and went out, saying to the ship owner,
"Owner Yu, if it weren't for you, I would not have shortened my life by a year to cast this divination for you..."
Both were people of the Itinerant World, so the ship owner of course understood the implication and hurriedly said,
"Master Gu is indeed noble. I cannot allow you to shorten your life for nothing. I will certainly repay you afterward!"
Get moving!
Gu Shi Yi smiled and nodded, saying,
"I trust your words, Owner Yu..."
Then changing the tone, he said,
"Call a few people to go down into the river to take a look..."
"The river?"
The ship owner was stunned, and Gu Shi Yi nodded,
"Yes, the river. Have them carefully check the waters around the boat..."
After hearing this, the ship owner was skeptical but since it was not him who had to go into the water but merely give an order, he obliged.
Immediately, he called several men who were good swimmers. They stripped down to shorts and dived into the water, while Gu Shi Yi stood by. As he watched the young men revealing their eight-pack abs and thick thighs, his eyes curved even more into a smile. Hidden in the cabin, Li Yaner peeked through the door cracks to see her close friend drooling over the men, feeling almost unable to bear looking directly at her. Beside her, Big Boss also peeked out from the edge of a tree, looking outwards, and clicked his tongue,
"This woman's craving for men has become this severe... tsk tsk... The Old Taoist Priest truly is detrimental!"
Back when they were in the mountains, Gu Shi Yi used to come to find himself for chats often, half of which were complaints about how ruthless the Old Taoist Priest was for dragging her to this age without allowing her to speak of marriage. Big Boss was very puzzled by this,
"You Humans are really troublesome. Unlike us, we can have children on our own. When the time comes, the pine cones fall into the soil, and our children grow from there... Unlike you, still needing to find a match. If the couple doesn't see eye to eye, they won't agree, but who doesn't give birth? Aren't they all born with a nose and a mouth? What's there to be picky about!"
Li Yaner could only laugh awkwardly after hearing this.
Meanwhile, several robust men had dived into the water. The other passengers on the boat, seeing the commotion caused by the ship owner, came out of the cabins to watch the excitement. A group of them leaned on the guardrails, watching the laborers swim back and forth in the river, occasionally diving under the surface, causing quite a stir.
However, after nearly the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, the men in the river had found nothing unusual. Wang Xiaoqi called from below,
"Owner Yu, there's nothing to see here; can we... can we get back up?"
The weather was getting colder and despite being strong, Xiaoqi was beginning to feel the chill after staying in the water for too long!
"Well..."
The ship owner glanced at Gu Shi Yi,
"Master Gu, we've searched everywhere in the water... and found nothing..."
Gu Shi Yi remained calm and composed,
"Keep searching!"
The men below had no choice but to dive back into the water and search again. Just as Wang Xiaoqi re-emerged and was wiping his face, his expression suddenly changed, and he turned to shout,
"Who's pulling at me? Stop pulling at my feet!"
This time, however, he realized that his companions were all at a distance from him, each looking at him with puzzled expressions. Wang Xiaoqi's face turned pale as he felt the grip on his foot tighten as if something was trying to pull him under the water. Frightened, Xiaoqi thrashed about, and the strong man sent out a trembling plea for help to the onlookers,