Tan Xiao was thoroughly disgusted by the possibility Mu Fei mentioned. After agreeing, he left the small garden and continued walking home.

However, in the short time he was on the phone, Kong Xuan had already disappeared into the crowd without a trace. Tan Xiao felt a bit regretful, but figured there would be other opportunities in the future. He still didn't know exactly where his neighbor lived.

Returning home, Tan Xiao first went to the kitchen and lifted the rice cooker lid to check there was no rat droppings inside.

Seeing this, Tan Chunying couldn't help but shake her head. "Son, there's no leftover rice. If you want to eat, steam some more."

"I'm not eating." Tan Xiao ran upstairs.

He originally wanted to call out to the Great God Peacock upon entering his room, but as soon as he went in, he saw the Peacock already sitting on the window sill, looking over coldly. Tan Xiao choked for a moment. "Great God, how did you know I was looking for you?"

Kong Xuan: "..."

Kong Xuan couldn't even be bothered to speak and just glared at him.

Hmph, leaving him in the small garden just to run back and talk about this matter, right? When it would take at most half an hour to know they were the same person. You didn't take the chance when given, regret it to death, regret it to death, regret it to death...

"Sister Mu Fei told me that Big Beard Zhong escaped from prison. She warned that Big Beard Zhong is very vengeful and might defecate rat droppings in your food," Tan Xiao said while rummaging through drawers.

Kong Xuan instantly forgot his anger. "He dares!"

With the Peacock present, how dare that dead rat be so presumptuous? What Tan Xiao said was simply alarmist!

What made him even more disdainful was, "What's going on with the Bureau 404, letting a dead rat escape? I said at the time we should have shaved its head too."

"...Don't be so aggressive." Having studied for so many years, nearly every drawer in Tan Xiao's room was packed full, each with its own use.

He dug out three old copper coins from a rarely used drawer. "Great God, it's now relying entirely on its solid divination skills to escape, but I think it can't possibly be more spiritually capable than me, right?"

Tan Xiao looked at Kong Xuan and smiled.

Even if he hadn't practiced much, borrowing the power of the Great God Peacock, how could this divination not be efficacious?

After all, the Peacock was one to kick divination sticks with its feet.

The most famous divination method of Chu shamans was actually straw divination, also using grass. So the "Li Sao" poem describes "Plucking sacred mugwort for divination" to depict Chu shamans divining.

But Tan Xiao didn't have time to go out and pick grass, using copper coins for divination was the same. He hadn't practiced this much and had stuffed it in the deepest part of the drawer.

Still wanting divination to be go easily? Kong Xuan glared at him, still brooding over his failed attempt to go easy.

At this time, Tan Xiao had already tossed out the copper coins, then recorded them one by one to form the hexagram. Just as he was about to interpret it, Kong Xuan, who originally wanted to teach him a lesson, couldn't help himself and went over to poke at the hexagram. The upper and lower lines jumped like flames.

"Li hexagram?" The corresponding hexagram text quickly appeared in Tan Xiao's mind. "Li represents fire, the sun... represents armor and weapons." Overall, the Li hexagram was an auspicious omen, a symbol of brightness, but these images seemed to have nothing to do with Big Beard Zhong. He wanted to know where Big Beard Zhong was.

Such a simple hexagram could be interpreted in many ways.

"Hmm, also, Li's direction is south... Could Big Beard Zhong be in the southern part of the city? But that range is too wide." Tan Xiao looked at Kong Xuan.

Kong Xuan: "Interpreting hexagrams is part of a shaman's cultivation. The Eight Trigrams and Changes principles originate from the River Diagram and Luo Writing, containing the ultimate principles of heaven and earth. Every shaman has their own interpretation."

Tan Xiao: "Great God, just say it if you don't know."

Kong Xuan: "..."

Kong Xuan said angrily, "It's just that I never rely on reason when handling matters!"

Tan Xiao: "..."

What an explosive statement from the Great God...!

But there was some truth to it. Back then, no matter how well Big Beard Zhong could calculate, didn't he still end up kneeling before Kong Xuan?

Tan Xiao simply took a photo of the hexagram and sent it to Mu Fei. The Bureau 404 surely had plenty of top students to analyze it. After sending it, Tan Xiao didn't dwell on it. As long as he paid more attention to whether there was poop in his food before Big Beard Zhong was caught, it would be fine.

Tan Xiao took out the family heirloom ritual robe again, to be used for the school anniversary celebration. Spirit masters had many sets of ceremonial clothing for various rituals - grand ceremonies, small ceremonies, archery ceremonies, dancing ceremonies.

The set he took out was also an old item, painted with large patterns of feathers in vivid colors. To dance the "Feather Dance", one naturally had to imitate the form of a divine bird.

As he was organizing the matching accessories, Tan Xiao noticed the Great God Peacock looking over and politely asked, "Our school is having its anniversary celebration. Great God, do you want to come watch?"

Kong Xuan said blandly, "What are you inviting me for?"

"It is indeed an act to entertain people. I just thought the Great God hasn't been to our school yet and could come for a visit." Tan Xiao felt his relationship with the Great God Peacock was already close and naturally wanted to share his life, although when he said this, he always felt a bit odd in his heart.

Kong Xuan: "..."

Kong Xuan almost fainted from anger and disappeared without a word.

Tan Xiao stared at the empty air, truly unable to figure out if that meant agreement or not. Before, he might have thought this was still an inability to accept acts to entertain gods becoming acts to entertain people, but now, there seemed to be a subtle difference. Perhaps it was his misconception?

......

"The moon rises at Yin, the sun rises above the moon." Without his props, Big Beard Zhong could only divine barehanded, using it to determine which direction he should run next.

Alas, he had ambitiously smuggled himself to the south to seek his fortune again, but before he had a chance to make a good go of it, it was already over.

Pinching his claws, his beard trembling, he calculated that the east was the direction of the Bureau 404 he had escaped from himself - inauspicious; the south was where Nanchu No. 1 Middle School was located - very inauspicious; the north was the direction back to his hometown, but there would definitely be checkpoints - inauspicious. So he could only try his luck westward, although the west also divined as inauspicious.

However, no matter how Big Beard Zhong looked at it, he had the potential to turn misfortune into blessing, worth bravely taking a chance. It was still better than staying in a cage.

Under the mental pressure and hunger of days of detention, his original form had become quite emaciated, but was still agile.

Escaping to a place that looked like a construction site, Big Beard Zhong was very cautious, because according to his survival experience, such construction sites usually kept cats and dogs to guard against mice and thieves, very unfavorable for him!

But this construction site seemed a bit different. When people saw his flashing figure, they actually thought it was a white cat, calling out "meow meow meow" to him. Someone even went to get him food.

"Professor Mo, there seems to be a kitty in there."

"Really? It's the first time I've seen a stray cat around here. It must be a stray cat since it's rather remote."

"Feed it something and quickly drive it away, it's quite dangerous here."

Dangerous? You have no idea how dangerous I used to be!

Big Beard Zhong hid in the crevice, looking at the half piece of bread stuffed in front of him with extreme disdain. Immortals love cleanliness the most. If it were normal times, not only would he never eat leftover food that had been on the ground, he would also properly punish the person.

But now, the rat has fallen to the ground and is being bullied!

Big Beard Zhong stretched out his paw, grabbed the bread and started eating it while making rustling sounds. He still couldn't help but pick at the crust a bit to at least make it a bit cleaner. But as he was eating, he felt a chill on his back, as if he was being watched by something.

Big Beard Zhong was extremely sensitive. With just a slight abnormality, he immediately put down the bread and started observing. He looked out from that crevice, but outside there was only an orange-yellow color.

Strange, outside it clearly was...

Not right.

Big Beard Zhong felt ice-cold all over. He didn't even have time to divine. His whiskers trembled as he sensed the air currents... He suddenly darted backwards.

That orange-yellow object indeed also followed. As the piled up miscellaneous objects were squeezed open, it revealed a huge snake body.

Xiong Hui!

No wonder divination also showed misfortune.

Big Beard Zhong's vision went black for a moment. He said this construction site had no cats or dogs, but it turned out they were keeping a snake! What's wrong with you southerners, high school students keep peacocks, construction sites keep Xiong Hui snakes!

It's too hard to get by... Big Beard Zhong's paws went numb. Risking his life, he ran forward, continuously divining objects to quickly determine fortune and misfortune, charging left and right, with that suffocating cold gaze and bloody mouth of the Xiong Hui snake behind him.

Big Beard Zhong had once unintentionally divined his own fatal calamity, that he would die in someone's belly. No one could guess whose belly it would be before death arrived. He once even thought he would die in the belly of the Great Peacock God. Now it seems, could it be the Xiong Hui snake?!

Because Xiong Hui can switch between yin and yang, Big Beard Zhong also relied on experience to escape between the yang path and yin path. He had cultivated for a long time to transform his qi into a spirit, so borrowing the yin path was not difficult, it's just that there are many ghosts on the yin path, and among the ghosts there are also many spies of the Bureau 404.

At the moment, in order to escape with his life, he couldn't care about that much!

Who knows how long he ran with his head down, Big Beard Zhong only discovered with exhaustion that the Xiong Hui snake actually did not continue chasing. Was it because it felt he wasn't worth chasing, or because the security guard couldn't run too far?

This place looked a bit familiar to him, because it wasn't far from Nanchu No. 1 Middle School.

Big Beard Zhong suddenly looked at the ground. A few chopsticks were scattered here. Looking at this image, it was actually the fourth line of the Li hexagram: Burning, dying, abandoning!

What an ominous hexagram. Big Beard Zhong's whiskers were trembling again. In a daze, he turned his head to look.

In front of him, was a raging burning fire.

......

On the school's anniversary day, Tan Xiao moved the items for the performance to the school early in the morning. Tan Chunying drove him and asked if he needed help bringing them inside.

Tan Xiao thought about it and still declined. The rumors about him and some tattoo bigshot hadn't dissipated for long. If Tan Chunying appeared now, the rumors would revive again. It's better to ask the security guard uncle for help.

No. 1 Middle's anniversary celebration mainly centered around the evening gala organized by the school's Youth League Committee. During the day there were mainly some activities for past alumni, and some student art exhibitions on campus.

So Tan Xiao left the classroom early in the afternoon to go prepare for the performance in advance.

Not long after Tan Xiao left, Ji Huiming's figure flashed outside the hallway, causing a moment of panic. He wasn't here to do a surprise inspection of discipline. He poked his head in and waved at Lin Yang, "We're short on people, find a few boys to help move props for the gala."

"Okay!" Lin Yang responded. "Not just short, Xiao-zi's big drum alone needs two people to move right."

Lin Yang looked around and picked two boys. He then looked at Kong Xuan and hesitated.

Before he could say anything, Kong Xuan impatiently said, "Fine, I'll go then."

Lin Yang: "..." What did I say?

He also didn't have the heart to stop Kong Xuan from helping. The group walked towards the sports field. At this time, the sports equipment room served as the dressing room and prop room.

In the noisy scene, Kong Xuan could hear the students around him almost all discussing Tan Xiao. They were really looking forward to Tan Xiao's live performance in the evening.

"Wuwu, Tan Xiao and I went to the same middle school before. He also performed at the arts festival and drove us all crazy."

"Seems like he's dancing today. The official account said it's 'Feather Dance'."  

"Which number is he performing, I really want to see it."

The Feather Dance is also a sacrificial dance, and as the name implies, it can't be separated from feathers, birds, and the phoenix. So rounding up, it can't be separated from the peacock either.

Kong Xuan couldn't help feeling proud.

When it comes down to it, it's all thanks to him that these people can watch it.

"Ahhhh!"

Suddenly a round of suppressed cheers arose, drowning out the originally noisy backstage.

Kong Xuan looked towards the sound. It was a door opening, revealing Tan Xiao's figure.

He was in the space between light and dark, wearing a cinnabar red and black feather patterned ritual robe, with snake patterns drawn by the makeup artist on his cheeks, ritual bells tied around his waist, and a peacock mask worn in the "bright phase" style on his head, with his face exposed, unlike most times when performing shaman rituals.

Although the peacock was already Tan Xiao's patron god, and should be worn in the "dark phase", this way of wearing it was obviously for the convenience of performing, rather than following tradition.

Kong Xuan had not yet personally seen Tan Xiao's full ceremonial shaman attire. Especially compared to ordinary shaman rituals, Tan Xiao's outfit had more of a glamorous beauty for performance. In the crude waiting area, the sudden appearance of Tan Xiao left him speechless for a moment.

"Brother Xiao! So charming!"

Unlike some people's silence, Lin Yang waved his hands and shouted, wishing everyone knew this was his deskmate.

"Don't shout nonsense." Only then did Tan Xiao notice them. He waved his hand, his gaze falling on Kong Xuan and hesitating for half a second before recognizing him, "Kong Xuan?"

-- Tan Xiao was already able to identify Kong Xuan relatively quickly.

"Mm." Kong Xuan walked up to Tan Xiao with the others, his gaze a bit unsteady, falling from time to time on the mask and feather ornaments on Tan Xiao's head.

Lin Yang touched the curled feather patterns on the hem of Tan Xiao's robe, feeling that his deskmate was not only dressed imposingly, like an ancient great shaman, but also had a composed bearing, completely carrying off this gorgeous ritual robe. "Look, going back a few hundred or thousand years, this would be the Great Priest."

"What Great Priest, call him the Imperial Preceptor."

Tan Xiao: "...That's enough, hahaha."

"Also this outfit looks very exquisite, and has a bit of an aged feel to it?" A classmate couldn't help but say. With one look you could tell it was different from ordinary performance costumes, like some antique clothing.

"Of course, this is a family heirloom," Tan Xiao said. He didn't wear it for every performance, only because the gala director had specifically discussed it with him.

"A family heirloom? So it was passed down from Auntie. No wonder it's so exquisite, haha."

Chu Wu's attire naturally followed the style of the Chu region, with long robes, wide sleeves, and vibrant colors.

As Tan Xiao's old deskmate, Lin Yang familiarly explained to everyone, "Taoist robes are versatile, and it's not even strange to wear a skirt. In ancient times, only women were shamans. Xiao Xiao said that in some places, male shamans would even deliberately dress themselves to resemble female shamans. Some male shamans even had to wear eight-layered silk skirts."

"I see, I've learned something new."

"Hey, and also, since ancient times, our Chu region has been particularly particular about choosing handsome men and beautiful women as shamans," Lin Yang gestured with his hand near Tan Xiao's face, mimicking a blooming flower. "They have to be this good-looking to be favored by the deities."

"Hahaha, I love it!" The classmates laughed together. Tan Xiao's performance attire was indeed good-looking.

Only Kong Xuan didn't join in the teasing. Under the yellowish light, no one could see him secretly glancing at Tan Xiao a few times, his cheeks flushing with a faint redness.

These people are really...!

Tan Xiao also laughed. Lin Yang's words reminded him of the Peacock God. But the Peacock God shouldn't be so shallow as to only care about appearances, right? Skills should be more important.

"Tan Xiao? Can you move your drum to the back of the stage first? It'll be more convenient later," director Wang Xiao'an came over and said. Tan Xiao's suspended drum was quite large. He had a lot to pack up in the previous scene, so it was necessary to do some work in advance to avoid being too busy later.

"Okay." Tan Xiao patted the drumhead. "Help me move it." With all the Taoist bells and seals he was wearing, he certainly wasn't suited for "heavy work."

His two deskmates, Kong Xuan and Lin Yang, stepped up without hesitation and carried the suspended drum to the stage entrance. By this time, classmates had already started bringing stools to the field. Seeing Tan Xiao from afar, they burst into a commotion.

From their reactions, it was clear that this was probably the most anticipated performance of the night.

Wang Xiao'an did a final check of the lighting on stage and turned around, "Tan Xiao, come take a look at this."

There were no steps leading up to the stage in front of where Tan Xiao was standing. The best way to get on stage would be to go around half a circle, but he was too lazy to do that. He wanted to go up directly, so he lifted his robe and tried to step up.

However, the stage was too high, and he stumbled. Fortunately, Lin Yang and Kong Xuan were right beside him. The two reached out together and supported Tan Xiao.

Lin Yang pretended to fawn over him, saying, "Be careful, Master!"

"..." Tan Xiao felt embarrassed. It would have been humiliating if he had fallen.

He reached out to the side, intending to use the leverage to get back on stage. But the moment he touched it, Tan Xiao froze, realizing belatedly that he was looking to the right. His hand had grasped Kong Xuan's wrist.

It was strange to say, but Tan Xiao could clearly remember that this should be the first time he had touched Kong Xuan's skin.

Before that, even when Kong Xuan had lain on his leg for an hour, it was only through their school uniforms. It seemed intimate, but at this moment, he knew it was completely different.

Kong Xuan's hand turned to face Tan Xiao's palm, grasping his hand and lifting it, sending Tan Xiao onto the stage. It carried a faint warmth. Even though the temperatures weren't the same, Tan Xiao felt it was so... familiar!

It was as if he had once been enveloped by this kind of touch, performing the techniques of the Chu shaman, and also being supported by this kind of touch, escaping from danger.

He stared at Kong Xuan in a daze. If this was really the first time their hands had clasped, then why did he feel it was so natural and familiar?