389: I like being passive!

Thinking of this, he decided to act immediately!

Lu Ming promptly sat cross-legged with his five centers facing the sky, his mind sinking into a state of clear and empty clarity.

He carefully recalled the divination and deduction methods recorded in the Heavenly Mandate Compilation and Fortune Diagram Record, as profound mantras flowed through his heart.

"With my heart's intent, seek the cause and find the trace, trace the flow to its source, and reflect upon the vast world..."

As he silently recited the Mind-Cultivation Technique, he raised both hands, his ten fingers interlacing in a unique rhythm to form hand seals. Faint silver threads of Qi flowed from his fingertips, as if weaving a great net.

Taking the established fact of Yun Chenzi's strong malice toward him as the 'Effect', he began a reverse deduction to trace back to the 'Cause' behind it.

Gradually, Lu Ming's perception seemed to detach from his Physical Body, entering a Realm of indescribable mystery.

Before him was no ordinary scenery, but an invisible and formless, yet seemingly real, great net of Karma.

This net covered all existence with him at the center; every extending thread of Karma crisscrossed in a dizzying complexity.

It was also covered with countless bright or dim nodes, each representing a living being, an object, or a piece of Destiny connected to himself.

The nodes were connected by threads, whose thickness, brightness, and color represented the depth, nature, and state of the Karma.

Light flickered and flowed along the nodes and threads, symbolizing the rise and fall of Destiny and the birth and death of Karma, constantly changing in a dynamic flux.

Lu Ming's mind traveled through and sensed this giant net.

Soon, he captured a thread of Karma closely linked to himself.

This thread appeared deep black, representing 'malice' refined to its absolute extreme.

The other end of this thread extended deep into the giant net to a massive node that glowed as blindingly as a miniature sun.

Clearly, this was the karmic manifestation belonging to Yun Chenzi!

"Found it!"

Lu Ming's spirit jolted. He immediately followed this special thread of Karma, attempting to go against the flow to trace its source and glimpse the specific reason for Yun Chenzi's malice.

However, just as he attached his mind to it and tried to see the information transmitted from the other end of the thread—

Buzz!

A massive and obscure resistance suddenly struck him, as if he had run into an invisible high wall.

The images that were gradually becoming clear shattered instantly like a broken mirror, reflecting only countless distorted, blurry, and meaningless patches of color and light.

The information he tried to receive was also intermittent, like a heavily interfered signal, leaving only a pile of indecipherable noise and garbled code.

His first deduction of Heavenly Secrets was declared a failure!

Lu Ming withdrew his Divine Sense, his brow furrowing slightly.

He already understood where the problem lay. Although he had entered the threshold of the Heavenly Mandate Compilation and Fortune Diagram Record, he was only theoretically proficient; his practical experience was almost zero.

Performing this kind of tracing involving the level of Karma for the first time, his techniques were inevitably crude and clumsy, and he was unable to achieve precise control over the power of Heavenly Secret deduction.

But Lu Ming didn't believe in bad luck. He took a deep breath, calmed his mind, and formed hand seals to cast the spell again, carefully making a second attempt.

Then, a third time... a fourth... a fifth... the result was no different; all failed!

Every time he was about to touch the truth, he would be interfered with by a repulsive force, unable to obtain clear and valid information.

At most, he could only capture a few even blurrier fragments, but the specific reason remained hazy and unclear.

After several futile efforts, Lu Ming finally stopped.

By now, his face was slightly pale. Frequently performing deduction techniques took a significant toll on his mind.

"That's it, the fundamental reason is that the gap in Realm and Status is too large!"

Lu Ming realized that as a Great True Person of Golden Core Perfection, Yun Chenzi's own fate was solid and his Karma was heavy.

Trying to forcibly calculate with his shallow dao attainment in Heavenly Secret Arts was like an ant trying to shake a giant tree; naturally, it was difficult to have any effect.

If he had the profound attainments of someone like Zhuge Xuanji, who had been immersed in the Dao of Heavenly Secrets for hundreds of years, perhaps he could glimpse one or two secrets.

But he was just a beginner now, and facing an existence like Yun Chenzi, he naturally felt inadequate.

Moreover, a faint sense of lingering fear arose in Lu Ming's heart.

"Perhaps it's precisely because my current attainments are shallow and the power of deduction is weak that I didn't trigger Yun Chenzi's own alert or perception."

Otherwise, forcibly tracing a Great True Person of Golden Core Perfection like this would very likely be sensed by the other party through the unseen.

At that time, if they followed the clues to investigate him back, or directly used even more overbearing strength to scatter the Heavenly Secrets, he would probably suffer an immediate karmic Backlash!

Although he wasn't afraid of Backlash, it would be a case of alerting the enemy.

"As expected, being a 'noob' has its own logic!" Lu Ming shook his head with a bitter smile.

He turned his gaze back to the karma golden book. Looking at the name shining with golden light, a sudden flash of inspiration hit Lu Ming's brain.

"Since directly calculating him doesn't work, can I change my way of thinking?"

An extremely clever idea quickly surfaced in his mind.

Since Yun Chenzi's name had already appeared on the golden book, it inherently meant that a karmic link had been established between the two.

In that case, if he selected Yun Chenzi's name on the golden book and grafted the other party's Karma onto himself, then used the power of Heavenly Secrets to perform a deduction... in a way, he would have cleverly transformed calculating 'others' into calculating 'himself'.

Wouldn't things become much simpler then?

After all, others would resist, and there were too many variables.

But Lu Ming understood himself; he liked being passive and didn't know how to resist. He was guaranteed to be calculated accurately every time.

This was practically a perfect exploitation of a bug in the rules of karmic Heavenly Secrets!

Lu Ming's heart couldn't help but speed up slightly. He felt this method was highly feasible, and the logic seemed sound.

In short, it was very promising!

"I knew learning Heavenly Secret Arts would be of great use to me!"

He had previously guessed that Heavenly Secret Arts paired with the karma golden book would have miraculous effects, and now it seemed that was indeed the case.

"It seems my development of the golden book is still insufficient!"

With that, Lu Ming no longer hesitated. He immediately used his Divine Thought as a brush to lightly check the name 'Yun Chenzi', instantly selecting him as the target!

At that very instant, Lu Ming felt a sensation through the unseen.

On the great net of Karma, that originally flickering thread of Karma suddenly became solid.

"Now!"

Lu Ming seized this subtle sensation and once again activated the karmic deduction technique from the Heavenly Mandate Compilation and Fortune Diagram Record!

And the core target of his deduction this time was no longer Yun Chenzi himself, but Lu Ming himself!

Sure enough, the sensation this time was completely different. Without the obscure mist blocking him, the resistance was greatly reduced!

His 'vision' was no longer blurry like looking through rippling water; it gradually became clear.

The shattered and blurry images began to piece together, and the intermittent, noisy stream of information began to become orderly.

Although it hadn't reached the level of perfect detail, some key information was now flowing slowly from the other end of the karmic thread, across the unseen, toward Lu Ming's mind.