Chapter 370: Weaving Fate

Hearing the explosion, three members of Fusheng Pavilion immediately rushed over.

"What happened?!" Lin Xi was the first to burst into the inn, where he saw the innkeeper huddled fearfully under a table, clutching his head, his face contorted in terror.

"I... I don't know!" Chen Ling's voice trembled. "I was just doing accounts here when suddenly the courtyard exploded. It sounded like the kitchen..."

The three men shifted their gaze from Chen Ling. Old Lu nodded. "The owner is innocent; he's been here the whole time."

"To the blast site!"

Without hesitation, Lin Xi and the other two rushed towards the smoke-filled courtyard. Seeing Lin Xi and his companions head towards the kitchen, the innkeeper, who had been behind the counter, gathered his courage and followed them.

Fierce flames still raged, casting hot, flickering light from the charred kitchen doors and windows. With visibility obscured by thick smoke, everything around them appeared hazy.

"First a room, and now the kitchen exploded! What did I do to deserve this...?" The owner's wails echoed behind the three.

"Shut up!" Feng Gui, who was concentrating on searching for traces of the enemy, frowned and snapped.

The owner's face turned pale, and he looked as if he wanted to speak but bit back his words in anger.

"The ants we placed in the courtyard are mostly burned away; we can't see anything now," Old Lu said in a low voice.

"So, you had ants in the kitchen?"

"I sent the ants to scout; there was no one inside, so they came out."

"It seems that lunatic might have been hiding in the kitchen all along, using some method to deceive your senses..." Lin Xi, having fought Chen Ling before, knew that Chen Ling's methods were too numerous and bizarre; a special hiding technique wouldn't be surprising. "But why would he suddenly blow this up?"

"He might have grown impatient with our surveillance and plans to use this method to destroy the ant colony and forcibly escape," Old Lu offered the most probable hypothesis.

"So, is he still in the kitchen, or has he already left?"

As this question was posed, the expressions of the three immediately turned grim. Lin Xi gritted his teeth, pulled the oiled paper umbrella from his back, and charged headlong into the raging inferno of the kitchen!

Just as the Umbrella Painter was about to rush into the kitchen, the burning flames heated and expanded the gas in two spare gas cylinders, causing the pressure to rise continuously and triggering a second gas explosion.

Boom—!!!

The moment Lin Xi stepped into the kitchen, a dazzling fireball of explosion erupted violently inside, instantly engulfing him in a torrent of flames!

This explosion was even more terrifying than the last. The small kitchen was completely blown apart, and after engulfing Lin Xi, the surging sea of fire rushed towards Old Lu and the other two behind him.

"It's a trap?!" Old Lu and Feng Gui, who were behind him, had their faces change dramatically!

Feng Gui raised his palm, and countless fluttering maple leaves unfurled from his sleeve, blocking the surging sea of fire, protecting Old Lu beside him, and Chen Ling, who was disguised as the owner, behind him.

"Th-th-this..." The innkeeper's legs trembled. "Why did it explode again? This is going to be the death of me..."

"Shut up!!" Feng Gui was utterly exasperated by the garrulous owner and wished he could just swat him dead.

Chen Ling immediately shut his mouth. His face was filled with panic and despair, but inwardly, he calmly observed everything unfolding before him, without the slightest surprise. To others, everything happening here was unknown, but to Chen Ling, he knew precisely what would happen next... After all, he had personally orchestrated it all.

Chen Ling's 'Fate Weaving' allowed him to maximize his conviction as an orchestrator, thereby influencing his surroundings. In other words, he could control everything on his "stage." This was much like how he would pre-arrange every light, sound effect, and prop cue when working in a theater.

As long as he wrote the "script" in advance, events would unfold precisely as Chen Ling prepared... provided, of course, that these events remained logical. For instance, the broken glass in the courtyard could ignite a trash can under intense light, or high temperatures could cause spare gas cylinders to build pressure and trigger a secondary explosion. The inn's courtyard indeed had broken glass, and the kitchen certainly had several gas cylinders; these were "props" inherent to the stage. Chen Ling's role was to arrange these props logically and create coincidences through his script to advance the plot.

The only thing he couldn't control was the "characters."

Similar to his previous work as an orchestrator, Chen Ling could perfectly manage the stage settings but couldn't perfectly control the characters. After all, they were sentient individuals, played by actors, who might forget lines or miss their cues—these aspects were beyond his control.

Therefore, Chen Ling could only indirectly prompt the actors' actions through events, or by anticipating their psychology... for example, using an explosion to draw the three Fusheng Pavilion members, or compelling them to search the kitchen again.

Ultimately, Chen Ling could prepare a "script" in advance to manipulate the development of scenes and events, thereby influencing the "characters'" destinies. The extent to which he could influence "characters" depended on Chen Ling's orchestrating ability, the diversity of stage props, and his understanding and analysis of the "characters." The scenery, lighting, sound effects, props—everything on stage was like threads held in Chen Ling's hands. By weaving them, Chen Ling could, to a certain degree, guide the destinies of all the "characters."

This was Chen Ling's 'Fate Weaving.'

"Cough, cough, cough, cough, cough..."

From the flames of the wreckage, Lin Xi stumbled out, clutching a charred umbrella handle. This explosion's scale was entirely different from the previous dust explosion, and Lin Xi had been too close. Even with his quick reflexes, he couldn't escape unscathed. He was covered in wounds and looked utterly disheveled.

"A trap, another trap... Damn it, where is he??" Lin Xi's eyes burned with rage.

"Someone!"

The innkeeper, who was lingering behind the three, suddenly spoke up! The three men snapped their heads to look in the direction he was pointing. Through the thick smoke, they saw a blurred figure swiftly darting around them, accompanied by a sharp, mocking laugh.

The explosion had dislodged clothes drying at the edge of the courtyard, and they began to swirl in the strong wind. Shrouded by thick smoke, they resembled a ghostly, humanoid afterimage. The strong wind rushed through the shattered water vat, producing a sharp sound like a mocking laugh echoing in everyone's ears.

"It's him?!"

"He is here! He's been watching us the whole time!!"

"Damn it! Don't let him escape!! All of us, attack!!"

Upon seeing the afterimage, Lin Xi and the other two's eyes simultaneously blazed with intensity. Disregarding the innkeeper still standing nearby, they launched terrifyingly murderous attacks towards the sky!