If it were an ordinary person, they probably would have backed off when Fu Xuan showed signs of pain.
But Noldrei was clearly no ordinary person. He even intensified his assault.
Not only did he increase the pressure, but he also struck directly at Fu Xuan's sore spot regarding divination.
"If you can't answer that question, then just answer another one for me."
"How do you distinguish whether you've made a miscalculation, or if you've successfully defied fate?"
"If you can tell the difference between them, then you might as well tell me the corresponding result, how about it?"
Fu Xuan had never encountered someone who would press their advantage so relentlessly.
The third eye on her forehead was not something she originally possessed, and even the improvement of her divination ability was largely due to the power bestowed by an Aeon.
Before this, Fu Xuan had never considered the internal contradictions within the system of divination.
Suddenly being ambushed by Noldrei like this was like her third eye suddenly short-circuiting.
It was practically like asking an Aeon to consider when they themselves would abdicate.
"I..."
Fu Xuan had wanted to use the passage of time to create gaps and loopholes in Noldrei's questions.
But as she contemplated the relationship between miscalculation and time, she realized it had nothing to do with time at all. If a divination result was wrong, then at the point of the error, all subsequent deductions would be based on that erroneous result.
Once a divination went wrong, it wasn't like a single node or a phased error, but rather all divinations from that point forward would be wrong.
But if that were the case, then theoretically, if a person truly had the ability to defy fate, then at that moment, a diviner would no longer be able to divine any part of that person's subsequent fate. Because you, as an individual, simply couldn't distinguish whether you had made a miscalculation about that person, or if that person had already escaped the bounds of fate.
With this result, the matter once again turned back to the diviner.
If the scope of a diviner's own divination observation was limited, then by the same token, were the results of the diviner's past divinations truly unchangeable?
Or was it because the diviner knew the result, and it was the very act of observing the future that caused the final fate to become fixed, thus leading to the result the diviner knew?
The subject-object contradiction in the process of divination was torn apart by Noldrei's questions at this moment.
"Fu Xuan! Come and take a guess with me!"
"Did you cause others to walk towards the fate you knew because you understood their fate? Or was it because they were not supposed to walk towards that fate, but were pushed towards it by your divination?"
Fu Xuan clutched her forehead, forced back several steps by Noldrei's words.
Her instincts were screaming at her to get out of here immediately. Otherwise, the headache alone would be enough to crush her on the spot.
"I... This one... did not..."
Fu Xuan instinctively wanted to argue, or try to use reasons like "character determines fate" to explain the correctness of her divination's stance.
But the very same thing had actually happened to her.
Her master, the crisis of the Xianzhou—all of it was twisted and coupled together within this subject-object contradiction of divination.
Noldrei didn't just understand the civilization of the Xianzhou; he also understood the related civilizations of Earth.
The divination work in the Xianzhou civilization was clearly similar to the divination and bagua of Earth's Divine Land, and it even had the same concepts of subject and object standpoints.
But Noldrei discovered that the traditional subject-object standpoint could not explain the various problems encountered in divination.
In practical problems, the subject was not always the subject of the matter, and the object was not always the object of the matter.
But a diviner had no way to change their standpoint. When they divined, they had no choice but to rely on the differentiation of subject and object to divine the result.
Otherwise, what the diviner faced was an incalculable, chaotic system. Anyone who tried to cross this chaotic system would ultimately face the consequence of losing their ability to divine.
If a diviner wanted to defy fate, the first thing they had to do was to throw away their so-called divination ability, and then devote their entire being, including their own life, to what they wanted to do.
Unfortunately, Fu Xuan currently did not have such do-or-die courage.
If she really had that kind of courage, would she be here arguing with Noldrei about these theories?
Look at Noldrei. Did he give a damn about all this divination and fate nonsense?
From the very beginning, the stakes they both put on the table were different.
"If it hurts too much, you might as well just gouge out that thing on your forehead. Save yourself the struggle here day after day. You can't even answer my two questions, and yet you stand here so confidently talking about divination results. How dare you?!"
Noldrei's verbal pursuit was relentless, causing Elysia to gasp.
'Thank goodness, thank goodness Aponia hid herself away early on. I can't imagine what it would be like when he's lecturing Aponia.'
"What a powerful attack. I can see that little girl is about to break. What do you think, Ely?"
Senti clicked her tongue in wonder. It was the first time she had seen Noldrei attack someone like this.
Aside from beings he looked down on like Su, Fu Xuan was probably the first in this universe to suffer such a 'beating.'
"I think she's about to lose her footing. Isn't it hard for the bodies of the Xianzhou people to bear externally added foreign objects? Look at that strange gem on her forehead, always hidden under her hair, flickering uncertainly. You can tell at a glance that some unknown power is at work."
"That power must be in conflict with the bodies of the Xianzhou people. So I need to see how much longer she can hold on. Maybe in a little while, the pain will make her pass out, and then we can go out and play openly."
Senti was shocked when she heard Elysia's words.
She had thought Noldrei was bad enough, but who knew there was always someone better at it!
The only unfortunate thing was that the bodies of the Xianzhou people were indeed troublesome, but at the same time, their regenerative abilities were also very powerful. Fu Xuan managed to withstand the contradiction brought by these two questions.
She was determined to prove that she had the ability to solve these two problems.
But Fu Xuan also knew that Noldrei dared to throw out these two questions here because he was certain she had no way of solving them in a short time.
"Now... can the pain help you calm down?"
Noldrei saw that she was covered in a cold sweat before they had even left the house. If this continued, she probably wouldn't have much strength left to go out.
He had no desire to argue with this woman here until the end of time.
Noldrei was confident he could use his verbal attacks to trigger Fu Xuan's Mara-struck state, but there was really no need.
After his brief victory, he did not continue his attack, much to Elysia's disappointment at not being able to see a more exciting part.