The Xianzhou had faced many crises in its history, and quite a few of them had been resolved through Fu Xuan's personal divinations.
To ask her to abandon the divination she was best at and instead solve problems like an ordinary person—such a thing had been unthinkable to Fu Xuan before. Divination was like her own lifeblood, a part of her very being.
"A long, long time ago, my master once told me that fate is most volatile on the battlefield. Even for someone like him, who had reached the pinnacle of divination, there was nothing he could do."
"He even took me as his disciple because I... "
"I was his fated disciple."
Perhaps because she had already opened up, Fu Xuan rarely found herself chatting with Noldrei about her past. She'd already said so much, so what was another sentence or two?
"So, in order to break that fate, I dedicated myself to the study of divination, and eventually came into contact with Nous the Eruditor, receiving the blessing of this Dharma Eye."
"To this day, it has become a part of my life."
Noldrei had never delved into Fu Xuan's past.
He was just surprised that she would share such... 'vulnerable' details with him at a time like this.
"Mm, well... that's not entirely unexpected."
Noldrei nodded. Fu Xuan's past certainly matched her current personality.
Fu Xuan was not satisfied with his perfunctory attitude. She frowned and asked, "Don't you have anything to say? I've shared my past with you; you should at least reciprocate."
Noldrei was a little stunned. He looked at the petite Fu Xuan beside him.
"You mean you want to know about my past?"
Fu Xuan's face flushed slightly. She coughed and said, "If you don't want to talk about it, it's not like I'm dying to hear it."
'I'm just helping you find someone who can change your fate, how did we suddenly get to know each other on a deeper level?'
Noldrei hadn't chosen Elysia to help on a whim. In the past, Elysia had triumphed over Aponia's fate.
Even if the power structures of the two places were different, what Elysia did back then could still serve as a reference.
"It's not that I can't talk about it, it's just..."
Noldrei wasn't sure which part should be considered his past. If he were to talk about the 'future' part, he didn't think there was much to say.
He hadn't even been active back then; he was sent across universes right after he was created.
His past could only be considered to have truly begun when [03] descended upon Earth.
"If we're just talking about my past, there's really not much to say. After all, I haven't done that much."
Noldrei knew his own story. At most, his actions on Earth had just been to drag human civilization forward a bit.
Most of the work was done by everyone else; he only stepped in when he couldn't bear to watch any longer.
He sighed. "My past, you ask? I became emperor not long after I was born. Life was just... like that. The first imperial palace was just a normal single-family home. After that, I took over a villa and its garden, and then we built a palace on our home planet's moon."
"It's really quite a pain. I find that there's nothing interesting to say about my past. Everyone else's life is so much more exciting than mine. I often envy those who don't know too much about the future. That way, they can ignorantly do whatever they love."
"It's truly lamentable..."
Noldrei wore an expression that said, "I've done nothing," a humblebrag so powerful it nearly shattered the Master Diviner's Dharma Eye.
What "became emperor right after I was born"? What "everyone else did the work"...
Just hearing it made Fu Xuan's blood pressure rise.
No wonder this guy talked the way he did. So he'd never received any proper 'education' from the very beginning.
Was he even speaking human?
Fu Xuan was left speechless by Noldrei. She had thought her own journey had been smooth sailing, but now some random person who fell from the sky onto her Matrix of Prescience turned out to be a local tycoon emperor.
She didn't even have the qualifications to build a palace in one of the Xianzhou's Delve.
"Don't you feel any moral guilt at all? Building a palace on a satellite... your civilization must at least be capable of leaving its own star system, right?"
Noldrei waved his hand dismissively. "It's all because my family is too big, so we had to move to the satellite. Think about it, my family is full of heavy hitters who can casually dig canals on a planet or adjust its ecosystem. You definitely have to find a very big place for them to live."
"When everyone in the family is that powerful, and all have sharp ears and eyes... if we're doing any... procreation, I don't really care if others see, but some people do care about a little privacy."
When one's abilities reached the level of a Herrscher, even a slight tremor on a satellite could be felt.
Fu Xuan no longer knew if she should keep listening. She just wanted to know about his past, but she never expected him to ramble on about his family matters.
"I said I wanted to know about your growth in your civilization, if anything had a profound impact on you. What are you telling me about your... your family matters for?"
Fu Xuan's face was flushed, whether from anger or because what Noldrei had casually said was just too stimulating for the Master Diviner.
Noldrei shook his head. "Our civilization was already trending towards a family-run dynasty. Basically, the affairs of the civilization were the affairs of our family. It's a bit much to say it like that, but the current trend of centralized power is indeed a family-run affair. After all, our civilization's energy system isn't particularly fair. We can only say that we've barely maintained the minimum standards a civilization should have."
Fu Xuan was very surprised by this.
She had thought about Noldrei's civilization before, but she never expected him to openly admit that his civilization was basically a family dynasty.
Not even the great Generals of the Xianzhou would dare to describe their rule in such terms.
This was enough to show just how much power Noldrei wielded in his civilization.
'I never thought this guy would have such a background. He's not just making up stories to fool me, is he?'
For a moment, Fu Xuan couldn't be sure. She really didn't know what kind of structure Noldrei's civilization had.
But just from his mention of a marital system similar to the Xianzhou's, there must also be social relationships similar to theirs.
"You hold such an important position, yet you dare to rush into the universe's Imaginary Space alone. I never thought you'd be so dedicated to your civilization's development!"
Fu Xuan, on the contrary, was starting to feel a little admiration for Noldrei. To be able to leave such a powerful position and personally explore the universe, he must be someone with his own grand ideas.
'I get the feeling she's misunderstood something.'
Noldrei wanted to explain, but by this time, the two of them had already reached the entrance of the small courtyard.
Elysia was already waiting there.