Bentley squatted down and picked up his own copper coins from the ground. “Come on, it’s still your turn to lay out the divination!”
Leo didn’t say anything, he picked up four copper coins from the ground and laid out a small divination.
Antonio, who was watching on the side, couldn’t help but express his thoughts to Leo, “Mr. Bloomer, why do you have to lay out such a simple divination? Why not just lay out a difficult one that will defeat your opponent?”
“Only by starting with something small can one show their true skill.” Leo replied simply.
Bentley had an intuition that this guy in front of him was probably deliberately making fun of him.
What was the point of playing with such simple divinations? Just defeat Leo directly and make him kneel in front of the ancestral temple to apologize. With this thought in mind, Bentley no longer hesitated and took five copper coins directly placing them in different positions than where Leo had placed his.
Bentley’s move was still both solving and laying out a divination at once. Not only did he solve Leo’s small divination but he also transformed it into an even more complex and difficult-to-solve one.
Seeing this new formation, Fraser’s eyes lit up as he admired, “I always thought that Bentley did nothing all day long but I never expected him to have made such progress in understanding these formations! Not bad at all.”
“Fraser, there is no way that guy can solve Bentley’s divination,” Caelan said confidently.
Leo continued squatting on the ground looking at the formation before him lost deep into thought…
The expression on Leo’s face fell into Bentley’s eyes further confirming his belief that Leo could not solve this formation.
Bentley stood up, feeling relaxed, and looked down at Leo with the posture of a victor.
After pondering for about a minute, Leo reached out and took the remaining eight copper coins in his hand. He then stood up from the ground and released them, with the coins in his right hand aligning perfectly with the hexagram on the ground.
The sound of “ding-ling-ling” echoed from the ground, like a pleasant wind chime.
The eight coins fell to the ground one by one, bouncing and rolling before slowly coming to a stop. Although these eight coins did not touch the previous hexagram, at a glance, it was impossible to discern the hexagram. The scattered coins seemed to form no meaningful pattern.
Voices began to emerge from the quiet crowd, “Is he casting the divination? It looks like he’s just randomly throwing coins.”
“This isn’t divination. I think he gave up because he couldn’t interpret it,” another person asserted.
“It seems this young man has some geomancy skills, but only at an amateur level.”
“I thought he had some extraordinary method, but it looks like he has already lost.”
The villagers’ discussions grew louder and more frequent. Subconsciously, they had already drawn conclusions about the result of the competition, waiting for Leo to kneel and apologize in front of the ancestral shrine.
Antonio looked at the ground, first surprised, then stunned, and finally shook with excitement.
“Fraser, look!” Caelan was the first to notice something unusual and pointed at the coins on the ground, calling out.
Everyone followed his gaze and saw that the coins Leo had casually scattered on the ground were actually trembling on their own.
Within this trembling, the coins began to shift positions and quickly fell into their respective divination spots.
The coins on the ground no longer appeared chaotic and disordered. Overall, they resembled the shape of a bird.
“The Vermilion Bird Rebirth hexagram!” Caelan exclaimed, as if witnessing something incredible.
Indeed, it was incredible because this hexagram emerged from Leo’s casual act of scattering coins.
Although the onlookers couldn’t understand its significance, they could see the unusual expressions on the faces of the White brothers. Suddenly, silence fell upon the previously noisy crowd.
The villagers standing on the outskirts couldn’t see clearly what was happening inside and began to push their way in, causing a chorus of curses to rise up.
The most shocked of all was Bentley. He was so astonished that his eyeballs nearly popped out, and he kept repeating four words in his mouth, “How is this possible… How is this possible…”
Shaken out of his stupor, Bentley lifted his head to look at Leo. He saw Leo’s lips curling slightly at the corners, wearing an expression that could be described as playing dumb.
He then turned to Fraser, hoping for some guidance, but all he saw was a vacant expression on Fraser’s face.
Fraser’s gaze remained fixed on the divination pattern on the ground, as if he had been struck acupoints.
It was now afternoon, and the sunlight shone on the eaves of the White family’s ancestral shrine, casting shadows directly onto the divination pattern on the ground.
The original hexagram, resembling a bird with folded wings, now had two additional shadow wings, as if it was about to take flight.
This scene almost made Bentley lose hope.
“Combining the symbolism of the Phoenix Rebirth with the Vermilion Bird hexagram, completing the rebirth and spreading its wings to fly. Mr. Bloomer truly has remarkable methods,” commented Antonio.
Antonio’s remarks implied that Leo had won. Among the White brothers, Bentley had the weakest skills and definitely couldn’t break this Vermilion Bird Rebirth hexagram.
The onlookers, who couldn’t understand the divination pattern, wore puzzled expressions. Wasn’t Leo just losing a moment ago? How did he suddenly turn the tables? Could it be that casting a divination was as simple as casually scattering coins? That was too incredible.
Leo didn’t urge Bentley to interpret the divination. Instead, he imitated Bentley’s earlier posture, crossed his arms, and looked at him. This was what it meant to make someone eat their words.
Just as Bentley was about to admit defeat, Fraser, who had been silent all this time, spoke up. “Third step to west, second step to southeast, cross the central line, exit through the south line, third line is a nine.”
Fraser directly guided Bentley.
Leo looked at Fraser and sneered, “Fraser, what are you doing?”
Fraser retorted, “I never said that seeking outside assistance in a competition was not allowed.”
“Heh,” faced with a rogue, Leo could only utter one word.
A pleased expression appeared on Bentley’s face. He took the coins and quickly interpreted the divination according to Fraser’s instructions.
After Bentley dropped all the coins from his hand, the original bird-shaped divination pattern had transformed into a tortoise shape, not only interpreting Leo’s Vermilion Bird Rebirth hexagram but also mutating it into another divination pattern.