Summer finally came to Nancheng—a big city that has always been slow to feel the change of seasons.

Nancheng University, the best university in Nancheng, has done an excellent job of greening. A lush green belt lined the ten-mile promenade in the center of campus, and flowers bloomed amidst the green in a profusion of warm, bright colors. There were many ponds scattered all over the school, with green lotus leaves floating on top and crystal clear water all the way to the bottom.

Students walked together in groups along the campus roads, laughing and playing on their way to class.

But the matter of taking classes has nothing to do with the graduating class.

… … translated by Maela @ whitemoonlighttranslations.com

Girls’ Dormitory Building No.1 

An Rugu put the ancient books usually stacked on her desk inside a small, white suitcase.  She put them in one by one, carefully smoothing out wrinkles, as if treating each as treasure. 

Her roommate Yang Yang was a little confused when she saw An Rugu begin packing her luggage, and she asked in surprise, “An Rugu, are you leaving so early? Don’t you want to play with us for a few days first?”

The university notice said to empty the dormitory, hand in their student cards, and leave the campus by the 20th.

The people in their dormitory have successfully passed the graduation thesis defense, taken graduation photos, and got their graduation certificates, so they could leave the school at any time. But there were still five or six days before the twentieth day stipulated by the school, and graduates often have fun with their friends for a few days before leaving.

An Rugu shook her head slightly, her long, black hair flowing like a waterfall over her shoulders. “I have something urgent at home, you guys play without me,” she said, voice as crisp as water striking stones. 

Upon hearing what An Rugu said, Yang Yang looked to their two other roommates. They exchanged speaking glances—they all disagreed. After all, what urgent matter could be more important than a graduation party?

If it was someone else who didn’t want to go to what was probably the last time they’d see each other, they would have firmly held her back and pressed her to stay.

But because of An Rugu’s cold temperament, they were too embarrassed and didn’t dare to break through her boundaries and do things that would be too familiar.

After all, An Rugu was a well-known ‘Ice Beauty’ in their department.

They looked at An Rugu casually. An Rugu’s nose bridge was high and her eyelashes long. The most beautiful thing was her eyes—her eyes were black and gleamed brightly, noticeably expressive when peering from any angle. Most times she didn’t need to say much, her eyes could already speak for her.

With such a face that could rely on beauty to commit crimes, it was not an exaggeration to say that she could walk sideways¹ in the university. This indeed was the case, and her line of suitors never ended.

But it was clear from observation that An Rugu had a cold personality and has always been indifferent to other people, only being friendly to them who are slightly more familiar, like her roommates.

Those suitors then chose to save the nation in a roundabout way, and made every effort to establish a good relationship with them. In the past four years, they received chocolates, flowers, and other things, and they were asked countless times to help out with courting An Rugu.

But they were not ones who will be moved by small favors, and more importantly… they didn’t want to annoy An Rugu by receiving the gifts on her behalf, so they all refused.

Those suitors saw that all methods were useless, and they could only give up, so the slightly old-fashioned but very appropriate title of ‘Ice Beauty’ was established.

Yang Yang looked at An Rugu quietly, her eyes lingering on her soft, fair cheeks, and her heart was not as calm as it appeared on the surface.

If fairies really existed, they would probably look like An Rugu.

What kind of virtue did Yang Yang accumulate in her previous life to be roommates with such a beautiful woman? Looking at such a face every day, her mood improved a lot, and she felt that she could live a few extra years.

But she also understood that everyone was about to graduate, and this may be the last time they could see each other.

Although they had not been particularly close despite being roommates for four years, Yang Yang still felt a little bit reluctant to part with An Rugu. After a long silence, she plucked up her courage, wanting to break the awkwardness between her and An Rugu, so she took the initiative to broach the topic. “Your family, has something happened?”

An Rugu had kept packing, slowly arranging her frequently used items. When she heard Yang Yang’s words, her hands stopped moving, and after a while, she said, “My master² has passed away. I’m going home to hold his funeral.”

“Master?”

“Huh?”

“What Master?”

Hearing her words, the other roommates who were listening to their conversation turned their heads in unison and asked curiously.

They were very familiar with the word ‘master’—they could read and write it, and it was, after all, a very common and simple word. But the word has a naturally heavy, ancient connotation. This word was not used much now in modern times, and it made people think of times long gone.

Yang Yang thought to herself, could this ‘master’ be the teacher who taught An Rugu? And because the relationship was very good, he wasn’t called ‘mentor’ or ‘teacher’ but ‘master’?

An Rugu thought of her master, and there was nostalgia in her voice, “If you have ever been to Cloud Rise³ Temple to offer incense, you should have seen him. He was the master of the temple.”

Cloud Rise Temple?

An Rugu’s master was actually a Daoist⁴ priest?

Yang Yang was very surprised, but after thinking about it, she glanced at the ancient Daoist books in An Rugu’s suitcase from the corner of her eye and suddenly understood.

An Rugu often read Daoist books, and like the others, Yang Yang merely thought that she was a fan of Daoist culture.

The roommates looked at each other in amazement—they never thought that An Rugu could have such an experience!

At this time, one roommate seemed to think of something and suddenly said, “Cloud Rise Temple? The name is a bit familiar. Is it the Cloud Rise Temple in the western suburbs of Nancheng?” 

“Yes,” An Rugu replied.

The roommate tried to search for her mind for more memories, and after a long time said, “When I once went to the western suburbs to play, I heard people talk about it, and I said I wanted to go and see it, but I heard that it was built on top of a mountain, and I was too lazy to climb the mountain, so I eventually didn’t go.”

All of them didn’t believe in religion, didn’t understand Daoism, but they were very interested in mysterious things, and their eyes suddenly changed looking at An Rugu.

Yang Yang said excitedly as if meeting An Rugu for the first time, “Then what do you Daoist priests usually do?”

An Rugu shook her head, “I have not entered the Dao. I’m not a Daoist priest.”

“Eh? Isn’t your master a Daoist priest?”

Yang Yang couldn’t help thinking: was it because An Rugu was not capable enough, so she was not qualified to enter the Dao?

But when she thought about An Rugu’s consistently high GPA and her serious study attitude, she immediately rejected the idea she just had.

An Rugu had a serious attitude and strong ability. When she decided to do something, she would not be worse than others and certainly would not be unqualified.

I Livestream Divination to the World translated by Maela @ whitemoonlighttranslations.com

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T/N: Let me shriek about this story for a bit. The premise is a livestreaming fortune-teller running a rundown Daoist temple—but there is so much more going on. We get ghosts every other chapter, conversations about reincarnation (and why ghosts don’t want it!), visits from deities, and a lot of sneak peeks at the lively, wonderful, and ever-so-fascinating world of all things ‘yin’ (as opposed to ‘yang’ which is us, the living).

The author says that the story is a ‘superficial, parallel world, that doesn’t substitute for reality, and the metaphysical information is only a fictional creation used mainly for entertainment’ so I don’t know how accurate these things are. I am certainly no kind of expert—I had to wade through so many wiki pages and esoteric links just to translate this—BUT IT IS SO MUCH FUN! And I hope you can all join me for the ride.

SPOILER

Btw, An Rugu is very OP, and she obviously has a Mysterious Background that I’m still not clear about yet. The author also says that there is a Male Protagonist later but I am 50+ chapters in and I have not yet seen a hair of him, so we’ll all see.

I’ve migrated this translation work from its former home. So if the comments section seem a bit empty—like Cloud Rise Temple 🤭—then it’s your time to shine, new readers! Or old readers re-reading, as the case may be haha.

But seriously, if you see any broken chapter links or footnotes that lead nowhere, please let me know. Thanks and I hope you enjoy reading!

FOOTNOTES:

1. Walk sideways—someone can do whatever they want, using their power or influence to dominate or bully others. ↩︎
2. She’s using the term 师父 or ‘Shifu’. 
   Incidentally, it’s the name of the red panda in the Kung Fu Panda series—so, umm, he’s called Master Shifu or Master Master 😅. ↩︎
3. 出雲 means ‘Rise’ and ‘Clouds’, so something like ‘Rising/Emerging from the Clouds’. The temple is on a mountain, the top of which is usually covered by misty clouds, so the name is quite apt. It’s not so much the clouds that are rising but the mountain (or temple) that is emerging from a cover of clouds, but English is unwieldy to convey such meaning in just two words. ↩︎
4. ‘Dao’ is the same as the more commonly used ‘Tao’. The actual sound lands somewhere between the two but ‘Tao’ belongs to the older Wade-Giles system and ‘Dao’ is under the official pinyin system of the Chinese government, so we’re using ‘Dao’ for this translation. ↩︎