The village head, who originally didn’t support An Rugu’s decision to stay in the village, soon heard someone calling for him and left in a daze.
An Rugu walked to the foot of Cloud Rise Mountain alone. It was said that this mountain was not called Cloud Rise Mountain before, but because there was a famous Cloud Rise Temple here, it was given this name by the people.
An Rugu looked at Cloud Rise Mountain after a long absence, feeling a little melancholic. The appearance of Cloud Rise Mountain now overlapped with her childhood impression. So many years has passed, and yet Cloud Rise Mountain hardly changed at all.
Cloud Rise Mountain was not high, but it was beautiful. The top of the mountain was shrouded in clouds and mist, and the trees lent full shade. The summer weather was obviously extremely hot, but ever since she set foot on Cloud Rise Mountain, she felt a cool breeze rushing towards her face, making her spiritual platform clear and bright.
An Rugu climbed up the stone steps. The stone steps were neat, somewhat pitted in places, but overall the appearance was very well preserved. It was said that these stone steps had been laid down by the first master of Cloud Rise Temple with the help of his disciples and had a history of thousands of years.
She looked at the ground under her feet and thought of what her roommate had said before. In fact, Cloud Rise Mountain was not high, and it didn’t take a lot of effort to reach the top of the mountain.
She took sixty-six steps and finally came to Cloud Rise Temple.
The mountain wind was deep, and an ancient Daoist temple was hidden under several vigorous pine trees.
This Daoist temple was ancient and fragrant, magnificent and solemn.
Cloud Rise Temple was a small Daoist temple with a very simple layout—a temple with several rooms and a courtyard. Although the Daoist temple has had electricity for a long time now and could install air conditioners, the cool mountain breeze was enough to make even summer enjoyable.
All Daoist temples worship the Three Pure Ones1, but in addition, each Daoist temple worshipped different beings, such as the Eight Immortals, Celestial Lord Taisui, or perhaps the founder of a sect.
In the small shrine in Cloud Rise Temple, a special and lesser-known god was enshrined—Celestial Lord Siming2.
Celestial Lord Siming was a subordinate of the Antarctic Immortal Emperor and was one of the six star palaces of the Southern Dipper. He was in charge of the fate of mortals.
It was said that the founder of the Cloud Rise Temple was once instructed by Celestial Lord Siming himself, so he has a good understanding of numerology and fate, leading him to build Cloud Rise Temple.
But this was too vague and illusory—more like a story made up by some Daoist temples to improve their historical quality, so almost no one believed it.
… …
Incense was a medium to understand the truth, and burning incense was a way of praying to the gods.
An Rugu chose three incense sticks, which represented the three treasures and corresponded to the three talents. The distance between each incense should not exceed one inch to show one’s heart.
During senior year, students either took the postgraduate entrance examination or looked for a job. Her grades have always been excellent, but she has been slow to take action. Teachers and classmates were all very puzzled. She said that she would go back to her hometown to work, but, in fact, she already had the idea of running Cloud Rise Temple even back then.
The village head thought she wanted to stay and run the Cloud Rise Temple for the old Daoist priest, but she was actually doing it for herself.
She liked to tell fortunes to people. Instead of doing a job she didn’t like and muddling along all day, why not turn her hobby into a job?
As for whether her choice was correct or not…
As soon as she lit the incense, the flame surged up. She inserted the incense sticks into the burner, and the flame remained stable and bright in color. Not long after, the flames and sparks splashed everywhere and made a crackling sound.
As the saying goes, ‘With a note of real incense, one can communicate and receive blessings from the Holy Ones.’ An Rugu saw the auspicious omen of the flames, and she understood it in her heart.
It signified the joy of the gods—very auspicious indeed.
But even if it is not a good omen, she has always been stubborn and would not change her mind.
… … translated by Maela @ whitemoonlighttranslations.com
After worshiping the gods, An Rugu went to her room located at the back of the Daoist temple. Although the sparrow was small, it had all the internal organs3. Last year, the village head also specially connected her to the wireless network.
An Rugu took out her laptop, connected to the Internet, and fell into deep thought.
Since she decided to run a Daoist temple in the future, she has to start making plans. If Daoist temples were compared to commodities, the most important thing for commodities to sell well was publicity.
The country’s attitude towards metaphysics was moderate—neither supporting nor opposing; a suitable atmosphere in which to grow her business.
She still had some money on hand, what if… she looked for a company to promote it?
At this time, her mobile phone rang suddenly; she picked it up, looked at the display and found that it was a roommate who sent a message in the dormitory chat group [Four Golden Flowers].
[Yang Yang: Is An Rugu home yet?]
An Rugu knew that this was her roommate’s concern for her, so she replied: [I’m home now.]
[Yang Yang: That’s good. Happy Cat.jpg]
[Yang Yang: You didn’t come to the party tonight, let me tell you, the scene was very lively. All the handsome men and women in the department came. ]
[Zhang Xia: Many people learned that you won’t come—all those disappointed expressions haha.]
Perhaps An Rugu’s face had too much of an impact on them, which caused their attitude towards her to be a little restrained. But now, communicating over internet lines, the atmosphere was livelier than before.
An Rugu didn’t mind other people joking with her, so she chatted with them for a while.
[Yang Yang: I’ll stop chatting now, I’m going to play other things—the streamer I like is online.]
[Zhang Xia: Which livestreamer? Let me see.]
[Yang Yang: It’s a game streamer on the Shark platform. His name is Iger. He used to be a professional esports player. His skills are amazing…]
[Zhang Xia: The point is he is handsome.]
[Yang Yang: You speak a big truth!]
An Rugu became interested and opened the Shark platform. She entered ‘Iger’ in the search box, and a livestream channel appeared on the phone. The main screen featured the game, and there was a camera interface in a small window on the lower right corner. The man in the small window was wearing headphones and was clearly good looking.
Iger had just opened the game platform, found a small game that had been newly released, and started playing it with great interest.
There were a full three million people in the livestream channel, and anyone with a discerning eye could see how popular Iger was. Although it was a small game that had just been released, when Iger played it, many viewers expressed that they wanted to download and experience it as well.
An Rugu’s eyes fell on the counter showing more than three million—her pupils shrank, and a bold idea suddenly appeared in her heart.
If so many people could really watch the livestream… then she also wanted to do it!
I Livestream Divination to the World translated by Maela @ whitemoonlighttranslations.com
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FOOTNOTES:
- Sanqing or the Three Pure Ones are the 3 highest gods in the Daoist pantheon. ↩︎
- Daoism believes that every star in the sky has a deity who rules it—titled ‘Xingjun’. I’ve translated it here as ‘Celestial Lord/Lady’ ↩︎
- Although the sparrow is small, it has all its internal organs. In this case, while her room is small, it has everything a room should have. ↩︎
WHITE MOONLIGHT TRANSLATIONS 
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