In the center of the stones stood a phantom familiar to Shen Bai.

At that moment, the phantom stood with its hands behind its back. A gentle breeze drifted by, making it seem incredibly mysterious.

The surroundings were completely empty. As Shen Bai watched, the phantom slowly raised its right hand.

The phantom’s right hand was empty.

But the phantom was unhurried. It began to tap its thumb against its other four fingers in a continuous motion, as if telling a fortune.

As the phantom continued its Calculation, a strand of golden thread materialized in its hand.

Then, the thread slowly flew off in a certain direction before vanishing.

After the thread vanished without a trace, both the phantom and Shen Bai had an uncanny feeling that something unusual lay in that direction.

Without hesitating, the phantom lowered its right hand. With a single step, it blurred into an afterimage and disappeared.

The surrounding scenery flew backward at a dizzying pace. When everything came to a stop, Shen Bai found himself in a deep, secluded valley.

Ahead, an aberration roamed the valley, emanating a chilling aura.

The phantom’s appearance immediately drew the aberration’s attention.

The aberration roared and charged at the phantom.

With a casual wave of its hand, a powerful gust of wind burst from the phantom’s sleeve and slammed into the aberration.

In a mere instant, the aberration dissolved into smoke and vanished.

Watching the aberration disappear, Shen Bai had a sudden realization.

’The phantom found the aberration’s location through Calculation.’

As soon as he had this thought, his surroundings began to dissipate.

In the blink of an eye, Shen Bai was back in his room.

Before him, the smoke transformed into a massive amount of Information that flowed into his mind.

Shen Bai closed his eyes. Only after absorbing all the Information did he open them again, a thought surfacing in his mind.

’The art of Calculation, a way to illuminate the world.’

’This Divine Power is exactly what I need,’ Shen Bai thought.

Although Arithmetic was only at Level 1 and had only a single Attribute, Calculation, it was an Attribute Shen Bai desperately needed right now.

The so-called Calculation allowed one to figure out many things by using the Arithmetic Divine Power.

For example, if Shen Bai wanted to find an enemy’s location—just like in the vision—he could use the Arithmetic Divine Power. He could also figure out all sorts of other strange things.

Things like the full story behind an event, or its various causes.

Of course, this was all limited by the Attribute range of the Arithmetic Divine Power.

If something exceeded the range of Calculation +1, Shen Bai wouldn’t be able to figure it out.

A range of Calculation +1 seemed very small, but the Divine Power was only at Level 1 for now.

Shen Bai thought for a moment and decided to grind nothing else tonight. He would focus solely on grinding this Divine Power until it evolved.

For a Gan Di—a hardcore grinder—getting a new Divine Power was incredibly exciting, and Shen Bai was no exception.

He looked at Amber, who was playing off to the side, and stroked its head. "Let’s begin," he said.

Amber was already used to Shen Bai’s routine. The moment he stroked its head, it knew what to do.

As soon as Shen Bai spoke, it transformed into a ray of light and merged into his body.

Shen Bai pondered for a moment. ’What should I try to calculate?’

’Since I’m grinding the Arithmetic Divine Power, it has to be related to Calculation. And to perform a Calculation, I need to calculate something.’

’Oh, what the heck. I’ll calculate my own romantic fortune.’ Shen Bai decided instantly.

It was a sudden whim. After all, he had just witnessed the incident with Liu Wufeng and Valley Master Lin, and he was feeling impulsive. He just wanted to give it a simple try. If it worked, great. If not, at least it would raise the Skill Level of his Arithmetic Divine Power.

With this in mind, Shen Bai mimicked the phantom, raising his right hand and beginning the intricate finger calculations.

Before his eyes, the Skill Level began to rise at double the normal rate.

However, as Shen Bai performed the Calculation, he found that his romantic fortune was like a dense fog, utterly boundless and impossible to grasp.

’In other words, with my current Arithmetic Divine Power, I can’t figure out which way my romantic fortune is headed at all.’

Shen Bai had his answer instantly.

He couldn’t determine the specific path, but since he’d only done it on a whim, he wasn’t disappointed.

The night was long, but to Shen Bai, time seemed to be flying by.

...

「In the blink of an eye, the entire night had passed.」

As the first rays of morning sunlight shone before him, a line of smoke materialized in front of Shen Bai.

The smoke gradually condensed, eventually forming a line of text that floated in mid-air.

[Arithmetic Level 2 (Calculation +2, Accuracy +2): 1000/1000]

In a single night, Shen Bai had ground his Arithmetic Divine Power to the peak of Level 2.

After reaching the peak of Level 2, he needed a wisp of Evil Qi to advance it further.

Previously, Shen Bai had obtained eight wisps of Evil Qi after killing the Stubborn Disease Aberration. Adding the two he already had, he’d had a total of ten.

But after using one for an appraisal, only nine wisps remained.

These nine wisps of Evil Qi weren’t enough for a second evolution.

So, Shen Bai simply decided to use one to evolve his Arithmetic.

As he made his decision, one of the nine wisps of Evil Qi vanished.

As the wisp of Evil Qi disappeared, the smoky text shattered, only to twist and reform in mid-air as new words.

[Divination Skill Level 3 (Calculation +4, Accuracy +4, Fortune and Misfortune +4): 0/5000]

The text formed by the smoke indicated that his skill had reached Level 3, becoming Divination Skill—its first evolution.

The moment the first evolution was complete, the smoke in front of him suddenly vanished, shooting into Shen Bai’s mind.