Qiu Ling didn’t feel good but he knew better than to make this Jing He’s issue. His beloved was already struggling with the decisions that lay ahead of him. If he also told him about his insecurities, he’d only be even more anxious than usual and he knew what would happen then: Just like Tian had told him in the beginning, his actions would influence Jing He and cause him to be unable to make the decision he needed to make.

Of course, Qiu Ling had a thing or two to say about influencing Jing He. In a way, the one who had done that most was Tian, wasn’t he? After all, he had been there as soon as Jing He woke up and every word he spoke seemed to intentionally or unintentionally steer him toward choosing his lover. He really wasn’t sure what to make of that.

At first glance, he should be happy that this might make Jing He likely to choose him. But, actually, as soon as he thought deeper, it only worried him. If what Tian had said in the beginning was right and Jing He needed to decide on his own, then this subtle influence wasn’t a good thing. In fact, this might be why Jing He was taking so long to come to terms with everything: He didn’t actually have the time and space to think everything through and find the direction forward on his own. Instead, he was being distracted and guided, making him unable to truly regain his bearing.

The High Heavens should have been perfect for Jing He to retreat into himself and find whatever truth he needed to see. But now, things had turned out this way. It didn’t seem quite right. There was nothing he could do about it though. The person getting — maybe needlessly — involved was the Supreme Sovereign, after all. That wasn’t the type of person to argue with. Especially not when you were well aware that this matter concerned Tian privately as well. So in the end, no matter what his thoughts on the matter were, Qiu Ling could only ignore them and wait patiently.

While he had been feeling bothered by this, Jing He had thought about his previous words. Was he too cautious? That might very well be. He had always been somewhat timid, if not to say cowardly. It didn’t seem odd to him that he would worry about too many potential outcomes when the stakes were so high. No, he usually acted like this. He just didn’t have the kind of courage Qiu Ling seemed to have been blessed with.

Jing He finally sighed and nodded. “You are right, I should try to find out more before discounting this possibility.” Even if he himself didn’t care about the abilities he would lose otherwise, doing so would put more of a burden on Qiu Ling. He shouldn’t let that happen. Plus, if they were to have a child in the future, shouldn’t he be in his best state? Needlessly giving up abilities would put their child in danger so it was better to be more cautious.

Feeling that he was wrong while Qiu Ling had been able to see through the matter much better, he decided to use the Mark of Wisdom again. Even though he had already done so twice before, he still had to brace himself before he gingerly reached up to touch it, quietly asking in his mind: Are there negative consequences for giving up the abilities of a fallen god at the Spring of Fate?

At once, the whisper rang in his mind for the third time: ‘Possible negative consequences of giving up the abilities of a fallen god at the Spring of Fate include losing the abilities of a fallen god, losing additional abilities due to unclear phrasing while making the sacrifice, and witnessing a possible future not conducive to one’s mental well-being.’

Jing He stared blankly when the whisper stopped. A possible negative of giving up the abilities was … losing the abilities? When he heard this, he had almost taken back his hand. To him, this was a positive outcome more than anything but the Mark of Wisdom seemed to judge this in another way. Well, this did make sense considering what most people would understand a sacrifice to be and what losing something meant. No matter what it was, you would have less of it, wouldn’t you? Most of the time, that was a negative thing indeed and when it came to abilities you had, then it never seemed to be positive to lose them for normal people.

Jing He felt puzzled by this only for a moment. In the end, he shook his head and focused on the other two parts. Before thinking about them further, he shared them with Qiu Ling though. “I don’t know about the actual process of making the sacrifice but according to the Mark of Wisdom, it seems like I will need to verbalize what I wish to give up. There is a possibility of saying it in a way that is unclear so that I could lose more abilities than I intended.”

Qiu Ling’s brows furrowed immediately. “That’s not good.” Especially so since they didn’t really have anything to base this on. “It … wouldn’t have mentioned the right way to phrase this, would it?”

Jing He shook his head. “I suppose I could ask for clarification.” Although, to be honest, he’d rather use it less. “I believe it shouldn’t be that difficult though. Thinking about it, fallen gods don’t just have their own specific abilities but also share those of the trueborn gods. So I guess as long as I clarify that I mean the abilities only the fallen gods have, it shouldn’t be an issue.”

Qiu Ling nodded with some hesitation. Well, that did sound about right …

Jing He was actually more worried about the last part. “It also mentioned that the future I might see could be an issue in itself. I wonder … if this will indeed happen, considering that I already have such trouble deciding. What if my chances of solving this actually get worse because I take a look at the future?”