At the same time, Jing He still pondered his next step. He knew he should look at as little as possible in the Spring of Fate as he could. For one, each time he tried, he’d have to sacrifice something else and there was only so much to give up. He had also promised Qiu Ling to be careful and he wanted to keep his promise. Two, there were risks associated with watching these visions. He only saw one possible future, after all, and whatever conclusions he drew from that would influence him one way or another. Knowing too many of those possible developments might make him decide on the wrong steps.

The biggest issue he saw was that this first vision was proof that even if you had one, it might not necessarily show you what you wanted to see. How much of his time in the vision had been wasted on his stumbling about? He could have learned so much if he had been interacting with Qiu Ling or his family instead but little of that had actually happened.

He could probably call himself lucky that he had seen anything worthwhile at all. If not for Qiu Ling reaching back out to him after his first attempt to use the transmission stone didn’t get a response and then later coming to his rescue … if not for these things, then all of the vision would have been wasted on his feelings of emptiness and regret and the constant worry of being lost. He couldn’t have done anything with that.

The issue was: What could he do about that? This was the future that awaited him after that choice. The Spring of Fate couldn’t change that and it wasn’t like he could only watch certain parts of the vision … or could he?

Jing He’s expression changed slightly and he couldn’t help but look at the golden surface of the spring again. When he spoke to Qiu Ling before, they had figured out that it might have dire consequences if he phrased what he wanted to sacrifice the wrong way. Maybe … the same went for how he mentioned the future he wanted to see. Yes, it was entirely possible that a different way of saying what he wanted to know would allow him to see different things.

When he originally asked for a vision of the future, he had said that he wanted to ‘have a glimpse of the future that would await me if I were to follow my father’s wishes’. That was the most generic way he could phrase it so it should indeed just show him how that future would play out, with nothing omitted and nothing being focused.

Jing He’s hands trembled slightly as he thought of a possibility. If he were to change his words so that he made it clearer what he wanted to know, then maybe he would indeed only see those things. For example, if he said that he wanted to give up a part of his magic in exchange for seeing as much of the future relationship between Qiu Ling and himself as possible in case he were to choose his father’s side … then maybe he would indeed only see events that were tied to the relationship between Qiu Ling and himself.

He almost wanted to go ahead and directly ask the spring for another vision but he forcefully held back. It could very well be that he was right. In fact, he felt that he should be right. But just like with the sacrifice, he couldn’t blindly forge ahead. He had to be careful and make sure that the sentence he finally used did not leave anything up for interpretation. It had to be perfect.

Jing He paced up and down in front of the Spring of Fate but then felt that it seemed a little disrespectful so he carried An Xin over to the top of the staircase and sat down on the uppermost step. Looking out into the emptiness in the distance, he tried to clear his mind and think about this seriously.

What to say?

What exactly to ask for?

He had to know about their relationship. He cared about this the most. He wanted this relationship more than anything else. The first vision told him that the consequences of directly choosing Qiu Ling would be too dire for him to bear but it had also proven that both of them were unwilling to give up. So … he needed to make sure through his second vision that Qiu Ling and he indeed had a future left after he chose to follow his father’s wishes.

He didn’t need to know their exact plans or every step they finally took. No, he just needed to be certain by the end of that vision that the two of them had somehow made it. That they had indeed managed to find a way to make everything work. He needed to know that they could both find happiness despite the troubles they had encountered in between. That … was enough.

Jing He slowly combed through An Xin’s fur and tried to think of what exactly could show him the results best. Even mentioning their relationship only limited the vision to a certain degree. There were still many things that should come up. Not even mentioning every encounter they had, maybe even his thoughts about Qiu Ling would be counted among the things relevant to his request. So really, this was still much too vague to ask about. He needed something that was a lot more precise to make the most of this. Otherwise, he might use all his magic in the process of figuring this out.

Jing He closed his eyes. Their future … what he needed to know was only the final result, the outcome of everything that came before. How … could that be put into words in a way that was unmistakable?