C9 The Heavendefying Eyes of the Oracle

Don't you even have the courage to defend yourself?

Shen Bingyan was itching to give Su Fei a piece of her mind, yet the words wouldn't come out when she tried to speak.

Her father, Shen Yun, had been close friends with Su Chen. Even though the issue seemed resolved with Su Fei's marriage into the Shen family, Shen Yun had secretly continued to investigate Su Chen's death after it happened.

This was a secret, one that Shen Yun shared only with Shen Bingyan, leading her to suspect that Shen Yun's death and the Shen family's downfall were not merely coincidental accidents.

Shen Bingyan had been determined to uncover the truth behind her father's death and had even considered enlisting Su Fei's help. But Su Fei's repeated disappointments had left her disheartened.

Now, she felt a profound sense of resignation.

She decided to keep supporting this failure at home, seeing it as a way to honor her father's last wish.

Taking a deep breath to steady herself, Shen Bingyan addressed Su Fei with a detached tone, "Aren't you going to tend to that wound? What are you just standing there for?"

Upon hearing Shen Bingyan's reprimand, Su Fei quietly got to work.

Shen Bingyan sighed inwardly and turned her attention back to comforting Chen Xiyun.

Shen Bingyan's intervention had earned some gratitude from Su Fei, but the aloof look in her eyes constantly reminded him that he was seen as worthless.

And it had always been that way.

The indifference in her gaze was more painful to Su Fei than Chen Xiyun's routine berating.

What man doesn't aspire to be successful? What man wants to be disrespected by his own wife?

Su Fei silently finished cleaning the entrance and, turning around, found that Shen Bingyan had already taken Chen Xiyun upstairs to rest, leaving him alone in the vast living room.

Once again, Shen Bingyan's indifferent expression haunted him, and a crushing sense of desolation overwhelmed Su Fei's heart.

"I am not worthless."

The words were forced through clenched teeth, but the harsh reality left him feeling utterly powerless.

What could he possibly do?

Just then, the dormant Cosmic Evolution Spell Genuine Energy within Su Fei's body began to flow slowly once again. A warm current swept through Su Fei, gradually easing the residual pain in his body and starting to absorb the surrounding emotional energy, just as before.

Due to the interaction between Shen Bingyan and Chen Xiyun, the emotional energy released by Chen Xiyun was many times stronger than it had been during the day. Su Fei could distinctly feel his cultivation growing, and his previously depleted meridians were filling up as he absorbed more and more energy.

Upon closer inspection, Su Fei realized that the total amount of Cosmic Evolution Spell Genuine Energy inside him had multiplied several times over, which filled him with an unexplained excitement.

Wasn't the reason he couldn't use the Eyes of the Oracle during the day due to an insufficient amount of Genuine Energy? Now, should he try it out?

Without hesitation, Su Fei did just that!

Mentally reciting the incantation for the Eyes of the Oracle, the world before his eyes began to shift. Objects that were once solid started to appear ethereal. For instance, the frosted vase on the table began to turn transparent. Although it was only a slight illusion and he couldn't see through it completely, Su Fei could still make out the outlines of the flower stems inside the vase.

Su Fei couldn't help but smirk. The Eyes of the Oracle were somewhat underwhelming.

His gaze wandered around the living room, but he didn't notice anything else amiss. Just as Su Fei was about to dismiss the Eyes of the Oracle, feeling a bit let down, his attention was suddenly captured by an image on the television.

Chen Xiyun, having come home early, was listlessly watching TV since Su Fei and Shen Bingyan had arrived. The evening financial analysis program was on, featuring an attractive host and a guest engaged in lively discussion.

It was nighttime in China, but over in Iotriecia, it was broad daylight. The host and guest were discussing the Iotriecian stock market, and on the large screen behind them, the live fluctuations of the market were displayed, with various stocks scrolling by in red and green.

Su Fei's attention was certainly not on the attractive host, but rather on the large screen behind her.

Though he wasn't well-versed in stock trading, Su Fei had enough common sense to know that red indicated a price increase, while green signaled a decrease. With his Eyes of the Oracle intently observing, all the stocks were gradually shifting. Some emitted a mist-like substance, while others absorbed this mysterious energy from their surroundings, leaving Su Fei somewhat perplexed.

But soon, Su Fei noticed a pattern. The stocks absorbing the mist were mostly on the rise, whereas those releasing it were falling, with a few exceptions.

He quickly turned his focus to these "anomalous" stocks.

One such green stock consistently hovered around a 0.7% drop, yet it kept drawing in the mist. Su Fei watched it for some time, unable to discern anything unusual, but as he was about to check another stock, the trajectory of this one abruptly shifted!

A line shot upwards rapidly, resembling a steep incline! The stock's price soared in the blink of an eye. Even though it swiftly receded, there seemed to be an inexplicable force propping up its value. After a minor fluctuation, the stock instantly went from a 0.7% decrease to a 1.3% increase, skyrocketing by 2% in just a moment!

A mere 2% might not seem like much, but it was indeed significant! It meant that anyone who had invested in this stock had just seen a 2% increase in their assets. A million dollars had turned into a million and twenty thousand in merely two minutes!

Su Fei quickly grasped the purpose of his Eyes of the Oracle – could it really predict the stock market's fluctuations? This was incredible... he was on the verge of striking it rich!

He felt as though he was about to levitate with excitement, but before he could revel in his discovery, a wave of intense dizziness overwhelmed him. The Eyes of the Oracle not only shut down completely, but the very scene before him also faded to darkness.

"Damn, I've overexerted myself again..."

Having learned from his previous ordeal, Su Fei knew exactly what had happened. He struggled to take a step forward before his vision went black, and he collapsed onto the living room sofa.

Just like before, the residual Cosmic Evolution Spell within Su Fei's body was automatically circulating to restore his strength.

Upon waking, Su Fei glanced at the clock and realized two hours had passed.

"Better hurry up, pack, and take a shower."

Su Fei's strength hadn't fully returned, but he was determined to make the most of the night by brushing up on stock trading knowledge. Tomorrow, he planned to test whether the Eyes of the Oracle could truly predict stock market fluctuations as he hoped.

If so, his fortunes were about to change!

Chen Xiyun had roused Su Fei from just two hours of sleep to work, clearly still fixated on the previous day's events, unleashing a fresh tirade on him. However, Su Fei's luck held when a phone call whisked Chen Xiyun away, likely to join her wealthy card-playing friends.

Ironically, the scolding had invigorated Su Fei, and the Cosmic Evolution Spell's circulation had normalized.

"The tougher my life gets, the more the Cosmic Evolution Spell seems to thrive," Su Fei mused, watching Chen Xiyun's car disappear into the distance, quickly shifting his mindset.

Today could very well be a life-changing day!

After swiftly completing the tasks Chen Xiyun had left for him, Su Fei rushed back to his room to begin his preparations for the stock market.

His phone, a hand-me-down from Shen Bingyan, was a women's model but still in excellent condition and responsive. Just the night before, Su Fei had pored over basic stock market principles on its small screen.

Minutes later, he had successfully installed a stock trading app on his phone, set up an account, and linked his sole bank card. With that, he was all set.

The card contained his personal savings of three thousand yuan, painstakingly accumulated over the years through haggling while shopping for Yang Hehua—savings unknown to the Shen family.

This was the entirety of Su Fei's assets.

He proceeded with extreme caution, taking every step with the utmost care.

Because the three thousand yuan represented his entire life savings, Su Fei knew he couldn't afford any mishaps.

With a mix of excitement and trepidation, he opened the stock trading app on his phone, his entire net worth at stake.

The domestic stock market was already in full swing, with stocks undergoing dramatic fluctuations.

Meanwhile, it was the middle of the night in Iotriecia, so their market was closed. Su Fei had checked the previous day and was reassured to see that the stock he had been following had closed in the red, up by 4%.

Su Fei had a hunch.

From his intensive research the day before, he understood that stocks typically surged, as they had yesterday, primarily due to large capital investments. This is what traders refer to when they say big money has entered the market and driven up prices.

The Eyes of the Oracle could likely discern the unseen capital movements behind each stock. In essence, stocks that exhaled fog and declined were experiencing capital withdrawal, while those inhaling fog and rising indicated capital influx.

The reason some stocks maintained their price even as capital flowed in and out was due to the sophisticated maneuvers of big investors. Otherwise, how could so many individual investors remain stuck in the market for years, unable to recover their initial investment?

Big capitalists certainly weren't just pouring money into stocks for the fun of it. Their endgame was to pump up the prices before selling to make a profit. Therefore, if one could track the buying and selling patterns of these major players, investing in stocks could be almost risk-free! However, such information on capital flows was highly confidential and beyond the reach of the average person.

Su Fei had also learned about the fundamental differences between the stock markets in China and Iotriecia. While the core principles were similar, there were significant differences in certain aspects.

For instance, in China, a stock's daily price movement is capped at 10%. That means if you invest 1,000 yuan, the most you could earn in a day is 1,100 yuan, and conversely, the most you could lose is 900 yuan. This regulatory mechanism is the government's way of shielding the market from extreme volatility within a single day.

The U.S. stock market operates differently. There are no daily limits on how much stock prices can rise or fall. However, if the fluctuations are too extreme, a circuit breaker mechanism is triggered, which forcibly halts trading.

Secondly, in the Chinese stock market, shares purchased on a given day cannot be sold until the following day. You're free to buy more, but you must wait until the next trading session to sell. In contrast, in the U.S., there are no restrictions on the number of times you can buy and sell shares within the same day.

This means that one moment you might see a significant influx of capital, but after a surge in the stock's value, it could quickly become a net outflow. In China, however, once capital flows into a stock, it stays there until the next day, when the large investors have the opportunity to sell their shares for cash. Thus, the Chinese stock market is generally considered to be safer.

Third, and perhaps most importantly, there's a fundamental rule to remember: the minimum trading unit is one lot, which is equivalent to 100 shares. Therefore, Su Fei's 3,000 yuan doesn't go very far in the stock market. He wouldn't even qualify to purchase stocks priced over 30 yuan. And for stocks at exactly 30 yuan, he could only afford the minimum lot.

Su Fei took a deep breath and, with caution, activated his Eyes of the Oracle to scrutinize the scrolling stock prices on his phone.