Chapter 193: The Three Who Changed Their Fate (Part 2)
The second person suspected of successfully defying fate and altering destiny was His Majesty, Emperor Taizong.
Emperor Taizong had many titles, such as the Wise Sovereign of a Thousand Ages and a Great Conqueror. Looking back through history, few monarchs could match his brilliance. Among his life’s achievements, the most prominent and widely celebrated by the people was, naturally, leading the alliance of humans and demons to defeat the mighty demon race.
As time passed and under the deliberate manipulation of the Great Zhou court, people only remembered that under Emperor Taizong’s command, the allied forces of the two races had marched north several times, scattering the demon armies in all directions. Except for those who devoted themselves to studying history, few still recalled how, in the early days of the Great Zhou’s founding, the nation had humbly sought peace and barely survived under the demon army’s advance. The famous Treaty of Falling Willows, etched in people’s memories, had long since diverged completely from the true content of the original agreement.
In the third year after Emperor Taizu ascended the throne before the Heavenly Book Mausoleum, the demon army brazenly invaded the south. At that time, the war-torn Central Plains had just quieted, the people were impoverished, and the nation’s strength was depleted, leaving the Great Zhou unable to resist. Emperor Taizu was forced to declare himself a vassal, offering tribute. Later, as the Great Zhou’s power gradually recovered, it attempted to truly incorporate the southern borderlands into its territory. Emperor Taizu’s third son led troops to campaign in the south, leaving only the then-Prince of Qi, later Emperor Taizong, to guard the capital. Seizing this opportunity, the demons invaded south again, capturing Tianshui Commandery in one fell swoop, with their vanguard reaching Luoyang, threatening the entire human world. Emperor Taizong was forced to deploy a feint strategy, personally leading the generals and strategists of the Prince of Qi’s mansion to the Plain of Falling Willows north of Luoyang to meet the Demon Lord. Legend has it that the Demon Lord saw the Zhou army’s orderly and imposing formation, or perhaps it was said that Zhou Dufu quietly appeared beneath the five willow trees. In any case, before a great battle erupted, Emperor Taizong offered a vast amount of wealth, again expressing submission, and both parties sacrificed a pure white unicorn to seal the covenant. Only then did the demon army withdraw northward.
The Treaty of Falling Willows was a humiliating treaty signed under duress at the city gates.
In historical records, Emperor Taizong was considered a paragon—appointing the worthy, humbly accepting remonstrance. Yet, as a destined great conqueror, he naturally had his pride. How could he forget this shameful history? Three years after the Hundred Herbs Garden Incident, Emperor Taizong and those legendary ministers and divine generals finally began preparing to reclaim his glory and humanity’s dignity from the demons. Thus began a magnificent war.
Under the governance of two wise emperors, the Great Zhou strove for strength, and its national power had become formidable. Coinciding with the second surge of the cultivation world in a millennium, countless legendary figures like Wang Zhice emerged. Coupled with Emperor Taizong’s alliance with the demon race, gaining such powerful support, the allied forces achieved gratifying results in their first northern expedition.
In the following decades, the flames of war on the northern grasslands never truly extinguished. Emperor Taizong and his remarkable legendary strongmen continuously attacked the demons. After the third northern expedition, the outcome was finally decided: the demons suffered a crushing defeat, retreating to the Snow Old City, daring not to take a single step southward.
Countless reasons could explain humanity’s victory over the demons—such as the wise monarch and strong state mentioned earlier, or the emergence of numerous experts. But if one examined this history closely, no matter how many reasons were given, it was hard to explain why, in just a few decades, the once-dominant, arrogant demon race that had ruled the northern continent was so thoroughly defeated. Why did the balance of power between the two sides reverse so decisively? It was as if some unseen force had protected Emperor Taizu, and similarly, some unseen force seemed to shield the Great Zhou’s national fortune, continuously diminishing the demons’ morale.
What was that unseen force? Was it the power of fate? Did Emperor Taizong change his own fate and, in doing so, alter the fate of the human world?
The third person suspected of successfully defying fate and altering destiny is still alive.
She is the current ruler of the human world, Her Holiness the Saint Empress.
Perhaps precisely because she is still alive, there are the fewest rumors about the Saint Empress successfully defying fate. Few dare to speak of such matters, not even in their own beds.
Yet many speculate about it.
For a woman to rule the world and sit on the dragon throne as a sovereign—how could the Saint Empress achieve such an unprecedented transformation without defying fate?
Emperor Taizu, Emperor Taizong, and the Saint Empress—these are the three rumored to have successfully defied fate and altered destiny, and also the three most successful figures on this continent in the past millennium. In Chen Changsheng’s judgment, there wasn’t even the word “suspected,” because before leaving the old temple in Xining Town, his master, Daoist Ji, had clearly stated that only three people had ever succeeded in altering their fate.
Though the word “only” was used, it was a definitive statement.
To change one’s fate, one must change the position of one’s destiny star in the night sky. Chen Changsheng came to the capital, participated in the Grand Examination, and entered the Lingyan Pavilion to find the method to alter the position of his destiny star. That method should be the secret technique rumored to have been secretly employed by the first Pope of the State Religion and Emperor Taizu, and likely also used by Emperor Taizong and the Saint Empress.
What puzzled Chen Changsheng was that, since it was a secret technique of the State Religion, why hadn’t his master told him to find a way into the Papal Palace to inquire, but instead instructed him to do everything possible to enter the Lingyan Pavilion and come before Wang Zhice’s portrait? No matter how legendary Wang Zhice was, it wasn’t necessarily related to defying fate.
Just then, a soft click sounded from within the bluestone wall.
He snapped back to attention and looked into the wall. He saw that the complex, indescribable copper wires on the box’s surface had transformed into a pattern completely different from the beginning. The positions of the delicate copper knobs had shifted, and the central spring mechanism had retracted to both sides—the box had opened.
The solution to the seventeen interlocking sets was extremely complex; one wouldn’t know if it was correct until the very end. He had solved it in one try—this was indeed fortunate.
He took a handkerchief from his sleeve, wiped the sweat from his forehead, licked his dry lips, and reached his hand toward the box. But then he suddenly realized that those copper pillars and wires… were essentially the same as the stars in the night sky and the invisible lines between them, only simpler.
It was just a fleeting thought. He didn’t dwell on it and instead reached in to take out the book inside. The Lingyan Pavilion blocked sound and sunlight, and this book had been deeply hidden in the bluestone wall. After several hundred years, only the edges were slightly brittle; the pages themselves were still as white as new, and the ink characters looked as if they had just been written.
The book’s cover had no words. The first words Chen Changsheng saw were written on the first page. The handwriting had no sharpness but was round, vigorous, and ancient, like an old stone in the mountains, possessing its own charm.
“Positions are relative.”
Staring at these six words, Chen Changsheng was stunned, completely unable to understand their meaning. After thinking seriously and finding no clue, he continued flipping through the pages. The second page was densely covered with characters, the handwriting elegant and free yet never frivolous, nor deliberately seeking liveliness. Seeing this page, he finally confirmed that this book was indeed Wang Zhice’s notebook.
(Next chapter before five o’clock.)