Fate
"You think this ends here? What I'm about to tell you is more incredible and keep it a secret" I looked directly at Long Yuyin, letting the weight of my words sink in. "Nie Li, the leader of the current Demon League, is actually one of eight reincarnated beings ~ but not from the past. He comes from another future timeline, centuries ahead. That's why he can produce supreme intents despite his low cultivation and young age. Currently, he carries the destiny to reverse heaven and earth. It's fated to be his responsibility to defeat the Sage Emperor."
Long Yuyin's eyes widened as I continued. "Your senior sister has been trying to shift his fate onto herself recently, and she's been partially successful. In the previous life, he came to the Divine Feather Sect under Ying Yueru's discipleship. But in the end, Ying Yueru died by your very own hands, and he was heartbroken. He learned, cultivated, and finally became a deity realm cultivator using a special treasure, then fought against the Sage Emperor but died. Time's flow only moves forward under the limited abilities of beings here, but he unknowingly reversed his fate using that treasure."
"Similar to you before learning all this, he harbored great resentment toward you for your previous life action of killing Ying Yueru. But she told him to let go of past hatred, and now he's accepted it as events in this timeline have branched significantly. You're following me now."
Ying Yueru
I watched her face carefully, noting every flicker of emotion. "How do I know all this? Do you have any ideas?"
"Are you also one among the reincarnated? Or did he reveal this to you?"
"Neither. You only need to know this: I was born in this reality, but my actual origins don't lie here. Currently, I have abilities to shield your senior sister and help Nie Li. But now even after I reveal all this, she is still not ready to appear on her own to greet me."
I paused, extending my senses. "She has been here with us for a while now. By my calculation, she found me exactly an hour ago when we left the sect and is currently there."
I pointed to a spot in space several hundred meters ahead and snapped my fingers. The action literally pulled Ying Yueru from her hiding place within folded space.
"So you did find me in the end,"
I said to her. "How much life force have you absorbed testing each person? I believe my Life Fruits helped."
Ying Yueru's voice carried exhaustion and something that might have been relief. "Tian Chitao, knowing everything you've said, origins unknown, fate unknown, unexplainable fighting strength... in the first place, how can I believe you are not someone sent by the very emperor you spoke of to sabotage the one chance we had?" She paused and continued.
"I foresaw the changes. Fate is turbulent everywhere near you. You disrupted the original destiny of people he was supposed to meet, and that includes her." She pointed at Long Yuyin.
After a brief silence, I replied, "Fate huh? Why did it reveal that it was the only chance?"
Seeing her silence I continued; " What was it that you learned: 'Goodness is like water, for it conserves everything without contention. All creation is an illusion. It's only momentary illusion in eternity is time. Only those who break the illusion can make it real'?"
" What a nice intuition?"
" How do you know that? " She asked me with a bit of bafflement.
" Why do you think I exist? You said it yourself, I don't exist. The person that taught you verse, even ancestor of No Phase hasn't broken the illusion and had to die. The people you put faith in all are in the game. You can choose king piece, but not the player themselves, do you? There is a reality outside the chess board. Doesn't the fact that Nie Li and the other reincarnations still alive and well reassure you?"
A long silence stretched between us.
"You being unknown is what I fear. Have you also cultivated Heavenly derivation technique?"
"Nie Li can come back with the help of a book. Why do you think me having the knowledge is so confusing?"
"Can you truly shield fate? I know you yourself don't seem to appear in divination."
"Who do you think shielded Nie Li's fate when he was already well into heavenly fate realm and you didn't notice?"
"Then what do you propose and why help me?"
"You can transfer his fate or that of his companions onto yourself. I don't mind you trying to fool deity servants, but then I can offer you a safe place. You will be confined to a few miles around me where I can fully shield you. As long as you eventually reach deity realm on your own, you can venture out safely. Or I will place you inside a small world. As for how capable I am of doing that..."
I enveloped both of them within my rule domain and transformed to my actual form: slightly more mature true god body, unleashing strength comparable to Deity rank in spiritual pressure.
"I don't have the actual cultivation of deity rank, but just through my soul strength and physical power, I can indeed be comparable."
They felt the aura, though I held back from affecting them directly. I let Ying Yueru step outside while we remained within the domain and pointed to Long Yuyin. "Try divination on your junior sister."
She attempted it and the result was startling. "She doesn't exist. Her past stops now."
She looked at me with amazement. I brought her back to where we started.
"And I have an artifact with a small world inside where you can cultivate safely. It's your choice now. Whether I disrupt destiny or not, I only seek that goodness ~ the intention. After all, isn't this a grand illusion? My presence changed many things. When my cultivation strength matches my actual god body strength, I'll be capable enough to fight back directly."
"As for helping only you, the Emperor is in the end, a target, an opponent chess piece for me. I can't shield Nie Li like a guardian constantly ~ his fate requires him to gather allies capable of resisting in the ultimate fight, going through many trials. Soon he will become the acting sect master and unify the sect, then unify the righteous sects for a common goal before venturing to confront the Demon God Sect. I can't confine him like I can you. If you agree, you need to accept a soul seal. You can inspect the technique yourself. It's just to safeguard my knowledge from being released elsewhere."
"I agree."
"Senior Sister..." Long Yuyin who had been listening to our exchanges and comparing it with the knowledge I told her, was worried.
"You don't have to worry. If there's even a trace of better fighting chances, I'm willing to accept any conditions. Given his strength, he doesn't need any reason to convince us, but he tried. That's enough for me. I can also get to know what his end goal is... after all, I was originally fated to die."
I transmitted the technique to her in full, explaining the aspects she found difficult to identify, like encrypting memory flames or protective devices. "It's an exquisite technique that adapts to the caster's needs in preventing others from restricting speech or blocking memory. You can release it if the host reaches deity realm or higher, or if the caster releases it early." She examined it thoroughly.
"I agree."
I connected the soul seal with her, then said, "After you complete your work, don't leave him wondering about your disappearance for no reason. If I were you, I would just reveal the truth about his fate. But don't involve me in any of your preparations or letting others know about my involvement. I'm not ready to reveal knowledge about my abilities to just anyone yet."
A few moments later, she took a final look at me and returned to the sect. I gradually resealed myself and converged my power.
Long Yuyin
"So Long Yuyin, what do you say?"
"Can you tell me the truth about who you are?"
"I told you I have origins in another reality outside this one. Currently, I don't find it necessary for you to learn more about it. I will explain in the future. Meanwhile, I will teach you the details of the cultivation technique thoroughly."
"Are you preparing me for something? Am I a means to an end?"
I sighed. "No. What else do you want to know?"
"What's my destiny that was supposed to happen?"
I looked at her for a while and sighed again. Why am I even trying to change anything? To live as an ordinary being? Should I just kill Sage emperor and leave the reality with Ning? Life is such. Why bother.
"You, your family, everything is dead originally. Timeline repeats. If I am present, then whatever it is now. If I were absent? Getting hatred from Nie Li in his new timeline where he was chosen. Instead of losing to me, you will lose to him. He will mercilessly shame you in public in the name of punishment for venting his anger with no ability to kill you. Your sister will guide him to let go of this hatred. To be virtuous as water for it doesn't compete."
Seeing she sigh and having a look of understanding, I continued, decimated whatever she thought would happen next: "He will rewrite your fate when he realizes you were not the person he saw before. Your anger for him will turn to admiration. You will become his disciple in the end. Then it becomes more of an obsession. In the end, you even publicly declared that if he doesn't marry you, you will remain a widow for life."
Seeing her baffled look, I was enjoying a bit. " But he cares for you, though not romantically, and even began to think some way to get rid of your pursuit, but you stick to him like an obsessive one. I can only see so far, and quite possibly you two will end up together given his luck with girls. By far the fate I know, you are one among the five great women he will have in the end."
Speaking about women, one is still in disguise as a male. Given the chaos I set off, will there be a chance for them to repeat the encounter they had? I thought in the end.
"What do you say? Do you feel violated of your free will? By my restraint on you in revealing things you have learned from me?"
"I need some time alone."
I left her for her own thoughts and cultivated my soul. Two days later, she came to me telling she will help the demon league in need and proceed for the vision I had about the sect leadership formed in unity. But she didn't tell anything of her opinion on what was revealed. Seeing she was about to leave, I gave the higher layers of her techniques directly to her mind.
"Long Yuyin, whatever you decide, a final word ~ don't trust your cousin Long Tianming. He is a hidden envoy of the Demon God Sect. In the original timeline, after he became sect master, the Divine Feather Sect's strength plummeted due to ambushes. When he went to the ancestral land claiming to learn, that place fell a hundred years later as well. So always be careful around your cousin. He is not a person worth trusting in your cause."
After having a final disbelief and challenge to her perception of events surrounding her, she slowly left.
Time Passed
In the weeks that followed, we two never met. I decided that she was not taking it well and let her deal with it, deciding to return to my life of cultivation. Recently, I had received reward boxes from both the Saint Soul Ground and the Ghastly Ruins. Among the treasures were a few spiritual essences, a grade-5 sword and grade 4 armors, and two dragon-blood demon spirits with excellent growth rates.
Having no use for it, I simply donated it to the demon league. I tried using the demon soul essence I previously obtained to test my soul shape or the avatar, and found that it indeed increased the strength of the abilities. So I recreated it and made the demon spirit abilities I had absorbed myself as potent as possible.
I entered the myriad miles and later found Xiao Ning also entering. She asked if she could bring in Ye Ziyun as well. I told her no.
I explained the current situation to her. We two had a wonderful conversation and time together and later returned to cultivation. I went to the far side of the realm and began to actively cultivate. The torrent of energy from everywhere began to draw into mine, but it was not enough even after cultivating for a week inside to condense a new heavenly star. I ate another phase-less fruit, and it did the work. My cultivation went to three stars within the next month by consuming three phase-less fruits.
Heavenly Note Sect
Since Xiao Ning entered later and returned earlier, the map was in her soul realm, meaning my point of exit would be in her heavenly note sect. I sent the message via the token to her whether I could come out.
I heard her frantic voice telling me not to. "No, not now. I am in front of my master. I will let you out later."
I checked my ring world in the meanwhile and found that Yu Yan just reached heavenly axis layer and the Xiao Huo was possibly at dragon dao realm. Shen Xiu was at heavenly star realm. It had been a long time since I let them out.
After half an hour, Xiao Ning let me out in her room.
I entered her cultivation chamber. My senses extended. Compared to Divine Feather sect, the ambient energy was a bit more. I was possibly among the select few males right now on the sect.
Seeing her after a while, the meeting inevitably led to a battle of bodies in bed. While I was inside, I sensed someone approaching and trying to activate the array to call her.
"Someone is here." I shared my divine sense with her.
"She's Xuan Yue. She's actually one of my senior sister and one of the candidates for the sect master's position given her power level and influence, but is a little arrogant and jealous of others talents. She is peak heavenly axis realm. You hide first. Let me check." I sat in bed reducing my perception to minimum and only visible to her.
She unsealed her array and met Xuan Yue outside. "Sister Ninger, are you coming with me to see the... ..... wait, were you exercising? With our strength, what technique you use to sweat this much?"
***
After a while she left, when Ning finally managed to get her out.
"How's Ye Ziyun going on? I haven't met her in a while."
"We stuck together when we came and eventually with the spiritual stones and the essence elixirs you provided, both of our cultivation was rapid. Now I am just at heavenly axis realm and she is mid-stage already. Sect Master favors her and is more focusing on her. The faction we formed together is currently the strongest of the sect. Minguye Wushang and Xuan Yue are others. When you gave me the elixirs and spirit stones last time, our strength greatly increased. But after learning I went alone, she was a bit moody from then on. Currently she is elsewhere. I can take you there but you need to conceal yourself."
"Why conceal?" I transformed myself to my female version. "They don't check each individual, right?"
"Not right away, but make it more plain looking. I will just introduce you as my follower. I will call you your name Chiyue, isn't that what you call yourself?"
We went along, and I noticed a lot of faces greet her in public ~ she was quite famous. For my aura only revealed heavenly fate realm, people didn't really care about it. After flying for a minute, we finally reached her entrance. It was a bit more spacious and nice cultivation area.
Ye Ziyun
"Hey, I might have... never mind." Xiao Ninger said something cryptic halfway.
"Ye Ziyun, it's me." She quickly sent a message to the array node and soon Ziyun emerged. Looking up at me, she instantly recognized me.
"Tao." She gave a sudden hug and sent us in. "It's been a long time since we saw each other. Hmm, you are still heavenly fate?"
"No, I just concealed my strength. Anyway, how are things going with you?"
"Well, nothing much ~ cultivation, leading followers and all. That can wait. I heard from Xiao Ninger that you want me to come to you on my own terms, otherwise you won't care about me at all."
I was not at all expecting that. I mechanically turned my head to Xiao Ning, who was now very seriously analyzing the texture of the wall for some reason.
" .... "
( "You did reveal something else to her?" )
( "Hey, knowing the story, I felt an impulse to look at her in a new light. Well, in the process of saying some things, I might have accidentally shed some of our bedtime talks while at outside world. Hey, the wine was strong, alright. I will be taking care next time." )
( "I am reactivating the soul seal again..." )
"Come on, don't talk to her alone. What do you want to say?" Ye Ziyun interrupted.
"I mean, my dear friend, I still care about you deeply," I said, trying to keep things light.
She flushed, her eyes narrowing. "Tch, friend? You think you can just call me that after what we did back at the Temporal Demon Spirit Book?"
"Hey, come on," I shot back, raising my hands defensively. "It was just some body refining and a bit of dual cultivation technique, wasn't it? We were all girls back then, same as now. What's with the accusations? You were there of your own free will. I never crossed any lines."
Her face turned redder, and she jabbed a finger at me, her voice sharp. "You slippery, shape-shifting deviant! You saw me bare and vulnerable, and now you're trying to slink away after taking advantage of my trust!"
"Hey, that's not how innocence works or lost, and don't pin that label on me. I only ever got that close with her."
"You did?" Xiao Ning's eyes widened, her voice tinged with shock. "Wait, you… why didn't you tell me?"
"Hey, I was just caught up in his charm, alright?" She said, trying to deflect.
"What the…" I started to argue, but then I caught the faint glisten in her eyes.
"Hey… don't cry." With a quick thought, I gently guided her to her seat. I shifted back to my original form, letting the transformation fade.
I stepped closer, my voice softening as I reached out to steady her. "I thought you were really into Nie Li these past few months since we got back to Glory City. You seemed distant with me but all smiles around him, so I figured you'd come to terms with who he really is. That's why I opened up to her…"
She paused, her emotional storm settling as she met my gaze. "Seeing you like that, as a man, after everything we did under the guise of 'cultivation'—it made me shy. I couldn't face you without feeling exposed. I thought the soul seal you gave me was your way of accepting me, of making it clear."
"…"
I mulled it over. After coming back from the God Domain, I'd been wrestling with my feelings for multiple women across realities. Having spent so long in a woman's body, I'd internalized a female perspective, and I judged my actions as utterly unfair to women. That's why I stuck closer to Xiao Ning, sharing more of myself with her. But it seems my female mindset completely misjudged the impact it had on her.
Noticing my silence, both of them sank into their own thoughts. I cloaked the room in an absolute shield, sealing us off from the outside.
"No point dodging this now. Read this first." I tossed the full printed manhua of Tales of Demons and Gods onto the table. "That's the complete story I could find. You should take a look too, Ning. It covers parts you haven't seen."
Like Xiao Ning, she flipped through the vivid pages, the silence growing heavier as they read on. The occasional humor in the panels sparked faint smiles, but after an hour, both turned to me. Xiao Ning, familiar with much of the tale, shifted uncomfortably, her cheeks tinged with embarrassment at the depictions. Ye Ziyun, though, was caught between shock and disbelief.
"Why is our life a story? Why do you only show up at the start?" she asked, voice trembling.
"I have a gift." I opened a star-shaped portal briefly at my side, then snapped it shut. "I can cross realities to wherever I choose. One day, I wished for unmatched strength and an endless life. I went to that world. But anything brought from this reality gets corrupted there. I spent years there, returned to the Tiny Realm with this power, and found this book—a tale from that world that somehow mirrors ours."
I retrieved the book and stowed it away, pausing before continuing. "Why am I barely in it? I don't know. It's a story about a protagonist's struggle. Maybe my power makes it too easy, trivializes everyone else's fight. Or maybe I just left and never returned."
She cut in, sharp-eyed. "Couldn't you have written it yourself? You know his memories of us. Just spun the tale?"
"No. The events here unfolded almost the same after I returned, except where I meddled. You might think I saw the future and wrote this, but I swear I didn't. I can't exist twice in a world without timelines—I'm a singularity. I've got no way to prove I didn't write it, and honestly, I wouldn't have the heart to write about Xiao Ning's obsession with him. It's a real story from that world."
Silence settled over us.
"Then why chose her and not me?" she asked, her expression heavy with dejection.
"Learning about it through this, not just his version of our past life from the Orchid Grounds, made me feel like a creep chasing both of you. He'd neglected Xiao Ning across two lifetimes, and since we'd shared more time before you even brought me into the picture, I thought the soul seal would bury the past and let fate sort itself out. I didn't realize you felt ashamed of what we did. I've spent so long realm-hopping that I forgot how it might hit you. Seeing you happy with him, I assumed you'd moved on."
Her gaze bored into me as I added, "And Nie Li's become something of a friend. I can't just walk up and say, 'Forget your past-life love, she's mine now,' without feeling like a total ass."
"Pathetic," she spat.
"Don't call him that," Xiao Ning interjected, defensive. "He's got his reasons. At least he's being real."
Ye Ziyun whirled on her. "And you! I thought after we had an intimate relation together, we'd moved past our old baggage, built something close, but you threw it away the second you got him to yourself? I knew you were hiding something from the start. You didn't tell me about the sect meetup - sneaking off to be with him, you snake."
Just as the tension spiked, a voice called from outside. "Hey, Sect Master's asking for you. Is Sister Ning there? Some sisters said she's around."
It was Xuan Ze. Ye Ziyun made a snap decision, striding to the array and unlocking it without hesitation. I dialed down my presence to minimum, rendering myself invisible to the newcomer.
"I don't know why…" Xuan Ze started, then paused, noticing my friend's red-rimmed eyes. Inside, Xiao Ning was still reeling from the first time she'd heard my friend curse so fiercely, her expression dazed.
Without a word, my friend stormed out, sending a curt message to dissolve the faction we'd built together, splitting it to follow either Ning or herself. The sudden order sent ripples of chaos through the sect. I trailed quietly behind, Xiao Ning at my side, while Xuan Ze stood frozen, confusion etched on her face.
Cloud Hall
"You messed up big time, didn't you?" Xiao Ning asked me, depressed.
"We messed up. You are equally culprit, woman. What should I do now? Should I go over and tell her I realized my mistake? I don't know, offer to dual cultivate again?"
"Forget the last part. You said it yourself before ~ you are not the protagonist in a novel. That will backfire."
"Yeah... then what else?"
....
" By the way, our sect master is training Ye Ziyun for becoming one in order to venture out and seek her love interest? Nie Li is going to bring bunch of men here to create kids? Demon God Sect is going to attack us? We need a lot of preparation and explanation to do..." She quickly tried to deflect to other matters.