193 Once upon a Time… There were Three People Part One

What is fate? This word has countless meanings: being born rich or poor,special encounters, the course of life with its ever-changing trajectories andelusive fluctuations, or is it the mysterious, unknown will of the heavens? If fate really was such an unknown, unchangeable existence, then this type ofexistence would be pointless. Naturally, cultivators would not accept such aconclusion. When the Heavenly Tomes descended, the people on the continentbegan to cultivate and borrow strength from the stars in order to change thecourse of nature. They would reflect on their own fate, face it with an utterlyfearless spirit, and dare to change it. Every cultivator’s first connection with the world occurred on the night theydetermined their Fated Star. As a result, people’s understanding of fatemirrored the vast sea of stars at night. Since ancient times, the stars in the night sky would never change, regardlessof position or brightness. They would forever shine serenely on the mortalworld. Naturally, there was an infinite number of complicated connectionsbetween the countless stars, and they simply could not be drawn out on paper intheir entirety. The images those connections formed were absolutely impossibleto illustrate. People would look up at the stars and see those beautiful and complicatedimages. They were so beautiful and complicated that their hearts would begin topalpitate. Quite naturally, they would believe that these images concealed anextremely deep, everlasting meaning. Countless years ago, the powerful members of the Orthodoxy’s older generationsvaguely perceived a sensation from the realm of celestial beings. Theyspeculated that some sort of hidden power within the stars affected the fate ofthe whole continent. As for the life of every individual, their Fated Star, the area surroundingit, and all of its connections were perhaps their individual fates. —This kind of reasoning coincidentally agreed with the philosophy of fatewithin the Daoist Canon. It was also one of the most difficult explanations tounderstand: fate was the overview of trajectories concerning interactionsbetween people. The infinite stars could hold countless lives, hopes, and wishes. Even thecorresponding explanation of fate, which people found so mysterious, couldcertainly also be found within the constellations. It could be said that after a person was born, a corresponding explanation oftheir fate’s trajectory would appear within the stars. It could also be saidthat even before a person was born his or her fate already existed within thestars, perhaps as a short line or as a grand constellation. If cultivators wanted to change their own fate, they had to change those linesand images which outlined their fates. They had to first change the brightnessand position of their Fated Stars. If they truly could change the position andbrightness of their Fated Stars to what they wanted, then the connectionsbetween the surrounding stars would change accordingly, affecting fates ofother people at the same time. Fate was never an independent existence. The people’s fates were interlinkedone with another, just as the the Daoist Canon explained: fate was the overviewof trajectories concerning interaction between people. However, in the past, the continent’s countless astronomers had left behindrecords explaining that the stars, regardless of their position or brightness,had never changed at all. With all this, it was completely impossible to changeone’s fate by desiring to move one’s Fated Star. Who had enough power to standon earth and affect the heavens? Who could grab the stars from the mortal realm? In the final book of the Pandect of Daoist Canon, the section regarding fateonly had a total of approximately six hundred words. It only mentioned a fewsimple possibilities in the second paragraph, which included the cultivatorbeing able to truly enter the Grand Liberation Realm or being capable of suchan achievement. However, this Grand Liberation Realm was even more mysteriousthan the Concealed Spirit Realm. According to the legend, it only existed inpeople’s imaginations. It was like a myth, so how could it be treated as truth? Then, was there really anyone who had succeeded in changing their fate?According to the records within the Daoist Canon and the statements ofofficials, such a thing had never occurred ever since the Heavenly Tomes haddescended. Even if it had truly occurred before, no one was brave enough topublicly discuss it due to the lack of evidence and its excessivelyfar-reaching effects. As a matter of fact, there had always been a kind of reasoning or conjectureamong the people saying that in the past thousand years, changing one’s fateought to have occurred three times. Only those involved in changing one’s fate had the power to expunge allrecords in the imperial observatory and various observatories. They had thepower to cause the entire human world to steer clear of discussing this matter,in fear. This was because those involved in rising against and defying theheavens each of the three times were now all monarchs. The three were Emperor Taizu, Emperor Taizong, and the………Divine Empress of theZhou Dynasty. A thousand years ago, the previous empire had begun to show signs ofcorruption, and people lived on the edge of starvation. In the north, the DemonRace stared greedily at the empire, and in the south, several aristocraticfamilies were rebelling. Countless armies arose, and wars were being foughtcontinuously, destroying almost the entire landscape. In the midst of the constant warring, countless experts surfaced throughoutthe continent, and even several great experts of the Saint Realm continuouslyappeared. This was also the first period of explosive growth the world ofcultivation had experienced. For a time, the flags on the gate of Luoyang changed countless times. One daya great general would dethrone the current emperor and kill his way into theeastern hills, and on the next day, a second young master of the Xiao Family inthe south would suddenly change sides and call himself “Sima”. He would takethe written admonition from Holy Maiden Peak and stage a coup d’etat withexperts from various sects. Nobody knew who exactly it was that cleaned up thatmess of a broken landscape in the end. In that time, Taizu was a senior official of the Tianliang County. As he wasrelated to the deposed emperor’s most beloved concubine, he was trusted andheld in high regard, due to which he was ordered to guard the city. It could besaid that he was very low-key or that he was very ordinary. However, incountless years he had never actually left the area of Tianliang County to goto Fork Mountain even by half a step. In the eyes of the commoners, he was extremely mediocre and unambitious. Whencompared to those great lords who were in the spotlight at that time, he wasstanding in the dark, and truly nobody believed that he would be able toconquer the world. When discussing about who had power, nobody would evenmention his name. People only believed that the Tianliang County had a decentgeographical position, and that the clever sons of Taizu could protectthemselves in this time of prominent emerging by bearing patiently andsurrendering to the strongest force at that time. However, who would have thought that after many years, the situation on thecontinent would change so suddenly? Great lords battled without rest, causinggreat losses and damage to every force. As Taizu built up strength in TianliangCounty, he slowly grew in power. One day, he led a great army of thirtythousand eastwards from Fork Mountain, and actually conquered seventeen citiesin one breath. He formed alliances with many aristocratic families in the southand also received the full support of the Way. He actually achieved a greatvictory against the Rebels of Tiger Hill, which was renowned for its valianceoutside of the city of Luoyang. He had successfully killed his way into thecity. In the second year, he conquered the capital city and had officiallytaken the throne in front of the Mausoleum of Books. He had truly united theworld. Looking at this period of history when the Zhou Dynasty empire had beenfounded, there were many parts that could not be explained, and many thingswhich could not happen according to reason. For example, the great lords couldhave taken a small glance at the Tianliang County in the beginning, and squashTaizu who was still weak at the time. In the first three bloody battles, whenTaizu had arrived at Fork Mountain, just when the situation was about to take aturn for the worst, he would always be able to pull through and changemisfortune into blessing. In the dozen or so uninterrupted, intense battlesoutside of the city of Luoyang, Taizu should have met his end, but he did not,as if there was some type of hidden power always protecting him. If it was luck, then such great luck that would last for such a long timecould only be called fate. After Taizu had ascended to the throne in the capital, various sages ledcountless famous generals on expeditions everywhere. The various sects andaristocratic families in the south had all became his subjects, and those greatlords who were unwilling to accept it had all been eliminated. For a while, allof the heroic characters in the world were either being killed, captured, orsent to the capital. How could those experts resign themselves? They all cursedloudly without end on the execution grounds. It was at that time that a legend began to spread. The reason why EmperorTaizu could tower over the experts of the world and kill his way to victorywhilst seemingly being an ordinary person was that in the previous dozen or soyears, he had focused on cultivation. In essence, he had formed an alliancewith the leader of the Way at that time and had used some sort of secrettechnique to change his fate, thus changing his Fated Star into an Emperor’sStar. Variations in translations: 道藏/道典 – Scriptures of the Way, Classics of the Way, Daoist Canon, DaoistScrolls and so on all refer to the same thing