Su Jiu It seems you're asking for a...

He watched them launch their most tragic and heroic charge.

The wind poured up from the bottom of the cliff, blowing the loose hair on Su Ji's forehead.

He didn't speak.

Behind him, Su Jiu merely accompanied him in silence.

After a long while, Su Ji slowly closed his eyes.

"[Glimpse of Destiny]."

Once again, he silently recited these words in his heart.

The world before his eyes lost its color for the third time.

It was still that familiar grayscale, still that man in the golden robe.

Even the scene had not changed at all.

Only this time, Su Ji didn't even have the chance to struggle.

The moment he made out the other party's figure, an indescribable, agonizing pain shot through his chest.

He looked down.

That longsword, burning with golden flames, had already pierced through his chest.

The golden fire was frantically devouring his everything with an overbearing posture.

In those golden eyes, there was only indifference.

It was as if to say, "Ant, no matter how many times you try, it is a dead end."

The grayscale world shattered with a boom.

...

Su Ji slowly raised his head and looked at the vast sky once more.

In his sea of consciousness, that black-grade destiny, [Glimpse of Destiny], was quietly floating.

At the very bottom of this destiny's description, there was a line of small text.

(To be a great cultivator who goes against the current? Or a marionette of destiny?)

A marionette...

Su Ji's body suddenly jolted.

Looking at these words, he felt as if he had been struck by a bolt of lightning.

Along the way of his journey.

From entering the Xiangsi Sect, to the Heavenly Dao Mystic Realm, and then to the succession ceremony.

Step by step, event by event, matter by matter.

He thought he was defying the heavens and changing his fate, doing everything in his power to avoid the predetermined ending shown in [Glimpse of Destiny].

He thought that by relying on his foresight, he had jumped outside of destiny.

But looking at it now...

Had he really jumped out?

Thinking about it from another angle.

Wasn't this just another form of being manipulated by destiny?

[Glimpse of Destiny] told him that walking forward meant death.

So, he stopped his footsteps.

[Glimpse of Destiny] told him that walking left held a chance of survival.

So he started walking left.

He was a puppet from beginning to end.

If that was hard to understand...

It was like...

Someone whispering in your ear: "You breathe automatically, whatever you do, don't think about it, and don't breathe manually."

But the moment you hear that sentence, nine times out of ten, you've already unavoidably started breathing manually.

In reality, you haven't defied them; you are still walking on the arranged path.

Looking at mountains, they are not mountains.

Looking at rivers, they are not rivers.

So that was it.

So... that was how it was.

Su Ji suddenly smiled.

Su Jiu was a little overwhelmed by his sudden, abnormal behavior.

"Senior Brother, you..."

It was a heartfelt relief after seeing through the truth.

As well as a heart-palpitating madness.

"I understand now."

Su Jiu frowned: "Understand what?"

Su Ji didn't answer.

Should he, Su Ji, live for himself, or live to comply with the scenes seen in [Glimpse of Destiny]?

Now, he had figured it out.

Su Ji's eyes, which had been decadent for many days, were astonishingly bright at this moment.

"If I want to go, I will go."

"If I want to fight, I will fight."

"Words cannot be spoken to the absolute depth, and divinations cannot calculate everything!"

Su Jiu listened quietly.

She didn't seem to quite understand.

But she could feel that the Su Ji before her and the lost Su Ji from a few days ago were completely different people.

The suffocating feeling of having his throat gripped by fate had vanished into thin air.

He looked at Su Jiu's pretty face, which was still a bit confused, and felt in a great mood.

He stepped forward and habitually reached out to pinch her cheek.

"Junior Sister."

Su Jiu swatted his hand away and replied grumpily.

"Hmm?"

The smile on Su Ji's face didn't fade. He leaned close to Su Jiu's ear and lowered his voice.

"Is the rift still there?"

A perfect touch of confusion appeared on Su Jiu's face.

Her clear fox-like eyes blinked, her long eyelashes fluttering along, making her look innocent and puzzled.

"Ah?"

She tilted her head, her voice crisp, yet carrying a pure sense of incomprehension.

"Senior Brother, the rift closed on its own three days ago."

"Why are you asking this?"

Boom!

Su Ji felt as if a string in his brain had snapped with a twang.

The sky-high heroic spirit he had just ignited was doused completely cold by Su Jiu's light and airy question.

His whole person froze, inside and out.

The expression on his face turned into astonishment at a visible speed, and finally morphed into a blank slate.

Cl... closed?

Su Ji opened his mouth, finding his throat a bit dry, unable to utter a single word.

He finally wanted to try hard for once, yet you made him lose so thoroughly?

Damn it!

Seeing the spectacularly colorful expressions on Su Ji's face, Su Jiu finally couldn't hold it in anymore.

First, her shoulders hitched slightly, as if she was trying desperately to hold back.

But when she saw Su Ji's astonishingly bright eyes dim bit by bit, radiating a depressed aura of "Who am I, where am I, what is the meaning of my life,"

"Pfft"

A crisp laugh finally slipped uncontrollably from her slightly pursed lips.

Su Ji snapped back to his senses.

He looked at the little fox who was bent over, laughing so hard she was shaking, with a few tears even leaking from the corners of her eyes, and his brain buzzed as he instantly understood everything.

Good grief.

He had been played.

Su Ji's face darkened.

"Su Jiu!"

"I think you're asking for a..."