Book of Fate

Book of Fate

In the previous battle, Ming Shu's memories from his past lives had been awakened. In one of those past lives—or perhaps more than one—he had most likely been assassinated, or encountered bandits on the road and been killed by them.

After these memories awakened, Ming Shu tried flipping to a random page of the Life Book and recording the fragments of memory.

Unexpectedly, this truly awakened the records on that page. He only had to write down a few fragments before the remaining contents emerged.

The specific time and location remained hidden, but the corresponding process, experiences, and sensations were all recorded.

It was like a final testament. Perhaps after his death, his lingering soul had left its last record in the Life Book.

In another life, he had been pursued by enemies into the mountains while fleeing. In the end, more than a dozen members of his entire family had all been killed there.

This further confirmed Ming Shu's previous speculation: carrying this miraculous Life Book, he had reincarnated many times.

In his very first past life, he had somehow bound himself to this Life Book.

Later, the Life Book's unique power had preserved the integrity of his soul, allowing him to reincarnate again and again.

The targets of his reincarnation seemed to have always been young people—youths or children, perhaps even infants.

There might have been other unknown conditions as well, but he had no way to verify them for the time being.

In this era, when the immortals had already departed from the world, he had no chance of obtaining Immortal Qi. Without it, he could not activate the Life Book and could only use it passively, taking advantage of his limited opportunities to record some information inside.

As for what else had been written in it, he would have to investigate slowly.

After swallowing the discarded Immortal Pill and activating the Life Book, what new changes had it brought him, and what new abilities had he gained? He would likewise have to explore those questions gradually.

Information related to [Demon Spirit: Qingtianzhu] had appeared automatically in the Life Book, providing a great deal of useful information.

For the time being, he did not know whether this was the Life Book's own ability or something he had recorded in a previous life.

And what method did he need to use to obtain the power of this demon spirit and strengthen his own combat ability?

How common were powers resembling this demon spirit in the world?

Ming Shu tried writing the words "demon spirit" on the page, but he gained no new information.

He then thought of writing about other things, such as martial artists, scholars, Daoists, and monsters. All he obtained was extremely limited information, basically only the literal meanings—simple explanations.

But what did that signify? It seemed he had gained nothing at all.

It was not as if he had gained nothing whatsoever. Since immortals existed, and demon spirits existed too, then did monsters, ghosts, and divine spirits exist as well?

Could he cultivate?

Martial arts like Old Zhao's could be taught; at the very least, Little Zhao had learned them. Although he did not necessarily have to learn Old Zhao's cultivation method, he should be able to find another suitable method to cultivate, right?

Ming Shu calmed down and referred to the written records that had already appeared. He flipped open a random page and wrote about his recent experiences, especially reorganizing his memories from the beginning—the more than three years since he had entered the Cold Palace.

His maternal uncle's family was merely a merchant household with a few basic cultivation methods. In the past decade or so, they had gained the capital to transform themselves into a gentry clan.

Several illegitimate female relatives from the clan had been sent into the palace as servants. One of them had fortunately attended the late Emperor and given birth to Ming Shu, an illegitimate prince.

Only after that had his maternal uncle's family managed to enter the circle of imperial merchants.

Somehow, they had also entered one of the princes' circles.

In the end, this had brewed into that tragic incident: the rebellion had failed, and the mother and son in the palace had been implicated as well.

According to what Old Zhao had said, the Imperial Race usually married only with the [Han, Zhao, Wei] Three Great Families.

These three families had fought alongside the Grand Ancestor since the founding of the dynasty. At the time, they had jointly established an agreement that the three families would take turns providing the empresses.

Normally, the Imperial Palace had only one empress and two imperial noble consorts. Basically, women from those Three Great Families took turns controlling those three positions.

How they fought among themselves was confined to a very narrow scope. Externally, however, the Three Great Families remained relatively united.

They could even restrict imperial authority to a certain extent.

The princes with a real chance of contending for the throne were almost all born to consorts from those three families. The other princes were all considered illegitimate sons and were generally kicked far away.

This could also be considered the Grand Ancestor's leaving a thread of life for his descendants.

No matter what sort of struggles occurred in the Royal Capital, as long as they did not leap into the fray themselves and kept far enough away, they still had some chance of surviving.

In this rebellion, Ming Shu had merely been stripped of his status as a prince by the Imperial Clan Court, reduced to a commoner, and exiled far away. From then on, the Grand Ancestor's descendants had gained another branch, although they could no longer bear the surname Si.

The imperial family of the Great Jin Immortal Dynasty had the surname Si in its Main Lineage. Originally, as the emperor's son, Ming Shu could also have taken the surname Si.

However, he was an illegitimate son, and his descendants could not bear the surname Si. The Imperial Clan Court had an entire set of rules for this.

For an illegitimate son like him, only the first generation was granted the surname Yuan. From the next generation onward, they could only bear the surname Bai.

Si—Yuan—Bai. That was what this set of rules was called.

As for those so-called legitimate princes, under ordinary circumstances, their descendants could continue bearing the surname Si.

That lasted until their father lost the throne. Then, according to the Imperial Clan Court's latest arrangements, the newborn descendants would have their surname changed to Yuan. After that, whether they bore the surname Yuan or Bai actually depended on the new emperor's mood.

Because of the immortals' legacy and the existence of cultivation powers, members of the imperial family—especially emperors who held supreme authority—as long as they were not born with deficient constitutions, could generally rule for at least a century with the help of abundant life-prolonging spiritual items.

During that time, they could leave behind a great many children and descendants.

Therefore, the Imperial Clan Court would try to arrange for these illegitimate sons to be sent to various regions in large numbers.

The purpose was to have them establish their own small families in those places while becoming connected to many different industries.

Nearly half the profits produced by those industries had to be handed over to the Imperial Clan Court.

Powerful local officials might receive half a percent as tax revenue, but most local officials could not profit from it at all.

This had turned the Imperial Clan Court into the emperor's personal treasury.

Those resources had consequently become the emperor's private property.

There were simply too many loopholes. Management and supervision were basically nonexistent.

Si—Yuan—Bai. The Grand Ancestor Emperor was naturally descended from the Si family. Yuan was his mother's surname, while the Bai Surname was supposedly that of the Grand Ancestor's Empress. These stories from a thousand years ago had all been buried. People nowadays could only listen to them as tales.

Yet this system had continued to the present day.

As for Han, Zhao, and Wei, Ming Shu could not consider using any of those surnames either. Old Zhao might have been connected to the Zhao Clan an unknown number of generations ago, but in such a situation, they would not interfere.

The Zhao Clan, and even the other great clans, possessed the ability to manage their clans throughout the entire world.

Ming Shu had to avoid attracting their attention as much as possible, so he definitely could not choose one of those major surnames.

He would choose an ordinary surname, settle himself anew, and establish a family. Then he would blend into the mortal world and stay far away from the storm at the center of power.

This was the usual course of action for most imperial descendants exiled to the borderlands.

Could Donghai Prefecture be considered a borderland too? Old Zhao had said that pirate activity there had grown increasingly rampant over the past dozen years, making it even worse than the borderlands.

The territory the Imperial Clan Court had allocated to Ming Shu was not large. It was merely a small town. The Bai-surnamed Branch Family that had once ruled it had been killed by pirates more than a decade ago.

Later, the surviving members of that family had changed their names, sold off their property, and vanished into hiding somewhere.

After failing to pay its revenues for many years, the Imperial Clan Court would certainly conduct an investigation. After reclaiming the territory, it had not sent anyone to manage it for ten years, and the place had long since fallen into desolation.

Moreover, the Imperial Clan Court did not have enough troops to dispatch here and resist the pirates.

Ming Shu recorded all these circumstances. Although he had failed to obtain new information from the Life Book, he had gained a new understanding of his own position.

Furthermore, he had learned several useful terms from Old Zhao and Little Zhao: the first five realms of a martial artist—

First Tier: Body Strengthening Realm;

Second Tier: Bronze Skin Iron Bones Realm;

Third Tier: Meridian Circulation and Qi Condensation Realm;

Fourth Tier: Meridian Breaking and Origin Opening Realm;

Fifth Tier: Hua Jin Gui Yuan Realm.

After Ming Shu recorded this information in the Life Book, he automatically gained the corresponding knowledge.

It seemed that one of his past lives had also cultivated the Martial Dao—and had at least been a Fifth-Tier Martial Arts Master.

Old Zhao had said that martial artists merely surpassed ordinary people at the initial stage. Only upon reaching the Sixth Tier could one be called a true practitioner of the Martial Dao, entering the Dao through martial arts.

Old Zhao had also been teaching Ming Shu with all his heart, holding nothing back.

After a day spent far from battle, the group welcomed two new companions.

One was Ren Yuan, a master from Qingtian Gate—the brawny man who had transformed that night. Ming Shu recognized him at a glance.

The other was an eighteen- or nineteen-year-old girl. According to her own introduction, she was a discarded disciple of the Sky-Toppling Observatory named Chong Li, whose strength was at the Three-Arts Master Tier, [Star Condensation Realm].