Predetermined Outcome?

The final trial.

I could sense that the end of my journey lay just ahead.

The final trial held none of the challenges I had imagined.

There was only a tiny wheel.

Above it was a number that kept changing.

The number had hundreds, perhaps thousands, of digits.

Every digit kept cycling between one and nine.

Unlike the earlier trials, which had required me to work out the solution myself, the condition for clearing this one was written plainly to the side. All I had to do was place my hand on a fixed spot. The random digits would settle, and if they matched the thousand-digit number on the sign in the upper right exactly, I would pass.

For over a thousand digits to be randomly chosen from one to nine, then settle on an exact match—the odds were no better than waiting since the dawn of creation for some ancient master to appear and pass on his power to you...

"What looks like pure chance is actually a test of someone's fortune."

Ye Qingxian explained.

As she spoke, she placed her palm on the spot.

The thousand-odd digits all stopped spinning at once.

The next instant, brilliant light burst forth.

The digits matched those on the sign in the upper right exactly.

She was calm throughout, as though she had done something utterly trivial. She even had time to turn toward me and continue her gentle explanation.

"Junior Sister, watch."

"Just like that—"

"A trial you're meant to pass is one you'll pass in the end."

"How you get there doesn't really matter."

"What matters is that your fortune has already decreed you won't fall here."

"So no matter what happens along the way, the answer is destined to be the one and only outcome."

I stared at her,