Late at night, Zhang Yuanqing sat cross-legged on the observation deck outside the alchemy chamber, the Great Luo Star Chart resting on his knees. It was forged from black iron, its star map traced in silver paint.
The celestial patterns turned and shifted endlessly, like the source code governing the world's operation, flashing through his mind again and again.
Each change represented one possible direction for the future.
To a Star Official, the past was eternally fixed, the present was what was happening now, and the future was filled with uncertainty.
There were countless possibilities for the future. A change in one detail, a misstep in a single thought, could alter its course.
Among them, peddlers and common laborers held the least value. Ordinary people's actions and decisions could not influence the future's trajectory; the thoughts and intentions of those in high positions were what truly mattered.
Thus, Star Officials needed to use piece after piece to steer the future in the direction they desired.
The core of a contest between Star Officials lay in placing their pieces.
Whoever had stronger pieces, and more of them, would become the winner.
Of course, aside from the pieces, the greater trend was equally important. The great tide of the realm surged onward, and Star Officials also had to make their moves according to its course. The Stargazing Art was used to observe that greater trend.
To forcibly reverse the greater trend—even the strongest Star Official would perish, body and soul destroyed.
The Southern Dynasty now stood before the inevitable trend of destruction. Corrupt officials ran rampant in court, the national treasury was empty, and the Northern Dynasty's army was pressing at the border. In terms of the greater trend, Zhang Yuanqing was at a disadvantage.
Fortunately, Summer's Edge City had not fallen,