A Predetermined Fate

Leng Yaozhu glanced at Chen Ye. That remark had clearly been directed at him, but Chen Ye did not care.

After all, this Chen Ye was fake to begin with, conjured by him using the Power of Imagination and historical images.

It was only because Chen Ye's true body had already concealed itself within the Subconscious Ocean that this Chen Ye was no different from the real one.

Of course, this Chen Ye currently possessed only the authority of the sun and contained none of the Dragon of Imagination's power.

Chen Ye and Gu Yue followed Leng Yaozhu toward the Spirit Ascension Platform.

Meanwhile, in Eastsea City, a gentle breeze stirred the waves.

Within the Sea of Collective Subconscious, where no one could see, Chen Ye stood silently, curiosity glinting in his eyes.

As the progenitor of the dragon race, and even the creator of the Dragon of the Mind, the Dragon of Imagination—

The Dragon of the Mind was most skilled at concealing itself within the Subconscious Ocean, and he was even more so.

Of course, Chen Ye had come to the Sea of Collective Subconscious this time because he felt that Yun Xiao's progress was somewhat too slow.

At this pace, Yun Xiao's talent would not be low, but his strength certainly would not stand out in the short term either.

By the East Sea Alliance Tournament a year from now, his strength would at most reach two rings.

That was far from enough for Chen Ye. He had already prepared a grand play to perform.

But if the protagonist of this play failed to meet his standards, then the performance would undoubtedly be a failure.

"I still need to put some pressure on Yun Xiao. Otherwise, if he improves for no apparent reason, that would be a little unreasonable too."

Standing within the Subconscious Ocean, Chen Ye muttered to himself.

A pale golden light flickered in his eyes, and his figure abruptly vanished from where he stood.

A pair of golden eyes silently overlooked the countless islands and all manner of bubbles in the sky.

He was looking for someone to play the villain in his next act, and also for someone to bear the power of the other Sequences.

Of the remaining three Sequence 0 characteristics from Travels of Groselle, Chen Ye had already found candidates for two of them.

But although he had found a vessel capable of bearing The Hanged Man's power, he had no way of making contact with it.

The authority wielded by The Hanged Man was too extreme and twisted. The most suitable targets for such authority were, in fact, members of the Holy Spirit Cult.

Yet with his current strength, there was no way he could apply that power to the so-called One Emperor Two Sovereigns Four Heavenly Kings.

So what Chen Ye was looking for now was actually a stepping stone—or rather, a medium that could bring The Hanged Man's characteristics to the Holy Spirit Cult's upper ranks.

As Chen Ye's pale golden eyes swept over his surroundings, his gaze suddenly stopped on a floating Island of the Mind.

Chen Ye took a single step and silently arrived atop that unfamiliar Island of the Mind.

"What a strange Island of the Mind. Its memories are so chaotic and noisy, and it even has a certain karmic connection with me."

Chen Ye possessed the power to twist causality and turn the impossible into possible, so he placed great importance on karmic connections.

If someone had inexplicably formed a karmic connection with him, then either they were planning to target him or they wanted something from him.

As Chen Ye raised his hand, the Island of the Mind trembled slightly. The other person's memories were directly opened by Chen Ye, and he began searching through them.

This was a young man in his twenties. He was a teacher at Eastsea Academy, named Yun Luo.

His parents had died early, and he had a younger sister around twelve or thirteen. Because of their parents' deaths, she did not have a good relationship with her older brother, Yun Luo.

Besides that, Yun Luo had another secret identity: he was a core disciple of a Holy Spirit Cult branch.

His mission was simple: find geniuses who appeared at Eastsea Academy and report them to the Holy Spirit Cult, allowing them to corrupt those geniuses or eliminate them in advance.

The reason he had formed a connection with Chen Ye was naturally because he had reported Chen Ye as well.

When Chen Ye saw this, the corner of his mouth twitched.

This Holy Spirit Cult truly deserved to be an Evil Soul Master organization. They were actually this targeted.

They knew to start with the students, and they were even prepared to strike directly at gifted students.

And he had already become their target.

It was only because the branch elder was absent that Yun Luo, this disciple of the Holy Spirit Cult branch, had not acted rashly.

"This is interesting, but why did he report me? Was I not low-key enough?!"

"Forget it. Since we're so fated, I'll give you this glorious opportunity!" Chen Ye muttered, raising his hand.

He did not directly extract The Hanged Man's origin, because the other party still had another use: to spur Yun Xiao on first.

As Chen Ye raised his hand, an illusory writing brush appeared in it.

This brush was not Alersuhode's Pen, since Alersuhode was still alive.

But its effect was the same. Both were methods of writing fate.

Of course, this brush was extremely blurry at the moment, since his power was still in the process of awakening.

Beyond the nine authorities he possessed, there were also three origin authorities.

These three origin authorities were:

Whatever was imagined would surely manifest;

Whatever realm was fantasized would surely descend;

Whatever future was declared would surely unfold.

Chen Ye's strength had currently reached three rings, and he had in fact already reclaimed the first origin authority.

That was why he could simulate a Chen Ye identical to himself out of thin air.

Because in essence, that Chen Ye clone was his past self. It was inherently the original body; it just did not matter to him if it died.

Of course, once he returned from the Ocean of Collective Subconscious, that Chen Ye would lose its spirituality as well.

Thus, if Chen Ye wanted to forcibly dictate fate, even an unalterable fate, his strength had to reach nine rings.

But for this little game, it was enough.

As the brush in his hand moved gently, lines of text emerged.

The words dissipated into the air, yet did not vanish completely. Instead, they merged into the Sea of Collective Subconscious.

As line after line of text fused into it, the Sea of Collective Subconscious throughout Eastsea City trembled faintly, clearly having been affected.

This meant that unless the young man named Yun Luo left Eastsea City, his fate would be to encounter Yun Xiao and then be killed by Wu Zhangkong.

The resulting outcome would be that Yun Xiao's potential would be stimulated, making him stronger.

Looking at the fate he had written, a faint smile appeared on Chen Ye's face. Then his figure slowly faded away.

Yet in his place, a sinister-looking Chen Ye stood silently within Yun Luo's Island of Subconscious.

Meanwhile, within the Eastsea Academy staff dormitory—

A somewhat bewildered young man opened his eyes. A flash of viciousness flickered in them before they became somewhat vacant.

Just as he sat up, the door opened and Wu Zhangkong walked in, sweeping his gaze over him.

"What is it, Yun Luo? Didn't you say we were going to the cafeteria for dinner tonight? Why didn't you go?"

Wu Zhangkong looked at the young man, a trace of confusion on his face.

The two were around the same age and had joined Eastsea Academy in the same batch.

Moreover, the teachers' dormitories housed two people per room, so they had naturally been assigned together.

They could not exactly be called friends, but they were fairly familiar with each other.

Seeing Yun Luo's dazed expression, Wu Zhangkong subconsciously asked.