Child of Destiny

Huo Yuhao's heartbeat gradually quickened under Snow Empress's scrutiny, yet he did not retreat in the slightest. He met those crimson pupils, the resolve in his Spirit Eye as unshakable as stone, allowing the orange radiance and icy mist within him to mingle freely. He could feel Snow Empress's gaze like a sharp blade of ice, sweeping from the foundation of his martial soul to his Sea of Spirit, tracing the circulation of his meridians all the way to the depths of his soul, as though she intended to dissect him completely, inside and out. Being seen through so thoroughly made him somewhat uncomfortable, yet also more at ease—he had nothing to hide, whether it was his past experiences or his resolve for the future.

The orange radiance within him grew brighter and brighter, faintly carrying a lively aura similar to Qiu'er's. That aura intertwined with the icy mist, leaving trails of gold across his body, each one seeming to tell of his connection to this Northernmost Land.

Snow Empress's fingertips trembled lightly in midair. The frozen mist that had been still began to flow again, but it no longer surged as violently as before. Instead, it seemed to dance gracefully around Huo Yuhao's body. The surprise in her crimson eyes gradually faded, replaced by deeper understanding, while her scrutiny gained an unfathomable meaning.

"This power of destiny... you are the newly born Child of Destiny of Douluo Continent, aren't you?" Snow Empress phrased it as a question, but her tone was filled with certainty.

Huo Yuhao's heart seemed to be clenched by an invisible hand, and even his breathing skipped half a beat. Child of Destiny? This was a term he had only encountered in fragments of ancient texts. Now, spoken by Snow Empress with such unquestionable certainty, it made his mind buzz. He lowered his head and looked at the orange radiance flowing through his palm. That glow indeed concealed an immense power that even he could not fully control, but the title of "the newly born Child of Destiny of Douluo Continent" was far too heavy.

Even though he knew that he would one day reach the level of a Limit Douluo, becoming the strongest Limit Douluo Douluo Continent had seen in ten thousand years; even though he had founded the Spirit Pagoda to change the relationship between Soul Masters and soul beasts; even though he had accepted a divine inheritance and would eventually become a god.

But...

The four words "Child of Destiny" bore down on Huo Yuhao like mountains, leaving him unable to breathe.

Huo Yuhao's fingertips dug deeply into his palm, yet even the piercing pain could not dispel the suffocating feeling rising from the depths of his heart.

What did it matter if he became a Limit Douluo? What did it matter if he became a god? Those future achievements had been carved out step by step through thorns, won through countless brushes with death. Yet the four words "Child of Destiny" felt like shackles falling from the sky, lightly reducing all his efforts to nothing more than "the favor of heaven and earth."

He thought of his bitter training at Shrek Academy, of his near-death experiences in the Star Dou Great Forest, of the overwhelming criticism he had faced when founding the Spirit Pagoda. Those scenes churned through his mind, forming a glaring contrast with the flickering orange radiance in his palm.

His voice trembled almost imperceptibly, and for the first time, cracks appeared in the resolve within his Spirit Eye. "Impossible. Absolutely impossible."

Snow Empress narrowed her red eyes slightly, seemingly surprised by his resistance.

"You think destiny is a gift?" A trace of coldness entered Snow Empress's voice. "It is the test this world has given you."

"You want to change the relationship between Soul Masters and soul beasts. You want the Spirit Pagoda to become a bridge. You want to protect this continent after becoming a god." Snow Empress's voice was like an ice pick, chipping away at his defenses strike by strike. "Without destiny's support, how could you alone fight against the grudges accumulated over tens of thousands of years? How could you carve a path to godhood through the grasping hands coveting Douluo Continent's destiny?"

Huo Yuhao abruptly raised his head, meeting Snow Empress's crimson pupils. Within those red flames, he saw a shadow of his future—standing atop the Spirit Pagoda, with the wails of soul beasts and the doubts of humanity behind him, the barriers of God Realm's laws before him, as lonely as an ice peak that had stood in the Northernmost Land for ten thousand years.

Yes, he had always believed he was defying fate and changing his destiny, but he had never considered that perhaps, from the very beginning, heaven and earth had given him the means to change it.

The orange radiance within him contracted violently, as though infected by his emotions, dimming somewhat. Yet the golden trails at his collarbone became increasingly clear, linking together those heavy memories of the future one by one before finally condensing into a weighty core of light within his dantian.

"Can you bear this weight?" Snow Empress's voice softened somewhat as the image in the water mirror gradually faded. "If you can, you will become the lampbearer who breaks through the mist. If you cannot, destiny will devour you in return. It would not matter if you became a puppet, but it would be a pity to waste the destiny Douluo Continent has accumulated over ten thousand years."

"A puppet?" Catching that unusual word in Snow Empress's statement, Huo Yuhao lifted his head in surprise.

Yet Snow Empress did not directly answer his question. Instead, she began speaking on her own.

"Every planet has a fixed measure of destiny. Originally, Douluo Star's destiny was divided into four parts."

"Ten percent of it belonged to soul beasts, ten percent belonged to humanity, ten percent was used to cultivate a Child of Destiny, and the remaining seventy percent was kept in reserve."

"Unfortunately, ten thousand years ago, Douluo Will's plan to cultivate a Child of Destiny failed. The Child of Destiny who became a god was unwilling to return the destiny, and so Douluo Will's share was reduced to sixty percent."

"And you carry fifty percent of the destiny Douluo Star has accumulated over these ten thousand years!"

"Do you know what that means?"

Facing Snow Empress's crimson pupils as they suddenly drew close, Huo Yuhao found himself at a loss.

He opened his mouth, but only a dry voice emerged. "What does it mean?"

Looking at the young man before her, utterly overwhelmed by this sudden revelation, Snow Empress suddenly reached out and caressed Huo Yuhao's face.

The icy touch startled Huo Yuhao into calming down instinctively.

As she looked at him, a trace of heartache suddenly flashed through Snow Empress's calm crimson eyes. "It means the World Consciousness of Douluo Continent is already in grave danger."

"It exhausted everything to create a Child of Destiny unlike any before, one who had gathered the destiny of the entire continent. It wants you to save it."

"It chose you. Everything about you—Tian Meng's fusion, Shrek Academy, your martial soul, even that inexplicable thing inside you—was the World Will paving the way for you."

He suddenly clenched his fists, his nails sinking deeply into his palms as the taste of blood spread across his tongue. "The destiny of the entire continent... why me?" His Adam's apple bobbed violently. "If the World Consciousness is in grave danger, Titled Douluo should bear it. Those great powers should bear it. Even those gods standing at the peak of the pyramid should bear it..."

Huo Yuhao suddenly bent over and covered his face. "Then what were my experiences supposed to be? When I watched my mother breathe her last on that bed, where was the World Will? When I gambled with my life, where was the World Will?"

In the memories of the future, when had he not gambled with his life? One careless step, and there would have been only death. At those times, why had Huo Yuhao never felt the existence of the World Will?

"I only wanted to avenge my mother. I only wanted to protect the people I wanted to protect. That was all..."

The icy mist within the Ice God Palace seemed to be stained grayish blue by his emotions. The mist that had once flowed gently suddenly became sluggish, condensing around him into tiny ice needles that pricked painfully against his exposed skin.

Suppressed sobs leaked through Huo Yuhao's fingers, like an injured little beast shivering in the cold wind. He remembered his mother's withered hand before her death, that bowl of medicine that was always cold, and the frigid stares and cutting words within the White Tiger Duke's Mansion—back then, the world had been too stingy to grant him even a sliver of sunlight, yet now it had thrown "the destiny of the entire continent" onto his shoulders. Why?

"The World Will has no heart." Snow Empress's voice was soft, yet it was like an ice pick shattering his cries. "It has only rules. To it, your suffering was a whetstone for selection; your struggle was a forge's flame. It chose you not because it was merciful, but because you did not shatter against the whetstone or melt in the flames."

"Your mother's death was a debt of the old era; your struggles now are the beginning of a new era." Snow Empress's voice carried a power that pierced through time and space. "The World Will chose you not to make you forget your hatred, but to make you carry that pain farther—far enough that those who come after you will no longer have to endure what you endured."

Huo Yuhao's shoulders shook violently. He looked toward the blurred scenes beyond the dome, then lowered his head to the orange radiance in his palm. At some point, that glow had become gentle, like a warm hand lightly covering his bleeding fingers.

"Remember this pain." She turned and walked toward the ice clouds, her voice gradually fading with the icy mist. "It will become your sharpest sword, and also your strongest shield."

Huo Yuhao remained where he was, watching Snow Empress's figure melt into the ice clouds. The beads of blood in his palm had already frozen. He raised a hand and wiped away the tears on his face. The icy blue in his Spirit Eye condensed once more, but this time, something else had been added to that blue—pain, hatred, and a heavy responsibility he could never again cast aside.

The wind and snow still howled outside the Ice God Palace, but he knew that he could no longer remain the Huo Yuhao who only wanted revenge and only cared about his own small family.

Snow Empress's hand once again caressed Huo Yuhao's face, and an unprecedented gentleness entered her voice. "All right, Ice Sky Snow Lady's turn to speak has passed. Now it is Snow Lady's time."