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["I should have understood from the very beginning..." Your remnant soul was dissipating, yet your thoughts had never been clearer.] [“Why did I choose the [Treasure Pavilion] of all places? The Black Market was clearly the more familiar, more discreet choice... Yes, it was that manipulated Fate Line, guiding me there through unseen forces!”] ["There was nothing wrong with the [Know Fortune and Misfortune] spellcraft itself. The fault lay in the 'Certain Death Luck' imposed upon me!"] [This Death Luck was the [cause] that drove me to seek out Chen Qingyan, bringing about the [effect] of entangling my Destiny with his.] [Perhaps this entanglement was meant to spread my ‘Death Luck’ to him like a plague, Corruption his Fate Pattern...”] [At that thought, you abruptly stopped.] ["No! If that were true, wouldn't letting me die quietly have affected him more cleanly and decisively? Why go to all this trouble?"] [You recalled that brief moment of clarity on the night before you entered the Secret Realm. It had been no coincidence!] [Under the control of a True Lord, you should never have had any chance of breaking free.] [Unless... another existence of the same level had intervened!] ["It was that True Lord who remained hidden deepest and acted last! He stopped my possible 'suicide' that night and kept me alive!"] [You understood in an instant.] [“His purpose was to let me survive until this moment and ascend this [White Bone Throne]!”] [Your thoughts connected like flashes of lightning and sparks struck from flint.] [“He was on Chen Qingyan’s side!] [He helped me ascend the throne so that, through my hands, he could use the power of [Burial Dao] to sever the entanglement between my Destiny and Chen Qingyan’s!] [That way, my 'Death Luck' could no longer affect Chen Qingyan, effectively breaking the deadly trap the [Treasure Pavilion True Lord] had painstakingly laid!"] [The more you thought about it, the more terrifying it became!] [From beginning to end, you had been a Chess Piece in a contest between True Lords.] [One side used you as a blade to wound Chen Qingyan; the other used you as a shield, blocking a fatal blow for you and sending you onto this throne to become the key to breaking the game!] [**"Crack, crack, crack—"**] [The sound of the surrounding void fracturing dragged you back to reality.] [The [Dao Burial Nascent Fruit Position] had reached its limit. Your Rank plummeted as this space rejected you.] [Your remnant soul dissipated faster, in time with the [White Bone Steps] undergoing Annihilation beneath your feet.] [But you refused to accept it! You still did not understand: why you, of all people?] [Why did all four True Lords have such a "special fondness" for you?] [**"Crack—"**] [Another fragment peeled off the throne and underwent Annihilation.] [Using the last vestiges of your Nascent Soul perspective, you frantically deduced the answer.] [Your gaze locked onto the Fate Line you had altered with your own hands, which was now undergoing subtle changes.] [**"Crack—"**] [The [White Bone Throne] collapsed completely! The steps beneath it crumbled like a tower of sand.] [Your remnant soul became almost transparent. Death was within touching distance.] [Yet, at this final moment of Annihilation, a flash of insight illuminated all your confusion like the splitting of heaven and earth!] [You understood!] [At last, you understood!] [Why did you always become a target of the True Lords?] [Because of—"fate"!] [The Simulator had already given you a hint: [Without Fortune to back your defiance, you only diminished your own allotted Fate].] [Fortune and luck were both parts of “Destiny.”] [To the [Nascent Soul True Lords] who held dominion over the rules, the destinies of all living beings were as clearly visible as the lines on their palms.] [Especially for those with mediocre aptitude and meager strength, their futures were Fixed Destiny whose ends could almost be seen at a glance.] [But your appearance had shattered that Fixed Destiny!] [With every simulation, you changed the predetermined outcome of your Destiny!] [From dying in obscurity in the first simulation, to bringing blessings upon your Lineage in the second, to your bizarre death in the third, and finally to attaining the Dao upon this throne...] [Through simulation after simulation, the course of your Destiny had undergone earth-shaking, unpredictable changes!] [How could such an anomaly fail to draw the attention of those True Lords perched high above the clouds, observing the River of Fate?!] [Perhaps, from the end of your very first simulation, when the course of your Destiny first deviated significantly, you had already entered their sight.]
Yes, to those existences perched high above the River of Fate, the destinies of all living beings,
especially those of people with mediocre aptitude like you, should have been as clear as the lines on their palms, trajectories determined long ago.
But your appearance had shattered that Fixed Destiny.
With every simulation, you tore apart your predetermined Destiny!
From your first simulation's lingering, mediocre existence, to your Lineage enduring in the second, to your strange and violent death in the third, and finally to this ending, where you ascended the throne and glimpsed the truth...
Through Reincarnation after Reincarnation, your Destiny played out in utterly different, unpredictable dramas.
How could such an anomaly, such frenzied trampling and reconstruction of "predetermined fate," fail to attract the notice of those True Lords who looked down upon the ages and held dominion over the rules?!
Perhaps, as early as the end of the first simulation, when the course of my Destiny first departed from "normality," I was no longer an ant, but something that had fallen within their sight...
An interesting variable.
Then this simulation, this magnificent, tragic ending in which you forcibly elevated your perspective through the [Dao Burial Nascent Fruit Position] and saw through the game,
would likewise—no, would inevitably—enter "their" sight once again.
Presumably, your original self in the Real World would find himself in an even more difficult position, perhaps even having his identity completely "exposed," laid bare beneath the gazes of those supreme existences?
But what did that have to do with you at this moment?
You were merely a simulated double, a consciousness that existed only through this simulation and was about to dissipate completely.
How could someone about to die, unable even to sustain his own existence, have the power to change his original self's Destiny in reality?
You could only watch helplessly as the [White Bone Steps] beneath your feet turned to ash inch by inch, feeling your own existence undergo Annihilation bit by bit along with them.
Powerlessness, utter powerlessness, enveloped the final remnants of your consciousness.
"[Quite despairing, isn't it...]" That resonant voice of the Great Dao sounded again, now faint as a wisp of silk, yet still bearing the weathered weight of one who had seen through the ages.
"[This final gamble may seem magnificent and tragic, but it is merely one link in a higher order of schemes. In their eyes, all your struggles are meaningless...]"
[He continued speaking endlessly about the cruelty of reality, but you no longer cared. Having already accepted your Certain Death, you could no longer be disturbed in the slightest by these words.] [Your gaze pierced the disintegrating white bones and settled on Chen Qingyan, who had remained standing quietly outside.] [He still wore that same eternally unchanging, indifferent expression, as though the tragic Annihilation before him had nothing to do with him.] [Ignoring the ancient voice's prattle, your remnant soul gathered its final shred of strength. The corners of your mouth pulled upward with difficulty, and you gave a silent chuckle.] [With the white bones cutting you off, no sound could escape, but you knew he could see.] [Your lips moved slightly, conveying a two-character appraisal:] ["Brilliant!"] [Chen Qingyan had clearly understood.] [He froze for a moment. Then, on that face frozen like ice for ten thousand years, a faint but genuine smile actually thawed into being.] [He likewise moved his lips, silently answering with two characters:] ["Not bad."] [In the next moment, the last of the [White Bone Steps] underwent Annihilation completely.] [Your consciousness likewise dissolved into an ethereal stream of light, returning to Eternity's silence.] [You died. The simulation ended.]