Fate-Knowing

He regained full consciousness three days later.

My body felt like it had been disassembled and reassembled, every bone protesting. My Soul Power, however, had returned, more solidified, settling in my dantian with an indescribable "weight." With the slightest movement, my meridians throbbed with dull pain. The Stone Gate Mark between my brows had almost disappeared, leaving only a trace of warmth.

When she opened her eyes, Shen Moxin was sitting on a low stool not far away, her notebook spread out on her lap, her eyes behind her glasses bloodshot from lack of sleep. When she saw him open his eyes, she dropped the pen in her hand.

"... You're awake." The voice was hoarse and tired.

Lu Yuan tried to move his fingers, pulling at his chest, and gasped in pain. Shen Moxin immediately got up and placed her fingers on his wrist. Her movements were practiced, though her fingertips trembled slightly.

"His Soul Power channels are repairing themselves, faster than expected," she said softly, then checked his pupils and brow. "His soul fluctuations have stabilized. They're very weak, but no longer dissipating."

Lu Yuan tried to speak, but his throat was too dry to utter a sound. Shen Moxin poured him some warm water and carefully helped him sit up to feed him.

"How long has it been?" he asked hoarsely.

"Three days." Shen Moxin put down her cup. "Senior Yun Youzi helped you regulate your meridians, Mo Chen adjusted the spirit-gathering array, and Lin Xiao and Su Yan took turns guarding outside."

Lu Yuan was silent for a moment. "Is Gu Li... alright?"

"It's nothing." She shook her head. "The oppressive aura came and went quickly that day; most disciples just thought it was a special celestial phenomenon. Those in the Core Circle knew, but they all kept quiet."

She paused, then looked at him. "What... level are you at now?"

Lu Yuan closed his eyes and focused inward.

The total amount of Soul Power did not increase dramatically, but its quality was completely different. Originally like a surging river, it is now like a calm deep pool, containing a power closer to the "rules" themselves. The position of the nine Soul Ring, the eighth one is a deep blue-gold, the ninth one... that illusory halo that cannot be described by color, with the phantom of the stone gate rotating at its core, is quietly floating.

It was not endowed with any specific Soul Skill.

But its very existence revolutionized Lu Yuan's "perception" of the world. The flow of Soul Power in the air was no longer a blurry energy; he could "see" subtle frequency differences, invisible connections between energy nodes, and even the faint "field" of rules emanating from matter.

This isn't an enhancement of vision or mental strength. It's more like gaining a new "sensory organ" at the cognitive level, one that directly accesses the essence of things.

"Level 90." Lu Yuan opened his eyes. "Titled Douluo."

Shen Moxin's fingers tightened, wrinkling the edges of the notebook. She opened her mouth, but only managed to utter, "... Congratulations." Her tone held little joy, but rather a heavy one.

Lu Yuan understood what she was thinking. Breakthrough was a good thing, but the power of heaven and earth it brought was too terrifying. This meant that the path he was taking carried a certain "forbidden" color.

"What about the account being banned?" Shen Moxin asked.

Lu Yuan leaned against the stone wall, gazing at the patterns on the top.

In his past life, the saying "at fifty one knows one's destiny" seemed like a helpless compromise. But now, standing at this height and touching fragments of the rules, he has a different understanding.

Knowing Fate is not about accepting it. It's about seeing the lines of fate clearly, understanding the logic of its flow, and then... finding the gaps outside the lines, or drawing a new trajectory by hand.

"Knowing Fate," Lu Yuan said.

Shen Moxin was taken aback. "Fate-Knowing Douluo who knows his destiny... yet is not bound by it?"

"Um."

"Very fitting." She nodded, a faint smile playing on her lips. "It sounds better than those titles that scream 'fighting and killing'."

After resting for two more days, Lu Yuan was able to walk around with difficulty.

The news spread among the core members of New Fire Valley. Upon hearing the words "Knowing Fate," Yun Youzi stroked his beard and pondered for a long time before finally saying, "You chose this path yourself, and so did you choose this title. It's good."

Mo Chen reacted immediately. "Level 90?! Rule Soul Ring?!" He circled Lu Yuan twice, his eyes shining, "Tell me your impressions! Is the energy structure stable? Can it be used as a core stabilizer for Soul Tool? I have a new idea--"

Before he could finish speaking, Lin Xiao grabbed him by the back of his collar and pulled him away.

"Calm down." Lin Xiao said irritably. "He can barely stand up." He turned to Lu Yuan, his amber pupils scanning him up and down before finally settling on Lu Yuan's eyes. "As long as he's alive." His tone was harsh, but his tense shoulders relaxed. He unconsciously licked his canine teeth with his tongue, then looked away. "If you act like this again, I'll wreck your lab first."

Su Yan didn't speak, silently placing a pot of warmed medicine beside Lu Yuan, then stepped aside, his back straight. The look in his eyes as he looked at Lu Yuan held something more than reverence—as if confirming the truth of some kind of belief.

The other disciples in the valley vaguely sensed that the atmosphere was different, but they couldn't quite put their finger on it. They only knew that the core figures seemed to be in a good mood, and the allocation of cultivation resources had been quietly made more lenient.

On the surface, everything seems to be going well.

But Lu Yuan knew very well that some things had already been touched.

In the far west of the continent, deep within the Spirit Hall, Worship Hall.

Qian Daoliu sat cross-legged beneath the enormous Angel God Statue, his eyes slightly closed. At a certain moment, he slowly opened his eyes. In those eyes, it seemed as if the Sun Moon were revolving. He looked out of the hall, his gaze piercing through the distance, landing in the northwest direction of the Star Luo Empire.

After a moment, he muttered to himself, "Rule disturbance... neither god nor human... interesting."

He did not get up, but a thoughtful look flashed in his eyes. The fluctuation was subtle and fleeting, and was mostly "smoothed out" by a kind of neutral and peaceful power. But the lingering "abnormal feeling" still existed - it was not the resonance of heaven and earth when a traditional Soul Master broke through, nor the ripples of rules caused by the inheritance of gods.

It's more like an independent "node," trying to understand and "use" the rules in its own way.

Qian Daoliu closed his eyes again. But a subtle instruction had already been transmitted through a special channel.

The core area of Star Dou Great Forest, the Lake of Life.

At the deepest part of the lake, the Silver Dragon King Gu Yuena slept. Her immense will rippled slightly in her slumber. The subtle anomaly at the level of rules, like a pebble thrown into Quiet Lake, was still perceived by this body, which was deeply connected to the Origin Douluo Star, even though it was far away.

The fluctuations carried a strange sense of "order," not destruction, but more like an experimental "correction."

His mind quickly returned to calm. But deep within the lake, those silver eyes, closed for countless years, seemed to flutter their eyelashes for an extremely brief moment.

******

The terrace outside the study of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect School's sect leader.

Sword Douluo Chen Xin stood by the railing, gazing at the northwest sky, his brows slightly furrowed. A few days ago, at some point, he sensed a very subtle fluctuation that caused his natal Seven Kill Sword to resonate slightly.

The fluctuation was strange. It didn't seem like the aura of a powerful enemy, nor like the emergence of a rare treasure. Instead, it was somewhat like... the "noise" I sensed many years ago on the outskirts of an ancient ruin, the result of the collision between the remnants of the ruin's rules and the outside world.

But it's purer and more "proactive".

"Old bones," Chen Xin said.

From the shadows, the figure of Bone Douluo Gu Rong slowly emerged. "You sensed it too?"

"Hmm." Chen Xin nodded. "It's very blurry, I can't pinpoint the location. But... it seems familiar."

Gu Rong was silent for a moment. "Should we send someone to investigate? To the northwest, towards the Star Luo Empire."

"Let the people below keep an eye on things," Chen Xin turned around. "No need for a big fuss. This kind of fluctuation... might not be a good thing."

The Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan, at the summit of Thunder Peak.

Lei Qingyue stood on the edge of the cliff, the wind whipping his purple-patterned robes. His family's secret lightning-attribute sensing technique made him exceptionally sensitive to energy. The faint disturbance of the rules a few days ago, though fleeting, had caused an extremely subtle "stagnation" in his lightning Soul Power.

It's like a grain of sand that doesn't fit in with the flow of clear water.

"Elder," a trusted disciple stepped forward, "Our scouts report that there have been signs of activity from an unidentified group of Soul Master in the northwest of the continent recently, and they are acting covertly. The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect is also secretly investigating, and their investigations are vaguely overlapping."

Lei Qingyue's eyes sharpened. "Unidentified groups? Investigate! Focus on those who break the rules and spread fallacies and heresies! Any 'heresy' that could shake our foundations must be nipped in the bud!"

"Yes!"

New Fire Valley, a newly built observatory.

Lu Yuan stood on the stage, the night wind ruffling his robes. After breaking through to the next level, his perception of the flow of Soul Power in the outside world had become more than ten times sharper.

At this moment, in his "eyes," the world under the night sky was no longer dark and silent. Countless tiny specks of Soul Power, like dust, drifted slowly with the earth's veins and the activities of living beings.

But against this flowing background, he clearly "saw" those "noises". They were like "turbulence", "vortex" or broken "cracks" in the flow of light. Their distribution seemed chaotic, scattered here and there.

Lu Yuan calmed his mind and tried to observe from the perspective of the "calibration" left by the Stone Gate Mark.

Gradually, those scattered "noise" points were connected in his consciousness by invisible lines. The lines intersected and spread, forming a fragmented network that was so vast and unimaginable that it covered the entire continent.

No, it's not a network. It's more like a huge, badly damaged "array" base, or the remnants of some kind of "seal." It's deeply embedded in the earth's veins and the underlying rules of the Douluo Continent. Now, only a broken skeleton remains, but it still subtly influences the operation of the entire Soul Power system.

Those "noises" are simply "energy leaks" or "blockages in rules" at the damaged points in the array.

Lu Yuan felt a chill rise up his spine.

Could it be that the entire Soul Power cultivation system of the Douluo Continent, and even the inheritance of the Divine Realm, is built upon this ancient and broken "foundation"? Are the so-called "gods" repairers, or beneficiaries? Or perhaps even one of the "causes" of this breakage?

He recalled the fragmented information about the ancient experiment within the "Gate of Finality"—a massive experiment involving the world's fundamental rules, yet ultimately a failure...

Did a cataclysmic event, a disruption of order, occur in ancient times and sweep across the world? Is the order we have today rebuilt on the ruins of that cataclysmic event?

His path may not merely be about personal transcendence, but rather, unknowingly, it touches upon the most fundamental secrets of this world.

The night breeze grew cooler.

Hurried footsteps sounded behind him. Yun Youzi quickly walked up to the star-gazing platform, his face solemn. He held a piece of paper encrypted with special Soul Power in his hand.

"Lu Yuan," Yun Youzi said in a low voice, "Our scouts have sent back urgent intelligence."

He walked up to Lu Yuan and handed him the note.

"Both the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect and the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan are secretly increasing their manpower to investigate the 'abnormal celestial phenomena' and 'mysterious Soul Master group' in the northwest. After cross-referencing, there is a high probability that they point to our New Fire Valley area."

Yun Youzi paused, then took a deep breath.

"Also, at the Clear Sky Sect, although their mountain gates are sealed, our informants have detected unusual Soul Power signals. They... seem to be making unusual movements as well."

Lu Yuan took the note, the encrypted runes glowing faintly at his fingertips. He didn't read the contents immediately, but instead looked up towards the southeast—the direction where the Upper Three Sects sects were entrenched.

The night sky was deep and the starlight was pale.

The brief silence has ended.