Fu Xuan's mind reeled. She never thought Qingque possessed such remarkable talent—the ability to break down the Master Diviner's work and integrate it into the daily responsibilities of every single person in the Divination Commission.
Qingque's actions seemed irresponsible on the surface, but in reality, she had transformed the burden of the supreme Master Diviner into the shared responsibility of the entire Commission.
"So all it took was simply reversing the flow of authority to achieve something like this…"
Fu Xuan lamented that she had never thought of such methods herself.
If she had known back then that her divinations were being obscured by a lack of key information, she might not have become so obsessed with fate.
To me, you are fate itself.
A sudden blush crept onto Fu Xuan's cheeks as she recalled the words Noldrei had spoken to her.
She had been so scared that she'd run off without even hearing him finish. The feeling of being utterly flustered was still fresh in her memory.
Never before had the Master Diviner experienced such a 'confession.'
Qingque, however, didn't think what she'd done was simple at all. Top-down authority had its own set of rules, and bottom-up authority had its own. She didn't believe just anyone could do her job.
The only reason Fu Xuan could say such a thing was because her third eye allowed her to skip the most crucial part of the job: judging people's character.
'Talk is cheap,' Qingque pouted inwardly, her eyes fixed on Fu Xuan's crimson face.
'Boss, what on earth are you thinking about? It's like your very soul has been stolen away.'
Feeling that things were taking a strange turn, Qingque suddenly blurted out, "Ah! Noldrei, what are you doing here? I thought you'd left!"
"What?!" Fu Xuan gasped. She hurriedly straightened her clothes, then spun around, her face instantly morphing into the stoic expression a Master Diviner should wear.
Behind her, the vast array chamber was as empty as before. There was no one there but her and Qingque.
"Qing… Qingque!!!"
Fu Xuan seethed with such rage she could have skinned Qingque alive, her teeth grinding in frustration.
The thought that Qingque had witnessed her foolish behavior sent a wave of burning shame through her, a painful blow to her leaderly dignity.
"Ahaha, I won't disturb you then! I'm leaving now!"
Seeing Fu Xuan's fury, Qingque bolted, disappearing in a puff of smoke.
She was gone before Fu Xuan even had a chance to give chase, vanishing from right under her nose.
With Qingque gone, Fu Xuan abandoned the idea of reprimanding her. She lapsed back into her initial state, only this time her gaze was fixed on the Central Starskiff Haven.
"In the future… can I really handle all this?"
A sense of unease gnawed at Fu Xuan. The thought of taking on the duties of the Alchemy Commission, on top of being responsible for finding a new path for the Disciples of Sanctus Medicus…
It made it all too easy to understand Dan Shu's perspective.
On a Xianzhou vessel that worshipped the Hunt, the future of the Disciples seemed bleak and lightless. The Mara-Struck condition, a curse that shackled the entire Xianzhou, clearly could not be resolved by following the Hunt.
The one who tied the bell must be the one to untie it. To solve this most difficult problem, she had to seek help from the source—from the Abundance.
"..."
Fu Xuan turned to face the Matrix of Prescience, newly repaired but still operating just as it had for the past century.
A gentle breeze brushed against her. Today, Fu Xuan wasn't wearing her signature pink Master Diviner uniform. Instead, she was dressed in the simple, modest robes of an Alchemy Commission alchemist.
The loose, plain clothes shielded her from the passing wind.
She looked up at the sea of stars above, a false sky created by the power of the cavern. It showed none of the true motions of the cosmos, a constant reminder that caused the people of the Xianzhou to forget what the universe truly looked like.
Fu Xuan suddenly recalled something Qingque had told her.
Noldrei believed the lifespan of the Xianzhou natives was being held hostage by the Abundance. He claimed to have his own methods for achieving long life—not just one, but several.
That meant Noldrei was destined to live far, far longer than she would.
'When that time comes, will he still think of me as fate?'
A delicate question bloomed in her mind, and with it, Noldrei's other words surfaced.
The act of living itself is fate.
Fu Xuan finally realized that Noldrei would likely outlive her by a vast margin. He would meet more people, create more new fates.
In that process, he might even forget the lives that had already passed.
That forgetting would be just like how the Xianzhou natives treated the short-lived species, whose traditions rarely lasted more than a century.
"There is no true long life. Compared to the various species across the universe, the lifespan of a Xianzhou native is nothing to be proud of. In fact…"
"It's too short!"
"This shouldn't be the fate of the Xianzhou people. They should have been able to obtain a much wider future."
"I was always meant to see farther. Therefore, it is my duty to bring that more distant future into being, ahead of its time."
Fu Xuan suddenly understood how to break through the part of her own destiny that had been obscured.
She shouldn't hesitate. She shouldn't waver.
She shouldn't even flinch in the face of her own sacrifice.
There were too many people suffering in this world. What was her own pain in comparison?
"I see now, I see… So this is the meaning of the dialectic of life."
"It is not suffering, nor is it karma. It is the act of living itself that brings fate's arrival ahead of schedule. When that time comes, a new fate will be forged from the ashes of the old."
"Dan Shu was carrying out a reckoning, settling the karma left behind by past lives. She became the initiator of a new fate. Now, that new fate is in motion, and those who cling to old prejudices within it will only see suffering…"
"To end this suffering, the only way is to seize the initiative in the next reckoning and push everything that exists now toward it!"
Fu Xuan realized that even though she couldn't see a certain part of fate, and even though she was likely at a disadvantage in her strategic game against the legendary "slave of fate" from the Stellaron Hunters…
It didn't mean she was destined to lose.
Winning or losing wasn't about whether she herself survived, but about whether the karma she created could continue on.
To me, you are fate itself.
"I am—Fate!"
The third eye on Fu Xuan's forehead lit up once more. She activated the Matrix of Prescience again. This time, she would divine her own future once more, and then she would push that future into existence.
Only by doing so, by borrowing the hands of others, could she bring a new fate into this world.
"To win a game against Heaven itself, you cannot be the one placing the pieces. The key to victory must lie outside the board."
"To resolve the suffering the Yaoshi's gift has left upon the Xianzhou people…"
"There is only one way: to drag Yaoshi onto the chessboard of fate."
The Medicus is benevolent, the Arbor is vivified. With one heart, the planters ascend to paradise.
Within the array's deductions and divinations, Fu Xuan saw a pair of horns so massive they stretched beyond the edge of sight. Around them, arms of indiscernible length waved and swam through the void.
Fu Xuan's heart was calm. She knew she had to deduce a new, inevitable "blessing."
And that blessing would be the one to force Yaoshi onto the board.
It would be the power to invert the very relationship between life and Imaginary Energy.