The sound of the tides echoed along the shore. Everything felt pretty much the same four hundred years ago and four hundred years later.

Sunlight, stars, tides, and the wind had remained unchanged for countless millennia. Or perhaps they had changed long ago, and human lives and history were too brief to notice.

On the deck of a speedboat, a burly bearded man sitting in a folding chair looked at the reflection of the moon in the sea and said, “I’ve been thinking about it recently. If our ancestors hadn’t gotten involved back then, if the Tower of Origin had actually been completed, and that grand feat of binding the other Supreme Benevolences under the cage of order had really succeeded, would this world have been better than it is now?”

“You’re having another episode, aren’t you?”

Between the reefs and the beach, an aging White Owl struggled to drag a heavy iron crate up the shore. Gritting her teeth, she finally hauled herself up.

“Give me a hand! Put some strength into it! After all these years, how do you still have zero awareness? I’m the one busting my back hauling all these damn packages, who do you think it’s for?!”

“Ah, sorry, sorry.” The man grinned and pulled her up along with the crate. “Just got a little sentimental seeing you all dusty and worn out.”

“Sentimental, my ass!” White Owl took off her hat and unceremoniously took over his seat. “As the great leader of Nirvana, all you ever do is babble nonsense about what could have been. Living in that imagination of yours every day, why don’t you just stop living at this point? Go find a Mirror Celestial Being to craft you a dream and sleep yourself to death.”

“Dreams aren’t nearly as strange as reality,” the leader said casually, sitting down on the iron crate while leaning against the ship’s railing.

White Owl’s eye twitched violently.

Before she could start cursing again, he continued, “Actually, in the thousands of years of the Eternal Empire’s rule, there weren’t that many incompetent emperors. Compared to the politicians nowadays, most emperors were actually more... human. Not to mention, many of them, by any reasonable standard, could even be called wise and brilliant.”

“Don’t know, don’t care, didn’t ask,” White Owl replied coldly. “Why are you trying to talk about history with an illiterate person?”

“You know, two thousand years ago, ‘ignorance’ was actually considered a disease,” the leader said, growing increasingly enthusiastic.

White Owl glared at him. “What the hell are you talking about? You’re doing that annoying insinuating thing again, aren’t you?”

“No, I mean it literally. It was a disease,” the commander replied calmly. “A kind of plague that couldn’t be cured. A virus transmitted through books and written records. Once infected, all knowledge and cognition would be gradually eaten away, turning people manic, restless, and mechanically obedient. They would instinctively seek out groups in order to spread it further.

“I’m not just talking about the plague of ignorance. That was just after the Age of Chaos ended, when all kinds of bizarre conditions roamed the earth. In even earlier times, there were mimetic humans that not even scholars and doctors could recognize. Shapeshifters disguised among humans, reflections that escaped from mirrors. After consuming their originals, they would wear their faces and roam the human world, causing enormous chaos.

“There was a kind of fruit that, if eaten, would grant youth and immortality, but at the cost of transferring one’s lifespan to a random person somewhere in the world. There were monsters that, once seen by the human eye, would cause the observer’s soul to shatter from sensory overload and cognitive collapse. They lived in the clouds, migrating with storms, hunting living beings with their gaze, so much so that all animals feared to look up at the sky.

“In that era, which compared to today feels more like myth and folklore and not reality, there were countless things that would sound ridiculous even as jokes now. For example, a worm that could swallow an entire city, trapping all its inhabitants in an illusion where they would die of old age inside its belly. Or a serpent that doubled in size every day, eventually growing so vast that it could encircle an entire continent.”

Snap.

A flame flickered as he lit his pipe.

White Owl took in the excitement in the leader’s expression and was unimpressed. “If they were that damn powerful, why don’t we see them anymore?”

The leader smiled, but the smile was icy cold. “Because they were all eliminated. All of them. The plague of ignorance and every book related to it were burned to ash. The mirror world and its reflections were completely destroyed, ground into dust, never to be resurrected again. The fruit of immortality was erased from existence, no longer able to manifest in reality. The monsters in the storms were annihilated together with the storms themselves in bolts of divine lightning.

“The giant worm was swallowed by an even greater dragon. The great serpent was hunted down by the Celestial Beings until only bones remained. After sinking into the sea, its remains formed a mountain range that encircled the entire world. The former Haizhou[1] was where its tail once connected. Its full name was actually the Land Where the Great Serpent Enters the Sea.

“Everything that could threaten humanity was destroyed by imperial orders, imperial will, or emperors personally leading the charge. Even in the late Eternal Empire period, the final emperor was still a remarkably capable ruler. It’s just that no matter how outstanding he was as an individual, he couldn’t reverse the overall tide. In the end, he fell together with the collapse of the Tower of Origin.”

White Owl froze, confused. “Is it really that absurd? Then why did the Onyxists revolt in the first place?”

“Because the emperor is the emperor. No matter how good an emperor is, he is still an emperor. The moment anyone sits on that throne, whether they are kind or compassionate, this world is destined to be tainted.

“For example, what disappeared from this world wasn’t just what I mentioned earlier. There were also a third biological sex; a second, diamond-shaped moon in the sky; entire races of people with green hair or red skin; a spring that could cure most diseases, including cancer, and was found everywhere; and even something called liangzi technology in its early form, too complex and unpredictable to define clearly.

“Reasons didn’t matter. Whether it was disrupting the imperial harem, being too dazzling, being visually displeasing, or simply failing to stand out before the supreme ruler, any trivial excuse could be used. Compared to that, the seventeen thousand people who died just because they were taller than the emperor aren’t even worth mentioning.

“As a side note, the short ones who survived were really lucky, because that emperor was, among all emperors, the tallest. He was ‌three meters and forty-one centimeters tall. Now, do you understand? When one person is capable of receiving all beauty and glory in the world, then all suffering in that world becomes his original sin. And when one person can possess all choices, it means everyone else has none.”

Even though the moonlight and stars were so clear, the commander’s eyes were shrouded in shadow beneath his brow ridge. His gaze was dark and bottomless.

“The moment you realize there exists a god who can control everything, you will start longing for a world where that god does not exist. The Tower of Origin was built over sixteen centuries. In the first three centuries, everyone worked together, dreaming of a stable and eternal paradise.

“In the seventh century, some began to wonder whether a world ruled and dominated by an emperor was truly that perfect. By the tenth century, more and more people began to ask themselves, why should we gamble the future of everyone on the so-called ‘eternal wise ruler?’ Why should we bind ourselves with shackles, using our own backs to lift a god onto the throne?

“Thus, the demigods killed the gods. The emperor killed the demigods. And then the emperor was killed by mortals. When people realized no one is born to be anyone else’s slave, they began to wonder: why are there so many shackles in this world?

“As long as shackles exist, resistance will always be born. We are all the same in that regard. The only difference is what we are called. Some rebels are called Onyx. Some are called Nirvana. Some are like you, and some are like me.”

Under the silver moonlight, the world’s greatest terrorist spread his arms and smiled.

“And it is precisely because of that... that we came to be.”

Crunch. Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.

White Owl bit into an apple. She turned her head, spat the core into the sea, and nodded casually. “Uh-huh.”

“Look at you. Just look at you!” The commander sighed helplessly. “Every time things get exciting and everyone’s getting fired up, you’re the only one who won’t cooperate. You’re such a party pooper.”

White Owl rolled her eyes. “Then cut the act. Save the pretty speeches for when you’re trying to fool kids. If I didn’t already know there’s something seriously wrong with that brain of yours, I might’ve actually believed you.”

“Ah, well, there’s another reason there’s something wrong with my brain.” The commander didn’t take offense. It was like he was used to it, or simply didn’t care. He fumbled a little as he caught the torn map fragment White Owl tossed over, lifting his brows. “Is my brain damaged this badly? That shouldn’t be the case. The internal simulation personality has been completely shattered. Don’t tell me you took out your anger on it and tore it up for fun. Did you?”

“Will you believe me if I say Mercury came back to life and yanked this thing out and tore it apart on the spot?”

White Owl rolled her eyes again and slumped back into the chair. She looked like she wanted to say something more, but couldn’t quite find where to start. Finally, she rubbed her brow in frustration.

“I ran into a kid in the rift realm.”

The commander frowned. “Hm?”

“Ye Xian asked me to look after her kid. Since I was already there, I figured I might as well check it out. But... yeah. I was startled. No, more than startled. I was seriously shaken.” She recalled what she had seen, her hand trembling slightly. “He actually awakened the Edge of Revolution.”

Silence fell. The commander’s eyes widened, as if he had just heard that the empire had suddenly decided to land on the moon.

“Are you serious? The revolution can actually respond?”

Shocked, he stood up and reached for a box. The moment his fingers made contact, countless runes and emblems erupted across the iron casing layer upon layer, as vast as the cosmos.

Just a light grip on the handle was enough to trigger a hissing sound. When he lifted his hand again, it was already burned down to exposed bone. No matter how he tried to channel his power, it would not heal.

Within the charred flesh, specks of ash flickered with sharp ember-like light, as if eternally burning fiercely. Only then did he finally come to a realization.

“A Chosen One chosen by the Fate Summoning, huh?” The commander sighed in admiration. “She’s always been like that. She never says much, never expresses anything, and without a sound she just ends up making something huge happen. She’s always been this way. Maybe she’ll become a formidable opponent in due time. I probably would’ve killed her decades ago, but I’ve gotten old. My heart’s softened. Now I find myself unable to make the move.”

White Owl smoked her pipe and sighed with a sense of resignation. “Besides, Ye Xian finally managed to take on a student. She probably treasures that kid like nothing else. If I killed him, she’d definitely hate me for it. Just thinking about being hated by the few friends I have makes me hesitate.”

She turned to the commander. “So tell me, is this also his so-called fate? That because of all these prior conditions, I’m destined not to interfere with what’s happening?”

The commander asked back, “What do you think fate is?”

“Huh?” White Owl blinked in confusion. Her eyes were as clear and innocent as a college student’s, full of genuine bewilderment.

The question was too sudden, too strange. She realized she couldn’t give a proper answer at all.

The commander answered in her stead. “Fate is an outcome. Fate is a prophecy. But fate is also bullshit, the greatest bullshit in the world.”

1. Haizhou literally means “the province of the sea. ☜