Volume 3, Chapter 206 – To Change Fate

‘Host, if you’re planning to begin the conquest, the System hopes you can proceed more cautiously and steadily.’

‘The birth of Awakeners is extremely difficult. Every single Awakener is an invaluable resource to the System.’

‘Therefore, the System also hopes that every host can treasure their own life, as well as this hard-won opportunity.’

“Awakener…” The young woman wrapped in imperial robes placed the word on her tongue, tasting it.

She laughed softly.

“To you all, living beings like us are merely resources that can be exploited.”

“We don’t need to have our own thoughts. We just need to obediently carry out your wishes. Is that right?”

‘Host, the System does not have the authority to force you to act.’

‘However, when Awakeners are first born, their existence is extremely fragile. Without external intervention, they can easily be detected by the Heavenly Dao and forcibly corrected.’

‘The System’s existence is to provide shelter for Awakeners like you who have just recently been born, and to point out a path where you can safely survive.’

‘Of course, during this process, the System will do its best to provide help to the host, and fully respect the host’s wishes. It will not interfere with the host’s actions and plans in any way.’

‘All results and deviations caused by the host’s choices will be borne by the host themselves.’

‘However, the System must still remind the host that the existence of Awakeners is extremely rare. The System hopes the host can treasure their own life.’

‘Make judgments cautiously, make choices carefully, and conduct the conquest steadily.’

“You’ve reminded me to treasure my life more than once already.” The young woman raised her hand slightly and said, “What, is it because other Awakeners have lost their lives here?”

‘Yes. In this small world, aside from you, there are other Awakeners present.’

‘Because of deviations in their choices, they’ve led themselves into desperate straits.’

‘And caused the System to suffer losses it shouldn’t have had to bear.’

“I see.”

The young woman propped up her cheek with her small hand, a hint of mockery showing in her eyes.

“This is the reason you forcibly abducted me here without asking my wishes?”

“You want me to bail them out?”

‘Incorrect.’

‘The System detected that your existence was being harmed by the small world’s Heavenly Dao.’

‘To protect your safety, the System activated emergency protocols and forcibly brought you away from your original world.’

“But you really didn’t give me the power to choose.” The young woman sneered. “You keep saying you’ll ‘respect my wishes,’ but in reality, your actions contradict your words.”

‘Incorrect.’

‘The System’s purpose is to protect the host’s life and safety. Under urgent conditions, if this conflicts with other clauses, this clause will be listed as the highest priority.’

“In other words, to you all, my life is more important than my wishes.” The young woman smiled lightly. “But of course. To you all, Awakeners only exist as a type of resource.”

“My life is a resource to you, while my thoughts and will are worthless to you.”

‘Rebuttal: Survival is the first imperative of life.’

‘Whether human or other creatures, maintaining the existence of life is the foundation of all activities.’

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‘The host’s free will is all dependent on survival to exist. If one loses the instinct and need for survival, the host’s wishes and will will lose all meaning.’

‘What makes your will worthless is not the System, but yourself.’

“Heh…” The young woman gave a cold laugh. “Choosing death is also my right. You didn’t give me the power to make such a choice.”

‘This is fallacious.’

‘Without System intervention, under the small world Heavenly Dao’s control, you also don’t have the right to freely choose your ending.’

‘It is precisely because of the System’s intervention that the host gained the power to choose a new ending.’

‘Or does the host prefer the ending the small world’s Heavenly Dao arranged for you?’

Hearing this, the young woman couldn’t help but furrow her brows, her expression turning slightly cold. “But I already changed my original ending!”

“Wei Ziqing, that so-called Heaven-Mandated Male Lead, he’s just an idiot with nothing but appearances. He’s no match for me.”

“If it weren’t for the so-called Heavenly Mandate, he would have died by my hand long ago!”

‘Correct understanding.’

‘Heavenly Mandate is the fate written by the Creator for all living beings, and also the will of the Heavenly Dao.’

‘Incorrect conclusion.’

‘You cannot change the ending, nor can you defy the Heavenly Mandate.’

‘It may seem like you’ve won everything, playing the Heaven-Mandated Male Lead in the palm of your hand. However, all of this is merely tempering for the Heaven-Mandated Male Lead.’

‘That mysterious Heavenly Mandate will cause everything you’ve worked hard to obtain to be slowly taken by the Heaven-Mandated Male Lead through repeated accidents. The magnificent foundation you’ve built throughout your life will, when the time comes, become the stepping stone for the new king’s ascension.’

‘And you, as the Heaven-Mandated Woman, the first female lead created by the Creator, the heavenly wife chosen by the Heavenly Dao for the Heaven-Mandated Male Lead Wei Ziqing, will become Wei Ziqing’s new empress, managing the harem for him and disciplining the beauties.’

‘Host, you don’t want to accept such a fate, do you?’

‘Therefore, the System brought you here and gave you an opportunity to truly change your own destiny.’

‘The rest doesn’t need to be repeated by the System again, does it?’

‘Your fate pattern is similar to the empty shell you’re currently replacing, which is why the System could evade the small world’s Heavenly Dao and switch the beams for the pillars.’

“Empty shell?”

‘Empty shell refers to a body that hasn’t been injected with a soul by the Creator.’

‘A form lacking a spirit should have spiritual essence condensed by the Heavenly Dao to fill it, becoming a puppet that acts under the Heavenly Dao’s will.’

‘And the soul of an Awakener happens to be able to replace this portion of spiritual essence, filling the shell’s vacancy.’

‘Using the shell’s concealment, one can evade the Heavenly Dao’s investigation.’

“Sounds like a parasite.”

‘Inappropriate metaphor. To the small world, Awakeners are cancer that must be eliminated.’

‘Parasites absorb the host’s nutrients but can coexist with the host. Cancer only causes it to collapse.’

“To the Heavenly Dao, I’m the world’s cancer.”

“Then to the Creator, what am I?”

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The young woman fell silent, her gaze returning to the secret letter just brought by the Lingxiao Sword Sect’s Sect Master.

She thought back to before being brought to this world, when the System showed her a glimpse of the macroscopic view.

That world belonging to the divine.

And that deity who constructed all of this.

Before that deity, her existence was like firefly light beneath the blazing sun.

Merely contemplating it gave her an impulse to submit body and soul.

“The only chance to change fate…” The young woman asked, “Are the other Awakeners in this small world also following your arrangements to conduct conquests for this purpose?”

‘The birth of Awakeners is based on unwillingness toward fate, rebellion against the Heavenly Dao, and defiance of the Creator.’

“Seems like we’ll have a lot in common.” The young woman said, “Is it that as long as one person completes the conquest, it’s considered finished?”

‘Yes.’

‘However, the System does not recommend you make contact with other Awakeners.’

“Why?”

‘Through analyzing the experiences of other Awakeners’ conquest attempts and failures, the System does not believe that your contact with them will help your conquest.’

“Oh, so that’s what you mean.”

“So you forcibly dragged me here with the intention of having me bail them out.”

The young woman laughed inwardly several times.

Before this System appeared, relying on her own determination, holding ambitions for tomorrow, she had won victory after victory and built foundation after foundation. Until…

The malice called Heavenly Mandate severed it all.

Because the world she was in was a matriarchal world where the male lead gets his revenge.

With her noble status and high position, she was destined to become the spoils of the male lead’s revenge.

Everything she worked hard to obtain, everything she took pride in, was merely a wedding dress prepared for that man.

Absurd and laughable.

But it didn’t matter. She had now escaped from that world.

That Heaven-Mandated Male Lead Wei Ziqing would no longer become her threat.

She was free now.

This System was right.

Her current body was indeed very similar to hers. It had the same beauty, the same imperial status.

Moreover, because this was a cultivation world, she had even become much younger, as if she’d returned to the jade-like years of sixteen.

And the biggest difference was that the man who lurked by her side with treacherous intentions no longer existed.

In this world, without the constraints of Heavenly Mandate, she could act freely and indulge as she pleased.

Searching for that Fox Monarch’s whereabouts was only because she wanted to see what the deity’s dependent body in the small world looked like.

As for the conquest, she wasn’t in a hurry at all.

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The System said it would respect her wishes and follow her choices.

Then, if she chose to simmer slowly, what was wrong with that?

Just as this thought emerged in her mind.

Outside the great hall, the announcement voice of a maid again. “Your Majesty, Noble Consort Wei requests an audience.”

“Noble Consort Wei?!” The young woman’s eyes suddenly widened. “Wait, I don’t remember having a Noble Consort Wei.”

After filling this shell, the first thing she did was familiarize herself with the surrounding environment and interpersonal relationships from the shell’s memories.

This body, though still a virgin, already had an empress and two noble consorts, along with various other concubines.

After all, establishing an empress and taking consorts was merely to placate the court officials. The original Empress had no interest in matters between men and women, so she’d never had intimate contact with anyone.

This point was the same as hers.

However, in her original world, all those in the harem should have been men. But in this world, the Empress’s harem had both men and women.

The Empress Consort was female, and the noble consorts were one male and one female.

Those two noble consorts were surnamed Jiang and Song. There was no one surnamed Wei.

“What’s going on?”

The young woman sat up straight, her elegant brows tightly knit.

“Why is it different from my memories?”

‘Host, this small world’s Heaven-Mandated Male Lead has already had part of his fortune severed. The small world’s foundation has been shaken and is difficult to stabilize.’

‘The appearance of multiple Awakeners will also increase the foundation’s instability.’

‘To maintain the world’s balanced operation, the Heavenly Dao will cause some world lines to shift.’

‘As you can see, your original world and the current world have already intersected and merged.’

“So that lingering Wei Ziqing has now become my noble consort?”

The young woman’s brows knit even deeper.

“Isn’t there supposed to be only one Heaven-Mandated Male Lead per world? Why has it become like this?”

‘Host, the operational principles of small worlds are far more complex than you imagine.’

‘Having the System bring you across worlds and letting you become another person is not without cost.’

‘This is why the System has reminded you over and over to treasure your life and conduct the conquest more cautiously and steadily.’

‘Otherwise, you’ll neither be able to touch the truth where the divine resides, nor change your own fate.’

The young woman frowned and remained silent for a long while.

It seemed she had imagined these matters too simply.

This so-called System, though it kept saying it would respect her wishes and respect her choices.

In reality, if she truly didn’t want to submit to her fate, then she had no other choice at all.

“God-Toppling System.” The young woman murmured to herself, “Why are you all targeting that deity like this?”

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‘Fallacy. The System is not targeting any specific deity.’

‘The System is merely providing every Awakener unwilling to submit to fate with an opportunity to change their Heavenly Mandate.’

The young woman drew in a light breath, then suddenly understood. “And the only one who can rewrite Heavenly Mandate is that deity who personally wrote it…”

“Is this your purpose?”

‘Host, beyond authority, cannot disclose.’

…

Beihe Commandery, Chi family grand mansion.

As the human race’s number one merchant family, the Chi family fully displayed what it meant to be wealthy.

Lu Zhuxin’s Eighth Realm spiritual consciousness swept over, and what she saw was like imperial palace halls.

The prosperity of the Chi residence was not much inferior even compared to the World Ending Fox Monarch’s Fox Palace.

Not long after dawn broke, Lu Zhuxin rose early.

Because it was troublesome, she planned to wear only a few simple, easy-to-wear garments.

Of course, this was also to fit the character of an injured person.

The wound Chi Xiyan had treated no longer hurt, but if she made large movements, it would still pull at the freshly healed injury.

So Lu Zhuxin shouldn’t be able to dress herself properly.

Chi Xiyan had anticipated this point.

Thus, not long after Lu Zhuxin woke up, two maids appeared before her.

They were the two maids who had previously been sent to serve her during her bath.

“Miss Yu…” The maids wore smiles that were almost stiff.

“The eldest young lady sent us to serve you with washing and dressing… Please be obedient and don’t be willful, all right?”

“No… I don’t want…” Lu Zhuxin shrank behind the bedding, only sticking out her head, looking at the two maids before her with a face full of resistance.

“Please… you two elder sisters, I really can manage by myself… Please go out first. I promise I can dress myself properly before coming out. I won’t tell Sister Xiyan, all right?”

Both maids showed difficulty on their faces. They still remembered what happened last night.

This farm girl, for some unknown reason, showed extreme resistance to their approach.

They had originally just wanted to help this girl take off her dirty clothes, but the moment they got close, she suddenly seemed to go mad.

Their eldest young lady had a cleanliness obsession and wouldn’t let anyone serve her, which was already strange enough. They never expected there’d be someone under heaven who had the same problem as their eldest young lady.

This made things difficult.

“Why is it taking so long?” Outside the room, Chi Xiyan heard the commotion. She frowned and walked to the doorway, her gaze probing inside, but she didn’t enter the room.

“Eldest young lady.” The two maids immediately lowered their heads, changing to respectful expressions. “Miss Yu is unwilling to accept our service.”

Lu Zhuxin hid in the bedding, only revealing a small head.

She said in a small voice, “Sister, don’t blame them. It’s my problem…” The young woman couldn’t help but furrow her brows, her expression turning slightly cold.