The Sky Stairway. The millionth step.

There were only three days, yet in that time Yue Yang had to comprehend and fully command the power of his own Fate Giant, up to a thousand meters tall.

A task that could not possibly be done had become one that had to be. The Immovable Supreme, Grand Hall Master Dongfang, the Divine Hall Supreme Tianyu, Peerless Emperor Wushuang — one peerless power after another was watching like a tiger ready to pounce, and even these three days were something the Night Empress and the others were paying for with their lives… This comprehension had to succeed. Failure was not allowed!

If he failed, Yue Yang believed he would set out on a road of vengeance he never wanted to see himself walk.

From the bottom of his heart, he hoped that day would never come.

So the comprehension had to succeed!

“Before the inheritance begins, come and take a look inside the world of my own comprehension first. Perhaps it will help you along a little.” The Supreme reached out her hand and touched the space between Yue Yang’s brows lightly with one long, slender forefinger.

The whole world of the Sky Stairway shattered with a roar…

Everything dissolved into nothing.

Yue Yang could not even feel his own body. There was only a thread, a wisp of awareness — not sleep, but a strange state in which he could not move and even his thoughts crept along very slowly. It was deeply peaceful and very light. Perhaps this was how it had felt in his mother’s arms as a baby. That feeling went beyond comfort, you could say, and beyond pleasure; it had a release and a lightness that no one could ever sense while in a body of flesh.

It was as though he were one with heaven and earth, returning together with them to eternity.

And it was as though this peaceful soul had existed since countless ages ago, and it was only after taking on a body of flesh that everything of the mortal world had clouded and covered over the freedom and joy of its origin — so that it mistook the burden of the flesh, birth and age and sickness and death, the sweet and sour and bitter and spicy, joy and anger and grief and happiness, for the true meaning of life and everything a life should seek. Only once that layer of flesh was shed, only once this soul-awareness, so near to the origin, came forth, did one understand that the true “person” was in fact that light, that free, that peaceful and calm.

Life after life of rebirth, trial after trial settling into the soul, had not brought it back to its true self. Instead it had lost itself in the world and could no longer see the true mystery of life.

Only in this moment did Yue Yang finally understand that what he was meant to seek was exactly this — the highest release, and the process of returning to his true self.

Is this awareness the Supreme giving me? No. This was more like enlightenment from that mysterious mother of his. Or perhaps it was the Sword Spirit Imperial Lady, pointing out to him the true path of cultivation.

But who had enlightened him did not matter. What mattered was that he now understood his final goal, and he understood the meaning of his true self’s existence.

In that instant, Yue Yang was moved so deeply that his very soul trembled. Every word and every flourish in the world could not have described or expressed that excitement and that joy! It went beyond everything — fate, time and space, all things in the world, everything there was… But just as Yue Yang was about to throw his whole body and heart into it, to merge with this true source and return to his true self, all kinds of thoughts and desires bubbled up from deep in his heart and instantly wrapped his soul up again.

His light, clear soul suddenly grew heavy.

It sank, and kept on sinking, sliding endlessly down into an abyss without time or space — until light and dark, heaven and earth appeared again, until the sense of belonging to a body returned. Only then did Yue Yang realize that he had slipped out of that most beautiful, primordial state of the soul and returned to the murky state of a soul bound up with a body.

In this state there were all the feelings and ideas of everyday life — the love of family, romantic love, longing — and all kinds of knowledge and abilities evolving, and, more than anything, all kinds of emotional bonds with his life-guardian war beasts, the women he loved, his family and friends, all woven densely together, so complicated that no one, however wise, could untangle them or sort out their roots. Yue Yang felt the urge to cry. As a human being, he could now sense how birth, age, sickness and death worked themselves out in his own life, and even where they did not work out in his own body, he could sense the existence of this power of fate in his family and friends… Fourth Uncle’s and Miss Feng’s passing, and the birth of the little baby the two of them had left behind, formed the two poles of fate’s power — death and life.

From ancient times until now, the eccentric genius Yue Gong of the Three Heroes of the Revival, Elder Yuehai, Yue Shan, Yue Ting and the rest of the Yue family, handed down generation after generation, were also the power of fate at work.

No one controlled it. It did not go according to anyone’s wishes or will. And yet at the same time, everyone took part in it and helped push it along.

The power of fate was vast beyond measure in itself, and no one could stand outside it.

And yet everyone pushed it hard with forces of every kind, driving a fate no one could predict or interfere with even further toward the abyss of suffering… Apart from the gods, almost no one could escape this power of fate, with its endless cycle of birth, age, sickness and death.

Even the divine-realm powers of the Sky Realm could not escape a higher kind of fate, the fate that belonged to gods.

Only a Sacred Sovereign, who had comprehended the true self and returned everything to eternity, could truly break free of outside interference and build a true life that belonged to the true self alone.

“Who is the true Sacred Sovereign? That eternal power that goes beyond everything, that supreme enlightenment of the true self — can I do that too? I’m not even at the divine tier. Can I go beyond birth, age, sickness and death, take fate into my own hands, command it with my awareness and place myself beyond it? And even if I can, how could I ever command other people’s fates?” Yue Yang sank into endless thought.

He seemed to see Sea Fatty, Ye Kong and the others fighting the enemy in a bloody battle.

If he could not command their fates, then Sea Fatty and Ye Kong could never escape the final end of birth, age, sickness and death. They were not eternal lives. Under the enemy’s attacks, they could die at any moment…

Wuxia, Qianqian, Luohua, Wuhen, Sister Yu, Liuye, Xiayi, Bao’er, Xiao Nu — even his life-guardian war beasts, Xiao Wenli, Hong, A-Man, Jiangying, Yika and Weilai — were all the same. If he could not command the power of fate, they would fall. Like Empress Vivienne’s defeat all those years ago, they would be sealed into silence and everything would return to nothing. However brilliant a life, however glorious its deeds, however honorable its battles, all of it would be swallowed up in the long river of time.

To let all of this go on, there was only one way: to return everything, all of it, to eternity!

To go beyond fate, to set life free of it, and with a free will and a true self to build and bring to completion an entirely new, entirely self-commanded, eternal and undying life. Only that was truly commanding the power of fate. Otherwise, even if he comprehended his way to the divine tier, he would be just as small and would sink just the same in the long river of time.

“Someone help me. Someone lend me a hand. I’m still too weak. Who will give me greater strength? Who will give me more wisdom? Who will give me more enlightenment…” This thought rose in Yue Yang’s heart. He had seen his true self and understood fate. What he lacked now was to raise himself up.

Boom!

The world that had held only light and dark, heaven and earth, shattered once again.

Someone seemed to laugh softly beside his ear and wave goodbye.

Yue Yang had no time to catch what it was. All he knew was that he had slipped out of a state of comprehension once again. Not only could he no longer see his true self — even the power of fate had become hard to comprehend. His whole mind seemed to go fuzzy all at once. He clearly knew it was not like this, but his brain just would not work. It went around and around in a muddle until it had tangled itself into a knot.

Why is this happening?

Things I already comprehended — why would I lose them? Why did I suddenly get stupid?

Could it be that just now someone added a higher, more extraordinary wisdom to my own, and that’s what enlightened me? That it wasn’t really my own comprehension at all?

Sea Fatty was fighting. He had his own family and his own beliefs, his own grimoire and his own way of fighting, and his fate was moving forward beyond anyone’s control; perhaps with the next step it would slide into the abyss of death… Ye Kong was fighting, and his fate too was moving forward beyond control… Everyone he knew was living out their own lives at the same time, in the same moment — even his enemies. Grand Hall Master Dongfang, and the Divine Hall Supreme Tianyu hiding behind him, were not standing still either. They too were scheming openly and in secret, by every means, pushing their own fates and other people’s with forces of every kind.

If I want to stop it, I have to have overwhelming power.

Higher than the mountains, deeper than the sea — so much that even heaven and earth couldn’t hold it without overflowing. It has to go beyond all wisdom and all power. Only then can I hold everyone’s fate in the palm of my hand — family and friends, old enemies and foes, all of it.

When this realization took shape in Yue Yang’s heart, he found that only now was he truly seeing the Supreme’s revelation. Or you could say that everything the Supreme meant to give him was only now truly beginning!

Then was everything I saw before an illusion? Or was it that mysterious mother, or the Sword Spirit Imperial Lady, quietly guiding me toward it?

“Waaah…” Yue Yang saw a baby come wailing into the world. Then a beautiful woman, her face full of love, picked her up and gently kissed the crying little treasure, laughing as she said to the family and friends beside her, “Look at her eyes. She was born with Divine Sight — boundless clarity and wisdom. My treasure is sure to become a remarkable power someday. She has the power to break free of fate. I think she will surely command her own life with a free will!”

“Yes. The hopes of thousands and tens of thousands of years have finally come true today. With her potential, as long as she doesn’t go down a crooked path, she’s sure to become a Sacred Sovereign who lights up the whole Sky Tower!” A friend of the beautiful woman reached out a little finger as pale as a scallion stalk to play with the newborn baby.

“It’s a pity she’s a girl. If only she’d been a boy, how wonderful that would have been.” Someone let slip a hint of regret.

“It doesn’t matter. We’ll just pray for a boy with the same potential. It will surely work… Even a Sacred Sovereign needs a partner, or she’ll be lonely through that long, long life. We’ll find her a little companion. Little treasure, shall we pray for a little brother for you? How about it? Happy?” Amid the teasing and laughter, the baby who had been crying suddenly went quiet and looked curiously at what was in front of her with a pair of big eyes as clear as crystal, as though, from the moment she was born, she already knew how to recognize everything in the world with her eyes.

The sun rose and set; the moon came up and went down.

Yue Yang saw a second baby born beneath another starry sky.

This one was a girl again. Unlike her sister, her birth made her mother and her mother’s friends uneasy.

“She carries the power of destruction in her, and yet she has no clarity of wisdom to guide her. I’m afraid she may go down a road no one can foresee…” The friend with the scallion-pale fingers sighed, unable to hide her worry.

“Don’t worry. I’ll look after her properly. As long as I’m here, her fate will never go astray. I’ll use my power to change her, and everything in the Sky Tower! Since there’s no little brother to carry it on, I’ll take on the responsibility myself. I won’t let you down!” A little girl, young but with a face full of determination, clenched her small fists. “I’m going to be the greatest person in the Sky Tower. I’m going to become a Supreme. Even if I’m a girl, as long as I work hard enough, I can do it!”

“Don’t wear yourself out. You’re still a child, and being all alone is too lonely. We’ll pray for a little brother for you again! This time it will surely work. Maybe it will take ten years, maybe a hundred, maybe a thousand — even if none of us are here anymore, there’s still the Divine Wish Flower Tree, isn’t there? It will surely work. Your little auntie loves you most of all. She will never let you be all alone…”

(End of Chapter 1273)