How to get out, indeed.

Zhang Cai first observed the gate laying in front of him, which seemed neither close nor far. Its bronze plating echoed its ancient age—though unmarred by dust or dirt it had to be thousands of years old. It carried a suffocating aura that slouched his shoulders, forcing him to avert his eyes.

All of these findings didn’t come from experience, as was the norm, but was transmitted to his soul form. If he had been here with his body, Zhang Cai assumed, he wouldn’t be able to discern anything except the gate’s color. He thought for a moment, considering getting out through there, but quickly got rid of it.

There was a mountain of demons there, just a tad bit weaker than the kings, whom he also deduced were between Peak Rocksmote and early Threshold. Their thrones were a testament to their power. Were they called Demon Lords, then? Then the being they called Emperor had to be past the Sixth-step Threshold. The realm barriers in Threshold were divided into three parts each, forming four large steps. People in the same realm step could fight without much difference, but each large step cut a large divide between the practitioners.

Being as he was, a fresh Rocksmote with a corporal body that he couldn’t feel—for when Zhang Cai tried touching his chest his hand went through it— he couldn’t afford to encounter that being.

Yet he didn’t know how to get out. His master, and the sect texts, touched the bare bones required of him to know about Inner Demons. According to them, It was a phenomenon. They talked about an event that took place when the practitioner’s doubts and weak will caused instability in their dantian, which caused deviations, transforming Qi into foul Qi that harmed the body. Once overtaken by the evil force, the practitioner would go berserk, wreaking mindless havoc, and there would be no coming back from that state unless killed. So one had to resolve their demons while in charge, so that their bodies could be taken back.

Yet this place was not some phenomenon. It was an entire realm—the foul Qi belonged to these Demons, and they indeed seemed more sentient than a mere force of nature. All these souls, too, either in the thrones or outside the gates. He felt that they were living to an extent a lone soul could.

Zhang Cai regaining his body, or soul for that matter, should have been enough for him to awaken. Yet he was not. Was it the existence of this realm that caused so, or something else?

Shaking his head, Zhang Cai cast a look to his behind. Other than the six thrones that shone with soul-light, and the same golden chandelier casting splendid rays down to light up the darkness beyond the pillars, he noticed a portrait hung at the far end. It seemed blurry, with golden frames adorning onyxes, and he could only ascertain the gray skin color of the subject. Under that, there was an abyss-like hallway he couldn’t see through.

‘’One moment.’’ Something was off. Zhang Cai returned his gaze to the thrones. They didn’t have such light before. The table underneath, which seemed cleaned of all the filth, had no sound. The tableware and food and drinks were gone, and so was the remnants of the Kings. The new Emperor, as well as the old, did not remain in sight.

Zhang Cai came to the edge of the table and peered to the throne closest to him. The lights toned up, an intense tremble went through the seat. Was the cause the souls of the people inside? His Qi sense shot forth, and then touched open a mote of light stronger than others.

‘’Break the throne. Break the throne. Break the throne...’’

The same sentence, over and over again, echoed in his head. The voice belonged to an archaic man, who had no vigor left in him. Zhang Cai sent his sense to another, and hear the same, and so sent his sense again. All the rocksmote souls, all thousands of them among the tens of thousands, repeated the same sentence, again and again, and their resonance caused the throne to quake. Strangely, no sound resounded inside the hall.

Zhang Cai shivered for a moment. The commotion wouldn’t reach the unseen Emperor, would it?

Zhang Cai focused his Qi to the archaic man again, then waved at him, hoping to reach out. His action caused the throne to dim, and soon all thrones quieted, except the main one containing the six threshold personages. Their lights were brighter again, and all of them focused on the throne before him.

It took Zhang Cai a moment to figure out their intention.

‘’They want me to break this one first?’’

All was well, except he had no idea how. First things first, he decided to get closer. Peering down the edge of the table, he ascertained that there had to be at least two hundred meters between him and the throne. That wasn’t a distance he could fall safely. ‘’How do I go there?’’ he thought, then found himself face to face with the throne.

‘’What?’’

Zhang Cai took a step back, taking in the humongous monument full of dim lights. He felt a faint headache. As if in a chorus, the souls lit up one by one, and Zhang Cai heard their voices much better.

‘’Break the throne. Break the throne. Break the throne...’’

Then he thought of Old Master Jin, and his warnings.

‘’Only thoughts work against them...but to what extent? How does a thought even affect this realm? Because we are all souls?’’

He came next to the headrest and put his hand on the cold stone. Apart from it being the first sensation he felt here, his entire being shivered at the chill.

‘’Don’t touch!’’

‘’Stand away!’’

‘’You’ll get swallowed!’’

Thousands of voices rushed in, forcing him to go away. Somehow, Zhang Cai felt that his body had gotten smaller. ‘’How do I break it?’’ He asked aloud.

‘’Think.’’ Said the archaic voice. Zhang Cai extended his neck to look at the top, then nodded. In his head, he imagined the throne falling apart, shattering from a hammer strike.

A shower of debris exploded in front of his face, where the throne came crashing down on him. Frozen but for a moment, Zhang Cai looked up at the table, imagining. Then his field of vision changed, and he saw a whirlwind of colors approaching him.

Souls of all kinds rushed out of the pale stone throne, forming a tornado, each soul tailing the other forward until they came to stand hundreds of meters tall. They were shaped like balls of faint light, some white, some blue, some red. White ones stood at the top, and the archaic voice reached out to him. Now more discernible, Zhang Cai noticed that the man sounded alien, as if speaking from his throat.

‘’Well done, young man! Let us hurry and free our shieldmates!’’

Zhang Cai didn’t question the man for the moment. Instead he turned around and came before the other edge of the table, then repeated his action. A migraine hit him, piercing his brain with sharp needles as the storms of souls merged into one whirlwind.

‘’Can you go on?’’

‘’I can.’’ Zhang Cai said. Still, it took him a moment to stand straight and go for the third one. He destroyed the third throne, then could no longer bear the pain on foot. Both knees crashed onto the table, and he attempted to grasp his head with both hands, gritting his teeth.

‘’Don’t resist, boy.’’

‘’Let us help, young friend.’’

From the corner of his eyes, Zhang Cai saw two blobs come down and touch him. A few scenes flashed before his eyes as if they were memories of a dream he saw; the scene of a garden where Sun shone all year long on fields full of peach trees, with a woman whose face was blurry sitting under one, and then of a mountain top that was cleaved into two by a sword, with sharp auras still lingering at the aftermath—and then both were gone, together with thousands of memories that blinked out of his consciousness. All that remained was the cool sensation in his back, and the lack of a headache.

‘’What was that?’’ He asked. ‘’Who were they?’’

‘’No time for questions, hurry! We need to prepare before they arrive!’’

Zhang Cai had an answer of his own, but he agreed with the old voice. He could feel a strong pressure from the soul storm that reached a thousand meter length, close to Threshold levels. If all six thrones could fight together, and thinking that Zhang Cai assumed this was their plan, they could get out of this mountain safe enough.

Quickly, Zhang Cai shattered the fourth and the fifth thrones as well, and the soul storm overtook almost a quarter of the banquet hall. He also felt no headache, and sensed that his body was a little larger than before. But he didn’t think much of it, and he came before the Emperor’s throne. Before he took action, the archaic voice reached out.

‘’One moment, young friend. They are calling for you.’’

‘’They...’’ Zhang Cai cast a look at the six lone souls, arranged in a hexagon on the head rest. In a moment he was next to them, but he refrained from touching the throne.

‘’You brat, tell me quickly. Are you Heaven Blessed, or have thick strands of fate?’’

Zhang Cai didn’t expect the sudden question. The beholder of the voice was a human this time, that he was sure, and he sounded like a rough sort who would enjoy smoking tea leaves on a pipe.

‘’Senior, how did you know?’’

‘’Which one are you, just be quick.’’

‘’Should we not rescue you all first before anything, senior?’’

‘’You retard, the owners of those thrones are dead. That is why you could crack them open—this one still has an owner! You crack this one, and he will come in less than five seconds.’’

‘’Can’t we fight him with all our strength?’’

‘’Stop asking questions, child.’’ A gentle voice reprimanded Zhang Cai. ‘’Just answer his question.’’

‘’Someone said I have thick strands of fate, but I am not sure myself.’’

‘’That explains the twat demon’s obsession...’’ The rough voice murmured.

‘’You did good to survive to this age, child.’’ the gentle voice said.

‘’Divines be damned, I see you are seventeen years old. That is good.’’ A young, energetic voice said.

‘’Seniors, what does that mean?’’

‘’Didn’t someone tell you about it? The person who told your situation?’’ The gentle voice asked. The rough voice, still murmuring, suddenly stopped.

‘’No. I only learned a few days ago from a stranger.’’ Zhang Cai replied.

‘’Of course they wouldn’t tell him, you idiot. You think it is easy to find such a good source of luck?’’

‘’Luck?’’ Zhang Cai repeated.

‘’Let us not tarry too much.’’ Another voice interrupted. ‘’We need to get out and send the young one away.’’

‘’Agreed.’’ Said another.

‘’If that fellow gets him as well, we’ll have another Demon God in our hands.’’ The young voice sounded wary, almost scared.

Zhang Cai listened to their arguments, all the while peeping at the dark hallway, anticipating a limb or an eye to appear at any moment. More he focused, less he heard, and a deathly stillness overcame his being. Nothing came in the end, and a loud shout got his attention back to the conversation.

‘’Are you listening!?’’ The young voice asked Zhang Cai.

‘’I am, I am!’’

‘’Don’t look too deep, he will sense it.’’ The gentle voice said. ‘’Don’t think, even. That will call him here.’’

Zhang Cai turned a little pale. He held back the urge to look another time, and instead focused on the question that bothered him the most.

‘’Seniors,’’ he said, each word a little heavier than the one before. ‘’What does thick strands of fate mean?’’

They didn’t answer for a while, and Zhang Cai stared right at their blinking soul lights, until the gentle voice spoke out.

‘’It just means you have great influence on other peo—’’

‘’Oh fuck that, influence people shit?’’ The rough voice shouted. ‘’You know what it means? It means you are a walking calamity. You will most likely die an early death, and people will prosper from your existence without doing anything. Unlike heaven-blessed, who has endless luck themselves, people with thick strands of fate always gives others endless luck.’’

‘’Did you lead an easy life? Think about it!’’ As if caught by a passion beyond pure rage, as if in sorrow, the rough voice raised his voice higher and higher. ‘’All those miserable, gut wrenching moments. All those injustices!’ All those mother fucking trials for heavens know what! For a few worthless people who will gloat over your corpse!’’

‘’...’’

Zhang Cai cast a cold, yet disappointed gaze at the souls.

‘’...I brought nothing but suffering to those around me. I don’t think I am as you describe, senior.’’

‘’Do not blame him, child. He just-’’

‘’Don’t speak nonsense, woman!’’

‘’You hold your tongue, mister!’’

While the two souls bickered, Zhang Cai felt his heart sink further into his chest. Was he destined to bring calamities, as they said? Would more people die or suffer for his sake, or because of his existence? A dozen faces flashed past his mind as he thought.

‘’Young man.’’ The young voice called to him. ‘’That man just has a poor history with the Fatemarked, do not mind his words. You are certainly no calamity, nor a free luck giver.’’

‘’I am not sure, senior.’’

‘’That is a good thing, doubting I mean.’’ the young voice replied. ‘’Do you know what Fate is? Not the concept, but the system.’’

‘’...I don’t think I do.’’

‘’Fate is like a web of cloth, or thinking it should be easier for you to imagine. Every person has a strand of fate at birth, which changes when they interact with the world. Each interaction causes the cloth to produce reactions, and it gets bigger, though the shape of the cloth itself is determined by the world’s soul. Now, people who have thick strands of fate are truly rare—as rare as the Heaven Blessed, because they tend to have a certain potential.’’

‘’Potential for what?’’

‘’To change eras.’’ The gentle voice replied. The rough one was now silent, murmuring to himself again. ‘’Thick stranded are born when calamities arise. They are not the calamity, and certainly they do not bring the calamity themselves. It is just the response of our world to an incoming disaster. So they tend to change the path of the fate—or cloth, as you imagine.’’

‘’They always cause the balance of the world to tip.’’ Another voice, of an old woman that sounded as if she were squealing, continued. ‘’And always gather able people around them. That is why people around them always prosper. But then there is a price to that too...’’

‘’Dying early.’’ Zhang Cai replied, his smile bitter.

‘’That tends to be the most common case.’’ The old woman sighed. ‘’When I was a foot soldier in the Liberation War, there was a Thick-stranded lord of humans. Her entourage was full of the old family heads—Zhao, Yan, Yuan, Shu, Li, Guo, Zhang, and Jian. She led us against the Xian overlords, and only she perished among the Six Lords there. Not even her corpse was left behind, torn to bits...’

‘’Hua Rong? Saintess of North?’’ Zhang Cai knew her. Or, to be specific, everyone knew of the Liberation war, and the saintess that led them. It was when they broke off from the Xia Empire, to regain their freedom with the other races from the Xians. An event at least a thousand years old, if not more. His master, too, was a foot soldier when it happened and Zhang Cai’s grandmaster had perished days after the war.

The saintess had her tomb at the centre of the Northeast region, where cultivation world prospered.

‘’As if he had been gotten rid of—’’ The rough voice mumbled. ‘’As if he was no longer needed...’’

‘’And the Lord of the West.’’ The gentle voice echoed, a little sullen.

Lord of the West was the last of the Yan noble family, who also carved the border with the Xia Empire they had today. He died around eight hundred years ago, ambushed by three Spirit realm Drakens of the Xia, his corpse was butchered, and pieces of it were flown across human territory. This event, his master had told Zhang Cai with great bitterness. The Yan family was no more after that.

They told a bunch of names, some from times and places he didn’t know, some as early as two hundred years, others as ancient as thousands of years old. Then Zhang Cai realized that these people came from different times, and the oldest of them was the young voice, which made him a little put-off. He talked about the First Nature King of three thousand years ago, when cultivation had just started to spread among humanity.

If these people were so old, how ancient was the demon owner of the throne?

‘’Golden Deva...’’ The rough voice whispered.

Zhang Cai raised his brows. ‘’Golden Deva is still alive though?’’

The souls all fell silent.

‘’How is that possible!?’’ The rough voice drowned them with ferocity. ‘’Brat, you are lying!’’

‘’I am not. Maybe it is a different Golden Deva. The one I know—He is the reigning Border Lord of the Northwest. He killed a Xian of Spirit stage with bare hands in his youth.’’

‘’That is my lord! But how? How!? I watched him die...’’

‘’I don’t know, senior.’’

‘’Child, how are fairies these days? What has happened to us?’’ The gentle voice asked, her tone worried.

‘’I don’t know that as well, senior. I haven’t heard of any Fairy clan among humanity.’’

‘’Not a clan. We are a race, forest-dwellers. Have you not heard of us?’’

Zhang Cai shook his head. ‘’I haven’t traveled for long. They might be there still.’’ But to his knowledge, only the blood of most races remained. Giants were long extinct, as well as the Beastmen, whose bloodline continued among humanity. Golden Deva himself carried a trace of Celestials—white-skinned white-haired people that had a different power than Qi.

The only reason humanity survived, perhaps, was that they could accept other bloodlines, and bred quicker than others.

The woman didn’t make any other comment. Others asked, too, but Zhang Cai only knew the Golden Deva and no other personal names.

‘’This talk has gone long enough.’’ The squealing old woman said. ‘’We need to act soon.’’

‘’Indeed.’’ The last voice spoke. He had been silent all this while. ‘’Boy, get inside the soul storm. Once you break this throne, just think of home. Do not attempt anything else—do not think of people, nor places. Just think of home.’’

Zhang Cai felt a little stupedified. ‘’Wait, I could have gone back already?’’

‘’No. Your soul isn’t strong enough to break the demon palace’s defences.’’ the young voice said. ‘’We will help with that.’’

‘’We will cover your escape.’’ said the gentle voice. ‘’You only need to do what you are told.’’

He knew his own capabilities. Zhang Cai truly had no way to aid them, except letting them out. His head lowered for the moment.

‘’When will you escape, then?’’ He asked them.

There was a bout of silence, then the rough voice hollered at him.

‘’Do you not know when to stop, you idiot? Just do what you are told, then we all can escape after killing that bitch of a demon!’’

Zhang Cai didn’t say anything else. Taking a deep breath, he exhaled and raised his head to look at the throne. Just as he thought of the hammer, he noticed the hallway darker than before—then he saw his vision darken.

An aquamarine aura, out of his control, broke out, covering him, and just as it did Zhang Cai saw a golden pupil stare down at him. There was a deep darkness, reaching to the ceiling, and lit under the golden chandelier there were two oval eyes floating up, together focused on his being. Three pupils lit up with flashes of golden lightning. A disgusting, frenzied smile appeared in the darkness.

‘’Kill...who?’’

The throne cracked, and the six souls rushed out.