Fog rose into the air, blanketing heaven and earth. Everything in the Abhorrent Evil Origin Zone was shrouded in mist.

But of course, the “mist” was actually utterly baleful, turbid energy capable of killing even River Emperors!

Su Yi shot through the fog effortlessly. It didn’t affect him at all.

No one knew it, but the moment he entered the Spirit Treasure Celestial City, the Book of Destiny silently shifted, heating up as if somehow eager. It was like a ravening ghost in a land full of fat, delicious prey. Had Su Yi not kept it firmly under control, it would have long since greedily devoured the city’s mysterious power of the Grand Dao.

This change began when Su Yi first arrived in the city and grew stronger over time. Su Yi could say with some degree of certainty that the power the Book of Destiny longed to devour originated from the River Ancestor, whose bones now supported the Spirit Treasure Celestial City! 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

Admittedly, everyone knew that the River Ancestor’s skeleton had long since lost all life force and spirituality... but at the same time, the skeleton was immeasurably vast. No one knew the full extent of its secrets.

Now, the Book of Destiny’s strange reaction told Su Yi with certainty that the giant skeleton still hid numerous secrets!

Especially the Abhorrent Evil Forbidden Zone. Here, the Book of Destiny was even a bit restless and overeager. It was only by continuously activating the Spirit Platform Chapter that Su Yi managed to keep it under control.

It was then that Su Yi discovered that the turbid energies of the Abhorrent Evil Origin Zone couldn’t draw near him!

This was naturally the work of the Book of Destiny.

“Brother, where are you taking me?” Wei E asked nervously.

“To safety,” Su Yi said casually.

He didn’t want to reveal his true identity prior to locating River Empress Peacock, so he naturally didn’t want to tell Wang Zhiwu who he really was.

But Wang Zhiwu was obviously fixated on the idea of teaching Lu Shi a lesson, so he was sure to give chase. Su Yi wasn’t sure whether he should be happy or frustrated.

He carried Wei E for a full hour, sometimes taking a roundabout path or changing directions, before finally stopping in a stretch of land piled high with stones.

There were tons of them, many of them enormous, like a field of meteorites in all shapes and sizes.

Su Yi silently activated the Light of the Heart. It shone like the sun overhead, and when he sensed no danger, he casually sat down on a black boulder.

“Stay within thirty feet of me at all times. Beyond that, do as you please,” Su Yi ordered casually.

Wei E hurriedly agreed, then casually sat at the foot of a black boulder, hands around his knees. He looked dazed, and it seemed he had a lot on his mind.

Su Yi, meanwhile, flipped his palm and took out a pearly white tooth.

The back of the tooth was carved with a true name—Ling Hu!

This was River Emperor Bai Ye’s true name. Earlier, Su Yi pocketed it as he fled.

After inspecting it briefly, he tossed the tooth into the revealed portion of the Book of Destiny’s first page.

It really was like having a whole world in his sleeves.

When Su Yi examined the Book of Destiny with the secret power of the heart, he discovered that the pearly tooth had vanished.

The Book of Destiny, meanwhile, emanated a shocking energy fluctuation. Before this, it had only been able to open a crack, but now, it opened completely!

It was as if a complete divine ruin came into view, shrouded in chaos mist and full of currents of the Grand Dao. There were countless Destiny Cages formed of intertwining chains at its base.

The prisoners were highly distinctive. All were illusory figures, the manifestations of true names. Their ranks included River King Whistling Moon, River King Fei An, and numerous others. Their true bodies were manifested around the objects bearing their true names.

Now, a true name carved on a fox tooth appeared in one of the many Destiny Cages. The beast manifested around it was a fox the size of a calf. It had bright golden fur, and its eyes glowed with eerie green light. This was River Emperor Bai Ye’s true form!

When Su Yi used the power of his heart to sense the world inside the first page of the Book of Destiny, he had a strange feeling, as if he’d become the ruler of the entire ruin, the master of all of its mysteries.

So long as he willed it, he could use Seizing Destiny to become any of the River Kings imprisoned in the Book of Destiny. He could even impersonate the River Emperors!

And if he used Directing Destiny, he could send the River Kings into battle!

He suddenly thought of the little girl, Innocence. As the master of all evils, she’d refined all of the Sin Souls of the Sin-Severing Dungeon, treating them like toys in her collection. She could command them to do her bidding.

The first page of the Book of Destiny had similar effects!

Only now did Su Yi learn that the ruin inside the first page was actually called the Divine Punishment Destiny Ruin!

It was constructed out of the power of Destiny’s Wrath. The cages inside it were manifestations of that same power.

Su Yi could use the secret power of the heart to direct Destiny’s Wrath to control the entire Divine Punishment Destiny Ruin!

The ruins represented the punishment of destiny. Controlling it meant he could judge the destinies of all living beings—and punish them, too.

This was unquestionably shocking, to the point that it just didn’t seem believable.

But when Su Yi thought it over, he understood. Everyone who stepped into Eternity walked a path of defying destiny. Their ultimate goal was to transcend it.

The power of Destiny’s Wrath was the ability to judge others’ destiny and mete out punishment. A word could determine their life and death!

That was what had happened to the dead River Kings after he slew them and imprisoned their true names.

But the higher one’s cultivation, the greater their ability to defy destiny. High-level experts could even master the Laws of the Grand Dao related to controlling one’s own destiny. Given the circumstances, using Destiny’s Wrath to judge and punish them wasn’t so simple.

This, perhaps, was the “balance” and “diametric opposition” the heart devil in the rusted sheath spoke of.

The Book of Destiny was indeed heaven-defying, and Destiny’s Wrath was like a taboo. However, it wasn’t invincible.

Everything ultimately depended on his personal abilities. How much of Destiny’s Wrath he could control depended on the strength of his heart. The stronger his heart, the more power he could use.

But the reverse was also true.

Speaking Divine Writ, Directing Destiny, Seizing Destiny, the first portion of the Spirit Platform Chapter... The first page of the Book of Destiny already contains so many unbelievable secrets. I wonder what secrets are hidden on the remaining pages? Su Yi was inwardly eager.

Held in hand, the Book of Destiny was a thin yellow tome. It was worn out and entirely unassuming.

Now, Su Yi had opened its first page, but he couldn’t tell how many pages there were in total.

The Book of Destiny was like a solid object, with no signs of folds, seams, or gaps.

Suddenly, an indolent voice rang out. “Hey, little Destiny’s Chosen. First, let me congratulate you on opening the first page. You’ve taken your first step toward mastering a portion of the book’s mysteries.”

This was none other than Mo Hanyi.

Su Yi’s brow furrowed. ‘Little’ Destiny’s Chosen? It seems he rather looks down on me.

“But I also have to warn you: swords have two edges. Everything has advantages and disadvantages. You might have been chosen by the Book of Destiny, and you might have mastered a portion of its power, but be careful. As they say, destiny plays tricks upon us all!” Mo Hanyi’s voice was rife with meaning.

“What do you mean?” asked Su Yi.

Mo Hanyi asked right back, “Has anything inexplicable happened to you of late?”

Su Yi paused, then sank into thought. Inexplicable? What does he mean by inexplicable?

“In other words, has anything that should have been all but impossible happened? And was it connected to you?” asked Mo Hanyi.

Su Yi’s heart shook as something occurred to him. I impersonated Wang Zhiwu, only for the real Wang Zhiwu to appear. He was in the Spirit Treasure Celestial City before I even showed up!

At first, Su Yi took this for a mere coincidence, but now that Mo Hanyi pointed it out, he realized that something wasn’t quite right here.

“Destiny is like countless, ever-shifting threads. It encompasses both the cycle of cause and effect, and the mysteries of fate and coincidence. Like water, it has no constant form, and like warfare, it has no constant shape,” Mo Hanyi said leisurely. “When you master the Book of Destiny, all threads connected to you will silently transform in unpredictable ways. The more you use the Book of Destiny, the harder these changes will be to understand, and the more variables will arise.

“When that happens, how will you know if what happens to you is really a blessing or a disaster? You’ll be unable to oppose destiny, so you’ll have no choice but to simply go with the flow and accept what it has in store for you.

“Little Destiny’s Chosen, you think you can control the book’s power, but you’d best be careful not to let destiny lead you around by the nose.”

Su Yi couldn’t help but sink into thought.

After the curtain fell on the God Domain’s Battle for Order, he inherited the Book of Destiny from Xiao Jian.

Did this mean that the course of his destiny underwent an extraordinary change the moment he accepted it?

Thoughts flooded into Su Yi’s mind. He recalled the way Lu Hongpao had arranged his journeys in the Blue Peak and Literati Continents, and the way he’d happened upon the Star Toad on the River of Destiny.

He thought back to how River Empress Peacock had appeared just as the white-robed monk threatened him...

All of these threads intertwined, like manifestations of cause and effect echoing from across vast expanses of time and space.

Especially now that he’d reached the Spirit Treasure Celestial City. Here, by extraordinary coincidence, he’d bumped into Wang Zhiwu of all people.

Was all of this perhaps the influence of the Book of Destiny?

It might have looked like he was seeking the Dao for himself, but had the Book of Destiny really been leading him around by the nose this entire time?

Destiny was unpredictable. It was indeed hard to tell whether this was a blessing or a misfortune.

The Book of Destiny’s influence was unfathomable, too.

No, wait! Su Yi furrowed his brow. He got the vague sense that something wasn’t right here, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on what it was.

He pondered for a while before it suddenly hit him. In the Blue Peak and Literati Continents, it was Lu Hongpao who influenced me. When River Empress Peacock showed up to stop the monk, she did so because of the act of life-saving benevolence between them. She didn’t do it for me. And Wang Zhiwu didn’t show up in the Spirit Treasure Celestial City because I impersonated him. He was already there for the Key to Endless Tribulations. He would have been there even if I hadn’t shown up.

Su Yi finally realized what wasn’t right here. The Book of Destiny wasn’t influencing him!

All of this, whether it was due to karma, coincidence, or other circumstances, was happening because he was in the right place at the right time.

None of it was happening because of him!

Even if the Book of Destiny was affecting him, it was doing so indirectly by affecting others.

When Su Yi realized this, everything suddenly seemed clearer.