Ze Tian Ji

The Second Emperor has many titles, such as the Eternal Monarch, the Mighty Lord. When taking a good look at the recorded history, very few emperors have been so outstanding like him. In his lifetime achievements, he is praised the most for forming an alliance with the demon race and defeating the formidable devil race.

Along with passage of time as well as under the deliberate manipulation of Zhou Dynasty’s administration, the people only remember that under the leadership of the Second Emperor, the two races joined forces and took an expedition to the north to drive out the devil army. The devil race’s great army was forced to flee after getting scattered in all directions. Besides the historians, very few remember the humiliation that Zhou Dynasty had to go through at the hands of the devil race. Zhou Dynasty was relatively new when it happened and the human army had barely managed to maintain a feeble existence in front of the great army of the devil race.

People do remember the famous ‘Treaty of the Fallen Willow’ but the contents of the treaty used to be completely different initially.

Three years after the Great Dynasty Emperor ascended the throne before ‘Mausoleum of Books’, the devil race’s main forces began the outrageous invasion from south. As a result of that, even the central plains were shrouded in the flames of war. People’s livelihood withered, the national strength was feeble and there was no way to resist, so the Great Dynasty Emperor was forced to concede defeat. After that, Zhou Dynasty’s strength gradually made a comeback for good and the Great Dynasty Emperor attempted to integrate the southern border within his territory. He led the troops on an expedition to the south, leaving only the Second Emperor behind to guard the capital city. The devil race took advantage of this opportunity and once more began the invasion from south, winning Tianshui County in one fell swoop and their vanguard forces arrived in Luoyang City. This was a serious threat to the entire human world. The Second Emperor was forced to deploy troops to decoy the enemy while he personally led a large group of tacticians and generals and headed north of Luoyang City. It is said that he bumped into the Devil King near the ‘Fallen Willow’. The Second Emperor and his forces faced a crushing defeat at the hands of the Devil King. After a brief battle, the Second Emperor quietly arrived under the five willow trees and offered a lot of property and massive belongings to the devil race to indicate that he was willing to surrender. Both sides sacrificed a pure-white unicorn to conclude the ‘Treaty of the Fallen Willow’. Afterward, the devil army headed north.

‘Treaty of the Fallen Willow’ is the most humiliating treaty ever signed by the mankind, especially because it was signed under pressure.

In the history books, the Second Emperor is called the perfect ruler. He appointed people based on their merits, was very modest and was willing to take advice from others as well. However, he was bound to have his own pride as the famous Mighty Lord, so how could he forget the mankind’s humiliation? Three years later, he and his legendary generals finally began the preparations for a magnificent war to take back their honor and human race’s dignity from the devil race.

Under two generations of governance, he worked hard for the prosperity of the country and the national strength eventually became unimaginably formidable. One of the contributing factors was the stimulation of the second outbreak of cultivation community during the Second Emperor’s administration. Legendary powerhouses continued to emerge and the Second Emperor’s alliance with the demon race turned out to be a strong help. Once the preparations were done, the allied forces began their first expedition to the north to achieve the first gratifying success.

In the ensuing decades, the flames of war did not really extinguish in the northern grasslands. The Second Emperor and his legendary generals continued to incessantly attack the forces of the devil race. The third expedition to the north finally decided the true victor. The devil race faced a crushing defeat and returned to the Snow old town. After that, they never dared to go down south.

You can find numerous reasons why the human race was able to defeat the devil race, for example the rise of legendary generals as mentioned above, but if you take a closer look at this phase of history, no matter how many reasons you come up with, it is still very difficult to explain why in a short period of ten years, the mighty devil race that once dominated the northern parts of the continent was defeated like this. Why the strength and weakness of the two sides suddenly inverted so decisively. Was this the work of the same mysterious power that had blessed the Great Dynasty Emperor? It seems like the mysterious power helped in protecting and sustaining the fate of Zhou Dynasty by constantly reducing the morale of the devil race.

What was this mysterious power? Was this the power of fate? The Second Emperor not only changed his own fate, but also changed the fate of the human world?

The third individual, who is suspected to have defied the heavens and changed her own fate, is still alive.

She is the current leader of the human world, the Divine Empress.

And precisely because she is still alive that no one dares to talk about this matter.

But, this cannot stop people from speculating that she is certainly one of the three rumored individuals.

She has become the first woman to become the ruler of the human race. If she has not gone against the heaven’s will and changed her fate then how did she bring upon such a change that has never happened ever in the history of the mankind?

It is said that after the Great Dynasty Emperor, both the Second Emperor and the Divine Empress have managed to defy the heaven’s will and are suspected to have change their fate. Not to mention, these three are the most successful people in last 1000 years of Zhou Dynasty’s history. Chen Chang Sheng was not doubtful about this rumor because before leaving the old temple at Xi Ning, Taoist Ji very clearly said that only three people had succeeded in changing their fates.

He used ‘only’ in the sentence but it was actually just a part of the narration.

In order to change his fate, it was necessary for him to first change the position of his fate star in the sky. Chen Chang Sheng came to the capital city and entered the Pavilion of Ascending Mist just to find a way to change the position of the stars. The secret method was rumored to be developed by the Great Dynasty Emperor and the first generation Pope of the state religion. And the Second Emperor and the Divine Empress should have also used the same method to change their fates.

Chen Chang Sheng was somewhat puzzled, since it was a secret method of state religion, why his master did not tell him to think of ways to enter the imperial palace, but let him to find ways to enter the Pavilion of Ascending Mist. He had finally arrived before Wang Zhi Ce’s portrait and thought that no matter how legendary it was, it might not hold a clue about going against the heaven’s will to change one’s fate.

At this time, a loud clicking sound resounded in the green stone hall.

He was startled and saw that the unspeakably complex copper wires had begun to form a completely different pattern. The position of the small copper buttons also changed and the whole mechanism basically shifted to the two sides and the box actually opened.

17 chains puzzle was very complex and there was a possibility that only in the end one would find out that it was solved incorrectly. However, he used only one try to solve it and was very lucky this time.

He took out a handkerchief from his sleeve to wipe the sweat on his forehead, then extended his hand into box, but suddenly thought that these copper wires and buttons......Actually it was quite easy to solve this puzzle since he could see the wires joining the buttons, but he could not see the lines joining the stars.

(TL Note: Copper buttons represent stars and copper wires represent the trajectories that join specific stars to form the star diagram that decides one’s fate.)

He did not continue to ponder much about this and inserted his hand into the box and took out a book. The book had remained hidden in the green stone wall for several hundred years, but its edge still seemed crisply and its pages were white as new.

The cover of this book did not have a title. Chen Chang Sheng opened it and saw the words written on the first page. The handwriting did not have a sharp edge and was unadorned with the round strokes.

“Position is relative.”

Looking at these words, Chen Chang Sheng was startled and did not understand what they meant. He tried to think seriously but still had no clue, so he continued to read further. The second page was densely filled with words, though the handwriting was pretty and elegant but not frivolous. The writer had deliberately not tried to be nimble and resourceful. After seeing this page, he finally confirmed that this book really contained the notes of Wang Zhi Ce.

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(TL Note: Fate versus Destiny confused me while translating the previous chapter. I checked and discovered that an upcoming TV series is based on this novel and its English title is ‘Fighter of the Destiny’. So I thought that perhaps Destiny is the better choice of the two terms.

But, I will now be using the term ‘Fate’ instead of ‘Destiny’ as suggested by many readers and mainly to maintain the consistency since the previous translator has also used the term ‘Fate’.

I have started reading the raw chapters from the beginning and will slowly catch up to the current chapter while I will also continue to release new chapters, though a bit slowly for a week or so, because I need to go through previous chapters, in both raw and translated versions, to give better consistency in the coming chapters. I also need to familiarize with the author’s writing style and how the previous translators presented it in front of the readers to maintain a consistency in the overall reading experience, since I plan to translate this awesome novel all the way to the very end.

A sudden change from the previous translation style to my translation style may startle you, so I will try my best to minimize that. Thank you very much for reading my note!)