Chosen: Beyond Fate

Why did it end up like this?

This was Ji Jue’s first time meeting a Celestial Being, and his first time meeting the governor of Haizhou. Two joyous occasions coming together should have been...

Ji Jue couldn’t remember how that sentence should end. His expectations had already been crushed by brutal reality.

Following Professor Ye, he passed through one checkpoint after another, undergoing the required inspections before finally arriving outside a quiet room. A secretary politely opened the door for them.

The room beyond was elegant in its simplicity, seemingly understated and unpretentious. It contained little more than a table and a chair. There, the governor of Haizhou was still having breakfast. Upon hearing that Professor Ye and her apprentice had arrived, he had immediately invited them in. He was approachable and quite humble.

What surprised Ji Jue was that this so-called Celestial Being was only eating a bowl of plain porridge, a steamed bun, and a small dish of pickled vegetables. Since they had arrived unannounced, there was no way this could be an act. It could only be his normal routine. His lifestyle was genuinely that modest.

Additionally, the governor didn’t possess the overwhelming aura so common among practitioners of the Origin lineage, or the suffocating pressure that made people feel as though they could barely breathe with a single glance.

What left Ji Jue frozen wasn’t just the absence of these two factors. It was the absence of everything else, too.

Sitting there was nothing more than a frail old man, his face covered in age spots, most of his hair long gone, still dressed in pajamas. His hand trembled as he slowly lifted a spoonful of porridge to his mouth and swallowed with painstaking slowness. A couple of drops dribbled down his chin.

The secretary immediately took out a handkerchief and gently wiped them away, then he bent down and whispered something into the old man’s ear.

The dazed look in the old man’s eyes seemed to clear a little, and his gaze brightened. He looked at Ji Jue, his words coming out slowly and slurred. “Oh, it’s Ye Xian... You've grown into such a fine young man... Indeed... Ever since you went to Yunzhou...”

“Governor, that’s not the same person,” the secretary corrected him, lowering his voice. “This is Master Ye Xian of the Ye family from the Thousand Islands.”

“Isn’t she... already gone?” the old man asked blankly. He sat there, dazed for a long while, before suddenly seeming to remember. “Ah, I remember now. Lü mentioned it. How did I forget... Sorry, sorry... I’m getting old...”

His speech was slurred and fragmented, and his mind was drifting in and out of clarity.

Ji Jue kept his head down, his face frozen in a pained expression[1].

This is clearly dementia, right? A Celestial Being has dementia? The governor of an entire province? Are you serious?

Sure enough, the whole world was one giant shoestring operation. Somehow, this one had lowered the bar even further. Ji Jue felt like he was about to lose it.

This is what they were counting on to settle everything in one decisive move? To rebuild Spring City?

Come on, stop messing around. Let’s just pack up and go home already.

The conversation that followed didn’t contain anything particularly substantial. It was mostly the old man briefly expressing his gratitude and welcoming Ye Xian’s arrival as Haizhou’s governor, then offering a few words of encouragement to the younger generation. It all felt like routine formalities.

After exchanging a few pleasantries, both sides took their leave.

Even after they had walked quite a long distance, Ji Jue still didn’t dare speak. After all, the surveillance above was clearly watching them. But when Ye Xian turned back, Ji Jue felt the space around them flicker for a moment.

The surveillance was still there, but the conversation between them had been temporarily blocked within the domain that enveloped the entire Spring City region.

“You’re probably wondering how someone with dementia can still be a Celestial Being and the governor of Haizhou,” Ye Xian said.

“Yeah, a bit,” Ji Jue admitted with a soft sigh.

“Decades ago, when Spring City fell, Mr. Tao forcibly broke through into the Celestial Being level. At that time, he was a widely recognized powerhouse in the Federation. If he had just followed the normal path forward, the realm of Celestial Being would have been within easy reach.

“Before reinforcements arrived, he held up Spring City alone for two hours. In doing so, he burned away more than half of his soul. Because of that, Spring City didn’t completely fall into the vortex, and that is why Haizhou has so many Spring City survivors today. Without him, Haizhou would never have remained stable until now.

“It wasn’t until seven years ago that he regained consciousness. Four years ago, he took up the position of governor of Haizhou, and has since been pushing forward the entire plan. So you don’t need to worry about him. Even if he is dull and confused, even if he forgets who or what he is, his determination to clear the underground caverns and rebuild Spring City will never waver.”

“Two hours?” Ji Jue said in shock.

Ye Xian nodded. “Even longer, perhaps.”

Two hours... He was at it for one hundred and twenty minutes, at minimum. The moment Spring City was on the brink of collapse, under the pollution of aberration that could fully twist an entire city into something inhuman, every single minute and second had stretched out as if they were eternal.

It was too long, far too long. Everyone would have seen it the same way.

Ji Jue couldn’t understand why Federation reinforcements had taken more than two hours to arrive. He also couldn’t imagine what kind of terrifying trials that lone old man had faced during that time.

The path to becoming a Celestial Being was profoundly difficult and distant. Even with perfect preparation, few could ever reach it, let alone rush into it under emergency circumstances. When one abandons a portion of their humanity and soul to embrace the Origin, the Origin in turn draws closer to them.

Tao Cheng[2], the Celestial Being, was no longer whole as a person, his humanity having been grievously damaged. But this incompleteness had instead complemented the Origin by a twist of fate, bringing him unimaginably close to Supreme Benevolence.

At the same time, it pushed him extremely far from the realm of a sage, making it impossible for him to carve out his own path or inscribe his origin.

Faced with such an exalted realm and such an achievement, Ji Jue couldn’t bring himself to feel sympathy or pity. Would an ant feel pity for an elephant? Not to mention that against the terrifying pull of the vortex and the corruption of the aberrations, one man had held up the entirety of Spring City for a full two hours. That alone was enough to inspire awe and respect.

“Does he have any family in Spring City?” Ji Jue asked after pondering.

Ye Xian shook her head. “He was from the Central Capital, wandering from place to place. In Spring City, he had no family and no one he knew.”

“So why was he...”

So determined?

The question reached Ji Jue's lips, but he found himself unable to say it.

After a long silence, Ye Xian sighed. “That’s precisely why he is even more worthy of respect, isn’t it?”

Ji Jue had no answer. When he noticed Ye Xian glancing away, he quickly caught up to her. Before the barrier shielding their conversation disappeared, he asked, “Why did Spring City fall overnight?”

Ye Xian turned to look at him again. It seemed that she had expected this question all along, or perhaps this was exactly the question she had been waiting for after setting up the barrier.

Unfortunately, she did not intend to answer it.

“That isn’t a question you should be asking. Don’t pry, and don’t go asking around. Perhaps one day you’ll learn the truth, or perhaps you’ll be forced to make a choice. But for you, that day is still far off.” She sighed once more. “This isn’t a warning or a reprimand. It’s just advice from me as your teacher. Whether you listen or not is up to you.”

Ji Jue nodded. Even though curiosity was gnawing at him and he wanted to prod, if his teacher said not to ask, then he simply wouldn’t. It wasn’t like his life would fall apart if he didn’t know.

A faint smile tugged at the corner of Ye Xian’s lips. She looked pleased. “Good.”

As the barrier dispersed, she continued walking forward. “Although Mr. Tao has difficulty handling day-to-day affairs, there are plenty of people below him who are more than happy to throw their weight around under his name. Come on. I’ll show you how the real world truly works.”

With a faint, knowing sneer, Ye Xian strode toward another corner of the camp. Entering a building emblazoned with the emblem of the Taiyi Ring, she pushed the door open as if she owned the place.

1. 痛苦面具 (literally “to wear a Pain Mask”) is an internet slang term used to describe someone wearing an intensely pained, twisted expression, usually in response to embarrassment, shock, frustration, or emotional damage. The phrase originated from the online game Honor of Kings, where "Pain Mask" is the name of an equipment item. It later became a widespread meme after a viral Douyin (TikTok China) video showed a young man reacting with a painfully contorted expression after being dumped by his girlfriend. Viewers joked that his face looked exactly like the "Pain Mask" item from the game, and the phrase came to refer to any exaggerated expression of suffering or secondhand embarrassment. In English, there is no direct meme equivalent, so I translated it as “pained expression.” ☜

2. The surname “陶” is common and can also suggest meanings like “to shape” or “to cultivate,” which gives it a subtle sense of craftsmanship or refinement. The given name “成” means “to become,” “to succeed,” or “to accomplish.”

Together the name can be loosely interpreted as “becoming through cultivation” or “bringing things to completion.” To me, it has a grounded, steady quality and sounds like someone mature, dependable, and shaped by experience rather than youth or ambition. In my opinion, it fits well with a character who has endured great hardship. ☜