Chosen: Beyond Fate

The Soul-Summoning Bell was only a tool. One should not place excessive expectations on tools. That was the advice once given by Professor Ye.

A tool only had meaning when it was used by someone. Likewise, the value of a tool did not lie in the tool itself, but largely in the person who wielded it.

The Soul-Summoning Bell was indeed a rare and extraordinary Blessed Creation. If refined a little further, improved in quality, or equipped with a complete system, it could even be classified as a Divine Creation. Every Ember and Aether user would be willing to pay any price to obtain it.

It held such irresistible appeal to the Ember and Aether paths precisely because other followers of Supreme Benevolences had no need for such complicated tools at all. The strength of its constructs was limited not only by the number of residual spirits available, but ultimately by the user’s own mastery. With limited spirit matter and materials, how precisely one eliminated all waste and converted every bit of spirit matter into a vessel of destruction determined everything.

It was precisely this that transformed the craftsman’s theoretical understanding into real combat power.

The very same bell produced results that were worlds apart in Professor Ye’s hands compared to Ji Jue’s. If all you did was rely on your own imagination and casually cobble together a black-scaled giant lizard, then point at it and call it Godzilla, the result would be, at best, nothing more than a hollow imitation. It might not even require an enemy to destroy it. A single gust of wind could make it collapse instantly.

The nature of the technique imposed countless limitations. One needed a sufficiently high realm to withstand the strain, enough residual spirits to fuel the expenditure, and one had to possess a genuine understanding of the underlying theory. The creation had to arise from one’s insight and perception. And, above all, one had to be capable of controlling it, lest they risk backlash.

Ji Jue understood this all too well. He had far too much experience with it.

Since becoming a Chosen One, of all the most powerful beings and forms he had ever witnessed, comprehended, and been capable of understanding, who else could it be other than Sage Mercury, the one who had once destroyed the Tower of Origin and even overturned the flow of time itself?

This was the essence of Pacifier, and also its legacy. She was the essence of the Ember path, and its very sage.

First, the Seer had taught him a lot of principles without reservation. Then, he had personally witnessed and perceived Mercury’s form. Finally, he had firsthand experience under the influence of the Edge of Revolution.

Ji Jue could say with absolute confidence that no one in the entire world understood Mercury better than him. No one.

Even so, what was happening now was still far too unbelievable. For Ji Jue, the entire act of creation went so smoothly it was almost unbelievable. The moment the thought of recreating Mercury emerged in his mind, Pacifier began operating as a matter of course, directly taking over the function of the Soul-Summoning Bell.

Complex emblems surfaced across his hands and spread into the bell. Then, with the final chime, a strand of blazing light emerged from within the endless residual spirits.

Within the Pacifier matrix, every trace and record left behind by the Celestial Being automatically flowed and projected itself, manifesting as a template. This was the most precious legacy Mercury had left to her successors. As a Chosen One, she had unified blessings in her own form, achieved self-perfection, and established her origin from the distant past. In today’s era, she manifested the perfect form of the Celestial Being, the completed sage.

The image of ten thousand wings, ten thousand eyes, and ten thousand arms was merely the most fitting conceptual expression of that power in reality, like a design blueprint that had already been fully completed.

The moment this guiding manifestation took shape, the boundless residual spirits undergoing spirit matter transformation gathered on their own. Its essence took shape, its principles aligned, its structure fused together, and wings unfurled until, at last, its true form was revealed.

Responding to the call of its successor, this power and will inherited through Pacifier once again manifested within the Time Ruin.

As for whether it would backlash...

No way. As a Pacifier Creation inheriting most of Mercury’s traces, even if it were a rough imitation, its hatred of Foolish Abominations far outweighed any possibility of harming its user. There was simply no way that backlash would ever land on him.

More importantly, neither the lingering resentment and malice left behind by the residual spirits, nor the faint instinct of this remnant shadow showed even the slightest intent to target him.

On the contrary, they were fully assisting him. In a flash, they tore through the corruption and obstruction of the Abomination, once again placing everything under control.

Even without the Theory of Creation, without a domain, without the many blessings that had long since fused with its soul, without spirit matter, it was not even one ten-thousandth of the real thing. And yet, even that fraction was more than enough to crush the Abomination of the Heretic Cult before him into dust.

The Sage’s Remnant Shadow revolved across the heavens, its myriad hands unfurling. Fluid Alchemy, which had long become one with Ji Jue’s instincts, spread everywhere alongside the violent surges of spirit matter. Then, from the Sage’s Remnant Shadow, which bloomed with an eerie beauty like a colossal lotus, a single finger rose and pointed slowly at the bone wheel.

Spirit matter circuits poured forth like a waterfall, flooding the sky and blanketing the earth. Like chains, they stretched toward the enraged bone wheel, binding it layer upon layer, winding around it again and again.

The heavens and earth seemed to transform. Day and night alternated in rapid succession, and the moon waxed and waned. The earth’s crust heaved and shifted. Seas roared, rivers surged, and the world trembled.

Under this hand, heaven and earth seemed on the verge of being remade.

From the endless transformations of spirit and matter, an almost transparent, invisible sword was drawn from thin air. It could not be seen nor heard, and ordinary eyes and mortal flesh could never perceive it, but anyone who looked up could clearly feel that there was unmistakably a sword at the very center of the Sage’s Remnant Shadow within the encirclement of ten thousand arms.

Pacifier destroyed the signs of injustice. Universal Harmony[1] erased distinctions of rank. Fatebreaker denied the chains of predetermined fate. Universal Love established a world where all benefitted and none were harmed. Heaven’s Will remade all things beneath heaven.

Countless essences converged, flowing into that invisible blade. It was as if a faint sigh from an age long past was echoing through time.

Ten thousand hands grasped the sword. The sharpest blade in all creation was drawn forth upon the world.

The bone wheel shook wildly. On the flesh surface, the jade-green eye suddenly widened, its pupil churning with ever-shifting light and colors. Countless heretical visions, distortions, fallacies, and delusions flowed within that radiance, surging outward. They condensed into a massive mirror that reflected the entire Time Ruin, splitting it into infinite illusions and possibilities.

Everything was changing. In the span of a heartbeat, the world underwent countless transformations. One moment it was a barren wasteland; the next, it seemed alive with the clamor of countless voices. At times it was bleak and colorless; at others, it was vibrant and chaotic.

Wilderness, mountains, cities, heavens, or even hell—endless possibilities emerged from the mirror’s reflection, standing in front of the Sage’s Remnant Shadow as a barrier against its advance, yet the sound of shattering and lamentations never ceased.

Layer upon layer of strange visions and distorted realities were cleaved apart by the invisible edge. Under its slashes and thrusts, every illusion and twisted notion was torn to pieces. The blade pressed forward with irresistible force, destroying all heretical thoughts and twisted doctrines in its path.

The aberrant offshoots sprouting from the shadow of Ascension seemed to roar in fury, denouncing the hollow imitation before them. They mocked it, reviled it, and sought to deny its very existence.

But the hollow shell did not care.

The Sage’s Remnant Shadow possessed no true intelligence nor self-awareness. Even the instincts it had once held remained only in fragments. The only reason it had not collapsed the moment it manifested was Ji Jue’s summoning. Following this resonance from Pacifier, it obeyed the plea of its successor, once again performing the duty of the sage.

Abomination, die!

The invisible sword transformed. It was as though one blade became ten thousand. Wielded by a myriad ‌of hands, it sealed off heaven, earth, and the entire Time Ruin, launching a relentless assault against the Abomination leeching off it.

Upon the rapidly spinning bone wheel, the great eye opened wide in wrath once more. Within its endless shifting radiance, souls seemed to be born and extinguished without cease, each proclaiming warped doctrines and twisted notions, again and again corrupting the entire Time Ruin in resistance to the corrections imposed by the Sage’s Remnant Shadow.

The transformations and clashes were simply too profound and too fast, changing countless times in the blink of an eye, so much so that Ji Jue couldn't understand a thing he was seeing. The powerhouse he’d summoned was operating on such a ridiculously high level that it was way beyond a newbie’s ability to comprehend.

But that didn’t matter. After all, when the Pokémon was fighting, how could the Trainer just stand there doing nothing?

1. Shang Tong (尚同) was a core political doctrine proposed by Mozi, the founder of the Mohist school during the Warring States period. Recorded in the Book of Mozi, its central idea was "identification with superiors" or "upward conformity." It advocated a hierarchical administrative system in which the judgments, values, and moral standards of the people would be aligned with those of their superiors, ultimately culminating in a unified standard of right and wrong throughout the realm and bringing about universal order. ☜