I was an ordinary person. I had no lofty ideals. I only wanted my family to be safe and sound, and for our lives to be peaceful, stable, happy, carefree, and good.
But it was all destroyed. Nothing could ever go back to the way it was. I met the culprit who destroyed my home. He said that the strong prey on the weak, and that this is simply the law of survival in this world.
People are born to be chosen. We have no choice. The real culprit wasn't me. It was that thing: the gods, the immortals, this world, the one that created us and toys with us.
At first I didn't understand. I thought he was making excuses to cover up his own crimes.
Only after I lost everything did I understand. He hadn't lied to me. It wasn't him who destroyed my home, but that thing, the hidden hand controlling people's lives. Life is like a puppet show, and we are merely puppets, performing every day for the audience below.
We have no choice. We are all puppets manipulated by the puppeteer.
We can't control our own lives. We can't escape, nor break free from the life controlled for us. Everything we do is really just a performance.
We are also pawns, pieces in the hands of our creators. The short lives of ordinary people are like pawns abandoned by their creators. Cultivators are like generals charging into battle across a chessboard, but when they lose, they too cannot escape being abandoned. A pawn that is abandoned will disappear forever. But if an abandoned pawn is picked up again, is it still the same pawn, or is it a new one?
