Author’s Note and Core Introduction to The Divine Art of Fate
Hello, I’m the creator of The Divine Art of Fate.
I’ve always been fascinated by the thrill of defying fate, and I especially love exploring character growth through extreme contrasts. That’s how this story came about: a blind orphan overturns the celestial game of destiny. The protagonist, Bai Ze, has no innate divine powers or wealthy family behind him. All he has are eyes that cannot see the world, a broken compass, and a fragmentary copy of The Heavenly Secrets, left behind by a mad old Daoist who scavenged for trash. By listening to the wind to discern fate and reading destiny in bones and markings, he starts out at a ramshackle fortune-telling stall on a street corner in Qingyang City. He tramples the arrogance of his enemies and climbs step by step to the summit of the Six Realms, turning the brand of “one without a destiny” into the brightest light of fate.
The Divine Art of Fate is a thrilling tale of a step-by-step comeback:
Bai Ze, a blind orphan from birth, is taken in and raised at a ruined temple by a retired renegade elder of the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion, a fate-reading Daoist who scavenges for trash. Though the old Daoist spent half his life in madness, he teaches Bai Ze the most defiant art of divination: hearing the wind to discern the patterns of fate, and reading bones to determine life and death. A warm Heavenly Secrets Stone and a tattered copy of The Heavenly Secrets become Bai Ze’s support as he journeys through the world. The old Daoist is killed by assassins from the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion while protecting him. His dying words, “See for me whether the fate of this world can be changed,” become Bai Ze’s lifelong obsession.
He squats on a street corner in Qingyang City and hangs out a banner reading “Blind Fortune-Teller,” only to be mocked by local thugs: “A blind man thinks he can tell fortunes?” But with a finger tracing the contours of bones and an ear attuned to the flow of fate, he can predict the humiliating spectacle of the Three Blackwind Fiends being chased and bitten by a flock of geese, see through the deadly fate of the Seven Killings Lone Star hanging over Su Ningshuang, young mistress of the Azure Nether Sword Sect, and turn the wastrel of the divine realm’s...
