After the Red Star fell, everyone in the Nine Palaces Realm gained a Fate Chart. It determined life and death, fortune, and the course of a person’s life.
Shen Du transmigrated into this world, where the original owner’s Fate Chart bore four words: “Dead at seventeen.”
He had planned to lie flat and give up, but then he discovered a black fragment of a chart in his mind. It let him see everyone’s “death calamity”: when, where, and how they would die, all crystal clear. The price was one year of his lifespan for every fate he changed.
His betrothed, who had broken off their engagement, would be struck by falling rocks three days later. He saved her, losing a year of his life.
Someone was destined to die on Falling Star Slope. He changed their fate, losing another year.
As his Fate Chart continued to shatter, his power kept awakening. He thought he was defying fate, until the mastermind known as the “Chessmaster” told him:
“You aren’t defying fate. The act of defying fate was written into your Fate Chart by me.”
“You are fate itself. You are this world’s bug, and my cleanup program.”
“When the chart is shattered completely, the world will reset. You will cease to exist.”
Shen Du laughed. “You tell me to be fate itself, and I’m supposed to obey? You tell me to defy fate, and I’m supposed to do that?”
“I won’t be fate, and I won’t defy it.”
“I am Shen Du. I live for myself.”
