Junqin

Announcement:

I'm restarting this novel with a completely revised version.

The basic content will remain, but the ending, pairings, characters, and other elements will be changed considerably.

So if you like this version, you can wait until the revised version is complete. I'll still finish this version eventually.

- = It's just a question of when...

Ahem, the new version will even have a different title, so please don't think I've plagiarized anyone.

Just in case, I'll lock this novel within three days and keep it locked until the revised version is finished.

Thank you all for your support. "Bows!"

Link to the revised version: http://www.jjwxc.net/onebook.php?novelid=753782

Some readers said they'd forgotten I was restarting the novel and thought I'd abandoned it, ORZ, so I guess I won't lock this version after all...

Ahem, just to be clear, updates here may be slow, but I really won't abandon this novel. Really... [Hey!]

The long river surges on, the deep green mountains stretch far and wide. Swords point toward Langya's heavens; iron hooves trample the realm.

What does it matter? White bones are offered on the battlefield, and in a dream spanning a thousand autumns, who will claim the throne?

Overnight, the Ye family brought the world to heel. She was the head of the Ye family, praised and revered by all. Her pair of blood-red eyes were sharp and alluring, dazzling the world, concealing endless secrets and countless tangled mysteries. The Vermilion Bird reborn, a missing princess, the Prince of Jin of Wu and Chu... One identity after another, one mystery after another, came crowding in. Truth and illusion were hard to distinguish. Lost and uncertain, she was no more than a wisp of a soul between heaven and earth, a mere observer of this world. Existing in the rift between time and space, she wanted no part in any trouble.

But the world rarely goes as one wishes.

The Vermilion Bird divine beast, the Crown Prince of civil virtue, the Prince of Qi... The turmoil of six hundred years ago began to unfold with Ming Wenying's diplomatic marriage. Ye Junxin, the founding ancestor of the Ye family; Ming Ye, the founding emperor of the Great Zhou; the Creator; and the old friends with whom she shared ties from a past life: the truth seemed to draw closer, step by step. The Valley of Death, the Eight Trigrams and Nine Palaces; while caught in a tangle of emotions, she repeatedly found herself in danger. One plot followed another, one scheme on the heels of the next, and then came a coup in Qi. With a million troops at the gates, the flames of war born from entanglements six hundred years past drew near. Ye Junxin and Ye Junqin: these two troubled names bound together six hundred long years. At last, she understood: she was simply herself.

Facing a million troops, she stood with a faint smile, commanding them to resist under the name "Cangyan." But the youth, so absolute in love and hate, only gazed at her with such calm. That unfocused gaze passed through flashing blades and flying arrows, crossed countless soldiers in the chaos, and seemed to have watched her for seven hundred whole years. In the end... nothing remained but deathly silence. It was a debt, a debt of love she owed him. She could not hide the desolation in her heart; an overwhelming sorrow threatened to consume everything. "Let him go..." Only she knew how much that sigh held: regret, pity, compassion, or perhaps...

But perhaps it was only that.

After all, she was herself, not Ye Junxin. Her soul was both clean and pure, yet cruel and cold-blooded, an existence impossible to understand. Her convictions were both bright and warm, yet dark and despairing, utterly incomprehensible. So, facing the Creator whom all the world revered, and the realm everyone longed to possess, she laughed and said:

"So what if you're the Creator? Aren't you powerless against fate? Instead of being as torn as you say, why not let things take their course? To hell with the Creator! To hell with fate! All I need is a flourishing realm of my own, a world big enough for me and the people I love!"

", No one person can control this realm. The people who truly shape it, who truly shape so-called fate, are all the people together. The world wasn't truly created by some so-called Creator. It was created by the people themselves."

As her convictions took shape, the gears of fate began to turn slowly, and at last, everything was set in motion.

The struggle for the throne, political upheaval, disaster relief and the people's welfare... She had only just returned to Great Zhou, yet there was no time to rest. One complication followed another; intrigue and power plays abounded. A game of strategy had begun, where one wrong move meant total defeat. The court officials split into factions, the chancellor remained neutral, and she and Ming Liangqi openly stood against each other. Neither could keep even a trace of their usual composure in the other's presence. The principles of governing, "cultivate the family, govern the state, and bring peace to all under heaven" and "rule with benevolence," which came from the same school of thought, now quietly clashed because of these two.

The tangled affairs of the peony, the lotus, and the Chinese peony continued without end.

Just as the conflict between the two began, Ming Wenying, the usually sly and radiant Third Princess of Great Zhou, revealed her true feelings for the first time, shocking everyone. "Since everyone wants the realm, naturally that includes me. But wanting the realm doesn't mean I want the throne. I simply admire riding across battlefields, surrounded by clashing weapons and charging horses. The boundless sky, the realm like a painted landscape: if I don't experience it for myself, all its beauty is nothing but an illusion. Armies in disarray, the splendor of a troubled age: a chaotic age is the most fascinating game of all. It's just a pity I was born a full seven hundred years too late. If I'd lived through that age of turmoil... smoke would have blotted out the sky, flames would have risen everywhere. No matter how dangerous it was, even if I died on the battlefield, I could say I had lived a life worth living."

Heroes and prodigies are born in troubled times, and these troubled times were born in an age of prosperity!

Clashing weapons and smoke-darkened skies: at last, the splendor of this chaotic age slowly began to unfold...

About "fatalism":

Fate means that an outcome is already decided from the very beginning.

No matter how you resist, the outcome will not change.

Worse still, even your resistance becomes the force that drives fate forward.

That is what is meant by "fatalism."