Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
After leaving the lives of Li Yan and Yue Yan, Tang Jie still didn't want to go back.
Just like a tireless bird, he would keep flapping his wings until he felt tired.
He vaguely felt that there was still something important that he needed to do.
But this feeling was like a rope blindly grasped in the darkness. Tang Jie himself could not see where it led.
He could only keep walking until he finally found the light at the end of his tunnel.
One day, as he was walking, a familiar scene appeared before him.
In the distance, farmers worked their fields, waves of wheat billowing in the wind.
Daoxiang Village.
He had inadvertently ended up at his starting point.
After sixty-some years, the village was still here, but the people had changed. A child of yesteryear was now a wizened old man who had no impression of Tang Jie.
Standing next to the fields, Tang Jie watched the farmers at work. As he thought about his past encounter with this village, he couldn't help but sigh. In the middle of his daze, the farmers spotted him, one of them shouting, "Traveler from afar, if you're thirsty, we have water over here."
The forthrightness and simplicity of these farmers had Tang Jie smiling. "I am a little thirsty."
He walked over and took some tea from that farmer, gulping it down.
"Guest, where did you come from? And where are you going?" an old farmer asked with a grin.
"I wander the four seas with no fixed home," Tang Jie casually replied.
"Then how do you get by?"
"I know a little handicrafts, and I occasionally help others with small jobs." Tang Jie's eyes fell on the wooden plow in the farmer's hand. In this era, farmers mostly used rather simple plows made of wood.
As he looked at the wooden plow, he suddenly had an idea and knew what he needed to do.
"I can make you a new plow," he said.
Three days later, Tang Jie had made the first iron plow for Daoxiang Village. Compared to the wooden plows used by the farmers before, the iron plows were more solid and durable, and they also took less strength to use, so they were happily adopted.
Tang Jie quickly made numerous plows for Daoxiang Village. Given his abilities, it was truly no trouble at all.
Daoxiang Village didn't need so many plows, but that was fine. They could sell them so that more people could use them.
A person couldn't live only for themselves.
When one became capable enough, one should seek to benefit the entire world!
Tang Jie officially took up residence in Daoxiang Village.
He tried to remember the knowledge from his past life, most of which he had forgotten. But this presented no obstacle to him researching and recreating these things. This was really no problem for a cultivator. It was just that no one had ever done it before. In addition, some developments didn't require new creations.Modifications that improved durability and ease of use were their own kind of contribution.
He developed better plows, better water wheels, sturdier hoes, better axles, and occasionally little practical items like springs.
His inventions were all based on what already existed, nothing that was beyond the current era. To be honest, he couldn't do any of the more complicated stuff. But it was for this very reason that his inventions were more accepted. And with the introduction of all these more convenient tools, the strain of labor was greatly decreased.
These inventions ultimately spread throughout the Verdant Cloud Domain. They seemed unremarkable, but the effects they had on the Verdant Cloud Domain were immense.
This influence might not have been apparent in reality, but from the Web of Fate, one could see the ripples, like the vibrations created by a moth flying into a web.
Tang Jie had done this, but no longer was he pulling the threads as an outsider, instead being someone within the web.
Tang Jie silently observed—not others, but himself, observing the effects of everything he did on this world's fate and also on himself.
Of course, all of this required a long time to gradually manifest.
He spent most of his time repairing tools for the villagers and making new tools to sell, though never too many.
Blacksmith Tang was now the most highly-regarded person in the village, and his reputation had spread to the city too. Someone had even invited him to the city, and when he refused, nobody tried to compel him to go. It had been sixty years since Changping Prefecture's butterfly incident. This was a long time for a mortal, but for cultivators, it was just like yesterday, so Daoxiang Village was still a taboo subject for many people.
When he was free, Tang Jie raised flowers and herbs in his house, or spoke with Xu Miaoran and Yiyi.
Yiyi was acting more and more like a queen.
While Tang Jie was gone, all of the Silver Eyes Empire was under the rule of his sister. In her fifty-some years of rule, Yiyi had experienced trickery, betrayal, bribery, treason, and all other kinds of wicked actions. The most dangerous time was when a fiend king led a rebel force into the imperial palace. This was the only time Tang Jie had intervened, crushing the rebellion with a single palm, causing all those restless people to sit back down. And after all these things, Yiyi gradually began to mature.
As for Xu Miaoran's side, things had been much simpler.
After what had happened to Sang Hongmei, Horizon Ocean Pavilion stopped trying to make trouble for Xu Miaoran, with even the Jewel Celestial Sovereign not saying anything. But there were rumors going around that the Jewel Celestial Sovereign had been enraged, even smashing her beloved Seven Nightglows Cup.
But it was hard to say whether this anger was because Tang Jie had killed her disciple, or because her disciple had ultimately let her down and made a personal deal with the enemy.
Bei Canghan's group didn't return to the Basking Moon Sect. Their contract with Xu Miaoran was a long-term one, and they were there for the entire All-Talent Society, not just for a single incident. Most importantly, continuing to protect Xu Miaoran and strengthening the All-Talent Society was good for everyone. As Tang Jie had requested, Xu Miaoran shared a part of the resources gained from the inter-domain trade with everyone so that they could steadily grow stronger, and these thirteen heavenly eagles of the Basking Moon Sect became the main force of the All-Talent Society, establishing the foundation of Xu Miaoran's faction.
The only exception was Cai Junyang. Tang Jie's feats had been a big blow to him. While they were good friends, the proud Cai Junyang wasn't willing to be overshadowed so severely by Tang Jie, so he persisted on his own path, constantly wandering about. Only when Xu Miaoran needed him did he return to help. And his strength really did grow by leaps and bounds.
In Horizon Ocean Pavilion, the juniors under Xu Miaoran's banner were becoming the rising stars of the sect. In the last few decades, a third of Horizon Ocean Academy's prodigies had joined the All-Talent Society, and they were experiencing astonishing growth. Luo Anbo, Bei Canghan, and the others all experienced breakthroughs and reached Heart Demon.
The only one who didn't break through was Tang Jie's avatar.
While the one traveling around was the original body, the avatar's mind was also affected.
The process of changing Fate was also the process of changing the self.
While traveling, Tang Jie had found that his body had many hidden problems. He had once believed that he had done a fine job of laying his foundations, but progressing too fast had brought its own set of latent concerns. These problems weren't obvious yet, but they had a chance of turning serious in the future.
Fortunately, during his travels, he had finally realized these problems and moved to fix them, beginning to compensate for the side effects brought by his rapid progress.
Ten years went by.
Tang Jie's new farming tools had spread out from Changping Prefecture and were now in use in half of Fengshan.
The Web of Fate was altered once more, countless nodes beginning to form a connection with Tang Jie, because of those farming tools.
Fate was an extension of Karma. Karma was a thread, and Fate was a web.
When countless people of the Verdant Cloud Domain began to use the farming tools Tang Jie had invented and started to benefit from them, they created Karma with Tang Jie.
This Karmic relationship wasn't especially strong, but with so many people creating Karma with Tang Jie, the Web of Fate formed from all these threads of Karma suddenly had a blinding point of light, as if this was the core of the Web of Fate. He became someone entangled by Fate.
This entanglement was powerful, for it was formed by countless threads of Karma. Even though Tang Jie had comprehended Fate, he would still have a hard time breaking free of it. It was easy to tear off a single spider thread, but very difficult to remove an entire spider web clinging to one's body. And at the level of the Web of Fate, this power became all the more terrifying.
This made Tang Jie realize something: a single thread of Fate might not be powerful enough, but the power of Fate was infinitely stackable, could turn quantity into quality.
This explained why there were people imbued with great fortune.
Those emperors and kings could easily form Karmic connections with countless people, becoming cores of the Web of Fate.
Perhaps this was why the cultivators of the Verdant Cloud Domain had established a kingdom. In this world that had such a major connection to the Azure Dragon, the controller of the Dao of Fate, such a method was the best way to be in tune with the Dao of Fate. But simply ruling a country didn't mean that they could comprehend the Dao. While they were within the net, they could not move the world.
The ultimate consequence of weaving the Web of Fate was to establish one's own world where one could control Karma, and the ultimate consequence of fixing the track of Fate was to make prophecies. The ultimate consequence of entangling oneself within the Web of Fate, becoming its core, was to obtain great fortune or belief.
After becoming entangled with fate, Tang Jie was able to see the Verdant Cloud Domain's Web of Fate more clearly.
This web did not have only one core.
Besides him, there were several other points of light that were entangled by countless threads of Karma. Tang Jie currently couldn't identify who these points of light belonged to, but he felt like they would be figures like the Aurora Fiend Emperor, Feng Wuxiang, and the King of Fengshan.
But as he was examining the Web of Fate, watching the energy of Fate flow along those countless threads of Karma, a voice suddenly spoke: "Oh? Has someone else finally entered the Dao of Fate, becoming one who is protected by the Heavenly Dao?"
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