Chapter 385: Everything Has Its Appointed Number

Many people sighed with feeling, not bothering to argue whether Su Daji should have let it go, or whether the Huang Di was right or wrong.

Standing in Su Daji's position, her desire for revenge was only human — if your entire family were slaughtered, who could let it go so easily?

Standing in the Huang Di's position, he and Chi You were opposed, and victory meant life while defeat meant death. War is inherently cruel, and the innocent being caught up in it was unavoidable. He had repented, and he had wanted to make amends — even if it was only an after-the-fact remedy, too late to matter.

In this matter, no one could really say who was right and who was wrong. Sometimes opposition is not a matter of justice versus evil, but simply two sides standing across from each other.

The Female Immortal said nothing.

The other Supremes were interested, but they had no intention of asking. Cangjie's words made it plain he was unwilling to say more — asking would be pointless, a waste of breath.

"One day, everything will have its appointed number." Cangjie sighed long.

Whether to change the subject or simply to keep on telling it, he did not stop speaking, and went on:

"Shiqu saved Su Daji. Not to mention the immortals and gods of the Zhou dynasty, Su Daji herself did not know either — from beginning to end, Shiqu never showed himself when he acted.

If the Huang Di Supreme had not, in that era, discovered a trace of Shiqu's lingering Dao on Su Daji's execution platform, the world would surely not have known why Su Daji did not die at the Zhou dynasty's execution platform."

"Cangjie, hearing you put it that way — in the Middle Ancient era, the great Shang–Zhou war ended with the Zhou dynasty's victory. What was Su Daji's relationship to the Shang dynasty?"

A Supreme asked.

"Su Daji was the wife of King Zhou of Shang. When the Zhou dynasty defeated the Shang, Su Daji, as the Shang's empress, naturally could not be let off — that is why Su Daji was beheaded."

When Cangjie answered up to this point, a strange expression crossed his face, as if he were questioning himself:

"Shiqu saving Su Daji — honestly, I don't quite understand it. If Shiqu saved her out of pity because she was the last nine-tailed fox bloodline of Qingqiu, then logically he should have saved King Zhou along with her.

The Huang Di Supreme told me he had observed that stretch of years, and that Su Daji and King Zhou were bound by a love stronger than gold.

If King Zhou died, Su Daji would have been heartbroken beyond endurance. If Shiqu pitied Su Daji enough to save her, then he ought to have saved King Zhou as well — but he did not."

Did not save King Zhou?

The people were startled and doubtful; they had assumed King Zhou and Su Daji had both been saved by Shiqu.

Then why was King Zhou not killed? Was it because Zhou Wuwang saw Su Daji had been rescued, so he planned to keep King Zhou as a hostage?

Cangjie did not continue, and the other Supremes did not press him.

The matter of Shang and Zhou was a future event. They had not reached Supreme, and to know the truth of Shang and Zhou, they would have to keep living all the way to that era.

Asking more now was pointless.

"Did Shiqu ever appear again afterward?" Compared with the future Shang–Zhou matter, the Supremes were more concerned with Shiqu's movements.

"He did." Cangjie glanced at the gathered Supremes and said in a low voice: "In the future, Shiqu appeared."

He added no qualifier, only mentioning the future.

The "future" he spoke of was plainly not the years that followed, but "the future over there" — the future side.

"The Huang Di Supreme once killed his way into the center of the original battlefield, drove forward into the river of years of the future, and sensed Shiqu's aura there. As for what Shiqu did in the future, that could not be investigated.

At the time, the Huang Di Supreme was held back by those several presences over there, and could not pursue it further."

Cangjie and the others chatted on like this as they gradually moved away, entering the Ancient Babylonian Mythic Heaven-and-Earth, and vanished from everyone's view.

Then the Ancient Babylonian Mythic Heaven-and-Earth fell silent for a time.

The scene returned to something like a rewind — outside the Ancient Babylonian Mythic Heaven-and-Earth the great mythologies contended for supremacy, while inside the heaven-and-earth all was peaceful.

Tokyo, Japan — the Extraordinary Response and Strategy Department.

The meeting room was lively at this moment. Director Takahashi and the others were hotly discussing the Ancient Babylonian Mythic matter, talking over why King Zhou had not been rescued, whether this had something to do with King Zhou having been captured by "those over there," and so on.

As they talked and talked.

Suddenly, Director Takahashi blurted out a line without warning.

"What if Shiqu actually is… Him?"

Time seemed to stop.

The air seemed to fall silent at that instant as well.

In the meeting room, a dozen-odd pairs of eyes turned in unison to Director Takahashi, utterly stunned.

Acting as if he had not felt their gazes, Director Takahashi went on speaking to himself:

"What Shiqu looks like, what kind of being he is — no one from ancient times to now has ever known. The same is true of Him — no one knows Him. Beyond that one point of similarity, their traces are also elusive and shifting.

And, as everyone knows, they are both incomparably powerful.

One defined the Nine Heavens of Living Beings and the Nine Steps of the Divine, and in effect taught Nüwa, making her a Supreme; the other used all living beings as chess pieces, bringing about the upheaval of the future and causing the future to seek to annihilate the past.

On those two points alone, there is in fact reason to suspect they are the same person.

That stone tablet looks like Shiqu's account of His origins. If they are the same person, then it can be read the other way around — it is actually Shiqu's account of himself, a self-introduction.

Writing down his own deeds and identity.

And if they are the same person, then regarding the different versions of His origins spoken of by the Female Immortal, Cangjie, Emperor Shakra, and the others — I actually find it perfectly reasonable.

Why?

Let me venture a bold guess: Shiqu was able to teach Nüwa to achieve Supreme, which shows he was immensely capable. Teaching others to achieve Supreme is possible.

Then, those various circulated versions of Him — is it possible that all of those versions were actually produced by Shiqu's teaching? That is, Shiqu found these people — some driftwood, some heaven-defying talents rejected by Heaven and Earth — and taught them.

Shiqu taught them, and they achieved Supreme.

After all, think about it — whether it's the driftwood type or the heaven-rejected type, rising swiftly on one's own is very, very unlikely. But if they had someone behind them teaching them — and that someone was Him, that is, Shiqu —

Then their achieving Supreme is not impossible."

Director Takahashi's exceedingly bold idea left the meeting room silent for a full minute or more.

Everyone gaped, their faces full of shock.

By Director Takahashi's reasoning, Shiqu could very possibly be Him.

At the same moment, online and around the world, people shared Director Takahashi's view, thinking Shiqu might be Him — though their guesses took different forms.

Boom!

A tremendous roar exploded without warning, instantly drawing the attention of the people who had been buzzing with speculation.

They looked toward the central altar of the ancient Babylonian mythological realm, and cries of shock and screams swept across the world — the entire globe erupted.

The primordial era, the ancient Babylonian mythological realm.

Not long after Cangjie and the others entered, the once-peaceful ancient Babylonian mythological realm was no longer quiet — a great upheaval erupted.

Ancient gods roared, demon gods bellowed, ghostly gods howled…

A flash of blood-light surged up, and streams of immeasurable radiance shot skyward, colliding with beams of light that flared at the same instant.

"Cangjie!!"

Director Takahashi's pupils dilated several times over.

Within that immeasurable radiance shooting skyward, there were figures — one of them was Cangjie!

……