Chapter 372: The First Step to a Perfect Life: Get Money

Game Space.

Brother Ming Hou's gaze was fixed intently on the "Game Space" rule in Ming An's hands, the desire plain on his face.

This rule was also a core part of his plan to build the Fate Casino.

He would let the false rule brand itself, then after fusing with this rule, it would ascend to rule-level.

For this reason, after his resurrection, he had waited near the teleportation point of the Prismatic Mist Coast for the moment to ripen.

Throughout, he had used the guidance to follow the war's course inside the Game Space.

When the war ended and the Game Space rule was successfully obtained by Ming An, it was time for him to make his entrance.

At this moment, the other warriors of the Fate Clan stared curiously at Brother Ming Hou, wondering in their hearts just who this person was.

When they heard Brother Ming Hou address Ming An as a junior, they all appeared greatly surprised.

Ming An's identity was that of a Grand Fate Envoy; once the current Lamp-Lighting lineage's Fate Lord entered the "Hall of Fate Principles," he would most likely become the next Lamp-Lighting Fate Lord.

Whether in ability or in seniority, he was the most top-tier existence within the Fate Clan.

Even they, members of the envoy rank, had to respectfully address Ming An as "Grand Fate Envoy" when they saw him.

Above him, there were only the Fate Lord who presided over the Fate Clan, and the Grand Fate Lord.

Yet the unfamiliar figure before them had actually opened his mouth and called Ming An a "junior."

They could not connect this figure with any high-ranking member of the clan in their memories; more importantly, the life-wave aura emanating from this figure was exceedingly faint.

This was entirely inconsistent with any single member of the Fate Clan's power hierarchy.

Some Fate Clan members could not help but quietly open a channel of communication with their spiritual force:

"Who is this person? How dare he speak to the Grand Fate Envoy like that?"

"Judging by the Grand Fate Envoy's reaction, it seems he knows him… Could he be some member of the Hall of Fate Principles?"

"Doesn't look like it. The life waves on his body are too weak — a puff of baleful breath could probably snuff him out."

Amid the murmuring, Ming An's hands holding the Rubik's Cube tightened, and his expression grew complicated.

He raised his head to look at Brother Ming Hou, a note of helplessness in his voice:

"Longque Fate Lord, it seems the convening of this war was initiated by you."

"Fate Lord?!"

Those two words struck like a thunderclap; the remaining Fate Envoys present froze on the spot, all turning in unison to look at Brother Ming Hou.

They suddenly understood why the other party had dared to address the Grand Fate Envoy by name — he was the currently appointed Fate Lord.

The look in their eyes as they gazed at Brother Ming Hou instantly became reverent.

"Fate Lord."

Although the Fate Envoys were still very puzzled as to why the Longque Fate Lord's life aura was so faint, they nevertheless one after another pressed a hand to the center of their brows, paying respect to Brother Ming Hou.

Brother Ming Hou gave a calm nod, yet his gaze remained fixed on the Game Space rule:

"Ming An, give it to me."

Ming An felt helpless in his heart, yet still reached out and presented the Rubik's Cube-shaped Game Space, then asked curiously:

"Fate Lord, our Lamp-Lighting lineage has long resided in the Outer Domain and never took part in the game of opposing the Reverse Tide God back then. We have little contact with the clan lands, yet through the shared intelligence on the spiritual network we learned that you recently led a group of clansmen to Wang Xiao Shi Jie to establish roots. Why have you appeared here?"

"Also, why is your life aura so weakened? Could it be that you suffered a grave wound?"

After taking the Game Space rule, Brother Ming Hou stored it into his spatial pouch, then raised his head to look at the puzzled Ming An, a hint of a smile surfacing in his eyes:

"Ming An, the most fascinating thing about fate lies in its unforeseeability. Whether fortune or calamity, nothing can be known before the end is reached."

"I once believed that the failed game would send me plunging into an abyss, perhaps never to rise again… To break free of the predicament, I chose to gamble my future in seeking a solution. I thought it was a dangerous dead end, yet I never imagined it would become the heaven-reaching opportunity that changed my future."

Under Ming An's puzzled gaze, the corner of Brother Ming Hou's mouth curved upward as he continued:

"I encountered an opportunity that transcended the established course of fate, and that stands above established cause and effect."

"The current me is no longer bound to the original trajectory of fate, and this is merely the beginning."

Ming An's pupils contracted slightly; he had heard a concept in Brother Ming Hou's words and immediately asked:

"You mean you've broken out of fate's established trajectory?" Ming An's voice carried an incredulous tremor.

"That's right."

Hearing the exchange between Brother Ming Hou and Ming An, the rest of the clansfolk felt puzzled.

They could understand the words "breaking out of the established fate trajectory," but as members of the Fate Clan, they had always followed the established trajectory of fate.

Therefore, breaking out of the fate trajectory was itself an almost impossible paradox.

The so-called equivalent game meant that fate delivered the result; they could not revise the result, only follow it.

Their Fate Clan was more like a race that observed fate's principles, clearly knowing the weight of fate.

Although fate was formless, the birth and perishing of all things, the turning of worlds — all were woven within fate's principles.

Even someone as powerful as the Grand Fate Lord was merely walking along the established trajectory of fate; at most he could slightly veer the direction, yet could not truly rise above fate's principles.

Like a small fish in a river, it could swim against the current, or dive into a deep pool, but it could hardly truly exist apart from the water's flow.

Unless it underwent some kind of metamorphosis, letting its life form transcend the shackles of its environment.

Brother Ming Hou's answer was as though he were declaring: he had already become that fish that had left the water and come ashore.

The Fate Envoys around them exchanged glances, clearly unable to grasp the deeper meaning of this exchange.

But they could sense the shock of Grand Fate Envoy Ming An, yet could not fathom what it meant to break out of fate's principles, nor how it could be done.

"Grand Fate Envoy… what does the Fate Lord's words mean?" one envoy could not help but ask in a low voice.

Ming An did not answer immediately.

His gaze fixed intently on Brother Ming Hou, as if trying to see through that frail shell to the answer hidden within.

After a long while, he slowly spoke, his voice grown somewhat hoarse:

"What we understand as changing fate is choosing different branches within the range of the established fate trajectory. What the Fate Lord calls transcendence means completely breaking out, standing in a place where even the rules of fate cannot reach — a kind of…."

Its words suddenly faltered, as if it could not find the right words to describe such an absurd concept.

In the end, it raised its hand and drew a complete ring in the void, then thrust its finger through the ring, pointing straight outward.

This simple gesture struck every apostle like a bolt of lightning.

They finally understood the terrifying nature of this concept.

Throughout the Fate Clan's long ages of civilizational development, they had always remained within the circle where fate could interfere; no matter which fork in the road they chose, they were ultimately just spinning around inside the circle.

Brother Ming Hou quietly admired their stunned expressions, smiled, and nodded:

"Now, do you understand what this means?"

His voice was very soft, yet it landed on every clansman's heart with the weight of a thousand pounds:

"I am no longer affected by the Fate Clan's predetermined developmental trajectory. The current me stands independent of fate, able to personally shape my own future, and to live in the way I choose."

At this point, Brother Ming Hou raised his head and looked at the utterly stunned Ming An:

"Now to answer your earlier question — I did indeed once lead our clansmen to Wang Xiao Shi Jie, and it was precisely this decision that earned me a gift transcending fate. This is what I call the heaven-reaching opportunity."

"The specific contents of this opportunity, I cannot state directly, but very soon you will all understand."

When he finished speaking, Brother Ming Hou's gaze swept across the Fate Apostles present, finally settling once more on Ming An:

"Your being able to meet me here was destined; it means you will follow me down this path."

Hearing this, Ming An's eyes were filled with disbelief.

These words did not match at all with the intelligence he had accessed through the shared psychic network.

The Grand Fate Lord had convened a Heaven's Mandate Pavilion council, and the Fate Lord of their branch had also crossed through space to attend.

Upon returning, he had detailed the contents of this council, stating that the Fate Lord of the Dragon Sparrow branch might have developed some mental issues, possibly due to backlash from fate.

He had actually demanded that the entire clan relocate to Ru Xiao Shi Jie.

When the Fate Clan had broken free from the shackles of the small world back then and come to Monster World, was it not precisely to gain a higher ceiling for growth?

The act of relocating to a small world was entirely a regressive move that severed their future.

It also negated the significance of the Laozu Sect's bloody struggles back then, fighting to establish a foothold for the Fate Clan in Monster World.

The Dragon Sparrow Fate Lord's choice was even more outrageous than turning back.

Because the small world the Dragon Sparrow Fate Lord wished to go to had a world framework whose grade was far inferior even to their old homeland world of those days.

Reproducing and thriving in such a world meant their descendants would inevitably grow weaker with each generation.

In Monster World, the "Primordial Spiritual Energy" pervading heaven and earth — whether in quality or concentration — was beyond comparison with any small world.

This high-concentration spiritual energy environment would subtly transform their physiques.

Therefore, every single member of this generation of the Fate Clan, in any branch, possessed combat strength capable of steamrolling the Fate Clan of those days.

Returning to a small world meant existing in an environment with only thin spiritual energy.

Surviving long-term in such an environment would cause the life potential of Fate Clan descendants to gradually degenerate.

Next came the limitation in materials science.

Materials science determined the upper limit of civilizational development; a small world was destined to be unable to nurture high-quality spiritual materials.

Even many basic spiritual materials would struggle to form naturally, which would push the Fate Clan's development toward the concept of "ancient divine weapons."

That is, the older the weapon, the greater its strength.

New-style weapons forged from small-world materials were destined to be no match for ancient weapons.

After reviewing the shared intelligence at the time, he had also believed that the Dragon Sparrow Fate Lord's decision was practically guiding the clan toward a slow extinction.

The ultimate result would be that future descendants would even struggle to master the Fate Clan's basic arts, and their lifespans would be continuously diminished in the process.

Unless one used the resources brought from Monster World to carry out long-term optimization and modification of the small world.

Or even attempted to integrate the rules of fate into the small world, allowing it to evolve under the nourishment of those rules.

But such a massive investment was clearly not worth the cost.

Even if it succeeded, so what?

An evolved small world would at most reach the standard of the old homeland world of those days.

But the current Fate Clan had long since attained a higher ceiling in Monster World — it was like abandoning a painstakingly built temple and insisting on spending a lifetime patching a leaky thatched hut: absurd and laughable.

Yet the Dragon Sparrow Fate Lord was now telling him that it was a path transcending the trajectory of fate.

This answer also did not match the one the Dragon Sparrow Fate Lord had given back then.

According to the intelligence shared through the psychic network, what Brother Ming Hou had told the other Fate Lords at the time was: he had received a revelation of fate.

But now he was claiming that he had transcended fate itself.

So was it that, under the revelation of fate, he had transcended fate?

Brother Ming Hou's answer gave Ming An the feeling of the left and right hemispheres of his brain fighting each other — utterly devoid of logic.

At this moment, Brother Ming Hou had already guessed what was on his mind from the changes in Ming An's expression.

No amount of explanation could compare to witnessing it firsthand.

In an instant, his body suddenly twisted, as if kneaded and reshaped by some invisible force.

His bones let out a series of cracking explosions, his spine arched back like a bowstring, two bloody gashes suddenly tore open at his shoulder blades, and a pair of wings blazing with crimson flame burst forth — every single feather flowing with the luster of molten lava.

At the same time, his neck elongated, a blurred eagle-beak phantom appeared on his face, the sharp beak opening and closing as it exhaled scorching waves of heat, and two dancing flames ignited in his once-calm eyes.

After completely departing from the realm of human form—

Boom!

Blazing firelight exploded as another pair of fiery-red wings unfurled from his back, every feather burning with inextinguishable flames.

Once his head solidified into an eagle's, his golden pupils blazed like torches, and strange runes never before seen by Ming An and the others coiled around his entire body.

The Eagle-Head Demon Form made its entrance at this moment.

Ming An, who was at the forefront, saw his pupils contract sharply, completely overwhelmed by the scene before him.

It had never imagined that the Dragon Sparrow Fate Lord would possess a completely different life form.

Before it could recover from the shock, Brother Ming Hou's body changed once again.

The fiery-red wings suddenly disintegrated, transforming into a skyful of sparks.

Blinding Lei Guang burst forth, his eagle-headed demon body collapsed and reorganized, ultimately transforming into a sphere of light purely condensed from thunder and lightning.

On its surface flowed dark-blue energy veins, with countless blue arcs of electricity coiling and exploding across the sphere's surface, emitting deafening elemental thunder.

The Thunder Rush form immediately switched in to take the stage.

"Elementalized Body!"