Douluo Continent: Martial Soul Clay, the Creator of All Things

In the darkness, there is a divine will, or the will of heaven and earth, or the way of heaven that maintains the operation of destiny.

They are simply different names for the same thing.

Maintaining the operation of destiny is maintaining the operation of all things, and maintaining the most basic existence of the entire world.

From this perspective, observing destiny is actually understanding the will of Heaven and comprehending the Way of Heaven.

So, the answer to taking control of one's destiny is already obvious.

With my heart, I speak for Heaven.

If Lu Yan can completely replace the will of the entire Douluo world, then destiny will naturally fall into his control.

Defeating a God-King level Asura God is merely a matter of a thought.

But obviously, if one can completely replace the will of the entire world, then why would it be necessary to replace the will of the entire world to deal with a single Asura God?

This is a false proposition; it's a refutation.

But it's not without meaning.

Just like Lu Yan was about to deal with the beings born within the Tianyan Small World.

To them, Lu Yan's will is the will of the world.

Lu Yan's thoughts determined their fates; whoever gained his favor more would be the chosen one.

If that's the case, let's think about it from another angle: is the will of Heaven also like that?

This thought actually terrified Lu Yan.

If the Heavenly Dao Will of the Douluo World is like his own will, then it is a being with a personality and self-awareness.

Then, all is well.

Fortunately, through observation and perception, Lu Yan understood the difference between the will of Heaven and the will of the Heavenly Evolution Small World he ruled.

One is privately owned, and the other is publicly owned.

No matter how the Heavenly Evolution Small World grows, even if countless beings are born within it in the future, even if it grows to the point of surpassing the Douluo World.

The will that governs him always belongs to him personally, and this is an unchangeable fact.

However, the Heavenly Dao in the Douluo World is quite different.

This is a collective will, an existence born from the convergence of the entire world, countless living beings, and the fundamental laws of the world.

There's a lot of room for maneuver here.

Fate will be a two-way feedback mechanism.

The will of Heaven determines the fate of a single being, and a single being can also feed back into the collective will of Heaven.

In this way, one can subtly adjust the course of one's fate, whether it be good or bad.

However, in general, the feedback from a single living being is negligible, and the effect it can have is naturally extremely limited.

However, if the number of beings in the same series of feedback increases dramatically and reaches a certain number, then things will be very different.

This is where the concept of luck (or fortune) came into being.

For example, the fate of a nation, the fate of a people, and so on.

For example, the Imperial Beast carries the destiny of the Soul Beast clan, while Lu Yan now carries the destiny of the nation's one billion people.

If this fortune can be mobilized, it will have a significant impact on the will of Heaven, and even for Lu Yan in his current state, it will be a tremendous help.

Of course, it's completely impossible to use this against the Asura God, let alone the entire God Realm.

This involves another concept, namely personal luck.

There is no doubt that individual fortune varies greatly within the framework of the Heavenly Dao.

Even though neither of them are cultivators, the difference in their fortunes is like heaven and earth.

This is determined by their respective influence and future mission.

From this, we can conclude that their respective influence and future missions are different situations.

Simply put, the fortune brought by the future mission is relatively illusory. Before it is fully redeemed, it is very likely to be affected by other factors and thus change.

Influence, on the other hand, is a tangible form of fortune or destiny that has already been fully converted into wealth.

Lu Yan referred to this situation as "positional status".

In other words, it refers to the proportion of a single living being within the will of Heaven.

Simply put, based on the power levels in the Douluo World, Lu Yan divided them into...

Mortal ranks, extraordinary ranks, demigod ranks, priest ranks, secondary god ranks, true god ranks, chief god ranks, god-king ranks, and the creator god ranks at the dragon god level.

In fact, it can be further subdivided, such as the lower-class commoners and the upper-class nobles among mortals, and the ordinary soul masters and titled Douluo among extraordinary beings, and so on.

But for Lu Yan, there was no need for that.

Distinguishing rank based on one's level of attainment mainly relies on the different levels one has reached.

For example, mortals can only access the material plane, extraordinary beings can access the energy plane, and demigods can access the spiritual and will plane, and so on.

Even the Title Douluo, who also involve the spiritual realm, were classified as extraordinary by Lu Yan.

It's quite simple, because from his perspective, the spiritual aspects involved in being a Title Douluo are still too superficial.

The different influences a living being has on the world and the different levels of its life produce different responses, thus dividing it into different ranks.

It's easy to understand that a mortal is not only constrained by the entire material world and society, but also by energy, spirit, will, laws, and so on.

The feedback one can give back to the Heavenly Dao is negligible; in fact, fate is predetermined, so there's nothing to say about it.

The higher the level of strength, the less constraints one is subject to, and naturally, the greater the influence, the stronger the feedback ability, and the higher the status.

And isn't the influence of a high-ranking person another kind of fate arrangement for a low-ranking person?

For example, the Asura God arranged for Tang San to travel through time.

For Tang San, the influence that the Asura God's power could wield was destiny itself.

Similarly, Lu Yan changed Tang San's original fate because of Lu Yan's influence, or rather, his higher status.

However, Lu Yan is now also affected by the Asura God.

With his strength, it would be a pipe dream for him to fight the God of Asura alone.

Even mobilizing the entire national fortune of the Great Xia Dynasty would be far from enough.

It's quite simple; although the power of fate doesn't entirely follow the principle of equal strength.

But a single Asura God with the strength of a God-King would be enough to easily destroy the entire Great Xia Dynasty's population of one billion.

To think that one can rely on the nation's destiny to fight against the Asura God is undoubtedly a pipe dream!

This is the significance of Lu Yan's division of positions.

Chapter 404 Another Three Years

For Lu Yan, rank was more like a standard for measuring fate.

Even if the Asura God is not skilled in the Way of Destiny, his God-King status determines that, relying on the current population of only one billion in Great Xia, he will be able to achieve his goal.

Even if the concentrated feedback of the Heavenly Dao's will could create an effect, it would absolutely not be able to counteract the influence of the Asura God's own strength.

How did the Dragon God perish?

It was the result of annexing countless planes and worlds, which led to the inescapable resentment of countless living beings.

This triggered a backlash from the will of Heaven, which led to his demise.

With the Asura God's status as a god-king second only to the Dragon God, even if all living beings on the entire Douluo Star rebelled, it would probably be difficult to have a substantial impact on him.

At most, it will just accumulate negative karma and have to wait for future reckoning.

But here's the problem!

It seems that the God Realm has exploited more than just a single Douluo Star.

Below it, there exist many other worlds.

Furthermore, the increasingly dire situation in the divine realm is also a manifestation of the backlash from the will of Heaven.

This means that fate has quietly begun to settle accounts and eliminate all the gods in the entire divine realm.

With my heart, I speak for Heaven; with my body, I unite with the Dao.

In Lu Yan's view, the power of fate has never been played this way.

Instead, they went with the flow and followed the trend.

Just like what Chen Sheng, Wu Guang, and many other rebel forces did in Lu Yan's previous life.

All he needed was to create a prelude to his destiny.

Therefore, the fate of the Great Xia Dynasty that he now holds in his hands may also be of some use.

Of course, Lu Yan is only making plans for this matter now.

Currently, he has too many ways to deal with the Asura God, as long as he doesn't directly confront the Asura God.

Therefore, the advantage always lies with me.

Moreover, pioneers who lead the way to kingship rarely meet a good end.

Lu Yan felt that his understanding of the way of destiny was not yet thorough enough.

If being too hasty causes a backlash and ruins his original favorable situation, then it would be a loss that outweighs the gains.

Instead, we should take advantage of the current cooperation between the Great Xia Dynasty and the Soul Beast Clan to completely bind their fates together.

By also taking its fortune into one's own hands, it would be a better choice whether to use this fortune to assist in cultivation or to deal with the divine realm and the Asura God.

Having made up his mind, Lu Yan once again focused his attention on improving his cultivation.

For example, continuing to refine the Creation Star, analyzing its laws and authority while healing Gu Yuena, or petting the head of the Emperor Beast Cat to sense the power of destiny of the Soul Beast race, etc.

It was also thanks to the fact that the gods in the Douluo world were all crippled that Lu Yan had such a relaxed opportunity.

If this were a cultivation world, they would all be cunning old foxes who could predict the future.