Chapter 183: Devil and Demon.
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Watching the fate of all creations, Tsunade frowned as she observed how the Jade Emperor's faction once again managed to ascend to the next heaven, followed by her own family's version of the Senju clan. It seemed they needed to hasten their own ascension, realizing they had already spent enough time enjoying themselves at home.
Turning toward her sisters, Mai Shiranui, Diana Prince, Illyana Rasputina, Chun-Li, and many others who served as the spearhead for the pavilion to open paths to new heavens, Tsunade asked, "Junior sisters from the Expedition Division of our pavilion, I think it's time we start opening new paths and begin our ascension. We've spent long enough staying at home, while everyone else has already started their race toward Supremacy again."
Nodding in agreement, Diana Prince glanced at the many factions that had now reached the 53rd Heaven, the highest currently known, and after some thought said, "Yes, it's time for us to ascend. Although the dark desires have given us some insight into Yang Contradiction, Yin Confusion, and how to combat them using Yin Impression and Yang Certainty, our comprehension is negligible, nearly nonexistent. Moreover, perhaps the Mystical Realms connected to the 4th Heaven might offer something to heal our husband's condition. So, I agree, we should ascend now."
Emma Frost, playfully tapping her husband's nose, reflected on how their first dark session together had been disappointing in terms of understanding. It had only turned the Serene Lotus Pavilion into single-minded devils, easily manipulated, or dim-witted demons, easily dominated, causing her to sigh as she glanced at her sister Margarita and Tian Xing in sister Rita's embrace.
Kissing both on the forehead to reassure them there was no need to feel down over this mistake, Emma considered how different her perspective had become since joining the pavilion. She now knew that becoming a devil or demon wasn't worth it. As sister Nadine had pointed out, playing into the typical fate tropes or fate patterns of her previous evil self was simply too easy.
Like her husband Tian Xing, who thought Sister Luo Yi was someone he could mold as he wished—only to become obsessed with her—Emma had once faced a similar experience when she became a devil in the 28th Heaven. Slowly led into an obsession with her husband, Emma remained uncertain whether this was a good or bad thing. In the end, her husband Tian Ming Dao gradually guided her out of pragmatic action and at the same time genuine sentiment, wanting to help her.
Logically, emotionally, and practically, everything pointed to her obsession not being in vain. In the end, she had fallen madly in love with someone she barely knew at the time, because from her perspective, what had been given to her had softened her stone heart, making her want to trust everything to her illusory husband from that moment onward. Although the Yang Contradiction and Yin Confusion left her undecided, Emma Frost knew that, at the end of the day, good and bad were matters of perspective.
Just as she once believed that controlling her subjects' minds was beneficial, she realized after two thousand years of playing with fate calculations that telepathically puppeting someone stifled their creativity. This creativity could have benefited her more if she had allowed things to unfold naturally, fostering loyalty from genuine sentiment. Like her husband had done for her, using his Tian Ming Dao to patiently guide her, slowly eroding her heart of stone with his constant acts of kindness and protection, if she had managed her subjects with genuine sentiment back then, she might not have become a fugitive in the first place.
Thus she also realized that, in terms of loyalty, simply giving someone a piece of bread when they were starving would earn more genuine devotion than manipulation ever could. At the time, it had opened her mind to the idea that fully trusting her subjects would result in even more loyal soldiers, whose dedication she could scarcely fathom. Especially once she had access to the fate calculations in the pavilion's Comprehension Chamber, Emma understood that her methods of mind control were a shallow way of achieving loyalty, since she had to constantly ensure that they remained loyal soldiers who could follow her every wish.
Thus, understanding the workings of fate and karma from all angles, she realized that the benefits of her husband's righteous methods—methods that ask nothing in return but patiently guide her like a personal mentor who would never leave her, no matter what—would last for eternity and through countless reincarnations. This is because righteousness interacts with the Tao world in such a way that it creates subtle branching influences, which she and others often fail to see due to their lack of attention to detail.
At first, Emma had been repelled by the idea of being guided, mistaking it for manipulation, as they are two sides of the same coin. However, when she opened her heart to accept it and truly became a member of the pavilion, she realized that genuine sentiment, with its profound subconscious ability to foresee many branches of simulated karma, was far more valuable than merely becoming a devil whose subconscious mind could only focus on the present moment based on what she saw and knew at that time.
Emma Frost understood that becoming a true devil or demon was easy, as it only required unleashing dark emotions. In contrast, becoming a truly righteous person, whose influence of Predetermination was present in all creation, was far more challenging. Reflecting on her past state before being guided by her husband, Emma had always been confused about why she consistently lost to heroes or heroines, as her sister Nadine often discussed.
It was only when her illusory husband explained how protagonists and plot armor functioned—how the Tao world itself assisted them in calculating the best fate and karma to defeat her—that Emma realized her every move was already known to the Tao before she even acted or thought about it, since she had entered the world as a material entity, with every atom of her body intrinsically connected to the world.
That realization made Emma deeply depressed once again, as it seemed that every part of her body could be calculated, like a simulation that could be known from start to finish. Life felt meaningless since there was no true freedom, and she had even considered erasing her own existence. However, looking at her husband in elder sister Margarita's embrace, Emma caressed his forehead again, knowing he had guided her to understand that there is indeed free will.
Even though their atomic bodies, or Wuxing Phases, could be calculated as part of the material world, Emma remembered her husband's teachings about the quantum world, where subconscious things reside. These things, like the realm of concepts and ideas not yet written into the world, cannot be calculated. This is the nature of the Taijitu, or quantum, where evaluation cannot be applied. When she came to terms with this illusory concept—that Taijitu cannot be understood or predicted—Emma Frost knew that she was truly alive and not merely a calculated simulation.
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