Back in the Nine Heavens, the situation was looking better though. Well, at the very least, things were looking up for one person: The Fate’s Scribe, Shun Tao, was looking at the crown prince’s scroll of fate with glittering eyes.

He hadn’t looked at it since the moment he wrote the last adjustment, hoping that things would turn out well. After that, he had been occupied with the visit of the God of Justice and the God of War and then their audience with the Heavenly Emperor so there had been no time to check how things had actually happened in the end. Now, though, he was back and naturally wouldn’t ignore the matter any longer. And as it turned out, he was in luck for once!

While it seemed that Jing Yi had spent quite a bit of time with Liu Cheng and gotten side-tracked in that mortal city, that wasn’t a problem at all. He had once again been confronted with death and this time, he even felt that he had had a hand in that matter. He was feeling immensely guilty!

Now, guilt was indeed one of the trials and — depending on the exact circumstances — might even be one of the major ones. This one could be counted as a medium trial so far but there was the chance of making it become more than that. Especially since there was a connection with what had happened to Zhong Jing Yi’s 'fiance'.

The boy didn’t feel guilty only about that demon woman. No, what had happened to her had also made him feel even more guilty about what had happened to the dragon king. This was a prime opportunity!

Shun Tao smiled to himself. It was a bit hurtful that his original masterpiece had never had the chance to shine but it was also great to just be able to turn everything around. And right now, there was an opportunity too convenient to pass up on.

Normally, a major trial needed preparation and often even years of that. After all, how could a love trial happen while the god attempting their trial wasn’t even in love? And how should they be betrayed when they didn’t trust anybody like this Zhong Jing Yi had back in his childhood? And if nothing was at stake, then there would be no decision to be made.

Setting all these things up … While they only required a few strokes of his brush, the way they came to fruition was through painstaking efforts of the people in the mortal realm. Each person would unknowingly follow the path of their fate while they believed to make decisions based on their moral compass, fell in love based on their preferences, and went about their everyday lives on a whim or with some goal in mind. All of these things would come together and then allow for fate to happen and for the trial to come to fruition.

There was only one way to have a trial happen without having to take these people into consideration and without needing those years of preparation: Attempting a death trial.

Of course, that trial could be combined with the trial of betrayal or that of love and would thus be more valuable but also more difficult to be set up. But the death was easy to achieve if it was made possible by the force of nature and there was another way as well to make this trial count for more: The god could die young. And wasn’t that perfect in this situation?

It had only been a little more than two weeks since the Son of Heaven left the Nine Heavens for his trial. Right now, he was barely even considered an adult in the mortal realm. Dying now would be perfect. Especially so since he would be dying with regrets. Even better: Not only would he feel guilty about those things and thus be more resentful of his death, but he would even fail to see his fiance again, making him feel lost at the time of his death.

Furthermore, he had wanted to be a cultivator for the past five years. That was a third of the time he had been alive. But even though his fiance had sacrificed himself to help him, he wouldn’t have been able to achieve that dream if he died now. There would certainly be a lot of regret.

This … This was just perfect! There would be at least four trials and with how they were interwoven, their worth in Heaven’s eyes would be much greater, maybe even counting for as much as a major trial could. Then, their crown prince might even completely fulfill Heaven’s requirements and his trial period could come to an end without causing any problems for him. He wouldn’t be punished and while his wish of getting the trials over with on his first attempt might not have been realized, he could definitely do the rest on his second try. After all, Longjun wouldn’t make trouble anymore.

Ah, this was just too perfect! He couldn’t wait to implement it. To think that all of this could be achieved just with Zhong Jing Yi’s death … It seemed that Heaven was on his side for presenting him with such a perfect opportunity.

He definitely couldn’t waste it!