The uncertainty of predicting the future was only one of the many reasons Avery was hesitant on doing anything about what he just foretold.

  His arrival and subsequent preaching had greatly destabilized the Gushanhui sect, providing an opportunity that was long-awaited by some. In the next few weeks, before anyone had time to digest and gain from his teachings, there would be a bloody coup, and a group of traitors would take control of the sect.

  He had very little information on the traitors, for the subject of his divination had been one of the first victims. The man had died rather heroically, fighting for his sect, refusing to surrender even when surrounded and laying down his life with dignity, causing Avery’s divination to end.

  Wanting to gather more information, he decided to continue, and immediately started looking around for a new subject. His augury must have lasted longer than he realized, for the surrounding crowd was now even bigger, and they were all contemplating the divination rune he had made, doing everything they could to gain as much from it as possible before it completely dissipated.

  His gaze fell on a beautiful woman who was staring at him with stars in her eyes, and he quickly drew a new rune. In the end, while runes were incredibly versatile, they still had limitations, depending on how they were used. When engraving them directly upon the world, he could use them to cast spells, but the heavens would soon heal themselves, restoring the natural order.

  This thought made him pause, as he suddenly became very scared that he was no better than the cultivators he disdained. His runes were forcibly changing the world, forcing it to heal, and he was using them without consideration, bending reality to his will without care for the consequences.

  He was in the middle of a crisis, and this was not the time to cast away his only tool, but he made a mental note to be more careful in the future, and not to use runes unless absolutely necessary.

  During the next few days, Avery foretold the fate of dozens of people. He didn’t feel particularly inclined to find any of their secrets, but he felt he had a duty to do it. He witnessed plenty of vibrant, colorful lives, some virtuous and some not, yet none of them expressed what he deemed to be the proper respect and worship towards the Tao.

  He got increasingly annoyed as he saw them waste chance after chance to approach the Truth, and started almost hating these respectful buffoons. Unfortunately, even after days of research, he got no closer to finding out what he should do. Despite all the schemes and subterfuge involved, the revolution was a rather straightforward grab for power, barely hidden beneath a thin veil of righteous indignation, and a call for change.

  This change of leadership would have almost no impact on the sect, and it would end up no different than before. It would still be an organization where all the despicable schemes and ruthless backstabbing were internally contained. More importantly, it would still have a positive impact on the outside world, protecting mortals from magical beasts and controlling loose cultivators, making sure that no one abused their power. It was far from perfect, but for a group of people who held the power to destroy cities on a whim, it was near miraculous.

  This was not a fight of good versus evil; it was a power struggle between two flawed factions. In addition, Avery couldn't just pick a side based on who had attacked first, because the traitors all had legitimate reasons to want to overthrow the sect management. At some point or another, they had all been terribly wronged, and were trying to make the people accountable pay, despite not being any better themselves.

  Still, the old Avery would have never hesitated to do everything he could to stop this revolution. He had the power to prevent a lot of death and suffering, and doing nothing would be inexcusable.

  The problem was that he no longer believed in applying his old world's moral code to his new life. He was a different man in a different world, governed by different rules. Unfortunately, while he knew it had changed, he still did not know what his current moral code was.

  He believed in the Tao, and wanted to follow its precept, but he was running into the same issue that had plagued religions on earth for thousands of years, which was ascertaining exactly what their god demanded.

  If he believed in the beauty of natural order, then he should stand back and let the events unfold, without interference. He might be partly responsible for this event, but his intervention would not fix anything. Even if he managed to put fate back on its original course, exactly as it was before, he would not be erasing his mistake. He would just be breaking the natural order a second time. Not to mention he was also guided by fate, and this might have been its intended course of action from the start.

  However, things were never so simple. As much as he liked to tell himself that the Tao was impartial, that was ultimately untrue. It might have been originally, as he believed that the complex system of merits and karma was a later addition by a Buddhist saint, but the fact remained that the Heavens rewarded those who saved lives while punishing murderers.

  It was not a part of the Tao he was particularly well versed in, but the concept of merits and karma were deeply entrenched into it. He knew he would gain much merit by stopping this war, while letting it unfold would burden him with heavy karma.

  The real question was whether or not he should include the meddling of saints and other powerful beings in his vision of the perfect Tao. He instinctively wanted to say no, that he was pursuing the pure and authentic Tao, the untainted One that created the world, but truly believing that would completely invalidate his highest ambition.

  He wished to become a Saint, to walk alongside the Great Way as an equal. That meant changing the natural order to allow his existence as a saint, and if he decided that affecting it in any way was tainting it, then how could he justify his goal? There could be no hypocrisy in his search for the Truth, and he could not disregard something while claiming to do the same himself.

  If he decided the original Natural Order should never be changed, then his only option to be one with the Tao would be to emulate Hongjun or Houtu. Abandon his individuality, disperse his consciousness into the Great Way, and become truly one with the Tao. To attain infinity through nonentity, simultaneously becoming everything and nothing, reaching the extremes of both existence and nonexistence.

  This was an extreme path to the Tao, one which Avery greatly admired, but one he did not wish to follow. Perhaps he was being selfish, and perhaps his faith was insufficient, but he wished to conserve his identity, and be able to stand in front of the Tao as himself, Avery.

  He came from a different world, and had proof that alternate forms of perfection were possible. He only needed to reach perfection himself, then find a way to fuse his perfect form with the Tao.

  This was following the path of Nuwa and the other saints. When she created humans and became the Holy Mother, she reached perfection, both internally and externally, and gained a holy throne. She was still herself, an equal to the Tao. Both One and Two, together they cooperated to create a new order, and expand the world.

  This was what he aspired to be, and why he could not disregard the work of the saints that came before him. To complicate matters further, the natural order was meant to be broken. No matter how appealing and comforting it was, he could not let himself fall into blind faith.

  Free will was part of the natural order, and demanding that it followed its innate course without change would actually be going against it. Fate was meant to be broken, even if it pained Avery each time it was. The issue was determining when it was okay to break it, and when it was better to let events flow as they should.

  After much consideration and hesitations, he finally decided to stop the impending war. Despite how much he wished he could be an unseen observer, the mundane world that made him so uncomfortable was still part of the Tao, and he could not just abandon it.

  He was partly responsible, and he needed to stop this war. Everything pointed at this being the right thing to do, and his confused reculance to break the natural order was not enough to dissuade him.

  However, he was only going to act because he thought that was his duty, but the only thing he felt was annoyance and anxiety about having to interact with people so much. He had no sympathy for these false cultivators, and instead the idea of them dying from a power struggle like the ones that so often blinded them to the greatness of the Tao sounded beautifully poetic to Avery.