“Of course it counts,” Yuan Kun said evenly. “Do you think this answer will be of no use to him?”
Li Jinglong took a deep breath. He’d been ready to retort as well, but he calmed down after hearing these words. Perhaps, through this explanation, Yuan Kun had revealed how destiny could be predicted, which might in turn give him an inkling of how to change a predestined future.
When he again met Yuan Kun’s starry gaze, it was approving, as if the kun had guessed the direction of his thoughts. “Clever as you are, you should remember what I said to you the first time we met.”
“A single choice,” Li Jinglong murmured. “All fates are born from a single choice…”
Yuan Kun inclined his head slightly. In an instant, Li Jinglong saw to the heart of the matter, which Yuan Kun had not said out loud. Every idea conceived in the split second between one choice and the next was a bead added to this vast cube that might reinforce or negate a predestined outcome. Their future—Hongjun’s, and his connection to Mara—was not set in stone.
“How are demons born?” Li Jinglong asked.
“Demons are humans, yao, and gods themselves,” Yuan Kun said. “They are darkness that has been discarded: emotions and desires, nightmares, birth, sickness, old age, death—all manner of uncontrollable suffering that must be relinquished before entering the cycle of reincarnation, and that lingers in the mortal world after death. He who aims to become a sage must rid himself of what they call the three corpses: the kindness, cruelty, and obsessions within their heart. Such things remain between heaven and earth. When all these elements come together, demonic energy is born.”
Hongjun began, “But the heavenly and earthly meridians can purify demonic energy, can’t—” He cut himself off, fearing this would be counted as another question. “Uh—yes, they can, I think.”
“For it to enter the purification cycle, you must first direct the demonic energy back into the meridians,” Yuan Kun answered. “Let me ask you: How would you gather all the demonic energy roaming the Divine Land?”
“The demon seed…” Li Jinglong said, a tremble in his voice.
Yuan Kun turned back to face the sea of clouds, speaking slowly. “Four thousand years ago, Mahamayuri and Acalanatha attempted to save all living things from the terror of demonic energy. Mahamayuri made himself the seed of Mara, with the power to gather all the demonic energy of the mortal world once a millennium. When Mara appears, Acalanatha, too, will be born into the world once again. He will destroy the fully formed Mara with his six artifacts, returning the demonic energies to the heavenly and earthly meridians. A thousand years after that, as demonic energies grow stronger and the Divine Land teems with malign energy, Mahamayuri will reincarnate once again—thus, the cycle continues without end.”
Li Jinglong suddenly remembered what Yuan Kun had said to Xiangyu in Luoyang: Your love is written in your fate, since it could not have been had you not met Mahamayuri and Acalanatha. But this is both a fated encounter and an inescapable trial.
“Next question,” Yuan Kun said.
Li Jinglong sank into thought. He looked at Hongjun, then at Yuan Kun.
“This is the last question you may ask,” Yuan Kun said, turning to face him. “Why haven’t you asked about the future?”
“I don’t want to know about the future,” Li Jinglong replied.
As Yuan Kun studied him in silence, Li Jinglong said, “If I don’t know my future, I can still believe the events of my life are not predestined.”