Lu Zhi was summoned to godhood by the will of heaven, becoming the first deity in existence. When he was called to godhood, he was merely an ordinary human, a young general who died on the battlefield from exhaustion.
His existence was dedicated to roaming the mortal realm and eliminating anomalies – malignant entities driven to their original world by heaven, desperately seeking ways to return.
As time passed, Lu Zhi sensed heaven's growing dissatisfaction with him. It was because he had become disobedient, developed his own ideas, and harbored too many emotions, caring too much about his attachments.
From their first meeting, Lu Zhi knew Shen Qi was there to replace him.
Deities born from darkness only understood the distinction between good and evil. At that time, the faith Lu Zhi possessed was enough to prevent heaven from acting rashly against him.
Lu Zhi could have easily strangled Shen Qi in the cradle, but he did not.
Perhaps it was because Lu Zhi was the one who brought him out of darkness, Shen Qi felt an inexplicable sense of dependence and trust towards Lu Zhi.
No matter when or where, the young Shen Qi always liked to follow closely behind Lu Zhi.
The Zodiacs were crafted by Lu Zhi from the divine soil beneath the Tree of Life. As anomalies grew more numerous, Lu Zhi found himself stretched too thin and in need of companions. This is how the Zodiacs came to be.
However, it was precisely because of Lu Zhi's heaven-defying abilities that heaven could no longer tolerate him.
Later, as Shen Qi grew up by Lu Zhi's side, Lu Zhi often found himself nagging like a worried mother, mediating between Shen Qi and the Zodiacs, caught in the middle.
The Zodiacs disliked Shen Qi because they knew he was heaven's chosen successor to Lu Zhi, and that Lu Zhi would eventually perish because of Shen Qi.
Shen Qi disliked the Zodiacs because Lu Zhi frequently had to clean up their messes, thus drawing Lu Zhi's attention away from him.
At some point, Shen Qi began to act strangely. The way he looked at Lu Zhi made Lu Zhi uncomfortable.
It wasn't until one time when Lu Zhi had spent a full month clearing out a large number of anomalies, feeling weary, he lay with his eyes closed indoors. He sensed Shen Qi approaching him.
At the time, Lu Zhi was curious, wondering what Shen Qi intended to do to him. Would he follow heaven's 'hint' and assassinate him?
However, that was not the case.
Shen Qi kissed him. This shocked Lu Zhi far more than if Shen Qi had tried to kill him.
And so, Lu Zhi, who had died from exhaustion at sixteen, and had never experienced romantic love even after becoming a god, chose to flee.
There was nowhere Lu Zhi could go that Shen Qi didn't know about. Having spent nearly a thousand years together, Shen Qi understood Lu Zhi even better than Lu Zhi understood himself.
After being cornered a few times, Lu Zhi secretly hid himself in a mortal imperial capital, where he met Jun Ninghe.
Lu Zhi possessed golden eyes that could perceive the karma of the world. In his eyes, mortal souls had colors. The most common was gray, white souls were extremely rare, but Lu Zhi had never seen a golden soul like Jun Ninghe's before.
Yet, in the web of future karma, Lu Zhi saw Jun Ninghe's soul turn a deep, dark red.
Gray souls represented the right and wrong committed throughout a person's life. White signified utmost purity, gold indicated immeasurable merit, while red turning black was a color Lu Zhi couldn't comprehend.
To investigate this matter, Lu Zhi transformed into a traveler roaming the four seas and became acquainted with Jun Ninghe. For nearly a year, Lu Zhi did not see Shen Qi.
Shen Qi eventually found him, but by then, Lu Zhi realized that Shen Qi seemed to be fading away.
This discovery filled Lu Zhi with a primal sense of dread and fear for the first time.
Because, he was not omnipotent.
And thus, the plan that spanned nearly ten millennia began.
Lu Zhi himself was the player controlling the chessboard. The only certainty in this game was that he himself would not survive.