“Zhige!”

The growing blade flew out from my side and skewered straight through half of the surrounding officers. With loud screams, their limbs flailed desperately before Zhige cleanly cut them in half.

Their bodies quickly dissipated into black ash; they were only ghosts, after all. In Wei’s eyes, however, they must have actually been cut in half and bleeding on the ground.

To avoid the attacks of the other flanking officers, my blue robes lifted me up into the air before slamming me against the wall of the palace. I let out a pained cry but avoided the Daji officer’s assault—all of their weapons landed where I had just been standing.

"Gah! Can't you be more gentle?!" I ridiculed the blue robes, and they angrily whipped around the air in protest.

Barely able to catch my breath, I opened up a familiar blue keyboard.

Decrease the impact of destroyed temples and shrines by 50% for their respective divinities.

Observer ‘Socrates’: Wait, Jia Li! Wei doesn’t have actual temples or shrines. He’s not a real divinity outside of this dungeon room.

Fuck! The room was messing with my head. All of it felt so realistic that it was hard to believe I wasn’t transported into Wei’s past.

Prevent bodily harm to gods when their temples and shrines are destroyed in the context of dungeon rooms.

That edit should work even when considering karmic constraints, and this edit was better than my previous since it wouldn’t increase the difficulty of destroying Daji. There weren’t any other secret godly disciples with the exception of Wei, so this would’ve only impacted our party.

Error! Impossible within karmic constraints.

This fucking system.

Potential edit: Decrease bodily harm to gods when their temples and shrines are destroyed in the context of dungeon rooms.

Decrease bodily harm by how much, though?

Accept Deny

“Meihua!” I shouted, scrambling up to her and still trying to get used to my body’s slower movements. “Dissolve the poison in everyone else’s body. You need to get out of here and take Wei and Ailun.”

A humored look crossed her face as she pulled out darts from her sleeves and quickly threw them at all my party members. Their movements quickly returned as they dodged dozens of Daji officers.

“Peijin, you worry about the wrong people,” Meihua smiled politely, getting onto her feet and leaving Wei and Ailun with me. With a flash, she was in the air with her pink blade drawn, controlling it in the air as it tore and ripped through countless officers at once.

Rejected potential edit!

Decrease bodily harm to gods by 50% when their temples and shrines are destroyed in the context of dungeon rooms.

Edit granted!

Ha, so ‘Editor’s Pen’ could screw me over then if I wasn’t careful enough.

“Your Highness, lean on me,” I shouted over the chaos, trying to lift him up by using my entire body to support his underarm. I hoisted him up, my legs trembling from how heavy his presence was.

Wei's eyes trembled as he stared forward blankly, his previously tied up and lavish hair style now leaving strands that fell in front of his face. Dried and wet blood covered his mouth, and a large red stain was left behind on his once pristine white robes.

A god having their temples or shrines burnt down was one of the worst things that could occur, regardless if they were a ghost, divinity, or demon. The only way they gained relevance and therefore spiritual energy was through their worshippers.

Destroying their temples meant their inevitable death.

A pang stabbed my chest at the pitiful sight, so I quickly turned away. Amelia had run over to defend Ailun, raising her iron cuff in the air and summoning the dire wolf. It roared ferociously as it latched onto a Daji officer, shaking and shredding its body.

With his newfound trust, Wei suddenly gripped onto me tightly, standing straight up and staring into my eyes.

“You knew this was going to happen,” he said firmly despite his trembling hands, “So tell me how this ends.”

My eyes widened at his demand, and I quickly looked away. “It’s…”

Really, what could I say? There was nothing I could do that wouldn't be blatantly cruel.

I continued stammering before a foreboding sense overwhelmed me; Wei suddenly looked up behind me and moved to pull out his sword.

Disciple Yue has activated ‘Magician’s Hand!’

I whipped my head around to see a Daji officer wearing a white and bronze mask with a sword held high above their head, ready to smash into my back.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

The scene suddenly dissipated with a strange film as the Daji officer missed, landing right beside me. He looked around, seemingly surprised despite just being in front of me.

I caught Yue’s glare coming from my side as she gave me a curt nod, but her eyes still showed her disapproval and anger.

Wei stared at the Daji officer, perplexed by the officer’s sudden lack of aggression. He looked up at me, indirectly asking what was going on.

“Yue can create illusions,” I replied, “They’re pretty bad, but it works well enough.”

I waited for Wei to finish off the officer, but instead of cutting him down with a quick move, he seemed to hesitate, looking at him conflicted.

My expression fell out of annoyance.

“You’re not going to get out of this without killing people,” I warned.

“There’s always a better way to handle things,” he insisted. Wei’s face was drawn in a complicated expression, and I watched his throat bob from a heavy swallow.

With a wave of my hand, Zhige darted forward and stabbed the man through the heart before cleanly pulling out, returning to my side.

The man gagged for a moment and clutched at his body. While turning into ash, he seemed to frantically try and scoop together his disintegrating body, desperately trying to keep it together.

Wei's face lit up with alarm, but it retreated once he heard a loud commotion just beside him.

“Your Highness,” my voice took on a cold edge, “If you won’t kill, then I will. But you won’t be able to avoid it. You knew your responsibility when you became a martial god.”

He cleared his throat before responding in a strained tone. “I know. That’s not why I’m hesitating.”

I nodded in acknowledgement—he had said something similar in Surviving My First Run, although Feiyu wasn't attacked in this palace. Here, Wei and Meihua had a much higher advantage, but it didn’t make Daji any less formidable.

It wasn’t that Wei was against killing people. Of course, he wanted to avoid it—hardly anything justified the murder of people regardless of their innocence—but when he did kill, he realized he was a little too good at it.

And that terrified him.

Yue’s face was twisted into a pained expression as she held onto one of the divine statues, trying to keep the illusion intact. More and more Daji officers were dropped into an “empty” room, no longer able to see any of us.

Except for Yang. He was outside the border of Yue's continuously dwindling illusion.

“Officer Yang! Explain yourself!” One of the officers cried, lifting Yang up into the air with a sword pointed at his neck. More and more officers surrounded Yang as he tried to writhe out of their grip. His gold staff was lying on the ground just beside them.

With his foot, he kicked up the staff and spun it on his toe box before lifting it up and smashing it against the officers' knees. Yang fell onto the ground and quickly expanded the staff and forced himself up toward the palace’s ceiling.

Suddenly, his orange eyes widened and shook as he caught sight of one of the officers dusting themselves off as they stood up, staring up at the ceiling.

“Get out of here, Jin!” Yang exclaimed, avoiding a sword that zipped just past his head as he clung onto the ceiling and maneuvered his way back toward the illusion.

I could see the Daji officer’s face twist before he scoffed, looking down.

Peijin: Yang, none of these people are real! Don’t get attached to them!

“Fuck, Yang!” Yue screamed from behind the illusion. It was wavering more and more, exposing Meihua as she relentlessly fought against nearly a hundred officers alone. Their relentless attacks were beginning to tear through the illusion, and Yue let out another pained scream as her limbs seemed to crumple together.

Jin whipped around and pushed back some of the officers with his blade. “Yang isn’t involved in this! Stop attacking him!” He shouted, bringing up his sword in front of his chest, “We can bring him back to the base later. He’ll come!” Jin's voice was strained with desperation as he continued insisting Yang's innocence.

And despite Jin being a ghost, I almost felt… pity?

Yang gave a grateful look, letting out a sigh of relief. It felt strange to know that Yang had spent two weeks here. Although I’d known him for longer than that, I only began talking to him since the start of the arcs.

To be honest, he was probably closer to Jin than me.

Observer ‘Socrates’: Don’t start overthinking now, Jia Li.

Just before Yang could make his hesitant descent down to the ground floor, an officer wearing a black mask suddenly stabbed his sword straight through one of Jin’s lungs. Jin crumbled onto the floor and clawed at the tile before ash burst out of his mouth and erupted all the feet of the officers.

“Jin!” Yang screamed, wobbling as he tried to hold on to the top of the ceiling.

The man with the black mask suddenly jerked his head toward Yang and, ripping his sword out of Jin’s lifeless corpse, aimed it straight at Yang.

With a flick of Yang's hand, the staff spun before him in a protective circle, but the officer’s sword seemed to twist and pass straight through, heading for Yang’s face.

His eyes widened in complete shock—so far, spinning his staff had served as an all-purpose defensive move, but he was now face to face with the glistening sword.

Meihua dashed toward Yang and lept into the air, the fabric of her robes beautifully fluttering as she let out a burst of spiritual energy. Flowers rained down all around her, and they were intoxicating; anyone in their vicinity would be overcome by a strange drunkenness.

As soon as she grabbed him, Yang let out a loud scream and covered his face, clearly flustered again. Yue looked like she would have burst out laughing except that her face was instead twisted into immense pain as the illusion's borders shrank again.

The black mask signified the highest ranking Daji officers—although they themselves weren’t martial gods, their power rivaled many. As soon as Meihua and Yang began falling toward the palace floor, the masked officer lunged forward with horrifying speeds, another blade already in hand.

Yang immediately extended his staff and swung it at the officers legs, but instead of sending the officer flying, the staff rippled and threatened to snap before Yang let go of it.

Instantly, Meihua flung Yang back and gripped onto her sword, whipping it in the air as it wrapped itself around the officer.

But instead of slicing him into pieces, he reached out, gripped the blade, and pulled Meihua in.

Meihua’s face filled with shock as she was reeled in. Her feet skid against the floor as she tried to push back—until the officer grabbed his blade and pierced straight into her abdomen.