Like a vicious wave of zombies, both infected and asymptomatic civilians raced toward the wall; they clamored over each other, and countless bodies disappeared under the stampede. They were trampled and crushed, their agonized screams ringing out.
Meihua shot back up and whipped her sword to try and cover the gaping hole, forming a makeshift ribbon wall, but she wouldn’t tighten the fabric out of fear of slicing the people. Their arms squeezed through the gaps and clawed at the other side.
Wei was torn. These were his people—and the infection was indirectly his doing. Keeping them out meant all of them were vulnerable to the cruelties of war, but if he let them in, the disease would spread and wipe out Anyang.
I watched his face twist out of frustration before I called out, “Bai, Gang, and everyone from my party: block the wall! Your Highness, you push back Zhou!”
I wouldn’t let him make this decision. There wasn’t time to figure out how we got integrated into the timeline, but I could save Wei.
My eyes caught sight once more of the mysterious tattoo on my arm.
As Yang twirled his staff in the area and stood atop it, he quickly shouted, “Peijin, make sure His Highness doesn’t end up losing worshippers!”
The giant gold staff extended, and Yang was shot into the air. The staff tilted, perfectly dropping Yang off at the wall’s hole.
Yang, as always, was thinking far ahead even though I never expected him to be so clever. He was always just the kind, intellectual coworker, and I often fantasized about him leaving some kind of inwardly rebellious life, but I’d grown more fond of him recently.
Now that the people knew Wei had descended from the heavenly realm to save them, their expectations had skyrocketed. In times of crisis, they would turn to their respective gods—Wei’s failure would destroy his status as a divinity.
My decision to send him out to the battlefield would limit his interaction with civilians, and hopefully, he would be able to keep more worshippers if he seemed to vanish than if he stayed and failed.
Meihua quickly got back up, and despite being thrown across the ground, she quickly dusted off her robes. From behind the gaping hole in the wall, white wisps of hair could be seen vanishing just behind.
Daji.
I grit my teeth and threw Zhige forward to help push back the countless infected civilians. I could only hope the cultivator bodies that all of my party members subsumed couldn’t get infected.
Amelia let out a small, surprised shout as dozens of adults shoved her to the side, nearly trampling her. One of them, with massive black limbs jutting out of their skin, tried to pick her up and move her to the side, but he vanished beneath the crowd and let out a grueling scream.
Finally reaching the wall and wielding Zhige in my arms, I pointed my blade at the cowering civilians and commanded, “All of you, get back! We’re setting up a camp out here to treat all of your illnesses!”
“Who are you?!”
“Let us in! We’re civilians! I’m not infected!”
An injured mother suddenly stumbled forward, holding a child wrapped in a blanket. A man, the father, was just behind. He anxiously held onto the two of them despite his trembling body. “Please, my son has been hurt!” The mother pleaded.
“Yes, at least take our child! He's only a few months old!”
“You can’t treat us like this!”
“His Highness wouldn’t stand for this! Where is he?”
"Save the kid! How could you all be so cruel?!"
Yue has activated ‘Magician’s Hand!’
The wall suddenly seemed to patch itself together slowly. At the sight, hundreds of the civilians grew more reckless—Meihua, however, gave Yue a relieved nod.
The two whispered to each other on the side while Yang comforted Amelia and Ailun, carrying the two of them on his back.
“Yue, thank you. You can sense Daji, can’t you?”
Even though Meihua hadn’t heard Yue’s earlier comment, her perception was sharp as ever.
Yue hadn’t fully healed yet. Just by using 'Magician’s Hand,' even for this simple illusion, she was over exerting herself. Still, she found the energy to puff out her chest and tilt her chin up.
“Yes, I’m the one who warned everyone.”
Meihua gave an unsurprised and sweet smile. Yue immediately tensed up, sensing she messed up. “So you’re demonic? Only demons can sense each other so keenly. I guess Daji really had all of us fooled,” Meihua began, “She did a much better job hiding her energy than you have.”
Yue nervously hiccuped and looked away.
“Don’t worry. I don’t usually kill demons for fun,” Meihua insisted with a perfectly soothing tone.
Meihua suddenly turned toward the crowd and immediately released an almost invisible and shimmery aura that seemed to calm down the people immediately around her. It was intoxicating, smelling of flowers as many began to visibly sway.
Yang took a few steps back with both kids.
“Everyone, please do not panic! I’m here to help you all in every way I can. Please split into groups of infected and uninfected individuals!”
Divinity ‘Spirit of the Jade Moon’ turns away from the scene.
Divinity ‘Spirit of the Jade Moon’ is overwhelmed by her emotions.
Divinity ‘One who Fights in Front’ is comforting Divinity ‘Spirit of the Jade Moon.
The woman with the child hesitated. It was clear that she was hiding something under her long, loose robes, but she darted toward the uninfected group.
Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.
I recognized the woman as a pivotal character from Surviving My First Run, but before I could react, Gang had already grabbed her arm and pulled her sleeves back.
Her husband immediately slammed his fist into Gang’s face, but the woman's black lesions were already revealed.
“She’s infected!”
“Oh god, what if she already gave it to some of us? Get back!”
Another civilian cried out, “Someone kill her! Hurry!”
“Kill her!”
“She still has a child! You can’t kill her! No one is better at healing ailments than the Heavenly Flora of the Spring! I’m sure she’ll save us!”
Trembling, the woman held onto her barely visible child even tighter. It was a miracle if it hadn’t been smothered by the tight fabric around it.
“Please, my child isn’t infected! Please take him through the walls. He’s been hurt, and he’ll die soon!”
The father grabbed onto Gang and dropped onto his knees, pleading through tears.
“Where is your kindness? Please! He’s just a baby!” Tears and snot fell down his entire face, making an incredibly pitiful sight.
Some people were moved and began to fight with the more fearful civilians in the crowd; however, at the man’s hands grabbing Gang’s clothes, Gang’s face twisted into complete disgust as he kicked the man back.
“Get your filthy hands off me,” he spat cruelly.
Bai quickly shoved his way forward but kept a safe distance from the family. “If the child is healthy, he’ll be let in. But all of you need to calm down before anything is done. You won’t be attacked by Zhou if you stay here, and we’ll set up camp.”
As I stared at the miserable and pitiful family, I asked myself, “Should I just kill all of them now?”
This family right here would destroy Wei. In the original, Wei tries to stop the plague and save the entire Shang dynasty by relentlessly working with other gods to cleanse the dynasty of the demonic energy that triggered the plague. However during this time, the child and his parents would die trying to break into the wall.
The gods, too, would abandon Wei.
As a result, the thousands of civilians outside would revolt and break into Anyang, helping destroy Wei’s temples before he would be caught by heavenly officials and punished with a multitude of crimes.
I anxiously tapped my foot against the ground. If I killed them now, I’d eliminate a trigger for the rebellion, but it would probably make Wei look even worse.
And if I killed them secretly…? Wei would be blamed for these awful conditions that led to them being vulnerable.
Fuck, this was getting on my nerves. Now, a cool, gray fog was beginning to roll across the bloody battlefield.
Editor’s Pen activated!
The family before me will all be infected by the plague and die inconspicuously.
Edit granted!
If the issue was the child’s lack of symptoms, then catching the plague would solve it.
Besides, I was no righteous savior or moral god the way Wei was. I didn’t care if this sick family was real and not ghosts—if I’d just learned to slightly accept the main characters around me as people, plot devices still meant nothing.
Thinking that probably just made my karma and luck even worse. So much for being the god of fate and fortune.
I immediately perked up. God of fortune, huh? I felt rather cocky at how good my name choice was even though I came up with it so early on. Right now, I could change Wei’s fate. That was what this was truly about.
I was the author of this brilliant masterpiece—if I created it, I could change it, too.
Suddenly, those wickedly familiar yellow sparks lit up all around the blue box just before me.
Observer ‘Socrates’: Jia Li can’t win at anything.
A white haired woman emerged from the mysterious fog and waved down everyone, shouting over the chaos. “Everybody! I see His Highness across the village! He’s pushing back Zhou! He must be here to stay and help us!”
Keeping him isolated from this entire ordeal would have been the most logical move; but, it would also have been a move that contradicted his character. Wei, His Highness, Blessed Martial Guard of Salvation, would have never stayed back and watched his people die while only being absorbed by his temples in Anyang.
My attempt to hold him back was a compromise, an attempt to rewrite a part of his character to be more selfish instead of prioritizing that immature idealism.
Clearly, Karma was having none of that.
Yue immediately tensed up again, her body trembling due to a strange and overpowering force.
“That’s her! That’s Daji!”
The woman looked to be of no worth greater than a peasant, her white hair matted and dirty, her clothes plain and torn, but her beauty was utterly striking. It was no surprise that she was such a successful concubine and was able to easily seduce Emperor Di Xin.
She made eye contact with a hardened Meihua; beside me, Ailun was whispering quietly to Wei, updating him on the now increasingly dire situation.
Her words were so simple but so targeted and destructive—by implying that Wei would “stay and help” everyone, she had effectively damned him to stay.
I really would have to rewrite and destroy his integral character. God damnit, Archangel Michael was going to kill me, but I needed to save Wei. If I was going to lose him, I was going to by fighting to give him the best outcome.
Ha, this motherfucker. Even if I could control everyone’s fate now and rewrite the entire future, Karma was going to do everything it could to stop me. That was the roll of karmic restraints after all.
“You fucking bitch… if you wanted to prevent this then how did you let us all get integrated?” I murmured under my breath.
A chill ran down my entire body, the hairs on the back of my neck standing up. My entire body straightened and Zhige’s red eye spun wildly.
A childish but familiar voice seemed to play just in my ear, but no one was standing so close to me.
“If you try and get Wei into Anyang, the heavenly officials will immediately persecute and arrest him. He’ll only be safe in the frontlines, don’t you see?” Karma said, its tone sneering and dripping with venom.
“It would look bad to the people if the Gods punished Wei when he was saving them. We can’t have all the divinities losing their worshippers now, can we?
But arrest Wei after he fails? Oh, oh, oh… you’ve failed! Ha ha ha!” Karma trailed off, getting lost in its own convoluted fantasies.
...
I was trapped.
“Is the future set? Our futures?”
“I only know what I have to change.”
I remembered the conversation I had with Meihua.
“Meihua,” my voice trembled with a feeling of hopelessness and utter frustration.
“Then are we on the right track?”
My chest swelled with a terrible foreboding.
“I’m sorry. I’ll do my best, believe me.”