“The least terrible choice?” Yu Di asked. “I would be the best choice. I would bring this city back to its glory and give its people something to look up to. It would be night and day to how this city has been run for so long. It would be paradise.”

  “At least until you leave,” Vimala said.

  “What do you mean? I wouldn’t leave this city unprotected.”

  Vimala took Yu Di’s hand into hers. The calluses rough against his smooth hands. “Look me in the eye and tell me you wouldn’t go find your daughter if you finally broke through that curse. Tell me you would dedicate whatever time you have left to governing this city.”

  Yu Di pulled his hands away. “You’re right. I wouldn’t stay. I can’t.”

  “If you say you truly changed, then you would do the right thing. Before you left the city, you would find a suitable candidate to take up the mantle of the Goddess’ power and pass it on to them. At the very least, they would still be within the hands of my people.”

  Yu Di hadn’t thought about it that far. This naive and foolish girl had an exit strategy for him.

  “Hopefully, sometime in the future when you have your daughter settled, you might come back and give my people some better guidance. You Immortals as you call yourselves tend to live for a long time. If the rumors are true about your Emperor, you could live for over a thousand years. I’m sure giving a little of your time to the city and people that saved you wouldn’t be too much to ask.”

  Yu Di hated to say it, but Vimala was right. There were no moral codes or any authority binding him aside from his own desire to pay back those that helped him and crush those that harmed him. If this could break his curse and allow him to go back to his daughter, he’d do it in a heartbeat.

  “You’re right. I would do that,” Yu Di said. “The other alternatives are the Abbot, Celestial Jade Empire, or Shah al-Rahman. They’re all bad choices.”

  “They’re all deadly choices. At best, they will try to rule the city and hopefully bring it back to its former glory.”

  “At worst, they’d kill everyone and sell the survivors as slaves.”

  Vimala nodded.

  “Here I thought you were foolish in trusting me,” Yu Di said.

  Vimala placed a hand on the broken Goddess statue. “The Goddess wouldn’t lead me down a wrong path. Not for my people.”

  “Not for you either.”

  Vimala shrugged. “My life has always been to serve the Goddess and Miryana. These past twenty years has given me a glimpse of what could be. I’m not sure if I would have had that if you never showed up. So at the very least, I’m thankful for that.”

  Yu Di had sudden inspiration. “What if I could help you temper your body so that you won’t die if you regain your Goddess powers?”

  “That would be lovely, but doubtful. We’ve tried to do so for over a thousand years since the city’s founding.”

  “You’ve never tried to use the techniques of the east. We’ve been creating human vessels for power for thousands of years.”

  “I’m willing to try but I doubt there’s enough time.”

  Yu Di cursed inwardly. If only he didn’t give his pocket dimension to Yu Lin. He could have used it to slow down time and train Vimala until she was ready.

  “Doesn’t matter,” Yu Di said. “I’ll give you at least the basics so you can stop from exploding. Hopefully.”

  “You’re not giving me a lot of confidence.”

  “It might not look like it, but I am a Demigod. I’m confident in my abilities.”

  Vimala had that same look on her face of when Yu Di told his daughter that she could one day fly on her own. If he could see her now, he’d show her how he could fly. Then again, he could have flown when he formed his core.

  Yu Di looked around. He saw a small alleyway a bit further down the main street. “Come with me. Let me show you something.”

  Vimala followed behind Yu Di to the small alleyway. She stopped just outside. “You’re not going to murder me now that you know the secret are you?”

  “I can’t believe you still think so low of me. Just come on.” Yu Di held his hand out.

  Vimala took it and together they walked into the shadowy alleyway. Here the buildings were built just far enough from each other to allow two people to walk shoulder to shoulder. The alley got darker the further you walked in. Her hands tensed, but didn’t pull back as they took every step.

  Yu Di waved his left hand and produced a small lantern from his storage ring. At his current cultivation, he didn’t need to focus on the ring anymore. Such a relief. How he did it before was so annoying.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  “Better?” Yu Di took a step over a sleeping rat. They really were large.

  Vimala nodded.

  They reached the end of the alleyway where a wall twice their height stopped them from moving forward.

  “What are we doing here?” Vimala asked.

  “I know that you’ve had the power of the Goddess coursing through you, but have you ever used the powers for your own enjoyment?” Yu Di peered into his storage ring, looking for the perfect thing.

  “You know we can’t. It was already on the verge of killing me every second I used it.”

  “Then you have never flown into the sky before?”

  Vimala shook her head.

  “Such a shame. You were able to embiggen yourself, but never had a chance to fly into the very air you reached. That changes today.”

  Yu Di took out a two-person capacity sky raft. It sounded more glorious than it was. In truth, it was a long rattan mat that could fit two people on it. Compared to the luxurious flying carpet Fatima had, this might as well be a beggar’s mat. However, Yu Di’s sky raft had something that Fatima’s didn’t: arrays and wards that prevented those without Qi from falling off.

  Vimala pulled her hand away. “I thought you were above the whole earthly flesh thing.” She took two steps back.

  “What?” Yu Di looked from the Vimala to the mat and then back again. He slapped his head. “No, that’s not what this is. Oh Buddha. I swear on my child’s life that this is not what this is for. Let me show you.”

  Yu Di placed the sky raft on the ground and pushed his Qi into it. The raft drank it up.

  A feeling of constriction hit Yu Di on the back of the neck. The curse was acting up again. Now that he was at a higher realm, he could feel it activating. But why? He wasn’t using his powers for evil or anything, just empowering a raft so that they could fly.

  Yu Di took a breath and tried to rationalize it. The use of the raft was for defensive purposes. He wanted to make sure it worked so that if needed, he could fly away on it. Better an ounce of prevention than having to pay for it afterwards.

  The constriction stopped. Was it that easy to stop the curse? He took out his jade tablet.

  Current Power: Realm 2, Stage 1, Level 1 (Manipulation)

  Remaining Lifespan: 2 years, 6 months.

  Current Status: Cursed (19.6% lifted)

  Overall Power: Fourth Realm, End Stage, Peak level (Demigod)

  That was worrying, but at least the curse didn’t become worse. Ever since the curse, Yu Di has been very careful to ration how he used his Qi until he had none left. He’d forgotten about that ever since it started unlocking. He would have to be careful again if he didn’t want to go back to those levels, especially now without much life left.

  What’s more worrying was how he was able to stop the curse from getting worse with twisted rationalization. Could he get away with worse with this curse? Could he make this work for him somehow? What if he used his powers to defend himself against someone… to the death?

  “What is that tablet you keep looking at?” Vimala asked.

  “This is nothing.” Yu Di put away the jade tablet.

  “I keep no secrets from my friends.”

  “We’re friends now? You were trying to kill me a few days ago.”

  “I told you about my Goddess’ ultimate secret.”

  “That’s not really your secret, is it now?”

  Vimala’s eyes looked around as if trying to see if there were any people around. The only thing living were the annoyed rats and other manner of vermin crawling around. “I love Ying Fusu. He’s the reason why I haven’t tried to regain the powers. I know that if he gained it, he would leave me and I can’t live with that.”

  “I guess that changes things.” Yu Di stood on the sky raft. He pointed to a place next to him. “Stand there. As long as you’re on this mat, you won’t fall off unless a Demigod smites us from the sky.”

  Vimala got on the sky raft.

  Yu Di connected his will to the raft, lifting them a few feet into the air. It was shaky at first until he stabilized it by adding more of his Qi into it. With a few adjustments, the shaking stopped and it became as smooth as if they were standing on solid ground.

  “That tablet just tells me about my status, such as how much life I have left and how much power I have. It’s very technical.”

  “So how long do you have to live, Demigod? Thousands of years? I heard your Emperor is at least a thousand.”

  Yu Di’s mouth formed a line. “Two years and XX months.”

  Vimala scrunched up her brows. “What do you mean? You might not have your powers, but even I can tell that you have the body of a Demigod. There’s no way you’d die so easily without your power source.”

  “You’re right, but I have been abusing my body for the last twenty or so years. My ego kept thinking that I would break the curse before I died.” Yu Di looked down at the vermin on the ground. “I’m really no better than the rats. I eat as much as I can without thinking about tomorrow.”

  “That’s not true. You’re better than them.”

  Yu Di smiled. “You’re right. Not by much. That’s something I’m trying to change. Anyway, you might want to sit down for the next part. Most people aren’t used to the ascent.”

  Vimala sat down onto the raft.

  Yu Di pushed the sky raft up, gently at first and then with some more power. They rushed up above into the sky. The city’s buildings grew smaller as they climbed. The smells became better too.

  Yu Di’s heart pounded. How long had it been since he flew on his own power? How long had it been since he felt the power thrumming below him and flowing through his meridians like a long lost friend?

  Vimala clutched her knees as she stared at everything with those piercing green eyes. They went from fear to wonder.

  Yu Di laughed. He really wished that he could have brought his daughter on this voyage. Watching the look on her face might be comparable to Vimala’s.

  The sky raft shook, forcing Yu Di to sit down. He placed his hands on the sky raft and felt a heavy shock running through the arrays.

  “What’s going on?” Vimala asked.

  “This shouldn’t be happening. My sky raft was made by the finest array master in the entire empire. The Emperor himself uses this guy.”

  The sky raft dipped suddenly, dropping them ten or so feet.

  Yu Di pushed his mind into the arrays to find the invading Qi. He found it rather quickly. He grimaced. It was a familiar Qi.

  “This is not good, we’re going to have to set down fast,” Yu Di said.

  “Are we going to crash?” Vimala peeked over the sky raft at the ground that was very far below them.

  “No. I hope not.” Yu Di pushed his Qi into the sky raft as hard as he could to dispel the invading Qi. He pushed hard enough to take control of the sky raft long enough to slow their descent onto a nearby roof. He couldn’t risk trying to fly it back down into the alleyway.

  The sky raft dipped harder than Yu Di anticipated. The invading Qi came back, destroying the array that kept them flying. Yu Di had to surround Vimala with a shield. He didn’t have time for himself as he held onto the sky raft desperately.

  Curse unlocked: .1% lifted.

  They were about to meet the roof. This was going to hurt.