“We’re going to die if you don’t snap out of it,” Yu Di said. They had walked to another dead end with locked doors. How did anyone navigate this place?

  Vimala tugged against Yu Di as he attempted to turn right down another identical hallway. Each hallway was marbled white with no discernible markings at all.

  “Promise me you won’t steal the secret,” she said.

  “We’ve been over this already. I don’t want your secret anymore. I just want to get home,” Yu Di said. They had arrived at a new hallway with more golden doors. He pushed against the doors, but none of them opened. “This is another dead end. Why did you lead me here?”

  Vimala pointed to the floor.

  Of course, it was another trapdoor. There would be no way for him to find his way around, even as a Demigod. Nothing here felt different and there was no way to penetrate the wards to see where to go.

  Yu Di felt around on the floor for a handle of some sort. All he felt were footsteps rumbling somewhere close. “I can’t find the handle. Help me.”

  Vimala lowered herself to the ground. She waved a hand over the edge of two tiles. A handle appeared.

  “How was I supposed to find that?” Yu Di said. He grabbed the handle and lifted. He felt his newly healed shoulder joints straining against the heavy floor. “A little help here, Goddess.”

  Vimala grimaced before pulling the tile free from its sisters. For a mortal, she was very strong. It must have been all that camel wrangling back at Ying Fusu’s inn.

  The floor opened up onto a gaping hole. There were no stairs or any way to get down.

  “How do we get down?” Yu Di asked.

  Vimala closed her eyes and leapt into the hole.

  Yu Di peered down. He heard nothing. Not a plop or a bump or anything. Did it end?

  The footsteps got closer.

  Yu Di was going to take a leap of faith then. If the former Goddess leaped in, then he should survive, right? Unless of course she still had grievances with him and wanted to prevent him from stealing the secrets in which case this would be a trap.

  Yu Di ground his teeth for a second.

  Screw it.

  Yu Di sat down, with his legs dangling within the hole. He slowly lowered himself into the hole until his arms were the only thing holding him up. He slid the tile as close to him as possible before letting go into the hole.

  It was awkward with no way to stand for a second, but he covered most of the whole. He glanced up swiftly and observed that only a small hole was still there.

  Yu Di turned his attention back down to where he had fallen. Although falling was an overstatement. He didn’t feel the pull of the ground or anything. He looked back up and saw that the hole above was the same size. So what gives?

  A pair of tanned arms yanked him aside. Yu Di fell ass-first onto hard ground.

  Vimala’s green eyes came up to his face. “Are you okay?”

  Yu Di nodded. There was barely any light there, coming from a distance, but enough to make out where he had fallen to. It was a powerful Qi construct that made whatever was in it feel like falling in a dark space. A small copper coin floated inside.

  Yu Di reached in and grabbed it. The moment he touched the coin, he felt himself falling all over again. He couldn’t get out, surrounded by a void.

  Vimala yanked him away again. “Don’t do that again or I’ll leave you in there. I can’t believe a Demigod is so cheap that he won’t let a copper coin go.”

  Yu Di shook his head. His legs were firmly on the ground, yet it still felt like he was falling. But the copper coin gave him an idea.

  Yu Di reached into his storage ring and pulled out twenty ingots of silver. He tossed them into the artifact.

  “Why’d you waste the money?” Vimala asked.

  “If I were greedy for a copper coin, can you imagine our pursuers won’t be?” Yu Di said. “This might slow them down if they reach in to grab it.”

  “That’s only if they know about the artifact to get out. It can hold over three hundred people before it would fail.”

  Yu Di glanced back at his silver ingots, wondering if he should grab them back again. No, it wouldn’t be worth it if Vimala meant what she said earlier.

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  “Let’s go,” Vimala said. She led the way this time deeper into the caverns. After the first section with the Qi construct, it looked eerily similar to the underground caverns where Arzu was. The only major difference was the more refined symbols that told one where to go.

  “Is this where the secret is?” Yu Di asked.

  “It’s one tunnel ,” Vimala said. “No, we’re not going there.”

  “Then why didn’t you allow your prince to follow us?”

  Vimala frowned. “It’s because he has an army to comb through these tunnels. It would take you the rest of your life to find the entrance to the secret, let alone overcome the test to get inside.”

  That was a new piece of information for Yu Di. He hadn’t known that not only was the Goddess secret hidden in this maze, it also had another layer of security. Even if he had wanted to gain the secret now, he doubted he could. But there was something else that was eating at him.

  “You look upset,” Vimala said.

  “I’m not upset,” Yu Di said. He paused. “No wait, I am upset.”

  “You know why I can’t show you where the Goddess’ secret is, even if you promised you wouldn’t take it.”

  “That’s not why. I noticed that even after talking with you about how I have changed over the last few years, you haven’t changed at all. You’re still the same foolish girl that has and will always uphold the secrets of your Goddess.”

  “I’m not a foolish girl.”

  “Aren’t you? It took you a lot of convincing that I am no threat before you would trust me. Sure, at one point I almost blew up your city, but that’s in the past. We both learned from that experience. But the prince has done nothing but help you. He even risked his own life for you twice by now from the few days I have been here.”

  Vimala snarled. “It’s because he wants the Goddess’ power. He never did it for me. He doesn’t love me or care about me.”

  Yu Di pulled Vimala’s arm to stop her. “What do you mean?”

  “Nothing. Keep moving.” Vimala yanked her arm free from Yu Di.

  Yu Di knew a secret hiding somewhere in that mind of hers. He knew he couldn’t pry or else she would abandon him. But this wasn’t over. If there was something she could do to save this city or at least fend off the invaders, Yu Di was going to pry and pry until it came loose.

  The pair moved in silence through the dimly lit tunnels. The quality of the tunnel walls degraded after traveling for a while. Soon it looked just like the underground tunnels where Arzu and her people lived.

  “Are we going back to Arzu?” Yu Di asked. “I don’t think they’d be happy to see me again.”

  “No, that part of the tunnel has been blocked off for centuries,” Vimala said. She touched a faded rune on the wall. “Those who go there do not have the favor of the Goddess. I am glad that Arzu will bring those people back into her loving embrace, even if it won’t be during this life.”

  “So where are we going?”

  Vimala stopped below a set of ladders leading up. “We’re going to the lower city. That’s the only place that hasn’t been blocked off these tunnels. I checked all the ones that led to the inner city and they were all locked.”

  “To prevent the army from invading from below?” Yu Di asked.

  Vimala shook her head. “To prevent poor people from getting in. Without guidance, no army could walk through these tunnels without falling into a few traps and pitfalls. While Miryana was peaceful before your attack, it was built to withstand all kinds of invaders.”

  Yu Di was impressed. The foresight of its original architects was brilliant.

  Vimala headed up the ladder until she reached the cover. It had a long bar handle that turned. Try as hard as she could, it wouldn’t budge.

  “Let me do it,” Yu Di said from below. He moved past Vimala and tugged. It didn’t budge for him either. So, he used his Qi to enhance his strength and turned. The door popped open like a cap.

  Yu Di peeked out from the opening to see if there was anyone there. He didn’t need another fight and if absolutely required, he could live in the tunnels for a while.

  The door led to a small room covered in dust. The sun shone through the windows, creating a shower of dust floating around.

  Yu Di pushed his Qi sense out. No one. He pushed it out a little more and regretted it.

  Loud explosions shook his senses. They weren’t simple fireworks, but Qi attacks at the second realm. The ground shook and people screamed.

  Yu Di pulled his senses back, rubbing his temple. The explosions were at least a li away, but the last few were getting closer.

  “What’s going on?” Vimala called from below. “Go up already.”

  Yu Di pulled himself up, dragging the dust and dirt with him. He reached down for Vimala’s hand.

  Vimala pulled herself up. She dusted herself off and looked around. “This was the temple’s kitchen when people lived in this section.”

  “We have to go right now,” Yu Di said. “The invaders have launched Qi attacks upon the city. They’re getting closer and stronger. Their strikes can level this building.”

  “Then let’s head back into the city proper. I know a secret way in.” Vimala led the way out of the kitchen.

  Yu Di tugged his ears, trying to fix his hearing. There was a ringing in there that won’t go away for a while.

  Vimala stopped in the alleyway behind the temple. She looked up at the Qi strikes streaking through the sky. The trails they left behind were white.

  “Those aren’t from the attackers,” Vimala said. “They’re from the city. They’re using the Goddess’ artifacts to defend the city.”

  “But they’re hitting the city itself,” Yu Di said. “All the strikes have been within the lower section of the city.”

  Vimala froze. “That’s where all the vulnerable people are.”

  “You mean the poor. The ones no one cares about?”

  “We have to help them.” Vimala took three steps to the right.

  Yu Di grabbed her by the tunic and yanked her back. He took a barrier from his storage ring and put it up around them.

  Curse unlocked: .1% lifted.

  A Qi strike detonated next door, vaporizing the building beside the temple.

  When the dust cleared, Yu Di saw that the temple itself was obliterated. If they had left that building a few minutes later, they’d be under the rubble. Not even his barrier would have survived that.

  “That was close,” Yu Di said.

  Vimala gripped Yu Di’s sleeves. “Do you have any more of these shields? We need to save as many people as we can. They will not stop until the attackers retreated or they breached the walls.”

  Yu Di hesitated. He didn’t have unlimited shields and it was probably best to be running away from the battlefield than die on it.

  A cough broke his focus.

  A young child stood among the rubble, coughing, looking for something or someone. Her hands grabbed at jagged pieces. The dust from the explosion covered her from head to toe.

  “Let’s do this,” Yu Di said. He ran to the child and kept running, hoping Vimala followed.

  Curse unlocked: .1% lifted.

  Another strike hit just behind them, obliterating the rubble and turning it into dust.

  When all this was said and done, Yu Di was going to have a few words with Abbot Lokenatha and how he treated his own people. They might be poor, but that gave him no right to bombard his own people.