Yu Di slept on the bed while Vimala slept on the floor. Normally, he was more of a gentleman and would allow a woman to sleep on the bed instead. But he paid six silver bars for this cramped room and he would get its worth. If she wanted the bed, maybe she could pay next time.

  Still though, he couldn’t sleep. Yu Di lay on the bed, staring at the plain ceiling in the dead of the night. There were no lights nor any windows. The least they could have done was give them that. It was effectively no different with his eyes closed or open.

  Yu Di thought about the next steps. He talked with Vimala earlier, trying to pry the secret from her, but even now within the temple of her Goddes, she wouldn’t tell him where and how to get to the secret. She only told him to follow her and they will get there eventually.

  That was fine with Yu Di. What wasn’t fine was thinking about the curse now that he didn’t have anyone actively chasing him down. What better place than the city where it happened to jump start a way to fully break the curse?

  First off, things he knew about the curse: Vimala didn’t do it. It made him do things that were “good” in a way, although he was still figuring out the limits to that. He noticed that the curse unlocked sometimes when he had the intention to do good even if he didn’t have the means.

  Was it the curse’s way of telling him that intentions were good enough to unlock the curse? If so, then couldn’t he sit in his room and have all the good intentions in the world?

  That wasn’t enough. He tried it over and over and even a few times toward Vimala’s unconscious body. He didn’t have ill intentions toward her, but thought that with such an opportunity, it would be easy for him to do something. All Yu Di was doing was stopping himself from being an animal.

  That sort of thinking led nowhere as it did nothing.

  And yet…

  Yu Di couldn’t help but chuckle. A moment of clarity washed over him. Why had the curse been so specific to him? Why had such a curse demanded him to be “good?” There had to be worse people in the world. The Emperor of his country has caused mass genocides over the centuries he’s ruled and he’s still the all powerful Demigod.

  It was probably because he was close to something. All these years, he thought it was this dimwitted little Goddess that cursed him because he dared to seek her secret to immortality. There had to be a third party somewhere, somehow.

  Yu Di looked up at the ceiling again, picturing looking past the clouds in the sky all the way up past the moon and the sun. He looked up to where even as an all powerful Demigod, he couldn’t yet reach.

  The realm of Gods. The very peak he sought all these years not out of desire for power, wealth, or control like so many others, but out of his fascination and addiction of achieving the next level. Could it be them that has cursed him?

  Good thing Yu Di was already in bed, otherwise this revelation would have knocked him hard onto the floor. There was one problem though. Which God or Goddess up there would do something like that to him?

  The obvious answer would be the actual Goddess of Miryana, ascended over a thousand years ago. But that wouldn’t make sense. Why would she curse her own avatar?

  Vimala snorted loudly. Her snores came right after, softer at first, and then louder. The real villain to Yu Di’s sleep.

  Yu Di had a lot to think about and more importantly, a potential source. Some how, some way, he would need to convince the sleeping Goddess below him to show him where the source of her power was.

  “It’s right under the Pavilion of Seven Phoenixes,” Vimala said. She held onto a plain piece of flat bread smeared with some beans. She looked directly at Yu Di. “If you really want to know, the direct entrance is about ten blocks south and two blocks east of the main entrance to the Pavilion.”

  Yu Di stared slack jaw at Vimala. “Why are you telling me this so easily now?”

  Vimala smiled, a little bit of bean stuck in her upper teeth. “Because if you tried to go in through that entrance, they’ll fry you on the spot. You wouldn’t even be able to blink before your body would evaporate like so much dust.”

  “So then why aren’t we there already?” Yu Di put his own flat bread down onto the table. He thought about eating it, but the smell nauseated him.

  “Because Abbot Lokenatha is guarding all the known entrances.” Vimala picked up Yu Di’s food and took a bite out of it as well, now holding one in each hand. If Yu Di didn’t know any better, he would have suspected this woman to be Yu Lin’s mother. The green eyes would have been nice though.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  “Then you must know of a way to get in through other means.” Yu Di secretly took out a Qi infused apple from his storage ring and took a large bite out of it. The Qi from the apple rushed into his body, infusing his core with notes of wood and water Qi.

  Vimala eyed the apple.

  Yu Di snorted before laying it gently on her lap. He took out a pear this time.

  “Yes. And I’ll tell you if you give me that pear.” Vimala stacked her two flat breads together into a mega bread and held out her hand.

  Yu Di shrugged and handed the pear over. Small price to pay for such a secret.

  “The only secret entrance I have found unguarded by the Abbott is right where Ying Fusu’s caravanserais is.”

  “The inn?” Yu Di almost shouted. He quieted his voice. “We were right there the whole time and we could have gone in to retrieve the power at any time?”

  Vimala took a large bite of the pear, the juices dribbling down her chin. “If it was that easy, do you think I’d be sitting here with you?”

  “Of course you would. Who wouldn’t enjoy having a meal with someone as handsome as me?” Yu Di stroked his fake beard.

  “There are guardians of the secret and they might not recognize me in my current state,” Vimala said. “I was scared they would vaporize me on the spot. But with a little help…”

  “You mean a meat shield.” Yu Di already had a few ideas on how to deal with such a problem, one that could potentially be able to deal with someone in the third realm even. They were all in his storage ring. “But why didn’t you ask Ying Fusu to help you? He would die for you.”

  “That man would steal the secret, same as you all those years ago. I can’t trust him, especially now that I know who he truly is.”

  “A prince? A powerful man that can turn the sky upside down?”

  “No, a liar. I have asked him who he truly was and why he was in the city. I’ve worked for him for so long that I know deceit when I see it. He’s never once told me. Why should I ever tell him my secret?”

  “Yet you told me.”

  Vimala finished the apple, the flat breads, and the pear. She let out a soft burp. “You have promised to help me save the city. You have also never lied to me.”

  “It’s that simple?” Yu Di couldn’t believe it.

  Vimala nodded. “Anyone can ask me the same question, as long as they have been truthful with me, then I will give them the answer. Of course, that requires people to know the right question to ask.”

  Yu Di shook his head. “So all those years ago, if I asked you about the secret, you would tell me?”

  Vimala nodded.

  Yu Di wanted to bash his head on the floor until it broke open so he could be swallowed by it. Then again, it’s not like he could expect someone like the guardian of a city to be so willing to give him the secret to their power. That’s not how it worked.

  At least not in his world.

  “Then I guess I have a few more questions to ask you,” Yu Di said.

  Vimala looked past him at the priest behind him, not too far, but very interested in the pair. “What is it?”

  “The curse that hit me, is it affecting you too? Is that why you’re broken?”

  “I don’t know how to answer that. I’ve never tried to break the curse. How did you do it?”

  “Not entirely sure myself, but it seems that whenever I do something good, it unlocks a little. Like when I saved you, I regained a fraction of my power.”

  “I wouldn’t know. I have done so many good things since our fight.”

  “Have you heard a voice whisper in your ear, sometimes loudly, about your curse unlocking?”

  Vimala looked at Yu Di with raised eyebrows. “Did you hit your head?”

  “Plenty of times, but that’s not the point. It seems like you’re not cursed like me. You’re body is just broken. Do you mind if I check your pulse?”

  Vimala offered her hand to him as he put two fingers on her pulse. Yu Di pushed a little bit of his Qi through her meridians to explore what was going on inside.

  It was a mess.

  Vimala’s meridian network was like broken bamboo, pieces large and small all splintered up and down her entire body. There was no real whole piece. How was this woman even alive?

  “You’re giving me strange looks.” Vimala asked. “Is there something wrong with me?”

  “Yes.”

  “The curse is that bad, huh?”

  Yu Di pulled his hand back. “No, it wasn’t the curse, but whatever power they forced onto you.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Your body has all these lines going throughout that we call meridians. That’s how I can call upon my techniques and use my powers by channeling Qi through them. You do something similar with the Goddess Qi you are given. However, it looks like your body is broken. None of your meridians are whole.”

  “The curse did this?”

  “No, the curse stopped you from dying. Whatever Goddess powers you got did this to you. Now I understand why Faouzia couldn’t contain the power. You were never taught how to.”

  “No, we were taught to contain it. Meditations and prayers taught by ancient texts.”

  Yu Di shook his head. “It was through sheer will power, wasn’t it? Recite the pain away.”

  Vimala looked past him again.

  Yu Di felt the priest’s eyes bore into the back of his head. His heightened senses from achieving the second realm had its advantages. He didn’t have to use his Qi to access his refined Demigod body.

  “I think we should go,” Vimala said.

  “I do too.” Yu Di helped Vimala up. He brushed the crumbs off his robes. “But we’re not done talking about this.”

  Vimala wrapped her mega bread in a small cloth and put it away in a pouch hanging off her waist. She threw away the two fruit cores.

  Yu Di took the lead to leave the temple with the priest slowly following behind. He really didn’t want to hurt the greedy man, but he wouldn’t feel bad about it. Who took six silver bars for a night stay and bad bread with beans?

  Whatever the case, he was ready to subdue the man. He didn’t want to hurt anyone else.

  “Excuse me, but my superiors want to speak with you before you leave,” the priest said.

  That was their cue to run. Yu Di only looked back to make sure Vimala was also running with him. As soon as they cleared the door, Yu Di stopped.

  A crew of men surrounded the exit of the temple.

  Yu Di rubbed his storage ring. He wanted any excuse to use his trident just to dust it off. Only problem was, these were all mortal men.