Chapter 109

For the next ten or so days, Lin Yu lived in perfect stillness, using those poison insects to map out the entire mountain's layout.

One thing puzzled her: the disciples of the rear mountain had all gone out and not yet returned. Few people remained in Heaven's Mandate Tower, and those who did seemed consumed by pressing matters.

The Xianzun was absent, and every elder had shut their doors to visitors, as if something were stirring in the shadows.

...

"You're here." Elder Wen pushed open the door, and seeing it was Lin Yu, he grinned. "Today we'll study the chapter on the God of War—that is, the former emperor."

Lin Yu sat down with a book in hand, watching Elder Wen gesture wildly as he always did, thoroughly impassioned.

"This former emperor was also the first mortal of our Yu Kingdom to achieve Ascension. In just three years of cultivation, he rose successfully, and upon Ascending, he was granted the all-important divine post of the God of War."

"The God of War is no small matter—do you know why?" Elder Wen asked with a dramatic air.

Lin Yu knew why, but to play along and not dampen his enthusiasm, she shook her head. "I don't know."

Sure enough, Elder Wen grew even more excited. Lin Yu had long noticed that unlike other tutors, who liked to test their students' foundations with questions, Elder Wen disliked interruptions. He preferred to hold forth all on his own.

"Think back over the past three hundred years—the realm has constantly been dividing and reuniting. It's not just our Yu Kingdom; which country has enjoyed peace? Day in and day out, they fight, killing each other to the bitter end."

"When mortals pray to the gods for blessings, at least there's a deity to beseech—for studies, they worship the God of Culture; for rain and wind, the Rain Goddess and Wind God; for wealth, the God of Glory... but when it comes to war, there's no god to worship."

"Our Yu Kingdom's battles are mostly in the north, at the junction of three kingdoms where there's no law at all. Because it's remote and covered in snowy peaks, the only resident deity there is the Snow God. But what need has an army for snow? What, are we supposed to worship the Snow God and ask for a blizzard to freeze the enemy to death?" Elder Wen chuckled.

He nudged Lin Yu with his elbow. "Wouldn't you say?"

Just then, a white cat slipped through the half-open door, sprang nimbly onto the book-laden desk, and skillfully settled on the thick tomes.

Speak of the Snow God, and he shall appear...

Lin Yu followed Elder Wen in an awkward laugh or two, as if in agreement, but Elder Wen didn't seem to notice her strained smile. Seeing the big cat he fed daily had arrived, he gave it a couple of pats on the head.

"So you see, when our former emperor Ascended, it was exactly what everyone had hoped for. After decades of war, at last there was a God of War to worship. He wasn't just our Yu Kingdom's first guardian deity—he was the guardian of every soldier under heaven."

"Think about it—across the world, big or small, there are at least a few hundred kingdoms. The God of War, whom everyone under heaven yearned for, was our Yu Kingdom's emperor! That was glorious! I hear that in that very year, our soldiers' morale soared. They won dozens of battles in a row and wiped out tens of thousands of remnant enemy forces—invincible, unstoppable!"

At the height of his excitement, Elder Wen scooped up the Snow God cat from the desk and used its paws to gesture at Lin Yu. This, too, Lin Yu had noticed.

When Elder Wen got worked up, he loved to wave around whatever was at hand.

Lin Yu leaned over her desk, listening with great earnestness. The day passed quickly. Sunlight slanted down, spilling through the door's gap and across the ink-splattered paper strewn across the floor.

Elder Wen still talked on tirelessly about the next volume of the God of War's story. He didn't even notice the sun setting in the west. Lin Yu didn't interrupt him; she just propped her chin on her hand and listened, and before she knew it, night had fallen.

The first birdsong from the courtyard was followed by the tolling of a bell from the peak of the Divine Mountain.

Only then did Elder Wen come to his senses. He snapped shut the next volume of the classic. "Oh dear, would you look at the time—it's gotten so late!"

By now, the Snow God cat was buried in the mountain of ink-spattered paper, fast asleep, its shallow breaths making the delicate sheets rise and fall. Lin Yu smiled at Elder Wen. "It's not late."

"You head back first. Come again tomorrow morning at the hour of Chen, and I'll continue where we left off. I should be able to finish the rest within two hours." Elder Wen rose and shuffled through the messy books on the desk. "Once we finish the God of War volume, it'll be time to pick a magical artifact for you and truly begin your path of cultivation."

Lin Yu looked at Elder Wen with a smile but said nothing in reply. She picked up the big cat, which had fallen into a deep slumber on the floor. "Elder, I need to ask you for leave tomorrow."

"Why?" Elder Wen seemed puzzled. "Busy with something? The tower's been bustling lately too. Once the elders get back, they'll start preparing for the disciple competition. You should use this time to study hard and try to surpass those slacker disciples."

Lin Yu chuckled softly, meeting Elder Wen's eyes. He really was different from the others in Heaven's Mandate Tower—at least, since she had known him, he had been a scholar devoted to learning, detached from the outside world.

"I have business tomorrow. I need to go out for a while." She lied to him. In truth, tomorrow she would leave Heaven's Mandate Tower and never return.

Elder Wen didn't press further. He simply warned her, "All right, be careful out there. Have fun."

Lin Yu smiled and agreed. "Yes."

...

The sky had gone fully dark. Lin Yu sat at the table in her quarters, chin resting on her hand, gazing at the moon on the horizon. Her room faced the window, a perfect spot for moon-gazing.

A gentle breeze drifted in, stirring her hair, which brushed against her face and made it itch for no reason.

The peach tree outside the window had already sprouted buds. Perhaps in a few days, the courtyard's peach blossoms would be in full bloom. The night was deep, and birds occasionally perched on the fresh peach branches.

Today was the twenty-first day after the Spring Sacrifice. Around now, the Xianzun should be returning. She had to make one more trip to Bushou Hall before he came back.

On the day of the Spring Sacrifice, she had seen a new sculpture inside Bushou Hall. Back then, time had been tight, and she hadn't gotten a good look. Her intuition told her that sculpture was unusual—she needed to investigate it further.

She sat by the window, gazing at the cold moonlight. She had already mapped out tonight's plan in her mind, yet she still hadn't set out for Bushou Hall. She didn't know what she was thinking about.

Or perhaps, she was waiting for something.

Her thoughts were jumbled. She had always been someone who feared nothing, but for some reason, tonight, gazing at the lonely moonlight, she felt a flicker of confusion about the unknown path ahead for the first time.

Suddenly, a familiar figure appeared in her field of vision. Her thoughts snapped back, and she looked up to see Fu Ming.

The Divine Maiden's Hall atop the Divine Mountain had long been repaired, but Lin Yu had never moved out of her current quarters, so her lodgings were indistinguishable from those of an ordinary disciple.

The window of her room faced the courtyard gate directly, so she spotted Fu Ming's figure at a glance from the windowsill.

It seemed rain was coming—the air was thick with dampness. The courtyard outside was littered with withered apricot petals, the path stained with blossoms. She watched Fu Ming tread across the fallen petals, step by step, coming toward her.

The flowers fell in silence. A few petals clung to Fu Ming's boot soles. He leaned against the window, not coming in. Lin Yu shifted over to sit on the windowsill, leaning close to him.

She laughed. "I was wondering..."

Fu Ming tilted his head. "Wondering what?"

"Well, I was supposed to head out, but somehow I ended up sitting here by the window for a long time, thinking about all sorts of things, as if I were waiting for someone." Her tone was light, a smile on her face. "Turns out I was waiting for you."

"Then am I late?" Fu Ming asked with a smile.

"You're very late. I've been waiting here for ages." She feigned a petulant pout.

"Then how about I make it up to you?" Fu Ming leaned by the window, not looking at her, instead gazing at the peach trees in the courtyard. "How about I build you a temple?"

Fu Ming seemed to be in a good mood, a smile playing at the corners of his brows. "Consider it preparation for your future Ascension."

"You seem to be in high spirits." Lin Yu very naturally skipped over the topic of the temple.

She was about to leave Heaven's Mandate Tower, with an uncertain fate ahead—let alone Ascension and godhood. There was no need to go to all that trouble building her a temple. She hadn't told Fu Ming about this.

This trip north was for the God of War and the Crimson God. As for such a perilous venture with an unknown outcome, Lin Yu didn't want to tell Fu Ming.

If fate allowed, they would meet again.

Fu Ming gave a soft hum. "Thanks to you, the court has been purged from top to bottom, and the entrenched great families have all lost their influence."

At long last, there were no powerful factions from the previous dynasty closely tied to the divine. He could finally begin, step by step, to eradicate the most revered deities under heaven.

Next would come burning the scriptures, smashing the idols, demolishing the temples, and gradually dismantling the gods' hold over mortal hearts.

Perhaps, a hundred years from now, the world would change—no longer ruled by gods, riddled with desire, and steeped in living sacrifices.

These rotten decades would finally come to an end.

"How is it thanks to me?" Lin Yu shifted on the windowsill, drawing closer to Fu Ming. "The factions you eliminated were all the ones who had objections to me, the Divine Maiden."

The great families tied to cultivators would naturally all disdain Lin Yu, a Divine Maiden with no roots, and they had all taken part in the petition to the throne. Coincidentally, Fu Ming had used that very reason to get rid of quite a few of them.

Outsiders only saw that the Emperor had colluded with the Divine Maiden—that anyone who so much as objected to her was killed without mercy. Only Lin Yu knew that he wasn't doing it for her; he was eliminating the great families that upheld divine authority, with his sights set squarely on the deities behind them.

Lin Yu poked Fu Ming's chest, teasing, "I hear Your Majesty is in love with me, this Divine Maiden. Any court official who says a single bad word about me gets his head chopped off and his family seized. Now the two of us are being called a tyrant king and a witch queen all over the streets."

Fu Ming's expression stiffened. "I'll handle it. Within ten days, no one will dare speak ill of you again."

Lin Yu tilted her head to look at him. "Is this about people speaking ill of me?"

Fu Ming didn't understand. Their eyes met, and his gaze flickered with confusion. He didn't quite grasp what she meant. "No one is allowed to speak ill of you."

"Not just me—you too."

"It's us." Lin Yu stressed the word "us."

It had been the same before in the Hall of Governance, when that adviser to the Imperial Censor tried to frame her by deliberately saying the Emperor was in love with the Divine Maiden. Fu Ming had worn that same expression then.

It was an expression of resistance.

Fu Ming seemed unwilling to be linked with her. He was rejecting her. Was he... disgusted by her?

Was it really that bad? Lin Yu felt an inexplicable tightness in her chest. Being talked about together with her—did he have to avoid it so desperately?

Caught in Lin Yu's intense stare, Fu Ming's breathing grew heavier. His gaze drifted elsewhere, afraid to meet her eyes. He feigned confusion. "Us? What do you mean?"

Suddenly, Fu Ming felt a chilling touch. Lin Yu's hands cupped his face, her fingertips brushing past his ears, forcibly turning his gaze back to her. Fu Ming couldn't move, forced to meet her eyes.

The two faced each other from mere inches apart, their breaths mingling—so close that a single dip of Fu Ming's head would bring his lips to hers.

"Why won't you look at me?" Lin Yu's hands rested on his neck. "Do you hate me that much, always avoiding me?"

Fu Ming pressed his lips together. Only then did he realize Lin Yu had misunderstood something. He was about to say "No," but before the word left his mouth, her face suddenly loomed before him—

She held his face in her hands and pressed a kiss to the corner of his lips.