“I can sense that they’re at least ten li away,” Yu Di said. “For us to feel them all the way from here means they are the size of houses. We have to run or we’ll die here.”

  “I have to warn Arzu.” Vimala got up.

  “If you don’t leave with me right now, we’re both going to die. I’m sure they have places they can run to and I doubt they will take us with them. At least not me.”

  Vimala looked between Yu Di and the dark tunnel.

  Yu Di forced himself up. He walked toward the exit of the tunnel. If the Goddess of Miryana wanted to protect her people, he wouldn’t fault her for that. But he would not be stuck in this dead-end tunnel until giant sandworms came and devoured him.

  He ambled two steps before he fell back to the ground on his face.

  Stupid injuries. Stupid infection. Stupid doctor and his stupid needle.

  Vimala lifted him up. “You'd better be right about my people.”

  “I can’t guarantee anything except that we will die if we don’t get out of these tunnels now,” Yu Di said. “You’ve spent much of your life in service of others. When are you going to serve yourself?”

  “That’s not how we were raised. If you had understood that principle, maybe you wouldn’t have tried to force the secret from me so many years ago.”

  Yu Di laughed as he hobbled along with Vimala’s help. “If a person doesn’t look out for themselves, even the heavens will smite them. You think your worshipers would care about you if you didn’t protect them? But tell me, what do you get from them in return?”

  Vimala said nothing as they hurried to the exit.

  A bright shaft of light came from outside. It was morning outside. The pair made it to the exit only to see four large sandworms the size of horses sliding across the sand.

  “Can you run?” Vimala asked.

  “Lead the way. I’ll catch up.” Yu Di held his midsection. He could feel the pill fully blocking his Qi. For the first time in a long time, he was completely mortal. His hands shook and he felt a dreadful cold throughout his body, despite the intense heat.

  Vimala took off on a blind sprint away from the sun. She moved fast atop the shifting sand.

  Yu Di jogged as fast as he could, feeling the burning sand under his feet. He really needed new shoes. Every few feet he lost his footing and almost fell into the sand. How did people live out here in the desert?

  One large sandworm took a detour toward them. Its side-to-side movements allowed it to be more stable on the loose sand, but it took longer to get to them. Yet somehow, Yu Di knew he would not be outrunning this worm.

  Yu Di looked around to see if he could find any type of shelter from the worm. Or at the very least, a place he could fight the monster. Even without his Qi, he might last a little longer. It would allow Vimala to get away at least.

  Vimala stopped and turned back.

  “No, keep running,” Yu Di shouted.

  Vimala put Yu Di’s arm over her shoulders and dragged Yu Di faster across the sand.

  “We won’t make it if you slow down,” Yu Di said.

  “I know of a place nearby that might help,” Vimala said.

  The ground shook from the sandworm. It was getting closer.

  Vimala pulled Yu Di up a dune and then back down the other side. There was a large stone outcrop at the bottom. It was as long as a sailboat.

  The sandworm caught up from behind. Somehow it used Qi to propel itself up into the air over the dune like a pouncing tiger. It opened its mouth wide, showing jagged teeth in a circular pattern. Its shadow provided cool shade from a cruel sun.

  Time seemed to slow down.

  Yu Di had no Qi to use any of his items. He couldn’t even activate his storage ring. He lost his trident somewhere in the caves. To make matters worse, he was still severely injured from the fall and couldn’t get out of the way even if he wanted to. The damned sandworm was just too big to evade.

  “Roll Yu Di, roll!” Vimala yanked Yu Di down to the ground, forcing them both to roll.

  For whatever reason, rolling down the dune was faster than running down. That was the only thing that saved them. The giant sandworm slammed onto the sand and continued its chase.

  Yu Di could only tuck his arms and legs in as he rolled uncontrollably. His back hit the stone outcrop. He prayed the impact wouldn’t break his bones again.

  “Get up.” Vimala yanked Yu Di by his collar, ripping his tunic.

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  Yu Di grabbed the rock and lifted himself up onto the rock. He rolled over and sat up.

  The sandworm slithered up to the rock outcrop and slammed into it, shaking the two atop it. It mostly stopped moving aside from its head shaking back and forth as if it were a cat looking for its prey.

  “Why did it stop?” Yu Di asked.

  “They’re blind,” Vimala said. “They’re attracted to movement unless someone directs them.”

  The sandworm’s head glowed green. Yu Di recognized it was a beast tamer technique. A crude one that gave the beast simple directions. He knew a Demigod spirit master who could embody their spirit animals.

  The sandworm began circling the rock. Running away was out of the question.

  “Do you think Arzu’s people are fine?” Vimala asked.

  “I don’t know,” Yu Di said. “I hope so. I don’t want my karma to get worse.”

  “Is that all you think of? You, you, you?”

  “I have a daugh—”

  “Yes, I know. But she’s not here so all you can think of is you? There are thousands of people in that city, dozens underground, all suffering because of your actions over twenty years ago. If you hadn’t forced your way into my city, it would be protected. They wouldn’t be suffering.”

  Yu Di sat down on the rock and looked up at the blazing sun. His bottom warmed up considerably.

  “You know, your city is not a shining utopia for everyone as you think.” Yu Di took off his tunic and used it as a makeshift cover. It had plenty of holes, but better than having the naked sun beat down on him. “I traveled high and low in Miryana during my stay here. There were no stones left unturned in my hunt for your secret. The one thing I saw over and over was injustice. You think those tunnel people weren’t there before? Just fewer.”

  “But they were safe,” Vimala said.

  “Safe to starve to death? Safe to be beaten by anyone that found them in the streets? I’m sorry that my actions caused the problems of the city to magnify, but they were there already. So don’t blame everything on me.”

  Vimala turned away, her green eyes still blaming Yu Di .

  “For what it’s worth,” Yu Di said, “if I could do it all over again, I would never have caused such a disaster for your city.”

  “You say that now because you were also cursed,” Vimala said.

  “True, but seeing so many desperate children made me realize that my addiction to cultivation has caused irreparable harm. I would do anything to fix it.”

  Curse unlocked: .1% lifted.

  That was another data point. This time, he really meant what he said. If he had time later, hopefully sitting inside a calm inn and sipping on some refreshing cool herbal tea, he would consider this. Right now, he had to get out of this situation with a killer sandworm circling them like sharks.

  “It doesn’t matter,” Vimala said. “You’re as powerless as I am to fix the problem.”

  A thought came to Yu Di. “Didn’t Arzu say something about you regaining your powers from within the city? If you could do that, then you can save the city as you wanted.”

  Vimala glared at Yu Di. “You would love for me to reveal the secret to you , wouldn’t you?”

  “Lady, I’m as weak as a mortal right now,” Yu Di said. “I wouldn’t be able to do anything with the secret even if you showed me the way. I just wanted to know why you hadn’t pursued the secret to your power all those years ago.”

  “It’s because of Abbot Lokenatha.” Vimala sat down next to Yu Di. “He’s killing all the former priestesses and handmaidens of the Goddess.”

  “To drain their powers and empower his army,” Yu Di finished.

  “Not only to do that. But the Goddess’ power requires a woman who has been trained for years to handle the power. No mortal man can without burning up.”

  What about Immortal? Yu Di could use the power, break his curse, and finally ascend to Godhood. He could absorb the power then.

  “So I wouldn’t be able to handle it anyway,” Yu Di said. “You could have told me that all those years ago. I would have left you alone.”

  Vimala got up into Yu Di’s face, her green eyes seeking his. “You wouldn’t. That day, I didn’t need to be this close to you to see the greed in your eyes. You still have those greedy thoughts swimming in your head right now. That’s why I’d rather die than give you the secret.”

  Yu Di looked away first. “You might get your chance. We’ll either die from heatstroke here or whoever is controlling that worm will find us eventually.”

  Vimala looked down at the circling worm. “There’s a way to get out of here, but one of us has to be bait for that monster.”

  “I’m listening.” Yu Di played the part of bait many times before. This was nothing new except the minor fact that he was weaker than a mortal right now.

  “If you distract it just long enough for it to stop, I can jump on its back and wrangle it like a camel.”

  “That sounds like a lovely plan. Except I’m not sure what I can do to distract it without being eaten first.”

  “Don’t you still have some of your powers? I felt it earlier. Not to mention you probably have some items in that ring of yours. You have to do something outlandish that can distract the worm.”

  Yu Di licked his parched lips. What he’d give to take out the water he left in his storage ring. “I can’t. When I took that pill to pull out that needle, it blocked off all my Qi. With all my injuries, I can barely stand.”

  Vimala put a hand on Yu Di’s forehead. “Hot but not feverish. Where do you still hurt? I thought Arzu healed you.”

  “She did. But that doctor’s needle really hurt. So now I’m worse than an invalid. To think a Demigod brought so low that I might die here.”

  Yu Di didn’t need his jade tablet to know that his body was weakening to the point of death.

  Vimala put her hand on Yu Di’s forehead again and closed her eyes. A white Qi flowed from her hand into Yu Di.

  “No, don’t,” Yu Di said. “You’re only pouring water into a broken cup. Use it to save yourself.”

  Vimala laughed. “I’m a broken cup myself. Did that help?”

  “Let me try something.”

  Yu Di focused on his dantian. He had felt the white-hot Qi reignite Arzu’s technique earlier. The small embers ignited into a bright flame within him. It was just enough to push it into his meridians and cleanse the effect of the pill.

  Yu Di screamed as the pain flooded back into his body. All his nerves and meridians were on fire.

  “Yu Di, what happened?” Vimala asked. She tried to push her Qi into his body again, but it wouldn’t go.

  “No, I’m fine, just let me…” Yu Di gritted his teeth and pulled Qi from the air into his dantian. The fiery hot Qi cycled in and he converted it into his own Qi. His newly formed core converted the Qi at a higher and faster rate than his previous one. Reforging it was probably the only benefit from the curse.

  Once Yu Di had a small reserve of Qi, he pulled it through his meridians. The burning lessened to painful pricks. He opened his eyes and the world came back into view. He hadn’t noticed how the lack of Qi made the world seem so blurry.

  “That helped a lot, thank you Vimala,” Yu Di said. “If I had a few more hours to cultivate, we could easily get out of this. But I can see that our attackers are coming to us fast.”

  Vimala squinted off into the distance. “I see nothing.”

  “They’re coming. So do you really think you can wrangle that worm?”

  Vimala nodded.

  “Then get ready.” Yu Di said that more to himself than to her. He had only enough Qi for one flashy technique that would probably kill him. He got up and peered down, waiting for the right time to jump down.