“Good luck, High Priestess Faouzia,” Yu Di said.

  Faouzia smiled. “I won’t need the luck. After so many years, it’s finally time for me to rest. If you don’t free my city, Yu Di, I will haunt you as a ghost. I think that’s what they say in the Celestial Jade Empire.”

  Yu Di didn’t have time to respond.

  Faouzia flew up into the sky to meet Fatima. It would be an amazing sight watching two third-realm cultivators fight. Their mastery of Qi was astounding to the eyes of a Demigod. Except it would be more amazing if they didn’t clash so close to Yu Di. The stray sparks from their clash could kill a weakened Demigod, let alone all the mortals that followed them to the secret entrance.

  Vimala took the lead and charged toward the tunnel’s entrance. Watching the woman move with so much purpose surprised Yu Di. He’d never seen her be so sure of anything before their curse or after meeting her again a few days ago.

  Yu Di stayed behind. He could feel the Shah’s mortal armies rushing toward him. While they would be nothing for him, the cultivators following behind could easily match him.

  “Reis, can you and your men help me take care of the ground forces?” Yu Di asked.

  Reis looked past Yu Di, sensing the same thing he did, if only a moment later. “We can’t take on the army. It’s best if we just run.”

  “But these people can’t run as fast.”

  “Then let the weak die where they stand. The strong will continue on.” Reis pushed Yu Di aside as he ran to catch up to Vimala.

  Why did these small-minded people always choose the easy way out? It’s why they can never cultivate on their own and gain true enlightenment.

  Yu Di gritted his teeth as he felt the shock waves from the fight intensify. He didn’t need to turn to see that Fatima focused her intense hatred on him. If she made it past the high priestess, he would die a most miserable and painful death.

  Yet he couldn’t allow the armies to reach the people they were protecting. He rushed forward, using the remaining barriers he had in his storage ring. It was a shame as he was out of more mundane items in there. The rest required a third realm Qi or higher and he doubted either of those two monsters would lend him a hand.

  Yu Di made it so that the army would funnel toward him. He would be the bulwark to protect these people. He breathed because he could, cycling whatever Qi he could get from the air. Then he breathed out and formed one of his most useful and least used techniques: the trench. It was a technique that created a wide trench that had many Qi traps that would immobilize or outright kill mortals. It would also slow down cultivators because of its dense Qi construct.

  Curse unlocked: .1% lifted.

  Oh, come on. His technique and self-sacrifice for at least fifty people should have merited a bigger lifting of his curse. Yu Di shook his head. There was no point in crying about it now.

  Yu Di took out his secondary trident. This one had only one Qi gem in it that boosted his water attribute. It would allow him to move more fluidly.

  Let them come. He would make sure they regretted ever leaving their tents.

  The wall focused its Qi blasts on the incoming army. For once, Yu Di was glad that they were firing on the enemy and not him. Faouzia’s shield had followed the big burst of people, leaving Yu Di completely vulnerable to the Qi blasts.

  The army swarmed over the trench, pushing against each other to reach the other side. Their maddened eyes told Yu Di that someone had used a Qi technique to brainwash them and push them against all fear and pain.

  Yu Di felt a pang of guilt when he stabbed them with his trident. It was one thing if they were demonic cultivators bent on killing everyone, but to watch mortals throw their lives away because of a cultivator’s charm was disgusting. He had a feeling he knew who was the one that charmed them.

  Yu Di stole a glance toward the sky at Fatima. The witch with a flying carpet was overpowering Faouzia. He had to hold the line for a little longer. Most of the people following Vimala picked up their pace and ran as fast as they could.

  Cold steel sunk into Yu Di’s right shoulder. A dagger’s handle protruded from it.

  Yu Di didn’t even know what he was looking at. The sudden realization that it was a mortal weapon and not even a cultivator’s broke him out of his stupor. The pain from the jagged dagger radiated down his arm and he bled profusely from it.

  This also meant he couldn’t use his trident anymore. Yu Di replaced his trident with a one-handed sword with his left hand. He swung it like a madman as he had no real training with it. Those mortals who came too close were injured, but they lived only to keep pushing harder against him.

  Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

  That’s when Yu Di realized that Reis might have been right. Running away and letting those of lesser value die would be better than a Demigod dying. Mortals were plenty. But then what would his daughter say?

  Yu Di released his hold on the trench technique.

  The trench exploded, taking out a sizable portion of the army. It pushed them back temporarily.

  Now that he finally had a bit more of his Qi back, he cycled it to his right shoulder to force his control over it again. Yu Di had to use the mind-body technique again to control his right arm. At least this time it was only one part of him instead of his entire body.

  The pain shot through his right arm and shoulder up to his neck. He couldn’t waste any time either taking a pill or using a technique to stop the pain.

  With the trident in hand, Yu Di twirled it around him, blocking the swipes from the mortals. He swung out the trident and pushed them back. With a small opening, Yu Di made a run for it.

  That was when the enemy cultivators entered the fight. They had flown over the trench and blocked Yu Di’s way to the secret tunnel. Worse, these cultivators were all in the middle of the Core Formation stage. He felt that his current cultivation was higher, but there was no way he’d win against three of them.

  “Give up or we will execute you here,” the lead cultivator said. He held a short whip in his hands, slightly longer than a sword. “We have orders to bring you in alive.”

  “So that crazy woman can torture me?” Yu Di said.

  “You can only dream of the luxury that our mistress would afford any of her time to you,” the cultivator said.

  Yu Di glanced over at the trench where the mortals were recovering. He had little time before they pushed their way to him again. He saw only two ways out of this: through the cultivators or through the mortals.

  The cultivators seemed like a better choice. They didn’t have that crazed look in their eyes. Ones that said they’d die for their mistress.

  Yu Di prepared his trident, forcing his right arm to work. He could already feel most of the newly healed tendons ripping apart with every movement.

  “Then execution it is,” the cultivator said. He shot his whip out in one fluid motion with the end of the sentence. Lightning sparked at the end, no doubt one of his cultivation techniques.

  Yu Di stabbed the whip with his trident, grounding the strike onto the floor. He didn’t have enough time to raise it when the other two struck simultaneously.

  Both attackers had curved swords that came hot and fast. The very edge was crimson red, as if burning over a coal fire.

  Yu Di had to channel his remaining Qi into a protective shield as they struck. He cheated by using the ambient Qi in the air to do so. It was just enough as the shield bounced the dual strikes back, while shattering.

  The mortals had arrived as they charged at Yu Di with their raised swords.

  A small headache was forming in his head. A twitch and a gentle pounding as if from a visitor at the door. He was losing his grasp of his Qi technique that kept his right arm moving.

  This was it. He was going to die here. Yu Di wasn’t sure if using the last of his powers would be enough. The previous time he used it, he blacked out too fast to do anything more meaningful than stop the blue diamond from exploding. If he used it this time, it would mostly be wanton destruction of the city and all its inhabitants.

  So Yu Di accepted his fate with a little dignity. He jumped up into the air with all his strength and he aimed his final attack, weak as it was, at Fatima. A moment’s distraction might be all that Faouzia needed to win and protect the people still escaping to the tunnel.

  Yu Di’s strike was subtle. It aimed to tickle the woman more than to harm her. Which was why it probably went through her defenses, causing the woman to laugh. It was one of Yu Di’s more insidious techniques as it could make someone laugh for hours on end.

  Fatima glared at Yu Di with her eyes, but her mouth and body were laughing. She couldn’t focus and shot off a few of her techniques that went wide and hit her own troops.

  Yu Di had fallen back down toward the cultivators and their waiting weapons. He didn’t want to die weaponless so he recalled his trident back into his storage ring. He then took out a long spear hoping to hit at least one of them.

  In the split second of falling, Faouzia blasted Fatima with a powerful push of Qi, sending her flying back to the barrier. She flew down and caught hold of Yu Di by the collar. Finally, she swept her hand over the cultivators, knocking them into the mortals.

  If Yu Di wasn’t a Demigod, he wouldn’t have been able to see all that happening. How this high priestess achieved the feat while only being in the third realm amazed him. As he took momentary flight, he analyzed Faouzia’s body. That amazed him even more.

  The high priestess absorbed the Goddess Qi from within the city to push herself beyond the limits. The city acted like a Qi battery for her, allowing her to temporarily reach the heights of the third realm.

  Yu Di wondered if she pushed harder, could she ever achieve the fourth realm at Demigod? Even if she could do so for a few seconds she could resolve the entire conflict with the Shah’s army.

  Yu Di didn’t have time to wonder too much as the ground came calling for him. He wasn’t sure when, but Faouzia had lost consciousness and was now falling with him in her hand. He braced for the impact with the ground.

  A wave of sand and pebbles rose around him as he hit the ground hard. Yu Di wished he still had even a bit of Qi to protect himself. Instead, he earned many bruises on his body. Luckily, he thought nothing was broken except his right arm.

  Faouzia landed right beside him, still unconscious yet still breathing.

  Yu Di was tempted to pull her mask aside to see what she’d look like, but he learned his lesson. Instead, he rose shakily to survey the damage.

  The mortals were still swarming toward his location, which was much closer to the temple Vimala had pointed to earlier. However, he knew he couldn’t carry the high priestess with him. In his current state, he doubted he could withstand these mortals let alone Fatima if she got back.

  Yu Di had to make the logical choice. Save himself and leave her. But before he did, he would at least give her the mercy of death so that the Shah’s army wouldn’t torture her.

  Yu Di took out a knife from his storage ring. In Faouzia’s current state, a stab to the heart should be enough to end her life. He knelt down beside her.

  “I’m sorry,” Yu Di whispered. “Better death than humiliation. Thank you for saving me.”

  The only worry left was whether his injured left arm was enough to pierce through her heart. Yu Di raised his hand, clutching as hard as he could to prevent slipping. The last thing he would want was for her to suffer.

  A hand crushed Yu Di’s left hand, forcing him to drop the dagger. A hard kick planted him on the ground.

  Who was it? Was he too late? Had Fatima gotten back up already?