We had officially entered the Arabian Coast.
Before us stretched a wide expanse of beautiful white and orange sand. Further away, a river was cutting through the sand, and a small city was located beside it.
Now that we were no longer near the American node, I couldn’t see the current settings or what the trap frequency was set to.
However, given that Ruoming was now anticipating an altercation between our parties, I anticipated he must have dropped the trap frequency to a negligible level to avoid sabotaging his own party.
I gestured for my party to follow me with a jerk of my head. I dug my feet into the ground to begin running, but my feet quickly sank in the sand.
“It’s all getting in my shoes,” I complained. I looked toward Yang, wanting to ask him to use his staff to propel all of us forward again.
But as I looked at him, I could see the perspiration on his brow. Unlike Zhige, which had its own spiritual energy reserve, Yang’s weapon did not. So, everytime he altered its form, it sucked from Yang’s very limited spiritual energy.
“Zhige, grow bigger,” I ordered, throwing the sword into the air. It instantly expanded, but only enough for three of us to get on it. Zhige rotated so it was parallel with the ground and patiently floated a few feet above it.
“Yang and Yue. You two go first. Wei, Amelia, and I will come right after. Don’t go anywhere yet, and try not to get into too much trouble, alright?”
Yue brought her hand up to her forehead in a half-hearted salute. “Yes ma’am.”
Yang and Yue walked toward the sword, awkwardly shuffling through the deep sand that tried to sink them. Yang lifted Yue onto the sword, who was protesting, before he climbed on himself.
“Zhige, take them to the perimeter of the city. Just make sure we all end up in the same spot, so don’t go crazy.”
Zhige at once flew forward until it began a speck across the horizon.
“Amelia, can you put the dire wolf away for a moment?”
She nodded. A flurry of blue sparks erupted around the dire wolf. When they dissipated, the wolf was gone.
Amelia looked up at me softly with her big blue eyes. “Peijin. I want to help you more.”
“You’re already helping me,” I answered, still looking off the horizon in anticipation of Zhige’s return.
“But I want to help you more,” she insisted.
“If there’s anything you can do, Amelia, then I’ll let you know. For right now, I have everything under control.”
I felt something pitch the soft flesh at the back of my elbow, and I let out a startled shout, whipping my head around to see Wei with a disgruntled expression.
“What the hell was that for?!” I exclaimed, rubbing my arm. “That really hurt, you know?”
Wei replied by narrowing his eyes.
“How am I supposed to know what I did wrong if you don’t explain?”
“I’ll pinch you again.”
“For what?!”
Wei let out a sigh. “You see so much and so little sometimes.”
“Are you just trying to push my buttons? It’s working.”
Polling ongoing…
- 10%
- 69%
- 21%
Shit. Our poll results were dropping even more now.
[Observers Chat]
Socrates: Jia Li…
Wei further narrowed his eyes.
“Why is everyone mad at me right now?” I muttered, turning away as I looked for Zhige on the horizon again.
[Observers Chat]
Socrates: Stop looking for Zhige. Look at Amelia.
Amelia? I looked down and saw the girl practically ready to burst into tears. I instantly jumped in my skin as I picked her up, holding her out in front of me like a puppy.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” I asked frantically, turning her all around. Was she injured somewhere, and that’s why Socrates and Wei were both acting like I was blind?
She brought her small hands up to her face and, in frustration, swiped at her face. “Peijin is going to replace me,” she said simply. Her hands gripped the fabric of my hoodie firmly, until her knuckles were white from the strain.
I paused, looking at her completely dumbfounded. “And why do you think that?”
“Because I’m no use to Peijin.”
“That’s not true.”
“It is true.”
“It’s because you’re very young, Amelia. I’m protecting you, okay?”
Wei whacked the back of my head hard. My head lurched forward, and I let out a surprised sound.
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Amelia’s hands released my hoodie. She pushed against me. “Put me down.”
A mess of confused emotions jumbled in my chest. I had no idea what I was supposed to do in this situation. Zhige had also not returned yet, even though the blade should already be back.
It was true that I didn’t want Amelia to get too involved. Part of it was to keep her safe. The other part was that she was too inexperienced for me to send her out on her own. That would have been entirely irrational.
But it wasn’t like I was planning on dumping Amelia if she wasn’t useful. If anything, I thought Wei would understand the reasoning behind my actions.
I let out a heavy sigh. “Amelia, listen.”
I kneeled in front of her in silence, struggling to find my words. Even though I was a writer, I wasn’t the best at comforting people. At this moment, I regretted sending Yang away with Yue.
However, before I got the chance to say anything, Zhige flew before my vision, stabbing in the ground just by my side. I instantly stood up.
“Zhige, what took you so long? Is everything fine there?”
The sword flew back up into the air and turned parallel to the ground. It was an understood ‘yes’ between the two of us.
I picked Amelia up and placed her at the base of the sword. She kept her eyes glued onto the ground, her hands balled into fists. This time, I noticed the twisted expression on her face, but I only bit my lower lip.
“Amelia. We’ll continue later, okay?”
I stared at her, waiting to see if she would say anything to me. When she didn’t, I brought my hand up to her cheek and gently ran my thumb over her face in a comforting gesture.
Wei got on Zhige next, and I pulled myself onto the tip of the sword and held on as Zhige flew forward with surprising speed. The sound of the wind blowing around us was incredibly loud.
I looked behind me at Wei nervously. He reached forward and grabbed my ear, tugging it harshly as I let out a surprised yelp.
“Peijin,” he whispered harshly at me. Although we normally tried to avoid serious conflicts in front of Amelia, she thankfully couldn’t hear much due to the wind.
“Yes…” I said like a scolded child.
I probably seemed like nothing more than a kid to Wei now. Although he had once looked up to me as a symbol of courage and maybe even morality, since his memories returned, I probably became far more insignificant in his eyes.
“You’re her entire world. You know that, right?” Wei said, forcing me to meet his sharp gaze.
“That’s not true.”
“You know it is.”
“It’s not. All of us play a different role to her.”
Wei scrunched his nose. “Peijin, you’re incredibly smart.”
“I’m not trying to act dumb. Do you think she comes to me to grieve? She goes to you or Yang.”
“Why do you think she does that?”
“Because I’m not good at talking to people.”
“It’s because she wants to look good in front of you. She doesn’t want you to be disappointed in her. She doesn’t want you to think she’s not capable. Amelia wants you to rely on her.”
“And do you think I should, Wei? Do you think I should rely on her?”
“No, I don’t.”
“Then I don’t know why you’re acting like I’m making the wrong decision here. She’s so young, Wei. It’s our job to protect her and keep her alive. That’s the only thing we need to do for her. As long as Amelia gets to live another day—no—as long as Amelia gets to grow old after all of this is over, then we did our job, and we did it well.”
Wei lifted a long finger and pressed it firmly into my chest multiple times. “Peijin, if you asked Amelia to throw herself into the mouth of a vicious demon, she would do it, even if she was kicking and crying the entire time.”
“That’s not true, and you know it,” I insisted, increasingly furious at his comparison.
“It is true. That girl would do anything for you.”
“Wei, you’re really pissing me off now. This is unfair, and you know it.”
“There’s nothing unfair about it. Peijin, you asked me to be your sword, didn’t you? You asked me to put my life on the line for you.”
“I asked you to put your life on the line for my mission.”
[Observers Chat]
Cjst123: What is happening right now
CoffeeCatering: The girls are fighting!!
[Demon Abyssal Kraken of Black Seas is looking nervously at the scene playing out before him.]
[Divinity Supreme Commander of the Heavenly Hosts turns away from the broadcast.]
Wei paused, his large eyes searching mine to decode how I really felt. I hardened my expression, annoyed by the fact he was trying to intrude on my emotions.
“Peijin.”
We were approaching the perimeter of the city. The buildings were short and made of sun-dried bricks. In the center was a vivid marketplace, full of beautiful merchandise, colorful stones, and delightful food.
“Peijin,” Wei repeated when I ignored him. “All those times you sacrificed yourself for us—when you fought karmic backlash alone for Yue; when you almost died to kill the demons in Yang’s room; when… when you tried to change my fate in my dungeon room—were you not ready to die for us, even though you hardly knew us?”
I stayed silent. I bit down so hard on my lower lip I could taste blood on my tongue.
“I’m your party leader, Wei. It’s my duty to protect all of you.”
“So, now it's your ‘duty.’”
“It’s always been my duty.”
“Was it about duty in your dungeon room?”
I bristled instantly, remembering the way that, in my weakest moments, all I could do was collapse into myself and the world I created in Surviving My First Run.
“You’re not even talking about Amelia anymore. This is about a problem you have with me.”
“Peijin, do you really hate yourself that much?” Wei asked softly, his brow furrowed as he looked at me.
My eye twitched. I held eye contact with him, not saying a word.
“Wei. You don’t know a thing about me, so stop pretending that you do.”
“Don’t I understand you better than anyone else? We’re just two lonely people who happen to be gods.”
People? Two people? Wei wasn’t even real.
I wanted to shout at Wei. I wanted to tell them that he had no idea what he was talking about—that I was his powerless god, the one who created him and fabricated all the cruelty he ever experienced. I was the one who ruined him; I was the one who killed Amelia’s parents; I was the one who made Yue furious at the world.
[Observers Chat]
Nipon: one step forward, three thousand steps back
I let out a slow, steady breath, trying to control my frantically shaking hands.
“Wei. Drop it.”
Polling ongoing…
- 7%
- 76%
- 27%
I looked up toward the village. I could see Yang’s hand high above his head. He waved his hand back and forth slowly, flagging us down. Zhige slowed, lowering to the ground just beside them. I jumped off the sword.
“Are there no demons or ghosts here either?” I asked Yue and Yang. I was too pissed to bother with casualties.
“Sort of,” Yang began, “No demons that Yue and I could sense. But we can both sense the energy of ghosts. No malicious spiritual energy, though.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s almost like a ghost village. Maybe some used to live here.”
Yang paused and pointed at his own lip. “You good? You’re bleeding.”
I wiped at my lips, looking dwon at the back of my hand to see a thin streak of bright red blood. “I’m fine. Just bit it earlier when I was talking.”
Yang looked at me hesitantly. He probably knew that the two of us shared the same habit of biting on our lower lip when anxious. Maybe he knew I stole the habit from him, too.
There was the sound of a low, chaotic rumble, and the walls shot up all around us again. It was almost like Ruoming had eyes on us.
“Let’s keep going. Tread carefully, and don’t go too far alone in case there are traps,” I said, walking onto a road as I cautiously headed up the small streets.