Yu Di awoke again, his teeth clenched hard. His jaw felt so tense from biting down for so long. But pain was good. Pain meant he was still alive.

  “You’re awake,” Vimala said.

  Yu Di sat up, or at least tried to. His body felt as if stone slabs were placed upon his chest. He looked down and saw all these cups along his chest, arms, and legs. A small trail of smoke rose from the cups.

  “How long have I been asleep?” Yu Di asked.

  “It has been six hours since we last spoke. Here drink.” Vimala again fed him the waterskin.

  “What happened?” Yu Di felt a dribble of water going down his chin and neck.

  “Arzu sent for a doctor to help you.” Vimala took out the waterskin. “They couldn’t feed you any medicine so he used this technique to help keep your infection at bay. It’s working, but you’ll have to take medicine to get rid of the infection for good.”

  “When can I move?” Yu Di asked.

  “I’ll go get the doctor. You can ask him yourself.”

  Vimala left the dark cavern.

  Footsteps followed from the opposite wall. A lantern lit up and it came closer.

  Yu Di tried to look past the lantern, but it took up his entire vision. He squinted to no avail. He’d use his Qi, but couldn’t. All of it prevented his body from shutting down.

  “It is you,” a man said.

  “I’m sorry, I don’t know who you are,” Yu Di said.

  The man turned the lantern to face it away from Yu Di’s face. It illuminated him instead. It was a man wearing light-colored robes.

  “I’m the doctor that they called to save you,” the man said.

  “Thank you for saving me,” Yu Di said. “Now, is there a way that you could let me move?”

  “No. Not until you answer my questions.”

  “Sure, I’ll answer whatever you want. Just let me up first. I really have to use the bathroom.” Yu Di felt dread deep within his chest. He was in a dark cavern, alone with this stranger, who had absolute control over his life and death.

  “You’re a Demigod, you can hold it,” the man said.

  “How did you know?”

  “I was there when you fought the Goddess. We all were.” The man sat down next to Yu Di’s prone body. He studied his face, moving it this way and that. “This face stared down at us from the mountains. I will never forget it. You were about to obliterate our city. Failing that, you cursed our Goddess, our one protector. Even that was not enough for you, the Menace of Miryana. You killed all our priestesses, allowing Abbot to take over the city and usher in draconian laws that have oppressed everyone who wasn’t rich. Oh, I remember this face intimately. You killed my family.”

  “Wait, what?” Yu Di said. “I did no such thing.”

  “It was your fight, your demands that set everything in motion,” the man said. “Before this, I was a rich doctor. When the first invaders came, we were forced to give up all our wealth to pay them off. They didn’t take from the rich and powerful. They took from those like me. Until they took my sons to be soldiers, my daughters to be slaves, and my wife died from a broken heart. When they came for me, I ran to this forsaken place, hoping to live the rest of my miserable life.”

  “I didn’t do any of that,” Yu Di said. “Someone, help!”

  “I can never get my family back, but I can at least take a little happiness in killing the Menace of Miryana. Maybe that sacrifice will be enough to bring my beautiful city back.”

  Yu Di struggled to move. Only his neck could, and that wasn’t much of an advantage. It allowed him to watch the man amble over to a table on the far side. He picked up a couple of silver needles.

  “Help! Please, someone help!” Yu Di yelled.

  “It will be a while before they realize anything. I need you to suffer as much as I have, so I won’t kill you right away,” the man said. “Did you know that there is a specific point on your forehead that causes a quick death? Then there’s this point right on your neck.”

  The man felt around Yu Di’s neck, pressing a few points. “Right here, this point will make it feel like your nerves are on fire.” The man pushed the silver needle into the point.

  Yu Di felt nothing at first. Then, a burning sensation flooded his body. Afterwards, it felt like his entire body was hurting in a way that he never knew could hurt like this. Every point from the top of his head down to his very toes burned. It hurt so much he couldn’t make a sound.

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  “That worked. I’m surprised something so mortal could affect a Demigod. Then again, you are as sick as one.” The man pulled out another silver needle. “This must be your karma. For all the pain and suffering you caused us Miryanians, now you get to suffer a fraction. This next point is on your hip. This one is one of the forbidden places that every doctor is taught never to stick a silver needle into. The textbooks say that it’s a pain worse than death. I’ve never had the pleasure of watching someone suffer from that one.”

  The man pulled Yu Di’s tunic aside and pulled his pants down a little. He tapped around on his hip.

  Yu Di couldn’t take the pain anymore. The burning went from a painful sear to explosive firecrackers. He was going to take all his Qi and kill this man before he could stick the next needle in.

  “What are you doing?” Vimala asked.

  The man looked up.

  “I’m the doctor. I’m helping him.”

  “No, you’re not. I heard him scream for help. Stop whatever you’re doing now.”

  The man had a wicked smile.

  “No, he took so much from us. How can he not suffer?” He lifted the silver needle.

  “Please, I beg you,” Vimala said. “I know we have suffered. But there’s no reason to blame this man.”

  “He’s the one who cursed our Goddess!” the man yelled. “I remember his face. He did this to us.”

  “I can tell you he didn’t curse our Goddess. It was someone else. Please let him go.”

  “How would you know? Do you know what he did to me?”

  “Because I am the Goddess of Miryana,” Vimala said.

  The man glared at Vimala. His eyes roaming her face, her eyes, looking at every detail.

  That small hesitation allowed Yu Di to push Qi through his body until it concentrated on the needle at his neck. The man knew what he was doing as it stopped all Qi from going past the point. But that didn’t matter to Yu Di. He focused his Qi into a special melting technique and broke the needle off from his neck.

  Once his Qi flowed past that point, Yu Di flushed all the points of connection with the ceramic cups on him. Each one made an audible pop as it fell off his body.

  As soon as his hands could move, Yu Di grabbed the man’s neck. He gripped him with his full might, trying to strangle him. Except he was too weak to do much more than hold him in his grasp.

  The man struggled, clawing away at Yu Di’s hand. His face turned red.

  “Let him go,” Vimala said. She placed a hand on his shoulder.

  A gentle warming Qi flowed into Yu Di. It soothed his frustration and anger at the man who had tried to kill him. But he would not allow this fool to get another chance to hurt him.

  “Please let him go for me,” Vimala said. “You said you were a changed man. Spare his life.”

  Yu Di released his hand, allowing the man to fall to the floor.

  Curse unlocked: .1% lifted.

  Yu Di took a deep breath, not realizing he hadn’t breathed since strangling the man. The air didn’t come in.

  Whatever those cups did blocked his body’s normal functions. He couldn’t breathe. Now he grabbed at his own throat, trying to pull at the invisible rope wrapped around him.

  Yu Di pushed his Qi through his body, trying to find the culprit. There at the base of his dantian, there was a large blockage. He had seen nothing like that before. With concentrated focus, he pushed until he broke through.

  Air flooded his lungs, and he could breathe. He gasped for air alongside his attacker.

  “What happened?” Arzu asked. She rushed in with her bodyguard right behind her. “Tursun, check on our guest.”

  The bodyguard hovered over Yu Di with his large curved sword. He held it against Yu Di’s chest.

  “Don’t move or I will end you,” Tursun said.

  Arzu helped the coughing man on the floor up.

  “Are you alright, doctor?”

  The man waved his hands before limping away. He didn’t look back at Yu Di.

  “Goddess, what happened?” Arzu asked.

  “Your doctor tried to kill Yu Di,” Vimala said.

  “That was unfortunate.”

  “Unfortunate?” Yu Di gasped. “I thought you were trying to help us.”

  Arzu looked down at Yu Di. Her cool eyes and passive face: his judge and executioner.

  “I had to beg that man to help you, despite knowing who you are.”

  “You told him?” Yu Di asked.

  “He had to know who he was healing.” Arzu tilted Yu Di’s face, studying his features. “I didn’t believe it at first, but I never forget a face. When the Goddess begged me to save you, I thought you had bewitched her.”

  “Let me guess. It’s a shame the doctor didn’t finish me.” Yu Di swallowed. He felt the sword bite into his tunic.

  Arzu waved her hand, and Tursun lifted his sword. She stepped in close to Yu Di’s face.

  “If I want you dead, I can kill you right now. You are alive only by the grace of the Goddess. Get up and leave our home.”

  “We should go,” Vimala said.

  Yu Di got up and he felt a breeze within his tunic. No blood at least. But the first step told him how bad his body was. He couldn’t stand properly. Vimala had to help him.

  “He can’t leave like this,” Vimala said. “We need at least a day for him to rest.”

  Arzu pulled a small bag from underneath the table.

  “You will find some food and water in here. I can’t promise it’s not poisoned, though. Get to the end of the tunnels before the desert and rest there. That will be far enough from my people, but I can’t guarantee they won’t come after you.”

  Arzu and Tursun left the room

  Yu Di sat down on the hard ground.

  “Do you think you can keep watch for a few minutes to fix myself?”

  Vimala nodded. She stood guard at the entrance.

  Yu Di took out his jade tablet again.

  Current Power: Realm 1, Stage 3, Level 2 (Core Formation)

  Remaining Lifespan: 32 days.

  Current Status: Cursed (14.6% lifted)

  Overall Power: Fourth Realm, End Stage, Peak level (Demigod)

  At least his fever was gone. But thirty-two days must mean that his injuries were severe. He didn’t have anymore elixirs and he knew he would have to walk through the desert in this condition. He cursed himself for giving High Priest Kutan the other elixir.

  Yu Di closed his eyes.

  If he got out of this city, he would restock on everything he sold off in the last twenty years. The irony was palpable. He was ready to die so he sold everything off. He wanted his last few years to be comfortable. Now, his last month of his life was going to be surrounded by people he threatened to kill and he had nothing to help him.

  His Qi could only help him so much before the second realm.

  “Yu Di, we have to leave right now,” Vimala said.

  “Why? I thought I had a few more minutes,” Yu Di said.

  “The doctor has gathered a large group of people. They’re all rushing toward here with weapons.”

  Yu Di groaned. He could never catch a break.