All that bluster about having words with Abbot Lokenatha rang true in his mind, but he’d have to survive first. Qi strikes from the Goddess cannons rained down on the city with impunity. How were they firing without rest or recharging? Were they using spirit stones to power them?

  A blast struck to his right, too close this time. The explosion threw dirt all over him.

  Yu Di had to use his own Qi to form a shield around him so that it wouldn’t crush him. He held the little girl against his chest, feeling her breath coming and going in rapid succession.

  “It’s going to be okay,” Yu Di said. He glanced back at Vimala. “Are you okay?”

  Vimala pressed herself hard against a wall. Her shield shimmered every time particles larger than dust came into contact. She looked over and nodded.

  Yu Di gave her the stronger shield. Now that he knew the prince was in love with this woman, he didn’t dare to let her die. He couldn’t handle the brat’s glare.

  Not that Yu Di was afraid. Just the look of disappointment made his skin crawl.

  “Where do we go next?” Yu Di yelled as another strike came close. Those bastards were firing at anything that moved out here, regardless of its Qi signature.

  Vimala pointed westward. Two buildings that reached the third floor still stood. It must be empty if the bastards didn’t fire upon it. But the moment they approached it, they would level it.

  Yu Di used his Demigod technique on his eyes to see through walls. It burned a lot of his Qi, but he couldn’t afford to accidentally kill anyone with his presence. He ran away from the other survivors to draw the blasts away from them.

  Curse unlocked: 1.3% lifted.

  That was an odd amount to unlock.

  Yu Di didn’t have time to ponder that. There was no one around for a few blocks. It was time to run.

  Yu Di hefted the little girl higher on his chest, clutching her with both of his arms. He took a deep breath and ran as hard as he could toward the two buildings.

  Yu Di stopped and pivoted right.

  Two blasts struck the building on his left and in front, tearing up the road. They were coming less frequently now. Those bastards must be running out of spirit stones. Or maybe they finally noticed that he’s not a part of the invading force, which was further south and east.

  Yu Di made sure Vimala was still following before rushing toward the two buildings. If he could make it there, climb to its roof, then he could find a better way through the rubble to avoid injuring others.

  Only one blast came for him. This one was so weak that Yu Di ignored it, letting it wash over his shield. The shield artifact heated in his hand, but not enough to hurt. Not yet anyway. He reinforced his own shield with his Qi in order to tell how strong the strikes were. Right now, it’s at the Qi Condensation level.

  Yu Di broke into the building and ran up the stairs. He put down the girl when he got to the roof. She clung to his pants, ignoring the dirt and dust.

  Yu Di looked out over the city. The middle section of the city had its walls up, shimmering with its forcefield activated. A white curtain of Qi, dense at the upper limits of the second realm or low third realm hummed. They had cannons mounted atop the wall, firing rapidly at the invading force.

  Shah’s army poured through the break in the southwest wall. It had been broken already before, layered with shoddy materials as a breakpoint. Not one that mattered to an army that employed cultivators of the third realm.

  Despite that, it was still a slaughter. The cannons fired indiscriminately at the wave of men in the Shah’s colors of blue and gold. They tore chunks out of the wall of men and buildings alike.

  Luckily, Yu Di was too far away to watch the true carnage. Otherwise, he would have thrown up and ran away. Still, at this distance he felt like he should. Not the throwing up, but the running away.

  These were the two major forces fighting each other. This wasn’t his fight. All he would have to do was reach the Shah’s barrier, create a small hole, and then run for his life either back east toward the ‘Forgotten Spirit Sect’ or maybe even toward the Imperial army.

  “Vimala, we can’t do anything here,” Yu Di said. “We should run. I can bring you back to my home and you can live a better life there than here.”

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  Vimala stared out at the same scene he saw. “I can’t do that. These are my people. I have a duty to protect them.”

  “Even while powerless?”

  “My duty does not include having powers. If you want to run, despite causing all this, then you go ahead.” Vimala’s fingers clutched onto the edge of the rooftop.

  “This is not my fault,” Yu Di said.

  Vimala glared at him with those green eyes. Even under all the dirt and dust, she was beautiful. Why would anyone want to hide that under a mask?

  “Fine, I will admit that maybe fighting you and getting us both cursed is a little my fault.” Yu Di looked away.

  “You also promised to help me save this city. Or was that another lie from a greedy cultivator that can’t think of anyone else?”

  Yu Di grimaced. He looked down at the little girl still clinging to him for dear life, shaking with every thud from the cannons firing. He might have been a selfish cultivator, but he kept his promises.

  “Let’s go then. We can figure out what to do after we get off this battlefield,” Yu Di said.

  Vimala shook his head. She pointed toward the marketplace a few blocks away from their building. It was toward the fighting and the explosions. “We have to go there.”

  “Why? We can’t help them. We’re too weak.”

  “I can sense a powerful presence there. Like one of the high priestesses.”

  “A high priest? I don’t want to deal with another idiot like Kutan.”

  “No, a high priestess. One of mine.” Vimala’s eyes shimmered. She was using a Qi technique, but unlike Yu Di’s it locked onto other people that used Goddess Qi.

  Yu Di was intrigued. Why would anyone create a technique so narrow in scope? It did nothing other than identify their own.

  “Let’s go then.” Yu Di stooped to the little girl. He took out a waterskin. “Drink this. We’re going to be moving again.”

  The little girl shook her head, burying her face in his pants.

  Yu Di had to force the opening into her mouth to get some water down. He was a cultivator with the body of a Demigod, but she was a mortal. One who was at most a year or two older than Yu Lin. He hoped she was safe.

  The little girl coughed and wiped her mouth with her sleeve, creating a new streak of dirt across her mouth. Good enough.

  Yu Di picked the girl up and hugged her close again. The girl laid her head on his shoulder, clutching with her little hands around his neck.

  “I hope this priestess is worth traumatizing this little girl,” Yu Di said.

  “She’s strong enough to protect us,” Vimala said. “I’ll need her help if we want to restore my powers. I didn’t feel her at all until now or else I could have prevented all this years ago.”

  Yu Di liked the sound of that. He wasn’t even thinking about gaining the power for himself. If Vimala could somehow fix this, he’d take that any day.

  Yu Di sensed something rushing toward him. He looked back toward the wall. One of the cannons was pointed at their location.

  “Jump!” Yu Di leaped off the roof to the ground floor. His legs slammed against the ground, his shield taking most of the impact. Yet he still rolled forward. He twisted himself so that his right arm took most of the impact.

  The little girl yelped and clung harder with her legs wrapped around his waist.

  Yu Di got up just as Vimala also rolled toward him on her own shield. He looked up as the building got slammed with a barrage of blasts. White Qi tore through the building and its neighbor, leveling both to the ground.

  “Don’t stop running and don’t get hit,” Yu Di shouted over the din. He sprinted toward the marketplace. “Our shields can’t take even one of those strikes.”

  It pissed Yu Di off. Where are they getting so much dense Qi to keep powering those cannons? He could do it at the height of his powers, but even a Demigod had limits. The bastards fired upon the army as well.

  The way forward was littered with blasts that rocked them hard. They couldn’t run in a straight line toward the marketplace as the cannons had better and better aim. They struck first, anticipating their route.

  When Yu Di got back, he was going to beat the bastard controlling the cannon black and blue. He focused a farsight technique on his eyes and took the briefest glance at the one manning the cannon.

  It was Kutan. He had an evil smile on his face as he fired the cannon at Yu Di and Vimala.

  Yu Di shook off the technique. When he got back, he would show the mortals true fear.

  If he got back.

  His shield was running out of Qi after being used for so long. It also took a lot of debris from all the wide cannon shots. His own store of Qi weakened considerably. If this kept up, he would be defenseless soon and he didn’t have any other barriers left.

  A strong strike demolished the building in front of Yu Di, forcing him to stop. But that was a decoy. He felt another strike coming straight at Vimala behind him, the true target.

  Yu Di screamed as he yanked the girl from his chest and threw her at Vimala. The woman caught the child with perfect ease, both with wild looks on their faces.

  Yu Di expanded his shield before creating five new layers of dense shields below it. Each layer had powerful dispelling techniques that would clash against the blast. He poured all the remaining Qi had into this.

  Time stilled as Yu Di’s Demigod senses took over.

  The cannon’s strike hit his shield dead center, shattering it and breaking the shield artifact he had in his hands. It burned him, forcing him to drop it. The next layers of the shield broke one after another until the very last one. The dispelling effect unraveled the blast bit by bit.

  Yu Di knew it wouldn’t be enough. He glared at the large white ball of Qi pushing against his will as he held the shield in place. The power difference was too much and the last layer cracked.

  This was it. He threw himself in front of it so that Vimala survived. After weakening the blast so much, Yu Di hoped his Demigod body would withstand the strike.

  The last layer broke and the shock wave rushed at Yu Di. He closed his eyes and raised his arms in front of him to meet it. Time for him resumed when he did that.

  Instead of being torn apart by the shock waves, it felt like a gentle breeze washing over him.

  Yu Di laughed. He had lived. He didn’t know how, but he did.

  “Yu Di!” Vimala shouted.

  Yu Di groaned. He felt it even before she said anything. Another blast of white-hot, fiery Qi was coming at him. This time, he was defenseless. Running was pointless as it wasn’t one shot, but five concurrent shots at the same strength rushing toward them.

  Was it time to use his trump card?

  Yu Di reached deep down into his dantian. He hadn’t done this in a while since waking up from the events of the festival back in the ‘Forgotten Spirit Sect.’ This was going to hurt. But at least he could resolve everything in a flash.

  Except he couldn’t. Something blocked his using the last of his Demigod powers.

  Curse unlocked: .7% lifted.

  What?