243 Wisdom in Mercy?

It was strange, being able to exist in two places at once. My soul reached outward and clung to Yuen Fu’s body, and I could feel his pulse as though it were my own. His thoughts flickered through my mind like lightning behind gauze, each spark illuminating pieces of a life I had only seen from the outside. The sync wasn’t perfect, but the resonance between us was close enough to blur the line of identity. I wasn’t Yuen Fu, not entirely, but I understood him now in a way deeper than any conversation ever could.

His life flashed through me, not as a vision, but as a lived truth etched into the marrow. Born into a military household beneath the withering shadow of the Sun Empire’s faded glory, Yuen Fu had once stood proudly at attention in the open courtyards of discipline, sun on his cheeks and duty burning in his eyes. His elders drilled him in the etiquette of nobility, the strategy of war, and the quiet grief of watching one’s clan slowly lose its place in the world. Their name had weight once. Not anymore.

At fifteen, he had made the decision, or perhaps had no choice but to make it, to join the 112th Squadron. It was where the forgotten went, a unit composed of the discarded, the unworthy, the too poor or too powerless to be of use. Officially, it was a volunteer squadron. In truth, it was where the Empire buried its embarrassments. There, in that grave of reputations, Yuen Fu met the people who would change his life: Ding Shan, Fu Wu, Ye Yong, Li Feng, Su Ai…and eventually, me.

We had survived ambushes in enemy territory, purged beasts from forbidden forests, fought rebels, and bled together in every season. Through it all, Yuen Fu remained the same: calm, loyal, sharp, a bit self-entitled, and always yearning to prove that merit was stronger than bloodline. His devotion to martial arts was an extension of his devotion to us. To me.

I blinked. The past dissolved like mist, and the present rushed in.

Yuen Fu, my vessel, was already on the move. He gave orders with clipped authority. Flags were raised, message hawks released, and spirit stones channeled with mobilization commands. The barracks of the Sacred Groves erupted with activity. From soldier to commander, from runner to officer, the network of our army stirred to life under his will. While the rest of us players watched the game board, Yuen Fu moved the actual pieces on the ground.

Days passed like the shifting of clouds. Tension hung over Sealed Island like a drawn blade. Then, without warning, Jin Chenglei announced. His smile was a coil of oil, slick and rotten.

“The Rebel Forces declare war on the Sacred Groves,” he said.

Each camp held its own smaller factions, minor players with major consequences. The Demonic Cult, unsurprisingly, welcomed the Rebel Forces into its fold. Jin Chenglei’s declaration had far-reaching consequences for my camp. From my Divine Sense, I watched in grim clarity as two of our city-states fell into chaos, besieged from within. Cult banners flew from once-loyal towers. In another corner of the grove, a scout ran breathless through muddy paths, rushing to the nearest outpost. He bore news from the western reaches: the Rebels were advancing.

As I processed the movements, a new voice cut through the tension.

“The Healing Tower wishes to express its neutrality,” the Divine Physician said. His tone was calm and disarming. “We will erect a Healing Circle at Lake Mensa. Our aid will be extended to all who suffer in this conflict. This way, casualties may be minimized.”

How noble. And how utterly transparent.

A neutral healing zone in a war between cultivators? Every soldier patched up by their healers could be turned into another sword on the battlefield. And from where I stood, it didn’t matter if they swore neutrality. The Healing Tower was a sub-faction of the Heavenly Alliance. Their every gesture served that banner, no matter how much incense they burned to virtue.

I didn’t trust the Alliance or the Cult enough to let my wounded anywhere near their warm smiles.

“The Demonic Cult accepts your neutrality,” the Dark Witch chimed in, with her usual venom dipped in honey. “We will be sending a token force to help keep the peace.”

I scoffed, louder than intended. “That’s the strangest thing I’ve heard—”

Before I could finish, the Game Master’s voice rolled in like a tide. “The Heavenly Alliance accepts the Cult’s arrangements… How about the Sacred Groves? Are you sending a token force?”

The moment hung in silence until Ru Qiu’s voice rang out like a thunderclap.

“The Sacred Groves refuse the Healing Tower’s meddling,” he said coldly. “This is between the Rebels and the Sacred Groves. If a person from the Heavenly Alliance crosses into our lands, they will be met with hostility… from both sides.”

I blinked.

I hadn’t expected him to bite that hard.

Dark Witch sneered, “From both sides? Did you forget already, my Heavenly Demon… You are on the Sacred Groves camp and you don’t represent the Demonic Cult anymore—” Her words stopped short, as if something gripped her throat mid-sentence.

Divine Physician frowned, his voice low and cool. “We didn’t do it.”

The Dark Witch curled her lips. “Really?”

I sent a whisper through Qi Speech. “What did you do?”

Ru Qiu responded without a shred of shame. “I sent someone to assassinate one of the Witch’s personnel, and pinned it on the Heavenly Alliance.”

Sowing discord. The classic trick. Subtle, effective, and so very Ru Qiu.

Divine Physician addressed the room, carefully measuring his words. “Our desire to remain neutral between the war of the Rebel Forces and the Sacred Groves has not changed. We will send our healers alongside the Heavenly Alliance’s token force to Lake Mensa.”

“And the Demonic Cult’s token force,” the Dark Witch added immediately, as if daring me to object.

I did.

“Do you really want to do that?” My tone was almost conversational. At the same time, my attention was split, issuing a flurry of Qi Speech orders to my people and coordinating with Yuen Fu, who remained hard at work back in the Groves. “If you insist on meddling… I might have to resort to something more… drastic.”

I let the silence breathe.

“Like, say… what if I erase Lake Mensa along with your healers and your token forces?”

The Dark Witch’s eyes glinted. “You’re bluffing.”

The Game Master’s tone was lighter than it should’ve been. “If you aren’t, are you really willing to risk open war with the Heavenly Alliance? Moreover, it’s not like you’ve developed nukes…”

Only Jue Bu snorted in the background, suppressing a laugh.

I smiled, but didn’t humor him. “Don’t be coy. We are already at war.”

I gestured to the suspended False Earth above us, still spinning in its celestial cage. “They just don’t know it yet. The point is… I don’t want your lot meddling. Who knows what kind of scheme you’re planning? I am just saying, a cornered rat would definitely lash out to its dying breath… and who knows…. Among the rest of you, who would suffer the most consequences?”

Of course, I wasn’t really keen on being the ‘rat’ in that figure of speech.

Ru Qiu’s voice slithered in. “The Demonic Cult would strive to sabotage either the Sacred Groves or the Heavenly Alliance. As for the Heavenly Alliance, they’re only here to play the ‘good guys.’ The ‘Rebel Forces’ are their ‘bad guys.’”

No shit, buddy. But thanks for saying it out loud.

My Divine Sense flickered. I caught a glimpse of my diplomat, bloodied, breath shallow, and running for his life. The Rebels hadn’t just rejected my envoy; they’d tried to kill him. Jin Chenglei’s position was unshakable.

Alice spoke up, soft but cutting. “Why are all of you so insistent on destroying the Sacred Groves the first chance you get?”

I didn’t answer. I didn’t need to. The token force wasn’t a peacekeeping mission. It was a Trojan horse, sort of… The forest was landlocked. Give them time, and we’d be surrounded, choked out, and bled dry. The façade of diplomacy would let them pile soldiers in like firewood.

Alice turned to the others. “Do you know what I think? It’s because of fear…”

The Dark Witch snapped, “You can posture all you like, but results are results—”

“Like this?” Alice interrupted.

Through Divine Sense, I saw it too… rats, thousands of them, spilling through enemy territory like black veins. The Dark Witch stopped cold, her smugness peeled away in a breath.

The Divine Physician cleared his throat, face suddenly pale. “The Healing Tower affirms its neutrality. Unfortunately… our healers will soon be very occupied elsewhere…”

A sickness bloomed in my gut.

Plagues had begun to spread.

My Divine Sense witnessed death, not from swords or spells, but from coughing blood and collapsing lungs. Whole districts of the False Earth fell into ruin. Panic rose like a tide.

I couldn’t look away.

No… I must not look away… I’m part of the reason why this was happening, so I have the responsibility to watch.

Time didn’t flow the same way in this damned game.

Out there, in the world of waking mortals and sane causality, maybe a day had passed… maybe less. But within this space, I’d lost count of the number of ‘moves’ I had made. Every second required micromanagement. One poor decision and a whole city would collapse. One delayed message and a rebellion would spark. One misread alliance, and I’d get backstabbed by people who used to swear by my name.

In the background, Yuen Fu had already changed into pristine ceremonial robes, the red-and-white embroidery now carrying the sigil of my cross. He looked like a real commander now. On the Shrine of Da Wei, he directed squads to new outposts using the old rail lines as supply corridors. He didn’t need rest. Divine Possession had bolstered him beyond his original self. But more than that, he had purpose. That kind of faith could turn even a coward into a general. For someone like Yuen Fu, it made him frightening.

Alice’s plague bought me time. It was disgusting, cruel, and undeniably effective. The Heavenly Alliance and the Demonic Cult both pulled back their token forces after witnessing rats pour into city-state borders like black rivers. The irony was that this wasn’t even Alice’s true strength… It was just one of her “jokes.” Still, it was a grim laugh I’d take. The delay meant I could act freely for just a little longer.

The Rebel Forces were subjugating one city-state after another, Yuen Fu moving like a sword through rotten fruit. And those cities that had earlier fallen to the Heavenly Alliance’s persuasion now came crawling back to the Sacred Groves out of fear. They had misread the Rebels’ brutality. They had thought they could buy time. Now they begged for protection.

But sabotage from the Demonic Cult was growing more sophisticated. Communications were being intercepted, and my information system was suffering. The Night Blades were busy escorting Jia Yun and Lu Gao on their journey. Without them, I was blind. Someone had cast a net, and I didn’t know whose hand it belonged to.

Worse, bounties began popping up like weeds. Lu Gao’s party had one on their heads. Night Blades, too. Jia Yun. Even Gu Jie, who was supposed to be in hiding. Sketches and names, too precise to think it was a mere coincidence. Not vague descriptions, but specific. This wasn’t amateur work. No one should’ve known their faces so well.

And that’s when it clicked.

Jue Bu might not be able to use the power of faith directed at me, but he sure could eavesdrop from them.

He had my body. My core. If he tapped into the faith of those around me, the dreams, prayers, and admiration they projected daily would’ve given him all the knowledge he needed. Like a god drawing portraits from devotion, he would’ve known them. It didn’t help that Jue Bu had access to my memories. He would know them, regardless

My teeth clenched.

Suddenly, my Divine Sense flickered. It was a prayer.

It was Da Ji.

I drifted into her room. Moonlight pooled softly through the thin lattice windows. Her husband lay asleep on the mat, breathing shallowly, while in the corner, a little crib cradled her baby. The room smelled of milk, herbs, and faint hints of lilac.

Da Ji sat on the floor, kneeling before my icon. The cross I’d come to represent now, almost sword-like in shape, ending in a reversed isosceles triangle. She bowed once, then whispered.

“Please, Great Guard… Watch over them. My husband, my son... They don’t understand the world you live in, and I don’t either anymore.”

She exhaled shakily.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with me,” she said, lips trembling. “Sometimes… I feel pieces of myself missing. When I look at Little Wei… when he smiles, when he cries… I feel terrified. As if something inside me is wrong… twisted.” She wiped her cheeks. “I know it’s irrational. I gave birth to him. I remember it. But I don’t understand it. My pregnancy wasn’t normal. Weeks. It only took weeks, not months…”

She looked at the child again, and her lips quivered into a smile.

“But I love him. I love him. No matter how scared I get, I love him. His name is Chen Wei. I named him after you… Every time I say his name, he giggles.” Her voice broke into a soft laugh. “And that’s enough. That’s enough to keep going.”

My icon stood still, an unfeeling symbol of a silent god. But I wasn’t silent.

I made my choice.

“Summon: Holy Spirit.”

I closed my eyes where I sat. My real body remained still, locked in that ruinous game-space with the others. But my projection shimmered into being beside her, pale and faint like a ghost lit by moonlight.

Da Ji gasped.

“Brother…”

I met her eyes.

“Let’s talk outside,” I said gently.

I noticed for the first time that the night was sleepless. No stars winked above, only a suffocating shroud of cloud cover that sat heavy over New Willow’s rooftops. The wind had died down, leaving a hollow stillness in its place. I strolled beside Da Ji, my spiritual projection keeping pace with her real form through the empty alleyways. There was a curfew, of course, imposed to stifle any spark that could feed the war creeping closer each day. No one called it war yet, not openly. But the way the Heavenly Alliance and the Demonic Cult circled each other, lashing out in sabotage and unleashing unseen horrors like Alice’s plague and the rat infestations… it was clear enough to anyone paying attention. Espionage had replaced diplomacy. Mistrust thickened the air.

We walked without speaking for a while, and then I stopped. The question festered in my mind like rot under the skin. It was unthinkable. And yet, it clawed for voice.

“Let me kill your baby,” I said.

Da Ji froze, her body stiffening as though she had just been stabbed. “B-Brother… No… No… What are you saying?” Her voice cracked, torn between disbelief and fear.

“Sis,” I murmured, “You have to trust me on this one.”

“Trust you?” Her expression twisted with anguish. “No. Why should I even trust you? What kind of brother asks their sister for permission to kill their child?”

I clenched my jaw. I shouldn’t have asked. But there was no other way. If I forced the matter, if I took action without her consent, she would lose control and awaken that ancient soul slumbering inside her. I had sensed it long ago. It wasn’t Eldritch-chan's doing… This wasn’t just some experiment gone awry. Da Ji was different. Not simply altered. Something else was buried within her, older and more terrible than anything I had words for.

The False Earth wasn’t just a prison for seven fallen existences. No… after seeing Meng Po’s domain and her ability to tinker with the fabric of time, I knew better. The Supreme Beings had 'eternity' to collect threats and bury them in this world. Da Ji was one such fragment. A relic of a forgotten terror.

When I lived inside 'Da Ji' and tried to peep with Divine Possession, I got nothing. They had been altered and excised, leaving her with the memories she only wanted to believe, ones that she was allowed to live. However, I knew. I saw glimpses of them with the Destiny Seeking Eyes of snippets about the truth of this world, how it was more graveyard than a prison, and how just thinking about them would get me erased from existence.

Da Ji stepped toward me, trembling, and jabbed her finger into my chest. “Never,” she hissed. “Never show yourself to me ever again.”

It didn’t matter what I could say. The Destiny Seeking Eyes had already shown me this path. There was no persuasion strong enough, and no phrasing clever enough to bend Da Ji’s will on this. Some things were fixed, even within a false world.

Despite its futility, I still tried, because I could be so mortally stupid sometimes…

I let the spirit fade and withdrew my presence, feeling the weight of her rejection settle over me like frost.

Back in my body, I sat motionless on my throne, fingers tapping lightly against the armrest. I cast my gaze downward at the suspended False Earth, that world playing host to countless broken fates.

Then, to no one in particular, and yet to someone very specific, I said, “Jin Chenglei, I suggest you forfeit.”

"Your arrogance is astounding—" Jin Chenglei barked, a vein twitching at his temple.

He never finished. The Divine Physician’s voice broke through in panic, “How!?”

I raised both hands and offered peace signs like some mad clown from the circus of destiny. “Checkmate.”

The old man paled. Sweat poured down his temples, turning to rivulets on his neck. “I raise an appeal to negotiate my soul…”

Jin Chenglei turned on him with a confused glare. “What’s happening?”

It was Jue Bu who explained so kindly, his voice sharp and calm amidst the rising panic. “Remember Wen Yuhan? The Destiny-Bound Seer, I think? She had the power to bestow certain destinies and see through the past, present, and future... David here perverted Wen Yuhan’s soul. He immersed himself in a possession technique that let him steal her powers. When he entered the final phase of the game, he brought with him a whole damn cheat sheet.”

Dark Witch added, “And just so it happens, he knows where and who our ‘General’ pieces are.”

That wasn’t completely true. Jue Bu got it half right, but I didn’t correct him. No sense in revealing the full extent of my arsenal. My time within Wen Yuhan’s body allowed me glimpses and moments stolen from the tides of time. But they were fragmented and scattered. The False Earth kept her powers leashed. Most of those visions were useless... until I fused those fragments with Gu Jie’s eyes.

Gu Jie’s sight was the missing piece. Back in the Hollowed World, she saw through futures unbarred and unrestricted. With both our powers combined, I charted a map between the cracks of what was and what will be. The others didn’t need to know that.

Game Master cut through the tension with deliberate poise, “But you knew that already, Witch. Which means, you’ve set up contingencies to hide your camp’s ‘General’ pieces.”

Dark Witch folded her arms, lips curling. “Yes. It seems your Generals were rather exposed.”

It wasn’t perfect. I had the Divine Physician’s General locked. The Game Master’s was trickier. As for the octopus? It never showed up in any vision. Not even a silhouette. No scent. No signature. Nothing. As if it had no future to show me.

Still, that didn’t stop me from dismantling the Divine Physician’s play.

...Let me tell you how it went.

The Guardians descended on a hidden base nestled by the coastline, slaughtering mercenaries and soldiers alike. What seemed like a series of false leads led them to a graveyard cloaked in wards. There, beneath layers of misdirection, they dug up a corpse buried decades ago. Only, it wasn’t truly dead. Suspended in animation, preserved like a relic, it stirred just enough to give one final gasp before the Guardians struck.

They fled the scene before the Divine Physician’s soldiers could intercept, disappearing into the storm-washed cliffs. The deed was done.

The Divine Physician had been clever, resurrecting a soul from the dead and hiding it in plain sight, hoping no one would be mad enough to disturb the resting place. Without my visions, I would’ve missed it too.

Now, he stood trembling.

“I know things!” he stammered. “About the Game Master! About the Heavenly Alliance’s caches, their strategic resources—”

I crossed my legs and gave him a look as if I were deciding what sauce to pair with my next meal. “I’m willing to negotiate.”

He breathed in hope. “Then—”

“The octopus,” I interrupted. “Where is its General?”

“I…” He hesitated. His lip trembled. “I don’t know.”

I gave a shrug. “Eh, worth the try…”

I snapped my fingers.

The Divine Physician’s scream didn’t last long. His form collapsed into motes of ash, unraveling like burnt paper caught in a gust. What remained was an orb… It was immaterial, ethereal, and pulsing softly between my palms.

It was his soul.

Now, what the hell was I supposed to do with this thing?

I knew too little about souls, how they functioned, how to manipulate them, and how to treat them. Sure, I had six of my own, fully independent and self-aware, and all of them still identified as “me,” but that was internal. This wasn’t. The thing hovering between my palms wasn’t mine. It was someone else. A complete, compact consciousness stripped bare, pulsing like a weightless pearl of immaterial memory. What was I supposed to do with it?

Reanimation came to mind, but that felt crude. Recycling someone’s essence just to puppet them like some hollow doll? It was distasteful. There were stories of forging weapons out of souls, too. Binding a person’s existence into a blade or tool, using their agony to empower your own cause. And yet, even that felt less than what it should be.

The Game Master raised his voice, half-joking, and half-pushing. “What are you waiting for? Eat.”

I nearly gagged. “No thanks.”

Funny, wasn’t it? I didn’t hesitate when I asked Da Ji for permission to kill her child. I’d even hardened myself for the aftermath of that decision. But this? The 'baby' was a literal monstrous stranger to me. This 'Divine Physician' situation felt different. This was closer, somehow. More intimate. Perhaps it was because the soul was exposed to me in its barest form, and I couldn't bring myself to devour it.

The Divine Physician might have played his cards poorly, but he wasn’t a monster. 

I closed my eyes and muttered a spell, calling forth a release.

“Egress.”

The glowing orb trembled in my hands. I pushed it forward, fingers extended, hoping to cast it beyond the bounds of this cursed world. I didn't know if the spell would work, not in the False Earth, not here. The last time I used Egress, it failed to send me home to Losten. Still, I had to try.

“May you find peace… and a kinder life, next time around.”

I whispered the words like a prayer. I wasn’t even sure if the Wheel of Reincarnation still turned here. The Supreme Beings had twisted so many laws that even simple truths like death leading to rebirth weren’t guaranteed. Maybe it was naïve of me to hope. Maybe I was just projecting. I still remember what it felt like to fail someone completely, and to ruin a soul I once swore to protect. Maybe this was redemption. Maybe not.

Jue Bu scoffed loudly behind me. “Such a waste. And here I thought I was the fool. You do realize this world has its own broken reincarnation cycle, right? The ‘Divine Physician’ won’t be free. He’ll just get recycled again into another body. Maybe he’ll remember you. Maybe he won’t. But there’s a non-zero chance he comes back looking to rip your face off.”

“I know,” I replied. “But there’s wisdom in mercy.”

Jue Bu snorted. “Yeah. Wisdom. Also known as being a pussy.”

Alice snarled. "Watch your mouth, you low life, or I will destroy you."

Jue Bu merely shrugged.