Immortal Paladin

The journey through the Underworld had taken its toll, but we weren’t done yet. I hovered with the others around the Fifth Layer for a short while, the domain ruled by the Judge of Bonds. It was a place that mercilessly tested the strength of every connection be it familial, romantic, or loyal, but it had little effect on our group. Our bonds had already been forged in far harsher fires. We didn’t linger. Soon enough, we returned to the dangerous Sixth Layer.

Gu Jie stood at the helm of our ship, the Mighty Duck, her hands steady as she activated the stealth formation. The array shimmered faintly around the hull, cloaking us from prying senses. It ensured that nothing like that annoying Void Beast would sniff us out again. I kept watch from the deck, my eyes scanning the eerie, dim expanse of the layer.

Not long after, we spotted a small, pale fragment drifting in the void. A piece of Ru Qiu’s flesh, bits of a finger, clinging to a finger nail barely.

Hei Mao drifted closer, his ghostly form flickering with curiosity. “Master, are you sure this is Ru Qiu?”

I nodded firmly. “I am sure.”

It was only the tip of a fingernail. Honestly, I doubted I could even resurrect anything meaningful from something so tiny, but I had to make it work. I stepped forward, channeling as much Divine Qi as my existence could spare into the fragment. My Ophanim activated at full power, the ocular abilities straining themselves to the absolute limit, veins pulsing around my eyes from the effort.

“Divine Word: Raise,” I uttered, voice low but resolute.

The fingernail burst with light. Energy surged outward, twisting and expanding until a small figure materialized before us.

A boy with dark hair appeared, barely clothed, no taller than a child of eight or nine. It was Ru Qiu, but in childish form, his features softened into an almost cartoonish cuteness that clashed violently with the furious scowl on his face.

Gu Jie couldn’t resist. She leaned against the railing with a grin. “Welcome to the ‘we’re actually adults, but we’re stuck in a child’s body’ club. Father, as an honorary member, do you have a few words? Oh, same goes for you, Chen Wei. Anything?”

Chen Wei awkwardly laughed and scratched the back of his head. “I think I am going to leave myself out of it.”

Ru Qiu’s eyes blazed. His Ascended Soul realm remained fully intact, and his Supremacy Trait ignited silver flames that licked around his tiny frame. Without warning, he charged at me, his burning leg swinging repeatedly into my shin.

It kind of hurt.

“Turn me back! Turn me back!” Mini Ru Qiu demanded, kicking me again and again with surprising force for such a small body.

I winced and held up my hands. “Please, calm down. I would if I could, but I’m spent. I resurrected you from a fingernail, man. I don’t know if I can even grow you back or something like that. It seems you’ve been hit by something really bad. Also, give me a break! I did my best, okay?”

Alice stepped in then, gesturing smoothly as she summoned strands of quintessence. Soft fabric materialized around Ru Qiu, clothing the furious boy in simple but decent garments. Before he could protest further, she grabbed him gently but firmly by the head, a playful smile on her lips.

“This is honestly amusing, Ru Qiu. Do you want to be my son?”

“No way in hell!” Ru Qiu snapped, his voice high-pitched yet carrying the full weight of his usual personality. “You still onto that sick hobby, huh!? It’s not funny!”

He exerted his power, silver flames flaring brighter, and easily slipped free from Alice’s grip.

Ru Qiu whirled around and pointed an accusing finger at Gao Fu. “What is she doing here!?”

Gao Fu frowned, crossing her arms. “I am here as consultant.”

I turned to Gu Jie, still rubbing my aching shin. “Is this normal?”

She gave me a knowing look. “You should know, Father. You experienced something similar when you were reincarnated in the False Earth.”

I nodded slowly. “I am fully aware. I remember the entire thing.”

Being a child a second time really was a loopy experience. I kind of sympathized with Ru Qiu more than I let on. The frustration, the powerlessness of the small body despite retaining all your strength and memories… it was maddening.

I glanced at Alice. “Do you think you can perform any planar spell anytime soon?”

She shook her head, looking a little drained herself. “I don’t think so. It took a lot out of me crossing the Seventh Layer in one go, even with the warp array alleviating a lot of work from me.”

Hei Mao voiced out, his ghostly tone laced with confusion. “I don’t understand. Lady Alice can traverse the distance between the Hollowed World to the Ninth Layer of the underworld, which I think is wider than an entire layer.”

Gao Fu shook her head and provided a calm correction. “Each layer has different distances within them, so that would be an inaccurate assessment. Again, there’s the Judgment Horizon to account for. Regardless of how powerful the planar spell you employed, it would still feel like a fish swimming up a waterfall.”

Alice held up her hand, attempting to summon a small wisp of quintessence that flickered weakly before fading. She sighed. “Honestly, a lot of the inefficiency of the spell came from souls trying to rip it apart.” She turned to Gao Fu. “Gao Fu, do you have any idea of the distribution of the number of souls between layers?”

The consultant lowered her gaze and confessed, “I am sorry, my lady, but I have no idea.”

Chen Wei asked aloud, his brow furrowed. “Why? Is it relevant?”

Alice’s expression softened with a hint of sorrow. “Because I feel bad about them…”

Everyone fell quiet for a moment. The Sixth Layer’s endless suffering served as just one proof among many of the consequences brought by the Supreme Death’s mismanagement.

Chen Wei broke the silence. “I must confess, part of the reason why I am here is to fight the Four Horsemen. I just received a quest from my mother not long ago.”

Ru Qiu, still in his chibi form, scoffed from where he sat on a small crate, silver flames flickering faintly around his tiny legs. “No offense, young man, but you are going to die. Look what happened to me.”

Chen Wei explained patiently, “I don’t mean like kill a Horseman, but one of them has been influenced by the Supreme Void. Mother has been taking great efforts into studying the Supreme Void and watching over him, and traces of sabotage and attempts to communicate outwards are being observed right now.”

Gu Jie raised an eyebrow and asked, “You know this, Father? I didn’t know Aunt was doing something so big.”

I nodded. “Of course I know. I approved of it. She asked me in an alternate timeline or so, and I told her then it was fine. That’s the difference between us, daughter. I can communicate with people just fine even between alternate timelines, and they’ll be aware of it, regardless. See, this is what you call transparency.”

I wiggled my brows at her a bit, taking another light jab at her ‘secrecy’ tendencies every chance I got. The same way my child brain in the past had affected me and was now clearly affecting Ru Qiu, I believed the same was true for Gu Jie. Her recent rebellion felt like classic teenager angst in the spectrum.

Ru Qiu voiced out next, his high-pitched voice still carrying that familiar sharp edge. “How is it even possible for the Supreme Void to be communicating or doing anything at all, when he should be in slumber? Da Wei dealt a blow on him last time, right? To the point the Supreme Void should’ve sealed itself now.”

Chen Wei explained, “Well, it seems he’s been doing it through dreams…”

This honestly just made the situation ten times worse. A Horseman and the Void getting together sounded like a massive load of bad news.

Gao Fu asked idly, breaking the tension with a practical tone. “What’s the plan now?”

Everyone turned to look at me.

I took a slow breath, rubbing the back of my neck as I considered everything we had just discussed from the suffering souls, the influenced Horseman, the Supreme Void stirring through dreams, and the fragile state of our group.

“We can’t beat the Horsemen in a direct confrontation,” I remarked, my voice steady but honest. “I am not confident I can reach Ruler of Laws anytime soon. I believe there’s a fundamental trait in a Supreme Being that doesn’t allow them to reach it. My Ophanim have been running simulations for some time now. But it seems the laws behave differently around a Supreme Being.”

Hei Mao offered thoughtfully, “How about Pestilence? She’s a Ruler of Laws. She can probably kill War, since he’s bound to you with a promise of a duel… and won’t be able to fight back easily. From what I’ve gathered, War is the second youngest among them. Even Pestilence as the youngest might have a fighting chance.”

I shook my head firmly. “I think Pestilence is playing us. I don’t know what her—or his—scheme is, but we can’t rely on Pestilence or Conquest might end up hurting us. I think the most viable option forward is to win this in a game of monopoly.”

There was an awkward silence that stretched across the deck.

Gu Jie was the first to break it, crossing her arms with a skeptical look. “Father, only Ru Qiu understood that reference and I wouldn’t even bother to try to understand it.”

I clarified quickly, waving a hand. “I am thinking of getting ownership in every layer of the Underworld. We already have the Ninth Layer. Let’s hit the other layers, and if we get five out of nine, we can force War into a stalemate and eventually strangle his forces and whatever the rest gather.”

After gaining the Ninth Layer, the cost of resurrecting or spawning players had decreased significantly, giving me a surplus of faith that I could channel into my Divine Qi or even other dastardly schemes. It felt like a solid path forward, risky but strategic.

Gu Jie suddenly tensed. “Um, father… I sense Nidhogg approaching. Do you want to take the wheel?”

“Sure,” I remarked confidently, “I got it handled. You might bring us to somewhere weird or dangerous again…”

I activated the warp array of the Mighty Duck without hesitation. “Let’s dip to the Fifth Layer. Though it’s also War’s territory, we should be fine there if we lie low and stay around the threshold.”

The world twisted around us in a swirl of energy, and we appeared in the Fifth Layer.

We were immediately surrounded by an armada of War’s warships, their massive hulls looming like predators in the dim void, weapons arrays already glowing with hostile intent.

Damn it.

Ru Qiu, still in his chibi form, pointed a tiny finger at me and shouted in his high-pitched voice, “You jinx! Da Wei, your luck is terrible! Every single time you say something like that, we end up in deeper shit!”

Gu Jie was suppressing her laughter, biting her lip hard as her shoulders shook.

Alice placed a reassuring hand on my shoulder, her voice soft and kind. “It’s fine, David. I still believe in you.”

We barely escaped the armada of War’s warships, the Mighty Duck’s stealth formation flaring at maximum power as Gu Jie took over the controls at the last second. This could be really bad, because it meant War would now be aware of my exact location. He was bound to me through that damned duel after all.

When we finally reappeared back in the Sixth Layer, the ship shuddering from the emergency warp, I couldn’t help but cuss out loud.

“Fucker…”

In front of us loomed Nidhogg, the massive dragon-like entity coiled in the darkness, its eyes gleaming with ancient malice as it blocked our path completely.

The rest of my party erupted almost simultaneously.

“Shit!” Alice exclaimed, her usual composure cracking.

“Fuck!” Gu Jie cursed sharply, hands tightening on the wheel.

“Dammit!” Ru Qiu squeaked furiously from his small frame.

“Bloody hell!” Hei Mao groaned, his ghostly form flickering in alarm.

“What the—?!” Gao Fu muttered, eyes wide.

“Oh no…” Chen Wei breathed out, his face paling.

I stared at the colossal form of Nidhogg, my mind racing for any possible way out as the Mighty Duck hung suspended in the tense silence that followed their outbursts. The situation had gone from bad to worse in the span of a single warp, and I could already feel the noose tightening around us.

I cast Divine Protection over the Mighty Duck, pouring every scrap of Divine Qi I had left into the barrier. “WARP! WARP! PLANAR SPELL!” I shouted.

Alice’s hands glowed as she activated her spell, and Gu Jie slammed the warp array forward while she wove destiny around us. The ship lurched violently.

Nidhogg opened its enormous maw and began sucking in everything in its path. Debris, broken ships, and chunks of the layer hurtled toward us like a storm. We were being pulled in.

Ru Qiu stood on the deck in his tiny body, eyes blazing. “Immortal Art: Defying the Heaven’s Decree!” His dark flames turned silver as he roared, “Supremacy Trait of the Fallen!” He blasted every piece of debris that came too close, but I could see he was already running low on energy.

Void Beasts of all sizes swarmed toward us, drawn by the chaos.

Hei Mao’s ghostly voice rang out. “Immortal Art: Nether Gate Summoning Chant!” The haunting sound of a zither echoed across the void. “Divine Word: Rest!” Most of the Void Beasts lost track of us and drifted off, falling into sudden slumber.

Chen Wei drew a sword from his pocket dimension and slashed down the few beasts that hammered at my Divine Protection. Gao Fu knelt by the warp array, frantically drawing reinforcement formations with her own blood.

Alice pushed more power into her planar spell. The ship accelerated hard.

“N-No more strength…” she gasped.

Suddenly, everything stopped. Nidhogg vanished from behind us.

We cheered wildly, relief flooding the deck.

But then a eerie, giggling voice echoed through the layer.

“Hu hu hu hu… so much chaos… This can’t be right… This can’t be right…”

Our luck had not turned for the better.

The mad Judge of Order materialized before us, his form twisting unnaturally. The moment his eyes locked onto me, he started screaming.

“YOU! YOU DID THIS! YOU DID THIS TO ME!”

Gu Jie said coldly “I’m calling it, Father… you have the worst luck.”

Alice placed a hand on my shoulder, a tired but warm smile on her lips as she remarked, “It’s a true father and daughter trait at this point.”

The Mighty Duck hung frozen in the void as the deranged judge’s shrieks filled the air, his madness radiating like a physical force. I gripped the railing tighter, heart sinking. It seemed the Underworld still had more surprises in store for us.