In a remote village at the edge of the empire, Yu Di waited to die, just like any mortal.

  How droll.

  Yu Di spent every day thinking of a way to break his curse. He had been trying for over twenty years, but nothing worked. Maybe he would finally try sacrificing a child.

  He laughed to himself.

  Yu Di was on his eighth cup of wine, sitting in the only restaurant in the village. He looked out toward the cliffs where his house was. A Demigod’s sword strike split it in two a long time ago. Before his curse, he once had that power. Now all he could split was the roast pork in front of him.

  “I’m telling you, the empire should do something about that ‘Forgotten Spirit Sect’,” a man said from the next table over. “They’re kidnapping people all over the region.”

  A gruff voice replied, “You know why they’re not doing that. The empire is about to collapse. Their god-king emperor is on his deathbed and all his near immortal sons are fighting to take over the throne.”

  “What does that have to do with the kidnappings?”

  “Everything! They’re too busy fighting each other to care for little people like us.”

  “Come on, old Wong. You’re always saying crazy things. The empire has been around for thousands of years. Next you’re going to talk about the twenty-foot monster bears roaming the countryside, bringing their bear justice to the greedy officials.”

  “Don’t get me started on those bears!”

  Those bears were real. Yu Di hunted one many years ago, thinking they might be good material to break his curse. They weren’t.

  Nothing he tried worked.

  The stupid curse was unbreakable.

  Someone shoved him from behind.

  That signaled it was time to leave. Yu Di tossed a tael of silver onto the table and got up.

  The two old men were fighting again over some stupid thing Old Wong said. Usually they would break a few tables and disturb a few customers before they were finished. Then Old Wong would pay for everything.

  Yu Di walked out into the cool air. A row of mud huts lined the streets all the way down until it reached a hill. A few of the homes were built of brick. He didn’t recognize his hometown anymore.

  Maybe in another hundred years they would develop more and the empire might reach all the way west to the goddess’ city. Just thinking about the goddess made Yu Di grimace.

  It was the last great fight he had as a Demigod.

  All he wanted from the goddess was for her to share her secret. He hungered for the next level as he was close to being a true god. But she refused, claiming she didn’t know.

  So Yu Di threatened to burn her city. What’s a couple of thousand mortals on the path to eternity? Besides, it was her fault for not sharing.

  He couldn’t believe such a clueless goddess cursed him.

  Yet Yu Di was stuck in this insignificant old village, in the smallest corner of the largest empire. It took years of trial and error, mostly error, to realize that there was no breaking the curse. Every time he used his powers, the curse would take his cultivation levels. Levels and stages that mortals could only dream off. Now he was finally at the lowest level of cultivation, almost no different to a mortal.

  Worse still, when he activated his Qi, he would lose lifespan. Even with the body of a Demigod, he was dying from old age.

  The ancestor hall came into view. It was at the center of the village where the village chief lived. To Yu Di’s surprise, the chief was one of his sibling’s descendants.

  At first the chief didn’t want anything to do with an Immortal, even a cursed and powerless one. He changed his mind when Yu Di paid him a large stack of bills to fix up their ancestral hall and to rebury his parents there in a place of honor. What the chief did with the rest of the money was up to his discretion.

  What else was Yu Di going to do with all the mortal money he accumulated all these years? He had more than he could spend in ten mortal lifetimes.

  Unfortunately Yu Di only had twenty years to live, give or take a few months.

  Still, his money also bought respect from the villagers. As far as they knew, he was some rich relative of the village chief. They would have kicked Yu Di out of the village if they had known that he was also hiding from very powerful enemies, most of whom he stole from. Any one of them could level the village with a wave of their hand.

  Yu Di entered the hall and went into a small room with his parents' ancestral tablets. There were two cushions on the ground in front of the altar and the room smelled of incense. The expensive imported kind from the capital. He made sure his servant burned fresh sticks of incense every day. He got on his knees and bowed three times as he did every day.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  “Father, mother, your son is here again asking that you open the way for him when he comes to meet you in twenty years. King Yama is probably angry that I tried to cheat him.”

  And he would have gotten away with it too. Whoever heard of a demigod dying of old age in this world?

  “More importantly, I hope you two can forgive this unfilial son for not coming back when you were alive. I regret that decision every day. You two were better parents than I deserved.”

  It wasn’t entirely true. Though his father wasn’t one of those abusive drunks, he had a gambling habit. Yu Di rarely ever saw him home. Hopefully they couldn’t read his thoughts as Yu Di was begging his parents to help him in the afterlife that was coming closer and closer every day.

  Yu Di took out his jade tablet from within his storage ring.

  Current Power: Realm 1, Stage 1, Level 0.5 (Qi condensation)

  Remaining Lifespan: 19 years, 10 months.

  Current Status: Cursed

  Overall Power: Fourth Realm, End Stage, 9th level

  Well, that hadn’t changed. At least it didn’t get worse.

  Yu Di put away the jade tablet. The last thing he needed was another reminder of how much longer he’d have to wait. When he was an immortal, seeking that next delicious level up or stage breaking or realm conquering, time flew by so fast. Now…

  Might as well go back home and see what his servant made for dinner.

  Yu Di’s home was at the top of the hill at the end of the village, looking over a massive cliff atop a river that went downstream toward Annam. It used to belong to Old Wong before he purchased it from him. The cliff made a perfect escape should his enemies find him.

  It was also the highest point in the village that had any ambient Qi. Every morning, after his brainstorming session at the restaurant, he would come back to his own courtyard and cultivate.

  Yu Di would sit atop a large, flat rock, legs crossed, and pulled in the Qi into his body, circulating it throughout his meridians. Only it felt more like a trickle than the usual torrent he felt as a Demigod. It was like reaching for a missing limb.

  Despite all that, he couldn’t let even that little bit go.

  Today, he was going to try a new tactic: reverse cultivation!

  Yu Di took out a manual from his storage ring which described a technique that reversed cultivation. By doing this, he would cleanse his body so it would be more ready to absorb the Qi.

  He had tried this technique before, but all it did was make him constipated.

  This time, he was going to combine it with another technique called Vacuum that would then suck in so much Qi that it would flood his body. By doing this, maybe he would finally break through his curse and recharge his dantian.

  Yu Di focused on purging all the Qi in his body using reverse cultivation. Everything was pushing out of his body. Now that it was clear of all Qi, he used Vacuum to suck in as much Qi as he could as rapidly as he could. In his mind, it would work like a firecracker where it would ignite his dantian in one strong burst, breaking his curse.

  All it did was make him vomit the wine he drank earlier and give him constipation.

  Yu Di suspected the attempt would fail and was lucky it didn’t kill him. But he didn’t mind either way. He never cultivated because he wanted to avoid death. He wanted the rush from breaking through. This stagnation was worse than death.

  Some days, he wished his enemies had found him. That way, he’d just use the last of his powers to kill them all. It would kill him too, but at least he would have some companions on the road to the Yellow Springs.

  Yet there was a voice in the back of his head, telling him that he would break the curse one day. Yu Di was willing to keep trying until then.

  “Master, dinner is ready,” his servant called from the house.

  Yu Di walked to the table set up in the back courtyard. While the front of his home didn’t look like much, his back courtyard was immaculately designed.

  Beautiful wooden reliefs depicting Yu Di’s many adventures stood all around. Each one was painted by expert craftsmen and inlaid with either gold foil or the most beautiful jade of all types.

  He only made sure to pick the best scenes from memory like the time he stole the Buddhist texts from the Imperial Capital’s largest temple. The Emperor’s oldest concubine was so angry she issued a kill order.

  Or the time he accidentally summoned a sect’s ancestral monkey that grew to the size of a mountain and trampled the entire place. While the sect leader and all his elders dealt with the monstrosity they kept in their underground vault, Yu Di helped himself to all their secret manuals kept in another secret vault.

  Each of these incidents gave him the boost he sorely needed. Just remembering the feeling of breaking through to the next realm, stage, or even minor level made Yu Di shiver. He picked up his wine cup and took a sip, the alcohol burning down his throat. This second hand feeling was the only thing keeping him alive.

  “Master, I have to run a personal errand in the next village,” his servant said. “I won’t be back for a few days. Will you be alright?”

  “Oh, yes that’s fine.” Yu Di waved his hand to dismiss his servant. “I’ll eat at the restaurant until you get back. I won’t die.”

  “Remember to eat actual food though.”

  Yu Di paused from reliving his memories to stare at his servant. He had a very plain face, but he looked genuinely worried about his master.

  Yu Di chuckled and picked up his chopsticks. He grabbed a few pieces of meat and ate it with a bowl of rice.

  “I’ll manage somehow while you’re away.” Yu Di grabbed another bowl of rice from his servant. The food was delicious as ever and made him wonder why he didn’t eat more?

  “Just in case, I’ve already told the owner to look out for you.” The servant handed Yu Di another bowl of rice.

  “Thank you. Now I know why I hired you in the first place.” Yu Di noticed so many different dishes of food, all vying for his attention now. There were sweet pork chops, half a roast duck, a tofu and fish dish cooked in a clay pot, stir fried bok choy with garlic, and his favorite string beans in a bean curd sauce.

  The entire meal had all the flavors mixing and matching on a wonderful bed of rice that on its own has no taste, but paired with everything enhanced the flavors and the smell. There’s nothing quite like smelling rice and enjoying…

  A ping hit his senses just as Yu Di picked up another pork chop. One of his wards at the village entrance was tripped.

  “Master?” his servant said.

  “An Immortal is in the village,” Yu Di said, taking a large bite.

  “Then shall I prepare your retreat?”

  Yu Di shook his head. He chugged a large cup of water.

  “Whoever it is, is flying toward us at full speed. This one is a powerful immortal at the second realm. Just leave. I’m already dead.”