"Enter the Divine Mountain and set foot within the forbidden precincts of the temple."
The blue-haired attendant's gentle voice sounded beside her ear.
"Remember, your fears will become real. Only those who truly submit can reach the end."
Li Jia was puzzled. The divine rulers should have been in the temple, so why had one appeared here?
It had absolutely nothing to do with the plot that had flooded her mind.
According to the original novel, no one would choose Hera. Proud by nature, Hera disdained being chosen by anyone and had never had an acolyte before marrying Zeus.
Could her arrival have caused this?
Had the plot begun to deviate?
System.
Li Jia called to it softly and voiced her question.
"Because you firmly chose your conquest target, Master, the plot has begun to change. This is a good thing for our conquest mission. As long as the Goddess of Spring is born safely and the War of the Gods is prevented, everything will be settled."
Then can I see her affection level?
Li Jia had read plenty of conquest novels. She knew affection levels existed.
She needed to know exactly how much weight she carried in her target's heart and what she meant to her.
In this age when human lives were treated like dirt, she needed to cling to her to survive.
She wanted to live.
To live, no matter the cost.
Li Jia touched her collarbone. The spot the woman had touched still held a trace of warmth, scorching her enough to hurt a little.
"Of course, my master."
"This is a Western-setting conquest novel. We have our own tool for tracking conquest progress. We don't have a progress bar, but we do have an Affection Hourglass."
As it finished speaking, a silver necklace appeared around Li Jia's neck. An hourglass was set in the center of its pendant. Its upper chamber was packed tightly with flowing golden grains, while the lower chamber was empty, without a single grain of sand.
"Once all the sand falls, her affection level will reach one hundred percent."
Li Jia picked up the hourglass between her fingers and toyed with it.
She thought.
This divine ruler really is stingy. She won't let even one grain fall for me.
But Li Jia was not discouraged. The game's ending mattered, of course, but the process of clearing it would leave her trembling all over.
She liked challenges, liked the thrill of adrenaline surging to its limit.
She was not a normal person.
She had known that since she was eight, when she killed a parrot for the first time and used nail clippers to pick the bits of feather out of its flesh, one by one.
The parrot had been a gift from Li Jia's stepmother-or, more precisely, her father's girlfriend at the time. She hated this woman who had approached her with an agenda.
She also hated her father's heartlessness. He and her mother had been husband and wife, yet less than three months after her mother died of illness, he wanted to bring someone new into their home.
She dismembered the parrot and packed its body parts into an exquisite gift box. When the woman next visited their home, Li Jia handed her the box with an almost ingratiating smile and told her to open it after she got home.
Sure enough, the woman was scared out of her wits. Her father sent Li Jia to a sanatorium. Apart from paying her fees on time, he never came to see her again.
Li Jia only learned that he had remarried from the head nurse.
That woman.
Oh, no.
Her stepmother.
His new wife was carrying a new child for him.
Li Jia had the good fortune to taste a piece of the wedding candy he had handed out to others.
The little girl frowned.
So bitter.
The burning sensation left by swallowing the Oath Ice Crystal brought her back to her senses.
She followed the line toward the palace entrance. Of the ten people, only eight passed through the mountain gate. The other two were all but carbonized and shredded by blades the instant they stepped through.
"Those who do not submit absolutely may not take even half a step toward the Divine Mountain."
The blond attendant's low voice rang out among the crowd again.
Apollo's sun and Athena's bronze sword were the irrefutable proof left by the Oath Ice Crystal.
The ten acolyte candidates had become eight, but that made no difference to Li Jia.
She alone had chosen red.
She alone had chosen Hera.
Inside the temple, three divine rulers sat apart from one another. An undying sacred flame burned on the central altar, dancing in a bronze vessel with a crackling sound.
The divine ruler in the seat of honor was surrounded by an oppressive aura that towered above all things. His thick, long hair cascaded like a waterfall. Resting his cheek on his hand, he watched the scene within the sacred flame as the acolyte candidates appeared before the gods.
"They choose you, yet fear you. Humans are as greedy as ever."
Zeus gripped his Thunder Spear tightly. Purple-gold currents coiled around it, shrieking like countless dragons.
"Only two fools who didn't know their place died. I much prefer cute, obedient little girls to men."
Apollo wore exquisite robes, with a sash patterned in gilded light wound around his shoulder, and held a Golden Feather Bow. The blond, blue-eyed god spoke with utter disdain.
He and Artemis were twin divine rulers, one the sun and the other the moon.
The Golden Feather Bow and Silver Feather Bow were gifts the Divine Mountain had bestowed upon the brother and sister.
As the sun god, whether he stood or walked, rippling distortions spread wherever he went, as though light itself had taken physical form and was walking.
"Having someone serve me tea and water and wipe my sword hilt when I return from war isn't necessarily a bad thing."
The goddess of war wore armor protected by ancient divine patterns. Divine blessings flowed through every plate, as though a thousand years of wisdom circulated within them.
Athena was unlike ordinary goddesses. She did not pursue pale, delicate skin. Inexhaustible divine power lay beneath the wheat-colored muscles of her exposed arms. Reaching out to tease the black-eyed owl perched on her shoulder, she said with a smile.
"I find this so dull. Rather than sit here watching these fools, I'd rather go back and tend to my newly blooming violets."
Demeter's wheat-ear tassel earrings swayed with her shifting emotions. Her smile was as warm as spring sunshine, and the loving radiance of the Earth Mother shone in her features, brimming with life as though she had thought of her lovely plants.
"But someone would actually rather choose Hera than you. Apollo, what a failure you are."
The gorgeous, enchanting divine ruler appeared before the sun god. Her words brimmed with teasing laughter as she watched the people in the sacred flame with interest, her every movement a delight to behold.
"Aphrodite, what does that have to do with you? We're not choosing acolytes for you today."
The proud sun god immediately retorted. The goddess of beauty covered her lips with a smile and bowed her head to him in apology.
"I rather admire this little girl. Daring to challenge the most temperamental god in the entire divine realm is enough to pique my curiosity."
The sea god Poseidon's blue-gray eyes were as deep as an ocean abyss, and every strand of his hair was steeped in the scent of sea salt.
"This really gives us something to look forward to."
No one knew who had voiced that sentiment. The gods' gazes were all drawn to the foot of the mountain.
For the eight who had entered successfully, the stairs leading to the Divine Mountain formed five passages. Each person went to the entrance they were meant to take according to its color.
Apart from Linai and Li Jia, the others were all in pairs.
"Li Jia."
Before they entered the passages.
Linai stopped her and murmured sincerely, "You'll get your wish too."
"I hope you're right."
Li Jia climbed the red stairs step by step. Beyond the passage lay a forest with no visible end. Following the instructions, she entered its depths.
The farther she went, the more the air filled with a foul, rotten stench, faintly mixed with an infant's cries, weak and thin like a kitten's.
They were fragments dug out from the depths of memory.
Li Jia continued inward and saw herself.
Or rather, these were the original body's memories. The scene they had transformed into was what its original owner feared in her heart.
Cersei was an ordinary farmer's daughter, and Fenrick was descended from nobility. They met at a horse ranch. He was drawn to her kindness and lively nature, while she was won over by his gentlemanly manners and disregard for class. The two young people with minds of their own soon fell in love and privately pledged their lives to each other.
But in any era, matching family backgrounds seemed an unavoidable issue.
In the end, Fenrick left his family, gave up his title, and married Cersei in the Northern Territory. Fenrick traded overseas. After their daughter Li Jia was born, he had to venture into more distant waters to support his wife and daughter, and his business grew larger and more prosperous.
The original heroine's memories touched Li Jia's heart. She experienced things she had never felt before.
Cersei's kisses and Fenrick's embrace drew her in, leaving her unable to let go.
Until the ship carrying Fenrick and Cersei sank in the Atlantic Ocean. As the terrible news arrived, Li Jia saw the pain the little girl had hidden in her heart.
The scene changed again. The salty winds of the Bolo Strait lashed the young original heroine's cheeks amid a raging storm. She gripped her father's hand, refusing to let go.
"Hold on to the mast, Li Jia!"
Her mother stuffed her into a storage hold and wrapped her in oil-soaked canvas. Curled up in the damp darkness, the little girl heard the despairing sound of planks breaking on deck. Like a maddened beast, the sea hurled the ship into the air again and again, then slammed it back into the abyss.
A huge wave breached the storage hold's partition, and seawater swept the little girl toward the stern. She saw her mother stumbling toward her through the downpour, her long brown-gray hair whipping through the storm.
"Hold on!"
Her mother pushed her toward the last lifeboat, only to be struck by the mast as it suddenly snapped.
The little girl reached out, crying, but touched only her mother's slipping fingertips.
"Be a good girl! Row! Southwest, there's a lighthouse..."
On the crest of a wave, the little girl saw his final smile. Three days later, she was rescued by a merchant ship from Felas. Her parents' bodies were also recovered and brought ashore.
Conrad brought a will bearing her father's name. Li Jia secretly saw him pocket her father's silver coins.
She was too cowardly. There was nothing she could do.
She did not even dare demand her father's belongings back.
The brown earth beneath Li Jia's feet, which should have been moist and fertile, was instantly covered in thorns. The little girl crouched at the center of the brambles with her arms around her knees. The thorns closed in on her, and faint, childish sobs drifted intermittently from their center.
Is this what she fears?
Without the slightest hesitation, Li Jia stepped forward. The moment she set foot on the brambles, sharp thorns pierced the soles of her shoes. She took them off and walked barefoot into the thorns.
The little girl raised her head and looked at her, her eyes full of disbelief.
"You..."
By the time Li Jia had crossed that stretch of ground, the soles of her feet were already a bloody mess.
"Don't cry."
She crouched to meet the little girl's eyes and spoke with a smile.