The little girl stood frozen in place, looking lost. She opened her mouth slightly, but didn't know what to say.
"You did very well."
"Really well."
Li Jia lowered her head and smiled at the little girl. She gently wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes, then bent down and pulled her into a tender embrace.
How guilty and frightened the little girl must have been back then.
"I was too useless. I dragged Father and Mother down."
The little girl's eyes reddened, and tears fell like pearls from a broken string, pattering into Li Jia's palm.
"You don't have to blame yourself."
"Do you know?"
"I'm actually very envious of you."
Li Jia was telling the truth. She envied the original female lead.
The two shared the same body, and within it, she had felt something she had never felt before.
She felt a love that was both familiar and strange, stirring a bittersweet ache in her heart.
Sometimes even Li Jia found it laughable. In her original era, she had only been a student who had just gotten into university. She should have been worrying about romance and the private concerns of a young girl.
Instead, she had been grieving over her family and rushing about to earn enough to cover her living expenses.
She couldn't understand why her university roommates called home every night.
How could they have so much to talk about?
The entries for her parents in her phone's contacts had always been blank.
No one would willingly choose to shoulder everything alone. She had been forced into it.
Hardship had made her independent.
She was like a bird perched in a tree, never worried that the branch would break.
Because it trusted not the branch, but its own wings.
If you received love from your family, you couldn't be tempered by hardship.
If you were tempered by hardship, you couldn't receive love.
In the end, you couldn't have both.
Li Jia had long since stopped expecting anyone to be her lighthouse.
She was her own harbor.
"Really? But if I hadn't been so useless, Father and Mother wouldn't have died."
"I didn't even have the courage to ask for Father's keepsake back."
Young Li Jia lay in her arms, gazing at a face almost identical to her own. She clutched the hem of Li Jia's clothes and asked in a subdued voice, all confidence gone by the time she finished speaking.
"It wasn't your fault. You were too young then, and you only wanted to survive. I know better than anyone what it's like to live under someone else's roof."
"Your parents raised you very well. They raised you to be kind."
When faced with hardship, she wouldn't take revenge on others; she would only make things difficult for herself.
"Silly girl, it isn't worth using your own death to punish those despicable people who deserve to go to hell anyway."
Stained with Li Jia's blood, the thorns slowly receded in every direction. She stood in the center of the circle with the little girl in her arms, while the divine rulers in the temple witnessed everything: the things Li Jia feared and her memories.
Including the time Li Jia learned she had been selected as a disciple and committed suicide by swallowing poisonous herbs.
"Master, the target of yourconquest is watching you."
The system sounded a cold notification.
Watching me?
"It's not just yourconquest target watching you. The divine senses of the other divine rulers are also present."
So that's how it is.
Li Jia pursed her lips and gave a self-mocking smile. These candidates were like little figures on a surveillance monitor, with someone watching their every move.
They were nothing more than tools for those above them to relieve their boredom.
"What a poor, unfortunate girl. I can't help feeling sorry for her and growing fond of her."
Aphrodite sighed, her heart aching. "Why did she choose Hera? She's the most difficult goddess to get along with in the entire divine realm. If I'd known this girl had such a troubled fate, I should have asked to have her. She'd be much safer at my side than at that madwoman's."
"These are all her own choices. I've always despised cowards who choose to give up their lives because of someone else's wrongdoing."
Athena's gaze sharpened, carrying a hint of coldness and doubt.
She was the god of war born from the Divine Mountain. She represented victory and wisdom, possessed formidable divine power and exceptional leadership, and had never panicked when faced with trouble. With clear logic, she decisively and efficiently extricated herself from difficult situations, so she hated cowards.
"A god as arrogant and coldhearted as Hera is well suited to a disciple as timid as a mouse."
Zeus thought about it and found it perfectly reasonable.
He didn't want Hera to have a disciple she liked.
A disciple who was too clever, too brave, and too fearless wasn't necessarily a good thing either.
The twelve divine rulers had all been born from the Divine Mountain. The creator god had left a divine decree: the twelve divine rulers were each to perform their own duties and keep one another in check. If a god became jealous and resentful and attacked a companion, their soul would inevitably be harmed.
On the day a divine ruler came into being, the Divine Mountain would require them to swear a divine oath on what mattered most to them, extracting their most precious possession from their body and entrusting it to the archangel Gabriel in the Divine Mountain's temple for safekeeping.
They were to fulfill the divine duties expected of a divine ruler.
If they wished to reclaim what they had lost,
they would face judgment within the Divine Mountain.
For example, Zeus, the god of thunder, had sacrificed his true heart. That was why he would keep taking a liking to others, but would never fall in love with anyone.
The gods and the Divine Mountain kept one another in check.
Fortunately, over the centuries, as the sun and moon came and went, nothing had gone wrong.
Times changed.
The four great domains of sky, sea, land, and the Underworld were ruled by Zeus, Poseidon, Demeter, and Hades respectively.
Hades was ruthless, fond of darkness and acting alone. He disdained the company of the gods and willingly became a fallen god, taking up permanent residence in Nether Capital Hell as lord of the Underworld. He was not counted among the twelve divine rulers.
The Underworld and the Divine Mountain each had their own restrictions. Neither side could set foot in the other, and they kept out of each other's affairs.
In the original book, Zeus and Hera were equally matched in power. Zeus feared Hera's strength and worried that she might stand against him, so he decided to pursue her to merge and consolidate his power.
But the proud, sinister divine ruler paid no attention to his pursuit.
None of his various methods worked, until one day he turned into a cuckoo drenched by a rainstorm and appeared pitifully before Hera.
Perhaps Hera took pity on it, for she held the little bird in her arms to warm it. Zeus, however, seized the chance to return to his true form and forcibly violated Hera, then spread word of it afterward.
At first, the divine rulers paid it no mind. A woman's chastity had never lain beneath her skirts; chastity was merely a shackle used to bind women.
Hera simply did not want to go to war with Zeus and bring ruin upon the living beings of the three realms because of herself.
Zeus asked Hera to marry him.
The terms he offered were extremely tempting.
He would share the Authority of the God King and divide his power equally with her.
Zeus had many lovers and would father many children because a prophecy said that his youngest child would usurp him. So he had to keep having children, ensuring that a youngest child would never be born.
Hera had never loved Zeus.
Zeus knew that perfectly well.
Hera's punishment of Zeus's lovers was merely part of her duties. She played the malicious role of breaking Zeus and his lovers apart.
Everything she did was based on protecting the stability of marriage and fidelity to the family. Hera sought to uphold the sanctity of marriage through these actions. As the goddess who defended marriage, she had to keep restraining Zeus, merely to fulfill her divine duties.
The blond female attendant saw Li Jia's dream, and for the first time, ripples appeared in the stagnant gaze of this god who had been lonely for centuries.
She had always exercised self-restraint and observed propriety. At her birth, the Divine Mountain had given her a mission, and she had remained steadfast in her duties.
Even when branded with the most vicious and jealous of titles, she did not care.
Order needed gods to protect it.
She had no need for emotions or attachments.
Of the eight candidate disciples, only Li Jia had been the first to break free of the dream. She had overcome what she feared most, and she only had to follow the stairs to the temple to pass the trial.
Apart from Hera, the other divine rulers' expressions were grim.
Even the disciple of the sea god whom people worshipped and revered had taken three days to reach his side.
The Divine Mountain did not lie. Only those who were absolutely loyal and absolutely submissive could reach the temple grounds.
How could anyone choose Hera with such steadfast and resolute determination?
A divine ruler with the heart of a viper.
Poseidon watched the scene in the flames with interest and said with a slight chuckle, "That's the end? Wasn't that a little too quick? Let me add some fuel to this game."
He moved the trident in his hand, and fierce flames leaped along the thorny vines, slowly surrounding Li Jia and closing in to devour her.
Li Jia shielded the little girl in her arms as scorching waves of heat swept over her again and again. The burning flames swayed wildly around her like a pack of frenzied beasts.
"Don't be afraid."
She comforted the little girl, telling her not to be afraid.
The tongues of flame licked at Li Jia's spine, stinging like needles. Thick smoke poured down her throat, and even opening her mouth caused her a cutting pain. The flames scorched her flesh, raising the smell of burning.
The fire grew fiercer and drew closer.
Li Jia's consciousness began to blur and drift. The thick smoke choked her so badly she couldn't open her eyes. At last, she stumbled and fell to the ground, but still kept the child shielded in her arms. Scorch marks appeared on her exquisite skirt, and loose strands of hair, matted with sweat and dust, clung to her forehead.
"Sister."
"I have to go. Please take care of Father's silver coin."
"All right."
Li Jia agreed almost instinctively.
"Thank you, Sister."
The little girl slipped free of Li Jia's arms and walked out of the ring of fire, as though she had made some important decision. Her figure soon dissipated and vanished.
Li Jia's skin, which had been baked dry and rough by the fire, was enveloped as though by a blessed rain from the heavens. A film of water covered her whole body, shielding her from the heat.
"Master, yourconquest target is approaching you."
Why did she disappear?
Li Jia meant the original female lead's childhood self.
"Master, the original female lead has entrusted her unfulfilled wish to you. Your compatibility with her body is now one hundred percent, and you will no longer be affected by her emotions. As the price of her wish, she voluntarily activated a protection mechanism for you."
You mean she's given me her body, and now the fire won't burn me and my life isn't in danger, right?
"Theoretically, yes, Master."
There was nothing seriously wrong with her body; she just looked a little disheveled.
Can you report the distance between me and theconquest target?
"Of course, my master."
Li Jia calmed herself, her heartbeat keeping time with the cold numbers.
"10 km"
"1,000 m"
How is she so fast?
Li Jia muttered quietly to herself as she tried to arrange herself into a pitiful sight for her impending meeting with herconquest target.
She was her only disciple.
Then she would take a gamble.
The flames continued to close in on her. Li Jia calculated the timing in her head as the system reported the distance.
"1 m..."
She put on an air of resignation, pretending she could no longer hold on. Closing her eyes, she fell straight backward.
Warm arms took the place of the cold earth she had expected. Li Jia breathed a sigh of relief, her fingers gripping Hera's skirt tightly, refusing to let go.
Li Jia gave a choking sob in her arms, and Hera could finally make out the streaks of soot and tears on the face of the person she held.
The moment she picked her up, Hera felt the weight of her bones.
So light.
Li Jia's breath brushed lightly against the side of her neck, like a cunning kitten that had gotten its way. Searing wood chips landed on Hera's arm, but the divine ruler kept her hold on her.
The tall, slender figure carried a pleasant woody scent that made Li Jia drowsy.
Seeing that she had achieved her goal, Li Jia, exhausted, truly fell unconscious.
The one above carried her out of the ring of fire and, in an instant, transported her back to her own divine residence.
Seeing that things had not gone as he had expected, Poseidon's expression immediately turned cold. With nothing else of interest, he was about to leave the Divine Mountain.
Before he could leave the temple, countless silver snakes surged in from outside. They swarmed over Poseidon and bit at him. He used his divine power, only to find it had no effect. His face filled with anger, and he cursed bitterly, "Hera, you madwoman!"
"My disciple."
"It's not your place to discipline her."
A low, bloodthirsty voice sounded beside their ears. A god's pressure spread throughout the temple, while the silver snakes' deep red eyes swept over everyone, leaving them unable to breathe.