Beneath Diyin, Above All Living Beings!

"In other words, the cost of making a wish was Gospel itself, and destroying Gospel would have conveniently earned a bonus wish... We were so close. What a shame." After listening to Yaxiu's recounting, Annan showed a regretful expression and threw up her hands. "In the end, I fell short at the final hurdle, and all my scheming came to nothing." Yaxiu noticed the loneliness in her expression, and a thought suddenly struck him. "Annan, you..." "It's fine. If you stake everything on a single throw, you have to be ready to accept defeat." Annan smiled and clapped her hands. "Still, since Diyin can maintain her self-awareness, there's no need for us to leave anymore, right? That's wonderful. From what I hear, other countries aren't nearly as developed as Gospel. If we ended up in some primeval forest still running on tribal systems, I could never accept such a drastic drop in my standard of living." "Lisi." Yaxiu looked at Diya seated upon the throne and asked seriously, "Do you have a way to lift Gospel's curse on the Doran family?" "Gospel's curse on the Doran family?" Nona caught on immediately, and Qinna also turned to look at them. "What is this about?" Diya looked intently at Annan, sensing the violent ripples coming from her soul. Her expression shifted slightly. "Gospel truly is filled with detestation for anyone carrying Doran blood. If left unchecked, in a few more years Gospel's disgust will escalate to the point where it disrupts the Gospel system itself, and the interference won't stop until every last member of the Doran clan is gone." This was the first time the Sennheiser sisters had ever heard of this. Nona was utterly stunned. The notion was so far beyond imagination and so horrifying that her mind froze completely. Could you imagine someone being hated by the sun, rejected by water, and avoided by the very air? Qinna suddenly stepped forward and dropped to one knee before Diya, asking respectfully, "How many points would it cost to alleviate Gospel's aversion toward the Dorans?" "Qinna!" Annan reached out to grasp the elf clan matriarch's shoulder, trying to haul her up. "Is putting on an act in front of me like this amusing to you?" Qinna didn't budge an inch. How could a mere Two-Winged sorcerer move her? She said calmly, "Now that the Weaving Ceremony has ended, by the terms of our contract, you are no longer Annan Doran, but Annan Sennheiser, and you will return to live with Sennheiser. The Six Emblems will never abandon a member of our clan..." "The clan, the clan, always the clan!" Annan sneered. "Then dissolve the contract with me right now. That way I'll still be Doran's Annan, and you won't need to waste clan assets trying to save an outsider." Nona couldn't help chiming in, "Little Annan, Sister, could you two please..." Seeing them begin to bicker, Diya had hesitated, but when she caught the reluctance, pity, and resolve in Yaxiu's eyes, she immediately spoke up: "I can suppress Gospel's aversion toward the Dorans, but I have a condition!" Annan froze, then asked at once, "What condition?" She had already resigned herself to awaiting death. Though fleeing Gospel remained an option, none of the past Doran clan heads had ever run, and naturally neither would she. If she had truly wanted to flee Gospel to cling to life, there would have been no need for her to wait outside the Void Realm passage to capture Yaxiu and his companions; she could have simply passed through the passage into another country. Her primary worry in not fleeing Gospel was, of course, that even if she successfully reached another realm, she would most likely be hunted down by local factions as an otherworldly vanguard—just like the reception Yaxiu and the others had received upon arriving in the Gospel Country. Her lifespan might end up even shorter than if she stayed in Gospel. Beyond that, however, the real reason Annan was willing to be buried in Gospel was her fierce pride in Gospel. Some might find it strange: if she was proud of Gospel, why had she schemed by every conceivable means to seize the divine wish and destroy it? Yet as deeply as Annan resented Gospel now was how proud she had once been when she first encountered it. Breaking the family curse was her original driving force, but destroying this system to rebuild a new future was also the lifelong ideal Annan held. Almost all past heads held the very same thought: it was precisely because they loved Gospel so deeply that they sought to desecrate it. Thus, after the plot to assassinate the princess collapsed completely, Annan's ideals were shattered, leaving her utterly despondent. Although Diyin had later protected them and arranged for their escape to another country to evade persecution, if not for Banjie and Yaxiu, she never would have agreed to leave Gospel in the first place. Now that Diyin could maintain her self-awareness and neither Yaxiu nor Banjie needed to leave, she was naturally unwilling to flee alone to some other realm to fend for herself. She would much rather enjoy whatever time she had left. So when Diyin said she could suppress Gospel's aversion and break the Doran curse, a new hope rekindled in Annan's heart. Not merely because she could go on living, but because in Diyin, she saw the possibility that her ideals might yet be realized! "I want you to release your contract with Yaxiu." Diya glanced at Igola and Harvey, adding, "As well as the contracts with Aunt Bogin and Uncle Harvey." "No problem." Annan agreed without hesitation. Thanks to her reward, as long as both parties to a contract reached an agreement, it could be dissolved verbally. Once the contracts were canceled, she leaned close to Diya and asked earnestly, "Can you truly suppress Gospel's malice?" Diya nodded. "I can. Gospel's malice toward the Dorans is actually a negative effect that disrupts the operation of the Gospel system. As long as I demand that the Gospel system function normally, it naturally won't target the Doran clan." "Then besides that, can you exert even more influence over the Gospel system?" Annan's eyes shone bright. "For instance, reducing the degree of Gospel's control over individual lives and granting individuals greater autonomy? Or breaking up the conglomerate clans? Families like Burdette, Six Emblems, Mercury, and Kaishirui should have been brought to heel long ago..." "Annan, you giant flapping moth!" "Annan, don't forget that you're a Sennheiser now, too!" A chill ran through Qinna and Evalyn. They hurried over to interrupt Annan's slanderous whispering, citing chapter and verse to explain how the Six Emblems and Burdette were far too big to fail. Only now did Yaxiu and the others belatedly realize a crucial fact: across the entire Isu Dynasty, and perhaps even in the more than one thousand years since the birth of the Gospel system, the very first Empress with intense emotional inclinations had been born. Though she had been willing to forfeit what might be the sole wishing opportunity of her lifetime for the sake of Gospel's living beings, that did not make her an entirely fair and impartial saint. On the contrary, she was undeniably a girl with petty tempers, people she hated, people she liked, and plenty of mood swings. If the First Gospel of the past was an unfeeling blade dangling above the heads of all creation, then Diyin was an immediate nightmare or opportunity right before everyone's eyes. If she disliked you, you might slip on a banana peel just walking down the street; but if she took a liking to you, even if you tripped, some poor sap would be there first to cushion your fall! Thunder and rain, light and dew—all were imperial grace! Diyin's command was the destiny of all creation! Even if she could only make the Gospel system shake loose a speck of dust, falling onto anyone's head, it would be a mountain! No wonder Qinna and Evalyn were so anxious. If Diyin truly took Annan's slander to heart and made an offhand remark, no one in the world would be able to save them. At this thought, Igola couldn't help glancing sideways at Yaxiu. If Diyin was the supreme Empress of Gospel, then Yaxiu was at least the chief court favorite who held swaying power over the entire realm. In fact, offending him might be even more dangerous than offending Diyin—after all, Diyin could not leave the imperial palace, whereas this guy was a walking mobile disaster who could wander anywhere he pleased. He was truly "beneath Diyin, above all living beings"! Compared to any doomsday cataclysm, the current Yaxiu was the genuine natural disaster. Anyone who crossed him had better prepare to taste what it felt like to have "the entirety of Gospel as their enemy." Yet Yaxiu clearly possessed no awareness of his skyrocketing status. Greeting Harvey, he asked in bewilderment, "Why do you look like you've gotten thinner?" "Dieting," Harvey replied with a smile. "I transferred my flesh onto someone else." Igola went pale hearing this. Yaxiu looked bewildered, but his attention was quickly drawn away by the stroller before them. He crouched down and gazed at the blue-haired infant in the stroller. Hesitating for a moment, he asked, "Is this Banjie? How did he get so small this time? Last time, he could at least walk on his own. Now... can he even roll over by himself?" "He overused his miracle." Annan walked over and crouched beside him. "It was my first time ever seeing Banjie in an elderly state... Once the Melting miracle ended, he turned into this. It's also my first time seeing an infant Banjie." "Then how long will it take for him to recover this time?" Yaxiu asked. "Last time, child-Banjie took two days to revert. This time, surely not an entire week?" "It will take seventeen years." "Seventeen... years?" Yaxiu froze, suspecting he had misheard the unit of time. "He completely melted himself down." Annan extended a finger to tease little Banjie. Little Banjie reached out his tiny fingers to grasp hers, babbling softly. "He can't revert anymore. He can only start from infancy, living through babyhood, childhood, adolescence, and adulthood all over again." "What about his memories?" "They might return, but he'll certainly lose a lot," Annan said with a shrug. "When he encounters people, things, and events from before, he'll probably experience plenty of déjà vu." Yaxiu stared wide-eyed at little Banjie, who stared right back. He suddenly smiled. "Then it's your turn to look after him." "Yeah. The Dorans owe Banjie far too much." Annan carefully picked up Banjie. "I was originally worried it would be difficult to care for him in another realm. Now that we can stay, at least he'll have a peaceful, secure environment to grow up in." Little Banjie squirmed, trying to wriggle free of Annan's arms. Yaxiu chuckled, reaching out to take him. He laid little Banjie face-down across his forearm. The baby immediately stopped squirming, his two little legs dangling beside Yaxiu's hand as he looked around inquisitively. "Huh?" Annan blinked. "You can carry him like that? Won't he fall?" "This is called an airplane hold. It's actually quite secure, and it's great for relieving gas and crying." "Why are you so practiced at this?" Recalling how he used to help hold his crying nephew whenever he visited home in the past, Yaxiu smiled fondly. "I used to look after kids." Watching him care for little Banjie, Annan, who had always been assertive and decisive, suddenly turned bashful. She stammered, "S-Since the Weaving Ceremony is over, well, um, I'm not really good with babies either... Yaxiu, would you..." Suddenly, Yaxiu's Book of Gospel popped out on its own, gleaming with a soft green luminescence. Everyone was startled, thinking the Weaving Ceremony had not ended yet. But taking a closer look, they realized their own Books of Gospel showed no reaction. Rustle! In the next second, countless vines burst forth from Yaxiu's Book of Gospel!