Chapter 7 - The First Word of Love
I gazed into the darkness at our collective silhouettes. It was a strange, haunting sight—a gallery of us, or rather, the echoes of who we had been across a thousand lifetimes. It was beautiful, in a way, to realize we had tasted so many different flavors of love.
I moved forward, one step at a time, my footsteps echoing in the oppressive silence. There we were: Osiris and Isis, wearing nothing but simple reed sandals; Odin and Frigga, their faces etched with a divine, ancient sorrow; Gilgamesh and Enkidu, their hair falling in marble curls. I saw Fuxi and Nüwa with their serpentine tails intertwined, and Izanagi and Izanami holding the Spear of the Heavens. There were Tonacatecuhtli and Tonacacihuatl, sitting face-to-face, knees drawn up as they contemplated a single, primordial flower. And finally, Zeus and Hera, crowned in gold.
"So, why did we have to be those two?" I asked, pausing before the King and Queen of Olympus. My education might have been lacking, but even I knew Zeus was a notorious philanderer who couldn't keep his lightning bolt in his pants. "Was Lao Liu really out there chasing every nymph in sight while I spent my days beating him for it?"
Lu Daoshi made a helpless gesture with his hands. "You are reborn every century or so, Ye Xiao. What you look like and how you act depends entirely on your mood and your conscience at the time."
"If all those women were me..." I trailed off, a horrifying thought occurring to me. "Does that mean we have a literal army of descendants out there?"
"That is merely the beautiful aspiration of humanity," Lu Daoshi replied dryly. "Haven't you noticed? They always carved you with wide hips and large breasts—the human ideal of fertility."
I fell silent, unable to argue with the cold logic of ancient stonemasons.
As we continued deeper, the traces of civilization began to fracture. The exquisite artistry of the statues gave way to something cruder, more primal. The refined marble was replaced by ancient rock carvings and rustic wood totems, savage and unpolished. If Lu Daoshi hadn't pointed out the bizarre, inhuman shapes and told me they were us, I never would have recognized them. Perhaps those monstrous, non-human forms were closer to our true selves than any Greek god could ever be.
"About seven thousand years ago, you two spent some time on the surface," Lu Daoshi explained. "That was the era when human civilization was first beginning to sprout. Before that, the last time Lao Liu woke up and crawled to the surface was millions of years ago. Humans were still primitive then, so you two were more reckless. You didn't bother with disguises."
Further ahead, the signs of human activity vanished entirely. We seemed to have returned to an endless, void-like space. I was about to suggest we turn back when Lu Daoshi suddenly hopped to the side, disappearing into a depression. "The ground is uneven here," he called out.
Following the faint glow he emitted, I saw a trench. It was a long, excavated furrow cut into a surface so dazzling it was almost impossible to look at directly. The ground possessed a fierce, seductive brilliance—the same intoxicating fire I’d seen behind high-end jewelry counters. It was diamond. My base human instincts flared up instantly; for a solid thirty seconds, I couldn't tear my eyes away. The entire floor was paved with meticulously polished diamonds.
"Let's go back," I whispered, swallowing hard. "What if we get lost in here?" I secretly wondered if I could pry a chunk loose before we left.
Lu Daoshi’s voice cut through my thoughts, projecting directly into my mind. "I never get lost. I am the Guide. This... this is where you two first lived."
I began to tremble with a sudden, overwhelming sense of happiness. This had to be the peak of my life. Lao Liu, you magnificent bastard! Millions of years ago, you already knew how to pave the house with diamonds! What else was there to say? Who else’s husband in the history of the universe was this extra? I never had to worry about his taste in interior design. Even if he decided to hang Lu Daoshi—with his six glowing legs and giant eye—from the ceiling like a chandelier, the sheer opulence of this place would still be heartbreakingly beautiful.
Lu Daoshi doused my excitement with a bucket of cold reality. "It’s just the result of high temperature and pressure. Before that, it was just a pile of mud and carbon."
Honestly, the man had no soul. How could he be such a buzzkill? It was a miracle Lao Liu hadn't beaten him into a pulp yet.
Lu Daoshi reverted to his true form, floating above like a giant, bioluminescent jellyfish. I followed him for a while, but when I realized he was drifting aimlessly, I sat down to wait. His great, wise eye was intently scrutinizing the glittering diamond floor. "What are you looking at my floor for?" I shouted.
"Those trenches," Lu Daoshi’s voice echoed. "From down there, they look like random furrows. But from up here, they are the oldest script in existence. It seems your husband wrote something."
I jumped. The trenches were four or five meters wide. If he wrote this... well, considering he could probably reach the Himalayas if he jumped, it made sense. "What did he write? Is it his true name?"
Lu Daoshi descended slowly, shifting back into human form before me. He wore an expression of regret mixed with a hint of mockery. He didn't say a word until we were almost back to where we had left Lao Liu’s remains.
"He was the first god to create script and language," Lu Daoshi finally admitted. "Using the very first words ever conceived, he wrote: 'I love you.' I suspect those were the first three concepts to ever manifest in this world."
I was moved. I was moved to tears, okay? That diamond floor wasn't just a floor; it was the face of my engagement ring, and Lao Liu had engraved it for me. I couldn't wait to regain my majestic form, put that ring on, and go punch Zhang Litian. My attack power would be off the charts.
Just then, the ground shook violently. Lu Daoshi grabbed me and dragged me toward the exit. The eldest son was shielding the Royal Physician under Lao Liu’s massive frame. On the altar, a massive spatial rift had appeared. It was larger than any I had ever seen, looming over us like a dark plaza. The unstable barrier rippled violently. As I leaped over a fallen stone, a burst of flame nearly knocked me down. It was clear: the other side of that rift was a battlefield.
But who was fighting whom?
Before I could process the chaos, Lu Daoshi tackled me to the ground. A heavy object slammed into my temple with a sickening thud. My vision went black, and my ears rang with a deafening hum. When I finally came to, Lu Daoshi, the third son, Ren Xing, and the Royal Physician were standing in a circle around me. Their expressions were grim.
"What happened?" I groaned, clutching my head. "How long was I out?"
When I pulled my hand away, it was covered in blood. But then I noticed they were all covered in blood, too. Ren Xing was gasping for air, his riot police uniform shredded beyond recognition. Distant thunder echoed through the chamber, and stone dust coated our shoulders.
A sharp, acrid scent hit my nose. "What’s burning?"
"Some of your husbands," Lu Daoshi replied.
Dammit. Ever since I got together with Liu Wukong, I’d had to accept that literally anything could happen to my boyfriend. I stood up, ready to play the hero and douse the flames, when I realized there was a newcomer in our midst.
He was someone I had seen countless times, yet I had never realized he was a "person." My first reaction, however, had nothing to do with the plot.
He was... stunning. And his outfit was... provocative. If I weren't a married woman, I would have pulled a "dog chasing a car" move and pounced on him. Even as a married woman, I felt the urge to ask him for his email address and a link to his latest work. Only his cold, murderous aura kept my mouth shut.
Lu Daoshi was the first to speak, addressing Ren Xing. "Is this Zhang Litian’s stone statue? Why did you let him in?"
"What stone statue? I am Jin Mu," the beauty snapped. His temper was as sharp as his features. He turned his gaze toward me, and I felt a strange sense of honor being the target of such intensity. He grabbed my arm. "Listen, Ye Xiao. I am the real Jin Mu—the one who warned you in the hospital. Zhang Litian told you a mix of truths and lies. He told you there were two personalities in his body, and that I was watching through his eyes. That part was true. But those 'Jin Mus' you encountered? All of them were him, acting out a script. I couldn't warn you because he had me imprisoned."
Honestly, his voice was incredible. And the way he was gripping my arm... it was a lot to take in. I struggled for a moment before managed a weak, "Mmhmm."
"Don't talk to the human. Humans can't stop you," Lu Daoshi said, slapping me right on the temple where the stone had hit me. He shoved me aside. "What's the point of all this talk? Who's to say this isn't another performance?"
Jin Mu sneered. "Believe it or not, it doesn't matter. The last of the Four Horsemen is Death—the chaos that harvests all life. Zhang Litian serves Death. You should know that by now."
It was the first time I’d seen Lu Daoshi look truly checkmated.
"I know how to reverse death," Jin Mu continued, his voice dripping with icy disdain. "You surely don't believe this pile of broken bones is enough to bring the Main God back to life!"
He pointed a slender, crimson finger at the innocent Royal Physician. In the sudden silence, one of the Physician’s ribs fell off. He bent over to pick it up, and his entire skeletal frame collapsed into a heap on the floor.
Lu Daoshi facepalmed. Ren Xing stepped up, patting Lu’s back. "We have no choice. We were ambushed at the seal point and barely made it back. He appeared out of nowhere and opened the spatial rift. He and Zhang Litian shared a body; Zhang Litian never expected to lose control. They shared memories, so he has divine powers no ordinary human could possess. Besides, his physical form was blessed by the Main God’s heart's blood..."
Lu Daoshi squinted at Jin Mu. "How did you get into your own statue?"
Jin Mu’s expression darkened further. "That idiot Zhang Litian wouldn't stop pestering me! If I hadn't been determined to finish my sculpture of Aphrodite, I would have killed myself long ago. Not only did he torment me within our body, but he actually asked you for heart's blood to give Aphrodite life. I thought the bastard had finally found a conscience and was going to give us his blessing. Instead, he stuffed me into my own 'wife's' body! Then, after you lot beat him up, he had the nerve to ask me to bandage his wounds. Bandage his ass! I grabbed my easel and beat him into the toilet!"
If the World Serpent hadn't shifted just then, I think he would have ranted for three days straight. Since he was insulting Zhang Litian and his voice was so pleasant, I was happy to listen, but Lu Daoshi and Ren Xing cut him off. "You have the power and the knowledge to open the rifts. You know how to stitch Lao Liu back together. Can we just get this over with?"
"Fine," Jin Mu said. "I'll use my last breath to resurrect the Main God! Then I'm going to kill that idiot Zhang Litian myself! Ye Xiao, remember this: you owe me a massive favor. When Liu Wukong comes back, don't let him lift a finger. I want to be the one to end him!"
I remembered him as a refined, soft-spoken artist. This ordeal had clearly broken him, turning him into a foul-mouthed brawler. It was a tragic loss for the arts, but a win for our survival.
With Jin Mu, everything became easier. His two-way portal to other dimensions was incredibly efficient. Ren Xing and the third son were supposed to travel to eight different locations to find Lao Liu’s remains, fighting monsters and braving the elements. Now, Jin Mu just opened a rift, and they reached through to drag the pieces back. As he worked, Jin Mu began stitching Lao Liu together with practiced ease. I was baffled. How did he know how to do this? I asked the Royal Physician, who had finally reassembled his jaw.
"The one who taught us the art of resurrection," the Physician whispered, "was the God of the Dead, Anubis."
Anubis? The dog-headed guy?
Suddenly, small details I had ignored began to click into place. The night Zhang Litian emerged from Jin Mu’s consciousness, there had been the sound of fierce barking. The night I was almost dissected in the hospital, there was that same eerie howling. Because he sounded like a dog, the ancient Egyptians drew him with a dog's head... Zhang Litian deserved it.
Driven by curiosity, I nudged Jin Mu with my elbow. "What did Zhang Litian do to you? Did he bully you?"
Jin Mu cursed as he sewed. "That lunatic! He spent every waking moment in our mental world playing with my nerves. He loved scaring me until my soul nearly left my body, only to drag me back. You want to know what he liked? He liked playing tag. Every time I thought I was safe, he would turn out to be something right next to me! Imagine running through a desert for seven days and nights, finally finding an oasis, leaning against a tree to rest—and then the tree turns into a hideous monster that ties you up and starts licking you! The moment I wet myself in terror, he’d look like he was about to climax. It was a non-stop horror movie. I wanted to die, Ye Xiao. Truly."
I felt a surge of genuine sympathy. "Lao Liu is pretty hideous, too," I offered.
Jin Mu kicked me away. "Go think about his true name! I need it to resurrect him. I have to summon his true essence using the oldest language."
Dejected, I turned to Lu Daoshi and the eldest son. "I'm going to walk among the statues again. Maybe there's a clue."
Lu Daoshi frowned. "Lao Liu told you that he came to your side because you summoned him, right?"
"Yeah."
"Then his name definitely won't be something ancient or high-and-mighty. You're just not that kind of person." Once again, Lu Daoshi insulted me without even blinking.
The eldest son didn't defend me. He just tapped his chin thoughtfully. "Think about the specific things you said to Father, or things he said to you."
I started listing them. "Duck blood vermicelli soup is very meaningful to us. Or... he often calls me 'Little One'? Maybe his name is 'Big One'? He also said you gods use logical symbols. He gave you three brothers symbols for names. Which one is he? Is he '1'? Am I '0' and he's '1', making us binary?"
"You are truly depraved," Lu Daoshi said, his gaze speaking volumes.
"But some of those thoughts might be on the right track," the eldest son said, his eyes narrowing. "I suspect Father’s true name isn't something specific or grand. In fact, it should be something vague and indeterminate. That is the only way to achieve eternal truth."
"What does that mean?" I was already lost.
"As the Main God of this world, he is a collective. His DNA contains the genetic code of all life. He told you he is the will of all things; even in death, he hides behind all matter, waiting for you. If a specific name were assigned to him, he could not contain the concept of 'Everything.' A specific name is bound by subject, time, and space. He is eternal. Therefore, his true name cannot be something that points to a single thing."
My brain was starting to smoke. "Huh?"
"For example," the eldest son continued, "consider the sentence: 'It is seven o'clock now.' What part of that sentence is certain?"
I thought about it. "'Seven o'clock' is certain."
"And is that sentence true or false?"
I suspected he was giving me an IQ test. "If it’s actually seven o'clock, it’s true. If it’s not, it’s false."
"Exactly!" he cried, looking far too excited. My intelligence was being mocked on a cosmic level. "At seven o'clock, that sentence is a truth. But time passes quickly. If you look at that sentence at eight o'clock, it is no longer true. But tell me—which word made the sentence false?"
I stared at him, unable to answer. I was actually intimidated.
Lu Daoshi hit me again. "It’s 'seven o'clock.' Once that specific time and place pass, 'seven o'clock' becomes untruthful. Yet, look at the word 'now.' The concept of 'now'—or 'this moment'—is vague and points to nothing specific, yet it remains true at every single moment. Because it is indeterminate, it is eternally true."
"So you're saying Liu Wukong’s name is... 'This'? Or 'That'? That’s so lame!"
As we puzzled over this, Ren Xing stepped through the portal, followed by the third son carrying the final piece of Lao Liu’s body. Ren Xing waved his arms frantically at Jin Mu. "Close it! Close it now!"
The barrier at the entrance was fluctuating wildly. A colossal tentacle, accompanied by a roaring tidal wave, reached through the rift, aiming straight for Lao Liu. At the last possible second, Jin Mu collapsed the spatial rift. The tentacle was severed cleanly, falling to the ground with a wet thud. I felt sick.
"The World Serpent," Lu Daoshi whispered, his face pale.
"It's awake?!" I shrieked.
As if in answer, the entire city began to rock violently. Jin Mu gritted his teeth, directing the third son to place the final piece of Lao Liu into the correct gap. Ren Xing and the third son prepared to defend the perimeter. "The gods know we're trying to resurrect him! They're gathering at the seal points to lay siege to this place!"
Lu Daoshi stopped them. "Don't go! The World Serpent... it also knows how to tear through space! It is the Death that can kill the Main God!"
No sooner had he spoken than another tentacle dropped from the ceiling, smashing a massive crack into the floor. Ren Xing leaped up, swinging Gungnir in a fluid arc to sever it. The remaining stump vanished instantly as the space around it folded shut.
"How much longer!" I crawled over to Jin Mu.
Jin Mu looked at me, his face ghostly white. "We're missing one piece."
I gasped. "Is it... his...?"
Jin Mu bowed his head in a silent gesture of mourning.
"I knew it! I knew he lost his little buddy! No wonder he was so short!"
Jin Mu nearly slapped me. He dragged me to a spot that looked like a hollowed-out altar. "We are missing a heart!"
We both fell silent.
After a long moment, I tried to sound casual. "It’s fine. It was his to begin with. And it’s not like I can't live without his heart."
"You can't," Jin Mu said sadly. "He is dead. There is only one heart. Once it's used, it's gone."
He patted my shoulder and went back to stitching the final seam of Lao Liu’s body.
Faint lights began to appear in the distance. The earth beneath me groaned, and my ears caught the sound of thousands of voices—gods and Abyssal creatures alike—cheering for the coming carnival of destruction. The World Serpent’s tentacles were everywhere now. The space above me tore repeatedly, purple rifts opening and closing, spitting out waves of seawater and fury.
I saw the third son transform into a massive, unrecognizable form, charging into the void alongside his own reflection. I saw the Royal Physician shattered into a pile of bones, then incinerated into ash. I saw Lao Liu’s body catch fire again. I saw Lu Daoshi revert to his giant eye form, firing bursts of purple energy in a futile attempt to hold back the invaders. I saw Ren Xing sever a tentacle that had coiled around Jin Mu, only to be slammed into the ground. The eldest son shouted something at me, rushing to pick up the fallen Gungnir, but he was dragged into another dimension by the Serpent.
I watched it all. And then, my gaze fell on that small, hollowed-out space.
Who would have thought that Liu Wukong’s heart was so small? So small that it could only hold one person.
When Lu Daoshi told me his name was indeterminate and vague, I had already begun to suspect the answer. The eldest son had been trying to tell me his true name, too.
He had created the first language and the first script. And that first language was meant for me. That first script was written for me to see. He had carved it, stroke by stroke, telling a version of me that understood nothing:
*I. Love. You.*
His true name was the oldest first-person pronoun in the world. Because at the dawn of creation, the answer to "Who am I?" was simply: *I am.*
And I was the person sitting across from him, the one called "You."
And so, from that moment on, love existed in this world. And with it came countless love stories. Countless people, in different eras and at different ages, using different languages and different voices, would tell another: *I love you.* They might be sincere or false, thinking it was a simple expression of emotion.
But it wasn't.
*I love you.*
That sentence is a story, a truth, a piece of history. From the ancient past to the present, it is happening eternally. It is the epic of the High God.
Yes, there have been many love stories in this world. But those people don't know that they are only repeating our story. Over and over again. Liu Wukong was hidden behind them all, speaking to me of a love I could never understand. A love that never broke a promise. A love so sincere it would die for me. A love that had never, ever been returned...
The scent of the sea grew stronger. The World Serpent twisted and devoured, its massive arm of destruction coiling above me, gradually forming into a long sword aimed directly at my chest.
There was no more light. Everything was pitch black. I couldn't even hear my companions anymore. Could this world be saved? That question wasn't even on my mind.
I simply knelt down and touched the hollow altar. "How should I love you?"
Liu Wukong didn't answer.
I pressed my fingers against my lower left ribs and slowly tore open the skin. This time, because I was doing it to myself, the pain was exquisite.
"Is love pain?"
I reached into the blood and bone, higher and higher, until I grasped the still-beating heart.
"Is love the sound of two hearts beating as one?"
I squeezed the heart and pulled it free. The pain was blinding; blood was everywhere. I knew I was dying, and in that moment, time itself seemed to stall, freezing the Sword of Damocles hanging over my head. Billions of years of memories flooded into my empty, cold chest like a rising tide.
I saw us sitting in the palace at Abydos, watching the sunrise over the Nile. I saw us playing flutes as we traveled through the violent rainy seasons of the Fertile Crescent. I saw myself sitting in the dark forests of Northern Europe for forty-nine nights, watching you carve a tiny wooden doll. We were...
So many things. And I didn't even have time to go back and watch them all again.
I struggled to place the heart into the hollow.
"Is love sacrifice?" I asked him.
He still didn't tell me.
"...It’s too hard. I don't understand yet, and it already hurts too much..." I gripped the edge of the altar. In a sensation of weightlessness, I caught a glimpse of Liu Wukong lying at my feet. The space between us was transparent. I reached out, wanting to touch his face, but I was already vanishing, starting from my fingertips. A dazzling golden light erupted between us, growing brighter and more magnificent, blurring his features.
I could only whisper a promise to him. "It won't hurt this much anymore."
I give the gift of forgetting back to you.
Thank you for holding onto your tenderness for ten million centuries.
***
