“Hm…” Yama said, fondling his wispy beard. “Have we tried funding other candidates? Getting them to fight one another to split the vote?”
“We have, but it’s a balancing act,” Lily said. “Our campaign analysts are generating targeted ads on social media. We’re spreading as much disinformation as possible, while making sure we can claim plausible deniability if this gets out.”
“Plausible deniability is everything,” Yama said. “No one will be willing to go all in and investigate us. Especially not considering they could be next on my random reincarnation list.”
“A fact I’ve taken great care in reminding them about,” Lily said.
Yama nodded.
Elections were a tricky thing. Democracy was great in theory, but in practice, it led to huge polarization in the population. Taken to one extreme, facts became optional, and opinions became everything. Judah was somewhat naïve in thinking charm could win him the election, but he hadn’t done anything to relieve the man of the notion. They would take care of all the hard work involved in winning votes, keeping him blissfully ignorant for as long as possible.
Yama didn’t like meddling in the affairs of mortals, but something needed to be done. The fate of the city—no, the universe, depended on it. He’d been given a job, and by Pangu, he’d do it. He wouldn’t have a second world-ending apocalypse as a black mark on his resume. One was already enough.
Chapter 1: The Perfect Number
A gentle wind brushed past Cha Ming as he walked across a fertile meadow. Grazing demons looked up at him, their curious eyes evaluating his threat level as he passed. The demons—redwood elk demons—had healthy coats of thick red fur and elaborate horns. You could find them everywhere around here in the Redwood Forest, conveniently located between Beihai and Gold Leaf City.
Cha Ming, curious to see how they would respond to a strange human, reached out to one of the demons with his bare hand. It inched back slightly but stopped once it noticed the pure and kindly aura coming from him. He scratched the rough fur atop its head, which was slightly sticky and stuck to his fingers.
It’s like the sap that oozes out from behind the tree bark, he thought, looking to the red trees beyond the meadow. He wondered if the substance grew naturally, or if it was simply a byproduct of the creature rubbing up against them.
Life is so fragile, Cha Ming thought. Even among demons.
Though the herd wasn’t well organized, there was a method to the way they moved. The young were evenly spread out across the group to protect them from the carnivorous birds that patrolled the skies above them. Feeding time was a gentle dance, and the slightest lapse in judgment as they ate the emerald-green spirit grass could mean the death of one of their younger members.
A short while later, Cha Ming walked into the woods. Unlike the meadows beneath the open sky, no grass grew here, as the redwood trees blocked out any sunshine that might have otherwise pierced through their massive branches. Instead, mushrooms grew beneath the wide canopies, providing shelter to the demons and beasts that lived there.
As he continued his journey, he looked around and noticed that the demons who typically lurked in places like these were unusually quiet.
“Jun Xiezi,” Cha Ming said, sensing the source of the disturbance. “I’m glad you could make it.”
“I couldn’t pass up the opportunity finally travel again,” Jun Xiezi said, walking over on a well-maintained path from the opposite direction. The silver-haired man bowed lightly, and Cha Ming reciprocated. Now that he was stronger, he could finally evaluate the man’s cultivation realm: the peak of core formation. It was much higher than he’d expected. He was likely one of the strongest residents of the Quicksilver Empire.
“When I saw the Redwood Forest was on the way, I couldn’t resist asking a local to show me around,” Cha Ming said. “By the way, I finished a few pieces before you came. Catch.”
Several talismans flew out from the Clear Sky World and stopped an arm’s length away from the older man.
“Good lad,” Jun Xiezi said, picking up three sheets of thin red paper. “That painting was one of the best investments I ever made.”
The painting he’d created for Cha Ming, Samsara, had proven extremely useful. Its soul-replenishing properties had been especially useful to the weaker Cha Ming.
“I should have given them to your earlier,” Cha Ming said. “Unfortunately, I had something on my mind back then. I call these three the ‘kindling,’ ‘dousing,’ and ‘energy’ talismans. They keep the same symmetry as my earlier poetic talismans. One day, I hope to complete one for the wood element.”
“Living and dying,” Jun Xiezi said. “That will be a challenge for someone so young.”
“To be fair, I’m over a hundred and thirty now,” Cha Ming muttered.
“Been to a place with compressed time, I see,” Jun Xiezi said with a bemused expression. “Good thing I wasn’t talking about your physical age but your mental one.”
Cha Ming scowled, but the man ignored him.
“Let’s get going. There are many good things to see here.”
Jun Xiezi pushed off the ground and floated onto one of the thick rust-colored branches that loomed overhead. He twisted his body, expertly avoiding demonic cobwebs that lay in wait for lesser prey. Skeletal spiders scrambled away as Cha Ming followed. Demons were especially sensitive to strength and wouldn’t be caught dead tangling with two superior cultivators like them.
Cha Ming was amazed at the sheer variety of beings in the treetop environment. Here, a whole new world appeared, complete with demonic versions of things like squirrels, birds, and even house cats. There were plenty of insects too. Colorful butterflies fluttered around them as they ascended; they took advantage of their presence by intimidating natural predators, creating a beautiful spectacle in exchange for safety. Fearful spiders with bladelike appendages glared at them with hateful eyes as they fluttered through their traps with uncharacteristic ease. Cha Ming, who’d never been fond of spiders,
