Yin Zhu could tell that this person seemed to have something on their mind, and her drowsiness immediately dissipated. Hearing gossip made her instantly more awake: "You seem to have lived in the inner city before?"

“Yes.” The worm pointed in a certain direction out the window. “My family lived over there back then. Do you remember the rule in the inner city? The one about the divine branding.”

The worm refers to the eighth one:

When a family has a stable residence in the inner city and more than three members, one member will develop a special symbol representing a deity. Accept this situation and have that member go to the altar of the gods for baptism as a divine servant.

“My parents had a younger brother, and then the gods chose me, but I didn’t want to serve as a god, so I begged the gods to replace me with my brother.”

"Huh?" Yin Zhu had a "you deserve to die" expression on her face.

"The god our family served back then was a very powerful one. He didn't lack servants, so he acquiesced to my request, letting my younger brother take my place when he grew up." If the worm had a smoking habit, lighting a cigarette at this moment would probably have enhanced the atmosphere, but he didn't smoke, only pointing to the back of his hand:

“There used to be a symbol of that deity here, but because the deity allowed it, I went to the hospital to have it removed.”

As expected of the technology of Vina City, it's impossible to tell that anything ever left behind. Yin Zhu looked at it again and again under the moonlight, growing more and more awe-inspiring.

“But my brother angered the gods, which even implicated my whole family. In the end, I was the only one who escaped.”

The worm looked down at the back of its hand. "Do you think if I hadn't run away and had gone directly, my family would be safe? Would my parents still be alive?"