Chapter 56
After Li Jia woke up, she couldn't find Hera anywhere. She stared blankly at the ring on her thumb.
Why should the other half of the path be left to her as well?
Li Jia didn't understand.
She planned to wait for her to come back and ask her clearly, but she waited from dusk till dawn, and from dawn till dusk, and she never came back.
Unable to contain herself, Li Jia didn't have time to ask Winslow before she steered the Peacock Chariot toward the Temple of Marriage.
Thinking back on it carefully, I have learned a lot of useful things by following her around these past few years, such as how to use the Judgment Dao to perfection, almost to the point of becoming one with the sword.
Hera taught her how to handle the affairs of the Temple of Marriage, and even when Hera was not in the temple, she could rely on what she had been taught to manage everything.
But now.
The person who taught her everything is gone.
She looked down at the two rings on her hand, and a feeling of anxiety, like vines, clung tightly to Li Jia's heart, making her feel suffocated and painful, and her breathing suddenly became disordered.
The peacock chariot slowly landed outside the palace. The palace doors were wide open, and the palace was empty.
The silver snake-shaped white jade pillars gleamed coldly in the moonlight, and the glass lamps swayed gently under the corridor, making soft, tinkling sounds, which only made the entire temple seem even more desolate.
Li Jia stepped onto the cool jade steps and entered the hall. Her gaze swept over the familiar furnishings and finally settled on the unclosed marriage history book on the table.
She approached the desk and picked up the page that had been turned with her fingertips.
Moonlight poured down, illuminating the words on the pages. The entire history book was printed with only her name, while the name Hera, which should have been listed alongside hers, had vanished without a trace, as if it had never existed.
"How could this be..."
Li Jia's voice was dry and hoarse as she stroked the blank paper, only touching a cold ink stain.
A wave of panic washed over her instantly. She staggered back a step, crashing into the jade pillar behind her. The dull pain in her chest intensified, almost making it hard for her to breathe.
A figure appeared at the palace entrance. Li Jia subconsciously looked up and saw Doreen's indifferent face.
Like someone who had found a lifeline, Li Jia held up the marriage history book and asked her, "Where is Hera? Where is Hera?"
"Why? Why does she have the right to erase her name from the marriage record at will?"
Why should I be left to decide the course of events?
Why can't I find her?
What is she going to do?
Li Jia was furious. She was being divorced for no reason? Did she even agree to it?
"The goddess has her own things to do. She has entrusted the Temple of Marriage to you. From now on, you will be the new goddess, and you will have no further connection with her."
Doreen stiffened upon hearing Li Jia's barrage of questions, but managed a cold reply.
"Why should I become a new god? I am just a mortal. Isn't it ridiculous to make a mortal a god?"
Doreen's answer baffled Li Jia. Why would she become a god?!
This deviates from the plot of the book and is inconsistent with the mission.
She is a string of data that does not belong here. According to the system's calculations, her body's lifespan is less than half a year.
Doreen remained silent, standing motionless at the door.
Li Jia stared at her, frowning. Hera must have told her something, but she couldn't get any information out of her.
Let's try another approach.
Li Jia raised her eyebrows and laughed, "Fine, you won't tell me, huh? Then I'm too lazy to listen. Since you say I'm the new god, then I'll hold a god-husband selection ceremony in Xiangcheng Quandu tomorrow, no! At dawn."
"I want other men to live in her house, spend her money, and I want you to watch me and my husband being loving and affectionate until we grow old."
"Li Jia! How could you do this! Do you know how the Gods entrusted and trusted you?"
The shout echoed softly in the empty temple of marriage. Doreen's face flushed red instantly, and her eyes were filled with disbelief and anger as she looked at Li Jia.
Li Jia seemed not to hear her, a cold smile playing on her lips: "Entrustment? She abandoned me here without a word of explanation, leaving behind only a marriage record with her name erased and a mysterious divine identity. Is this what you call entrustment?"
She looked up at Doreen, her anxiety already masked by a deliberately feigned rebelliousness: "She was the one who wanted to form a pact with me, and now she's silently severing all ties. What I do is none of her business."
“I must choose a priest, and if you obstruct me, you will be disobeying the command of the new god.”
"you……"
Doreen was trembling with anger, but she was speechless because of those words.
Hera did give instructions before she left, that whatever decision Li Jia made, everyone in the Temple of Marriage should obey her orders, and she had no right to interfere.
“If you don’t tell me, then everything she did is meaningless. Once you forget her too, no one in this world will remember her or anything she did.”
Li Jia's words made Doreen hesitate about whether to disobey Hera's instructions.
The goddess dedicated her life to protecting the order of the Temple of Marriage and maintaining the threads of marriage in the world. If she forgets this, all her efforts and sacrifices will truly become dust that no one cares about.
The wind outside the palace carried the moonlight in, causing the halo of the glass lamp to flicker violently, casting Doreen's shadow in a dim and intermittent manner.
She opened her mouth, but it felt like hot sand was stuck in her throat. After a long while, she managed to squeeze out a hoarse sentence: "The goddess... went to the sacred mountain."
"Sacred Mountain?"
Li Jia's heart sank. She had seen this name in a book. All twelve gods were born on the sacred mountain. The sacred mountain and the gods restrained each other. After a god descended to earth, he would leave the sacred mountain unless he committed a serious crime or wanted to take back something he had left there.
"Before the Goddess descended to earth, cracks appeared in the order of marriage in the world, which is why the goddess of marriage, Hera, descended to the sacred mountain to maintain the order of marriage in the world." Doreen's voice trembled uncontrollably, her indifferent face shattered completely, and pain surged in her eyes.
"Her Majesty Hera sacrificed her own marriage; she cannot voluntarily propose to others and register her marriage in history."
"She broke her divine oath, and your destiny cannot be connected with hers. The God knows that she is deeply sinful, and she left the path of judgment to you because only you can control it. Her blood is dissolved in your body."
"Her Majesty sensed your life force was fading. She traveled to Hell several times. The Underworld is bound by restrictions. The God Lord went there alone, just to find your Spirit-Binding Lamp. Each time she was covered in wounds. But more than those wounds, what she despaired about was that she could not find your Spirit-Binding Lamp."
"The Spirit-Binding Lamp..."
Li Jia murmured these three words repeatedly, her fingertips clenching tightly. The sharp edges of the two rings dug deeply into her palms, bringing a sharp pain, but it was far less than the bitterness and shock surging in her heart.
She had always thought of herself as a stranger who had stumbled into this world, a string of data that could disappear at any moment, but she never imagined that Hera would go to such lengths for her.
He traveled to and from hell alone, breaking through forbidden barriers, his body covered in wounds...
In those days and nights she didn't know, how much unimaginable pain did that gentle, smiling god, who always managed everything so perfectly, endure?
Li Jia looked down at her hands. Her palms seemed to still retain the warmth of Hera teaching her how to hold a sword, and her fingertips could almost feel the warm gaze Hera gave her as she explained the affairs of the Temple of Marion.
These meticulous cares and selfless teachings were not accidental, but rather Hera had long ago etched her life and death into her own destiny.
Why did she go to the sacred mountain?
Doreen closed her eyes, and tears finally slid down her cheeks, dripping onto the cold ground: "Accept her judgment, exchange your fates, and make you a new generation of god, gaining eternal life."
"Can't!"
Li Jia suddenly looked up, her eyes filled with a stubborn, bloodshot intensity: "I don't want her lifeline! I don't want to be a god who's dying for her mother! And I certainly won't trade my life for her disappearance!"
"She wanted to die in my place, but did she ask me? Did she think it was for my own good? She had no idea that living without her was more agonizing than death itself!"
As soon as she finished speaking, Li Jia ran out of the hall. She drove the peacock chariot, transforming into a streak of light that broke through the night and sped towards the sacred mountain.
A burst of red starlight emanated from the sacred mountain. Li Jia tried to grasp it and hold onto it, but she couldn't hold onto anything or keep it.
Instantly, she felt an endless stream of divine power flowing into her body, and she absorbed this power tirelessly, like a sponge.
Li Jia was feeling very uncomfortable.
There are too many to list.
Tears streamed down her face without her noticing.
She gave too much.
The ghostly fire burned around Hera, cleansing her soul from bottom to top and scorching her internal organs. Every inch of her skin made a faint cracking sound in the flames.
Her eyes were lowered, her long golden hair was slightly curled by the flames, yet she maintained a dignified posture, as if the fire burning beneath her was not the kind of evil fire that could annihilate even the gods.
The judgment platform atop the sacred mountain was forged from star rocks left behind by the creator god, and its cold stone surface reflected her pale yet serene face.
The voices around the judgment seat were devoid of any emotion: "Hera, you broke your divine oath, using your own divine status as a catalyst to exchange for the fate of a mortal. Do you know your crime?"
Hera slowly raised her head, a trace of lingering tenderness still remaining in her eyes—a mark unique to Li Jia.
She replied softly, "I know."
"This crime deserves to be punished by having one's soul scattered and never to be reincarnated."
As Gabriel's voice faded, the surrounding air seemed to freeze, and even the leaping ghost fire paused for a moment.
Hera smiled gently, the curve of her lips so tender it was heartbreaking: "Alright, but please grant me one request."
"you say."
"Leave her lifeline intact."
"I want her to become the God-Queen, possessing the authority to never betray her."
She paused, her voice lowered, tinged with a barely perceptible sob: "I am willing to guard the Prison of Ashes with my bones for all eternity."
Upon hearing "Jinyu," a moment of silence fell over the area.
Finally, he slowly nodded: "Granted."
On the sculpture platform of the twelve divine masters, one of the soul lamps went dark.
"The goddess of marriage has fallen, and the god-king Li Jia has been born."
The echoes of the divine oracle reverberated between heaven and earth, like a cold incantation, piercing deeply into Li Jia's heart.
She suddenly looked up at the sky atop the sacred mountain, which was glowing red with eerie fire, and let out a broken sob, tears streaming down her face so much that they almost blurred her vision.
The Creator God had placed a restriction around the sacred mountain, forming a golden barrier that prevented her from entering. Enraged, Li Jia picked up the Judgment Dao and began wildly hacking and slashing.
Exhausted from chopping, Li Jia slumped weakly against the foot of the sacred mountain.
How could anyone in this world hide their love so deeply, so deeply that they would choose to disappear to fulfill it?
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