No one in the embroidery workshop spoke.
Everyone was waiting.
The Divine Lady lowered her eyes and looked at the crowd.
Her dark phoenix eyes were as calm as an autumn lake, without ripples or waves. Her smoke-purple skirts fluttered gently in the afternoon breeze like mist and fog.
Then, she spoke slowly. Her voice was clear and cold, like the wind from the Ninth Heaven or ice pearls falling into a jade plate.
“With me here, the dream will not shatter.”
Everyone's hearts drummed in their chests, and they could hardly believe their ears.
Did the Divine Lady agree to stay in the mortal world?
For a moment, their minds were filled with a thousand thoughts, but no one dared to ask their doubts directly, fearing the Divine Lady didn't mean that or that they might displease her.
The Divine Lady tilted her head slightly.
Everyone followed her gaze, seeing only a small path made of blue bricks. There was nothing unusual.
The only eye-catching thing was a tiny weed growing from a crack in the stones. It had two tender green leaves and stood quietly in the still air.
“The sweet potatoes, spinning machines, and cotton I gave you are all the most common things in the Heavenly Palace.”
Everyone held their breath.
No one dared to respond.
No one even dared to breathe loudly.
The Divine Lady looked up at the sky and continued, “The gods of the Heavenly Palace all say that if mortals obtain the treasures of the Heavenly Palace, they will become lazy, enjoying the fruits without labor and losing their ambition. For thousands of years, the gods have used this as an excuse to watch the changes of the mortal world from the sidelines, never interfering.”
She paused, her gaze sweeping over the crowd before returning to the spinning machines in the courtyard. “I have never agreed with these views, but I lacked powerful facts to refute them. Now, I have them.”
“I brought you the God of Farming’s Divine Seeds, and you did not simply consume them; instead, you let them take root throughout the land. The spinning machines have only been in the mortal world for seven days, yet you have deciphered their mysteries, built identical machines, and woven a thousand bolts of fine cloth—not at all inferior to the textiles of the Heavenly Palace. I granted you a field of cotton, and you did not sit idle; instead, you collected the seeds, sowed them, and cleared new cotton fields...”
“You have not disappointed me.”
Tears finally burst from everyone's eyes.
They tried desperately to hold them back, not wanting to lose their composure, but they couldn't. They could only press their foreheads firmly against the blue bricks, letting their tears fall drop by drop into the cracks.
It turned out that the Divine Lady had seen everything they had done and kept it in her heart. Their efforts were not in vain!
How could this not stir their hearts?
At this moment, they were like a group of children longing for their mother’s affirmation. Finally receiving it, they felt a joy so profound that even death would be worth it.
“In the eyes of immortals and gods, mortals are as tiny as ants.” Her voice was faint, almost scattered by the wind. “But those as tiny as ants, having received the most common items of the Heavenly Palace, can thrive and create such a scene.”
She lowered her long eyelashes. “I am curious. If I stay in the mortal world for a hundred years to educate all living beings, can you, with your mortal bodies, stand equal to the gods?”
The moment the last sentence fell, the entire embroidery workshop suddenly fell into an eternal silence.
With mortal bodies, stand equal to the gods!
These words were like a red-hot branding iron pressed hard against everyone's hearts.
Sizzling with smoke, it made them tremble and their eyes burn with heat.
Between mortals and gods, there was a chasm as vast as the heaven and earth that could never be crossed.
It was the gap in lifespan; gods lived as long as heaven and earth, lasting for thousands of years, while mortals had but a hundred years.
It was the gap in power; gods could turn over their hands to make clouds and rain, while mortals couldn't even withstand a single flood.
It was the gap in wisdom; gods understood the secrets of heaven, while mortals couldn't even guess if tomorrow would be sunny or rainy.
How could they stand equal to the gods?
For a moment, what welled up in their hearts was not excitement, but a deep-seated bewilderment.
In the crowd, Shen Yu slowly raised his head. His fingers curled slightly, his knuckles turning white from the force.
He believed in the principle: Are kings, marquises, generals, and ministers born to their status?
But he had never considered: Can mortals stand equal to gods?
But as a believer, he could not let the Divine Lady down.
“The Divine Lady has taken pity on us, forsaking the prosperity of the Heavenly Palace to grant us a hundred years of education. I have no way to repay this.” He knelt on the ground and bowed deeply toward the Divine Lady. “I only wish to dedicate everything I have learned to assist the Divine Lady in educating the people. Even if we cannot stand equal to the gods, we will build a bridge across that chasm.”
Pei Wanning was not to be outdone.
Her voice was soft but every word was clear: “A’Ning is also willing to follow the Divine Lady. A mortal’s lifespan is short, and I dare not say I can stand equal to the gods, but I will use my life to let you see for yourself just how far the backbone of a mortal can go.”
Their words inspired everyone present.
Their voices poured in from all directions—initially uneven and chaotic, but they soon converged into a flood, orderly, loud, and deafening.
“We are willing to use our mortal bodies to carry out the Divine Lady’s will and prove that even ants can stand equal to the gods!”
“We will never fail the Divine Lady’s grace of education!”
“We will never fail the Divine Lady!”
The voices echoed continuously in the workshop, rising higher and higher as if they would lift the roof.
Standing before everyone, the Divine Lady’s eyes flickered, and a faint curve appeared at the corners of her lips.
“I am most gratified that you have such courage.”
The next second.
A crisp bell rang briefly.
Immediately following.
Everyone felt their vision go dark.
When they came to their senses again, they realized they were no longer in Xindu City, but in an unfamiliar capital.
The sky was a dull gray.
Not a single living person could be seen on the streets.
Every household had its doors and windows tightly locked, with white cloth strips hanging from the lintels, fluttering weakly in the wind.
“Does this look like Yecheng?” One person had a relative living in Yecheng, and the more he spoke, the more certain he became. “Yes, this is Yecheng, but how did it become like this?”
“How strange...”
“Look... look over there... what is that?”
In a corner of the street lay several gruesome corpses. Their faces were dark blue and black, their bodies covered in dense rashes, some of which had already ulcerated and were oozing pus.
A few crows perched beside the corpses, tilting their heads and letting out raspy cries.
Not far away.
A woman in tattered clothes knelt on the ground, holding a child in her arms who no longer moved.
She didn't cry; she just rocked the child repeatedly, muttering words that no one could hear.
Nearby, an old man sat on a threshold, his eyes hollow, showing not a shred of desire for life.
“Plague! It's a plague!” someone cried out in alarm.
The group immediately fell into a panic, instinctively wanting to flee, but they hit an invisible wall.
Seeing this, Yun Shu looked toward the invisible system.
She wanted to save the people of Yecheng, but she couldn't blindly lead a group of inexperienced people to do so.
The Floating Dream Set could cure those infected by the plague, but if they didn't take preventive measures and find the source, the plague would soon break out again. It would only treat the symptoms, not the cause.
Therefore, an epidemic prevention drill was necessary.
Furthermore, she could use this drill to select the person with the highest medical talent and naturally pass on the medical encyclopedia from the Floating Dream Set to them.
This skill worked such that the higher a person's talent, the more medical encyclopedia knowledge they would obtain.
The system explained: “Host, time was too tight. I couldn't build an entire city, so except for this street, there are air walls everywhere else.”
Yun Shu: “...”
There was no other way then; she could only simplify the process.
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