The Chef's Immortal

Chapter Ten

Wudi awoke in Supreme Deity's Palace Hall, tears rolling down his face.  Zhurong was sitting beside him.  In an instant, he was in blinding pain, a white glow emanating from his recently revived body.  His ascension to high god, but he didn't go through the assessment yet.  This shouldn't be right.  He could hardly think from the pain, he bit his lip to focus.  There was normally an assessment by a council of high gods to determine whether the trial was successful.  So, why was it that his ascension came immediately?  And not just that, he was a mid-level high god now.  When his ascension process ended, he floated to the ground and studied Zhurong.

"Tell me, junior brother, what went wrong?  If something didn't go wrong my ascension would not have ended up this way.  What did you do?"

"Me?!?  I honestly did nothing wrong this time.  I observed you a few times, but other than that, nothing.  On my honor."

"Then, what happened?"

"There was a snag."

"A snag.  Zhurong, what kind of snag?"

"A girl who shouldn't have been there, a love that shouldn't have existed, children who shouldn't be born."

"You mean Nusa?"

"I mean the girl from the future who was in Nusa's body."

"Okay, and she died."

"In a way, yes.  Regardless she's being punished."

"Punished, what do you mean punished?"

"I told you Wudi, she shouldn't have been there.  When I told the council they rectified the situation and she'll be punished.  You know, as in the woman who loves the god of war dies on a battlefield.  The babies actually should've died too, but she somehow convinced that Emperor brother of yours to cut the babies out."

"Excuse me?" Wudi wasn't sure he heard his junior brother correctly.

"You know, before she died, she made him cut her belly open and rip those babies right out of there.  Man, that must've hurt something fierce."

Wudi couldn't stand any longer.  Zhurong caught him, asking, "Hey, man, what's wrong with you?"

"The other punishment, Zhurong, what's the other punishment?"

"The usual, I guess, like she's orphaned, she gets rich then loses it all from a betrayal, she loses what she loves most, which is apparently cooking, and she dies young."

He couldn't breathe.  All his fault, it was all his fault.  And there was even more to come.  What did she do wrong?  So what if she fell in love with the god of war, he fell in love with her too.  Wait, that's right, he fell in love with her too.  And the god of war fights.

He flew to the Heavenly Palace and presented himself before the council.  He bowed respectfully, then spoke, "Your Graces, as the god of war, I feel that I should be held accountable instead of the mortal girl, for the problems with my heavenly tribulation."

"Okay, god of war, tell us why you should be held accountable?"

"She didn't fall in love with the god of war, she fell in love with the mortal 13th Prince of the Kangxi Emperor, but as god of war I fell in love with a mortal Princess Nusa."

Zhurong gasped, did he hear right?  His senior brother loves that girl?  Great, he really screwed things up this time.  And he already told his senior brother about the girl's horrible death.  Which, apparently, none of those mortal brothers thought to do.  Shit.