One Is Enough

Chapter 1

Xie Lian collapsed onto his straw mat, completely beat after a whole day of cleaning up his little shrine. Though he figured his thoughts had exhausted him more than the physical labour. Thinking back to the time when he lost his memories was always quite taxing on his mind.

Of course he'd gotten over the losses by now; he'd pieced together most things, only few events were still escaping him, and he'd given up on ever reclaiming those missing pieces a long time ago. After 600 years of not finding answers, he'd really be much too bull-headed not to admit defeat. He figured he knew the important parts, and that's what he'd made peace with.

Xie Lian knew he had, in fact, ascended three times, and not just once, he knew he was a scrap collector for the longest time, he knew he was a god of misfortune, and that he had virtually no believers, and he knew that it was better to avoid heaven.

Well, that was what he'd thought when he realised that mortals gradually stopped believing in gods, and turned to science instead. He'd had a feeling that staying in heaven for too long wasn't a particularly good idea, and it turned out he'd been right. These days, the gods that still existed were weak, on the verge of fading, and stuck in the realm they happened to be in when their powers subsided beneath a certain point. Now, most of his fellow officials were stuck in heaven, unable to use their powers to descend for even a short period of time. They were too weak to even use the communication array. It was really just a matter of time until all of them ceased to exist.

Of course he'd wondered why Xie Lian himself didn't seem to suffer a decrease in his own spiritual powers, but his guess was that he'd been used to always having the same amount of believers – none. At least not that he knew of. Nobody ever went to pray for anything to him, so he was fairly certain of that fact. However, he was still stumped on why he hadn't faded away yet.

While that was one thing he didn't know, there was one more thing he also knew for sure.

He knew he regretted cutting off that red ribbon that had been tied around his third finger.

Xie Lian had only noticed it a few days after he set out to find out about his past again, just moments after also discovering Ruoye. Both bands of fabric had evil written all over them, and while Ruoye had been clever enough to sense his killing intent, and had escaped from him until it was just out of reach, the red string had stayed put. To this day, Xie Lian didn't know if the red string had had a consciousness of its own as well, but he dearly hoped it didn't. Still, it was one of the mysteries he was unlikely to ever solve.

He patted the silk band that was wrapped snugly around his arm, glad that at least one of the two was still with him. Ruoye was really a very dependable companion, and he didn't want to miss it.

Unconsciously, Xie Lian grabbed for the ring that hung around his neck, feeling grateful he'd only realised it was there after things with Ruoye had been sorted out. It also contained no insignificant amount of evil energy, but, as Ruoye had taught him, that didn't necessarily mean it was bad. He still wondered what it was to this day, but he didn't have the heart to take it off. Surely there was a reason why he was wearing it in the first place, and as long as it existed, there was still a chance he'd eventually stumble across an answer. Until then, he was fine keeping it on his person, just like Ruoye.

When Xie Lian woke up the next day, his little shrine was still intact, thankfully. He packed his straw mat, as well as the few belongings he'd brought with him, into his tattered bag, put his straw hat on his head, and gave the whole place a last cursory glance.

It looked tidy, old, and empty. There was no statue, not anymore, only a drawing of himself, done by himself. He'd added four walls and a roof around the shrine itself, for sheltering not only the shrine, but also wandering souls, as well as a fence to create a bigger courtyard around it.