Chapter 8 My Name Is Chu Ge

Qiu Wuji had never once imagined this guy would come out with something like that.

She felt that today's Creator God was not quite the same as last night's. Last night, for all his talk of "panicking won't help," she had still been able to sense the fearful drumming in his heart.

The man really was nothing but an ordinary person, after all. For an ordinary person with a sword laid across his throat, keeping a barely steady face was already an impressive display of mental fortitude.

But today it seemed to be gone entirely — not only gone, in fact; he seemed almost glad to see her, like a man meeting family, with a touch of melancholy mixed in.

What's going on here?

"You said yourself you don't need a sword to kill me, so put it away first." Chu Ge spoke calmly. "I don't remember writing that you like laying your sword across people's necks. You generally just cut them down. Holding it there like that means you don't want to kill."

"..." Qiu Wuji discovered, with a stifled surge of irritation, that the person who understood her best in this world might not be her — it was this Creator God. This time she did not lower the sword. "Is it written that I have to do whatever you write?"

"Maybe that used to be true." Chu Ge finally turned his head and gave her a faint smile. "But since you're unwilling, from now on we'll discuss things first."

Qiu Wuji frowned.

"The moment you appeared, I vaguely sensed a piece of storyline." Chu Ge said, "Beyond the scenes I write, while no one else knows of it, Qiu Wuji was attempting her first tribulation — is that why you've come this time?"

Qiu Wuji drew a deep breath.

He really can sense what I'm doing, not just what he writes.

Truly the power of a god. But he's plainly just an ordinary man... how is this line even wired together?

"Doing this is dangerous, isn't it?" Chu Ge said in a low voice. "What has come over here is only your divine sense. With body and soul separated by the boundary between worlds, a wandering spirit can lose its anchor and dissolve into time and space. Even on the way over, you could sink into a temporal maelstrom and be ground to powder."

Qiu Wuji sneered. "Your world. You make the rules."

Chu Ge shook his head. "I never built that setting, because no plot needed it... It's probably an inherent law between worlds — that's what the so-called dimensional wall is. But I think I can write a patch that makes it easier for you to come over, so you don't have to take that risk."

This time Qiu Wuji truly was startled. "You actually want to help me get out?"

"Honestly? I admire you."

Chu Ge said slowly.

"I can't even decide whether a single book succeeds or fails, and watching a friend leave in defeat, I was powerless to do anything.

I can't imagine it — if I were you, and I found out that everything about me was only a story in a book, that no one knew if the world was real or false, that my fate was handled by someone else, that even my past thoughts and deeds were written by another hand — would any of it still count as mine?

Are my old memories illusion or truth? A doubt that overturns your whole view of life like that would drive me mad. Wanting to hold your own fate in your hands is only reasonable...

So quit the shouting about killing. I'll help you."

Qiu Wuji narrowed her eyes and stared at him. This sudden attack of literary sentimentality was simply absurd. Only yesterday this had been a sleazy creep who would write "if she must find a man, it should be the Father God of Creation," a lecher who penned harem-tease novels with his head full of fantasies about flitting from flower to flower — how could words like these not put a person on her guard?

But she had to admit it had struck straight into her heart. That resonance could not be faked.

That's right. All my memories from before — he wrote them.

So do they count as things I did, things I lived through, things I thought?

Is all of it fake? Like memories implanted by some puppet technique?

Is my whole self even real? And now?

This was exactly what churned over and over inside Qiu Wuji.

Chu Ge reached out two fingers, pinched the blade, and slowly pushed it aside. "That day I tried to write in your ascension, and it had no effect... I thought it over afterward. It might not have been a problem with logic. It might be that it was never published — no final draft, so it doesn't count. Let's run another test. This time I'll do the writing, in a new draft, unpublished for now, and we'll see whether it works."

The sword really did move aside...

Chu Ge sat down at the computer as naturally as could be and powered it on, still talking: "Save your strength. Solidifying your will into a solid sword clearly cuts down how long you can stay outside. Actually, it'd be best if even your clo— mm..."

The eyes that had drifted off a moment ago turned vicious in an instant.

Chu Ge rushed to patch it up. "I meant that magic robe of yours is too heavy. Going about in lighter clothes would work better..."

With a thud, Chu Ge's head was slammed down onto the keyboard.

Qiu Wuji's voice came as if from the depths of the underworld. "I may not be killing you, but does that mean I can't hit you?"

Chu Ge lifted his head tragically. "The keyboard's going to break..."

Qiu Wuji said, "What kind of magical artifact is this thing of yours? It can't take the slightest rough handling!"

Chu Ge numbly opened a document and tested it; the keyboard still worked. Damn, this keyboard is a beast. I'm buying this brand from now on... no, wait. Why would I want one this hard? Is my face not sore enough?

Damn it all, you're supposed to be my "creation." Without me, there'd be no you. Could you show a little respect?

Griping aside, Chu Ge knew there was no point telling her at a time like this that violence was wrong. Qiu Wuji's behavior was already remarkably calm, all things considered... the distance between them would have to close slowly.

He opened the outline file, and under "Qiu Wuji" in the "Character Profiles" section, in the "Ability Settings" entry, typed a new line: "Has repeatedly attempted to break through the boundary and ascend on her own. Though she never succeeded, she found a method of spirit-roaming beyond her realm: body and soul can be held apart by the boundary without loss, and she can pass through spatial rifts without losing her way."

He clicked save.

Then said aloud: "I figure I can't change the laws of the dimensional wall, and I shouldn't go messing with them blindly either — if someone else got out, everything would be chaos. So I can only patch you. This is an ability inferred from your own actions, so in theory it's self-consistent. Now we just see whether it takes effect as an unpublished setting."

Qiu Wuji silently felt it out, and her gaze grew ever more complicated.

It worked.

She truly did feel her ability evolve. The spirit-roaming that had been such an exhausting strain now came to her with ease; by rough estimate, her stay here could be stretched out by several days.

It doesn't even need to be published...

This man really can just stuff things into my body however he likes... er, that came out wrong.

Qiu Wuji's thoughts were in a tangle; she had no attention left to spare for wording.

This man is so weak, yet he has such power to affect me. Should I just imprison him and force him to keep strengthening me?

But then...

Chu Ge suddenly turned his head and smiled slightly. "But you've been proud your whole life. Your cultivation was carved out between life and death, won by your own wit and insight and bloody struggle — what would it even mean if it turned into something bestowed on you by another?"

Killing intent rose in Qiu Wuji's eyes again. "You know me like the worm in my own gut. Doesn't that tell you saying it out loud earns you another beating?"

"But why do you want to hit me?" Chu Ge got to his feet and said calmly. "Am I not helping you?"

He pointed at the monitor, and a strange light gradually kindled in his eyes. "The woman I poured every beautiful fantasy I had into writing now has a soul of her own; she's no longer cold text... For a man who weaves worlds, what kind of affirmation and wonder is that? To put it the way your world would: if I am seeking the Dao, then, Qiu Wuji, the day you break free of existing in a book — that will be my path."

Qiu Wuji quietly looked into Chu Ge's eyes. Deep within them was plainly a trace of fanaticism, like the old friends and old rivals of her own world, in their most steadfast pursuit of their own paths.

This was a man who had a Dao.

Maybe... this is why our worlds can connect?

"In fact, we've met twice now, and you've never once asked my name. You were in a hurry to escape your situation; this man was just a checkpoint in the puzzle — what mattered was how to handle him, not what he was called... But I think it's well worth your while to know me." Chu Ge finally extended his hand to her. "My name is Chu Ge."