Chapter 261 - Su Luxi (49) <2-in-1>

Along the way to the mansion, while bypassing several streets and fields, Jiang Li subtly realized that there were some things that did not add up in his memories.

For example... When the Goddess said the Creator was heading towards his family's residence, he panicked because, in his mind, his whole family was there. However, he also felt like, in reality, his parents and other important relatives should be with their knights and servants somewhere in the amphitheater. Only his sick sister was at home, being protected by the head knight Lirco. So why was there a discrepancy?

There were some other small details too which started to get blurry or different in his memories.

However, due to the crisis in front of him which was still giving his heart anxieties and annoyances, he subconsciously chose to ignore them. What else could he do anyway? 

The Creator was his target. Knowing that was enough. 

Sometimes in order to get past a certain line or accomplish something faster, a person had to devote his or her mind only to that one thing which he knew he should put first before anything else. This was what Jiang Li was trying to do. Arrive faster and then kill the damn god once and for all!

The muted system sneakily wiped a cold drop of sweat on its imaginary forehead: ... Thankfully, his suspicion did not last long. Still,  I messed up... I'll never tell a soul about me accidentally tampering with his other memories apart from the previous lives.

Apparently, the few small discrepancies in Jiang Li's memories was caused by the dubious being in his brain. He also had no idea that some memories from his previous lives had been slowly erased. The system was only planning to retain the one which he thought was his first set of memories.

As for the moments he had with Zhu Li's incarnations, unlike what the man ordered, the system only planned to seal them, and he would only do so in between the transfer to the next world. That way even if Jiang Li managed to realize that something was wrong, the system would be able to reason it was the fault of the transfer between official worlds.

After thinking that there were suddenly many things to do, it grumbled.

'I forgot to tell that annoying man that I'm no god. How to delete something I have no permission nor right to access?'

'And if I did, won't he hate me once he wakes up?'

The system felt so aggrieved. However, he didn't stop slowly erasing the useless memories. Thankfully, Jiang Li himself was quite forgetful. Unless it was a big event, he wouldn't bother remembering them.

People were like always this, they subconsciously forget some details from the past that they deemed negligible so that their brains could accommodate or store more new memories. Jiang Li, as a normal person, was no exception.

Example was how he subconsciously forgot the names of the small restaurants and the hotels he had been to in Na Yu's world. Since so much time had already passed, he also could no longer recall the name of the annoying girl who caused him to only get half the max points in Zhu Li's world. Ask him this girl's name and he would only frown then answer, 'Cao something?'.

And the face of his billionaire adoptive father from Ye Xinya's world? Well, how the hell would he remember the face of somebody he rarely met even when he had become his business partner?

In this world, how many would be like Ye Xinya who had a superb memory? She was probably one in a million, if not tens of millions whereas he belonged to the ranks of normies. 

With these said, the system's workload decreased as there were fewer trivial memories to delete. It had to be very careful though, to not accidentally damaged Jiang Li's brain. After all, his brain was already quite not in the right direction sometimes. If it brought further damage to it, wouldn't he become somebody truly crazy?

That was the last thing the system wanted to happen. After all, a real crazy person would not function the right way. A few even would do more destruction than save people.

'Before, the man already has no qualms sending people to a mental hospital and setting houses to fire. He has already mellowed down. He must continue that path to become a proper host!'

Half an hour later, the system's heart shattered and then it realized it was raising hope too much.

Jiang Li arrived late at the scene and saw that his family's mansion got occupied by bald people. This was a dozen minutes after the Goddess and the Creator started their tag race.

His parents and sister were nowhere in sight. Four servants too had been impaled to death or beheaded. He didn't know how his other family members were doing since the Goddess was busy running away and could not contact him.

With many dark guesses forming in his mind, how could he not be furious?

He was angry but he knew he couldn't stay there for long and confront the monks by himself.

This was why he directly cast black arts again. He had the enemies go outside the mansion's ground and turn against each other. Whether they ended up killing each other, he didn't care.

Later, he learned the girl and his family's whereabouts through the system. Who knew why it became so generous suddenly to tell him? What was important was that he now knew where to go.

...

...

...

Thousands of years ago, the Goddess was somebody given the ability to govern the Law of Light. Yet because the massacre of the Creator suddenly took place before she could master her powers, she ended up imprisoned in an abandoned palace.

She witnessed how easy the other gods, even the strongest of them, got killed by the Creator. This was why a bone-deep fear got etched in her whenever she was facing the other god. For a princess protected since birth from the harshness and ugliness of the world, her reaction could not get any more normal. 

When she summoned the resolve the send the other to eternal sleep, unfortunately, she needed an avatar first to descend. The female lead was no longer suitable as it was already housing another soul. Thus she began to create a new one for herself. But regrettably, the Creator had already escaped before she could finish it.

Their next face-off was when the god was in a weakened state, and she could have exploited that. The Goddess' mistake was not striking the Creator down with all she had when the opportunities presented itself. Instead, she first took away Jiang Li's family to save them from the imminent execution. 

After that was a chasing game. As all of these series of events took place, it was a puzzle whether she ever considered how many chances had been wasted away by her. Had she incapacitated the enemy before anything else and made the followers lose their leader, there would have been more opportunities to save the family. Without the vessel, no one would lead the monks properly, and nobody would follow her or catch up to her. 

A pity... 

Obviously, another one big weakness of the Goddess was her cowardice to fight the Creator upfront. With the other injured and in a weakened state, she could have left the family somewhere, deep within her church perhaps. Then she could confront him without a burden to weigh her down. Regrettably, she instead let the drumming in her heart confused her mind. It was to the point she forgot she could rally her believers under her banner. 

In a sense, when compared to mortals, a god or goddess was actually only superior in powers and physical traits. But experiences and intelligence? It depends on how productive and hardworking they were and how gifted their brains were since birth. A nearly eidetic memory only ensures stuff could be remembered longer than most people. However, it did not equate to better judgment abilities.

No matter whether a person was a deity or a human, it was inevitable to have weaknesses and commit blunders. It was like how light would always be accompanied by a shadow. 

It might sound ridiculous, but gods really could make mistakes. It was a misconception to assume that gods were always omnipotent and right. Because if this was so, then it would like saying the Creator's act of dragging innocent people into an internal war was pardonable. 

'My vessel's already showing protests to the amount of mana it's receiving. It's a newly created body. There's a limit to how much it can take and how many spells I can cast. I can't cast magic recklessly anymore.'

Worry wormed into the Goddess' heart as she reappeared a few miles away from the Creator. She was not panting for breath or anything, but her chest felt constricted. After looking around and finding that she was in a forest, probably somewhere in the eastern part of the Empire, she thought a minute or two of rest would be okay. The pursuers were still quite far away. 

Thinking of this, she closed her eyes and soundlessly chanted a few words.

A second later, particles of lights formed three human figures. Two with sizes and builts of a.d.u.l.ts, one shorter and skinnier, apparently a dainty child. Allen and Helena slowly appeared, together with a fast asleep little girl. Bewilderment could be seen in the faces of the first two. 

"Ms. Bolden?" asked the duchess upon seeing her face.

The Goddess involuntarily frowned. "I'm not her." 

She explained to the confused ducal couple what was happening. There was no use pretending she was somebody from the church hidden from normal people because they wouldn't believe it. Their son was the prophet and had access to all information about the church. His network naturally extended to them. This was why she told them outright that she was the Goddess, and her body was a vessel.

"Rumina Bolden is supposed to be my first vessel and thus her appearance is modeled after mine." She finished.

The two looked at each other and then bowed with reverence and fear. "We have sinned for questioning You, Your Eminence, Goddess of Light. Please have mercy on us."

The Goddess shook her head and didn't speak. Or actually she was about to reply but something just caught her attention and made her stunned.

'The old bastard changed directions?'

There was disbelief in her heart at first so she double-checked. Her face hardened not long after.

But looking into her eyes, she visibly hesitated.

However, it didn't take long and she took a deep breath. Afterward, she told the couple, "Hid well. I have to go to another location."