High Gods and Immortals

(Chapter pending revision. It will be replaced once revised.)

I was assigned to be Immortal Feng Yu's alchemy apprentice when I was little.

He was the pride of the Xuanmen Sect, the greatest swordsman in a thousand years, with a heart pure as the untouched flower of a secluded valley.

My daily routine was to sit with eight other dust-covered alchemy apprentices and refine pills he would never need, over and over again.

I once took off his socks, shared a bed with him, loved him, bared myself to him, and heard his shy, awkward words of affection.

The day Immortal Feng Yu ascended, celestial music descended from the heavens. Time reversed in the mortal world, and my hometown was free from illness and disaster for an entire year.

I was heartbroken, only to be dismissed by the sect leader. He said my pills were dreadful and that he wouldn't keep me around for nothing anymore.

Before long, I grew weaker and weaker. That's when I learned I'd been dead all along, and Immortal Feng Yu had used his own life to keep me alive because he couldn't bear to let me go.

I lived ten years longer because of him. He became an immortal and left, and now I was going to die too.

That damn sect leader wouldn't even let me die. For some reason, he'd discovered that my ancestors had a secret recipe for the Purple-Twinned Immortal's pills.

He ordered me to hand it over, but my family had sworn an oath for generations never to pass it on.

So he and eight elders nearly crushed every bone in my body. I wished I were dead. In my despair, I refined a Thunderwrath Pill and blew the entire sect sky-high.

After I died, I ran into the people from my sect in the underworld. It was awkward, to say the least.

The Impermanence came to collect us, bringing news that was even more devastating: cultivators like us had to become either Celestial Immortals or Earth Gods, or else wait for our souls to dissipate. Reincarnation was a privilege reserved for mortals.

Earth Gods included the Earth God, the City God, the Kitchen God, the Judge, the Ghost Emperor, the Three Heavenly Officials...

We had to compete for every single position, fighting tooth and nail alongside the ghosts of eight thousand cultivators. Haha, I really can't thank you enough.

Everyone in the sect agreed to ostracize me. They even surrounded and attacked me when we descended to the mortal realm to compete for divine positions.

The first vacancy was the God of Wealth.

On the day the gods were appointed, I saw Immortal Feng Yu again. He was still so untainted by the mundane world, even more distinguished than when he was mortal.

He didn't recognize me, and two beautiful immortals dressed as alchemy apprentices stood at his side.

My heart, long withered and empty, began to beat again. I felt emotions I'd forgotten long ago.

I was going to expose every last one of his dirty secrets.

Theme: Even the insignificant deserve to be treated with care