At a certain cafe.
Yin Runa and her counterpart sat opposite each other.
The same type of coffee sat before both of them; their tastes were identical.
They were exactly the same, to the point that others merely mistook them for twins.
"True gods are everywhere in this world?" Yin Runa set down her coffee cup, her tone filled with disbelief.
Her counterpart replied seriously, "Yes. In this world, the absolute minimum rank one is born into is the demigod rank. Some are born as true gods, even true gods with their own inherent authority."
Yin Runa took a sip of her coffee. The bitterness bloomed on her tongue and spread throughout her mouth.
In other worlds, reaching the demigod rank required desperate, life-long cultivation. To increase one's strength even slightly required countless amounts of blood, sweat, and tears.
But in this world, those things were innate. They were brought from the womb, requiring no effort to obtain. People were simply born with them.
"The people living here must be so happy," Yin Runa couldn't help but sigh.
Then, remembering how miserably her counterpart was doing, she couldn't help but feel a sense of disdain. "If you were born a demigod, how did you end up living like this?"
Her counterpart rolled her eyes hard. "Because social stratification is extremely rigid in this world. Unless you're born into one of those great families, you're destined to struggle at the bottom forever."
"It's not that there's no way up, but the path is too narrow. The price you have to pay is beyond imagination."
Yin Runa looked at the face that was identical to her own. Although young and beautiful, it was filled with exhaustion and the weariness of time.
Her counterpart continued, "If you're from the bottom but possess extraordinary talent, your end is usually quite grim. The great elite families need talent, but they don't need talent that doesn't belong to them."
"A genius from the bottom must either be recruited by them or destroyed by them. There is no third path. Actually, being recruited by them is almost the same as being destroyed..."
She still remembered a commoner genius senior from her student days. To get a job as a servant in the Ximen family, he had no choice but to undergo a painful gender reassignment and become a girl. It was one of the few opportunities to enter a great elite family's service, but they were only hiring maids that year. If you missed it, there were no other chances; they only wanted new graduates.
Feeling a pang of sympathy, Yin Runa took her counterpart's hand. "Don't say any more. You've almost made me empathize with you for 0.13 seconds. Thank you for sharing your tragic life. I sincerely wish that your future life is fresh and fragrant~"
Her counterpart wept softly, her Pleasant Goat hairpin almost sliding off. "It's okay. Anyway, I have plenty of strength and means. I won't starve to death."
In a world where everyone was a god, possessing the power to move mountains and fill seas was about as special as an ordinary person knowing how to eat and drink.
When everyone is a dragon, the result is that no one is a dragon.
Strength and weakness are relative. If the demigod rank is the baseline, then demigods are just the 'ordinary people' of this world.
...
Thousand Faces City.
Lately, the traffic lanes had become even more congested than usual.
The Ximen family was bustling with activity. Relatives by marriage, representatives of partners, and people with tangled interests linked to the Ximen family had all gathered there.
In truth, many people didn't want to appear in the Ximen family's sight at such a critical juncture, but they were afraid of being held in a grudge if they didn't show up.
After weighing their options repeatedly, they ultimately chose to come. After all, the Ximen family had vast assets and influence; it didn't seem like they would fall so easily.
However, the news of the Earth Three Immortals being murdered was indeed terrifying. Everyone coming and going was extremely cautious.
Compared to these outsiders flocking to Thousand Faces City, the members of the Ximen clan were quietly transferring their own kin. Each household left only one person behind as a representative, while the wives, children, and elderly were all sent away—to the countryside, to remote cities, or to islands for vacations.
Their destinations differed, but their reasons for leaving were the same.
The Third Young Master had been murdered, the Three Immortals were dead, the killer hadn't been caught, and the family was still rife with mutual suspicion. This was not a good time to stay in Thousand Faces City.
Many people had noticed that something was wrong. All the omens of a villainous family's downfall, seen countless times in novels and movies, were coming true one by one for the Ximen family.
They didn't want to become part of those omens, so they chose to leave.
"It's just an omen, isn't it? My dad reads too many novels. Thinking a trope from a book would happen in real life is so childish~" a teenager complained on the road to the countryside.
His mother gave him a sharp slap to the back of the head. "Shut your mouth. The people in the Ximen family take these things very seriously. You'll understand later..."
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