Character · Book 7, This Inevitable Ruin

Li Jun and Zhang

Two warehouse workers plucked out of a hallway between hornets and troglodytes to play Death Watch for the lives of Li Jun's sister Li Na and their manager. They refuse to choose, and Carl gets them sent back with a plan instead of a teleport point.

Segment appearances

• Chapter 3 — The Tiara of a Thousand Lights
• Chapter 4 — Gloom Wraith Phase
• Chapter 5 — Dante; Sir Rendlegore
• Chapter 18 — The minor quorum; code red
• Chapter 28 — Toyotomi; Agatha is looking for Carl
• Chapter 29 — The Bamboozle
• Chapter 32 — King Rust arrives
• Chapter 40 — Little Günter; a dragon chain
• Chapter 47 — Tattoos, and a flower offered
• Chapter 50 — The Temple of the Dagda
• Chapter 51 — Dark Purpose
• Chapter 52 — The Temple of Khepri
• Chapter 53 — Super Heavyweight Temple Battle Grudge Match Extravaganza
• Chapter 55 — Head Banger; Milk
• Chapter 56 — Justice Light; the Nest
• Chapter 57 — Thirty-two boxes; the last prisoner
• Chapter 58 — Sultan Rishi the Usurper
• Chapter 65 — Bear Witness
• Chapter 66 — Rolling Battle Formation
• Chapter 68 — The Grease Monkey
• Chapter 69 — Interlude — Several days earlier; Interlude — Rosetta; Zarogoths
• Chapter 71 — Donkey Kong
• Chapter 75 — Stayfast Ink
• Chapter 77 — Not yet
• Chapter 79 — Tart
• Chapter 86 — We just need to kill you

Arc

Li Jun's Walk on Air turns up on Carl's toe ring, '(already obtained)', and Carl's apology goes unanswered (ch. 4); he buys the skill back with a book (ch. 40). The brothers run splash towers in Shanty Town (ch. 18), trail wire through a temple and tie it round a black dragon's neck (ch. 50, ch. 51), stand frozen at Khepri's door (ch. 53), and come round the corner alive with Bianca and Annie — Zhang shaking his fist at the ceiling (ch. 55). Li Jun's new celestial eye slows time (ch. 57); he takes speaker eleven on a cart to lead Harpocrates away from Donut and dies: 'I love you with the moon and the sun and all the stars in the sky' (ch. 68). In the roots of a dead changeling he thanks Carl for more time with his sister and his best friend, and the same words arrive as a message from a deceased crawler (ch. 68). Zhang: 'Jun was always afraid he wouldn't do anything important […] it makes me proud to have you as a friend' (ch. 77). He goes into the stairwell alone (ch. 86).