Ten

Part Two - ten thousand years later

Meanwhile, in Qingqiu, Fengjiu had been continuously looking at the scroll that Siming has given her, for ten thousand years since her meeting with Siming. The scroll had recorded all of his and Fengjiu's meetings, from the start till the end and the secret feelings he had harboured for her but had never told her. Donghua had wanted to keep every of his feelings for her, a secret from her, in order to protect her. Since writing his name off the Rock of Three Incarnations, he had never cared for a chance of love, until he met her.

"She was the one I wanted to be all my life. I would die to protect her. But after three hundred years from not seeing her, I wish I could take everything back for a chance to see her again..."

"Yehua and Bai Qian will have their wedding in the Nine Heavens again...as the only granddaughter of Bai Zhi and the monarch of Qingqiu, she would have to come..."

"Will she remember me then, after three hundred years..."

These were the last words he had inscribed on the scroll, carefully inscribed with magical ink that would last for eternity. Every time she read the clear handwriting on the scroll, Fengjiu's chest burned with pain, like her heart was being spliced open. "Why had fate allowed me to meet and fall in love with him, but played on a joke on us like this?"

Her eyes stung with pain, but there were no more tears. After crying for ten thousand years, all that had that remained in her was her memories of him, and her strong will to live strongly for him, so that everything he had done for her was worth it. And perhaps one day, she would be reunited with him again.

Looking at the table filled with documents before her, she realised that since she had waken up, she has not had a proper walk in the market in her position as the queen of Qingqiu, so called for Migu to accompany her to explore and take a look at how her civilians were doing.

She dressed in the robes of a commoner to not instill any shock in her citizens, while her trusted housekeeper followed a few metres behind her. After walking for a few rounds and noting how the residents were spending their days happily, she felt satisfied. The two of them walked to the lake, where they spoke about the changes that Qingqiu had went through in her absence, and the possibilities of her making any developmental changes to the kingdom.

Migu thought for a few seconds, and suggested, "Gu-Gu (Bai Qian) went through a political marriage to build a bond between Qingqiu and the Sky Kingdom."

Fengjiu responded, "Are you thinking that I should have a marriage as well?" As she spoke, she was calm, unlike the stubborn, determined self of her that had fallen in love with Donghua a very long time ago, back when she was still a fox princess and accompanying him in the Sky Kingdom. But she had to agree that he had a point. Since she had fallen into a deep sleep and Donghua had passed, Qingqiu's ties with the Sky Kingdom had deteriorated. His point of view that a political marriage would strengthen the ties between Qingqiu and the Sky Kingdom actually made sense.

Migu explained that it was just his opinion and also, Fengjiu's paternal grandparents, parents, aunt and uncle had probably hoped for her to find a potential husband who could protect her and at least, be at her side so that she would not be alone when she reached old age. Even Bai Qian had a husband, so Fengjiu's parents would at least want her to have a suitor.

Fengjiu took a deep breath, appearing to be lost in deep thought. Migu kept quiet, fearing that he had triggered a painful moment within his queen's memory, but not a word left her lips after that.

........................................

Meanwhile in the Sky Kingdom, it was a surreal day with such clear skies that any immortal would have loved to go on a picnic. However, Liansong was instead trying to convince Chengyu. Hao De had abdicated in favour of Yehua and Bai Qian, and as part of their ascension trial, the prospective Sky Emperor and Empress had to undergo eighty-one blasts of wildfire and nine blasts of thunder. Persevering against this and passing the test, only would they be able to preside over the Four Seas and Eight Deserts. Following this, they had now both descended to the mortal realm to regain their lost cultivation by undergoing a mortal trial respectively.

In place of his parents, Ali and the first prince attended the birthday celebration of the Crown Prince of the Ghost Clan. At the same time, the demon-sealing pagoda in the Sky Kingdom split apart, causing a few monsters inside it to escape. This pagoda had been the exact pagoda that Fengjiu had been trapped inside in the past, and twenty-five thousand years ago, it had already started to break. The breakage had gone unnoticed, as it had happened gradually over a long period of time. It happened that Liansong, Wenchang and Hao De were the most powerful immortals present.

The Big Escape (Demon-Sealing Pagoda)

The pagoda held a number of extremely powerful beasts, the most powerful of which was the Guardian. Some of the escaped beasts led by the Guardian were namely, the Xiangliu, an ancient nine-headed Chinese snake monster, Kaiming Shou ,which had the body of a large tiger and nine human heads, Zhujian Leopard, a mythical beast resembling a leopard, Zhuyan Ape, a mythical ape with a white head and red legs, Yaksha, a demonic being that eat human flesh, and Feiyi Snake, a mythical snake with a single head and two bodies.

Lightning had struck from the left wing of the seven-storey pagoda, followed by dark clouds enveloping the sky as chaos broke loose. Liansong was first to arrive at the pagoda, and resorted to create a circular water barrier to prevent the beasts from advancing further, while emitting a deadly chill from the fan in his hand. The waves of endless water stretched out towards the horizon. Next, Wenchang made his appearance, and his move had been to create a dome-like barrier inside Liansong's barrier to enclose the beasts further. Quickly, he asked Liansong if he had his magical weapons with him. Finally, Hao De arrived as well, and with his body still suspended in mid-air he struck a Zhuyan Ape which had been attacking an immortal. As he landed on his feet, he called for Liansong's help, and together they attempted to tame the beast, before being joined by Chengyu and some other immortals who were courageous enough to help.

Wenchang stood about thirty metres away from the dome-like barrier he had created. Armed with his mythical dagger back from the Kunlun Mountains, he then hurled the dagger upwards into the air, where it flew towards the barrier he had created. The dagger emitted a translucent images, resembling a sword. On Wenchang's command, it shifted and multiplied itself into several rows of sword-like images, before suddenly releasing ten thousand golden beams. The beams penetrated through the force field, and targeted themselves at the beasts trapped inside the barrier. Flashing lights rained down extremely accurately on the beasts, with seventy-two strikes and seventy-two hits in total. While Wenchang's magic had been seemingly time-consuming, in the blink of an eye all the beasts had been vanquished and the sword-like images held the beasts fast to the ground. All the immortals present had been struck with bewilderment by the splendid sight before their eyes. For a few long seconds, it had seemed that Wenchang's face had turned into that of Donghua, only with white robes. The resemblance had been uncanny, as the immortals present blinked their eyes to see if they had been dreaming.

"Cube!" he shouted to Liansong, and instantaneously Liansong's magical cube materialised on his right palm. An artifact that was created by the Third Prince himself, upon striking the ground it had the ability to bring forth a spinning cyclone which could suck up to eight beasts and seal them inside the cube. In this case, the eight beasts that could be imprisoned in the cube had to be the weakest among the beasts present. This followed with Liansong utilising his magic ball to ensure double protection against the beasts from escaping the cube. As soon as their sight was clear once again, only four ferocious beasts remained, which had been the most powerful and thus could not be imprisoned in the cube. They were the Kaiming Shou, Xiangliu, Zhujian Leopard and the Guardian itself. The Guardian, due to its long time in the pagoda, had been corrupted by the evil power within. It would turn aggressive against any person or creature next to it, and was thus their foe.

Hao De faced the Guardian, while Liansong was up against the Xiangliu, summoning water hurricanes against the beast. Wenchang commanded his dagger to attack the Zhujian Leopard with its transformations, while the other immortals battled against the Kaiming Shou. Unfortunately, Hao De's age and lack of cultivation was compromising his ability to prevail easily against the Guardian. Hastily, in the nick of time, Wenchang came to Hao De's rescue by casting the first magic spell which came to mind, just as the Guardian almost stabbed the Sky Emperor fatally. The spell had been quick to cast, but at the same time, it was powerful, serving its purpose as a magical missile-strike spell by hitting the Guardian precisely and swiftly in several places on its body, causing the Guardian to divert its attention to Wenchang instead. A powerful bright aura enveloped Wenchang as he battled both the Guardian and the Zhujian Leopard. He defeated the Zhujian Leopard with two strikes and a blast of magic from his right hand, causing it to lose consciousness. Next to face Wenchang was the Guardian. At the same time, the Kaiming Shou started to tremble and bow in fear from Wenchang's majestic aura. Finally, Chengyu flung one of Liansong's Haotian towers towards the remaining two beasts to seal them inside.

While Chengyu and the others helped up Hao De, the battle was finally concluded with Wenchang and Liansong sealing the remaining, less powerful beasts in another Haotian tower, when finally Mo Yuan came to the rescue. He had been minutes late, and fortunately with his assistance, the immortals were healed from their injuries, some of which had been serious, particularly to the weaker and younger immortals involved in the battle. Hao De uttered his thanks to Mo Yuan with clasped hands, before collapsing on the ground, fatigued from the aftermath of the battle.

Aftermath

After a thorough inspection by Mo Yuan, he revealed that two beasts known as the Dijiang, a crimson, six-legged mythical creature with no facial features, and the Vanishing Chimera, a white-coloured beast with the heads of a tiger and lion respectively, had escaped from the pagoda unnoticed. The immortals could only hope for the best and that these creatures would turn up later, but what they could focus on doing now was to repair the pagoda and rebuild the damaged parts of the Sky Kingdom.

After checking up on Chengyu, Liansong looked towards Wenchang, beckoning him to come with him. They exchanged glances with each other as they walked around the Sky Kingdom to check on the damages that the beasts had caused. It looked like they were in for a lot of repairing work, Wenchang thought. Probably this was the greatest occurrence (and merit) that would have happened to Wenchang during his appointment as the imperial sovereign. Whether that was true or not, he didn't know.