To the Sky Kingdom

by Tang Qi

  I was too young to have a proper understanding of the word seduce, and her words confused me. I emitted a sound of bewilderment.

  She gave me a fierce stare. “Just look at your eyes, eyebrows, and mouth, all so ornate. Since taking you on as his apprentice, Mo Yuan has cared for you heart and soul.” Yao Guang looked at me with deep hostility. “Mo Yuan has abandoned the immortal path,” the serving girl continued. “And regarding him as her immortal colleague, our goddess cannot bear to see him being led astray and feels compelled to step in and offer her assistance.

  “You have committed a serious misdeed, but our goddess has always been merciful,” she explained slowly. “You will become our goddess’s servant. You will devote yourself to the practice of cultivating spiritual energy and banish all playfulness and vulgarity from your heart. Kneel down now and give thanks to our goddess for her great generosity and grace.”

  I stared at them in stunned silence, unable to make sense of what they were saying. I thought it through, but the only thing I could recall ever having done wrong since coming to Mount Kunlun was stealing Mo Yuan’s wine. Other than that I had always abided perfectly by the rules.

  “I haven’t wronged Master in any way,” I said boldly. “He treats me well because an old friend told him to have mercy upon me and the miserable life I have had. By tying me up like this and throwing water over me, you have shown me that Master has more goodness in the tip of one of his fingers than you have in your entire body. I refuse to become your servant.” I did not actually believe what I had just said about Mo Yuan being better than Yao Guang; I had only said these things to annoy her.

  Yao Guang was so livid she started shaking. She fiercely bashed her hand against the arm of the chair. “What a stubborn boy!” she said. “Drag him off to the water dungeon and lock him up inside for three days!”

  I still remember Yao Guang’s eyes as she gave this order, burning red with jealousy. It had all just been a misunderstanding, but I was a child, full of youthful vigor and not used to expressing myself properly. Instead of explaining the situation and getting myself out of this mess, I signed my own death warrant and spent the next two days experiencing intense suffering as a result.

  Yao Guang’s water dungeon was far more sophisticated than most others. When it was empty, it was waist-height with muddy water, but as soon as you were lowered in, this water would start to rise. It would move up your body, inch by inch, until it was covering your head. Even when your head was covered, the water would not actually drown you, it just gave you the awful sensation of drowning. Had you been allowed to experience this sensation constantly, you might have become used to it over time, but after a couple of hours, the water receded, and you would be left panting wildly and waiting for the torturous process to repeat itself.

  I had spent so many years being idle and lazy, and even if I had exerted all my strength, I would not have been a match for this goddess. I was helpless to defend myself and had no choice but to endure my torment.

  By the time Mo Yuan found me, I had been tortured to within an inch of my life. Fortunately I still had youth and stamina on my side. Through my daze, I remember seeing Mo Yuan’s solemn face as he ripped open the dark steel chain of the dungeon door with one hand. Sparks flew everywhere. He fished me out of the water, wrapped me in a cloak, and held me close to him. He turned to pale-faced Yao Guang, and in an icy voice he said, “Meet me on the summit of Mount Cangwu on the seventeenth of February, and we will settle this score.”

  “I wish very much to battle with you,” Yao Guang said in distress, “but not like this, and not . . .”

  I did not hear the end of her sentence, as Mo Yuan was already striding off with me in his arms. At the entrance to Mount Kunlun, we bumped into First Apprentice, who reached out to take me, but Master did not hand me over. He just walked alongside First Apprentice with me still in his arms.

  For the first time it dawned on me that even though Mo Yuan did not have a wide mouth, his voice was still deep and resonant. Even though his arms were not as strong and stocky as pillars, he was still sturdy and powerful. Mo Yuan was tough after all.

  As soon as I returned to Mount Kunlun, I fell into a death-like sleep. When I awoke, First Apprentice told me that Mo Yuan had gone to the summit of Mount Cangwu to battle with Goddess Yao Guang. Such a rare spectacle only came around once in ten million years, and Second to Sixteenth Apprentices had all gone along to watch.

  “How could Master have picked me to look after you?” First Apprentice asked with a sigh. I had no idea, but I was equally dismayed at not being able to witness Mo Yuan battling against Yao Guang.

  First Apprentice was an incessant talker, and after listening to him burble for a couple of days, I finally understood what a serious operation Yao Guang’s abduction of me had been. After the lamps had been turned out that night and I still had not returned to my room, my fellow apprentices became anxious. They searched all over Mount Kunlun, but could not find me. After turning the place upside down, they started to suspect that I might have stirred up trouble with Yao Guang’s immortal servants and been taken captive.

  It had just been a guess, and they had no proof, but my fellow apprentices were all extremely worried, and eventually they decided to alert Master. Master had been about to go to bed, but as soon as he heard this news, he draped a cloak over himself, and taking First Apprentice with him, he broke into Goddess Yao Guang’s residence.

  Yao Guang did not admit what she had done to Mo Yuan, even when he threatened her life. Master flashed his Xuan Yuan sword at her in complete disregard of all etiquette and charged his way inside to find me.

  First Apprentice tutted and gave a big sigh. “If it hadn’t been for Master’s courage, you would probably never have seen the light of day again, Little Seventeenth,” he said with a laugh. “You were exhausted. You fainted as soon as Master brought you back to Mount Kunlun. You were having nightmares, holding onto Master’s hand and yelling with such distress it was hard to listen to. We couldn’t pry your hand off his.

  “Master was extremely upset by the state he found you in. He patted you on the back to comfort you and said, ‘Don’t be scared. Don’t be scared. Master will protect you.’ You looked just like a little baby,” he said with a chuckle. My face went red. “What did you do to offend Yao Guang so much?” he asked in bafflement. “She’s known to have an evil streak, but she’s never been that cruel and ruthless before.”

  I had thought about this carefully while I was recuperating, and thought that I had a good understanding of the whole situation. I had been about to tell him that her fury had been fueled by jealousy, but I did not think it was fair to talk about someone behind their back, so I just mumbled a couple of incoherent reasons instead.

  This was what unfolded in the dream I had just had about Mo Yuan. So far what had happened in the dream was indistinguishable from what had happened in reality. But in reality, Mo Yuan had returned to Mount Kunlun the afternoon following the Cangwu battle. Yao Guang had been brutally defeated and had subsequently fallen out of love with Mo Yuan and moved far, far away. But in the dream, Mo Yuan never returned from Cangwu. Each day I would grab First Apprentice and ask, “When is Master coming back?” And First Apprentice would respond with the words “Soon, soon.”

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  So much time had passed in the dream and so much had happened, but when I lazily opened my eyes and saw the sun’s shadow slanting over the west, I realized I must have been asleep for only three or four hours. The dream made me feel like I had lived through another seventy thousand years, and on waking I felt like I had aged. Ye Hua had left my room by then. I lay there for a while, staring up at the bed curtain, before attempting to get down from the bed, avoiding my chest injury as best I could. While my manner of turning around and clambering out of bed could not exactly be called smooth, by the time I had all four legs on the ground and had only strained my wound a little, I felt a rush of pride at my own deftness.

 
Yanhua Cave was filled with a thick fog that enshrouded Mo Yuan, and I could only make out his vague shape. I cast a spell, transforming myself back into human form, and walked over to where he lay.

  I had been worrying unnecessarily. Mystic Gorge had tended to Mo Yuan just as he should have, even spreading his hair out over the pillow and carefully arranging all the strands. Even with my hawk-like attention, I could find nothing to fault.

  I sat down next to him and entered into a trance, looking at those eyes, unopened for seventy thousand years, that straight nose, those pouting lips. To have thought this handsome face was sissy. How young and ignorant I was when I first met him, how absurd my thinking!

  Nothing scares people as much as change. It was change that had caused an image of this alluring face to freeze forever within my mind. It was seventy thousand years since I had seen him smile, but I still had a crystal-clear image of him smiling as he stood in the peach grove at Mount Kunlun’s back mountain, as peach blossom petals flew gracefully through the air.

  It was extremely quiet inside the cave, and after sitting there awhile, I started to feel cold. I placed his hands on my chest, but it did not stop me from shivering. I left the cave to pick a handful of wildflowers, and exchanged them with the old ones in the vase. I took the vase outside and filled it with stream water to keep the flowers fresh and placed the vase next to Mo Yuan. This added a little bit of life to the icy cave.

  Sitting there I suddenly remembered how it would very soon be gardenia season. I could pick some gardenias and weave them onto the thin willow branches I had collected the year before and make a flower curtain to hang at the entrance to Yanhua Cave. Whenever the cave got cold, their floral fragrance would be released, which was certain to bring some comfort to poor Mo Yuan inside. This idea really brightened my mood.

  Seeing that the sky was starting to darken, I knelt and bowed down before him. I gave the cave a final once-over and started to hurry back down the mountain.

  I had been groggy earlier and had no idea who had dressed my wound for me. It had to be either Ye Hua, Mystic Gorge, or Bi Fang, but whoever it was had been very sensitive to the fact that I was a woman, even if I had reverted back to my fox form, and they had just dabbed at the blood on my body, rather than throwing me into a wooden barrel and giving me a proper bath.

  I had just climbed a mountain and exerted myself further by rushing in and out of Yanhua Cave. Now I was finally able to relax. Feeling the mountain wind blowing over me, I realized I was sticky with sweat from all this toil.

  There was a small lake halfway down Fengyi Mountain, and while it was nothing compared with His Revered Highness Ling Bao’s sky spring, I bathed in it regularly and found its waters extremely pleasant. It took me some time to remember the way, but once I was certain of the direction, I turned around and started to head eagerly there.

  I peeled off my cloak, and summoning immortal energy to protect my injury, I entered the water. The water in this lake came from melted ice, and even in this early summer evening, the cold seeped through to the depths of my heart, and my teeth started chattering. I stood still, scooping up water and wetting my body bit by bit. Once I had fully acclimatized, I started to slowly submerge myself.

  I stared in fascination at two bright trails of red within the jade-green lake water reflected onto the white of my petticoat.

  It was highly unlikely that there would be anyone strolling by the lake at this hour, and after a while of hemming and hawing, I decided it was safe to take off my petticoat. Before I had managed to remove it, I heard a furious cry: “Bai Qian!” I trembled to hear my name called out like that.

  This voice was familiar, but it was the first time I had heard him call me by my full name. I trembled, still in shock. I had been concentrating so hard on standing steadily in the middle of the lake, and his call had distracted me, causing me to lose my balance. I toppled into the water and would have drowned if Ye Hua had not rushed into the middle of the lake and grabbed tight hold of me.

  He was so tall and broad chested that once he had me in an armlock, he managed to press me effortlessly into his chest. My injury did not appreciate being squeezed against such a firm chest, and it throbbed with so much pain I almost threw up blood. He had not summoned any immortal energy to protect himself, and his clothes were soaked through, while his dripping-wet hair stuck to his ears.

  I was pressed to him, locked in place. I was unable to see the expression on his face, but I was right up against his heart and could hear it hammering loudly against his chest.

  I gave a quiet sigh of relief that I had not had a chance to remove my petticoat. He loosened his grip on me and pressed his lips against mine.

  My jaw dropped from the shock, enabling him to push his tongue past my teeth and into my mouth. I stared at him through wide eyes, but he was so close that all I could see were his pupils, the blackness within them surging and turning. He could clearly see me staring in wide-eyed surprise, but it did not stop him from this intense sucking and nibbling. In no time at all, my lips and tongue were completely numb, and I could taste what I suspected to be a couple of trickles of blood.

  I was choking slightly, tears pricking the corners of my eyes. I had a vague sense of déjà vu, and I felt a strange feeling I could not name moving over me in waves.

  He bit gently down onto my lower lip and mumbled, “Qian Qian, close your eyes.” These mumbled words refocused my mind, and I reached out and pushed him away.

  My badly injured body and the confusion raging in my mind meant that as soon as I pushed away Ye Hua’s support, my feet went limp and I stumbled violently, nearly falling.

  He reached out and grabbed me, remembering to avoid my injured chest this time. Before I could thank him for his consideration, he was nuzzling against my shoulders. “I . . . I thought you were trying to drown yourself,” he said in a deep, husky voice.

  I was too shocked to respond, but also amused by his interpretation of the situation. “All I was trying to do was take a wash,” I said with a chuckle.

  He held me even tighter, his lips pressed against my neck, his breathing heavy. “. . . won’t let you . . . not again . . . ,” he said slowly, a sentence with no beginning or end.

  It all felt quite surreal, and I decided it was probably not a smart time to remain silent. I said Ye Hua’s name a couple of times, but he did not respond. Despite the awkwardness, I persevered, trying to bring the conversation onto more comfortable territory. “Were you not in your study working on documents? How did you end up all the way here?” I asked.

  I felt his breath on my neck becoming more even. “Mystic Gorge went to bring you food and discovered you weren’t there,” he explained somberly. “I came out looking for you as soon as he told me.”

  I patted him on the back and said, “Oh, it’s dinnertime, is it? Shall we go back home then?” He said nothing, just gave me a loose hug in the water. I had no idea what was he was thinking. In my experience people in love were a law unto themselves and often needed guidance from others. Not wishing to disturb him, I just let him continue to hold me.

  After a while I gave a sneeze, probably reminding Ye Hua that I was injured and that it was not wise for me to soak in this cold water for too long. Half supporting and half carrying, he rushed me to the bank. He used magic to dry our sopping-wet clothes before picking up his cloak and wrapping it around me. Together we walked down the mountain.

  I was feeling giddy from the kiss in the lake. I could still remember the exact way it had felt, as if something were coursing deep inside my body, surging and tumbling, something invisible, formless, intangible. It was there for moment, and then it was gone. I sighed quietly to myself.

  Ye Hua walked in front on the way down. All I could hear was the soughing of the mountain wind and the occasional chirrup of an insect. My mind wandered, and I did not notice that Ye Hua had stopped until I bumped into his back. He took a step to the side so that I could see up ahead.

  I scrunched up my nose an
d craned my head forward to look in the direction he was indicating. Inside the dilapidated old straw pavilion at the foot of Fengyi Mountain, I saw Zhe Yan smiling lazily up at us. He had a folding fan in his hand, which was resting on Fourth Brother’s shoulder.

  Fourth Brother was sitting cross-legged, squinting, a stalk of dog-tail grass in his mouth. He lifted his eyes to me and said, “Why is your face so red, Little Five? Are you drunk?”

  I tried to appear composed, but just as I was about to come up with some excuse, Ye Hua gave a quiet cough. Zhe Yan looked me up and down, and tapping the folded fan, he said, “The moon is as cool as water tonight. Willows grow luxuriantly and flowers fill the courtyard. Perfect conditions for a tryst.”

  I gave an awkward laugh, but was unable to stop myself from stealing a glance at Ye Hua. His mouth was turned up at the corners, and his eyes shone brightly behind those locks of wet black hair.

  Zhe Yan and Fourth Brother had obviously not come back to Qingqiu merely to bask in the moonlight and compose poems. They explained that Bi Fang had come to see them that afternoon and told them that I had been beaten to within an inch of my life. They had not thought such a thing possible and had dashed over to see this rare sight with their own eyes.

  I clenched my teeth to stop myself from speaking, but the words popped out anyway. “Last time I was beaten to within an inch of my life, I was obviously very rude and recuperated before you two had the chance to come over and have a good gawk. What terrible manners. I am badly injured, yes, but not quite hanging on within an inch of my life. I’m sorry to disappoint you both.”

  Zhe Yan stood there with a mindless smile on his face before eventually passing his fan to me. “Disappointed is an understatement,” he said with a laugh. “Fine, fine. Since I’ve made you so angry, I imagine it will take a wonderful treasure to pacify you. We commissioned the Western Sea Emperor to paint this fan for you. As you can see, you have done well out of my insult.”