Chapter Sixty-Six: Separated by Life and Death

In the vast, empty hall of the Formless High God, I lost my way... I could not find my master...

"Master! Where are you? I have changed my appearance, do you no longer recognize me?"

"Fei'er... take good care of yourself..." My master's voice echoed through the endless haze...

The morning bell tolled, and I awoke with a start from my dream, sitting upright. Outside, the sky was already bright. I remembered being with my master by the Quiet Thought Lake in the Valley of Recollection, just like in the dream. I had fallen asleep fully clothed, not knowing when I had drifted off.

Three tolls of the morning bell signaled the beginning of the day; six beats of the evening drum marked the night’s approach—such was the routine of the Jade Purity Realm.

Still dazed, I put on my shoes and stood up... It felt as if I were still dreaming...

Why did the morning bell keep tolling beyond the third time today?

Something was wrong! What had happened in the Jade Purity Realm? Could it be an attack?

I rushed out anxiously. There was no one in the courtyard! No one in the corridors! No one in the back hall! Where was everyone? Six tolls! Seven tolls!

A chill seized my heart, an immense unease flooded through me. I dashed into the main hall and saw Eleventh Senior Brother and Fifteenth Senior Brother standing there.

"Where is Master!" I looked around anxiously, not seeing him, my heart racing.

Eight tolls! Nine tolls!

I froze in place. This was the Dragon's Wail! The number of the old sun!

Why would the bell-keeper at the bell tower ring this bell? Had he lost his senses?

This was the Death Bell of the Dragon! Why would the Death Bell be rung!

“What on earth has happened?” I pressed urgently, grabbing Fifteenth Senior Brother’s arm, searching his face... and found it streaked with tears!

He exclaimed upon seeing me rush over, "Little Junior Brother! You’re awake!"

"Why wouldn’t I be! What has happened!" I pleaded with him, desperately.

"Brother Baize has fallen in battle!" Fifteenth Senior Brother cried out in grief.

"What!" I stood dumbstruck in the main hall. How could such dreadful news come so suddenly at dawn? Though Brother Baize had always been strict with me, even wronged me, two thousand years of camaraderie... How could he have fallen...

As I stood there, grief-stricken, I suddenly sensed a disturbance in the spiritual energy behind me. I leapt aside just in time to evade an immortal art. Eleventh Senior Brother had attacked me from behind!

"Little Junior Brother... forgive me..." Eleventh Senior Brother sobbed, launching another spell at me.

I blocked his spell, fixing him with a desperate gaze. "Eleventh Senior Brother, what are you doing!"

A spell of slumber struck the sleep point on my body from behind—Fifteenth Senior Brother had attacked as well! Yet with two-tenths of Master’s divine power in me, his spell could not affect me!

"What are you doing!" I demanded, bewildered and anxious.

"Fifteenth, what do we do! Little Junior Brother is awake!" Eleventh Senior Brother looked at me, then at Fifteenth Senior Brother, crying.

Monkeys and cranes mourned through the Jade Purity Realm...

"Little Junior Brother, hold on!" Fifteenth Senior Brother said hurriedly, rushing out the door...

I followed him to the mountain gate. At the head stood Twelfth Senior Brother, behind him the other brothers and the assembled officers, all with grief-stricken faces. In the midst of the procession were two coffins—one of stone, one of crystal!

"Why are there two coffins! Who is in the crystal coffin?" I demanded, pushing hard at Twelfth Senior Brother. He remained silent. I turned to pull at Fifteenth Senior Brother.

"Tell me! Where is Master? Who is that? Put them down and let me see!" I cried inside, desperately pushing through the crowd toward the crystal coffin.

Eleventh Senior Brother stopped me, weeping, "Little Junior Brother... Master has passed away..."

I halted abruptly, "What did you say?" I stared at him, stunned.

"Don’t be too heartbroken, Little Junior Brother... Master has passed away!" Eleventh Senior Brother sobbed.

Tears burst from my eyes as I shouted inside, "You’re lying! He spoke to me just last night! How could he be gone by morning!"

Eleventh Senior Brother choked out, "In truth, the battle during the Feast of Peaches... was dire... Master was constantly deploying troops, directing the war... He decided to personally lead the army, fearing you’d want to fight and it’d be too dangerous, so he let you sleep in the Jade Purity Realm. But you’ve only slept three days and woke up..."

"Slept three days, and Master is gone! I don’t believe it! How could Master die! He’s the one who saved my life!"

Wrenching free from his grip, I frantically forced my way through the crowd to see the truth at the crystal coffin!

Eleventh Senior Brother seized my waist, holding back my madness.

"Little Junior Brother, I know you don’t believe it... I don’t either... I’ve pinched my arm purple!" Eleventh Senior Brother wept.

"Yes! I don’t believe it! This must be a dream!" I bit hard into my own arm; blood ran from the corner of my mouth...

But I felt no pain...

"Don’t do this, Little Junior Brother!" Eleventh Senior Brother tried to pull me away.

There was no pain... none at all! I bit down harder...

But my heart ached, so much it was unbearable...

I stood there, dazed, watching as the procession carried the crystal coffin slowly past me, into the main hall, placing it at the center.

"This must be false! A dream! In dreams, faces are always blurred!"

I pushed past Eleventh Senior Brother, rushing into the hall, throwing myself before the crystal coffin...

He... lay there in perfect stillness... his face so pale...

Leaning over the coffin, I gazed at him, "How can this be! How could it happen! How could the God of Radiant Dawn die! You are a god! So powerful! How could you die!"

Twelfth Senior Brother sobbed, "During the Feast of Peaches, Ming Zhong raised an army and attacked the Celestial Realm, two cities were razed. Master went forth himself and battled Ming Zhong at Luo Long. Ming Zhong brought out several Chaos Artifacts to fight Master. Brother Baize was killed by the Qiantian Seal while protecting Master! Master fought with all his strength and grievously wounded Ming Zhong, but then Ming Zhong used the Jade Dragon Chalice to scatter Master’s soul... and he passed away."

"Ming Zhong! How did he get the Jade Dragon Chalice!" I fought Ming Zhong at the Immortal Pursuit Cliff to stop him from harming my brothers, to keep him from seizing the Jade Dragon Chalice, from taking the artifacts of the Jade Purity Realm!

"East Silent was a spy from the Netherworld! The Kunlun Jade Mountain formation was broken by him! He stole the Jade Dragon Chalice and gave it to Ming Zhong! Ming Zhong used it to kill Master!" Twelfth Senior Brother cried.

"I don’t believe it! This is all a dream! East Silent, a spy from the Netherworld! Impossible! He was my brother for two thousand years! He respected Master, cared for me—how could he be a spy!"

I could not accept what had happened upon waking—a reality so impossible, so utterly unfathomable.

"Little Junior Brother, we were all deceived by East Silent!" Eleventh Senior Brother sobbed.

I stared into his eyes, unable to believe what I heard. "We’ve been deceived... for two thousand years..."

"Little Junior Brother! East Silent belonged to the Netherworld! I never saw a hint... I’ve failed Master..." Eleventh Senior Brother could not stop his tears and struck his own face with a heavy slap.

"East Silent! Get out! I want my master alive! I only want him alive..." I screamed inside.

"Is Brother Kunpeng’s family’s Water of Immortality too precious to save Master?" I rushed to Brother Kunpeng, rifling through his sleeves in desperation.

Brother Kunpeng wept, "Little Junior Brother... stop searching, I gave it to Master already, it was useless. The Jade Dragon Chalice is a Chaos Artifact—any soul it captures is returned to the Heavenly River, dispersed and gone. Master’s soul is scattered—neither the Formless High God nor the Primordial High God could retrieve it, even with soul-calling arts."

I collapsed to the ground...

Scattered soul... you won’t even leave me a sliver of hope...

I sat in a daze beside the crystal coffin, watching over Master, no matter what others said or did, no matter their tears or their words of comfort...

"Where are you hurt? Was it because you lost your Heart Shield Scales? Was it because I was unworthy, and you were wounded using soul-calling magic for me? Being torn asunder must have hurt terribly... You let me sleep, and when I awoke, you were here in this thick coffin of crystal... I still want to hear you lecture on the Dao, teach me immortal arts, teach me medicine, teach me music, send me to the Beast Garden as punishment... I still need you to protect me when danger comes... I still want you to tell me not to cry... I don’t care how many foolish admirers you have... You can court a hundred, a thousand princesses, I won’t be angry... You wanted me to marry, didn’t you? If you wake up, I’ll marry, I’ll marry whoever you wish! You must be pretending, aren’t you? You’re afraid I’ll never leave the Jade Purity Realm. Come out and tell me clearly! Don’t bully me just because I cannot speak!"

With tears in my eyes, my gaze grew cold. I summoned the Xuanjing Sword and struck at the crystal coffin.

But a mace blocked my blow.

"Little Crow! Your master is dead! He’s gone and won’t return! Breaking the coffin is useless!"

Spring Wind had arrived!

I looked to Spring Wind with hope, yearning for him to change his face and grin as before, to tell me that this was just another trial set by him and Master for our cultivation!

"Little Crow, this is war. War is this cruel! Your pain is the pain of thousands upon thousands who have lost loved ones in battle! That is why your master became the God of Radiant Dawn—to bring light, to bring peace to the world, to usher in an age of prosperity for all under heaven! Once you step onto the battlefield, you must be prepared to face death at any moment!" Spring Wind urged me with all his heart.

I lay across the crystal coffin gazing within...

"You and Lu Xue are the same! Your souls are scattered! Where can I go to find you! We just beat the victory drum together, danced the Dance of Prosperity, promised to watch the snow fall on Kunlun together in the Jade Purity Realm... I don’t want to face this... I don’t want to face..."

I took neither food nor drink, slept not nor rested, simply kept vigil beside the crystal coffin... No plea or persuasion could move me...

By the banks of the Heavenly River in the thirty-third heaven, atop the summit of Sumeru. All creation mourned, all the world grieved, a thousand cries of lamentation, ten thousand voices of agony—this was the funeral of the God of Radiant Dawn.

"Spring Wind told me not to cry. He said you specially sought out the Formless High God so I could speak again, and that if I kept crying, all those floral dew drops would be wasted, all your efforts for nothing.

"So I won’t cry anymore... so that when I seek you, I can call your name; so that when we meet again, I can say to you the words I wish to say.

So I stood far away, in silence, watching them lay you to rest with their tears and wailing.

I know you are not truly there...

You said the heavenly water flows from the thirty-third heaven’s river, the place where all immortals’ souls return to begin anew. If the soul disperses, it becomes primordial spirit, drifting with the river to every corner of heaven and earth...

So you have gone with the heavenly river to guard the world... If I seek you, I must start from here!

The water of the heavenly river cascades down from the thirty-third heaven as the celestial spring, as Kunlun’s Void, as Immortal Pursuit Cliff—the place where you mended the sky and where we watched the Kunlun snow together. This is the path to find you!

Very well! Wherever you go, I shall seek you there!"

I closed my eyes and leapt from the lofty banks of the Heavenly River into its surging torrents...

The wind was fierce, the spiritual waves roared, and within the howling wind, I seemed to hear a familiar voice: "Live well!"