Chapter Seventy-One: An Old Friend Once More

Each day, I lived like a marionette, my every movement attended by silent maidservants, my life a hollow shell. Every morning, Mingzhong would pinch my jaw and force a fragrant, sweet dew from a jade bottle down my throat. If I tried to spit it out, he would not let go, but would instead pour some fruit nectar after it, until I had no choice but to swallow.

Each day, the mute maids would carry me to a garden in full bloom with white flowers, to walk and clear my mind. In this gloomy, shadowed underworld, this garden was the place most reminiscent of the Pure Jade Realm. Blossoms crowded in profusion, like white clouds, like drifting snow… But what did it matter, when without him, no place could be called home…

Every night, I would hear Mingzhong’s feeble coughing in the outer hall, muffled by his hand as he left his bedchamber. When his coughing ceased, my heart ached all the more. The pain of Master’s soul being scattered must be a thousand, ten thousand times more piercing than this.

Night after night, I listened, and night after night, my heart bled.

I sat in the garden, the fan of the Seventh Princess in my hand. The clusters of white flowers were the purest, most sacred beauty in the underworld—like the Seventh Princess who leapt from the Heavenly River. Her fierce spirit moved Heaven and Earth, earning the name “Yu Fei.”

Who am I? I have become that weak and sorrowful woman by the Jade Pool—a puppet, forced to marry into the underworld, manipulated by others.

A nightingale sang sweetly above me in the tree. Its song gave me a spark of life, a glimmer of hope.

“Yu Fei! Fei’er! It’s Ke Ke. Ke Ke from the Jade Pool.”

At last, someone called me Yu Fei again! To others, it was only a bird’s song, but I understood—it was the secret language of the Bird Immortals.

“How did you come to the underworld, Ke Ke?” My heart was a tangle of surprise, joy, and worry.

“I saw you in the bridal palanquin when I was in the Celestial Palace. I followed the wedding procession here—I want to call someone to rescue you,” Ke Ke chirped.

“You must not! Mingzhong holds Master’s Jade Dragon Goblet, the Chaos artifact Qiantian Seal, and perhaps even more powerful treasures. Even Master’s soul was destroyed—no one else could succeed. I would only become a hostage, a bargaining chip for the underworld.” I could not speak my thoughts to Ke Ke, and I feared Mingbo might discover our conversation, so I shook my head and sighed.

Ke Ke continued, “I’ve tried to get out these past days, but the border is sealed. I am only half-beast, not yet ascended to immortality—here, I am just an ordinary bird. Let’s think of a way together, all right?”

Slowly, I lifted my weak arm, beckoning Ke Ke down. She fluttered from the branch and landed in my hand.

I brought her back with me to Mingzhong’s bedchamber.

I was about to discuss plans with her when Mingbo entered with Mingzhong, his face beaming. Ke Ke, terrified, hid in my sleeve.

“No need to hide—bring it out,” Mingbo chuckled, fingering his jet-bead rosary.

Mingzhong seized my hand, pulled Ke Ke from my sleeve, and flung me aside. Ke Ke trembled violently.

“You have poor taste, consort, if you like such an ugly bird,” Mingbo said disdainfully to Mingzhong.

“What were you chattering about in the garden?” Mingbo squinted at Ke Ke, reaching out to stroke her under the beak.

Mingzhong scolded the maids, “If this bird makes too much noise, throw it out and feed it to Mingmo’s hounds. Don’t let my brother be disturbed.”

The maids hurriedly agreed.

I glared at Mingzhong, furious.

Mingbo cast Mingzhong a contemptuous glance and said with a laugh, “Second Brother, you may be good at war, but you know nothing of romance. With all your women and all the books you’ve read, you still don’t understand—fairies love little dogs, cats, birds, and the like. You can’t even say a word to your darling—you should have given her a pet to amuse her long ago! Just look how she hates you now!” He glanced at me.

“Yes, brother king,” Mingzhong replied humbly.

“Go now, forget what your master says, and raise this little thing properly. Feed it, don’t give it to the dogs—it’s not enough for even that stupid hound of Mingmo’s,” Mingbo laughed.

After they left, Ke Ke chirped quietly, “That was close! I nearly became dog food. Mingbo’s eyes and ears are sharp. From now on, when I talk, if you agree, just smile. If you disagree, tease me a little.”

I smiled faintly in agreement, but inside, I wondered how anyone could evade Mingbo’s watchful gaze.

Ke Ke moved into my bedchamber. Seeing me “play” with her, Mingzhong also tried to feed her. Ke Ke kept her distance. Mingzhong, impatient, threw the food to the floor and leaned in close behind his mask, his voice cold: “Teach your bird what it means to understand the situation. Don’t think being a bird means you can do as you please!”

“Scoundrel! Devil!” Ke Ke cursed from the side.

I smiled faintly, showing I agreed with her.

“At least you understand,” Mingzhong said, thinking my smile was for him, and left with a flick of his sleeve.

“Ugly wretch! Deluded fool!” Ke Ke cursed at his retreating figure.

Turning to Ke Ke, I smiled. “Yes, there must be some hideous face behind that mask for him to be so secretive about his looks.”

“Fei’er, how do we get out?” Ke Ke asked.

I teased her, meaning I didn’t know.

“If I get a chance to escape first, I’ll find Lord Spring Breeze to save you.”

I teased her again and picked up a little egg yolk, crushing it to feed her.

“You mean we can’t pit an egg against a rock?” Ke Ke guessed.

I smiled. Ke Ke was too clever. Lord Spring Breeze was a god, powerful indeed, but his domain was the seasons, the harvests, the bounty of the world. He was not a god of war. This is the underworld—Mingzhong has the Jade Dragon Goblet, and Mingbo’s eyes and ears are everywhere. Sending Spring Breeze here would be sending him to his death. Master is gone; Heaven’s deficit needs mending, the Pure Jade Realm cannot lose Spring Breeze, and all creation needs him—his burning hope, his fire that revives the world. Whether I live or die, I cannot drag him down with me.

The next day, Ke Ke and I met a graceful, mature beauty in the garden. Though she was lovely, her dress was not elaborate, and her manners were humble and courteous. She even greeted me with a bow. Two maids followed her, also demure and respectful.

Unable to bow myself, I nodded in return.

Her face, her deferential ways, seemed familiar…

I had seen her before! She was once the bewitching servant in the underworld who had torn at my clothes and tried to violate me.

Now, with cosmetics on her face and dressed, if not richly, at least no longer as a servant, attended by two maids, her status had changed? Where was her former mistress? My heart was full of questions.

“She seems so gentle!” Ke Ke praised.

I neither smiled nor teased her. The beauty’s humility reminded me of Dongfang Mo—he was always so respectful to my master.

“You must be the Seventh Princess?” the woman asked.

I nodded.

“Mo’er, come pay your respects to the princess,” she called.

From among the flowers, a man stepped forward and bowed deeply. Besides my master and Lord Spring Breeze, no face was more familiar to me.

My heart twisted as I looked at him.

For two thousand years, I treated him as an elder brother, a true friend, never once linking him to treachery. He had always been so upright and sincere. When he once chided me for being “base and shameless,” even that was more honest than this distant courtesy.

How could he betray the Pure Jade Realm? How could he steal the Jade Dragon Goblet and kill our master? He was the one who accidentally hurt me, but remembered it for two thousand years, always apologizing, the brother who trained with me, completed every mission with me, shared joys and hardships, who always protected me, laughed and wept with me.

Why did he do it? I could not understand.

Dongfang Mo stepped forward, respectfully supporting the beauty. She caressed his hand with deep affection.

He had become a pampered favorite in the underworld, accompanying a noblewoman to admire flowers… I could not believe it. Dongfang Mo, always so self-disciplined, would stoop to such degradation?

“Seventh Princess, this is my son Mingmo. I am Jiang Wu, Mingmo’s mother. Please, call me Madam Jiang,” she said humbly.

So she was the mother Dongfang Mo always spoke of, the princess of the Kingdom of Gentlemen, brought here for a political marriage.

“Mother, the Seventh Princess cannot speak,” Mingmo said.

Jiang Wu quickly apologized, “Forgive me, princess. I meant no offense.”

I glared at Dongfang Mo with hatred. Even though I had become a woman again, and my face had not changed, how could he so calmly address me as “Seventh Princess”?

His head was bowed; I could not see the eyes that once looked at me with such honesty and righteousness. He was no longer the man who would defy the underworld to save his mother and his people.

Dongfang Mo, you live only in my memories now—forever my elder brother. The man before me is Mingmo, son of the King of the Underworld.

“You stay by your mother’s side, but you have utterly destroyed our master, who treated you so well…” I hated him in my heart.

I closed my eyes, tears streaming down. I did not want to see him again—only hatred remained.

“My little sh—” Mingmo began, seeing me weep, but Jiang Wu cut him off at once. “Mo’er, it’s your mother who has burdened you. I know you are a grateful child. He died because of the Jade Dragon Goblet, and you could not bear it. But your apprenticeship was a pretense; do not dwell on those two thousand years. You have followed your father for thirty thousand years—how could a mere two thousand compare? You must not mention those people again, lest you anger your father.”

“Yes, Mother. I was wrong. I will remember my father’s and brother’s teachings, and yours,” Mingmo replied, respectful as ever.

“After you second brother marries the Seventh Princess, she will be your sister-in-law. Mind your manners,” Jiang Wu continued.

“Yes, Mother,” Mingmo said.

“Obey your elder brother, learn from your second brother, and gain more skills. In these two thousand years that you were gone, I worried endlessly…” Jiang Wu’s voice choked with emotion as she stroked his hand.

“Yes, Mother. I will go nowhere else, I’ll stay with you,” Mingmo promised, filial to the extreme.

Go nowhere else… Such a good, dutiful son! Years ago, he was just as determined to become my master’s disciple.

To be his witness, I had traveled to Kunlun Void, met master at the Edge of Immortality… and so began this dream, this calamity.

When I first met him, master disliked me so, as if I pestered him on purpose… And I did pester him on purpose. I feared he would leap from the cliff, feared the world would lose him forever… Looking back, so many women pined for him. That night in Yixian Valley, when I shed my cloak to warm him, he must have thought I meant to seduce him. If I had known, I would have pestered him again, even if it meant truly removing my clothes and using every wile to keep him from being deceived by this “dutiful” disciple!

Was the past a beautiful dream? Or is this present a nightmare from which I cannot wake? Voiceless, my immortality destroyed, I am a living ruin—unable to avenge my master, unable even to protect myself.

Tears soaked my collar.

I slowly raised my hand, signaling the maids to carry me back—back to face Mingzhong’s masked face, back to a man I could hate utterly and simply, rather than look upon Mingmo again.

“Traitor! Coward!” Ke Ke, unable to contain her anger, flew at Mingmo’s face, aiming for his eyes.

I tried to reach out and stop her, but had no strength. She feared Mingzhong’s ruthless cruelty, but not Mingmo. How could she know the most dangerous are those who appear upright?

A flash of mystical light—Mingmo cast a spell and caught Ke Ke in his hand…