Back in the Immortal Realm
"Wake up, Lazybones. You've been sleeping for two days," Tian Yu called out to the sleeping lady, who refused to get up from the bed or even to eat. "Just let me sleep," she said. "It's already been so long since I enjoyed such a big bed."
Tian Yu laughed. Five years in the mortal realm had seemed to go by so quickly, and yet it was only five days in the immortal realm. As the DongFeng couple hadn't returned yet, it had been Chong Lin, the steward of Taichen Palace, who had communicated with them and coordinated their return. They had experienced a lot but most importantly, they worked together as a team to remedy for their own shortcomings, and eventually completed their assignment in bringing back the escaped immortals.
They still had a lot to learn as immortals, and their skills and cultivation were not yet on par, so it had been back to academy lessons and much self-cultivation until they were finally assigned to a more permanent role within the Realms. But since they returned to Qingqiu, Zhi Xun had been sleeping for two days straight with her reason that she missed her huge bed in Qingqiu. No matter which of her favourite desserts Tian Yu would prepare, or even if he tempted her with bingsu or any Korean shaved ice variants, she wouldn't budge.
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After five days, he finally bribed her to go for a walk in the Nine Heavens where they would experience the immortal life. They had paid for a tour organised by the King of Gossip Lian Song and his girlfriend Cheng Yu, who had been arguing non stop during the trip.
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"They're just as bad as us," Zhi Xun told Tian Yu telepathically. "You can tell they love each other from the way they look at one another. It's just they have too much in common, that's why they quarrel all the time. Don't you think they are a perfect match?"
Tian Yu smiled and tickled her on her side, before saying to her telepathically, "and we aren't? You know I love you so much that I could do whatever you want for your sake. If only I could pluck out all the stars from the sky and present them all to you, I would. In the past, I wanted to give you a comfortable lifestyle so you wouldn't need to work, but you ended up becoming a career woman and didn't want to give up work, so I became the househusband instead. Now that we're granted an eternal lifetime and you struggle with cultivating your powers and studies, and since we finished our task, I think I can actually give you the life you want. I'll talk to the Emperor and Queen once they're back, to give you an administrative position and I'll be the breadwinner, okay?"
She giggled, "Actually, I don't think the immortal realm works like that. It's not about making money, or doing good deeds, in contrary to what we've heard in school about the religions. Every immortal who reports is given a fitting role. Be patient and we will get to know what we are supposed to do when they come back."
He smiled at her and nodded, and then they both turned to watch the couple squabbling again about where they should go next.
"So, this is the immortal punishment platform. It's believed that it has tremendous power inside it, that any mortal that passes through it would be killed instantly. An immortal would be severely injured," Cheng Yu chirped.
"Word has it that a High Goddess was undergoing a mortal trial. She came to the nine heavens in the guise of a mortal, and when her heart was broken, she jumped from the platform. She ended up passing her trial, as the energy from the platform unsealed her memories."
"Mortal trial?" Zhi Xun repeated after her.
"A mortal trial is a test for a high immortal to ascend to high God," Cheng Yu explained. "Occasionally it can be used to restore years of cultivation after being severely injured, as it's faster this way. But due to the complexity of the trial, only few immortals have achieved high God status, including the Honghuang God Zheyan, Bai Qian, Bai Qian's brother Bai Zhen, Su Moye, the Taoist Qian Ye and a few others. The reason is because one needs to get his or her heart broken to pass the trial."
"I'm glad we don't have to go through this," Zhi Xun whispered to Tian Yu, and wrapped his arm around hers tightly. After some hours of exploring, they stopped by at a pavilion to conclude the tour. "Actually, I feel like having something sour," Zhi Xun told her husband. "Shall we go have some tom yum steamboat at the Nian Nian Xiang Wang fusion café outside the Nine Heavens' Registry?"
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"On the way, let's go pick some oranges from the Imperial Orchard," Tian Yu said. "Since you are in the mood for something sour, the orchard holds some sour oranges that will definitely cater to your liking."
She watched as Tian Yu climbed the tree to pick its fruits and she smiled. "Why didn't you tell me, that you liked me at first sight?" she asked.
"Do you mean as mortals, or in the Fanyin Valley?" he asked. She smiled sweetly and inquired further, "When I was Aranya, when did you find out you liked me?"
"I always had a strong feeling for you when you were a baby and when we were both children, but I treated you as family then. But the memory I remember vividly even after being reborn eight times, was this particular scene of Su Moye carrying you out of the snake-pit as a young girl. I saw your double wings spread out beautifully. I think that was the time I fell for you, because after that, I had been having a few dreams about why it wasn't me who had saved you. Maybe it's all for the best, that I didn't become your saviour, so that I became your saviour when we became mortals. All these lifetimes, it's all for the best. So I managed to change for the better, and give you the best I could," he explained.
She looked bashfully as she admitted, "I fell for you when I slipped and you caught me in your arms. And when you went to Lingshu Terrace, I was already madly in love with you."
He finished picking the fruits and arranging them in a basket, before descending gracefully down to the ground beside her. "Do you think, the scenery in the orchard is beautiful?" he asked. "Yes, I do," she replied, and before she could say anything more, he was pressing her against the trunk of the gigantic orange tree and kissing her passionately. "I wish to create more happy moments like this for us in ours mind," he stated enthusiastically after that. "Perhaps if not for the Emperor and his Queen creating us, we would have never met nor would we have fallen in love. If only I had known earlier, I would have never kept my feelings a secret, I would have proposed and you would have never sacrificed yourself on the battlefield."
"If not for sacrifice, I wouldn't have known your true feelings, and Jielu would have never been born," Zhi Xun explained. "She's such a sweet little thing, that everytime I look at her, I feel that Aranya's death had been worth it. Although I don't remember everything exactly, seeing it happen in the Miaohua Mirror, brings a lot of thoughts and memories to my mind."
"I only remembered our love," he whispered in her ear. "Everything about us, in each lifetime. Although I remember most clearly, you as Aranya, how you survived like a lotus among all those filth, and how you were never affected by those around you. No matter which lifetime you were in, you were beautiful. And I'm so glad to have you eternally."
She kissed him joyously. "Maybe all this was a blessing in disguise to us, a test that we had to overcome to eventually gain a life of eternity with each other. I will never leave your side, never ever again."
"And I won't either," he whispered lovingly while gazing into her eyes.
It wasn't long after that before they had to zoom away on a magical cloud at rapid speed, as an angry fairy chased them with a rake screaming, "Fruits from the Imperial Orchard needs to be pre-booked with the app six months beforehand! These orange trees only bear fruit once in a few years! Give them back, these are booked by the Monkey King's wife!"
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After the feast, Tian Yu watched as his wife had went to sleep on a full stomach. Thanks goodness they didn't have to deal with putting on weight as immortals, or his wife would have kicked a fuss regarding the pounds she would likely have gained from all the food she had downed in an instant.
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Then there was the fact she had dreamt of walking into an orchard, and a plump little boy with rosy cheeks running to her. She had the dream about six nights ago, and since she was a dreamer she hadn't thought much of it. But with her sudden mood swings and severe appetite changes, Tian Yu was concerned about her health as an immortal. Though immortals didn't catch ailments like colds or influenza, they did get sicknesses from time to time that were specific to the celestials. So that was how Fengjiu had called in Zheyan, and for the first time, they encountered a bird that was much more majestic than the Biyiniao, the Inseparable Bird tribe that they had been of in their former lifetime, or rather, their origins, since it was debatable that being half-shadows would be considered a lifetime, or not.
They had already gone through so much. But fate had its surprises. Becoming immortal had been so satisfying to them, that it was their final destination together. Their destiny to each other, as Fengjiu had meant them to be when she sent half her shadow to accompany half Donghua's shadow while still being unknown to him. As she lay in bed pulling her warm blanket up to her chest, she told Tian Yu of how much she missed their YeRan and Yize.
"We could take a look into their current lifetime," he told her as he read his Magic Theory: The Earliest Immortals textbook on an ebook format on his tablet reader app. Even the gods had decided to cut down on the use of paper to save the trees after the WuGang incident on the moon, where he had to cut trees repeatedly as punishment, only to have them grow back. So everything had to be done using paperless online submissions and through apps cleverly written and integrated by Siming and Chong Lin respectively. Liansong also led the Research and Development team to assist with the technological development of the Nine Heavens.
Tian Yu got up where he was sitting and clasped his hands together in their customary greeting to the arrival of High God Zheyan, who was known to be extremely well-versed in magic particularly in healing and in cosmetic surgeries. "Let's just go with the Wakanda hug for now," he said in a jovial mood. Tian Yu watched earnestly as he held Zhi Xun's wrist to take her pulse, like a TCM physician. He focused hard and appeared to be deep in his thoughts for a few seconds, and then replaced her wrist on her lap.
After a few moments, he cleared his thoughts and faced Tian Yu. "How long has she been this way?"
"It's almost been a week. She even had a strange dream."
"Aha, so it's that way," he said, with a deep smile across his face. "So, I congratulate you two on your next chapter in life. Have you thought of a name?"
The couple could only look at each other in astonishment as Zheyan left the house and headed towards Bai Zhen's den laughingly, "Ah, another one will be born soon."
Only that this time, it would be a lot more different compared to last time.
- E N D of Seventh -
ns 18.68.41.179da2
