Three Stooges in Heaven: The Apprentice, The Hopeless and The King of Gossip
(This is back when Seventy-Three was still an apprentice)
His Royal Highness, The Third Prince Liansong had a knack for creating new magical weapons or upgrading them. On this day, he had prepared three treasures to be presented to the Lotus Fairy Chengyu, whom he loves. The treasures are a ball-like object, the Haotian tower and a magical cube.
Seventy-Three was stretching his limbs and taking a break from his tasks when he saw Liansong chasing after Chengyu at the Pundaki Pond in the Nine Heavens, with a jade flute in his left hand and hugging the three treasures in his right. It appeared to Seventy-Three that he wanted to present them to Chengyu as a gift, and persevere in his attempt to impress her. However, Chengyu simply didn't have the time for him, or rather, his antics.
Liansong had wanted to demonstrate the powers of his newly-developed treasures to Chengyu, but she hurriedly moved away from him. Eventually, Liansong dropped his treasures with a loud clanging noise on the ground while chasing after her. Hearing the loud clang, Chengyu turned towards Liansong for a few seconds, before glaring at him and leaving the pond quickly. Seventy-Three realised the treasures were now disassembled, and Liansong was wearing a very depressed look on his face as he contemplated what should he do right now that the girl is gone and his newly-developed magical weapons are now dismantled.
Seventy-Three greeted the two gods as Chengyu rushed past him in a flurry. He then started to help Liansong pick up the dismantled treasures and attempt to place them back together. Despite Liansong's skill in creating remarkable artifacts and weapons out of anything in the world, Liansong would take days to reassemble any of his creations that were now disassembled.
The Haotian tower was a magical weapon that could conquer any demon and ghoul in the world. Liansong had just created a new version that was lighter and more efficient than its previous versions. The cube served as a labryinth to hold someone inside, and the magic ball may be utilised as a special lock with a unique key, and the key may only be used to unlock the ball by the very person who had locked it.
At the gazebo, Seventy-Three took a few minutes to solve the issue of the cube, while Liansong struggled with reassembling the Haotian Tower. After a few minutes had passed, Seventy-Three suddenly recalled he had some errands to run, so he bowed to Liansong and took his leave to return to the Taichen Palace.
On his way back to the Taichen Palace, Seventy-Three ran into Zhe Yan who was in the Sky Kingdom for official reasons as well as to pay him a visit. Zhe Yan pulled out two jars of wine from his sleeve and showed them to Seventy-Three, who recognised the first as wine that he had previously brewed and required a very long fermentation time, but was now ready for drinking, and the second was from Zhe Yan's wine collection and was his gift to Seventy-Three for his great performance as an apprentice in the Sky Kingdom. Seventy-Three felt touched by how charitable and kind Zhe Yan is. However, Zhe Yan declined to enter the palace as he had to rush to the netherworld to deliver some wines to Lord Xie.
The next day, Seventy-Three asked Siming for some time to drink with him. Siming was about to reject Seventy-Three due to his low alcohol tolerance, but after hearing about the unique wine that Seventy-Three had received from Zhe Yan the day before, he was inclined to give it a try, due to Zhe Yan's reputation of being known all over the four seas and eight deserts to brew the finest wines. It was rare that a god could get to taste his wine, and receiving a jar was a honour to Siming. On the other hand, he didn't want to hurt the kind sentiments of someone who wanted to share with him the fruit of his own labour (referring to the jar of wine that Seventy-Three had brewed himself). As such, Siming told Seventy-Three that he would sit by and have a small portion of the wine while answering Seventy-Three's queries and have a chit-chat with him, as Seventy-Three drank to his heart's content.
At a table in Siming's place, the men sat facing each other and sipped Zhe Yan's wine in their bowls. After Siming had finished his first bowl, Seventy-Three asked Siming why, that among all the books he had read, they had mentioned that undergoing a love trial (qingjie) was the most effective way for an immortal to regain lost powers. He was curious about the reasoning behind this fact.
Siming replied, "Love is the most uncontrollable among all emotions. Love can deceive a person, can make him lose own self and cause a reasonable person to become unreasonable when he allows his emotions to be controlled by love."
Seventy-Three finished the jar of wine and opened the other jar of wine that he had brewed, filling up both his and Siming's bowls. He was unaware that the wine gifted to him from Zhe Yan had been very concentrated and a mere sip was prone to make Siming intoxicated. Siming gulped down the bowl of wine that Seventy-Three had just poured for him and commented, "This wine of yours is inferior compared to that of High God Zhe Yan's, but I can say that it is good compared to the ones served in the Sky Kingdom." With that, he asked for another round of wine. While he was pouring the wine from the jar into his bowl, on the outside he had looked very sober but in fact, he was already very intoxicated.
Seventy-Three then said, "I do not understand what is so special about love that makes a person unable to think properly. Kindly enlighten me, Star Lord."
Start of the Gossip
Siming answered, "You will not understand it until you experience it on your own. Did you know that the Crown Prince almost lost his life twice due to love?"
Seventy-Three widened his eyes, and Siming told him the story of Yehua and Bai Qian, having almost completed the story when Liansong arrived at Siming's place to look for help from Seventy-Three in reassembling the Haotian Tower. Quickly, Liansong tried to warn his old friend to stop in fear that he would get punished if someone had heard him. Telling the story of Yehua and Bai Qian was forbidden in the Sky Kingdom. All maids and servants who were aware of what happened had been transferred elsewhere, far from the Sky Kingdom, to prevent the story from getting to the ears of others.
Siming didn't heed Liansong's warning, and continued to tell Seventy-Three, "Even the great Donghua Dijun was deceived by love." Upon hearing Siming's sentence, Liansong was struck by awe and showed interest in listening to what Siming had to say. Immediately, he sat up in a straight posture. A clean drinking bowl materialised before him, which Seventy-Three quickly filled up after being given a stare from Liansong.
Liansong asked, "So, what happened?" His eyes were fixated on Siming.
Siming tells the story of how the princess of Qingqiu did her best to repay her debt of gratitude to Donghua Dijun starting by serving as a maid in disguise at the Taichen Palace, and later becoming a fox that the emperor kept by his side, before descending into the mortal realm to assist with his love trial. When the princess of Qingqiu was a fox, she had somehow got into the sealing pagoda and had been injured by the demons within. The Emperor had used up a lot of his cultivation to continuously heal her and take care of her. He had also kept her at his side and defended her when she had been bullied by immortals in the palace while she was in the guise of a fox. From seeing what happened, Siming believed that the emperor loved the princess of Qingqiu deeply in his heart, but was unable to proclaim his feelings for her.
However, according to Siming, the love trial was actually the only way for the emperor to reciprocate the feelings of love that Fengjiu had harboured for him. The emperor had even lost years of cultivation due to the trial that they had in the mortal realm.
Seeing how engaging Siming's story is, Seventy-Three quickly refilled everyone's bowl the minute the bowls were empty. He was curious on who this Donghua Dijun was, since people had been always talking about him. He also knew that the emperor had silvery-white hair like himself, which was why Lord Xie had reacted in that manner when seeing him with Zhe Yan for the first time.
Both Seventy-Three and Liansong were amazed upon hearing the story of the cold-hearted emperor that everyone regarded with high respect. Although Liansong had been one of the emperor's buddies before, he had never expected that the cause for the emperor's loss of cultivation had been due to a lady. At this point, Siming is completely intoxicated, while Liansong is sober.
Liansong continued to ask, "What happened next?" but Siming has moved on, and his next story no longer concerned Donghua Dijun.
Siming said, "The truth is I cannot understand them at all. Why don't you ask the Third Royal Highness why the goddess of the Pundaki Pond is angry with him? Or how he got stuck between the demon deity Cheng Yi and the mortal Ruby Court Master?" As an overseer of mortal fate, Siming had assisted Liansong when he was living in the mortal realm to investigate the whereabouts of some of the Honghuang gods. Hence, he had known of the story between Liansong and Chengyu, although he did not understand it, or love, very well.
Upon finishing his sentence, Siming leaned back in his chair and fell asleep, leaving an annoyed Liansong glaring at him, and a curious Seventy-Three wondering about Liansong and Chengyu.
Why was it that Siming had no predestined fate with any goddess? Probably nobody knows.
End of Bonus Chapter.
ns 15.158.61.20da2
