In the Bais' temporary quarters in the Sky Kingdom, the Bais, including Fengjiu and an already-occupied Bai Qian, are discussing on Fengjiu's impending marriage to Wenchang. Although it is still in its 'consideration stage', it is after all, a recommendation by Hao De himself, and until Yehua has taken his place as the Sky Emperor, he still had a say about most of the affairs of the Sky Kingdom.
Zhe Yan took his place to sit next to Bai Zhen and Mo Yuan as Fengjiu watched the emotions spread across the faces of her family members. Turning down the engagement would be in her eyes, a fate worse than death. She had already gone against her father's wishes to pursue Donghua Dijun then, and she was lucky that her father had not beaten her to death. But what if her family knew that she had already lost her virtues to Donghua?
When she had been involved in Donghua's mortal trial then, she had met Bai Qian in the mortal realm and braced herself from a scolding from her aunt. But Bai Qian had answered that as the body she had been using in the trial had been not hers but that of Consort Chen, the virtues that she had lost was merely Consort Chen's. She firmly understood that when Bai Yi had been rejected uprightly by Donghua on his proposal of marrying her to Donghua, she had caused the Bai family to lose their face. Nevertheless, the Bais had been very forgiving to her past and when she accepted the role of becoming East Qingqiu's ruler, she knew she had to put her lands and her people before love. Perhaps the best way out for her was to accept the fate of her arranged marriage with the Sky Kingdom.
She still clearly recalled the moment when she had cut off one of her tails to carve Donghua's name on the Stone of Three Incarnations, but no matter how many times she had attempted to, and amidst all the pain from her severed tail, she had failed to put his name back on the rock. She had found her name next to Wenchang's, while Donghua's name was not found on the rock. Did this mean she and Wenchang had been meant to be from the very beginning? When Donghua had tried to defy fate, he had already paid a huge price with his disappearance and perhaps, death. And now, this Wenchang was here in person, ready to make a claim on their fate. From the way he had looked at her, she realised that he must already have feelings for her. Of course, nobody could resist the charm of a nine-tailed fox. She also knew that this Wenchang should be someone significant in the immortal realm, for Hao De to have perceived him to be worthy of taking as a godson and now, considering as a suitor for her, the Queen. Even if she was to have her grandfather reject this proposal, that wouldn't be the end of it. For the sake of both realms, the Sky Kingdom would probably press on for their union, even if it wasn't consummated. Even her aunt, the highly respected Aunt of the Four Seas and Eight Deserts, had to accept her fate with Yehua. Furthermore, their names had been carved on the rock, alongside hers and Wenchang's.
Her grandfather discussed the positive and negative outcomes with his children and the immortals present. They considered the possible scenarios provided Fengjiu accepted the proposal, and the benefits to Qingqiu that would gain from the union. As Fengjiu had been sleeping for a long time, followed by her journey to the mortal realms to cultivate and learn, the relationship between Qingqiu and the Sky Kingdom had been slightly strained as she had not been handling the political matters of East Kingdom since. Other than Fengjiu, there had been three other rulers, but none of them were as meticulous and charismatic, nor as benevolent as Fengjiu. They finally deduced that the negative aspect of the union was the fact that Wenchang was more than 32,000 years younger than Fengjiu, and thus, despite being a sky monarch, he was inexperienced and furthermore, being an orphaned immortal, he had no political influence or held any power in court. Neither had he any powerful alliances or reputation in the Four Seas and Eight Deserts. Unlike Fengjiu who had a kingdom of her own, he was alone in his journey of knowledge and power. Even in the Sky Kingdom, he mostly worked independently with some assistance from Siming and Chong Lin, and seldom had interpersonal relationships with many immortals in the Sky Kingdom.
Next, Mo Yuan raised the benefits of having his seventy-third disciple as a grandson-in-law of Qingqiu. He expressed Wenchang's benevolence and good character that Zhe Yan was also aware of, and how he had evolved from as a powerless young immortal child to the highly-skilled Lord Wenchang before their very eyes. There was nobody who knew Wenchang better than his own master himself, and he had nurtured Wenchang since he was young, to be a person of good virtues and intelligence. Mo Yuan was willing to guarantee to Bai Zhi that Wenchang was definitely someone who could be trusted. Yehua himself would also be aware of this as he had been assisting Yehua in the Sky Kingdom. Also, Mo Yuan suggested, that the absence of power and influence in Wenchang would be beneficial as he would be simply be able to focus on supporting and assisting Fengjiu in her reign, without her losing influence in her subjects from being overshadowed by a husband with higher influence than herself.
After a long discussion and finally coming to a clearer understanding of the situation, Zhe Yan and Mo Yuan decided to pay a visit to Wenchang in Taichen Palace. Upon their arrival, Wenchang received them personally and offers them tea in respect as his former teachers. The teachers were of the opinion that since Hao De had agreed to give them a chance to decide, Wenchang could reject the proposal. However, Zhe Yan reminded Wenchang that as he was now Hao De's godson and equivalent to a prince of the Sky Kingdom himself, princes have the obligation to get married not because of love, but for the sake of the Sky Clan itself. He quoted what Hao De had once said, "Marriage and procreation is for the sake of celestial tribe and for the world, it is not for love." Considering this fact, Liansong was lucky to have freedom to pursue a love of his own.
Mo Yuan informed Wenchang of his opinion that he may reject the proposal if he wished to, and he would have his full support. Unfortunately for Wenchang, he was in love at first sight (or second sight if you consider his first meeting with her when he was Zhang Ya) with Fengjiu, and dreamily in love with her. To Wenchang, it had been a dream come true for him to be engaged to someone he had been hopelessly interested in.
The two teachers also tried to do their part by advising and warning them of the complicated past relationship between Fengjiu and Donghua Dijun of the past, since they had themselves known of the story behind Fengjiu severing her own tail. Fortunately, Zhe Yan had managed to use his immortal magic to regrow her tail and heal her from the pain of the severance of her tail. Finally, the engagement was announced on the last day of the coronation ceremony of the new Sky Emperor and Empress.
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Note: This is the same pond in "Bonus Chapter".
Wenchang received a message that Fengjiu was waiting for him at the pavilion by the Pundrika Pond, one of the spots where Liansong would often pursue Cheng Yu. Instantly, he materialised there with his power, finding Fengjiu sitting on a stone table by the pond waiting impatiently for him.
"I have a few words to say. I'll make it quick as we both are busy," she said hastily.
Wenchang gazed at her dreamily, then cleared his throat. "Please do, future wife," he said.
Fengjiu flashed him an annoyed look, then said scornfully, "I just wish to inform and remind Lord Wenchang that our engagement is merely a political marriage for an alliance between Kunlun Mountains, the Sky Kingdom and Qingqiu."
Wenchang said nothing. Fengjiu continued, "You will never have my heart, Lord Wenchang." As she walked away with her back to him, she heard him say, "It is too early for you to say this, My Queen."
Fengjiu gritted her teeth and shook in anger, her heart full of disdain for this Lord Wenchang because of how he had now, slightly resembled Donghua in his looks and his silvery-white hair, and his current position as the new lord of Taichen Palace. The only exception was his weapon, which was not the Canghe but a shorter dagger.
To her, it had felt that Wenchang had taken everything that had meant to belong to Donghua's in his absence, starting from his palace, his position, and even her, although he would never gain her love. Of course, she knew all this was predestined as he was her fate, written in the Rock of Three Incarnations. Nevertheless, she couldn't help feeling angry as she wished she had been fated to Donghua instead. Probably she would have been, had he not wiped his own name from the rock. He loved her, and she would never give up her love for him to love someone else.
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Sixty days went by after the coronation. A beast had fought its way into Qingqiu Kingdom, and again Fengjiu found herself defending her citizens from destruction.
The beast, while possessing a very ferocious roar that shook the whole of the east division of her kingdom, was extremely hideous. It had two different heads, one of a lion and another of a tiger respectively. It also had very sharp, poisonous razor-like claws . This beast was no other than the vanishing chimera that had escaped from the demon-sealing pagoda in the Sky Kingdom. Even a full sword strike from Fengjiu's skilled swordplay ceased to damage the beast at all. Grunting, she was resolved to find a way to defeat the beast. The beast dodged, causing her to miss her next attack. Without warning, it suddenly jumped towards Fengjiu. Fengjiu ascended the air in her attempt to escape the beast and in her shock, it also flew into the air after her. While she was suspended in mid-air, she heard a loud sound that caused her to turn back to look at the beast.
She saw that a powerful immortal in lavender robes had subdued the beast with a powerful magic spell, and the beast was now lying unconscious on the ground below her. As she descended, she felt herself collide into someone hard, and everything around them seemed to pause as if a Time Stop spell had been cast. She slowly fell into Wenchang's arms, like how she had in her initial meeting with Donghua when the Ghost Clan's beast had almost had taken her life. After a few seconds, she realised this person was Wenchang and not Donghua despite their similarity in even their actions, and immediately she pushed him away with all her strength and yelled that she didn't need his help.
Fengjiu tried to move away from Wenchang by force, and felt him grab her arm to stop her from leaving. Stubbornly she resisted his grip and broke free from him when she exerted more force, and the immortal promptly gave up in fear that he would hurt her, but not before her sleeves had been unintentionally ripped. As her right shoulder was exposed, she was then made aware of a deep gash to her shoulder and realised it was an open wound from the attack by the beast earlier. As she landed on the ground between him and the unconscious beast, she began to feel dizzy, but in her stubbornness, was unwilling to call out to Wenchang for help. Wenchang quickly recited a magical incantation to imprison the beast and summoned a magical bird from the Sky Kingdom. The bird had just left with his instructions to inform Liansong, who was in the Sky Kingdom, to fetch the chimera which he had just caught, when Fengjiu succumbed to her injuries and lost consciousness.
"FENGJIU!" his voice resounded into the air, but nobody came to their rescue. All that was left was Wenchang's yells as he lifted the non-responsive Fengjiu into his arms, and all that occurred in his mind was to get her to safety.
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