Excerpt from the Pillow Book:
In ancient times, there was one particularly important subject at the Shuizhaoze Academy that was opened by the Father God for the various clans to study at, and that was to gain experience in the mortal realm. There are billions of worlds in the Trichiliocosm. Staying one year in each world would take at least one billion years. Fortunately, the Father God was kind enough to only randomly select 100,000 mortal worlds for his students to gain experience from.
As legend had it, the outstanding students who had the opportunity to experience the world included the future master of the universe, Donghua Dijun, the Heaven Clan's god of war, High Deity Moyuan, the Demon Clan's ancestor goddess, Queen Regnant Shaowan, the world's first phoenix, High Deity Zheyan, as well as Fengjiu's paternal grandparents.
It could be seen that all of these students who had gone to the mortal worlds to gain experience had become successful, and greatly successful at that.
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In a period of ten years, Fengjiu had travelled across three mortal worlds, running a restaurant in the first, becoming a landlady of a vast farming area in the second, and serving in a historical medium in the last. Following this, she would travel to a different mortal world every fifteen years, efficiently using makeup to conceal her phoenix birthmark and faking a wrinkled appearance to imitate the mortal process of aging. In this way, she was able to live in different worlds for fifteen years each without triggering any suspicion from the mortals. Immortal magic was prone to backfiring in the mortal realm and which had been seen with her experience in Donghua's mortal trial in the past, had adverse effects when used in the mortal realm. Thus, she restricted her usage of immortal magic in the mortal realm. Also, the mortal realm had some strange, anti-magic zones which magic spells wouldn't work in. Fortunately she was an excellent swordswoman and was also extremely skilled in archery, as her arrows had never missed a single target.
Fengjiu would disguise as a commoner to learn the ways of the mortals. She noticed how mortals were susceptible to jealousy and evil thoughts, and many had been led astray by lust and greed. She had seen how mortals had been desirous to many things such as money, strength, power and lust for the opposite sex. Occasionally, she would also dress in man's clothing to protect herself from mortal men and observe how they reacted and acted in different scenarios. She learned about the four stages of sufferings, birth, aging, sickness and death, and how mortals suffered very differently from immortals. Immortals did not age, and would not die for a very long time. Some immortals like Zhe Yan and Mo Yuan, had existed since the creation of the world.
When she finally felt frustrated that she had seen enough of that mortal world she was in, Fengjiu decided to spend an additional year there before moving to the next world, making it her sixteenth year in that world. She firmly decided that no longer enjoyed the glamour of living among mortals there. In an attempt to isolate herself from the mortals and to live an even simpler life, she moved to the woods. There, she survived solely on her hunting skills and from wild produce, mainly fruits and vegetables, which she harvested with her own hands. Eventually she found that she had missed her life at Qingqiu greatly, so she moved again to settle down in a cave in a secluded spot in the mountains, where she would be able to enjoy a scenery like that of Qingqiu.
She was adamant that due to her excellent survival skills, she would not have to fear the wild beasts that roamed the mountains. At the same time she was mindful of the reality that there were only a few beasts living in the area, that possessed enough strength and cultivation to actually harm her. Furthermore, if she was that weak, she wouldn't have passed the difficult Bingcang ceremony that allowed her to become queen of Qingqiu. She knew her own strengths and weaknesses, and it would have taken more than just a few beasts to take her down.
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Meanwhile in the Sky Kingdom, Seventy-Three has manned the library of the Heaven Registry for thirty-thousand years. The library was divided into six branches, with one for each star god. Like before in the Kunlun Mountains, Seventy-Three again made short work of all the books in the library, digesting each word in the books and remembering them so clearly that he had been able to recite the books from his mind, even in a random sequence. The only books he had not exactly seen or remembered had been the records and books of mortal fates, that were inaccessible to the public, and in the custody of Siming.
One day, Siming asked Seventy-Three for his assistance to rearrange the books of destiny in his office. While he was arranging the books, Seventy-Three realised that there had been a game board made of fine jade and stone in the end of the room. Every square on the board had been beautifully engraved. What had caught his attention was the black and white stones lying on the board, appearing to be part of an unfinished game. Assuming that the person who had been playing 'go' earlier had been unable to complete the game, he used his wits to continue the game, pretending that he was playing with an imaginary opponent. Given his prior experience of training and playing 'go' with Zhe Yan and Mo Yuan, he was able to complete the game in just a few moves.
Surprisingly, the moment he replaced the final stone, it followed with echoes of loud rolling noises in the room. A previously covered section of the room in the east had opened up and revealed a passage into another room. Without considering further, the young and curious Seventy-Three entered the room. The passageway had been narrow, with gold-lined walls adorned with jade and stone of different colours and designs. The passage lead to another room and a delighted Seventy-Three cried out in his joy of finding another library.
The bookshelves in the inner library had been made of gold, and contained many ancient-looking books. However, a few vacant bookshelves remained. Amazed with the books before him, he unrolled a scroll and read about the records of the Nuwa goddess' life in the past. The next scroll that followed was one depicting how the Father God had created the Four Seas and Eight Deserts.
Suddenly, he heard someone shout, "Outrageous!". It turned out to be the voice of the Sky Emperor, who had transported himself into the secret library to read from the archives of the Donghua Emperor on the first mortal emperor, A'bu'tu.
In a flash, the Sky Emperor had transported Seventy-Three, who was dressed in a white-robe disciple's uniform, into the Grand Hall of the Nine Heavens. This time, the young immortal was mature enough to know the seriousness of the matter, and how he should kneel before the Sky Emperor. He quickly fell on his knees.
The Sky Emperor solemnly asked from the platform above, "Why were you in the secret library? Do you know that it is out of bounds to young immortals like you?"
Seventy-Three paused for a few long seconds before bowing with clasped hands and explaining with palace etiquette,"Your Highness, your humble servant Xiaoxian didn't mean for this to happen. Xiaoxian was arranging books when he unintentionally opened a secret entrance. Xiaoxian didn't know it would lead to a library, and when he saw the books he couldn't get his eyes off them. Xiaoxian didn't know the library was restricted from entry, and he didn't know that disciples couldn't read the books in the library, because Xiaoxian has never knew of the library's existence. Please be lenient with Xiaoxian in view that Xiaoxian didn't know what he did wrong."
Hao De fumed, but after hearing Seventy-Three's little and careful speech, he had to admit that this young immortal was in fact, very good with words. If he had been lying, he did it very well indeed. But Hao De chose to believe him instead, probably due to his resemblance to the vanished Donghua Dijun. He dismissed his explanation and declared to him what he had done wrong. Siming was also called in to place upon him a fate in the mortal realm. Seventy-Three was sentenced to twenty-three years in the mortal realm.
The truth had been that only a few people were allowed to enter the secret library, Siming being one of them. It had been the place of Donghua's archives, and Siming usually used it to research on whether there had been information on a certain topic in the archives. As a rule, books inside were not allowed to be brought within the four corners of the room, and could only be read within range of the bookshelves, and thus bringing out a book or scroll out from the library was a punishable offence. Because Siming had once brought a book out from the library and allowed Fengjiu to read it, he had been lightly punished by Donghua.
Upon receiving his punishment, Seventy-Three's last words was "Your Majesty, Xiaoxian wholeheartedly accepts what I did wrong and its consequences, but also believed that there is no wealth like knowledge, and no poverty like ignorance. "
Everyone present was shocked beyond description by the young immortal's sharp tongue, with the exception of Hao De who leaned forward in his seat to give Seventy-Three a closer look. It appeared that his anger earlier had dissipated and he was now amazed with Seventy-Three. "What is your name, young one?"
"Xiaoxian is called Seventy-Three after being accepted as the seventy-third apprentice of the God of War in the Kunlun Mountains."
Hao De recalled how the incident over fifty thousand years ago, where he had agreed with Zhe Yan to exonerate a child from punishment and send him to Mo Yuan to be trained. And yet, today, the child, now a grown immortal, was standing before him. Curiously he asked, "Do you remember anything from your past now?"
The bystanders with the exception of Siming were puzzled by Hao De's sudden question. Seventy-Three replied with a sad face that he remembered nothing.
Hao De was still unsure whether this immortal was Donghua, and deep inside his mind, he wanted to believe that he was, but yet questioned himself on the possibility of that being true since even now, Seventy-Three still had no memories of his past. With his powers, he could try to see right through the young immortal to know that he had not been lying, but he still chose to believe that Seventy-Three was telling the truth. Hao De started to place hope for the boy in his mind that he would be the one to inherit Donghua's position as the future master of Taichen Palace and the Emperor Lord of the future. In years to come, Hao De would eventually go on to realise that he had yet to be impressed by any immortal like Seventy-Three.
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