Feng Jiu felt that life in the Temple of Destiny was a very peculiar experience. Her Master had a unique perception of reality that impacted everything in their everyday life.
The biggest example of this was the stairs leading up to the temple. The less ready a person felt for marriage, the more steps they had to take to reach the entrance.
It took Jiu five days to reach her new home. The first time she had considered giving up was at the end of the first day. She was tired, thirsty, hungry and miserable. Turning back was so very tempting. But it was not an option for the little fox princess. Feng Jiu thought about her parents, grandparents, uncles, aunty and the people in Qing Qiu - they all believed in her. They all wished for her happiness and success. Bai Feng Jiu, the princess of the Fox Clan would not let her loved ones down. So she took a nap to regain her energy, drank the moisture gathered from clouds and carried on.
"You must really hate the idea of you getting married.''
Jiu was greeted by a red-haired High Goddess wearing a teasing smile.
"You do know I am only 7,000 years old?" little Jiu was being cheeky.
"There is a saying in the mortal world that for love, age is but a number" Nu Wa dismissed the argument as if Feng Jiu was the one being silly.
"Come, we have much to do. The third son of the Southern Sea is getting married to the youngest princess from the Eastern Bird Clan."
And that's how thousands of years of Bai Feng Jiu's life passed. Between cultivating immortal essence, learning about weaponry, swordsmanship, history, and laws of the universe, Jiu had to help to plan and attend countless immortal weddings.
The one marriage in particular that always stood out in her mind was the union between Snake Clan's oldest son, Wu Lang, and Rabbit Clan's youngest daughter, Ai Mi.
The match was not auspicious according to the matchmaker. The clans have been at each other's throats for the last 50,000. They even looked very awkward next to each other with Wu Lang being very tall and lanky and Ai Mi not even reaching his armpit.
However, none of these things mattered to the couple. When they looked at each other they saw something that no one else did. They often shared soft smiles and internal jokes and when their eyes met, the world around them just seemed to melt away. When Nu Wa asked, "So how did you find the stairs?"
"What stairs?" replied genuinely confused Ai Mi.
It was a couple that really opened Bai Feng Jiu's heart to the possibility of love in her own future. From then on it took the fox princess three and a half days to reach the Temple of Destiny. Her Master considered it to be excellent training for endurance and cultivation.
(*^_^*)
During Feng Jiu's time with High Goddess Nu Wa, she discovered a very unusual gift for fortune-telling. It first happened during the wedding of a notably frail-looking daughter from White Tiger Clan to a somewhat corpulent son of the White Demon Lord.
When the youngest Fox Clan's princess looked at the groom, she could clearly see five other women around him.
"He's going to get five concubines right after this marriage. Number three will be great friends with the bride and number four will give birth to the eldest son, " the princess blurted without thinking.
At first, the other guest dismissed Feng Jiu's prediction as a fancy coming from young and immature immortal however not only five years later the fifth concubine of the groom gave birth to a boy and the third concubine became the bride's sworn sister.
The gossip in the Nine Heavens spreads with fantastic speed. Soon all eligible young ladies and their mothers knew that apprentice of the High Goddess Nu Wa could see the future of grooms concubines.
Her schedule became especially packed as most brides-to-be asked little Jiu to discreetly check out their grooms and give them what was now known as 'The Concubine Report'.
Of course, it was not a free service. Feng Jiu often exchanged her talent for future favors, tutoring in arts and skills she was interested in or fascinating goods from the human world. This was how Bai Qian always had the newest plays from the human world without having to ever leave Qing Qiu. Jiu was a firm believer in buttering up her relatives, as you never know when one might need some good will from a family member.
The rumors about 'The Concubine Report' and Nu Wa's apprentice even reached Star Lord Si Ming who happily shared this amusing bit of gossip with Dong Hua Dijun of Tai Chen Palace, the former Emperor of Heaven, the man who united the world.
"Is this your way of telling me that you really want to get such a report done for yourself?" Dijun said to Si Ming, with a slightly amused glint in his eyes and the most bored facial expression. "I really do not mind. Your future felicity is a very important matter."
Si Ming just sighed at his Lord's acerbic wit and decided to investigate the matter on his own.
(*^_^*)
When Si Ming entered the Temple of Destiny Nu Wa eyed him crossly.
"You know that you are almost late, Si Ming."
"My apologies Goddess, I made no arrangements with you regarding my visit today," he was slightly confused.
High Goddess looked at Star-Lord as if he was daft.
"You were expected in any case. Meet Bai Feng Jiu, the granddaughter of Fox King and Princess of Qing Qiu, " Nu Wa pointed to Jiu who was engrossed in a novel from the mortal world.
The little Fox Princes quickly got up, hid the novel behind her back up and addresses their guest:
"Bai Feng Jiu greets Star Lord Si Ming."
"Oh, you two don't need to be so formal with each other, after all, you will soon become great friends," Nu Wa stated with immense confidence. Neither Si Ming nor Feng Jiu was in a mood to oppose her.
After they all sat down for tea and sweet treats, made by Jiu, of course, the High Goddess addressed a topic she was eager to discuss:
"Jiu Jiu has been with me now for more than 20,000 years. We have only another 7,000 years left together according to my agreement with the Fox Clan. Little Jiu will soon be facing her first life as a mortal. "
Bai Feng Jiu and Si Ming were both startled to hear this. After all, Jiu was only 27,000 years old. Only half-way to an age where immortals started to even consider marriage.
"It's really quite simple, Feng Jiu has an ominous destiny. To help her survive to adulthood and overcome her bad faith, she will need skills, cultivation, and strength of character. Her Clan and I will teach her all we can, even if she is a disinterested student in most disciplines. However, living through human lives will greatly help her with cultivation and character building.''
As Nu Wa was explaining all this, Si Ming was watching the little Fox Princess become sadder and somehow smaller. It seems like it was the first time she heard about her own bad faith.
"In the next 7,000 years, you will have to live through seven hundred human lives. Once every one hundred years, you will visit Si Ming in the Nine Heavens. He will write you up a nice human life, full of suffering, loneliness and general bitterness of human existence."
Star-Lord was becoming very worried upon hearing this. Even a single life in the human realm was considered a harsh punishment meant for great offenses. To send such a cute little girl to live through human sufferings for seven hundred lifetimes seemed monstrous. While it would only be around two months every hundred years, the toll it would take on the Princess was terrifying to imagine.
"It is the only way,'' stated Nu Wa calmy to Feng Jiu. "If you want to live, you must suffer through challenges. That is your fate. The only way to make it less for you in the future is to take on as much as you can now."
Now everything was becoming clearer to Si Ming. While cultivation and character building were admirable things to do, even Heavenly Emperor did not put his grandson, Crown Prince Ye Hua, though such crazy schemes. The only reason Nine-Tailed White Fox Clan would agree to this was to save a life of one of their own.
When Si Ming was leaving the Temple of Destiny, Nu Wa left him with a set of instructions:
"Feng Jiu will come to you as a fox for a year every hundred years. She will not be allowed to take human form, as I don't want the news about her condition to spread. Please prepare for her first visit in three years. I trust that will be enough time?"
Star-Lord nodded in agreement.
"There is only one strict rule you must keep regarding her human lives - absolutely no love or anything resembling it is allowed. If she takes a step in that direction, she may never make it back.''
When Star-Lord later returned to Tai Chen Palace and Dijun questioned him with the most attentive expression about how many concubines will he have in the future. Si Ming ignored his Lord's teasing and just looked sad.
He kept thinking about the meaning behind Nu Wa's words: "If she takes a step in that direction, she may never make it back. "