Italic text = Personal POV
:: Qing Qiu's Fox Den ::
When Zhe Yan and Bai Zhen made it to the Fox Den, their fifth sister was nowhere to be found. Bi Fang had sent a missive to the West Sea urging them to come back right away. Bai Qian was incapacitated; as to how, they did not have any idea. The bird did not went into details, only insisted upon his fear for her chance of survival.
Both were genuinely surprised learning that news. These days not many immortals across the four seas and eight realms would dare harm the Qing Qui's Aunt. Less than a handful would have succeeded anyway, had they tried. The couple wondered what kind of situation she found herself in.
Where is that comatose lass?
The Fox Den was not that complex; there was the kitchen, the sitting room and the bedroom. She was in none of those places. They eyed at each other meaningfully then nodded in agreement. Both left for the only other place they knew to find her.
And there she was, sleeping next to her mentor again.
Zhe Yan came closer to the stone slab; he let his eyes peruse Mo Yuan's form as if wanting to check over for signs of changes.
No, not yet. It is too soon.
He can not wait to tell fifth sister what he had discovered prior his impromptu return. The fragments of spirit hidden deep inside the Crown Prince of the West Sea was undeniably Mo Yuan's; weak and incomplete as they were. Her deeply-missed mentor was finally returning.
At one point, he strongly suspected that Ye Hua might be his reincarnation. But immortals normally do not take part in the cycles of life. That idea was inconceivable at best. And yet Ye Hua's spirit showed similar traits to Mo Yuan's. That alone was nearly impossible, for Mo Yuan was Heavenly Father's only child.
The Winemaker God was more than willing to bet his entire stockpile of wine that if probe deeper Ye Hua's essence would be exactly the same as Mo Yuan's. That absurdity of the claim stopped him from announcing his discovery. Dwelling on 'how was that even possible gave him headaches. So, he cast the puzzling thought aside.
He grabbed her shoulder and shook her lightly. "Fifth sister, wake up."
The lass frowned deeply and refused to move.
"Zhe Yan, what are you doing here?" She sounded annoyed.
"Bi Feng sent for us, claiming you are almost dead. I am not going to pass up the chance to see you dying. Such a rare occurrence, so here we are." He said with certain amusement.
Bai Zhen shook his head at his other half's antics. Instead, he turned his attention on his only sister. "How did you become so injured?"
After Zhe Yan healed her injuries and forced that vile concoction he called medicine down her throat, Bai Qian spared some time to recount the exciting part of her recent escapade.
"So Ghost Lord knows Mo Yuan's body is here," mused Zhe Yan. His brow lift. "Wouldn't that be a problem?"
"He willl not breathe a word, I am quite certain."
The Goddess shook her head, quickly dismissed the notion.
"If he did, he had to go into exact details why this confrontation occurred in the first place. Li Jing is not too keen to put the Ghost Realm on a tight spot like that, especially since it was his own Queen who instigated this fight first."
Zhe Yan conceded the point and let it dropped. He had a far more pressing matter to discuss with her.
"Anyway, besides coming up here to check up on you. I have news for you as well. Your fourth brother and I have recently been to the West Sea Palace."
"West Sea Palace, you say? Is this something to do with my first senior?" She glanced over at her elder brother. He and her eldest senior, Die Feng, had been drinking buddies for thousands of years.
"The Crown Prince of West Sea has been sick and bedridden for many centuries now. There is nothing wrong him physically but his condition keeps deteriorating. The King is quite desperate which is quite understandable; nobody has managed to cure him. Hundreds of healers had already tried and failed."
Seeing her disinterest, Zhe Yan hid his smirk then continued.
"Your brother coaxed me there to see what is wrong with the Prince. It is a good thing he did. You should thank him later."
Up to this point, Bai Qian only lend an ear, half-heartedly listening to his tale. Her eldest senior seemed fine after all. She blinked once in a while, so not to appear too rude. The Phoenix certainly could drone on and on about most ridiculous accounts when he wished too.
"Did you know what I find out? It has something to do with a certain God sleeping away blissfully over here."
Or not.
Her head snapped up almost too painfully to watch. The Goddess tugged his hand with great urgency. "What about my mentor? Zhe Yan, tell me this instant."
Zhe Yan almost laughed at her predictable manner.
"Easy, fifth sister." He paused, purely for theatrical effect, then announced. "Mo Yuan is coming back soon."
She dropped his arm unceremoniously; her eyes bulging with surprise. "What?"
"Zhe Yan, that is cruel. How could you joke about this." She protested after a short silence. "Three hundred years ago you insisted that my mentor might be waking up. He never did. I ended up rejoicing over nothing."
"I am speaking the truth, fifth sister." Zhe Yan glared at her mildly. How could she ever doubted his competence? "Believe me. He is really coming back this time."
Bai Qian slumped back in her seating, dazed and confused. Strangely, Zhe Yan's voice seemed to come from a place so far way.
"In the beginning, I thought that Die Yong's celestial aura was quite unusual. So I used my powers to investigate a bit. That was when I realized there are two spirits within him. He is the one who is awake, but the one that is asleep.. The other spirit is that of your mentor, Mo Yuan."
"How would you know?" She hesitated still not fully convinced.
"You learn that magic from me at a young age." His tone implied how utterly non-sense her question was.
"Someone else is asleep in the Prince's body. I followed the traces and found fragments of broken spirit within him. Who else in all the realms could patch up pieces of spirit with just a bit of magic? Only Mo Yuan could do so," he concluded.
The Goddess pondered on what he said and grudgingly accepted his reasoning. No one knew her mentor better than Zhe Yan. He was raised by the Heavenly Father and grew up together with Mo Yuan anyway. If there was one person who was able to recognize his celestial aura, it would be Zhe Yan.
"I was truly impressed when I saw him last night, you know. It took him seventy thousand years to recover to this state. His powers are still scattered though. He is in needs of someone else's immortal powers to sustain his spirit. Mo Yuan is now sleeping in the Prince's body to recuperate," Zhe Yan said cheerfully. He sorely missed his brother all these years.
"How does that Prince coping with my mentor in his body?" she wondered aloud.
"Die Yong is just about mediocre," Zhe Yan did not hide his grimace. "Mo Yuan needs someone stronger, with greater cultivation to spare."
"The Prince's immortal powers are used to nurse himself and also Mo Yuan. As days gone by his body weakens. It will probably take another seven thousand years for him to wake up, if not longer." He sounded a little disappointed.
"Another seven thousand years. That long?" The Goddess lamented. Had she not wait for him for so long already? She could almost see him open his eyes right now and call her 'little seventeenth' again.
"Let us go now, Zhe Yan." She shot up quickly from her seating, impatient to see with her own eyes whether it was really him.
"Slow down, fifth sister. What about Ye Hua?" asked her brother. "Is he not living with you here?"
She waved off his worry right away. "He is attending the Peach Blossom Gathering in the Ninth Heaven with Ali. I will just leave a message with Mi Gu that something urgent came up."
"Since this could take a while, he could go back to Xi Wu Palace and not loitering around here," she said almost dismissively; a little guilty for not telling him herself.
She was really appreciate for all that he had done for her. She doubted someone else in an arranged marriage would treat her as nice as he did. But right at this very moment, her mentor recovery came first.
Zhe Yan and Bai Zhen looked at each other with uncertainty and mixed feelings. Both thought she and the Crown Prince were getting along quite well and perhaps their marriage will soon follow. Their sister life had been put on hold since seventy thousand years ago. Only lately she began to go out again. And now Mo Yuan was returning. The wheel of destiny seemed to set in motion again, who knew where it might lead.
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