When they arrived at the foot of Kunlun Mountain, a collective of immortals gathered there looking toward the Mountain's top in awe. Mo Yuan signaled to the rest to pull away silently, not to disturb the crowd from their fun. Bai Qian teased her mentor that Kunlun Mountain was so popular right now. In the past, they always kept such a low profile.
Zhe Yan commented that Kunlun Mountain was formed by a protruding dragon's bone. Somehow it had detected that Mo Yuan was returning and welcomed him back with the divine energy.
Using the invisible spell, they went up the mountain without running into anyone. There, in front of the Grand hall, lines of disciples was waiting for them. All of them said at once when Mo Yuan appeared. "Greetings to Master!" Then one by one they knelt down in front of their mentor. It was Die Feng who first spoke.
"Zi Lan sent us news a few days ago that the divine energy in Kunlun Mountain rose greatly and the bell rang on for a long time. Although we didn't know what that meant, all the disciples rushed back here overnight. We didn't know when Master would return to Kunlun Mountain but we all knew that you would."
"Yet here in the Grand Hall we could sense your celestial aura lingering outside. We hurried over here, but still we didn't arrive in time to welcome you at the entrance of the mountain."
"Master, you've been away for seventy thousand years. You've finally returned." Zi Lan eyes were red like he wanted to cry. All of them did.
"I've kept all of you waiting." Mo Yuan looked upon his disciples, pleased. "Get up now. Get up."
When they began to move inside Mo Yuan glanced back at Bai Qian who stayed behind. She nodded imperceptibly and followed him inside. She placed herself at the back of the hall, a little apart from other disciples.
When Mo Yuan was seated properly, Zi Lan who sat in the front turned back to look at her.
"Si Yin, Master is back here. Why must you dressed as a woman again? Or you have been in female clothes for so long that you like them too much to change back?" he quipped at her. Her other seniors laughed earnestly at that.
"Senior Zi Lan, do you really think my face is but a disguise of a man?" She looked around as if to ask the rest of them the same question.
"Is this why you never had a bath with us?" asked her tenth senior. "You're actually a girl?"
"I was worried that you wouldn't confess to it," Die Feng smiled teasingly. "When you arrived dressed as a woman, I knew what you planned to do. I just didn't dare to say it."
"Senior, you already knew but you stood watching us like some show?" Zi Lan cried outrageously.
"I wouldn't dare treat it as some show." Die Feng waved his hand, dismissing the outcry. "Now that Seventeenth is High Goddess Bai Qian of Qing Qiu. Deities in all realms have to address her as Aunt. Even I'd have to greet her formally according to our ranks. Therefore, Sixteenth, how would I dare speak for Seventeenth before she does?"
Zi Lan's mouth gaped before he composed himself in front of such high ranking deity. He said no more after that.
Bai Qian immediately corrected him, "As long as Master is around I'll always be Kunlun Mountain's Si Yin, and my seniors' little Seventeenth."
At that her seniors surrounded her, clamoring," Little Seventeenth! Little Seventeenth, come here!"
One said, "You're so pretty!"
Another blurted in agreement. "Exactly! Seventeenth, I didn't even realize that you're a girl all these years!"
"That's right" they chorused and they really meant it. "We couldn't tell! We didn't know!"
Mo Yuan silently watched his disciples in amusement, he had missed their antics. He smiled fondly when his Seventeenth cried out, "I miss you all so much!" It was just like the old days.
Later that night when everyone retired to their room, Zhe Yan dropped by Mo Yuan's room. "I've brought Peach Blossom wine with me. Care for a drink?"
"Sure."
"You answered so quickly?" Zhe Yan was surprised. "In the past, you wouldn't drink so easily."
"I have much to ask you. Wouldn't it seem lonely to do so without wine?"
After sipping some wine, he turned to Zhe Yan, "Why would Seventeenth take my body back to Qing Qiu then?"
"I knew you were going to ask about that, Mo Yuan." Zhe Yan said.
"After your soul and spirit were vanquished Seventeenth sat on Ruoshui Riverbank holding tightly to your body. She allowed no one near her. It was as if she had gone mad. She wanted to wipe out the Ghost Clan. Zhen Zhen had to knock her out and took both of you back here. Later the Sky King sent his emissaries to take your body away for a proper burial in the Sea of Innocence. Fifth sister however blew all of them away with Jade Purity fan of Kunlun. After that she drugged all of her seniors and stole your body away."
He took another drink before continued. "The lass was really stubborn but you already knew that. She can't accept that you were really dead. She wanted to keep you close so she placed your body in Yanhua Cave. Then she got her hand on the Soul Jade. It had kept you save ever since until you were ready to wake up."
Mo Yuan found the story a little odd but didn't comment on it. "Is that all?"
"I think you've exerted yourself enough for today," Zhe Yan got up.
"Get some rest, Mo Yuan, there's always tomorrow. You can grill me to your heart's content then."
Since their mentor was still in meditation retreat, the following day all sixteen disciples spread out all over the mountain in an attempt to restore the sanctuary back to its glory days. It had been abandoned for many years and there was plenty of works to be done.
By nightfall Bai Qian brought Zhe Yan's medicine to her mentor's room. "Master, your medicine is here. I'll bring it inside," she called out. She came into the room and found her mentor sat cross-legged on the cushion, eyes alerted.
"Master, I brought you the medicine Zhe Yan made. Are you feeling any better?" she asked, placing the tray on the table. "You've been meditating since last night."
"Better," he replied and walked up to her.
"This time Master has to recuperate properly" she insisted. "I'll not allow anything to jeopardize your recovery again."
"Don't worry, I'll be fine. You don't have to turn yourself into stew yet," he said amused.
She was pleasantly surprised. "Master still remembered that?"
"How could I not, you knelt in front of the cave and cried for days."
"I was frightened and worried," she frowned at the memories, her head bowed down in shame. "You did so much for me and I had been the worst disciple ever. Not even worthy of Master's kindness."
"Never say it like that," he pat her head gently. "What is there to disappoint? You have already surpassed my expectation. And my decision to save you, I've never regretted."
Deeply touched by his sincerity, she bit her lower lip to hold back tears. "I've never apologized to Master properly. Back then I sneaked away the Mountain with ninth senior to see my niece's birth, I never thought my carelessness would turned out so poorly. Master fought Qing Cang and became injured because of my own stupidity. Then you suffered even more from those three Heavenly blazes for me."
Tears of regret slowly slide down her cheek unbidden. "Were you not so injured and had enough time to recuperate, you hadn't had to sacrifice you soul that day. This has been my biggest regret for this past seventy thousand years."
Mo Yuan moved closer and gently used his finger to wipe away the tears. "But that was all in the past, I'm here now. Don't cry anymore, Seventeenth."
She pressed her face into his chest, relishing in its warmth and vitality, so different from all those time he laid in Yanhua Cave. "I can't never forget," she said, the tears kept flowing.
As long as she lived, she would never forget that day. Seventy thousand years had passed, it seemed like it was only yesterday. She remembered vividly how gush of blood spewed out of his mouth, how his face slowly turned colorless and how his body lost its warmth little by little in her arms. Unconsciously she put her hand over her heart where the scar of old stab wound laid. Back then she was so desperate not to lose him, the thought of him withered and turned into ashes was too unbearable. The agony of his death never truly left her no matter how much time had passed.
Mo Yuan wrapped her small body in his arms and let her cried her heart out. He smoothed her hair gently and waited for her tears to subside. Lost in his own thought, he didn't know how much time passed. He glanced down at his little apprentice, feeling her entire body had gone relaxed. He can't help but chuckled, his Seventeenth had cried herself to sleep.
Later he carried her back to her room and tucked her into bed. He stayed there and watched her sleep for a long time before went back to his room.
When Zhe Yan dropped by his room before retiring for the night, Mo Yuan waited until he was done fussing over his recovery.
"Zhe Yan, yesterday you said Seventeenth brought me to Yanhua Cave to keep me close."
"That's true," he nodded.
"If she had the soul jade, why moved to Qing Qiu at all? She could just rest my body here and stay with me, no one will stop her anyway," Mo Yuan slanted his eyes at him.
"I told you the lass was too stubborn." He looked abashed.
"Zhe Yan, don't you think I deserved to know the truth?"
"Think carefully if you truly wish to know, Mo Yuan," he gave him a warming. "By the time I finish answering your questions, I'm afraid that you won't know if you only see Bai Qian as a disciple or more of a woman."
He paused to think then gave him a faint smile, "Do tell, I wish to know."
Zhe Yan sighed resigning himself to tell the story. "I told you she used the soul jade to save you, that was true, but only after your spirit had returned."
"Back then the Ghost Lord had denied to lend her the soul jade, she had used her own heartblood as a tailed-tailed fox, to feed you. Mo Yuan, here," he placed the hand on his own heart, "she plunged the knife deep into her heart, let the blood dripped drop by drop into the bowl. She fed it to you every day, for thirty days, without rest. Her body had already sustained injuries from the battle. After the seventh day, the blood loss was too much for her."
"Hadn't her seniors came to look for her at the Peachtree woods, we wouldn't even knew what she had done. By the time we found her, her life was already hanging by a thread. If not for Bai Zhi who went to Ying Zhou of the East to retrieve the divine fungal grass and her mother who transferred fifty thousand years of her self-cultivation into her, fifth sister would have followed you in death. I almost thought that was really her wish at the time."
His eyes grew weak with sorrow as Zhe Yan continued to recount stories of the past. He agonized over the thought of her hurting herself again and again to save him. He never wanted her to suffer for him.
"Then for next seventy thousand years she kept feeding you the heartblood, never once she stepped outside of Qing Qiu fearing something would happened to you. It would be all right, if she knew you'll wake up one day. But she did that just to save your soulless body."
"Are there any long lasting side-effect of giving the heartblood away?" he asked.
"Not that I'm aware. Why?" Zhe Yan asked.
"Nothing, I'm just curious."
Zhe Yan looked thoughtful. "No one would know anyway, since the beginning of time never before the heartblood was used in this way and for such an extended time."
He went silent then another thought came into his mind. "What happened to her eyes? They looked damaged somehow."
"So you've noticed." Zhe Yan sighed tiredly. So many questions. "I believed they were cut off."
"What did you say?" Mo Yuan asked sharply. "Who did it?" His little Seventeenth had been bullied?
"I wouldn't know, I've asked her many times but she refused to tell me. And that was before she begged me for the Amnesia Potion," Zhe Yan said.
"Amnesia Potion?" he repeated. Seventeenth wanted to forget something desperately? That didn't sound like her at all. Something afoul must have occurred.
"You didn't know, six hundred years ago, she went to seal Qing Cang back inside the Bell of Eastern Emperor. Then she disappeared for three hundred years. Her parent, her brothers and I had searched for her across the four seas and eight realms but never found her. Then three hundred years ago, she suddenly turned up in my Peachtree Woods. She was badly wounded, small wounds littered all over her body and her eyes were gone.""
Mo Yuan's hand that held the teacup trembled almost unnoticeably. "What then?" He asked, his voice hoarse with emotion.
"At the time I looked into her essence, it was different. She had already ascended to the rank of a High Goddess. So those years she were missing, she must have been through her Heavenly trial. I asked her as much, but she refused to elaborate. She said it was just a love trial, nothing worth mentioning."
"But I had seen her tormented eyes and haunted demeanor, so I didn't refuse when she begged me for the potion. If she want to forget all that had happened, then let her. It might be better that way. After that we simply told her she had slept through the years, trying to recuperate after her fatal fight with Qing Cang. That her eyes condition was an illness she had since birth, it just acted up when she was badly injured."
That night, for once, Mo Yuan had to force himself to retreat and meditate. The thought of Seventeenth suffering so much in his absence had pained him. He promised himself one day he would find out the truth and right the wrong done against her.
He also thought of Zhe Yan needlessly concern about his perception of Seventeenth. He had already come to term with his feeling for her a long time ago, but chose not to act upon it until it was too late. He thought he had time, he could wait for her until she became a bit more mature.
But fate was cruel and unyielding. As he was about to die, he couldn't let the thought of her go. So he selfishly asked her to wait for him. Then he had miscalculated, instead of thirty thousand years, it took him twice as much to come back. Seventeenth ended up wasting half of her life waiting for him.
SkylerKnight : Hope you like the new update. :)
loreinacadis0412: Cheers to all Shifu's fans.
There'll be more interaction between those disciples later. There is a saying regarding Shifu: "Sleep too early and wake up too late." I can't help but agreed. Had Shifu had enough time or be more direct with her, I doubt she'd choose Ye Hua. 70,000 years of dedication is not something trivial, nor 20,000 years of living together. She's just too passive & too slow to know her own heart. As for little riceball, fox's way to raise children is just so bizarre, I doubt being a nephew or a son would make so much different. lol
Thanks for sharing your opinion with me, love it. :)