Chapter 7: Chapter 7

Yingshang looked at her forlorn, for a very long time. Not a word transpired from their mouths, yet their feelings were deep for each other.

But for Qiwan, it was like a dagger was cutting right through her heart. As Yingshang let go of Qiwan, she pushed him off her and headed to the front of the boat, securing her robe hurriedly. The skies were empty and desolate. They just brought her more pain and sorrow.

She didn’t remember how the scar had come about. Maybe it was due to that mortal Fang Yiqi and maybe not. It didn’t matter now. It had been thousands of years, probably Fang Yiqi was reborn now. Even if her father was the God of Knowledge, he wouldn’t know about the whereabouts of the mortals after they entered the wheel of reincarnation. That was the department of the God of the Underworld, King Yama.

But what use was it to even know? Knowing more would just make her feel even more unclean. All the more she couldn’t be a good woman for Yingshang.

The boat docked at the harbour, coming to a standstill. She didn’t say a word further, not even saying goodbye, as she descended from the boat. Then, she began running.

Yingshang had not bothered to pursue her. The God of Mischief wore a long face. She didn’t want to think if it was because of her scar, or how she had rejected him. It didn’t matter anymore. From now on, she decided she would focus solely on cultivation alone. Affairs of the heart, especially those with the opposite sex, weren’t important to her.

Scurrying into her abode, she passed Tang Jing who possessed a quizzical look on her face. The fairy had prepared her some jasmine tea, which she used to invigorate herself. Then she began pulling out the Taoist manuals her father would read. Swordsmanship was not what she normally practised, but it was a part of it.

The Taoist fundamental theories were deep. Qiwan absorbed herself in reading each manual a few times a day, amidst how slow she was. For someone who needed just a day to achieve enlightenment, she took a few weeks.

She would get there, she promised herself. She wouldn’t be called the God of Knowledge’s daughter for nothing. Whatever the reason was, she immersed herself with the knowledge from books. To enhance her abilities further, she locked herself in her room to focus on cultivation.

Whenever Yingshang’s face came to her mind, she meditated. She closed her eyes and hummed the Taoist phrase, ‘om’. As an immortal practicing zen meditation, she could enter that state of mind for days. A day in the immortal realm was equivalent to a hundred years on Earth. Of course, there were different worlds, so each world had a different formula to it.

In this manner, three months passed. With the books in her room, she fed herself with more knowledge. She had better live up to her father’s name. Her cultivation reached a higher level, and she no longer found difficulty in answering her father’s trivia.

The name of the First ruler of the Heavens, the names of the different palaces in the Ninth Heavens, Jiulongtian, and the identities of each of the officials in the courts of heaven no longer daunted her. Even Wen Chang was pleased by the betterment asserted in his beloved daughter.

Her father’s officials saw her in a different light. She was now the admirable Wen Qiwan, leading to more suitors coming her way. She was not seen anywhere without a book in her hands, and had no idle time to speak. To appear wise, she kept communication limited to a few words. One would say, a wise man was one of not many words.

After the boat incident, Di Qing hadn’t communicated with her father, either. The question of when she was to wed him was still unclear. As much as her father liked him, it didn’t mean he needed to reciprocate her father’s feelings for him as a prospective son-in-law. In the daytime, she would enrich herself with books and at night, indulge in chess games with Tang Jing.

…………………………………………………………………

“Mortal trial?”

Qiwan furrowed her brow as she listened carefully to what the officer had to say. She only realised she was standing a little too close when the man appeared to be breathing profusely. She was wearing a red satin dress which boosted the fairness of her pearl-white skin and had let down her hair. Absolutely ravishing that even a young officer of Knowledge couldn’t stand near her without being absorbed by her unsurpassed beauty.

“Yes,” the officer said after he was a good speaking distance from her. “All immortals go through it at one point after reaching a certain stage. Even….”

He paused and eventually said, “Never mind.”

Though he did not complete his sentence, she had an idea of the name he was about to say, but held back. It was a name she did not wish to hear in years. That said, it had been six months since the boat incident, and she had transcended from an immortal of normal rank to a senior immortal now.

While she had made considerable improvements, word had it that the God of Mischief had been banished from the heavens for some time now. She didn’t know what crime he had committed, but it probably was for his own good. The Jade Emperor had wanted him to learn.

“So, what does my Honourable Father want me to do?” she inquired, raising her head courteously in an ethical manner. Her long jet-black hair, combed and unbound, cascaded down her shoulders freely like a stream of water. Her eyes sparkled as she spoke.

Min Yang, her father’s new subordinate, swallowed nervously as he tried to continue his sentence. He was just a few years younger than Di Qing, yet he had not achieved that level of cultivation to withstand being drawn by Qiwan’s beauty.

“He wants you to go with High Immortal Di Qing.”

So he was a High Immortal now, Qiwan thought silently. It was such a small wonder why he had not been visiting her father much. Her father hadn’t brought him up much in their conversations, but she knew the admiration deep down in her father’s heart would never dwindle away.

“High Immortal Di Qing needs to do his Mortal Trial,” she repeated after herself. It didn’t make much sense. If he was already a High Immortal, how could he have not had his mortal trial? But then she remembered that Di Qing wasn’t like most immortals. So even if his cultivation surpassed hers and that of many older immortals, it didn’t surprise her.

“So I am to accompany High Immortal Di Qing?’

“Yes, it is your father’s will that before you and Di Qing perform the immortal rites binding you together and making you husband and wife, you are to accompany you to the mortal realm. He wants you to see that he succeeds in his trial and for you to support him as his future wife.”

She didn’t fathom how Di Qing’s feelings for her were, since the other time that she had met ‘Di Qing’, it wasn’t him but Yingshang in disguise. Now that she would officially face Di Qing, it frightened her to the core. The fact she owned past memories with Fang Yiqi and also the problem of her unfinished business with Yingshang, she found herself confounded.

What should she do to get out of this situation? Qiwan needed to settle her issues for once and for all. Furthermore, Yingshang wasn’t in the immortal realms any longer. There had to be a way to fix this. To do this, she would travel tens of thousands of li through the Seas of Indefiniteness, to enter the Cave of the Lost Gods.

Getting to the Cave of Lost Gods was a long and hazardous journey, which she even had to keep from her father. This was her only clue to find the punished Yingshang, and she needed to do her best to close this door between them. Only then could they finally move on with their respective lives, and she would eventually serve her final destiny with Di Qing to be formally married to him.

Still, her heart ached thinking about the God of Mischief and wondering how he was.