The Chef's Immortal

Chapter Fifteen

The morgue was cold and sterile, with a lot of dead mortals.  Zhurong didn't like it one bit.  But, his senior brother told him to wait, so he waited.  The mortal girl, Lanying, lay on a gurney to his right.  She was petite and pale, lying there with no heartbeat, no breath, and a small hole in her chest.  Zhurong could see a modest glow beginning to emanate from her skin, which meant the Immortal Peach was about to take effect.  Where was his senior brother?  They needed to go.

Wudi didn't explain his reason for leaving to Zhurong, just said he needed a minute and, POOF, he was gone.  So, what now?  The girl was completely nude with nothing but a sheet covering her, so he really didn't want to pick her up.  And his senior brother definitely wouldn't approve either.  Should he leave her there to go and find Wudi?  No, nope, can't do that, he promised to watch over her, so leaving was out of the question.  The air rippled beside Zhurong and there stood his senior brother, the god of war, Wudi.

"Man I'm glad you're back, I thought we may have to leave without you.  The Immortal Peach is beginning to take effect.  We have to go." Zhurong rushed.

"Right, okay."  The god of war scooped his wife up into his arms and nodded his head, "Let's go."

"Wait!  Wait, senior brother.  We can't just walk through the front gate of the Heavenly Realm with a dead mortal."

Wudi stopped, "Then what do you suggest we do?"

"You're really bad at this sneaking around thing.  Lucky for you there's me and Supreme Deity.  Teacher gave me a portal key, we'll go in through the back door of Teacher's Palace Hall.  Badass, right?"

"You've had this the whole time?" Wudi had a thought but ignored it.

"Yep, Supreme Deity gave it to me before I left."  Zhurong waved his hand and revealed a four-inch silver key with a large, thick sapphire heart on the end.  It was exquisite.

"Just do the damn thing already," Wudi snapped.

Zhurong poured his godlight into the sapphire and the room in front of them began to warp.  The wall of the morgue looked like a large liquid silver pool. It was churning for a few seconds, then it began to smooth out.  It was as though a flexible shiny silver plate was placed against the morgue wall.  Zhurong and Wudi walked into the portal.  Ripples of liquid silver lined their bodies rolling off in beads, they walked slowly through.  It was as if they were being sucked into quicksand.  It took only a few seconds to traverse the portal and Wudi was standing in front of Supreme Deity.  He dropped to his knees with Lanying still in his embrace.  His Teacher waved him off, almost as if he were unimportant, and checked on Lanying.  He studied her condition carefully and wrinkled his brow.

"Hand her over son," Supreme Deity demanded in his deep voice.

Wudi shook his head, fearful. "No."

"If you want her to live, you'll hand her over.  That bullet has to be removed before she can enter the Immortal Washing Pool, Wudi."

"Oh!  But, Teacher, why aren't you angry?" Wudi asks suspiciously.

"Because, son, this had to happen.  She's destined to be the goddess of war.  What, did you think the Council was just being cruel?  They were following orders.  They don't know why old Tiandi asked them to be hard on the poor girl, but he did.  She must go through many trials before she can become goddess of war.  This is just the beginning."

Wudi handed his wife to his teacher in total shock.  "Who knows about her?"  Wudi was more afraid now than he'd ever been.  He knew how hard it was to become god of war.