Ten Miles Of Peach Blossoms

Chapter 1

The oldest daughter from the Ruo River immortal family married into the Eastern Sea family, and within three years she had borne the Eastern Sea Emperor a child, his first son and heir. Both families were extremely happy.

The Eastern Sea Emperor was so proud of this son that he invited everyone between the sky and earth—even me, Bai Qian of Qingqiu—for a banquet to celebrate the boy's first month of life.

Father and Mother had been out of Qingqiu for hundreds of years now, wandering far and wide. And my brothers—Big Brother, Second Brother, and Third Brother—had settled down one after another to start their own families in each of their portioned-off sections of the kingdom. Fourth Brother was off in the Eastern Mountain, looking for his bird steed, Bi Fang, who had flown off. That left me alone in the foxhole, mistress of the house.

I took the invitation over to the curtain of water outside the cave and held it up to the light. I remember hearing that my birth had been difficult for Mother, and the great-grandfather of this Eastern Sea Emperor had sent their family's midwife along to help ease her suffering. I decided it was time to repay this favor. I picked out a night pearl and prepared to travel to the Eastern Sea. The night pearl, with its warm green glow, was the size of a pumpkin. It would be my gift to the Eastern Sea Emperor.

My sense of direction was terrible, so before setting off, I went next door to Mystic Gorge's place to ask for a twig from the Mystic Gorge tree.

The Mystic Gorge tree had black-grained wood and lustrous multicolored flowers that could be used to light the way at night. As long as I had a twig from the Mystic Gorge tree on me, I would not lose my way. In the early days of the huge mists, Old Mystic Gorge actually used to be a Mystic Gorge tree growing on Zhaoyao Mountain in the Southern Desert.

While Mother was pregnant with Fourth Brother, she and Father had an argument. She ran from the house and got lost, ending up on Zhaoyao Mountain. Father eventually found her, but he was so worried about her getting lost again that he dug up the only Mystic Gorge tree on Zhaoyao Mountain and carried it back to Qingqiu, where he planted it on our doorstep.

Qingqiu is an immortal paradise, and after three thousand years of bathing in the sun and the moon and swirling in the energy of the seasons, this Mystic Gorge tree had cultivated enough spiritual energy to transform into human form. Another three thousand years passed, and he became an earth god.

Father gave Mystic Gorge a couple of bundles of bamboo as a celebratory gift, which Mystic Gorge used, along with some thatching, to build himself a three-room hut next door to the foxhole, thus becoming our closest neighbor.

Mystic Gorge handed me my twig with a despondent look on his face, though I couldn't imagine what might be bothering him. I considered asking but knew that if I did, I would probably be trapped there listening to him for a long time and so decided not to meddle. I took the twig and summoned a lucky cloud, which I jumped aboard, and soared in the direction of the Eastern Sea.

Third Brother had heard that I was going to the Eastern Sea to attend the banquet, and he had asked if I would go first to Zhe Yan's peach grove to ask for two bottles of peach blossom wine.

When I was small, Mother told me that Zhe Yan was the first phoenix to be born after the sky was split from the earth, back in the age of primal chaos. He had been raised by Father of the Universe, and he was several ranks higher than the present Sky Emperor.

When I was a child, Father and Mother took me to see Zhe Yan. He raised an eyebrow when he saw me before giving Father a smile and saying, "Is this your new baby daughter? How lovely they are at this age."

Tens of thousands of years before, Zhe Yan asked Mother to marry him, even sending a betrothal gift to her family home. But Mother had her heart set on Father, a man so stubborn and unyielding he found it hard even to nod his head. Zhe Yan and Father had a hearty battle over Mother, after which they became close as brothers. Father and Mother got married on New Year's Day. Father sent a sedan chair with eight carriers to welcome her to Qingqiu, and Zhe Yan was invited to act as master of ceremonies at their wedding.