Ten Miles Of Peach Blossoms

Chapter 19

I stood in the great hall feeling dazed and desolate.

I picked up a cup of cold tea from the table and took a couple of sips to wet my parched throat before taking a series of haphazard steps out of the hall.

Half of the young Western Sea immortals who had been standing in those two lines outside the hall had been dispersed, walking ahead of Ye Hua, I assumed, clearing the path. The other half I saw clattering along in the direction of the Western Sea Water Crystal Palace's main entrance.

It looked as if another guest had arrived.

I grabbed an attendant from the end of the procession and asked what was going on. She looked at me with an aggrieved expression and said, "A visitor from afar has arrived, and the Water Emperor's officials are going to greet him."

Today the Western Sea Emperor seemed destined to receive visitors. Nothing would surprise me anymore, not even if the Buddha from the lotus seat of the Western Paradise showed up.

Due to the low profiles kept by these last two generations of Western Sea emperors, they had not received much attention from my generation of immortals. Receiving one distinguished guest after another like this was clearly an honor for them, and likely to increase their social standing no end.

Because Ye Hua had the soul-binding lamp with him, I no longer needed to travel to the Ninth Sky, which was one thing off my mind at least, but oddly enough I did not feel as relieved as I had expected. Ye Hua's solemn figure flashed again and again before my eyes, until I felt the strings of my fox heart start to tighten.

The two immortal attendants who had led me into the great hall dutifully led me back to Fuying Palace. When I had seen De Yong earlier, his complete dissimilarity to Mo Yuan had brought up a range of complicated emotions inside me, and when we arrived back outside his palace door, I decided against going in to see him again. Instead I found a young attendant to take me straight to where I would stay.

The Western Sea Emperor had a reputation for being a little bit hopeless. He certainly had none of the refinement of his Eastern Sea counterpart.

There were two buildings to the east of the Fuying Palace, one toward the inner palace, called the Inner House, and the other toward the outer palace, called the Out House.

I found that I had been unlucky and would be staying in the Out House.

The flowerpot on the stool inside and the tea implements on the table were made of shining white porcelain, and even the immortal servants waiting on me were dressed in dazzling white.

Looking up, my eyes were filled with this vivid white, and seeing the crowd of young immortal servants rushing around before my eyes in this color, I started to feel so dizzy I could bear it no longer, and I ordered them all outside to pull up weeds.

The Out House fell silent, but the silence only served to make my heart feel more desolate. Just as I was being confronted by this sense of desolation, I heard a squeak from behind the curtains and lifted my eyes to have a look.

It appeared that the distinguished guest that half the young Western Sea immortals had raced to greet was not the Buddha from the lotus seat of the Western Paradise after all.

I poured out a cup of tea and called out, "Fourth Brother, come and have some tea!" He leaped inside and looked me up and down before taking the cup I was offering and having a sip.

His eyes were twisting in confusion when he said, "What are you doing living in an Out House, and why on earth are you disguised as a boy? What has happened to morals and decency!"

I glanced up at the rafters and said, "Zhe Yan made me dress like this."

Fourth Brother snorted out his tea. He wiped the corners of his mouth with his sleeve. "Dressing like that is not actually a bad look for you," he said, keeping a straight face.