Fallen Goddess

Farewell

After Yi Yao left, Long Wei Li ponders what just happened. The Medicine God does not normally intervene in any matter for thousands of year, so Long Wei Li had almost forgotten how forceful the deity can be. The matter of punishing his pupil was decided quickly, and although it was a fair judgment, Long Wei Li was curious about the Medicine God's involvement. Long Wei Li had known Yi Yao for as long as he can remember, yet he had not known the deity to involve himself in court matters. Even with the Great War, Yi Yao's involvement was to put order to chaos rather than picking sides; so when the Medicine God smoothly took over the discord and settle the issue, Long Wei Li couldn't help but be curious about that little Xian Dan. Was the cold, collected Medicine God finally found someone that is worthy of his attention? Could it be that Xian Dan's skills are worthy of protection? Is Xian Dan a talented youth that could be nurtured to become someone as good as the Medicine God?

With those questions in his mind, the Heavenly Emperor decided to seek out someone who would know more details about personnel than he would, and that person is no other than the Heavenly Empress.

Long Wei Li left the garden and head toward Heavenly Cloud Palace, the Emperor and Empress' living quarters, where she must be. On the way, he thought about his wife. The Heavenly Empress has made it a habit to read in their private courtyard, so it wasn't hard for him to find her. Despite her status as the Empress, Zhi Hui Xian prefer to have peace and quiet so she dismissed maids and guards whenever she returns to their living quarters. At first, it had baffled the maids and guards, but knowing the Spirit clan's solitary tendencies, Long Wei Li merely erected a separate barrier around their living quarters and let the Empress do as she wishes. As a result, there are only two guards posted at the entrance to Heavenly Cloud Palace, but past the entrance, there is no one in sight. After entering Heavenly Cloud Palace, he headed for the courtyard, figuring his wife must be reading.

When he found her, she was reclining on a carved jade daybed, leisurely sunbathing and reading a scroll. A fond smile on his lips, he approaches and sits himself down near her hip. Seeing a shadow fell over her, the Empress lower the scroll and smile at her husband. He lowers his head to give her a greeting kiss before glancing at the scroll.

"A report from the West Sea?" He raised an eyebrow. "It's been two months since they last send their report. Anything important?"

"Somewhat, they're having trouble deciding on a Crown Prince. The trials had resulted in three Princes, and they weren't sure what to make of that." The Heavenly Empress replied, handing the scroll to him

"Three Princes? That is rare." He took the scroll and did a cursory scan of the report. The King of the West Sea had abdicated a year ago with the reason that he was getting old and prefer to spend his olden days peacefully roaming the lands. Since he did not have any children, the contenders for the throne was Princes from the other royal houses of the eight seas; second, third, or fourth born Princes that would otherwise not have any chance for being Kings, so the competition is rather fierce. Trials of Kings was a way to filter out those that have talents; usually, there can only be one winner, and yet, the result of three contenders astonished everyone.

Long Wei Li chuckles in delight, this either means that there are more talented youths in this generation, or that someone was able to outsmart the Trials of Kings; either way, this would require an Imperial involvement.

Seeing the expression on his face, Zhi Hui Xian took the scroll back and hit his shoulder lightly with it. "You cannot go there yourself," She scolded him. "They haven't directly asked us for our judgment, and you being there would put too much pressure on them."

He only grinned, unrepentant. "It would be interesting to see the three winners, if they all are all talented, it would certainly benefit the people."