Half City Of Love - Chapter 5
Chapter 5
Qi Nan opened the food box and glanced inside.
The food box made from mulberry wood was divided into plum blossom-shaped compartments by golden sheets, and in each compartment lay two exquisitely crafted pastries.
Among them were the princess’s favorites, the Peach Blossom Hundred Fruit Cake and the Agate White Jade Cake.
“Brew a pot of Huaguang Feijing Tea.”
He instructed the female immortal beside him.
The little princess was notoriously particular about her pastries, always strict about which tea paired with which pastry.
Since today he was going to invite her to go out, naturally, he had to coax her into a good mood first.
When he stepped into the Cloud Realm of the Purple Palace, Qi Nan suddenly felt a wave of emotion.
Before him, the Purple Palace was filled with imperial mulberry trees, the sight interwoven with lush green and pale red, completely different from what he had seen nine thousand years ago.
At that time, the Purple Palace was buried under layers of ice, shrouded in pitch darkness where one could not see their hand before their face.
As he neared the Princess’s Yuanzhan Hall, he felt a chill rush against his face.
The Purple Palace was thriving with vitality everywhere, except around the Yuanzhan Hall, which was covered in snow and ice.
In front of the hall stood countless snow sculptures, some shaped like people, some like flowers and plants, and many more like all sorts of peculiar houses.
The little princess, draped in a fiery red fox-fur shawl, was sitting on a crystal stool, fully absorbed in molding the snow in her hands into a snow peony.
The scene was hauntingly familiar.
Qi Nan was reminded of thousands of years ago, when he trudged through the darkness of the frozen Purple Palace, breaking through the ice as he searched for the little princess.
At last, he found her in front of the Yuanzhan Hall, also molding flowers.
But then, there had been only one snowman before the hall, lifelike and vivid, shaped exactly like the figure of a lady lying where she had fallen at the moment of her death.
She molded the icy flowers and gently placed them on the snowman, covering it bit by bit until the entire snowman was concealed.
He had been both shocked and saddened, and so he had asked softly, “Princess, what are you doing?”
The princess, only fifteen hundred years old then, replied calmly, “I am giving Mother some flowers, to cover the blood on her body.”
These memories were far from pleasant.
Qi Nan sighed silently in his heart.
“Princess.”
He called to her, lifting the food box in his hand.
“The pastries are here.”
The princess, still absorbed in shaping her snow peony, suddenly spoke, her voice carrying a hint of laziness and spoiled playfulness.
“Qi Nan, you must have some troublesome matter for which you came to me. These pastries, I am not eating them.”
Qi Nan smiled as he opened the food box.
“Truly not eating?”
Xuan Yi turned her head, and at the sight of the Peach Blossom Hundred Fruit Cake and the Agate White Jade Cake, her face instantly lit up like a spring breeze.
“Qi Nan, you are wonderful! What tea is it?”
“Huaguang Feijing Tea.”
Qi Nan gently placed the blue jade teapot on the crystal table.
Xuan Yi was delighted.
She spent a long moment choosing before finally picking up an Agate White Jade Cake, nibbling on it with small bites.
Qi Nan had already poured her a cup of tea.
With the elegant fragrance of the Huaguang Feijing Tea filling the air, she quickly devoured half the box of pastries in one go.
Only then did she let out a satisfied breath, picked up the unfinished peony on the table, and resumed molding it.
After a while, she suddenly lifted her hand with a smile.
In her palm bloomed a peony made of crystalline ice, its half-transparent petals etched with dense jade-like veins, exquisitely beautiful.
“Qi Nan, let me pin this peony on your robe, will you?”
No, she was one to eat and drink her fill and then deny all.
Qi Nan smiled wryly.
“An old man with hair as white as mine, what flowers would I wear?”
Xuan Yi leaned close, gently fastening the snow peony onto his robe, and laughed.
“You are not old at all. Look, it suits you perfectly!”
Qi Nan touched the snow peony.
The icy cold texture softened his heart just a little, and his voice too became gentler.
“Princess, we have already arranged to meet Emperor Baize today. It is time to set off.”
Xuan Yi showed a completely bewildered expression. “Who is Emperor Baize?”
She was used to pretending ignorance. Qi Nan, helpless, had to explain again.
“I mentioned to the princess last time about taking a teacher. Emperor Baize is one of the thirty chief gods in the Pantheon. If he becomes your teacher, the princess will benefit greatly.”
“Qi Nan, why not just let you teach me?”
Qi Nan shook his head. “How could the God Realm allow just anyone to be a teacher? Only heavenly gods who hold a seat in the Pantheon can take on such a responsibility. When the princess reaches fifty thousand years of age, if you do not have a letter from a teacher within the Pantheon, it will be considered a grave crime punishable by exile to the mortal world. Even imperial sons and daughters cannot escape.”
This was a strict rule of the God Realm.
Every newly grown god under fifty thousand years old had to apprentice under a teacher in the Pantheon, to study the Five Elements and Yin and Yang, the General Laws of Divine Office, the workings of fate and calamity, and so on.
This was to ensure they could gain divine office, fulfill their duties, and not idle away their time chasing pleasures, which would lead to the downfall of the gods.
Xuan Yi said indifferently, “I am still far from fifty thousand years old.”
Qi Nan knew that speaking softly and reasoning gently would not work with her, so he smiled instead.
“The princess already understands the reason, why ask again?”
She spent the whole day shut inside the Purple Palace, never stepping out of its gates.
It had taken great effort for the Heavenly Emperor to arrange an introduction with Lord Fucang, yet she deliberately ruined it.
What the emperor feared most was a princess raised in seclusion, ignorant of the world.
Xuan Yi blinked.
“But I do not feel well today.”
Qi Nan shook his head playfully, again and again.
“You are still a princess. Even if your words are not absolute law, at the very least you should keep them. When I mentioned this to the princess last time, what did you say? That you would go along with our arrangements. Is what you are doing now called going along? Besides, is the princess truly unwell? When you were eating pastries just now, I did not see any sign of it.”
Xuan Yi finally set down the snowflake in her hand, stood up, adjusted her fox-fur shawl, and sighed.
“Very well, let us go.”
The Pantheon was located within Mount Wanshen of the Middle Heavens.
Because it was close to the Heavenly Palace, and since all the departments of the gods carried out their inspections there, the place was always bustling with activity.
After the long carriage stopped, Qi Nan did not hurry to get down.
He first drew out a jade box from his sleeve.
When he opened it, there was a brocade cushion woven from threads of sunset light and Milky Way jade, and on the cushion lay a palm-sized jet-black scale, dark and lusterless, with intricate patterns.
Xuan Yi was slightly startled.
“Is this Father’s scale?”
The scales of the Dragon God of Mount Zhongshan feared neither the Five Elements and Yin-Yang nor divine weapons, and were considered supreme treasures.
To give such a thing to Emperor Baize, that old man, just to ask him to take her as a disciple?
Qi Nan smiled.
“With Emperor Baize’s abilities, he is certainly worthy of a dragon scale of the Zhuyin clan.”
It was said that Emperor Baize was the oldest among the heavenly gods still serving in the God Realm.
He had pioneered the path of natural law, was well-versed in the principles of all things under heaven, and the thirty-three thousand three hundred and thirty-three halls of the Pantheon were under the protection of his great powers.
The gods who wished to become his disciples were as numerous as the fish crossing a river, yet he was extremely strict in choosing students.
He often liked to test them with sudden, tricky, and bizarre questions, so there was a saying that out of a hundred thousand gods, it was rare to find even one disciple of Emperor Baize.
“Emperor Baize originally declined to meet when he heard the princess was still so young. If not for the Heavenly Emperor’s persuasion and the offering of such a grand gift, even this meeting would have been hard to obtain. But meeting him is one thing. Whether this matter succeeds depends on whether the princess can win his discerning favor. Do not act willfully, lest you waste this dragon scale the emperor has given.”
Qi Nan knew her bad temper all too well, so he could not help but speak with earnest persuasion.
Xuan Yi nodded while pushing open the carriage door.
Who would have thought that the moment the door opened, boundless auspicious light surged in, nearly blinding the two of them.
In front of Emperor Baize’s Hall of Mingxing, countless carriages were parked, and young heavenly gods were waiting eagerly at the entrance, hoping for a chance at one of the emperor’s tests.
Qi Nan could not help but sigh.
“So many gods are longing to become disciples under Emperor Baize.”
He helped the princess down from the carriage, and at once the heavenly gods waiting at the hall entrance all turned their heads.
Countless pairs of eyes fixed on Xuan Yi in unison, the scene appearing rather frightening.
Xuan Yi adjusted the fiery red fox-fur shawl on her shoulders and lowered her head to speak softly.
“Why are they all staring at me?”
Qi Nan gave a bitter smile.
“Is it not the princess’s own doing? That day in the Flower Empress’s garden you put on such a grand display, driving away Lord Fucang in anger before everyone’s eyes. The princess’s bad name has already spread far and wide.”
Oh, so that was the reason.
Xuan Yi nodded in understanding, then walked forward calmly and composed, her eyes set straight ahead.
