Gently stroking the sleeping little qilin in his arms, Bihua Lingjun said to Fuli, “I have been investigating in the mortal world under imperial orders, and so far my search through the capital has given me no clue as to why its ruler has gone mad, or whether some evil influence lies behind it. But I’m sure nothing of this sort could escape Your Majesty’s discerning eyes. Might you be willing to offer this humble immortal a little guidance?”
Fuli narrowed his eyes. “Mm. You little immortal, you certainly know how to say pleasant things. With such a modest and respectful manner, you’ve already won my favor.”
Bihua promptly smiled. Danzhu, hands behind his back, added, “Naturally. When has my judgment ever been wrong?”
Bihua cleared his throat. “Er, Your Majesty…”
Fuli’s enormous lizard head swayed slightly. “Danzhu, at your advanced age you’re still utterly shameless. I hadn’t intended to expose your past in front of this youngster, but what have those eyes of yours ever looked at besides young immortals’ faces?”
Danzhu gave a magnanimous smile. “Fuli, we’ve finally met again after all this time. I wouldn’t dream of quarreling with you. I’ve never cared much for other people’s opinions, unlike you in the old days, forever making a fuss over trifles, looking only at appearances instead of what lay beneath. That’s why, after all these years, your understanding of me remains so superficial.”
Fuli shook his head again. “Yes, yes. It was superficial of me to say you only cared about young immortals’ faces. Of course you care about more than their faces. You care about their bodies too.”
Bihua coughed again. “Er… Your Imperial Majesties…”
Fuli laughed twice, his lizard head bobbing, and turned to Bihua. “Little immortal, has that old mountain chicken ever given you one of his feathers? If he has, be careful. If he’s given you a feather from his tail, be especially wary. Mm. Surely he hasn’t already mentioned the words ‘dual cultivation’ to you?”
At last Danzhu’s expression changed. Bihua coughed yet again. “Well…” Danzhu glanced at him, then continued to stand with his hands behind his back, smiling as serenely as a cloudless sky. “Ah, I admit I did some foolish things when I was young. I’ve never concealed that. Looking back now, I find it all rather ridiculous. Today I understand the meaning of giving one’s heart wholly to one person. All that belongs to the past, dispersed like smoke…”
As he spoke, he strolled up beside Bihua and extended a finger to touch the little qilin’s whiskers while it slept. “Qingxi, it can’t be convenient to discuss serious business with Fuli while holding the little one. Why don’t I carry it for a while?”
Bihua made no objection and allowed Danzhu to take the little qilin from his arms. Wearing an expression of utmost paternal tenderness, Danzhu held the creature, cast a seemingly casual glance at Fuli, then ambled off to one side and stroked it gently, just as Bihua had done. The little qilin squirmed as it was transferred from one pair of arms to another. Waking, it sensed that the person now holding it smelled different. Alarmed, it gurgled twice and struggled.
Danzhu maintained his benevolent smile. “There, there. Don’t be frightened. Good little thing.” He tugged on one of its whiskers. The little qilin yelped, opened its mouth, and bit down on his finger.
Danzhu smiled and let it gnaw. His venerable phoenix claw was hardly so easily bitten through. The little qilin bit and bit until its teeth ached, but Danzhu’s finger did not even redden. The sensation was no more than a faint tickle, like ants crawling across his skin.
Meanwhile, Bihua finally returned to the matter at hand. “Why did this mortal ruler suddenly descend into madness? This humble immortal has been too dull to uncover the truth. I beg Your Majesty to enlighten me.”
“It’s not especially mysterious,” Fuli replied. “The emperor isn’t possessed by a demon. The trouble was caused by the dragon deity protecting his royal bloodline. There was no demonic aura for Heaven to detect, which is why the cause proved so difficult to discover. Little immortal, you know about the guardian spirits of the royal bloodlines, don’t you?”
Bihua nodded.
These guardian spirits protected mortal rulers and members of the royal family. They served either Emperor Nanming or Tianshu Xingjun of the Northern Dipper Palace, who oversaw the fortunes of mortal kingdoms. The guardian spirits belonged to five branches: dragon deities, flood-dragon deities, phoenix deities, qilins, and black tortoises. Dragon deities protected reigning sovereigns; flood-dragon deities watched over princes and other royal kinsmen of the reigning bloodline. Those two branches came under the Northern Dipper Palace. Phoenix deities protected imperial women, including empresses and consorts whose fates were tied to the nation’s fortunes. Qilins protected princes and nobles granted titles outside the ruling family, while black tortoises watched over important civil and military ministers whose destinies affected the realm. These last three branches served Emperor Nanming.
As rulers changed, so did the dragon deities that protected them. When a sovereign surrendered his throne, his dragon deity returned to Heaven and dissolved into a mass of spiritual energy in the Dragon Transformation Pool. There it shed its former existence before being assigned a new charge. When a prince inherited the throne, or a royal kinsman seized power, the flood-dragon deity that had protected him could become a dragon deity. When a dynasty approached its end, a qilin or a black tortoise might transform into a dragon. Occasionally, a gifted mortal could predict the fate of a kingdom by sensing the currents of energy from these guardian spirits. The simultaneous appearance of two dragon auras meant the throne and the realm were about to change hands.
“The emperor of this dynasty,” Fuli said, “was born with an unusual gift. He can see the guardian spirits of the bloodlines.”
“Ah, then perhaps that’s where the trouble began,” Bihua said. “But according to Heaven’s laws, the mortals guarded by these spirits must never be able to see them. No exception has ever been recorded. There’s still something strange about it.”
“In years past I concealed myself in a pool within the imperial palace,” Fuli said. “The residence of a mortal emperor gathers more spiritual energy than other places, especially dragon energy, and it suited my recuperation. When this emperor was still a child, I was living there. I often saw him, along with the tiny flood dragon that followed him everywhere. Then, one day, I saw him talking to that little flood dragon. Only then did I realize he had such an ability. Afraid that he might perceive my true body, I promptly moved here.”
From some distance away, Danzhu, still holding the little qilin, abruptly called out, “Fuli, don’t talk as though you had nothing to do with it. The fact that this emperor can see the guardian spirits probably has a great deal to do with you.”
Fuli raised his head. “Danzhu, just because I exposed your past before the little immortal, there’s no need to pin the blame on me.”
Danzhu gave a cold laugh and spoke slowly. “Heaven has always had a rule that mortals under the protection of guardian spirits cannot see them. Since the rule has never failed before, there must be some extraordinary reason why this fellow can see them. Fuli, you’ve lived a great many years. Why are you still so careless? You may have turned yourself into a lizard, but your immortal aura is hardly ordinary. If you were lying in a pool in the imperial palace, its water would surely have absorbed some of your energy. If the emperor drank even a couple of mouthfuls, he’d acquire the ability to see those minor deities. You’re certainly involved.”
“Your Majesty, that isn’t necessarily so,” Bihua said. “The water must indeed have absorbed Emperor Fuli’s immortal aura, but mortals born into the imperial family are particular about their food and drink. They wouldn’t casually drink water from a garden pool…”
Fuli lowered his head and was silent for a moment. “Little immortal, there’s no need to excuse me. If I did something, I’ll take responsibility for it. Danzhu has a point. And when the emperor was little… he once fell into the pool where I was resting. Now that I think about it, it was only after that fall that I saw him talking to the little flood dragon…”
Bihua stood speechless. Danzhu said earnestly, “Fuli, even if you may have been the root cause of everything, you mustn’t blame yourself too much.”
Fuli remained silent. Bihua cleared his throat again. “How he came to see them is no longer our first concern. The urgent matter is to discover what happened and how we can put it right. Please continue telling me what you know.”
Only then did Fuli resume. “The emperor could see his guardian flood dragon from childhood and often talked to it. After I moved away, I knew little of what happened over the next ten-odd years. Eventually he ascended the throne, and that little flood dragon transformed into a dragon deity. All was peaceful until recently. Because of his unusual gift, the emperor had always attached great importance to sacrifices and offerings. He appointed several mortals to manage them, one of whom was granted the title of Imperial Preceptor. But the empress took that preceptor as her lover and became pregnant. A fetus acquires its guardian spirit while still in the womb. Since this child wasn’t of royal blood despite being carried in the emperor’s household, its spirit was a snake rather than a flood dragon. The emperor saw through the deception. Killing the empress and the preceptor wasn’t enough to satisfy his anger. His dragon guardian must have taught him how to seize guardian spirits. He captured the empress’s phoenix spirit and the fetus’s snake spirit, tore them apart, and ate them.”
Bihua nodded in understanding. “When a mortal kills a deity, he defies Heaven. By killing and consuming them, he ceased to be an ordinary mortal, yet did not become a demon either. His spiritual currents must have changed, and the dragon deity protecting him changed along with them.”
Fuli continued, “His consorts and several princes witnessed him killing and devouring the spirits. Rumors that he had been possessed by a demon spread everywhere, so he killed the witnesses to silence them. Each time he killed someone, he would seize and consume that person’s guardian spirit too.”
“One murder and one devoured spirit after another. No wonder his power has grown so terrible…” Bihua took up the explanation. “Heaven should have noticed that the guardian spirits were behaving strangely, but Tianshu Xingjun has just entered seclusion to cultivate, and Emperor Nanming is still imprisoned for breaking Heaven’s laws. Tianshu once had his immortal essence shattered and had to rebuild his immortal body. To restore him to his former position, the other six stars of the Northern Dipper Palace transferred most of their immortal energy to him and are still recuperating. For the moment, the guardian spirits have no proper masters and are under the temporary supervision of Mingge Xingjun, the Star Lord of Fate. Ah, Mingge has so much to do that an oversight here or there is difficult to avoid…”
Fuli shook his head with a sigh. “I was hiding away in this ravine and paid little attention at first. By the time I realized what was happening, things had grown beyond control. The local earth gods, mountain gods, and other minor immortals couldn’t withstand it and fell unconscious. I haven’t recovered much of my power. All I could do was save this young qilin, then use what little power I had to steady the capital’s spiritual currents and prevent innocent mortals from suffering.”
“The weather in the capital has been so strange lately,” Bihua said. “I imagine the dragon guardian and the emperor threw its spiritual currents into disorder, while Your Majesty used your own power to resist them and sent rain to restore the balance.”
Fuli nodded.
Danzhu called from a distance, “And that explains why Heaven’s investigators found nothing. With Fuli correcting the disturbance here, a minor immortal taking only a quick look would see a realm apparently at peace.”
Fuli lowered his head and lay still, saying no more.
Bihua raised his sleeves in a respectful gesture. “Thank you for explaining the cause, Your Majesty. Now that I understand, I’ll go and settle the matter at once.”
Danzhu strolled over. “Fuli, let this little qilin stay with you a while longer. Qingxi and I are going to the palace, and we’d only be hampered by carrying it along.”
“There’s no need to trouble Emperor Danzhu with this affair,” Bihua said. “I can go by myself.”
“You asked me to come down and help you,” Danzhu replied. “That means I’ll see the matter through.” He smiled faintly. “Surely you don’t think a mortal and a little dragon could hurt me, Qingxi?”
Bihua hesitated. Fuli’s muffled voice came from the side. “He’s worried that if you go, you won’t be able to control your strength. One careless move and you’ll blast the pair of them into dust, leaving him with nothing to bring back to the Jade Emperor.”
Danzhu gazed into Bihua’s eyes and said in a warm, smiling voice, “Don’t worry, Qingxi. I’ll be gentle. Very, very gentle.”
A dazzling seven-colored aura blossomed around Danzhu once more. Bihua hesitated for another moment, then sighed softly. “Thank you, Your Majesty. In that case, please accompany me.”
Danzhu broke into a delighted smile. A ball of rainbow light enveloped the little qilin in his arms and set it gently down before Fuli. Danzhu had already stepped up beside Bihua. Still speaking tenderly, he said, “Qingxi, I’ve told you many times: between you and me, there’s no need for thanks.”
The little qilin burrowed beneath Fuli’s belly. Fuli raised his heavy eyelids, looked at Danzhu and Bihua, and shook his head.