The ugly dragon continued its account between sobs. “After I became a dragon, I expected Heaven’s punishment to fall on us. But a long time passed without any punishment. Shang Tang told me Heaven wasn’t so reasonable after all: all that mattered was winning. Whoever won was obeying Heaven, and whoever lost was defying it. I couldn’t dissuade him. It’s all my fault. Later he asked why people had to live and die and be reborn, whether there wasn’t some way to escape reincarnation and all its restrictions. Then… one of his consorts was unfaithful to him, and he began devouring guardian spirits. I… I also…”
Bihua lowered his eyes to the emperor on the bed. “So he devoured deities and spirits partly in hopes of escaping the cycle of rebirth.”
Danzhu smiled. “It’s not unusual for a mortal to entertain such an idea. He simply went about it the wrong way.”
The emperor lay motionless on the dragon bed, apparently held under a sleeping spell by his guardian dragon. Dark gray, violent energy swirled around him. He looked scarcely thirty, with a pale, thin face and long, dark eyebrows. He was quite handsome.
Bihua shook his head. “What a pity. To have been born into the imperial family in this lifetime was already a great blessing. Yet he failed to value it, dreamed instead of escaping reincarnation to seek eternal life, strayed onto the demonic path, killed innocents, and in the end destroyed himself as well.”
The ugly dragon bowed its head to the ground once more. “Everything that has happened to him is my fault. If I hadn’t told him about the guardian spirits, he would never have come to this. He is guilty, but I beg Your Lordship to be merciful and not let him be reduced to dust. If he retains even a fragment of his soul, Heaven can still put him on trial.”
Bihua frowned slightly and glanced toward Danzhu. Danzhu met his gaze, smiled again, and said, “The little dragon has a point.” Then he turned to the creature on the floor. “The baleful energy has turned against this mortal, and his soul is on the verge of scattering. You must be keeping him motionless with a spell. When you ask the Lingjun to save him, you mean you want him to cleanse away the baleful energy and infuse him with some immortal energy, is that right?”
The ugly dragon nodded fervently. Danzhu looked back at Bihua and raised an eyebrow. “What will you do, Qingxi?”
Bihua stood with his hands behind his back and considered. “Since you’ve pleaded so earnestly, and in view of your devotion to your charge, I could make an exception just this once…”
The dragon’s head shot up, eyes shining with joy. Bihua approached the bed and raised his right hand. Immortal light gathered in his palm and instantly enveloped the emperor.
Danzhu simply stood to one side and watched. On the floor, the ugly dragon slowly raised its head.
After a moment the light began to fade. Hope glittered in the dragon’s eyes. Bihua lowered his hand; the light vanished. The emperor on the bed suddenly opened his eyes, but the dark, vicious energy surrounding his body still floated there, wholly undiminished.
The dragon’s joy turned to confusion. It stammered, “Your Lordship… but… didn’t you agree to cleanse it away for him?”
A faint smile appeared on Bihua’s face. “I agreed to consider making an exception. But from beginning to end, only you have been telling the story and pleading for him. If I mean to show leniency, I ought first to ask whether the person who would receive it actually wants it.” He turned to the man on the bed. “You were unable to move because of the spell, but having devoured guardian spirits, you possess some magical power. This dragon’s spell could not seal off your five senses. You must have heard everything just now. Is there anything you wish to say?”
The emperor slowly sat up. Every movement was painfully sluggish, and he appeared extraordinarily weak. The dragon lay rigid on the floor. The emperor closed his eyes briefly and spoke in a low voice. “You already know what I’ve done. I did indeed defy Heaven. What could I possibly say before immortals now? I knew long ago that I would lose in the end, and I foresaw the consequences. Do with me as you please.”
“You heard what this dragon said just now,” Bihua asked. “Have you nothing to say about it?”
Without so much as looking at the ugly dragon, the emperor replied coldly, “No. Everything it said is true. It’s a good guardian spirit. Its misfortune was to have been assigned to protect me.”
“Shang Tang… Shang Tang…” the ugly dragon sobbed in a trembling voice, its green eyes filling with tears.
Bihua sighed. “What a touching scene.” Then he turned back to the emperor. “This little guardian spirit seduced you into defying Heaven for its own desires, usurping the throne and devouring spirits along the demonic path. Now it has put on a splendid performance and shifted all the blame onto you. Why are you still protecting it?”
The emperor stared at Bihua, startled, his expression frozen.
The ugly dragon shuddered violently. Suddenly it sprang up like lightning, turning into a shaft of black light and shooting forward like an arrow. Danzhu slowly raised his sleeve and flicked a finger. The shadow fell out of the air, struck the ground, thrashed twice, and lay still.
The ugly dragon lifted its head. A brilliant, seven-colored magical cord bound its body tightly. It glared at Danzhu with hatred. “Who are you? No ordinary immortal envoy serving under some Lingjun could wield such power.”
Danzhu smiled. “You little guardian spirit. Did you imagine that after swallowing a few minor spirits like yourself, you could enter the demonic path? Even if you swallowed half the lesser immortals in Heaven, you’d scarcely be able to show off before me. Though I admit you fooled me at first.”
Bihua sighed and added, “You didn’t just fool His Majesty. You fooled me even more. But the longer your story went on, the more holes appeared in it. There was no possible way to make the lies fit together.”
The dragon raised its head defiantly. “Your Lordship says I’m lying. Tell me, then. What part of my story was wrong?”
“Your claim that the emperor devoured guardian spirits to escape reincarnation,” Bihua replied. “In the mortal world, human bodies are substantial and spirits are incorporeal. To devour a spirit, he would first need to cultivate the arts of capturing and refining spirits. By the time his cultivation reached the point where he could consume one, he’d already be halfway down the demonic path, beyond any ordinary fear of aging, sickness, and death.”
Bihua looked again at the emperor. “I previously heard that he killed a consort and devoured spirits because she had been unfaithful and the child she carried wasn’t his. Yet the two spirits in that affair were a snake spirit and a phoenix spirit, and countless royal guardian spirits were consumed afterward. If he’d been cultivating the demonic path, he would certainly have transformed their spiritual power into demonic power for his own use. But when I examined him just now, I found that although he has magical power within him, it was imposed from outside. Even now, he still has the body of an ordinary mortal.”
Danzhu nodded and smiled. “Very well said, Qingxi.”
“You needn’t flatter me,” Bihua replied. “I’m sure you noticed it earlier than I did.”
“Mm. I could tell at once that the baleful energy around this mortal was being breathed out by the dragon spirit, not produced by the man himself. But you know I’ve spent countless years inside an eggshell. So much has changed in Heaven and on earth that I thought it might be some new technique for preserving life. When the dragon said it had been terrified of Heaven’s punishment but powerless to prevent it, though, the act became thoroughly unconvincing.” Danzhu shook his head at the dragon on the floor. “Your performance of deep devotion moved me at first. But if you truly cared so much, when you feared that your charge would suffer Heaven’s punishment for defying fate, you could have shed your dragon bones and become a flood dragon again, or gone to Heaven’s Dragon Transformation Pool to dissolve your form. Either would have stopped the affair. And later, when the spirits were consumed, the mortal couldn’t have swallowed so many without your help. If you wanted to take the blame for him, you could simply have said you’d devoured them yourself. You look as though you’ve been injured by drawing away the baleful energy from your charge, yet you keep insisting you had nothing to do with any of it. Even I can see you’re spouting nonsense. In truth, you were the one who devoured those minor guardian spirits. Your own powers couldn’t bear the strain, which is why you look like this. You immobilized the mortal with a spell and planted a seed of baleful energy inside him, hoping to lure Qingxi into cleansing the backlash for you. You’re the principal culprit. He’s your accomplice.”
The ugly dragon struggled twice more, grinding its teeth.
Danzhu said, “In truth, I’m not an immortal who judges others by their appearance. Ugliness isn’t a crime. But being ugly and following a crooked path? That’s crime upon crime, wholly unforgivable.” He turned to Bihua with a smile. “Am I right, Qingxi?”
Bihua did not answer. He addressed the emperor instead. “Although this spirit was the instigator, you took part in its schemes. Why did you do it? Can you explain how all this came about?”
The emperor looked dazed. Staring straight at Bihua and Danzhu, he asked, “Are you… are you both really immortals?”
Bihua nodded. “I am Bihua Lingjun of the Heavenly Court. And this gentleman…” He glanced at Danzhu and said vaguely, “His rank is higher still.”
The emperor showed little reaction to that declaration of rank, but a trace of urgency entered his gaze as he looked at Bihua. “Then there’s something I want to ask you two immortals. Has there ever been an immortal whose true form was a dragon who visited the mortal world?” A distant smile appeared on the emperor’s face. “When I was little, I once saw a dragon. He must have been an immortal. He was an azure dragon, so beautiful. I’ve never been able to forget him…”