To the Sky Kingdom

by Tang Qi

  She watched in bewilderment as his eyes turned frosty. He was all she had in the Ninth Sky. Since becoming pregnant with his child, she had always imagined that one day, she would stand with Ye Hua, each of them holding one of their child’s hands as they looked out over an expansive ocean of billowing clouds pierced through by a thousand rays of sunset light. He did not know how important her sight was to her, the significance it held.

  They cut out her eyes. Nai Nai spent three days looking after her, after which Su Jin came in and stood before her. “You’ll be pleased to hear that I’ve put your eyes to good use,” she said with a laugh.

  It all became clear. This had been Su Jin’s intention all along. Su Su had been nothing but a passerby who had somehow been dragged into the confusion. It had been a predestined mortal world calamity.

  As time passed, she grew more used to her sightlessness. She no longer confused day with night and learned how to sharpen her ears, to listen out for sounds that helped her distinguish what time of day it was.

  She had just finished her lunch when Nai Nai came stumbling into the courtyard. “Empress, Empress,” she called breathlessly. “The Sky Emperor has just issued an imperial decree. H-h-he has decided to offer Su Jin t-t-to His Majesty Prince Ye Hua.”

  Su Su gave a chuckle. Ye Hua had been officially named as the next Sky Emperor some time ago. It was only a matter of time before this news. But Su Jin could not be Ye Hua’s primary wife. Su Su had recently heard that the Sky Emperor had an agreement with Emperor Bai Zhi of the Qingqiu Kingdom that whoever succeeded him as Sky Emperor would marry Bai Zhi’s daughter, Bai Qian. Ye Hua had never told her any of this. She could have found it out if she had wanted to. She was not as stupid and helpless as they all thought.

  She should never have gotten tangled up with these immortals.

  She suddenly felt a sharp pain in her belly.

  “Empress, what’s wrong?” Nai Nai cried out again and again.

  Su Su put her hands on her stomach and managed to stutter the words, “I th-th-think I m-m-might be about to give birth.”

  She fainted during childbirth, but the pain brought her round. When her eyes were taken out to give to Su Jin, she heard that Ye Hua had stayed by her side day and night. While she was giving birth to their child, she only had Nai Nai with her. Intense pain made even the strongest people weak. But she stopped herself from calling out to Ye Hua. She was in enough agony already; she did not wish to add any more.

  “Empress, please let go of my hand,” Nai Nai begged in tears. “I am going to find His Majesty. I’m going to fetch the prince.”

  She was in so much pain she could not speak. All she could do was mouth the words, “Stay with me a little longer, Nai Nai, just a short while more.”

  Nai Nai cried even harder.

  It was a boy.

  She did not know when Ye Hua arrived, but when she awoke she felt his hand around hers. His hand was ice-cold again, and even though it made her shiver to hold it, she stopped herself from pulling her hand back.

  He held the baby and said, “Stroke his little face, Su Su. You’ll feel how much he looks like you.”

  She did not move. She had carried this baby for three years. He had accompanied her for countless days and nights, and of course she loved her child, but she would not be able to take him back to Junji Mountain with her. She had already decided to leave him behind. She did not want to touch or hold him, to develop any form of attachment.

  Ye Hua stayed sitting by her side for a long time. He never said a word, not even when the baby fretted and cried.

  As soon as Ye Hua left, she called Nai Nai over. She told her servant girl that she had given the baby the name Ali. She made Nai Nai promise to always take very good care of him. Completely unsuspecting, Nai Nai agreed.

  Ye Hua came to see Su Su every day. He had never been very talkative. In the past, Su Su had been chatty, but no longer. Most of the time the two of them would just sit there in silence. Luckily her silence did not anger Ye Hua. He obviously understood how frail she was feeling after the birth. During these silences, she would occasionally recall that the last thing she had seen before losing her eyes was Ye Hua’s eyes full of coldness. Whenever she recalled that image, she would give an involuntary tremor.

  Ye Hua did not say a word to her about his imminent marriage to Su Jin. Neither did Nai Nai.

  It took three months before Su Su was fully recovered from the birth. Ye Hua brought her a range of different fabrics and asked her to choose the one she liked the best. He wished to make her a wedding dress.

  “I’ve already explained, Su Su, that I wish to marry you.”

  She found it strange, his wish to marry her after he had been the one who cut out her eyes.

  Later she understood. Ye Hua felt sorry for her. She was a mortal with no eyes, and even though he found her despicable and considered her blindness self-inflicted, he also saw her as in need of compassion. He could have as many concubines as he wished, and giving her the status of his wife cost him nothing.

  She knew she had to leave. There was no reason for her to stay in the Ninth Sky.

  Nai Nai came out on strolls with her. The two of them repeated the route from the Xiwu Palace to the punishment platform. Nai Nai found it strange, but Su Su explained to her loyal servant girl that she enjoyed the fragrant lotus flowers along the way.

  Within a fortnight, she had learned to rely on her senses to navigate her way smoothly between Xiwu Palace and the punishment platform.

  Deceiving Nai Nai could not have been easier.

  Standing on the immortal punishment platform, she suddenly felt light as the wind. Ali was in Nai Nai’s care, so she did not need to worry about him. Standing on this high platform, surrounded by boundless cloud and mist, she suddenly had the urge to explain to Ye Hua one last time that she had not pushed Su Jin, that it was not she who owed Su Jin, but they who owed her. They owed her a pair of eyes and a calm and stable future.

  While they had still been on Junji Mountain, Ye Hua had given her a beautiful bronze mirror. He had been about to travel to a faraway place to take care of some important business. Scared that she might get lonely, he pulled this treasure from his sleeve and told her that no matter where he was, all she had to do was call his name into the mirror and he would hear it. As long as he was not busy, he would speak to her.

  She did not know why she still carried this mirror around everywhere with her. Perhaps because it was the only present Ye Hua had ever given her.

  She pulled out the mirror. It had been a long time since she had called his name, and it felt unnatural. “Ye Hua,” she said.

  There was a long pause before she heard his voice by her ear. “Su Su?”

  She fell silent a moment before saying, “I’m going back to Junji Mountain. Don’t come looking for me. I will be fine on my own. Look after Ali for me. I used to dream that one day I could hold his hand and look up at the stars with him, at the moon, the clouds, the sunshine, and tell him the story of how we met on Junji Mountain. That will never happen now.” She thought for a moment and added, “Don’t tell him his mother is just a mortal, the immortals in the Sky Kingdom all look down on us.”

  It was a perfectly normal farewell speech, but suddenly she felt herself welling up. She jerked her head upward before realizing she had no eyes: Where would her tears fall from?

  “Where are you now?” Ye Hua asked, his voice strained.

  “The punishment platform,” she said quietly. “Su Jin told me that if I jumped off it, I could return to Junji Mountain. I’m getting used to being blind. Junji Mountain is my home, and I’m familiar with the terrain. I can live there on my own, it won’t be hard. You mustn’t worry.” She paused before saying, “I shouldn’t have rescued you back then. If I could go back in time, Ye Hua, I wouldn’t have saved you.”

  “Su Su,” he interrupted. “You stay where you are. Don’t move. I’m coming straight there.”

  In the end, she did not go back throu
gh her defense, did not explain that she had not pushed Su Jin. They were not going to meet again in this life. Right and wrong, good and bad had ceased to matter.

  “Ye Hua, I’m letting you go,” she told him quietly. “You must let me go too. We no longer owe each other anything.”

  The mirror fell from her hand with a clatter, drowning out Ye Hua’s fierce roar. “You just stand there. You mustn’t jump . . .”

  She turned and leaped off the platform. Her long sigh got lost within the fluttering of the wind. I ask no more of you, Ye Hua. This is the way it should be.

  She did not know that the immortal punishment platform was only meant for immortals, that if a mortal jumped off it, they would simply turn to dust flying and flames dying.

  Neither did she know that she was not actually a mortal.

  The leap from the punishment platform caused her serious injury. The destructive powers of the punishment platform, stronger than tens of thousands of immortal warriors, split open the seal on her forehead. She did not have any idea of the significance of the red mole on her forehead, which had been there for two hundred years, since the Demon Emperor broke out of the Eastern Desert Bell. In her quest to lock him back up, she had battled with him, and in the course of this battle, he had placed this seal upon her. He took away her appearance, her memories, all her immortal powers and turned her into a mortal.

  Everything from the past came back to her, one after another, but within the chaos of her mind, she found a moment of clarity. Enduring the agonizing pain these destructive forces had wrought on her immortal body, she heard a voice inside her quietly speaking. Bai Qian, you were born from an immortal embryo. You were never required to cultivate any spiritual energy to become an immortal. But nothing in the Four Seas and Eight Deserts comes this easily. How could you possibly become a goddess without experiencing a sky calamity? These last few decades of love and hate, gratitude and grudges have been nothing but your sky calamity.

  She collapsed to the east of the Eastern Sea in Zhe Yan’s Ten-Mile Peach Grove. When she finally came to, Zhe Yan gave a huge sigh of relief. “Your mother, father, and brothers have been driving themselves crazy looking for you, and I’ve been so worried I haven’t slept properly in two hundred years. But what’s wrong with your eyes? And why are you covered in scars?”

  Her memory had been somewhat damaged by the fall from the platform, leaving her in a state of confusion. But she still remembered clearly how she had been hurt. What had it been? Nothing but a predestined calamity.

  She smiled at Zhe Yan and said, “I seem to remember that you have a medicine to make people forget things they want to forget?”

  Zhe Yan raised an eyebrow. “It would appear that you’ve suffered very badly these past years.”

  It was true. Thankfully it had only been for a couple of years.

  She stood before the hot, bubbling pot of medicine, watching the steam billow off it.

  She gulped down the whole thing. Su Su from Junji Mountain ceased to exist, she had merely been someone dreamed up by Goddess Bai Qian, the youngest daughter of Bai Zhi, Emperor of the Qingqiu Kingdom. It was a dream that had involved dreadful suffering, but also some peach blossom romance.

  As soon as she awoke from this dream, she forgot it completely.

  Three hundred years later.

  The Eastern Sea Water Emperor’s new son was his pride and joy. To prepare for his son’s one-month banquet, the emperor had taken leave from his morning meetings at the Lingxiao Palace for several days. The Sky Emperor turned a blind eye to the Water Emperor’s absence, but it piqued the interest of Goddess Duo Bao. Why all the fuss over a simple banquet?

  To quell her curiosity, she sought out Prince Nan Douzhen, who had always been on very good terms with the Eastern Sea Emperor.

  Life in the Ninth Sky tended to lack intrigue, and these immortals had been charting the Eastern Sea Emperor’s absence with interest for some time now. Seeing Goddess Duo Bao take the bull by the horns, they all started to crowd around Prince Nan Douzhen.

  Prince Nan Douzhen looked at them in a slightly bemused manner. “Immortal friends, surely you must have heard that Her Highness from Qingqiu has accepted the invitation for the Eastern Sea Emperor’s banquet.”

  Qingqiu was in the center of the Great Desert, not far from the Eastern Sea, and as Prince Nan Douzhen said the name, he cupped his hands together and bowed toward the east and toward Qingqiu. “Her Highness has an eye condition, which means she is unable to look directly at anything bright,” he explained. “The Eastern Sea’s Water Emperor was worried because the coral walls and glazed tiles in the Eastern Sea Water Crystal Palace are glaringly bright. He has been spending these past few days searching for water-lily grass, which he intends to weave into sheets to cover up anything too bright.”

  Upon hearing this news, Lingxiao Palace descended into pandemonium.

  Her Highness was Emperor Bai Zhi’s daughter, Bai Qian. She belonged to the older generation of ancient immortals, and to show their respect, the immortals all referred to her as Her Highness.

  When Pangu, creator of the universe, took up his ax and split the sky from the earth, all the great tribes started fighting. This went on without reprieve for many years, and there was a long succession of different rulers in the sky and on earth. Most of the ancient gods had been plundered. Those that were destined to vanish had vanished, and those that were destined to fall into demise had fallen into demise.

  Only a very small number of gods remained. They included the Sky Emperor and his family in the Ninth Sky; Zhe Yan, who tended to stay within the parameters of his Ten-Mile Peach Grove east of the Eastern Sea, keeping to himself; and Emperor Bai Zhi of the Qingqiu Kingdom and his family.

  Bai Qian’s name could not be brought up without mentioning an incident also involving the Sky Clan, a matter that was meant to be secret but was actually known by everyone.

  Fifty thousand years ago, Bai Qian and the Sky Emperor’s second son, Sang Ji, became engaged. They should have been the perfect match, but Sang Ji fell in love with Bai Qian’s serving girl and broke off the engagement.

  Emperor Bai Zhi could not bear the humiliation, and he went to the Ninth Sky with Zhe Yan to meet with the Sky Emperor, seeking justice.

  The Sky Emperor was furious with his second son. As punishment, he appointed him as the Northern Sea Water Emperor, thus banishing him to the north. After this he issued a sky decree in which he swore on the honor of the Sky Clan that his successor, the future Sky Emperor, would marry Bai Qian and make her the Sky Empress.

  Three hundred years later, the Sky Emperor had gathered together everyone from the Four Seas and the Eight Deserts to announce that his eldest grandson, Prince Ye Hua, was to be the next Sky Emperor. All the immortals in the Ninth Sky felt certain they would soon be drinking the celebratory wine of Ye Hua and Bai Qian’s union. But three hundred years on, there was still no news about their nuptials.

  Prince Ye Hua already had a son, but no official wife. And Goddess Bai Qian remained in Qingqiu Kingdom, declining all invitations from other immortals.

  These two remained unmarried, a fact that oddly enough did not seem to worry either household.

  The audience of immortals gave a restrained sigh and talked admiringly about the Eastern Sea Emperor’s good fortune. Her Highness Bai Qian was now respectfully known for not having left Qingqiu for tens of thousands of years. The fact that she had accepted his invitation would raise his prestige no end.

  “This really is a matter of great honor for him,” Prince Nan Douzhen agreed with a nod. “But the Eastern Sea Emperor has been feeling extremely anxious. He wasn’t expecting Her Highness to accept his invitation, and so he invited the Northern Sea Emperor as well. In addition to that, a couple of days ago, he heard that Prince Ye Hua was taking a trip to the Eastern Desert with his son and planned to visit the Eastern Sea on his way back to attend the banquet. These three will certainly run into each other at the banquet, and the Eastern Sea Water Empe
ror is terrified it could be a recipe for disaster.”

  This Ninth Sky audience was mainly made up of older, more senior immortals who knew all about the situation between the Northern Sea Emperor, Goddess Bai Qian, and Prince Ye Hua. But there was one who had only recently become an immortal. “Who is Her Highness from Qingqiu?” she asked foolishly. “And why is there animosity between her, Prince Ye Hua, and the Northern Sea Water Emperor?”

  This foolish young immortal was baffled by what she was told. With a look of utter fascination on her face, she shook the unpainted white fan in her hand and said, “So the Northern Sea Emperor willingly offended Emperor Bai Zhi in order to marry Her Highness’s serving girl? She must be astonishingly beautiful for him to have done that.”

  Goddess Duo Bao covered her mouth and gave a cough. “I saw the girl once. Sang Ji made her kneel before the Sky Emperor alongside him, imploring his father to accept their love. She is indeed a rare beauty, but she has nothing on her former mistress, Bai Qian. I’ve never seen Her Highness with my own eyes, but I’ve heard that she is even more beautiful than her mother.”

  The immortal prince of the North Pole was the oldest among them. “I saw Her Highness once,” he mused, stroking his floor-length white beard. “I was still a boy serving under the Sky Emperor. I accompanied the empress to Zhe Yan’s peach grove to admire the peach blossoms. Her Highness was dancing under the branches of the peach trees. I was too far away to see much. I could make out her red dress through the magnificent blossoms. And the way she danced was full of grace, so full of grace.”

  The assembly of immortals gave a collective sigh and expressed how sad it was for such an alluring beauty to have been jilted like that. Fate always kept you on your toes, they commented, wringing their hands in distress, before parting company feeling very satisfied.

  CHAPTER ONE

  The oldest daughter from the Ruo River immortal family married into the Eastern Sea family, and within three years she had borne the Eastern Sea Emperor a child, his first son and heir. Both families were extremely happy.