Chapter 58: The Edge of the Earth and the Divine Tree of Kunlun

The agarwood worked. Over time, her master's mind settled. His crippled right hand recovered enough for simple tasks — dressing himself, holding a teacup.

One night Yan Dan couldn't sleep. She sat in the courtyard and watched the moon.

From the Heavenly Court, the moon was large and a deep warm yellow, more like a loquat than anything celestial. Loquat season was approaching. She was aware this was a strange association.

Her master was also awake and came through the courtyard on a walk. They encountered each other.

She had always understood her master to be one of the most formidable immortals in the Nine Heavens. She had never seen him look like this — the particular heaviness of someone for whom something has been permanently altered. She had, for a moment, the irrational thought that he might be an impersonation.

He patted her head. "Your master has grown old," he said, with some sadness.

"Master, you are so handsome and your immortal powers are so boundless — you don't look old at all."

He stroked his chin and smiled with tremendous satisfaction. "Actually, I was originally more charming than Li Shujun, and more handsome than Yingyuanjun. Yan Dan, you have good taste."

Yan Dan, who was not holding tea, was grateful for this fact. She lowered her head and produced an expression of solemn agreement. "Master, you are inherently more refined than either of them."

She had never seen Emperor Zixu closely — only from a distance, where the impression was one of remarkable elegance. Yingyuan Jun she remembered as considerably more handsome than her master. She said none of this.

"I know those celestial children like to gather and gossip," her master said, and Yan Dan experienced a cold sensation moving down her spine. She was one of the celestial children who liked to gather and gossip. "They used to say that we Nine Emperors never travel together because I'm jealous of the youth and good looks of Lord Lishu and Lord Yingyuan." He paused. "Outrageous."

She nodded, silently.

Master, you are slightly less conspicuous with the Antarctic Immortal, but it is a bit unusual standing next to the other two.

"In fact, the reason we rarely appear together has to do with the ancient artifacts. Our immortal energies are incompatible — if they affect one another's artifacts, the consequences would extend to the entire Heavenly Court. But now that the artifacts are lost in the Demon Realm, we needn't worry about it daily."

Yan Dan had never been particularly interested in artifacts. Her second senior brother, on the other hand, had been fascinated — had once secretly entered their master's chambers to touch them, been caught, and copied scriptures for half a month.

Her master stood, dusted his robes, and seemed to be growing drowsy. "Yan Dan, first thing tomorrow morning, I'll send you to the Edge of the Earth. Study the texts there carefully. Cultivate every day without being lazy. In time, you will become the first fairy in the Heavenly Court to be called an Upper Immortal."

---

She was sent to manage the library at the Edge of the Earth.

She had been borrowing books from this place for years, so the assignment was not unpleasant. She understood her master's words as genuine expectation rather than prediction — no fairy in the Heavenly Court had ever reached the rank of Upper Immortal. From ancient times to the present, there had been only one goddess, Nuwa. Given her current pace of cultivation, Upper Immortal would take her somewhere between thirty and fifty thousand years.

The Edge of the Earth was at the southernmost point of the Heavenly Court. Few people came, apart from the occasional immortal lord borrowing books. She organized the shelves, cleaned the dust from the upper texts, sorted the classics she intended to read into a neat stack on her desk. She moved through this with care. These books had originally been organized by Emperor Zixu, who must have spent considerable time doing so. Some things could be treated lightly and joked about. The work of someone deceased but genuinely remarkable was not one of them.

She had just settled down to begin reading when something cool touched her chin, turning her head.

A gilded folding fan. Slightly flirtatious eyes behind it.

"You're quite a pretty little fairy," said a deep, melodious voice. "Why don't you come back to my manor with me?"

She looked up. Flamboyantly handsome. White robes, immaculate. The particular posture of someone who had made this offer many times and expected it to work.

There was only one immortal lord who dressed entirely in white and had a reputation for collecting fairies in his residence.

"Spirit Lord," she said. "My master is actually the Primordial Eternal Emperor. You were present when I first transformed."

The fan closed immediately. All interest dissipated. "Ah, a disciple of the Primordial Emperor. Very well. I came for two books." He named them; the volumes flew from the shelves into his hands. He didn't need to know where they were. The book simply came.

She felt a brief, genuine respect. Summoning a known object from a known location was a common enough skill. Summoning a specific book from an enormous collection without knowing its position — that was something else.

The respect lasted perhaps thirty seconds. Then the fan lifted her chin again. "What, you think I'm something special? Come back to my manor. I certainly won't mistreat you."

Goosebumps. The respect declined to approximately three percent.

He withdrew the fan and called out, unhurried: "Qing Zhao."

A celestial boy entered, followed by approximately ten beautiful fairies. They arranged themselves — six in the front, eight behind — and petals fell, colorful ribbons turned in the air, auspicious light in every direction, as they escorted Bai Lian Lingjun toward his celestial abode.

She watched until he was gone.

The remaining three percent of respect did not survive the escort.

Even the Queen Mother of the West would hesitate before producing this level of grandeur on a library visit.

What a shameless old fox.

---

After several days of organizing and settling in, she had the place running cleanly. She decided to spend a few days exploring.

On the first day, she went south. The Edge of the Earth was the southernmost point of the Nine Heavens; beyond it lay the edge of everything. The forest here was dense and untended, ancient trees taller than anything she'd seen elsewhere.

At the forest's edge, she saw a figure.

Chained to one of the great ancient trees.

Jet-black hair. Head bowed. The chains moved occasionally, a low sound. She thought: that person must be in considerable pain.

The chains meant he couldn't come at her. She moved closer carefully, wanting to see his face.

She had taken only a few steps when sharp whistles sounded from the ground beneath her. A dozen branches emerged from the soil, supple and fast, wrapping around her and pulling her steadily toward the tree.

Closer now, she could see more: not just chains, but vines winding up the tree's trunk and binding his hands and feet both.

The sound had reached him. He raised his head slowly, as if returning to consciousness from a distance.

His face was disfigured on the left side — cheek and chin burned, covered in thin, healed-over scabs. His eyes stayed closed. He seemed to be listening. After a moment:

"You wandered in by accident. This is forbidden territory. You shouldn't have come."

She knew that voice. She was almost certain she knew that voice, from somewhere she couldn't immediately place.

He chanted something — several syllables, quiet — and a thin flame spread in a ring around her, careful, avoiding her entirely. A scream from the ground. The branches released her, contracted, disappeared back into the earth. The flame subsided.

"That's the Kunlun Divine Tree," he said, words slightly hesitant, as if it had been some time since he'd spoken this much. "It fears fire. Use a fire spell when you need to deal with it."

She stood where she was.

She was uncertain why she didn't want to leave.

"You could have freed yourself," she said. "Why did you choose to stay chained?"

He seemed to consider this. Something moved in his expression, though with the burns across the left side of his face, it was difficult to read. "I had no choice. If I left, I would hurt others. I can't control it. Just now — if I hadn't been conscious enough to recognize you — I might have killed you."

She was quite young then, and not yet past being moved by suffering.

And she had finally recognized him.

"Emperor Yingyuan...?"

She would think about it often, afterward. If she had not gone to the southernmost edge of the Nine Heavens that day. If it had been a different day entirely — slightly earlier, slightly later.

Long afterward, she would not be this soft-hearted again.

She had disliked Emperor Qingli Yingyuan. She was clear on this. The pinch on the cheek, the pattern of small provocations over years — she had disliked him the way you dislike someone you are frequently annoyed by.

But not too early, not too late, she arrived at that tree on that day.

He smiled slightly, still not opening his eyes.

"You recognize me?"