Chapter Text
PROLOGUE
It was over. Chidi was gone, and the corpses of thousands upon thousands of Shuiyuntian soldiers lay scattered across the bleak, barren sand of the Xuanxu Realm. Piles of bodies, speared by swords and arrows or burnt to a crisp by Hellfire, and the remainder of the warriors of the fairy realm, of which there were many, had not the resources or the time to spirit them all home, to a place they’d rather be buried than beneath the coarse, hot sands of this desolate realm.
But at least there were bodies they could move; at least at some point, perhaps they could come back for those left behind, take their bones back to the home they longed for and make graves for them beneath the lush trees of the fairy realm. They’d pour wine over them and share stories and dream of a better tomorrow, where the blood of their descendants would no longer stain golden sand red.
The people of Cangyan Sea—the soldiers and their widows and their children and the Moon Supreme, Dongfang Qingcang, as well as his little brother, Xunfeng, leader of the Wind Warriors—had no such luxury. The bodies of their men were frozen in time; unyielding stone statues on the Xuanxu battlefield; their faces forever contorted in the last expression they’d ever made. Horror, surprise, pain, whatever it was.
Xunfeng and his Wind Warriors had arrived in time to save Dongfang Qingcang, but they hadn’t arrived in enough time to save everyone else. One hundred thousand men could not come home; not their living, breathing selves, but also not their bodies, nor their souls.
And Dongfang Qingcang, scourge of the three realms to many, but to the people of the Moon Tribe, their protector, their hope, had nothing he could give them except a promise to bring them back. No matter what he had to do, and no matter how long it took.
Once upon a time in Shuiyuntian, there was a girl who was a flower, who was a goddess—and the arbiter of fate, Siming—revered, respected, and powerful, had been given the responsibility of caring for her.
When she had been entrusted with her, she’d only been a seed, and if Siming was right, she would remain a seed for thousands upon thousands of years. It was rare for Fate Poems to specify a time frame, and hers was no exception, but she had not even yet planted this seed.
Siming would wait to plant this seed. She would wait until she thought it was safe enough for the girl to be reborn, she would wait long enough so that she was sure she’d be reborn with no memories of her former life. She’d just be a gentle little orchid fairy, one that Siming could make her disciple.
And perhaps, in another life, that may have been what happened, but in this universe, the seed had a different idea. It germinated and bloomed on its own and from it wasn’t born a little orchid fairy with no memories of her past, no knowledge of who she’d once been, but a fully grown goddess, one radiating with power, and one with every memory of her past intact.
Including her last memory, that of her family, her tribe, and all of Xilan, being exterminated.
In the half century or so since little Xiyun had been sealed away in a seed, a last ditch act to save her by her beloved parents, it had become common knowledge that the Moon Supreme of Cangyan Sea, Dongfang Qingcang, had been the one to annihilate her people. Who else would be evil enough to do such a thing, the fairies of Shuiyuntian reasoned. There were whispers from those in the Moon Tribe that this was not true, that for all of the nightmare stories about Dongfang Qingcang the fairies told to keep their children up at night, he would have no reason to attack a neutral party, but these were drowned out.
And Dongfang Qingcang never said anything. Perhaps he was too busy, or perhaps, he thought, it was well enough that Shuiyuntian spread such stories. The fewer of them that crossed him, the better.
But when Xiyun, the goddess who had been a child, but was now reborn as an adult in full possession of her formidable power, awoke, her ire was directed at someone else.
“I’ve never even seen Dongfang Qingcang,” she said, her tears flowing and the ground beneath her sprouting flowers that grew into bushes and trees that grew into spires with every drop that hit it. Her power was out of control. She had woken up too early. Far too early.
Siming, along with a friend of hers and a lady of Yunzhong’s court, Sansheng, whisked her away to her home in Xishan. There, when her powers were out of control, there was no risk of them accidentally destroying the fabled arbiter hall, where the fates of everyone in the three realms were stored.
It was the fairy lord Ronghao who was guilty, someone Xiyun knew personally, as Lady Chidi had always been close to her family, and Ronghao was her charge.
She could not have made a mistake. His face, as he committed his evil act, had been branded forever into her mind.
Yunzhong wanted to keep it secret, wanted to punish Ronghao discreetly so as to not implicate Shuiyuntian in such a heinous act, but as it tends to happen, the truth came out. Dongfang Qingcang, while he remained the scourge of the three realms, was absolved.
Xiyun, still so young, her grief palpable and her power volatile, destroyed the evil qi Ronghao was harvesting in his soul transformation cauldron. And the court of Shuiyuntian destroyed Ronghao.
But even after retribution for the death of her clan, Xiyun still struggled. Despite her sorrow, she was happy and kind, and she grew over the next few centuries, from a child in mind, into a woman, in both body and mind, but her power remained difficult to control. They taught her spells and incantations, and she read countless books and scrolls that her people had left behind. She became very good at magic, but it didn’t stop her powers from going out of control when she least expected it. She’d wake up curled inside a tree when she’d fallen asleep in a bed. She’d get upset and start crying in frustration, and when her emotions overflowed, the earth would crack beneath her and those there at the time would be blasted backward by her powers, only just escaping harm. Xiyun would never hurt anyone deliberately, but she was dangerous nonetheless.
Countless immortals had come to see her, but none had figured out a solution. It was just too soon. Her primordial spirit had not been ready to be reborn. But they couldn’t exactly go back and change that, could they?
Sansheng and Siming called her their little orchid, Xiao Lanhua. She had been reborn from an orchid seed, and perhaps because of this, her affinity for plants was stronger even than previous goddesses. What frightened them most was that as powerful as she was, this was only the tip of what she was capable of. When she fulfilled her arranged marriage, when she wed the young prince of Shuiyuntian, Changheng, she would come into her powers fully, and who knew what would happen then.
It wasn’t a risk they could take. Changheng was sweet and charming, a bright eyed and handsome boy who would make a perfect match for their Xiao Lanhua one day. He was being groomed to be the future god of war, and his cultivation potential was massive. Perhaps, it was hoped, someday he could even be a match for Dongfang Qingcang. The goddess of Xishan and the future god of war of Shuiyuntian? It was a match made in the heavens, according to many. He was younger than her, a teenager to her young adult, but not so much that it was awkward the few times they’d met.
Xiyun thought he was ‘cute’ and wasn’t opposed to the marriage, even if she wasn’t thrilled about it either. For the three realms, she would fulfill their betrothal one day. He was kind. He was handsome. They would be content together.
But for now, that would have to wait..
“You know what we must do,” Sansheng said, and it had been five hundred years since their little orchid seed had bloomed. They had run out of options. “I’m sure even Xiao Lanhua knows.”
Siming nodded, and she filled up her wine again. “It is her fate. I have understood this, but it is hard to accept. Tribulations for one as powerful as her are risky.”
“And will they truly stabilize her primordial spirit?” Sansheng didn’t wait for a response. “Is there anything that can be done to make it easier for her?”
The arbiter of fate went quiet for a moment. She tapped her chin and frowned. “Once she has begun her tribulation, you know I can’t step in. It is forbidden. It could destroy both of us.”
“I know this.”
“But perhaps, there are a couple of small things I could do before, to help her along…”
“This stone will be reborn with you in every incarnation. It contains your power of the goddess of Xishan, which will grow with every successful tribulation you experience. Having it with you will hasten the process, so that you won’t have to risk as many tribulations as you may need to otherwise. Once your power has been fully amassed, you will ascend once more, your primordial spirit whole and undamaged.”
“And if I fail?”
“You will not.”
“Master, I am frightened.”
“With every tribulation, as more power is gathered in the stone, you become closer to your true self. And Xiao Lanhua… I know you. You may seem cowardly at first, but you are braver than anyone. You will succeed.”